Monday, August 21, 2006
Christmas List Item.
Samsung has announced the production of a new "Ultimate" LCD TV. This LCD is a whopping 70 inches of true 1080p goodness. It also boasts a complete 180 degree conical viewing angle, which is great when you have a lot of people sitting around the TV. The signal is reproduced at 120Hz, compared to the wimpy 60Hz that a normal HD LCD outputs.
In laymens terms,,this is a rocking set. The set is set to go into production in the first half of 2007, so reserve yours now. Price has yet to be announced and the Asian show-model is not included.
Amazing Screw-On Head Pilot.
If you missed the premier on Sunday at 11pm, you can watch the entire pilot for The Amazing Screw-On Head on SciFi.com . This new animated series is based on the comic by Mike Mignola (Hellboy) and features the voices of Paul Giamatti, David Hyde Pierce and Molly Shannon.
The pilot is great, with a nice mix of horror, sci-fi and comedy. It is like watching a moving Mignola comic book. The art style is perfectly matched and catches all the little quarks that Mignola piles into his art.
I don't think that the late Sunday time spot is the best choice for this series tho, it should be in a Sat or Fri night spot to catch the target audience.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Wizard World Chicago
This past weekend was the 10th Annual Wizard World Chicago Convention at the old Rosemont Convention Center. Once again wizard pulled out all the stops and presented a great show for fans of all genres.
I am in the process of getting some pictures together and some notes of the day (we attended Friday, and it was Little G's first convention) and will post a large post later.
Also on a quick note I would like to give a shout out my friend Scott Licina. Scott's name has popped up several time son this blog and was most recently attached to the cool horror comic GRAVE Grrrls. Well, GRAVE Grrrls is now more and Scott has moved on to bigger and better things. On Thursday the 27th, Scott was announced as the new head of Fangoria Comics, branching off the huge Fangoria Entertainment. The first book out of the gates will be Strangeland Disciple, based on the upcoming movie and character created by Dee Snider. Scott knows his horror and will not let any of us down on this new project. Congrats Scott.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
New Spider-Man 3 Trailer........NOT.
Spider Man 3
AAHHHH,,,Make It Stop !!!!!
So the most recent project, that has taken up the last 2 weeks, was the kitchen. I thought it would be a simple 1 week job, but as usual nothing goes as planned. In a nutshell we redid the ceiling and walls (plaster), installed new crown and blocks, re-painted, tore up 3 layers of linoleum, put down new sub-floor and then new tile and then re-touched up the paint again. Now all that is left is the new counter tops and I can finally cross that job off the list.
Finally I can take a rest. (Never thought I would be happy to return to work after a vacation, but I need the rest after a working vacation) next project coming up will stretch from fall to spring. That will be restoring the original front porch. Over the years metal railing and posts where put up and the old wood beams and railing where put in the crawl-space. So the fall/winter months will be me stripping years of paint off the surviving pieces and then frabricating new pieces to replace those missing and then in the spring I can hopefully get the porch put back together.
If my sanity holds out that long.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Headbutt Heard Around The World.
Zinedine Zidane headbutt montage
Big Movies on the "Really" Little Screen.
Little G picked out a new toy a few months back after graduation. The item was a very cool PSP, otherwise known as a Playstation Portable. I had never seen one of these in person and wasn't sure what to expect from a $250.00 mutated gameboy. I have to admit that I was surprised and now wish I had one of these little babies for myself. You can of coarse play games, which there are quite a few to choose from and listen to music ala MP3 or WM. What I didn't know at first is that you can even surf the internet with it. Just find a wireless signal and it will jump right on and a surfing you can go. Another nice this is that you can watch movies on the system using the UMD disc format, and the full color widescreen screen looks great. Now most of the movie companies where releasing movies on UMD at the same time as DVD, but now it has been announced that the UMD format is going to be dropped. This kind of made me upset, thinking that we just buy one, and now it won't support movies anymore.
A solution to this problem was pointed out to me via a company called SlySoft (SlySoft.com). This company offers a program called Clone DVD Mobile. Now before I dive into this please be aware that you should never violate copyright law and illegally copy or sell copyrighted material. But, fairuse law states you can make a copy of a movie that you own for your own personal use to preserve the original copy. Now back to the program. This little thing lets you take any DVD from your collection and shrink it down to a file-size and type that will fit on a memory-pro duo card and play flawlessly in your PSP. I don't know all the technical aspects of the how the program works, but the file you create is perfect and looks great on the PSP, with no artifact or jumping. On a 1GB you can fit about 3 full length movies. This method falls into the gray area, but is a good solution to help bypass the UMD system that is being discontinued.
This program can also convert movies to play on IPod Video, Creative Labs ZEN and other portable devices. It also support and converts to DivX, Xvid, AVI, MP4 and more.
They also have a program call AnyDVD that, among other wonderful features it allows you to watch various region coded dvds on your computer. So if you have a R2 (UK) DVD you can now watch it on your computer without having to worry about resetting your region code. This is very helpful when you have a lot of overseas DVDs in your collection like I have.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Doctor Who,,,A Rose By Any Other Name.
The Doctor is never long without a companion, and that new open space will be filled by Martha Jones, played by Freema Agyeman starting in the 19th Season after the Christmas Special. Freema also appeared in a season 27 episode where she was killed by the Cybermen. She has some pretty big shoes to fill following Billie.
I located this fan-made video on YouTube. It is a great tribute to Rose and The Doctor.
Doctor Who - Who knew?
Monday, July 10, 2006
Some Movie Catch-Up
Super-Man Returns : Went to see this with my boy at the local theater for the first showing on the release day. I was surprised to find the theater only half full. When we saw X-men it was packed to the gills. Superman is much more iconic than the X-Men, but I guess movie goers don't see it the same way as me. I have waited a long time to see this movie, and when it started I had that same feeling of when I saw the original star Wars, or even the 1st Super-man movie. As soon as that S symbol appears on the screen and titles start. It was like going back to being a kid again. This movie takes place 5 years after Superman has left earth to search out Krypton and now returns to a world that has learned to live without him. This movie really had it all. Action, comedy and the little heart-string pulls. Just like Batman Begins revived that franchise, Superman returns does the same for the big blue boyscout. We had more fun watching Superman than we did at X-men.
Pirates of the Caribbean : Dead Man's Chest : When the first Pirates movie came out it was unique. We hadn't seen a true pirate move in a long time, and add the amazing performance by Keith Richards,,,,oops,,I mean Johnny Depp, and you had a blockbuster. Pirates 2 is again a winner. It is rare when a sequel can be matched up to the original, but this movie does it. The action is stepped up several notches and the special effects, especially those for Davey Jones's organic crew are truly amazing. Once again Jack is in trouble and his (so-called) friends turn up to help and hinder. This was another 1st showing when the theater was only half filled, but with the record breaking opening it had (beat spider-man's record), the overall show-up was great. Many people in the theater where disappointed with the ending, but just remember that the next installment, At Worlds End is already made and only months away.
On the Trailer front, 2 stand at the top of the heap.
Transformers is set for release on 7/4/2007 and the teaser trailer has now been released. We don't get to see any actual robots in disguise, but after all it is just a teaser for a movie still 1 year away. The coolest part of the trailer is the transforming titles at the end. It is interesting that Michael bay already came forward and said that none of the footage from the teaser is in the movie, it was shot exclusively for the teaser film. You can view the trailer here.
Probably the biggest and most talked about trailer has been the one for Spider-Man 3. This trailer really touches upon all the questions that fans have been asking for months, and still doesn't really clear anything up for us. Yes we see Spidey in the black costume and even get to see the symboite in motion (whether it will be an alien or earthbound creature is not yet known), a great shot of Sandman is shown and a very quick look at Topher Grace who is reported to be Venom. The trailer is very fast paced with shots of the main and several supporting characters. The 2 scenes of the new Green Goblin are very quick and even slowed down it is hard to make out what the costume looks like. Sam Raimi has yet to disappoint us with his Spidey movies. The trailer can be seen here in several different formats.
A Long Strange Trip...................
(Rob,,,,,you don't count as my 1 reader)
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Go Soul Patrol........Whooo.
Tonight is the grand finale of American Idol. Taylor Hicks vs Catherine McPhee. After last night I could see Taylor running away with it, but in the end it comes down to how many people actually pick up the phone and vote. I am cheering for Taylor, the man has such an original talent that the competition has lacked for many years. It is nice to see someone that is not a clone of last years winner. It should be interesting tonight, even though we will have to sit thru 1 hr and 45 min of filler before they announce the winner.
Soul Patrol............................
Ghost Rider trailer online. WOW!!
Sony Pictures has released the first full teaser trailers for the upcoming Ghost Rider movie starring Nic Cage, Peter Fonda, Sam Elliot and Eva Mendes.
Here is a small synopses from Sony.
"In order to save his dying father, young stunt cyclist Johnny Blaze sells his soul to Mephistopheles and sadly parts from the pure-hearted Roxanne Simpson, the love of his life. Years later, Johnny's path crosses again with Roxanne, now a go-getting reporter, and also with Mephistopheles, who offers to release Johnny's soul if Johnny becomes the fabled, fiery Ghost Rider, a supernatural agent of vengeance and justice. Mephistopheles charges Johnny with defeating the despicable Blackheart, Mephistopheles's nemesis and son, who plans to displace his father and create a new hell even more terrible than the old one."
The trailer is very cool and gives us many looks at the Ghost Rider character. As it looks now the special effects are quite impressive. I was wondering how they would pull the character off. The scene of GR riding up the side of a building is very cool and the quick scene of GR riding alongside the Ghost Rider on horseback is awesome.
You can view the domestic and international trailers HERE in Quicktime format.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Aquaman Canned and Leaked.
The trailer can be viewed here.
""""It appears that Warner Bros has had the trailer removed from all hosting sites. You can still see some good screen captures from the trailer here,,,thanks to comicbookresource.""""
1 Week Till X-Men.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Snakes on a Plane Poster.
Here is a look at the newest poster for the upcoming Snakes On A Plane. The movie stars Samuel Jackson and is directed by David Ellis. The movie revolves around Jackson's FBI character transporting a witness on a commercial airline and a assassin who release scores of deadly snakes onboard to attempt to kill the witness.
Not sure how this will play out yet. It could be a interesting story, but can they pull off a entire movie based around snakes running loose on a plane. You would think there would be easier and more surefire ways to knock someone off on a plane instead of snakes.
I do like the poster. It is right up there in the best 5 posters yet this year. Simple and striking.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
This is how the world ends,,,,,,,,,,Yippee!!!
This week marked the beginning of E3 2006. One of the biggest announcments of the show so far came on Tuesday at the end of the Microsoft press conferance. Bill gates was just about to close the conference when he stated they fad one more little game trailer to show. Now, many insiders and fans alike have heard the rumblings of Halo 3 for several months now, especially after Bill (I'm richer than most countries) Gates made his own impromt-to announcement a few months back that Halo 3 would release at the same time as the PS3, of course at the time Bungie denied it all. Well, after Tuesady we all know the truth. That little trailing was an amazing promo for Halo 3. The trailer features a devasted Earth, overtaken by the Covenant. We are treated to a very light narrative from Cortana as master Chiefs walks in from the distance and views the Covenant forces unearthing a strange Forerunner structure from underground. The CGI is simply perfect, with outstanding shading and light, if the game looks this good during gameplay it will be the best thing ever put out and should easily top the Halo2 sales records.
The trailer is available on several different sites, and can be downloaded and viewed best at the Bungie.com. The trailer can also be download and viewed in HD on the XBOX Live marketplace.
Enjoy
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Another X3 Update.
The 4 new screen shots show us the Danger Room, both active and in the shutting down phase. I am so happy that they fit this into the third movie after it was vut from X2. The 3rd shot is a good team pic and the 4th shot of Juggernaut shows off his costume and fake Popeye forearms.
Monday, May 08, 2006
New Superman Returns Trailer Online.
The newest trailer for Superman Returns is now online. This one gives us a more indepth look at Lex and some of the great character created by Kevin Spacey. A few glimpses of Supes and some action shots finish off this very cool trailer. Superman Returns is set to release on June 30th.
You can view the trailer here. Thanks to Comingsoon.net for the hosting.
This is turning out to be a busy Summer for blockbusters. In the coarse of 2 months we will get The DeVinci Code, X-Men :The Last Stand and Superman Returns.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Spider-Man 3 Cleveland Shoot.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
James Bond In French.
We have been getting little Casino Royale tidbits for some time, now it appears that the French have snagged the first teaser trailer. The audio is all french, but the trailer speaks for itself. looks very promosing and appears that Daniel Craig is filling the 007 boots well. The trailer is rough and looks like it is a rough cut. The end title graphic is very nice. You can view the trailer here.
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Cheesecake : The Movie
Wow, don't they look tough in those official fighting outfits.
The dreaded toe to the head super kick. And could that be the cherry-blossom teleport effect from the game.
Zack attack on Jamie Pressly, White Trash Queen.
What are we really looking at here,,I'm sure it's that shiney gun.
Dead Or Alive Beach VolleyBall Lives !!!!!!!!!!!! Along with Asian background crowds.
Must hide crotch with volleyball. As Miho (Sin City ref,sorry) tries to ignore him.
Nothing says relief like fighting in the rain after a rousing game of volleyball.
UUmmmm................The End.
Monday, May 01, 2006
X-Men Update.
Hugh Jackman was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last week and showed a new movie clip. The clip showed the team in the Danger Room and our first glimpse on a Sentinel. We also get to see something fans have been waiting for since the addition of Colossus, the Fastball Special. The clip is very cool and really makes may 26 seem so far away. You can view the clip at YouTunes.
Another new movie one-sheet has surfaced. This is the newest one I have seen, but I have heard of one that has the villains on it and another of Angel in uniform.
Finally there are several new movie stills that have com online in the last weeks. Here is a sampling of some of the more interesting ones.
The Beast just hanging around.
Finally, someone hairier than Wolvie.
Storm looking really pissed off.
Pyro gets the point from Quill.
Angel in flight.
Vacation Is Over ................
It was an amazing trip and me and Mrs. G did not want to return.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Order of the Phoenix Date Set.
This week the tentative release date for the next Harry Potter movie was announced. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix now has a street date of July 13th 2007. This comes into a small bit of conflict with the 7th Harry Potter book that is set to be released on July 7th. Even though the they could promote each other, a release date this close could actually draw attention away from the book only a week after its release. I bet they will move the dates around still to at least put a month or so between the releases.
Sunday, April 09, 2006
No Matter Where You Go,,,,There You Are !
Friday, April 07, 2006
Another 28........
28 Days Later was a great shot in the arm for the Horror genre and was almost solely responsible for the reemergence of the Zombie film. It gave us a new look and Zombie fair and introduced us to the "fast" Zombie that would later show up in the Dawn Of The Dead remake. The movie also has one of the best opening scenes, with the main character walking thru a deserted London. It will be interesting to see how the story is expanded and if the original characters will return. Cillian Murphy now has films like Batman Begins and RedEye under his belt and Naomie Harris is set to be in the upcoming Miami Vice and Pirates of the Caribbean 3. So it might be hard to nail them down for a new horror movie. Although Cillian's newest movie Sunshine is also directed by 28 director Danny Boyle.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
The $10,000.00 Dell.
A few months ago Dell unveiled its new XPS 600 Renegade Super-Gaming computer. It was being toted as the extreme of the extreme, with 4 GeForce 7900 Graphic Processors, 2GB graphic memory, NVIDIA nForce SLI Chipset, Pentium Dual-Core at 4.26GHz, 2 HHD, 2 GB ram and a flaming custom paint job by Mike Lavalle of Killer Paint. For those who don't understand all the computer mumbo-jumbo, just say its the computer of any gamers wet dreams. Dell only made a undisclosed limited supply of these babies and they sold for the rock bottom price of $9,930.00. Yes that is not a typo, almost $10,000 for a computer, and that does not even include a monitor. You must really have a lot of disposable income to drop that much on a computer. I am more than happy with my 4 yr old HP and my Dell laptop.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Enough Is Enough Already .........
Sony Pictures has announced another release of the movie Black Hawk Down. The new release is being dubbed as The Extended Cut with a whopping 8 minutes, yes that's right..8 minutes of added footage. This will mark the 4th release of this movie on DVD. Come on,,,don't you think that 4 releases of the same movie is pushing it a little. And to top it off the new release will have no new extras, just rehashings of what appeared on the 3-Disc release. So now you have the choice of the normal release (widescreen or full), the 3-disc Deluxe Edition, the Super-Bit edition and now the Extended Edition. There is no way that I would shell out even more money for eight more minutes of film. In my opinion the best version has been the 3-disc set. It had a great transfer and tons of extras including the History Channel doc on the real-life events of the movie.
So a 4th release of a movie. And there is more coming. Upcoming new releases included so-called Extended Editions of Enemy Of The State, Crimson Tide and even Con Air. Will they really be worth it. If I am going to spend more money on a movie I already have it better really be worth it. Look at the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy. The 2nd release Extended versions had over 60 minutes of additional footage and so many extras you had to spread your viewing over days, now that is worth spending money on. But 8 minutes,,,sorry Sony, I will have to pass on that.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Could it be Real ?????
WARNING::::Major Spoilers below. If you want to be surprised please look away now !!!!!
"Third film in the highly successful "Spider-Man" series sees several new villains and a new woman enter Peter Parker's life. With his secret now revealed to both Mary Jane and Harry, Peter must face the consequences of his actions and his new life together with Mary Jane as they finally form a relationship. Yet their newfound open display of love has yielded some unfortunate results, not the least of which is Peter's upset boss determined to make his life hell for causing his son emotional distress. Not helping is a young investigative reporter named Eddie Brock who Jameson has hired to find out why Mary Jane dumped his son for Peter - what's Parker's secrets? At the same time an escaped prisoner hiding out on a remote beach is caught in a dreadful accident and finds himself turned into a shape-shifting sand creature. Peter's investigations into the past of this 'Sandman' brings him in contact with two very different things that will inevitably alter his life. The first a young woman named Gwen Stacy, daughter of the city's new police chief who is developing a soft spot for Peter. The other, a black substance from an accident scene which 'merges' with Peter's costume and gives him new found abilities. Things come to a head however when Harry Osborn, determined to take revenge against Peter for his father's death and now equipped with what he needs to pull it off, teams with The Sandman in a new variation of his father's Green Goblin guise and causes mayhem. In the ensuing chaos lives are lost, including people very close to Peter, whilst the black substance covering his suit separates from him and merges with a distraught Brock to form something else entirely - a creature unlike anything he's ever faced. A 'Venom' that he may not be able to stop."
(Thanks to IMDB and DarkHorizons.com)
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Watchmen and 30 Days Of Night.
For years the Watchmen rights have floated around studios. Last year Paramount put the movie in turnaround and now Warner Bros. has picked it up, I am sure in part to the recent success of Batman Begins and the upcoming Superman Returns. Over the coarse of its run both Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass have been attached to direct. Now with the move to Warner, they have snatched Zack Snyder to Direct. Zack has directed the Dawn Of The Dead remake and the upcoming 300 based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller. The story was originally conceived by Alan Moore back in 1986 and has been the standard of graphic storytelling for years. Warner has also recently had major success with another Moore property, a little film called V For Vendetta. Years ago I would have hated to see this movie made because there would have been no way to really bring the story and characters to life. Now with the major advances in CGI and FX it is possible (just take a look at the scenes from X-Men 3 and others). If they stick to the story it should be an amazing last 20 minutes of a movie.
Another new movie property gathering steam is the adaptation of Steve Nile's 30 Days Of Night. This cool vampire story takes place in a small town in Alaska. The movie will be bankrolled by Sam Rami's Ghost House Pictures and they have named British director David Slade to helm. David 's newest movie Hard Candy will be released on April 7th and is being hailed as a great movie. The film will start shooting this summer in Alaska and New Zealand. No release date or actors have been announced.