Category: TV/Movies

Here’s yet more proof that Nicolas Cage will take just about any movie he’s offered. To be fair I actually haven’t seen the movie, but there’s a reason for that. Based on the trailer, the movie looks awful.

Okay, the myth is stupid (as all married men know) but the clip is damn funny thanks to Keri’s reactions.

Quicktime Movie (Right click -> Save As)

At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Disney presented a Tron 2 trailer to everyone’s surprise. The video began with a spectacular lightcycle race sequence, ending with one bike crashing. The CGI is excellent, and the sequence was very well directed. One of the most exciting parts about the trailer was that it revealed the return of Jeff Bridges as “Flynn.” Fans applauded his appearance in the trailer heavily. Another plus for the film is that John Lasseter of Pixar fame is producing the movie. He’s produced and directed many of Pixar’s most memorable films. Currently, Tron 2 is slated for a release date of 2011, but I don’t sense that date is very “official.”

I can’t wait for this movie to be released to theaters. It should be a blast. My only confusion is that the original “Tron” movie was named after Bruce Boxleitner’s character “Tron.” If he’s not in the sequel, where does the movie get its name? My guess would be from v2.0 of “Tron” who doesn’t look like Bruce Boxleitner. 😉

One of my favorite Sci-Fi writers, Joss Whedon wrote and produced this musical blog about an aspiring super villian, Dr. Horrible (played by the awesome Neil Patrick Harris) and his obsession with the girl of his dreams. Whedon regular, Nathon Fillion (who rules btw) plays Dr. Horrible’s arch-nemesis, Captain Hammer. The ADORABLE Felicia Day, also familiar to Whedon fans, plays Dr Horrible’s love interest. This video is very entertaining. Watch it soon, it’s only available online for a limited time!

I’ll give Nicolas Cage this – he’s possibly the hardest working actor in Hollywood. Hell at the time of this post he has 8 movies he’s working on, yet to be released. Unfortunately, he’s all about quantity and not quality. It seems he’ll act in just about any movie he’s offered and that makes for a questionable track record. I’d say his movie choices are about 50% bad and about 50% good, with a 10% margin of error. 😉 Keep in mind that the following list are the movies I’VE SEEN. (80’s movies get let off easy for nostalgia’s sake.)

Good Movies :

Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Valley Girl
Peggy Sue Got Married
Raising Arizona
Moonstruck (Last movie with his narly teeth)
Honeymoon in Vegas (Flying Elvises)
Guarding Tess
The Rock (Come on, Sean Connery’s in it.)
8MM
Gone in 60 Seconds (Arguably one of the best Neo-Cage movies)
Matchstick Men
National Treasure 1 and 2 (They are what they are.)
Lord or War (Surprisingly good film)
The Weatherman
Grindhouse

Crappy Movies:

Firebirds (This movie began Cage’s ill-advised action hero career.)
Wild at Heart (Ok, I just hate David Lynch)
Amos and Andrew
It Could Happen to You (Rosy Perez is REALLY annoying.)
Leaving Las Vegas (Depressing-as-hell movie, sorry – hated it.)
Con Air (“Put the bunnay down”)
Face Off (Living in Bizarro-world couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough for this movie.)
City of Angels (Pointlesssss!)
WindTalkers (Poor attempt at a serious WWII movie)
Adaptation (Whiney)
The Wicker Man (2 hours of my life I’ll never get back)
Ghost Rider (Is there a plot here? How about consistency? Maybe even a threatening villian? No? Damn.)

Borderline:

Snake Eyes
Next

I don’t know if I should be impressed, or totally weirded out. Probably both.

I’ve had my Scientific Atlanta HD DVR from Time Warner for several years. A couple friends of min recently got one too, and the first thing I noticed was that their user interface looked entirely different than mine. Obviously, their boxes were running a newer version of the SA Explorer 8300HD operating system. The interface was much prettier. The text was sharp, the colors were bright, and GUI images were less pixelated. I thought to myself, “wow – I wish Time Warner would upgrade mine to that.”

Last week, my DVR rebooted itself early in the morning. When it came back up, I discovered that it had been upgraded to the newest version of the Explorer OS. At first, I was happy about it, but now that I’ve had to use the thing for a week, I want the older version back. Remember how several sentences back I commented on how “pretty” the new GUI was? Well, that’s the ONLY thing that’s improved.

Here’s my complaints about the newer OS…

1) You can no longer use the “Source” button on the remote to choose your zoom options. So, if you’re watching a standard definition show, that’s in letterbox format, you can’t just hit the “Source” button to zoom in and fill the screen with the letterboxed image. (I understand that most of Time Warner’s customers won’t care about this issue, because they most likely have their box set up to stretch 4:3 pictures to 16:9, but I didn’t buy an HDTV to deform what I’m watching.)

2) Forward and Backward search speeds and delays have changed. The Search forward and backwards speeds are much slower. I used to click the >> button twice to “forward-wind” through commercials. Now, I have to click the >> button 3 times to get the same speed. Also, once I’ve gotten through the commercials, and hit “Play” when my show starts, the DVR will skip backwards many seconds sticking me in the commercials again. I used to be able to time it perfectly.

3) You can no longer scroll through your favorite channels in the Programming Menu by clicking the “Fav” button on the remote. Now if you do so, you’re removed from the menu, and clicking “Fav” changes the channel you’re tuned to.

4) Scrolling through the Programming Menu is MUCH SLOWER. I used to be able to scroll right and left at a quick pace to find a show several days ahead at a particular time to record. Now they want you to use the “Day” button on the remote where each time you push it, you have to put up with a “Please Wait” message that lasts for several seconds while it loads the schedule and re-buffers whatever is showing in the playback window.

So, in a nutshell – this OS upgrade appears to be another example of form over function. Sure the UI looks pretty, but functionally the new OS is severely lacking. It’s slow, and missing features that I used a lot. Please Time Warner, can I have my old OS back?

The Corey’s are back! While I want to be excited about this movie, there’s a really good chance it’s going to suck. It is nice to hear a new version of “Cry Little Sister” in the trailer though.