Posted in: Blog Posts, News and Opinions by Archive Authors on September 25th, 2007
Next year, YouTube plans to add 30-second bumper ads to the beginning of video clips. I visit the site infrequently to watch the latest, "you gotta see this" video, or to find trailers of older films. You think I'm going to sit through 30 seconds of crap advertising to watch some idiots launch their friend with a giant slingshot? Think again.
No word on whether the ads will be on every video, or whether ads will vary in length. No matter how you cut it, this is bad news for YouTube users, and will surely mark the end of YouTube's reign as top video-sharing site. What'll be next?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 25th, 2007
If you told me about a film by the screenwriter of Forrest Gump, The Insider and Munich, and the director who brought us L.A. Confidential, I'd say bring it on. If you went on that it was set in the high stakes world of professional poker, I'd be excited. But then you'd say it's a romance starring Eric Bana (Troy) and Drew Barrymore (Never Been Kissed). I'd begin to doubt. Then I'd think back to The Insider, and tell myself a great script is the only way to make a great film.
Then I'd watch Lucky You and realize even a great screenwriter can turn out a clunker. But maybe there'd be hope for the DVD?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 24th, 2007
“Here’s the thing about the future. If you look at it it changes, and every time you look at it it changes again…”
If Nicolas Cage had Chris Johnson’s ability to see into the future, he might have avoided his latest film, Next. At the very least he might have been tempted to monkey with it in order to get a better box office take than it ultimately received. The film was in and out of theatres faster than I could blink, let alone catch it. If Cage had foreseen the film’s demise, it would have been unfortunate for us who got to see this film on DVD for the first time.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 24th, 2007
Stop me if you’ve heard any of this before. Four teens set out on a road trip …
STOP.
OK. That’s just unfair. Let me go on a little longer.
They’re going to the “biggest party in the world” when their vehicle stalls and leaves them stranded out in the middle of nowhere…
STOP
Well. One of them is blind and they’re not all horny drug fiends.
OK. Go on.
They find an abandoned hotel and café where everyone has mysteriously disappeared…
STOP
I guess you get the idea.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 24th, 2007
2004 brought moviegoers two big-budget historical epics in Oliver Stone's Alexander and Wolfgang Petersen's Troy. One bombed. The other performed well, but was by no means heralded as a critical success. No, Troy was praised for slick production values and exciting battles, but derided for a lack of emotional depth.
Can it all be blamed on running-time constraints and compromises made for the ratings board? The answer is here, with the unrated Troy: Director's Cut, Petersen's second shot at eternal glory, this time with more than 30 minutes of additional footage.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 23rd, 2007
(Since I was lucky enough to review the standard def copy of The Wedding Date, I'm going to be lazy and let you view my thoughts on this, with the audio and video updated to reflect this HD DVD copy).
I would hope that The Wedding Date, signals the end of the genre of films set around weddings. There’s nothing left to mine, the horse is very dead, and in this case, the film is rather predictable. Or to put in another way, my wife said “this film will probably be stupid, but I’ll like it”. And when I was watching parts of the film, the story was so easy to follow that I could go and make a batch of chili, come back, and still know what happened while I was away.
![The Wedding Date [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/the-wedding-date-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 23rd, 2007
(Comments on the supplemental part of the disc are pulled from Gary Van Auken’s review of the Blu-ray version of the disc, which can be foundhere.
Synopsis
I’d received a copy of The Condemned as part of its star’s massive publicity swing to promote said film. Despite the film’s abysmal 16% rating on rottentomatoes, the protagonist of the film is professional wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin, who certainly knows how to charm people when he needs to. However unlike other wrestler’s Hollywood dreams, this role was Austin’s first feature, and his third acting performance overall.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on September 23rd, 2007
Bomberman has long been a friend of mine. I spent most of the early to mid 90's playing either the original Bomberman or Bomberman '93 for the Turbo Graphix 16 System. I played each until their eventual conclusion and then wouldn't touch them for years. So when there was word that a Bomberman game would come to Xbox Live I was very excited. But at the same time I was very skeptical. So skeptical, it took me about two months to download it and the accompanying first expansion pack. However, what came out of it was quite possibly the best multiplayer Xbox Live Arcade game of all time and one of the best reasons to own an Xbox 360 that doesn't involve a first person shooter.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on September 22nd, 2007
It’s hard for me to believe that Darkman comes from a time when Sam Raimi was fresh off directing Evil Dead 2 and Liam Neeson was a little known Irish actor. A lot has changed since then, but a true classic can stand the test of time, and although I was very young when I first saw this movie, I remember it being very unique. Of course my perspective on films has blossomed since the time I was watching Rugrats, and it has literally been that long since I’ve seen Darkman. Nonetheless I’m pleased to finally get the chance to watch this Liam Neeson classic, and in HD to boot.
![Darkman [HD DVD] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/darkman-hd-dvd-large.jpg)
Posted in: Random Fun by Archive Authors on September 21st, 2007
Scott Adams, author of Dilbert, made an interesting observation about R vs. G rated movies in a recent post:
"A study done in 2005 showed that G-rated movies are 11 times more profitable than R-rated movies, yet the industry cranks out 12-times more R-rated movies." [from Scott Adams]
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