Finally saw the latest installment of Batman. On IMAX no less.
It’s the best movie I’ve seen this year.
In fact, I deem it almost perfect … for a mindless “Action” blockbuster.
My only complaint is that it ran a little long. A good edit could improve this movie.
Heath Ledger should be a strong candidate for best actor at the Academy Awards. His role as the Joker was superb.
All the actors were excellent, I thought.
I missed 2005’s Batman Begins. But will see it soon.
The selection of films in Canada is smaller than in the USA, but actually downloading a movie could not have been easier. It worked perfectly.
For my first movie, I chose a FREE one, the mockumentary Rain of Madness. It’s a parody of Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.
It follows co-writer Justin Theroux as a fictional documentarian named Jan Jürgen documenting the behind-the-scenes the filming of the Ben Stiller Vietnam war spoof Tropic Thunder.
Hallö iTunes.
Movies are available either for rental or purchase.
Stiller had intended to keep Cruise’s role in the film as a fat, balding movie mogul a surprise. The film studio has refused to release pictures of Cruise’s character as he appears in the movie. Images of Tom Cruise with a bald headpiece and in a fat suit appeared on Inside Edition, in November 2007, and also appeared on the Internet.
Attorneys for Tom Cruise threatened a lawsuit if photos showing Cruise bald, bearded and wearing a fat suit were published. A representative for Cruise stated: “Mr. Cruise’s appearance was supposed to be a surprise for his fans worldwide. Paparazzi have ruined what should have been a fun discovery for moviegoers.” Photo agency INF responded with a statement: “While these pictures were taken without breaking any criminal or civil laws, we’ve decided to pull them from circulation effective immediately.” MTV News reported that, “…reps are reportedly having the image of a fat, balding Cruise pulled from the Internet as quickly as sites can put it up.”
Amazing movie. It was ranked the best film of 2005 in the Village Voice Film Poll.
Director David Cronenberg is a genius. Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris are all excellent.
An Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for William Hurt was well deserved. He’s always good.
Click PLAY or watch the trailer on YouTube.
A History of Violence – Wikipedia
Not a perfect film. But it certainly is “feel good”.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I love the scene where August hears music in the blowing grass.
DAVID POGUE reviews the new Netflix Player, a $100 black box that already delivers 10,000 movies and recent TV episodes to you on demand. It’s pay per view. Commercial free.
This thing could not be simpler. I was watching my first movie six minutes after opening the box.
Like all Internet movie services, the Netflix Player requires a high-speed Internet connection. It found and connected to my wireless network instantly and flawlessly. (You can connect it to your home network with a cable if you prefer.)
It connects to your TV using any kind of modern video connection: HDMI cable, component cables, S-Video or even those old red-white-yellow RCA cables. The nine-button remote lets you choose a movie, skip around in it or pause.
Is the Netflix Player, then, the movie box the world is waiting for? Not quite. It falls short on the age of its movies, the smallish selection of good ones and the not-quite-pristine video quality. And as with all Internet movies, you don’t get subtitles, director commentaries or any other DVD extras.
But it comes darned close. For movie lovers who already subscribe to Netflix, at least, this one-time $100 expenditure is practically a no-brainer.
NY Times – State of the Art –
20 Seconds, and a Movie Has Arrived
Of course this is only available in the USA, so far. But it’s coming soon everywhere.
The future looks bright. Right?
Yet more people than ever are paying more than ever before for “traditional” cable TV. Competitors have not gained much traction yet. New technologies are still seen as novelties, not replacements.
Cable prices have risen 77 percent since 1996, roughly double the rate of inflation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this month.
Cable Prices Keep Rising, and Customers Keep Paying – NY Times
In the REAL world, my parents are getting their first DVR soon.
One of my favourite directors is the controversial, unique Robert Altman. He died in 2006 at age-81.
That started after I saw his 1970 anti-war, anti-establishment film M*A*S*H. It’s has had a big influence on me ever since.
The filming process was difficult due to tensions between the director and his cast. Donald Sutherland has stated that he was the only member of the principal cast and crew not using drugs during the filming.
During principal photography, Sutherland and Elliott Gould spent a third of their time trying to get Robert Altman fired.
Altman, relatively new to the filmmaking establishment, at that time lacked the credentials to justify his unorthodox filmmaking process …
Altman later commented that if he had known about Gould and Sutherland, he would have resigned. Gould later sent a letter of apology and Altman used him in some of his later works, but he never worked with Sutherland again.
Sutherland has already impressed me as Sgt. Oddball in the anti-war movie Kelly’s Heroes.
(M*A*S*H) won the Grand Prix at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Sally Kellerman) and Best Film Editing, and won an Oscar for its screenplay.
Watched this terrific and informative “entertainment” with Dave and Lisa Adlard. For a Hollywood movie, I think it captures the flavour of how things get really done in politics.
Charlie Wilson’s War is a 2007 biographical drama film based on the true story of Democratic Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson, who conspired with a “bare knuckle attitude” CIA operative named Gust Avrakotos to launch an operation to help the Afghan mujahideen resist and ultimately defeat the Soviet Union’s military occupation of the nation.
The film is adapted from George Crile’s 2003 book Charlie Wilson’s War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History.
It is directed by Mike Nichols, written by Aaron Sorkin, and stars Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Ned Beatty. It was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, including “Best Motion Picture”, but did not win in any category. Phillip Seymour Hoffman was nominated for an Academy Award for “Best Supporting Actor,” but did not win.
Hoffman was fantastic, as usual.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
To oversimplify the plot, it’s the story of how the USA eventually and reluctantly delivered Stinger missiles into the hands of illiterate tribesmen. That weapon turned the tide in the campaign against the brutal invading Soviet Army.
George Crile, author of … the book on which the film is based, wrote that the mujahideen’s victory in Afghanistan ultimately opened a power vacuum for bin Laden: “By the end of 1993, in Afghanistan itself there were no roads, no schools, just a destroyed country — and the United States was washing its hands of any responsibility. It was in this vacuum that the Taliban and Osama bin Laden would emerge as the dominant players. It is ironic that a man who had almost nothing to do with the victory over the Red Army, Osama bin Laden, would come to personify the power of the jihad.” …
New limited edition hi def projector, dvd player, ipod dock, sound system, card reader and entertainment system in an authentic R2D2 that you can control. He has hook ups for computer, gaming systems, sattelite, cable. Can even plug in your ipod to play movies up to 260″ diagonally on wall or ceiling.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Might be good for a homeless guy. R2D2 could trail along behind me wherever I go.
