My friend owns a video store and has told me, at length, the sales he has lost due to this stupid law that the Tennessee legislature passed years ago. In a nutshell, it prevents the sell and/or rental of videogames marked "M for Mature" on them to minors. If you are reported to have sold/rented these titles to minors, a fine will be enforced and if multiple offenses are reported, thousands of dollars in fines and jailtime will ensue. Note, this law also covers R rated films.
Thankfully I turned 18 a year or two before this law was passed (I'm 21 now), but don't let the vague, and admittedly stupid, argument from the article fool you: this has a real chance at passing and becoming law for the entire nation. Basically, senators/congressmen will say "Look, this state and this state have this law and it works, why not pass it everywhere?" Sad but true.
And it wouldn't have taken up that much space on the current disc, so I'm surprised it's in an R2 edit but not R1
A few things:
First, the Canadian release is nowhere near the picture and sound quality of the US release.
Second, watching Memento in chronological order is an unbelievably boring and predictable experience. It's brilliant backwards, but it's also a very simple story: it had to be, or no one could follow it.
Lastly, a 2-disc special edition, with director's commentary and other goodies, is on it's way May 21st. Check out the cover art here, and go to the digital bits for more info. I don't think it has the chronological order option, but it might be on there as an easter egg (for those desperate and/or bored enough to watch it that way).
"[The orcs] have never really been that important to the [Warcraft] series anyway. We could've had the night elves in Warcraft II instead, and it totally would've been the same."
Anything that lame and in "totally-like-valley-girl speak" has to be made up.
In synopsis, the technology is called "Anamorphic pan&scan," it does precisely what you're bitching about: it encodes screen placement for the DVD for those with the 4:3 option set on their DVD players. Currently it is only seen on some Columbia/Tristar releases, but if it got the recognition it deserved we wouldn't have the MGM debacle where the extras are one side of the disc and the widescreen/pan&scan version of the film is on the other.
Also, since those links I posted above are slashdotted to hell, make sure you check some of these links for information:
There is nothing, I repeat, nothing in theaters right now that is more fun than Blade II.
It's big. It's brawny. It's darker, it's scarier, it's downright vicious compared to the kicked dog that is now the original "Blade."
Sure the names are simple and the action is over-energetic. This is a living comic book folks, and anybody who's ever read a comic book will easily see the connection. We have the "cool" shots of him putting on his sunglasses, the "slow-mo-coming-out-of-the-water-with-big-guns" shot, etc. The framing is specific and easy to follow. The story for "Blade 2," like any well-plotted comic book, is driven by action. Unlike other superhero films (*cough*TombRaider*cough*) that rely on "stopping points" to explain plot, "Blade 2" just throws it all at you and expects you to keep up. The new Reapers are easily the most frightening thing I've seen on the big screen in the past few years, I don't know about you.
The plot of course is that Blade helps the vampires destroy the vampire-eaters. But, and this is going to sound a bit strange, it still manages to convey the importance of loyalty, tells a love story, and captures betrayal in a non-cringing and original way. This is especially important for a film such as this, where such melodrama is encouraged, but normally goes too far to remain serious. And now that we've moved past the "origin story" film, scribe David Goyas finally breathes life into a character who desperately needs it.
And you have to give a hand to director Guillermo Del Toro. Look at a few of his past few films: The first brilliant 1/2 hour of "Mimic" and the exceptional ghost story "The Devil's Backbone". Del Toro takes a gritty sense of realism and blends it with a stylish take that the original "Blade" was painfully missing. The editing is the true defintion of "The Fast and the Furious," with jump-jump cuts and brutal slow-down that was tried in "Moulin Rouge" but is brought to perfection here.
Let's face it folks, it's a popcorn film. It's meant to be seen with friends so they, just like yourself, can spout Blade's one-liners for the next few weeks and groan in unison at the most gruesome spots.
Del Toro's amazing direction and Goyer's much-better-than-the-first-Blade script make this a solid hit. See it loud and proud on the big screen in a dark room with strangers. This one's a true crowd pleaser.
This new VHS has the potential to hold up to 28Mbps (Megabits per second) of High Definition signal. This surpasses the defacto standard of 18Mbps, and that's certainly a good thing. The main difference between these tapes and DVD is that yes, even though DVD is great, it can't do high definition. It just takes up too much space. So in that regard, these D-VHS tapes have the one-up.
However, D-VHS (they're going to market it as D-Theater) will still need to be rewound. You still won't be able to have commentaries. You still won't be able to have multiple angles, seamless branching, or menus.
They will still wear out over time.
While I'm positive they will be gorgeous when they are debuted tomorrow for the press, the fact remains that tapes are tapes and by definition they disintigrate over the years.
The real question is that there have been at least half a dozen High Definition DVD formats proposed and yet no one will stand behind them. Of course JVC did invent VHS to start with and that's a good point, but this Beta-like (or 8-track like if you prefer) alternative to a digital medium already has its days numbered with very (VERY) few players, all priced just below $2000 and the fact that consumers will be confused yet again by even more techno mumbo-jumbo.
Lastly, I think the fact that even though the first few movies will be your basic blockbusters (The first two Terminators, U-571, X-Men, Independence Day, et al), I'm glad to see that Warner Bros (who coincidentally were the first to back DVD) and Columbia TriStar aren't getting in this race.
Turns out, one of the Malaysians purchased a 100% bonified good DVD (Final Fantasy, I think) and couldn't play it in his DVD player. The reason? His DVD player is region-free.
He commented that the pirated versions of the movies play just fine.
Why? Because they're region free as well. I'd bet my bottom dollar that he probably has an early Apex player. Those (as well as a few others) had the ability to turn region coding on and off at will (you can change it in the Setup menu).
The catch came when RCE (Region Coding Enhancement) became the norm a few years ago. I remember clearly that one of the first titles to utilize this feature was The Patriot (let's take note that Final Fantasy was released by the same company, Columbia TriStar). If you player didn't specifically state it was region 1 hardware-wise, it wouldn't play the DVD.
You know what the real irony of this is? Is that if you change your Apex player (or whatever brand, mind you) back to Region 1, you could fix the problem and play the DVD.
Then I said, and this really surprised myself: "I would like to be a DVD/CD pirate. No, not to make lots of money, but it seems like the right thing to do."
Christ, what kind of ego-driven self-serving comment is that? Yeah, you wouldn't make money off of it, you'd just do it out of the kindness of your heart. It's comments like these that tell not only your age, but your maturity.
Instead of paying the studios and filmmakers for their work you'd rather rip them off. If actors/directors/writers/etc don't sell units, don't sell tickets, don't move these products, they're out of jobs. So please excuse me if I don't jump on the soapbox and proclaim that stealing is somehow beneficial to the artist(s).
What sort of idiots would allow a situation where someone can buy a player legitimately, buy some media legitimately, and not be able to use it? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
Here's a question: what kinds of DVD idiots are
a) too dumb to turn the player back to its proper region (which will fix the problem)
b) buying pirated versions in the first place?
You can yell from the mountaintops how great it is to steal from people but the fact remains: there are plenty of folks who live off those DVD dollars. Movies aren't released around the world simultaneously (albeit a few of the bigger blockbusters), so sometimes a Region 1 DVD will appear in the states before it's even in theaters across the Atlantic/Pacific.
Example: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back won't be released in Australian theaters until March. The Region 1 DVD comes out in February. Now if all those Australians get pirated copies of that great (and hilarious) film, who gets paid and who gets the shaft? Kevin Smith and his cronies for their hard work and great talent, or a money-grubbing hack who wants to earn a buck and cry "Free speech!" everytime someone accuses him of stealing?
People can complain about region coding all they want, but the solid evidence supporting the practice is right here.
LOTR is a visionary masterpiece. Every frame could be frozen and framed and look great on any wall of mine. There is no question that the camera work is simply revolutionary, from the vertigo-enducing dives to the slow pans across the vast landscapes.
It is however, a very Cliff Notes friendly version of the plot. I'll take two instances here, and let you decide the rest.
1) Bill the horse. One of my favorite characters from the book is undoubtedly cut to shreds by the film. I don't know why they even bothered including the five-second scene of Sam and Bill. Maybe simple nostalgia from Jackson and possibly trying to give Sam some type of emotional grounding since his only other character scene was dancing with Lucy in the first moments in Hobbiton.
2) The Aragorn/Arwen romance. I have no problems whatsoever with this type of story manipulation, and I am glad that Arwen got such a prominent role in the film (and undoubtedly in the next two as well). But this romance is forced, with the simple gestures and "remember how we met" dialogue not enough emotional foundation to give them the effect that is needed.
These are just two examples, there are plenty more. The word is that Peter Jackson's first cut of the film was 3 hours 30 minutes. It's possible that New Line, scared enough that it was over 3 hours, didn't want to risk such a long cut since the longer it is the fewer showings the film can have. So 30 minutes of character development probably went right out the window.
Must I point out that Titanic, a great flick (despite all you naysayers), is 3 hours 20 minutes, has solid character development, "legs" like you wouldn't believe (ie, stayed on the charts for more than 3 months), and grossed more than any film in history. The hobbits are dreadfully bland, Legolas (especially) and Gimili are bystanders at best. Boromir is given one scene where he describes Gondor as his character moment, with most of the screen time given to the leads. Gandalf is represented best, which is why his (SPOILER WARNING) demise (SPOILER END) is so powerful. I loved the after-Moria sequence, though it was easily apparent that the on-the-rocks scene where Boromir is teaching Merry and Pippin how to sword fight was cut down to shreds, when it really shouldn't have been--after such a huge setpiece, a character-driven segment would've been welcomed.
It wasn't until I saw the film the second time that all of this occurred to me. Having re-read the books this summer to get a feel for them, I knew all the characters and took all of the shortcuts for granted. Though one can still enjoy the film as it is constructed (hell, even my girlfriend liked it), when you read the books the events are much more effecting, bringing to life all of those superb moments you once built in your imagination.
The plot goes as such: a little story, a big action sequence, a little story, a big action sequence, etc. Repeat ad nauseum.
Let's just hope that judging by the immense reaction, both from fans and critics--a rare event indeed, that New Line will give Jackson more leeway with The Two Towers and Return of the King and let him include some truly meaningful character moments.
And damn I can't wait for the LOTR:FOTR Director's Cut!
I think it's great they're re-releasing Holy Grail. Easily the most innovative, creative, and funny film of the Monty Python series (though I have the others and they are quite good by themselves).
I thought I would share that the missing 24 seconds, if you weren't aware, are from Castle Anthrax, ("I can face the peril!") featuring a few quick cuts of girls doing generally bad things that you wouldn't discuss over a cup of tea with your grandmother.
Anyway.
One other story I'd like to share is from the Criterion Collection's laserdisc release of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. A fabulous edition that you can now, thanks to the death of laserdisc, get super cheap on ebay (I found it for less than $20, including shipping). On it is a fantastic commentary with Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones. Here is a comment from Terry Gilliam on the first American screening. I'm paraphrasing here, but the gist is the same:
"On our first screening, in New York, I couldn't believe the response. People were lined up around the block. I was nervous as hell, not believing what I was seeing. Saturday Night Live had yet to hit TV's across the country, and sketch comedy was generally something thought as avant garde at the time. After the screening, a couple came up to me and told me how much they respected Monty Python and loved my work. I thanked them and told them I appreciated the support.
The two were Gilda Radner and John Belushi."
- Terry Gilliam
Ted Demme has never had it easy. From good (but not great) movies like Life and Beautiful Girls, he's been living in the shadow of his uncle Jonathon Demme, who directed what perhaps might be the best thriller ever made, Silence of the Lambs.
Finally, he's on his own. He did it right. He made the movie he's wanted to make, and he did a good job with it.
Is Blow perfect? Nope, it gets into a groove and slips out of it too easily, like a faulty transmission. But it's important to note how GREAT the groove is that he carries in the 2nd act of this movie. From around the thirty minute mark up until Penelope Cruz shows up, this movie is absolute classic drug cinema (what's really scary is you could have a couple hundred movies in that catagory).
Johnny Depp, Mr. 21 Jump Street himself, proves yet again what a fantastic actor he is, and I hope he gets accolades from this performance. He IS George Jung, and the heartbreaking final act of this movie really got me.
Other truly notable performances come from one of Jung's parents, the amazing Ray Liotta, who gives the film a sense of 'Goodfellas' that the movie can't help but be compared to. A drug movie that spans a persons life, from the great times to the busts and the backstabbings. Paul Reubens also does a great job as Derek Foreal, the Californian connection.
I for one highly recommend this movie. For no other reason than to enjoy the greatness of the 2nd act and the heartbreaking finale. A few over-the-top performances (Cruz, in particular) try to weigh the movie down but Depp holds it together, along with Demme's great direction. One of the best movies to come along all year.
Hey, this also means that these games CAN'T BE RENTED
I can't believe no one's stumbled on this yet. Of course they can be rented. You know how they're gonna do it? An affiliation with the major rental chains (*cough* Blockbuster *cough*) will let those serials be used--and Sony will get a cut from each rental.
This is the same formula used in Video Stores across the country with movie studios. You get say 30 copies of Meet the Parents on VHS. You don't pay the $70 bucks a wack for them, as you normally would, instead you simply pay $20--but, Universal gets their cut. A video renting program must be installed and used on your computer that keeps track of when each tape was rented, therefore detailing the amount that has to be reimbursed to the studio (it communicates with a host via modem at the end of each day). After so many weeks, when the title isn't as hot and you have all these copies sitting around not doing anything, you send the unused ones back. But, those that are left on your shelves still cost you, but now only a lesser fee for each time they're rented.
The video game scheme would work the same way, with everyone getting their cut.
Yup, I got bit by the love-bug way back in 1997. I met this great girl on IRC, we chatted for hours, and agreed to meet the next day in the same channel.
This went on for a good 6-8 months. We became the pseudo-boy/girlfriend even though we were fifteen hundred miles from one another.
Over time, you realize how close and dependant you get to certain people, especially in online relationships. And since you don't have to go through the butterflies or nervousness that comes with meeting people in real life, the anonymous exotic world of IRC (among other utilities) gets you past the horrid beginnings and right into the good stuff--getting to know the person for who they really are.
Sometimes, it backfires. Mine didn't...much.
We met that September (of 97). She flew to see me. We had a great time the week she was here, but...when it was time for her to go home, it simply tore my heart out--I'm sure those who've been through this sort of thing know what I mean. So, after she went home, a month went by and the phone bill skyrocketed from our constant calls and the plain ole missing of one another.
After many calls and discussions, me and her finally agreed to end it.
Of course, she didn't tell me at the time she was gay.
I work for a small bank in Tennessee. And while I'm not a loan officer (I work in Data Processing), I do know my share about how the whole credit reporting/loan acceptance/denial thing works.
First of all, if your credit report looks like someone wiped their ass with it, ie, someone with five pages of past dues, overdraws, and collections, nine times outta ten you ain't gettin the loan. It's simple economics. You can stand on a soap box and say that it's private information, but when your talking money, it turns into another issue. Especially when it's not your money to start with.
I know we'd all like to forget those times when we forgot a credit card payment or we let a bill or two go astray. But that's not the banks fault. They're simply covering their ass, so to speak. You can't expect a lending institution anywhere to simply try to forget that you let your payments go to collections and your loans foreclose then say, "Well, we knew you had to buy groceries, so it's okay."
If you can't afford a loan, don't get one. It's as simple as that. If you can't afford a credit card, don't get one. Rinse, Wash, Repeat. It's not anyone's responsibility but yourself to keep track of your bills, and you can't just be forgiven for them overnight.
But there is a flipside. If you've shown improvement over the last long while--and I'm talking years here--then even five pages of bad credit could still get you a loan. But you have to be willing to pay off what you owe, or be making headway doing so.
Credit Bureaus weren't made so banks could nose in on your business. They were made because banks were tired of getting ripped off.
Of course, I don't have to add (but I will) that politics are everything and if you know the loan officer at your local bank then you're probably more likely to get the loan. I hate to put it that way, but it's true. Just ask the girls with the big breasts and how much trouble they have getting their car fixed.
what i get is that this moron thinks italians should be supporting his favorite american directors/actors/writers.
I used an American film/director simply for points of reference. I think you forget the fact that there are different distributors for the domestic and worldwide releases of films.
Let's take for example the highly acclaimed film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Called Best Picture by lots of folks, this film wouldn't be seen by anyone if Sony Pictures Classics (God bless em) didn't buy the rights to distribute it. If me and you don't got to the theaters and actually SEE this movie, it could be lost forever without distrobution.
But how? You ask. Simply put, you can sink three to four million dollars in a movie and no one other than the folks at film festivals will see it. Nobody. Zilch, zip, nada. People like Sony Pictures Classics, Miramax, Paramount Pictures Classic (which just began), Artisan, and others try to find films you've never heard of, by people you've never heard of, foreign or domestic, and let you see them.
It takes millions of dollars to distribute a film. You have advertising, marketing, interviews, premiers, all kinds of things you and I never think of. Your average movie has to make back three times its budget for it to make a dime in the black. This, simply, is why everyone laughed at James Cameron for making Titanic for 300 million. It'd have to make a fortune for it to earn anything. But guess what. 20th Century Fox believed in him enough to stake a good chunk of the company on its success. It is now the highest grosser of all time. Figures, huh.
Ever heard a little picture called The Blair Witch Project? Perfectly conceived, marketed, and the highest budget-to-gross film ever made period. Artisan bought the rights for a million dollars. It made over a hundred and thirty million. And to think, everyone laughed at them for buying it at Sundance.
Not every film or filmmaker gets his shot, and going to the theater is one of those chances he gets. While he (or she) may make money from the video, its the theaters that count. Asses in seats are what the studios want, and direct-to-video is a hard road for any filmmaker to 'make it big'.
Legally enforcing region coding is a smack in the face to the people of the world. It's taking away a freedom that no one has the right to take away. You have the right to buy/sell whatever you want from/to whoever you want, no country's government has the right to stop you.
I'll tell you precisely who has the right: The Studios.
Yes, these wonderful, friendly folks who bring you hours of entertainment a year are the ones who created and support Region Coding.
And as for the comments on the lack of a ban for VHS: We seem to have forgotten there is Rental Pricing, which has been going on for years and years now. Rental Pricing was basically the embryotic version of Region Coding, where they (ie, The Studios) could finally put a stranglehold on things.
The government is doing nothing the Studios are 100% behind. It's not uncommon, or unexpected, or any different than it has always been.
I'd like to say that I for one think this law is a very good idea, and I'm glad the French are enforcing it.
A Gasp! is heard through the crowd.
But why? You ask. Well, I'll tell you. For one, movies don't come out at the same time all over the world. While we Americans love to think the world revolves around us (and there are many who'll never think otherwise), that's just not the case. While a DVD may come out over here for What Lies Beneath this January, it just opened in Italy. So you wonder, why would the Italians bother seeing it at all if they could get the DVD in a few weeks?
I'm all for supporting the filmmakers I like, love and respect. I would be happy to give my money towards Ridley Scott's efforts, or Paul Thomas Anderson's, or Darren Aranofsky's, and theatrical runs are what fuel the fire for them to get financing so they can (hopefully) make better movies. Of course it's all about money, and the fact that studios don't have all the legalese worked out for distrobution by the time it hits American audiences. But the point still remains that a filmmakers efforts are (normally) judged by either:
a) How much the film makes at the theaters, or
b) How many awards it takes.
You have to have one or the other, and hopefully both. American Beauty wasn't racing up the box office until it won Best Picture, Actor, Director, Cinematography and Screenplay. After that, Dreamworks Re-released it (for the third time) and it made its way over 100 million. Sometimes the best films get looked over, and believe it or not, Region Coding can actually help films from becoming that way.
It's still business, I'll freely admit, but it's also a question of loyalty and how far you'll go (all the way to the theater) to support the directors/actors/writers you like.
I don't think a lot of people realize that it's not the death of consoles. It's certainly not the death of video games.
It's the death of the console system as we know it (and I feel fine, yeah, insert REM song here).
The point is, every console out today has some sort of "extra ports" on them to be able to connect to other people--something PCs have had for ages, and the console makers are finally waking up to the fact that "Hey, them gamers like to play with each other! Hu-yuk" I guess it goes without saying that the fact that the PS2 has two USB ports and a modem jack (I'm assuming it's a modem jack, I'm probably wrong), and the Dreamcast has a modem that finally made its debut with NFL2K, that the consoles are trying harder and harder to actually become little PCs.
I mean, hell, look at the X-Box. It is a little PC. It has RAM. It has a name brand video card. It has a hard drive. It has an OS. It has upgradability.
I think the thing that seperates consoles from PCs is the fact that there are no drivers. There are no bug patches, or updates. There are no mods. There is the CD (or cartridge, for you poor N64 users), and that's all you get. With NFL2K, you can use laggy-ass servers to play a half-ass game of football that you'd be better off playing on a PC anyway.
I think it would be nice to believe that consoles serve a purpose, and they should only do that purpose--to have fun. You plug it in, turn it on, and it works. But when you utter the absolute tightening-tech-support-asshole words of upgradability and Operating Systems in the same sentence as consoles, your only going to have problems. Those wonderful seven year olds out there are going to want a new hard drive for their X-Box so they can play Pokemon 2200: It's Not Over Yet, and more ram or a new video card so they can watch Tony Hawk do another sweet move off the half pipe.
When you get into upgradability, it gets dangerous. When you get into connectability, it gets dangerous. When you try to be something your not, normally you're just going to fuck it right up.
...What Microsoft does with the local universities in Seattle?
"Today class, our good friend Mr. Gates has given us some of the Windows 98 SE kernel to use as an example. We're to modify this fine example of coding and add some new features to it."
(A horrifying silence ensues)
(After a long two minutes, one of the students, Craig, raises his hand.)
"Yes, Craig?"
(Craig clears his throat, and tries to speak as slowly and clearly as possible)
"Sir, um, did we do something wrong to deserve this?"
Voting is serious business, and deliberately rigging an election is a crime in the same vein (although not as severe) as treason, in my view.
Whoa. That sounds pretty harsh.
It's really too bad that over half of the electorial votes (you know, those things you need to actually become president) are given out.
Translation: All the votes on the planet couldn't change the fact that either Al Gore or Bush is going to win. Nader doesn't have a chance in hell, neither do Brown, Buchannen or whoever else thinks they have a shot.
People bitch about us not voting (and the fact that we're proud of it), but they never ask why.
So, why, you ask? Because it wouldn't make a difference.
It's obvious that the reason for such a close race between Bush and Gore is the fact that their ideas are practically the same. There are no more republicans or democrats. We have the same stiff-backed politicians trying to sound smart and caring while all they want is the office. The title. The prestige.
They want to save our children. That's the big issue. The 'values' of America. And we have to uphold them! Of course we do!
What white elderly millionare is going to save us for the next four years?
Gore and Lieberman don't know anything but censorship.
Bush is an idiot.
Do I care? Why should I? The electorial votes are already halfway given out. That means that if everyone in this country voted for Ralph Nader, he still wouldn't get the office. There aren't enough electorial votes left to let him come close.
I don't vote because I don't have a choice. I'm either fucked or really fucked, depending on your standpoint.
It's a fact: as much as I like the Nader (Green) Party, they're not going to win.
They simply can't.
As harsh as this realism is, it is reality. Either Bush or Gore is going to win, and we're going to be stuck with em.
If I vote for the Green party, and the Green party loses (which it will), what difference have I made? I just threw away my vote, becuase Joe Sixpack has never heard anything about or from Ralph Nader, only what ABC News or whoever have fed them.
What elderly white millionare is going to save us for the next four years?
Slashdot Mirror
Note: IANAL
My friend owns a video store and has told me, at length, the sales he has lost due to this stupid law that the Tennessee legislature passed years ago. In a nutshell, it prevents the sell and/or rental of videogames marked "M for Mature" on them to minors. If you are reported to have sold/rented these titles to minors, a fine will be enforced and if multiple offenses are reported, thousands of dollars in fines and jailtime will ensue. Note, this law also covers R rated films.
Thankfully I turned 18 a year or two before this law was passed (I'm 21 now), but don't let the vague, and admittedly stupid, argument from the article fool you: this has a real chance at passing and becoming law for the entire nation. Basically, senators/congressmen will say "Look, this state and this state have this law and it works, why not pass it everywhere?" Sad but true.
...even Shakespeare was just popular entertainment. Only much later they have been canonized as "high culture".
So, does this mean that in a few thousand years:
Freddie Prinze Jr. will be hailed as one of the greatest actors who ever lived?
Stephen King will go down in history as one of the literary greats? (*cough*RoseMadder*cough*)
or...
perhaps...
Bill Gates will forever be referred to as "The Evil One"?
We can only wait and see.
And it wouldn't have taken up that much space on the current disc, so I'm surprised it's in an R2 edit but not R1
A few things:
First, the Canadian release is nowhere near the picture and sound quality of the US release.
Second, watching Memento in chronological order is an unbelievably boring and predictable experience. It's brilliant backwards, but it's also a very simple story: it had to be, or no one could follow it.
Lastly, a 2-disc special edition, with director's commentary and other goodies, is on it's way May 21st. Check out the cover art here, and go to the digital bits for more info. I don't think it has the chronological order option, but it might be on there as an easter egg (for those desperate and/or bored enough to watch it that way).
"[The orcs] have never really been that important to the [Warcraft] series anyway. We could've had the night elves in Warcraft II instead, and it totally would've been the same."
Anything that lame and in "totally-like-valley-girl speak" has to be made up.
In synopsis, the technology is called "Anamorphic pan&scan," it does precisely what you're bitching about: it encodes screen placement for the DVD for those with the 4:3 option set on their DVD players. Currently it is only seen on some Columbia/Tristar releases, but if it got the recognition it deserved we wouldn't have the MGM debacle where the extras are one side of the disc and the widescreen/pan&scan version of the film is on the other.
Also, since those links I posted above are slashdotted to hell, make sure you check some of these links for information:
The Digital Bits
DVD Angle
DVD @ IGN
It's big. It's brawny. It's darker, it's scarier, it's downright vicious compared to the kicked dog that is now the original "Blade."
Sure the names are simple and the action is over-energetic. This is a living comic book folks, and anybody who's ever read a comic book will easily see the connection. We have the "cool" shots of him putting on his sunglasses, the "slow-mo-coming-out-of-the-water-with-big-guns" shot, etc. The framing is specific and easy to follow. The story for "Blade 2," like any well-plotted comic book, is driven by action. Unlike other superhero films (*cough*TombRaider*cough*) that rely on "stopping points" to explain plot, "Blade 2" just throws it all at you and expects you to keep up. The new Reapers are easily the most frightening thing I've seen on the big screen in the past few years, I don't know about you.
The plot of course is that Blade helps the vampires destroy the vampire-eaters. But, and this is going to sound a bit strange, it still manages to convey the importance of loyalty, tells a love story, and captures betrayal in a non-cringing and original way. This is especially important for a film such as this, where such melodrama is encouraged, but normally goes too far to remain serious. And now that we've moved past the "origin story" film, scribe David Goyas finally breathes life into a character who desperately needs it.
And you have to give a hand to director Guillermo Del Toro. Look at a few of his past few films: The first brilliant 1/2 hour of "Mimic" and the exceptional ghost story "The Devil's Backbone". Del Toro takes a gritty sense of realism and blends it with a stylish take that the original "Blade" was painfully missing. The editing is the true defintion of "The Fast and the Furious," with jump-jump cuts and brutal slow-down that was tried in "Moulin Rouge" but is brought to perfection here.
Let's face it folks, it's a popcorn film. It's meant to be seen with friends so they, just like yourself, can spout Blade's one-liners for the next few weeks and groan in unison at the most gruesome spots.
Del Toro's amazing direction and Goyer's much-better-than-the-first-Blade script make this a solid hit. See it loud and proud on the big screen in a dark room with strangers. This one's a true crowd pleaser.
Evan (blog); I write for here and here.
Here ya go.
If you don't have the DiVX 5 codec, Get that here.
Have fun.
First, DVD fans shouldn't be the least bit worried.
Secondly you can find the release in full here.
This new VHS has the potential to hold up to 28Mbps (Megabits per second) of High Definition signal. This surpasses the defacto standard of 18Mbps, and that's certainly a good thing. The main difference between these tapes and DVD is that yes, even though DVD is great, it can't do high definition. It just takes up too much space. So in that regard, these D-VHS tapes have the one-up.
However, D-VHS (they're going to market it as D-Theater) will still need to be rewound. You still won't be able to have commentaries. You still won't be able to have multiple angles, seamless branching, or menus.
They will still wear out over time.
While I'm positive they will be gorgeous when they are debuted tomorrow for the press, the fact remains that tapes are tapes and by definition they disintigrate over the years.
The real question is that there have been at least half a dozen High Definition DVD formats proposed and yet no one will stand behind them. Of course JVC did invent VHS to start with and that's a good point, but this Beta-like (or 8-track like if you prefer) alternative to a digital medium already has its days numbered with very (VERY) few players, all priced just below $2000 and the fact that consumers will be confused yet again by even more techno mumbo-jumbo.
Lastly, I think the fact that even though the first few movies will be your basic blockbusters (The first two Terminators, U-571, X-Men, Independence Day, et al), I'm glad to see that Warner Bros (who coincidentally were the first to back DVD) and Columbia TriStar aren't getting in this race.
He commented that the pirated versions of the movies play just fine.
Why? Because they're region free as well. I'd bet my bottom dollar that he probably has an early Apex player. Those (as well as a few others) had the ability to turn region coding on and off at will (you can change it in the Setup menu).
The catch came when RCE (Region Coding Enhancement) became the norm a few years ago. I remember clearly that one of the first titles to utilize this feature was The Patriot (let's take note that Final Fantasy was released by the same company, Columbia TriStar). If you player didn't specifically state it was region 1 hardware-wise, it wouldn't play the DVD.
You know what the real irony of this is? Is that if you change your Apex player (or whatever brand, mind you) back to Region 1, you could fix the problem and play the DVD.
Then I said, and this really surprised myself: "I would like to be a DVD/CD pirate. No, not to make lots of money, but it seems like the right thing to do."
Christ, what kind of ego-driven self-serving comment is that? Yeah, you wouldn't make money off of it, you'd just do it out of the kindness of your heart. It's comments like these that tell not only your age, but your maturity.
Instead of paying the studios and filmmakers for their work you'd rather rip them off. If actors/directors/writers/etc don't sell units, don't sell tickets, don't move these products, they're out of jobs. So please excuse me if I don't jump on the soapbox and proclaim that stealing is somehow beneficial to the artist(s).
What sort of idiots would allow a situation where someone can buy a player legitimately, buy some media legitimately, and not be able to use it? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
Here's a question: what kinds of DVD idiots are
a) too dumb to turn the player back to its proper region (which will fix the problem)
b) buying pirated versions in the first place?
You can yell from the mountaintops how great it is to steal from people but the fact remains: there are plenty of folks who live off those DVD dollars. Movies aren't released around the world simultaneously (albeit a few of the bigger blockbusters), so sometimes a Region 1 DVD will appear in the states before it's even in theaters across the Atlantic/Pacific.
Example: Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back won't be released in Australian theaters until March. The Region 1 DVD comes out in February. Now if all those Australians get pirated copies of that great (and hilarious) film, who gets paid and who gets the shaft? Kevin Smith and his cronies for their hard work and great talent, or a money-grubbing hack who wants to earn a buck and cry "Free speech!" everytime someone accuses him of stealing?
People can complain about region coding all they want, but the solid evidence supporting the practice is right here.
LOTR is a visionary masterpiece. Every frame could be frozen and framed and look great on any wall of mine. There is no question that the camera work is simply revolutionary, from the vertigo-enducing dives to the slow pans across the vast landscapes.
It is however, a very Cliff Notes friendly version of the plot. I'll take two instances here, and let you decide the rest.
1) Bill the horse. One of my favorite characters from the book is undoubtedly cut to shreds by the film. I don't know why they even bothered including the five-second scene of Sam and Bill. Maybe simple nostalgia from Jackson and possibly trying to give Sam some type of emotional grounding since his only other character scene was dancing with Lucy in the first moments in Hobbiton.
2) The Aragorn/Arwen romance. I have no problems whatsoever with this type of story manipulation, and I am glad that Arwen got such a prominent role in the film (and undoubtedly in the next two as well). But this romance is forced, with the simple gestures and "remember how we met" dialogue not enough emotional foundation to give them the effect that is needed.
These are just two examples, there are plenty more. The word is that Peter Jackson's first cut of the film was 3 hours 30 minutes. It's possible that New Line, scared enough that it was over 3 hours, didn't want to risk such a long cut since the longer it is the fewer showings the film can have. So 30 minutes of character development probably went right out the window.
Must I point out that Titanic, a great flick (despite all you naysayers), is 3 hours 20 minutes, has solid character development, "legs" like you wouldn't believe (ie, stayed on the charts for more than 3 months), and grossed more than any film in history. The hobbits are dreadfully bland, Legolas (especially) and Gimili are bystanders at best. Boromir is given one scene where he describes Gondor as his character moment, with most of the screen time given to the leads. Gandalf is represented best, which is why his (SPOILER WARNING) demise (SPOILER END) is so powerful. I loved the after-Moria sequence, though it was easily apparent that the on-the-rocks scene where Boromir is teaching Merry and Pippin how to sword fight was cut down to shreds, when it really shouldn't have been--after such a huge setpiece, a character-driven segment would've been welcomed.
It wasn't until I saw the film the second time that all of this occurred to me. Having re-read the books this summer to get a feel for them, I knew all the characters and took all of the shortcuts for granted. Though one can still enjoy the film as it is constructed (hell, even my girlfriend liked it), when you read the books the events are much more effecting, bringing to life all of those superb moments you once built in your imagination.
The plot goes as such: a little story, a big action sequence, a little story, a big action sequence, etc. Repeat ad nauseum.
Let's just hope that judging by the immense reaction, both from fans and critics--a rare event indeed, that New Line will give Jackson more leeway with The Two Towers and Return of the King and let him include some truly meaningful character moments.
And damn I can't wait for the LOTR:FOTR Director's Cut!
...what today's date is.
911...(9/11/01)
I thought I would share that the missing 24 seconds, if you weren't aware, are from Castle Anthrax, ("I can face the peril!") featuring a few quick cuts of girls doing generally bad things that you wouldn't discuss over a cup of tea with your grandmother.
Anyway.
One other story I'd like to share is from the Criterion Collection's laserdisc release of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. A fabulous edition that you can now, thanks to the death of laserdisc, get super cheap on ebay (I found it for less than $20, including shipping). On it is a fantastic commentary with Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones. Here is a comment from Terry Gilliam on the first American screening. I'm paraphrasing here, but the gist is the same:
"On our first screening, in New York, I couldn't believe the response. People were lined up around the block. I was nervous as hell, not believing what I was seeing. Saturday Night Live had yet to hit TV's across the country, and sketch comedy was generally something thought as avant garde at the time. After the screening, a couple came up to me and told me how much they respected Monty Python and loved my work. I thanked them and told them I appreciated the support.
The two were Gilda Radner and John Belushi."
- Terry Gilliam
Finally, he's on his own. He did it right. He made the movie he's wanted to make, and he did a good job with it.
Is Blow perfect? Nope, it gets into a groove and slips out of it too easily, like a faulty transmission. But it's important to note how GREAT the groove is that he carries in the 2nd act of this movie. From around the thirty minute mark up until Penelope Cruz shows up, this movie is absolute classic drug cinema (what's really scary is you could have a couple hundred movies in that catagory).
Johnny Depp, Mr. 21 Jump Street himself, proves yet again what a fantastic actor he is, and I hope he gets accolades from this performance. He IS George Jung, and the heartbreaking final act of this movie really got me.
Other truly notable performances come from one of Jung's parents, the amazing Ray Liotta, who gives the film a sense of 'Goodfellas' that the movie can't help but be compared to. A drug movie that spans a persons life, from the great times to the busts and the backstabbings. Paul Reubens also does a great job as Derek Foreal, the Californian connection.
I for one highly recommend this movie. For no other reason than to enjoy the greatness of the 2nd act and the heartbreaking finale. A few over-the-top performances (Cruz, in particular) try to weigh the movie down but Depp holds it together, along with Demme's great direction. One of the best movies to come along all year.
My rating: 7.5 out of 10
I can't believe no one's stumbled on this yet. Of course they can be rented. You know how they're gonna do it? An affiliation with the major rental chains (*cough* Blockbuster *cough*) will let those serials be used--and Sony will get a cut from each rental.
This is the same formula used in Video Stores across the country with movie studios. You get say 30 copies of Meet the Parents on VHS. You don't pay the $70 bucks a wack for them, as you normally would, instead you simply pay $20--but, Universal gets their cut. A video renting program must be installed and used on your computer that keeps track of when each tape was rented, therefore detailing the amount that has to be reimbursed to the studio (it communicates with a host via modem at the end of each day). After so many weeks, when the title isn't as hot and you have all these copies sitting around not doing anything, you send the unused ones back. But, those that are left on your shelves still cost you, but now only a lesser fee for each time they're rented.
The video game scheme would work the same way, with everyone getting their cut.
Never deny the power of profit.
This went on for a good 6-8 months. We became the pseudo-boy/girlfriend even though we were fifteen hundred miles from one another.
Over time, you realize how close and dependant you get to certain people, especially in online relationships. And since you don't have to go through the butterflies or nervousness that comes with meeting people in real life, the anonymous exotic world of IRC (among other utilities) gets you past the horrid beginnings and right into the good stuff--getting to know the person for who they really are.
Sometimes, it backfires. Mine didn't...much.
We met that September (of 97). She flew to see me. We had a great time the week she was here, but...when it was time for her to go home, it simply tore my heart out--I'm sure those who've been through this sort of thing know what I mean. So, after she went home, a month went by and the phone bill skyrocketed from our constant calls and the plain ole missing of one another.
After many calls and discussions, me and her finally agreed to end it.
Of course, she didn't tell me at the time she was gay.
Nope, didn't mention it at all.
Damnit.
First of all, if your credit report looks like someone wiped their ass with it, ie, someone with five pages of past dues, overdraws, and collections, nine times outta ten you ain't gettin the loan. It's simple economics. You can stand on a soap box and say that it's private information, but when your talking money, it turns into another issue. Especially when it's not your money to start with.
I know we'd all like to forget those times when we forgot a credit card payment or we let a bill or two go astray. But that's not the banks fault. They're simply covering their ass, so to speak. You can't expect a lending institution anywhere to simply try to forget that you let your payments go to collections and your loans foreclose then say, "Well, we knew you had to buy groceries, so it's okay."
If you can't afford a loan, don't get one. It's as simple as that. If you can't afford a credit card, don't get one. Rinse, Wash, Repeat. It's not anyone's responsibility but yourself to keep track of your bills, and you can't just be forgiven for them overnight.
But there is a flipside. If you've shown improvement over the last long while--and I'm talking years here--then even five pages of bad credit could still get you a loan. But you have to be willing to pay off what you owe, or be making headway doing so.
Credit Bureaus weren't made so banks could nose in on your business. They were made because banks were tired of getting ripped off.
Of course, I don't have to add (but I will) that politics are everything and if you know the loan officer at your local bank then you're probably more likely to get the loan. I hate to put it that way, but it's true. Just ask the girls with the big breasts and how much trouble they have getting their car fixed.
Evan
misterorange.com
I used an American film/director simply for points of reference. I think you forget the fact that there are different distributors for the domestic and worldwide releases of films.
Let's take for example the highly acclaimed film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Called Best Picture by lots of folks, this film wouldn't be seen by anyone if Sony Pictures Classics (God bless em) didn't buy the rights to distribute it. If me and you don't got to the theaters and actually SEE this movie, it could be lost forever without distrobution.
But how? You ask. Simply put, you can sink three to four million dollars in a movie and no one other than the folks at film festivals will see it. Nobody. Zilch, zip, nada. People like Sony Pictures Classics, Miramax, Paramount Pictures Classic (which just began), Artisan, and others try to find films you've never heard of, by people you've never heard of, foreign or domestic, and let you see them.
It takes millions of dollars to distribute a film. You have advertising, marketing, interviews, premiers, all kinds of things you and I never think of. Your average movie has to make back three times its budget for it to make a dime in the black. This, simply, is why everyone laughed at James Cameron for making Titanic for 300 million. It'd have to make a fortune for it to earn anything. But guess what. 20th Century Fox believed in him enough to stake a good chunk of the company on its success. It is now the highest grosser of all time. Figures, huh.
Ever heard a little picture called The Blair Witch Project? Perfectly conceived, marketed, and the highest budget-to-gross film ever made period. Artisan bought the rights for a million dollars. It made over a hundred and thirty million. And to think, everyone laughed at them for buying it at Sundance.
Not every film or filmmaker gets his shot, and going to the theater is one of those chances he gets. While he (or she) may make money from the video, its the theaters that count. Asses in seats are what the studios want, and direct-to-video is a hard road for any filmmaker to 'make it big'.
I'll tell you precisely who has the right: The Studios.
Yes, these wonderful, friendly folks who bring you hours of entertainment a year are the ones who created and support Region Coding.
And as for the comments on the lack of a ban for VHS: We seem to have forgotten there is Rental Pricing, which has been going on for years and years now. Rental Pricing was basically the embryotic version of Region Coding, where they (ie, The Studios) could finally put a stranglehold on things.
The government is doing nothing the Studios are 100% behind. It's not uncommon, or unexpected, or any different than it has always been.
Is it right? Depends.
Is it business? Absolutely.
A Gasp! is heard through the crowd.
But why? You ask. Well, I'll tell you. For one, movies don't come out at the same time all over the world. While we Americans love to think the world revolves around us (and there are many who'll never think otherwise), that's just not the case. While a DVD may come out over here for What Lies Beneath this January, it just opened in Italy. So you wonder, why would the Italians bother seeing it at all if they could get the DVD in a few weeks?
I'm all for supporting the filmmakers I like, love and respect. I would be happy to give my money towards Ridley Scott's efforts, or Paul Thomas Anderson's, or Darren Aranofsky's, and theatrical runs are what fuel the fire for them to get financing so they can (hopefully) make better movies. Of course it's all about money, and the fact that studios don't have all the legalese worked out for distrobution by the time it hits American audiences. But the point still remains that a filmmakers efforts are (normally) judged by either:
a) How much the film makes at the theaters, or
b) How many awards it takes.
You have to have one or the other, and hopefully both. American Beauty wasn't racing up the box office until it won Best Picture, Actor, Director, Cinematography and Screenplay. After that, Dreamworks Re-released it (for the third time) and it made its way over 100 million. Sometimes the best films get looked over, and believe it or not, Region Coding can actually help films from becoming that way.
It's still business, I'll freely admit, but it's also a question of loyalty and how far you'll go (all the way to the theater) to support the directors/actors/writers you like.
It's the death of the console system as we know it (and I feel fine, yeah, insert REM song here).
The point is, every console out today has some sort of "extra ports" on them to be able to connect to other people--something PCs have had for ages, and the console makers are finally waking up to the fact that "Hey, them gamers like to play with each other! Hu-yuk" I guess it goes without saying that the fact that the PS2 has two USB ports and a modem jack (I'm assuming it's a modem jack, I'm probably wrong), and the Dreamcast has a modem that finally made its debut with NFL2K, that the consoles are trying harder and harder to actually become little PCs.
I mean, hell, look at the X-Box. It is a little PC. It has RAM. It has a name brand video card. It has a hard drive. It has an OS. It has upgradability.
I think the thing that seperates consoles from PCs is the fact that there are no drivers. There are no bug patches, or updates. There are no mods. There is the CD (or cartridge, for you poor N64 users), and that's all you get. With NFL2K, you can use laggy-ass servers to play a half-ass game of football that you'd be better off playing on a PC anyway.
I think it would be nice to believe that consoles serve a purpose, and they should only do that purpose--to have fun. You plug it in, turn it on, and it works. But when you utter the absolute tightening-tech-support-asshole words of upgradability and Operating Systems in the same sentence as consoles, your only going to have problems. Those wonderful seven year olds out there are going to want a new hard drive for their X-Box so they can play Pokemon 2200: It's Not Over Yet, and more ram or a new video card so they can watch Tony Hawk do another sweet move off the half pipe.
When you get into upgradability, it gets dangerous. When you get into connectability, it gets dangerous. When you try to be something your not, normally you're just going to fuck it right up.
Now we'll just watch and see it happen.
"Today class, our good friend Mr. Gates has given us some of the Windows 98 SE kernel to use as an example. We're to modify this fine example of coding and add some new features to it."
(A horrifying silence ensues)
(After a long two minutes, one of the students, Craig, raises his hand.)
"Yes, Craig?"
(Craig clears his throat, and tries to speak as slowly and clearly as possible)
"Sir, um, did we do something wrong to deserve this?"
You'll ask them, "Why?"
They'll answer: "Because we say so."
*sigh*
Evan
misterorange.com
Whoa. That sounds pretty harsh.
It's really too bad that over half of the electorial votes (you know, those things you need to actually become president) are given out.
Translation: All the votes on the planet couldn't change the fact that either Al Gore or Bush is going to win. Nader doesn't have a chance in hell, neither do Brown, Buchannen or whoever else thinks they have a shot.
People bitch about us not voting (and the fact that we're proud of it), but they never ask why.
So, why, you ask? Because it wouldn't make a difference.
They want to save our children. That's the big issue. The 'values' of America. And we have to uphold them! Of course we do!
What white elderly millionare is going to save us for the next four years?
Gore and Lieberman don't know anything but censorship.
Bush is an idiot.
Do I care? Why should I? The electorial votes are already halfway given out. That means that if everyone in this country voted for Ralph Nader, he still wouldn't get the office. There aren't enough electorial votes left to let him come close.
I don't vote because I don't have a choice. I'm either fucked or really fucked, depending on your standpoint.
Obi
misterorange.com
They simply can't.
As harsh as this realism is, it is reality. Either Bush or Gore is going to win, and we're going to be stuck with em.
If I vote for the Green party, and the Green party loses (which it will), what difference have I made? I just threw away my vote, becuase Joe Sixpack has never heard anything about or from Ralph Nader, only what ABC News or whoever have fed them.
What elderly white millionare is going to save us for the next four years?
Evan
misterorange.com