Me Mini Movie Reviews - Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift

Here’s a quick review – it was ok. However, for a movie about fast cars being driven…um, furiously, there was a lack of car action. There are basically 3 worthwhile car race sequences: one at the beginning, one in the middle, and one at the end. The one at the beginning was good, and the middle one was the best of the three, but the last one was a letdown. The quick edit technique was overdone in that one, and as a viewer I didn’t really feel like there was anything at stake. There was CGI used for the races, and while some of it wasn’t bad, there were a few spots that were remarkably obvious. The characters and plot are nothing to right home about, and the back of the DVD case will probably pretty much cover it. Basically a 'strike three' California teen gets sent to Japan to live with his father instead of to jail. There he gets involved with the Yakuza and tries to drift. Things happen to people, and he decides to step up and take resposiblility. That's about it. Lucas Black, the lead, has a southern accent that gets hard to listen to after a while. He’s serviceable in the role, but he’s no Vin Diesel. The first F&F was somehow a decent and entertaining flick. The second was over the top, but fun in its stupidity. This third one tries to be both a car action movie with a serious ‘rebel takes responsibility’ story and doesn’t quite do either well. The best part of the movie comes at the very, very end. I won’t spoil it here, but put it this way – as the cars peel out and then the credits roll, I’m sitting there thinking that’s a race and story I wouldn’t mind watching where it went. Too bad the movie didn’t start there. Verdict: Don't Bother. Find the last 30 seconds on the web somewhere, and you're good...

The Write Stuff...

It's that time of year again. The NanoWrimo thing. Write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Um, ok... I've signed up this year, and you can view my page here in Flash, or here in non-Flash. I know going in I won't make 50 grand word count. But I'd be really, really happy to kick out a 20-25,000 jump on a story. Even that seems ludicrous with other stuff going on, but oh well, why not. Not sure yet what story I'm going to do. And with 2 days left, that doesn't bode well :) It's not for a lack of story ideas, but more a lack of a linear plot to one...we'll see what happens...

It Has Begun...

YouTube Is Purging Copyrighted Clips - New York Times Say goodbye to YouTube. Just like everyone thought would happen, Google is purging videos off of YouTube enmasse to comply with copyright complainers. Everyone knew this would happen once YouTube was backed by someone with money to sue. How predictable, and how lame. Especially since Comedy Central clips seem to be among those targeted as a "result of a third party notification by Comedy Central." I wish I would have saved more Daily Show clips. This is stupid too, because the majority of the audience for Comedy Central programming is in the same YouTube demographic. Once again, the studio bigwigs just don't get it. Not only all that, but YouTube has pulled a Blogger tonight too. I was looking at videos, when it just suddenly slowed to a crawl and then became useless. Just like Google's Blogger, Google's YouTube looks like it is now going to be a very unreliable service. They shouldn't call it YouTube anymore. They should call it DoomedTube. Edit: After a couple hours, YouTube seems to be back up. And there are still Daily Show clips with Jon Stewart, but there seems to be less of the interview segments. Weird. I still think it's going the way of the Dodo bird, so save what you like...

Easy Does It...

Yep, it's snowing outside...in October...wind is showing what it's got too...evergreen tree swaying in the rush of air...snowflakes against the streetlights...Miles Davis playing 'It Never Entered My Mind' coming through the speakers...hard week, hard month behind me...day off tomorrow... Not bad, not bad at all...

Type Something...But Where?

Blog posting’s a bit light lately…not much interesting movie news…hours at work keep going strong and cutting into my writing/surfing/movie watching habits…trying to get some interfering ‘life’ tasks done too…drawing a blank on writing other stuff… Been looking at other blogging services. Wordpress seems the most intriguing, and they supposedly even have a way of converting a Blogger account over along with the comments. I might have to try it. I’d like to use tags and avatars and the like…have better control over my sidebars, and better control period. Blogger is temperamental at the best of times, so maybe a change is in the works. Or maybe not. I looked at LiveJournal, and maybe should take a look at Typepad too. LiveJournal is both interesting and confusing at the same time with their ‘community’ setup, but I like the way you can tag moods, music, and avatars together quickly. Not enough to make the jump over there though… I don’t want to lose what I’ve got, but I’d like to do more with what I have too. And not pay anything for it either. That’s important. :-)

Overlay This...

How to Capture Screenshots from Windows Media Player This is a good tip I thought I'd pass along. I was trying to capture screenshots of a video I was playing in Media Player and couldn't do it. I tried WinAmp with the same result. All I'd get was a screenshot of the video window but nothing of the actual video that was playing, just a black screen. Tried some different things, then hit the net to find out how to do it. Basically, this is how: So here is the free and simple way to capture Images from Windows Media Player Open Window Media Player Then go to Tools | Options In Options, select the Performance Tab Way below you click on the Advanced Button Uncheck “Use Overlays’ Click Ok And you are ready. What did we do before the internet to find an answer to fix a problem? Go to the library?

The Good German

Via FilmJunk, I found out about a new trailer that has hit the web for a movie called The Good German. It’s set in post WWII, and it’s a black and white murder mystery featuring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, and Tobey Maguire and directed by Steven Sodenberg. The trailer looks amazing, and I love movies set in the ‘40s era. Plus, they’ve made it in black and white, so it’s got a remarkable old school feel to it. Even if you can’t watch the trailer, take a look at Quicktime’s trailer site for it here. Nice graphics, with that old school classic poster feel to it. This opens wide November 22, and it just shot to the top of anticipated upcoming movies for me. You can download the Quicktime Large trailer here. You can download the Quicktime 480p HD trailer here.

Bad Santa, Bad DVD

Movie DVD for Bad Santa (Director's Cut) CinemaBlend reviews the new, triple dip, Bad Santa Director's Cut DVD at the above link, and I'm glad I read it. Bad Santa is one of my favorite "holiday" movies - and comedies. No, it is certainly NOT for kids, and it's not one of those schmaltzy 'it's the most wonderful time of the year' movies either. It's the perfect movie for the cynical, tired of the commercialism, kind of people. Plus, it's pretty funny. Now, I was wondering what they'd add to the Director's Cut DVD that wouldn't be on the Unrated version that I already have. Turns out, there's nothing added. In fact, there are scenes cut out of the movie. There is actually LESS movie on this disc than either the theatrical or unrated DVD's. That is just appalling for a triple dip. There aren't even any bonus extras not already available. What were they thinking with this effort? Plus, the cover doesn't even have a pic of Lauren Graham on it, who plays the Santa fixated bartender. Come on now, if you're going to stoop to shoddy tactics to triple dip money on DVD sales, at least put a good looking chick on the cover. That'll sell even more, right?

Jackman Says Wolverine Script is Ready

Jackman Says Wolverine Script is Ready - ComingSoon.net Well, this is good news in a way. It means they might actually be going about this in the right order, unlike X-Men 3. A couple shots from the link: "We've now signed off on the script. If you know about the history of 'X-Men' movies, that's a revolution for us. We're a year away from shooting the film and we have the script," Jackman said. "And, by the way, it is unbelievable. It's a David Benioff script." He added that Wolverine will definitely be a prequel but will not follow the Japanese storyline that comic books have addressed. "At present, no. That is still something we really want to do. What we need to do is establish who he is and find out how he became Wolverine," he explained. Jackman said he is also interested in making a sequel to Wolverine. "I'm not ruling it out," he smiled. Some of that is even more good news - as long as Zak Penn and Simon Kinberg have nothing to do with the script, it may have a shot. I just hope they got rid of the bit that was supposedly leaked around the 'net a little while back about Wolverine as a kid. It was set too modern and lost a lot of Wolverine's early storylines in the process. I really hope they get this one right, and am really interested in seeing who gets named as the director...

Tired...

Just recently finished up a 45 hour work week. That’s nothing for some people, but I haven’t done that in over a year. I used to pull more hours than that in a typical week, but then I had an epiphany and changed jobs and haven’t regretted it once since. There’s more to life than money, work, and stress – when was the last time you saw an epitaph that read “I wish I went to work more.”? Having said that though, sometimes you gotta test yourself every now and then and see if you still got it. I still got it.

Some Strait Dissipation...

Just for kicks, I thought I’d post this up after a YouTube vid of a favorite George Strait song. How’s this for a weird dichotomy – I like George Strait and Evanescence. Figure that one out :) Of course, my music tastes run the gamut – except for classical or rap. Can’t stand those genres, but otherwise, if it’s a good song… This first vid is a live performance of Amy Lee and Seether on Broken – and yes, I know it’s not really an Evanescence song. However, it is one of my favorite songs ever since I heard it on The Punisher soundtrack. And yes, I liked that movie too. This second one actually is an Evanescence song – Everybody’s Fool. Cool video, and a good song. Along with Going Under and Broken, it’s good music if you gotta keep yourself awake and moving… I liked what I read somewhere along the lines of kudos to the band for getting people to use a dictionary to find out the meaning of the name of their favorite band – Evanescence. Which, by the way, means “To dissipate or disappear like vapor.”

A Strait Shot...

Here's one of my favorite George Strait songs - Baby's Gotten Good At Goodbye. It has one of the best opening lines of any song...a line I've said to myself on more than one occasion...

Keep The You, Lose The Tube...

Well, it was requested to explain how I save YouTube videos, so here goes. It’s fairly simple, but I may not explain it right, so good luck – I was never a good ‘teacher’ :) First, go to YouTube and find a video you like and play it. The red bar at the bottom of the vid shows when it has fully downloaded. Don’t transfer away from this page or load another video until you’ve ‘saved’ it. To do that, go to your Temporary Internet Files folder on your hard drive. If you use IE6 and Windows XP, it’ll be under your ‘Documents & Settings’ folder, under your user name folder, under the Local Settings folder, and then you’ll find the Temporary Internet Files folder. Sort this folder by “Date Checked” and look for a very recent file with the proper size (a 3 minute vid can be around 10 megs) with a name like “get_video?video_id=Idiox0-vdHag” or something like that. Just look for the “get_video” part of it. Copy and paste that file to another folder. When you copy it over, you’ll see a file named something like “get_video[1]”. RENAME this file to what you want to call it and add the extension “.flv” (for example, rename it to MyVideo.flv). You have now successfully saved the file. To watch it now, you’ll just need a FLV Player – a Flash video player. There are free ones out there around the web, but one I found that I liked can be found here thanks to martijndevisser.com. It’s a good little player. Now you can save and watch YouTube videos anytime you want. Or for that matter, most Macromedia Flash 8 video files you find on the web. It doesn’t always work, but it seems to click about 99% of the time. I have a whole folder filled with saved FLV files on my harddrive. In another post, I’ll have to explain how I convert these to MPG files. You lose quality, but they’re more usable…

Google + YouTube = ???

So Google has bought up YouTube. Lots of varied opinion on the move over the ‘net, but the one I happen to agree with is the “watch for the lawsuits to start flying now” camp. Now that there’s some money behind it, look for the copyright lawsuits to start coming out of the woodwork. YouTube was losing money before, so what was the point of suing them? Now there’s some cash to be had… YouTube was nice while it lasted. Now that Google has taken over, I don’t think we’ll see it continue in its current incarnation for a long time. I’ve been enjoying searching and watching all kinds of clips on there lately too. It’s even better than late night TV. I’ve found songs and performances that you can’t find anywhere, music videos that music stations no longer play, and fan made videos that have introduced me to some new music I wouldn’t have thought to listen to. Luckily, I figured out how to save all the videos that I find that I like, so even when they’re inevitably yanked, I can still watch them. It’ll be interesting to see what direction YouTube goes now that it’s backed by a mega corporation with some money muscle. Will they continue to make deals with media companies and get them to embrace the technology, or will it go the way of Napster?

Here and There...

I actually ate at McDonald’s the other week. Haven’t eaten there in a while, but the food was surprisingly decent. Tried their sandwiches – the ham and swiss – and it was really good. Better sandwich than Tim Horton’s too. McDonald’s fries still are some of the worst around, but ok if they’re hot. Lukewarm to cool is no good at all though. But what is with McDonald’s stinginess with the napkins? Usually you get one or two when you go through a drivethrough, but these guys were on some no napkin manifesto. Plus, they made sure to ask if I wanted salt or ketchup – those weren’t coming free either. The next time I went through, they didn’t even ask that. Six bucks for a ham and swiss sandwich meal and they can’t even throw in some ketchup and napkins? Is McDonalds that hard up? Anyone seen Nelly Furtado’s attempts at becoming a pop dance diva? Personally, I find the music annoying, but what caught my attention – and not in a good way – was when I saw her on Leno one night and thought those choreographed dance moves she was trying to do were some of the most awkward looking hip gyrations I’ve ever seen. Of course, that looks like poetry in motion compared to Beyonce’s seizure dancing that show’s up in her Déjà vu video. That just looks painful – for her and the viewer. Hey, there’s not much on at 3 in the morning. Much More Music videos has to pass as entertainment over infomercials… Oh, and by the way, I updated my sidebar and put some quick links there to movie reviews I’ve done. That way you don’t have to weed through McDonald’s rants to find what I thought of Copland…

Studio 60 - Worth a Watch...

Finally got to see an episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and quite enjoyed it. Usually I’m at work, so I might have to start recording this. Either that, or pick up the inevitable DVD. Had some pretty funny moments, and the quick dialogue was great. I thought I might wind up just seeing a version of Perry’s Chandler from Friends, but he actually pulled off another character. Unique to see that so fast after the end of Friends. Usually these sitcom stars can’t break free of the mold – see Seinfeld alumni. I liked Timothy Busfield as the cool headed director and Whitford, Peet, and the other cast members were firing right along well too, so this show might stick around. That’s one thing about new series. One, I work nights with no Tivo, so recording everything I would like to see would be a hassle. Two, most series get cancelled so fast it’s not worth the time to get into them. Unless a show has been on at least a year and renewed, what’s the point of investing in it? Thank goodness for DVD…

Me Mini Movie Reviews - Lucky Number Slevin

"It must be so great for the audience to think, 'Oh! The director doesn't think I'm the dumbest person in the world!'" - Sir Ben Kinglsey. That's a quote from Sir Ben in the 'making of' featurette on the Lucky Number Slevin disc. It's a good quote, and more or less applies to an excellent movie that is Slevin. At the beginning of the movie, we get a twenty year old story before jumping to now. Josh Hartnett plays Slevin who winds up with a string of bad luck and mistaken identity. The movie carries on from there with twists and turns all along the way. Morgan Freeman and Sir Ben Kingsley play the opposing mob bosses that both want a piece of Slevin and they play their roles with relish. Bruce Willis is a hit man who takes the jobs nobody wants. Lucy Liu plays the offbeat girl next door who basically just stumbles into the whole situation. She provides a lot of the lighter moments in the movie, and her and Hartnett play off each other well. This is what they would call a modern noir film, I'd suppose, and I really enjoyed it. I had wanted to see this in theatres back in March, but missed it as I do so many theatrical releases. I purposefully avoided any reviews or clips of it until I got to see it - especially after I heard they gave away one of the main plot twists in one of the secondary trailers. I'm glad I avoided any talk of it, as that's usually the best way to see a movie. However, I did figure out most of the plot twists early on (just have to pay attention), but it was still a pretty fun ride as you wait to see how it all sorts out. Hartnett certainly impressed in this role - he has an ability to go from cocky to dark and pull it off. Lucy Liu was a lot of fun to watch, and Bruce willis continues to show his acting ability in this and Sin City and 16 Blocks as more than just the Die Hard action hero we thought we knew. If you're a fan of noir, definately check it out. Or even if you're looking for something just a little different with murder and mayhem, a good story, and solid performances. Verdict: Recommended.

Detroit Rock City

YES! The Detroit Tigers beat the New York Yankees in the baseball playoffs. Detroit will go on to the ALCS while New York and its 200 million dollar payroll goes home. Gotta love that. Alex Rodriguez - baseball's highest paid player - went 1-14 in the series. Boy, 25 million a year just doesn't buy you as much as it used to, eh? Always like seeing the Yankess go down - especially to an underdog. Go Detroit!

Hockey!

Hockey is back! Always get excited this time of the year as the hockey season kicks off, albeit less so this year as I’m a little busy with other stuff. Almost makes me want to collect some hockey cards again, like back in the day. Almost. They’re just way too expensive now. Ah yes, the good old days – when you could get 16 cards in a pack for a buck. Now you’re lucky to get 6 cards for 5 bucks. I’m surprised the card collecting industry still exists. Anyway, hockey is back, players have changed teams in the salary cap era, and another season gets under way with no Canadian team having a shot at the cup. Kidding :) The only sure thing is that the Cup won’t wind up in Toronto. Going to be a long year for the Maple Laughs. Even with the 6-0 win tonight and Raycroft’s shutout, it’ll be a long one in Leaf land. I liked what the Vancouver Canucks did in the offseason though. Getting Roberto Luongo was a brilliant move. He’s the kind of goalie that can carry a team and win games on his own. The Canucks might just do what the Oilers and Flames did the last two years. Oh, and those Buffalo Sabres uniforms will take some getting used to. Not as good as the blue ones I knew from when I collected cards as a kid, but a bit of an improvement over the red and black ones they have been using. Still, the light uniforms are too close to Pittsburgh’s colors, and the dark ones look like a NCAA football team, not an NHL team for some reason. Oh well, I’m sure they’ll change again in a year or two. Anyway, on with the games. Let’s hope a team in an actual hockey town gets the Cup this year…

Trailers! Get Yer Trailers!

Some new trailers have hit the net…links at the end of the post… First off, the most anticipated – the official trailer for the movie 300 is up on Apple Quicktime. And oh yeah, it looks good in high def. My computer can only play up to the 480p version, but it’s great. Ironically though, it’s not as good as the leaked Flash trailer that hit the web a week or two ago and then quickly disappeared. I managed to save a copy of that one, and it’s actually better – more dynamic. Either one is good though, and I am totally stoked to see this movie… Also up on the web, via CinemaBlend, is a new trailer for Nic Cage’s movie, Ghost Rider. I like it myself, although I have to agree with CinemaBlend that it’s the least horrible trailer yet that we’ve seen. I guess the extra time they’re putting into the FX on the movie is paying off. Cage looks rather old and haggard for some reason though. I don’t know if that’s how he looks these days or if it’s just for the movie, but it actually works for the character. The trailer for Blood Diamond is up at Quicktime now too. DiCaprio as a British jewel thief takes a little getting used to, but this also looks like quite an intriguing tale of intense drama and action. Watching the trailer though, I think this will be worth seeing on the big screen just for the cinematography of the African landscapes alone. And while we’re at it…I watched that full trailer for Casino Royale again and it does kick ass. It’s going to be a great flick, and good ‘reboot’ for the Bond franchise. I still think the trailer gives too much away, but it’s fun to watch. The best part about it is the black and white opening. Gives it a noir feel and an extra edge. You can download the 480p HD trailer for 300 here. You can download the normal QT trailer for Ghost Rider here. You can download the 480p HD trailer for Blood Diamond here. You can download the normal QT trailer for Casino Royale here.

Clueless Mass Public?

Well, this is disappointing. Not enough people are reading my blog, apparently. :-) The X-Men barebones DVD that hit stores on Tuesday is selling like hotcakes and outperforming even Fox's high expectations. It's got the biggest October DVD debut ever. That's just sad. Either Joe Q. Public doesn't care that's he's getting fleeced or just hasn't clued in, although at this point of abuse from studio's DVD releases, you'd think everyone would know by now that double and triple dipping is going to happen. The only way to stop it is to stop buying the barebones ripoff DVD's that they push. Doesn't look like that is going to happen anytime soon though...

The Undateables

The Undateables: Weekend - Yahoo! Interesting article here about online dating sites. I haven't used them, nor plan to, so I can't offer any opinion of them other than conjecture. However, after reading this, it would seem they pretty much devolve into a popularity contest crapshoot with people who don't even know you rating you and affecting your 'score'. I don't know - something about people I haven't even met 'rating' me while I pay to get rejected so some invisible site running hucksters make a sweet dime off loneliness just doesn't appeal to me. That, and if I'm going to 'rate' somebody, I gotta be able to look 'em in the eyes. Guess I'm just old school that way...

A Good Movie In There Somewhere...

Ok, now that we know the Tuesday DVD will be a ripoff, what about the movie and the special features? The lists of deleted scenes has hit the ‘net, and in regards to a previous post I put up about Logan conducting lightning to take out Juggernaut, I was NOT losing my mind. That was never in the theatrical version. It’s an extended scene on the DVD. Why they cut it, I have no idea. It makes for a much more coherent scene. IGN.com has some of the alternate scenes up, and you can download that clip here. Also, one of the alternate endings is cooler and much better fit to what we saw. It has Logan back in Canada at the same bar as we first saw him in X-Men 1. The same bartender is there and it’s a good little scene. Wish they had used this instead of the out of place, smiling Wolverine walking out onto the mansion deck scene they had in the movie. You can download the bar clip here. Here’s a rundown on the deleted scenes provided by someone on a forum I forgot to grab a link for: US DVD will have 10 deleted scenes and 3 alternate endings set up like this: 1. Xavier voice-over for main titles 2. Jimmy in Laboratory 3. Alternate version: Beast meets Logan 4. Pyro tells Magneto about the cure announcement - clean shaven version 5. Pyro tells Magneto about the cure announcement - bearded version 6. Alternate version: Guard yells at the President 7. Extended fight sequence at Jean Grey's house 8. Alternate version: Here's Juggy 9. Magneto tortures Logan 10. Extended Dark Phoenix destruction 11. Alternate version: Rogue returns 12. Alternate ending: New School Year begins 13. Alternate ending: Logan returns to Alberta, Canada And the DVDs in other regions should have these in addition to the above. 1. "Psychic Battle" - Voices 2. Alternate Version: Bobby & Kitty Skate 3. Original Version: Jean displays her power at the encampment 4. Plastic Weapons manufacturing 5. Hank warns Trask of Magneto’s plan 6. Original Version: X-Men Board the Jet 7. Jean senses a scared little girl 8. Magneto asks Jean to help in the battle 9. Storm creates a wave 10. Beast breaks a neck 11. Bobby freezes Phat That’s an impressive list of cut scenes. This movie could have easily been longer, and much more satisfying than what we got in theatres. Looking at that list and some of the clips already on the ‘net, it appears that the original version was a much darker, grittier story than what they eventually edited and toned down for the theatrical release – and that’s a shame. I had a feeling when I was watching the movie that there was a much better version on the cutting room floor. Looks like I was right. Can’t wait for some fans to get their hands on all the deleted scenes and put together a proper version of this movie. The only other thing we can hope for is that Fox eventually puts out an unrated, extended version of X3 much like they did with Mr. And Mrs. Smith. The extended version of that movie was much more coherent, and I think an extended version of X3 would have the same effect. Word on the ‘net from Ratner doesn’t look like we’ll get that though. So we’ll just have to make do with the deleted scenes, and imagine what could have been.

Fox X3 DVD = Ripoff!!!

Ok, here we go. This is a long-ass post about the X3 DVD coming on Tuesday, and the big time ripoff Fox is pulling off on its North American customer base. If you’re not interested in that, you can stop reading now :) We already know that Tuesday’s release is a barebones edition leading to a double dip. Ratner has already confirmed this. We just don’t know when that edition will hit stores. Well, I did some net searching today, initially intending to check out the differences in Future Shop, Best Buy, and Walmart’s “exclusive” promo offers on Tuesday. A couple hours on the internet later, and I have more X3 info than I knew existed. Thank goodness for fans and the internet. First of all, for those interested, Future Shop is offering a metal case with the ‘collector’s edition’ DVD purchase. Best Buy is offering all the issues of Ultimate X-Men comic books on a bonus CD with purchase. Walmart is reportedly offering a bonus DVD with 50 minutes of behind the scenes footage – although I can’t confirm if this is true in Canada or just the US. It’s probably just an edited down version of the soon to come Special Edition DVD. All 3 are really a waste of money, considering they’re just ways of hawking the barebones DVD to an unsuspecting mass public. I wasn’t planning on buying anything on Tuesday, as I’ll just wait for the Special Edition. Well, here’s the kicker. Region 3 in Asia is ALREADY GETTING THE SPECIAL EDITION! It’s already done and put together – here’s how it looks (you can buy it on Region 3 DVD’s at CDWOW) That’s a sweet looking set, and that’s what we should be having the option to buy on Tuesday. But no, Fox has to get greedy and try to pull double dip money from its North American customer base. I guess the message Fox is trying to send here is that the DVD pirating capital of the world – Asia – gets rewarded with the Special Edition while we’re supposed to pony up money for a sub par set. It almost makes me want to download the movie for free just for spite. Almost. Instead, I’m going to learn about making region free DVD players. It sounds like this will also be the case with Superman Returns Special Edition DVD. I think I read somewhere that Asia is going to get it 2 months ahead of North America. Apparently, this is the studio’s way of curbing the pirating thing. Give the area where the highest pirating is taking place the best edition of the DVD first. What about lowering costs instead? It’s almost as if they are asking North American consumers to go pirate the movie. Hey, if being the pirating leader gets you the special editions faster, then let’s get downloading!

No Drivel In Hoopeston

Cinema Owner Closes Over Jackass 2 This is interesting. The owner of Boardman's Lorraine Theatre in Hoopeston, Illinois, closed his movie house for 2 weeks rather than show Jackass 2 and other lame new releases he called "drivel". He opened again 2 weeks later with the football movie Invincible and the animated kids movie Open Season. He said it was a personal thing, not censorship or trying to send a message. Here's a quote: "The movies are so bad and I don't need the money ... I just didn't think I should use my high-quality facilities to show people vomiting on screen," said Boardman, whose theaters boast a high-tech, eight-channel digital sound system. I say kudos to him! I love watching movies, but the selection is so poor these days, and Jackass 2 just dropped the bar lower. Maybe if more owners took that route, people would find better things to do than waste money to watch "drivel." Just because it's at the theatre, doesn't mean it has to be watched.