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Highly Defined – The World of High Definition

Posted in Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on July 9th, 2007

Happy belated fireworks day for everyone in the US, happy belated Canada day to everyone up north, and all that jazz. And my thanks to all for indulging me last week about my gripes with DirecTV. As I lube up the ole’ bunghole and prepare to get screwed out of another service call, I celebrate the news, notes and announcements of the past week’s high definition forum.

The big news this week is that Samsung started to leak out some more news about their dual format player, including a release date sometime i…
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Hills Have Eyes 2, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 6th, 2007

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It’s no secret that horror films these days severely lack originality and overuse violence and gore instead of actually scaring the audience. Sometimes this works and when coinciding with an actual story can make for a good movie. The Hills Have Eyes remake from 2006 wasn’t half bad because there was a tiny amount of depth in the story, combined with the violence that audiences have come to love. But ultimately for me, it didn’t hit the mark, it was just another typical horror movie. I really don’t think the s…
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Dante’s Peak (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 5th, 2007

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Disaster films are nothing new in Hollywood. While most disaster films tend to focus too much on destroying random objects, there’re are a film good disaster films that come around every so often that actual try to explain the film instead of giving us two hours of random explosions. One such film is 1997’s Dante’s Peak.

Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) works for the US Geology Survey Team. Four years after experiencing a volcano eruption, Harry and a few other scientists are called to a town named Da…
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Bulletproof (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 5th, 2007

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Adam Sandler plays Archie Moses, a man who works for drug lord Frank Colton (James Caan). Rock Keats (Damon Wayans) is Archie’s best friend and, secretly I might add, an undercover cop who’s trying to infiltrate Colton’s business. Archie, as per the typical earlier Sandler role, is completely oblivious to anything going on around him and doesn’t suspect Rock. Keats is ready to infiltrate Colton, but is mistakenly shot in the head by Archie. Keats, after learning to walk again, realizes Archie must testify against Col…
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Big Lebowski, The (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 2nd, 2007

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I wrote a few weeks back that it’s an odd feeling when you finally see that film that everyone and their brother has been exclaiming about for years. That is the exact feeling I felt after seeing The Big Lebowski. I knew for years that this film would be great, especially after seeing Fargo before. Boy was I right as The Big Lebowski was a huge humor trip.

Jeffrey Lebowski a.k.a. “The Dude” (Jeff Bridges) is your run of the mill slacker. He doesn’t really do much with his life besides …
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Highly Defined – The World of High Definition

Posted in Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on July 2nd, 2007

Read on about a minor gripe with a major satellite provider.

I’m going to skip the usual news about what comes out this week because it’s The Untouchables, The Patriot and very little else, and tell you a story about how I, as a loyal DirecTV customer, have been trying to upgrade my equipment.

On/about 5/29, I set up an equipment upgrade appointment from the 3 LNB H10 setup to the 5 LNB H20, so I can get the new HD channels running through MPEG-4. I set up the appointment for 6/16 be…
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Licence to Kill (Region 2)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on July 1st, 2007

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Synopsis

Timothy Dalton might have endured a bit of grief for his short tenure as James Bond, enduring comments equating him to Connery and Moore plagued his two film run, with this one being the last. However, this one was quite the doozy, and almost in the area of “forgotten gem” status.

Written by Richard Maibaum (The Man With the Golden Gun) and producer Michael Wilson, and directed by John Glen (A View to a Kill), Dalton as Bond finds himself as the Best Man to the wedding of lo…
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Thunderball (Region 2)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 27th, 2007

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Synopsis

In slowly but surely wrapping up my reviews of each and every Ultimate Edition James Bond title on DVD, coming to Thunderball, a sect of people say that this is the quintessential film for the man who quintessentially personified James Bond. So in his fourth outing as the man who likes martinis, cars and women, he encounters a large swath of them all over two hours.

Based on Ian Fleming’s story and directed by Terence Young (From Russia With Love), this installment in the se…
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Happy Feet (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 25th, 2007

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Previous to receiving this copy of Happy Feet for review, I have wanted to check it out but never got the chance; the animation appears to look spectacular and the cast of voice actors seems really impressive. The list includes one of my favorite actors Hugh Jackman, Elijah Wood, Brittany Murphy, Robin Williams, Hugo Weaving, Nicole Kidman, and more. So on paper Happy Feet sounds like a winner, how does it turn out?

Happy Feet revolves around the lives of a colony of emperor penguins on…
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Breach (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 25th, 2007

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You know it’s an odd feeling when you finish watching a film only to think that if you loved the film, audiences must have enjoyed it on the level you did too right? Well, it’s a sad note to see that a film like Breach massively underperformed at the box office this past winter as the film is smart, intelligent and reminds me of why films were created in the first place.

Breach is a 2007 film that deftly tells the story of the greatest security breach in the history of the United States. The breach …
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Black Snake Moan (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 25th, 2007

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Yet another Samuel L. Jackson movie containing the word snake in it, but unlike Snakes on a Plane, Black Snake Moan is a dramatic picture delving into dark issues like abuse. I’ll come out by saying that I though this movie was going to be a good laugh, seeing the trailer I though it would be a bearded Sam Jackson shouting out profanities at an unwilling captive in his home. Although this does happen it is a small portion of the movie, and not as comedic as I had supposed.

Black Snake Moan…
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Glastonbury

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 25th, 2007

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Perhaps Woodstock is the best known music festival, but only one has kept strong for several decades and still going – Glastonbury. A small town in the southeast of England is the host to a sizeable music festival that spans for several days and attracts in excess of 150,000 people. Like a lot of you I’m sure, I had never heard of this music festival and after watching this once I’ll probably never get wind of it again.

The first disc of Glastonbury is a documentary on the festival it is not in chron…
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Highly Defined – The World of High Definition

Posted in Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on June 25th, 2007

Shouldn’t you be out at the beach right now?

I don’t know about you, but I burn easily, so I can’t spend as much time at the pool as others, so I get to watch movies, and I watched Ocean’s Thirteen at a theater that just opened down the road from me. The theater itself is pretty nice, the film delivered what it’s supposed to do, which is be fun, so you can’t ask for too much more I guess. Overall, there really isn’t that much to pore over, other than surveys which reiterate what everyone already know…
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Snow Cake

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 23rd, 2007

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Snow Cake is a slow, quiet film that creeps up on you. You don’t realize it’s working for you until the end rolls around, and you’re left reflecting on its impact.

It’s about a lonely, middle-aged man whose life is changed by a car crash. Alex Hughes (Alan Rickman, Love Actually) is on a road trip across Canada. He reluctantly picks up a hitchhiker, a spunky teenage girl. Just as they’re developing a bit of a connection, they’re blindsided by a semi. This results in Alex making an unplanned st…
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Trading Places (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 22nd, 2007

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Although Trading Places is nearly twenty five years old it still manages to offer some pretty good laughs, being one of the better comedies out of the 80’s. Starring Jamie Lee Curtis, Eddie Murphy, and Dan Aykroyd the trio appeared to have some great chemistry together, as they were all at or near the peaks of their careers.

Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd, The Blues Brothers) is a well respected member of high society, manages a commodities brokerage firm for the Duke Brothers and is recentl…
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O.C., The – The Complete Fourth Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 21st, 2007

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Four years ago when The O.C. came out it was a pretty big deal. I was finishing out high school back then, and like Beverly Hills 90210 did to the previous generation, The O.C. captivated the minds of the teenagers and young adults. I, like most people my age, watched the first season regularly. Back then I loved it and although some of its novelty has worn off, I can still really enjoy it. But as with most shows, as the years go on, the episodes become less entertaining – I watched much of the s…
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Flags of Our Fathers (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 21st, 2007

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Flags of Our Fathers is based on the book of the same name by James Bradley and Ron Powers about the Battle of Iwo Jima and the famous raising the flag on Iwo Jima picture. It’s the second recently released movie about the Battle of Iwo Jima, the other being Letters from Iwo Jima.

Both films were directed by Clint Eastwood. Although both focus on the same event, they are quite different. Letters from Iwo Jima is from the Japanese perspective and Flags of Our Fathers from the Ame…
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Shooter

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 20th, 2007

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Shooter is closely based on Point of Impact, an excellent novel by thriller writer Stephen Hunter. I read the book in the late 90’s, and enjoyed it. A lot. When I began seeing trailers for this film last year, you can bet I was excited at the prospect of seeing Bob Lee Swagger come to life on the big screen, even if it had to be “Marky” Mark Wahlberg in the role.

The film updates Hunter’s story to present day, shifting Vietnam to Iraq and villains to mercenary pawns of thinly veiled Dubya coho…
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Highly Defined – The World of High Definition

Posted in Highly Defined, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on June 18th, 2007

I’ve got enough tiki torches, guava juice and poi to last awhile.

Well, I’m still trying to catch up on things on East Coast time, even as things in Hawaiian Time are still dark out as of this writing, not to mention just so damn nice out. Anyway, moving on to the news, which is, well, pretty bland, since all of the next gen released equipment is just about to come out or has come out. Blu-ray buyers do have reason to celebrate though, as Blockbuster has announced Blu titles in their stores for carrying. On…
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ER – The Complete Seventh Season

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 18th, 2007

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Written by Evan Braun

Television today is littered with shows that burned bright but died quickly. In a time when networks are quick to cancel, it’s becoming more and more rare to see a show live out its full potential. Having just concluded its thirteenth season, with many more years on the horizon, ER has more than shown itself to be a proven commodity. It could very well be remembered as one of the most successful and longest-running series in the history of primetime television.

It certainly can’t be said that the sh…
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Black Snake Moan

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 16th, 2007

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Watching the trailers for Black Snake Moan, I recall thinking it was going to drum up some outrageous controversy. I mean, the only thing we really knew about the film was that a big, scary black man chains up a half-dressed white girl in his home. Not exactly a wholesome image.

It’s a southern gothic parable, starring Samuel L. Jackson (Shaft) as Lazarus, a God-fearing man whose wife just left him for his own brother, and Christina Ricci (Sleepy Hollow) as Rae, a broken young woman wh…
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Hustler, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 16th, 2007

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I’m kicking myself. Martin Scorcese’s The Color of Money has long been a favourite of mine, but for some reason I never knew it was a sequel to The Hustler, a film 25 years older and three times better.

Starring a young Paul Newman (Road to Perdition) in a role that earned him his second Oscar nomination, The Hustler is about a cocky pool player hustling his way to the top. When “Fast Eddie” Felson (Newman) challenges undefeated straight-pool champ Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason,…
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Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 14th, 2007

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Recently released on HD DVD, this film is the last of the films from the famous British comedy band Monty Python. Originally released in 1983, this is by far Python’s darkest film, filled with violence and dark humor, seemingly tailored to offend everyone. I did not care for the part in the restaurant with the extremely obese man, so there we are.

The film consists of a series of short sketches about various aspects of the “Meaning of Life” or at least an observation of the quirky aspects of life, such as …
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Frighteners, The (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 13th, 2007

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Peter Jackson’s the Frighteners is a 1996 comedy/horror film starring Michael J. Fox. It follows the story of a physic investigator/ deactivate who is in league with the very sprits he is supposed to be exorcising. For the first half hour, the film is mostly comedy, with good work by Chi McBride as Cyrus, the ghost of a black man from the 70’s, complete with a huge afro. The other ghosts are less noteworthy and merely amusing, such as R. Lee Ermey as a ghostly version of his character from Full Metal Jacket. T…
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Bruce Almighty (HD DVD)

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 13th, 2007

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Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) is a TV news reporter at Eye Witness Channel 7 in New York who fails to get a job as an anchorman and, after a series of other bad luck incidents, complains to God that He is treating him unfairly and is doing a poor job as supreme deity. God (Morgan Freeman) contacts Bruce and offers him the chance of a lifetime. He offers to give Bruce all the powers he has. Bruce quickly abuses his new powers for personal gain (new car, pleasing his girlfriend), only to be reminded that he also has to take…
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