Category: TV/Movies

Time Warner Cable to Lose Viacom Channels

It seems that Time Warner and Viacom are in a contract battle regarding the fees associated with Viacom channels appearing on the media giant’s cable system. HuffingtonPost.com states :

“Media giant Viacom Inc. said its Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and 16 other channels will go dark on Time Warner Cable Inc. at 12:01 a.m. Thursday if a new carriage fee deal is not agreed upon by then.

The impasse over carriage fee hikes would mean “SpongeBob” and other shows like “The Daily Show” will be cut off to 13 million subscribers, said spokesman Alex Dudley, a vice president at Time Warner Cable. The nation’s second-largest cable operator primarily serves customers in New York state, the Carolinas, Ohio, Southern California and Texas.

Viacom has asked for fee increases of between 22 percent and 36 percent per channel, an amount that could increase customers’ cable bills, Dudley said. Viacom spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew said the requested increase was in the very low double-digit percentage range.”

I’d hate to lose Comedy Central, and the children’s programming but on the bright side, if I lose all these channels there’s no reason to pay for cable anymore, so I could save a lot of money every month. 😉

Seagal’s Movie Titles Tell A Story

From DreadCentral.com :

[ Also, in case you missed it, a while ago I blogged about how all of Seagal’s movie titles told a story. I have updated it especially for this occasion and present it to you now in its entirety!

Steven Seagal was ABOVE THE LAW, but he was too HARD TO KILL, so now he’s been MARKED FOR DEATH by Haitians who are OUT FOR JUSTICE. Can he live while UNDER SIEGE? Could you survive while UNDER SIEGE 2? It was time to make an EXECUTIVE DECISION about THE GLIMMER MAN. There’s a FIRE DOWN BELOW and only Seagal, THE PATRIOT, can heal the EXIT WOUNDS left in his TICKER. Despite being HALF PAST DEAD, THE FOREINGER who was OUT TO KILL Seagal emerged from THE BELLY OF THE BEAST. His name was CLEMENTINE. Safety was OUT OF REACH for Seagal, but still he walked INTO THE SUN until he was SUBMERGED into the Pacific Ocean by a threat unknown. TODAY YOU DIE yelled Clementine as THE BLACK DAWN rose. But Steven is a MERCENARY FOR JUSTICE, a SHADOW MAN, an ATTACK FORCE all his own! His FLIGHT OF FURY would unleash some cold hard URBAN JUSTICE as he PISTOL WHIPPED the man whose true motivation was to stop filming of THE ONION MOVIE. At this KILLING POINT Seagal prevailed, proving that he is still — THE PRINCE OF PISTOLS! It was then that he finally flipped the KILLSWITCH. A midget named RUSLAN was his next target, and tonight would be the little man’s LAST NIGHT on earth if he didn’t comply peacefully. Seagal was to be THE KEEPER of his tiny destiny. Together they would both have to fight AGAINST THE DARK!

To be continued.

– Uncle Creepy ]

New Star Trek Trailer

I’ve got to admit that the space scenes are very impressive, but I don’t know if I like the new “vision.” And what’s up with that bridge design? It looks like a set from Galaxy Quest; a parody of a Star Trek set. It’s just too bright, and has too many damn lamps! I’m still going to reserve judgement until I’ve actually seen the movie. I’ll give it a chance. What really concerns me though is that Star Trek is first a TV show, and then a movie second. I just can’t see how a movie franchise alone can keep Star Trek alive. It might look like Star Trek, but it won’t BE Star Trek without it being a television series.

Yet Another Time Warner HD Complaint

Last night I rented Speed Racer in HD from Time Warner’s Movies on Demand service. In simple terms, it’s unwatchable. Since Speed Racer was made to look like a cartoon, it has a limited color palette. This coupled with fast action sequences creates compression artifacts so noticeable that the “HD” version of the movie I rented becomes so distorted I can’t watch it. It’s just too annoying. The details I should be enjoying for the tracks and cars are totally distorted thanks to Time Warner’s over-compression of their HD content for streaming. Time Warner, you’ve really got to step it up if you really want to play in the HD sandbox. I’m starting to wonder if satellite’s any better…

Paul Newman Dies at 83

“Oscar-winning actor and noted philanthropist Paul Newman died Friday at his home in Westport, Connecticut, of cancer, a spokesperson told CNN. The actor was renowned not only for his work in such films as “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Exodus,” “The Hustler,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting” and “The Verdict,” but also for his many years of charity work.” – MTV.com

I’ve always been a fan of Paul Newman, especially for Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. He was a class act; a man’s man, a ladies’ man and most importantly a great actor with a big heart. He’ll be missed.

Fox’s Fringe

Chrissy and I watched the premier episode of Fringe last night, and I gotta say I enjoyed it a lot. Essentially, the show is about an FBI agent, a rebellious genius (played by Joshua Jackson), and a whacked out scientist seeking redemption; solving crimes having to do with “fringe science.” It’s basically like the X-Files episodes that didn’t have anything to do with aliens. There’s even an antagonistic FBI chief that the Fringe team doesn’t know if they can trust. (It’s Skinner-iffic!)

Anyway, it’s definitely a show we’re going to continue watching even if the premise isn’t very original. The execution of the premise is quite enjoyable.