CULTURE | The Magic 8 Ball

My wife has started a new blog called The Magic 8 Ball. It’s a simple concept, you post a question on her blog and she will ask the Magic 8 Ball on your behalf and post an answer.

The question I want to ask (but am to scared to do so) is: Does my wife have too much spare time?

DVD | Date Movie

Rating: M Contains Offensive Language & Sexual References.
Duration: 81 mins.
Genre: Comedy, Spoof.
Actors: Eddie Griffin, Alyson Hannigan, Jennifer Coolidge, Fred Willard, Carmen Electra, Tony Cox, Sophie Monk, Meera Simhan, Adam Campbell.
Release Date: Available Now.

First we had Scary Movie (and a number of sequels) and now we have Date Movie, a spoof of just about every modern romantic movie, utilising the same over-the-top formula.

Of course being a romantic comedy spoof, the crass sexual innuendos are everywhere, and the real laughs are few and far between.

The basic plot goes a little like this: Young female waitress dreams of being in love, meets the man of her dreams, but has to overcome every single clichéd obstacle in her way to be with her true love. Yadayadaayad, predictable as hell.

To be fair though, it’s not really my type of humour (in case you hadn’t already picked that up) and it does the crass humour genre rather well, so if you like the Scary Movie franchise or Meet The Parents type movies, you’ll probably love Date Movie.

If on the other hand you’re like me, and enjoy more subtle comedy, you’ll be finding your own fun through playing the guessing-the-movie-scene-that-they’re-ripping-off game.

Food for thought:
Is it worth going through hell, just to be with your true love?

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TECH | Apple Enters Console Market #2

Business Week further explores the possibility of Apple getting into the games industry by way of their upcoming iTV set-top box. Keep in mind the device lets users wireless stream downloaded iTunes content from desktop to TV using a hard drive. From the article:

"A plausible argument by Roughly Drafted's Daniel Eran has the iTV being held just long enough for Apple to introduce 802.11n, which would allow 200 Mbit connections to an access point, nearly 10 times the a/g variety and more than enough to stream DVD-quality content wirelessly from a Mac (and possibly a PC). That would help explain the inclusion of an HDMI connection on Apple's new device. As Eran points out, you don't need an HDMI connection if you are simply streaming downloadable 640X480 content."

In addition to fatter wireless bandwidth and possible HD support, the article examines a recent Apple filed handheld patent for "multiple touch-sensitive devices" (wireless controllers or souped-up iPods?) and Steve Jobs former involvement with Atari. You can take the man out of games, but you can't take games out of the man.

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NEWS | How Long is a Game?

Wired's Clive Thompson has a problem. Eidos promised 30 hours of gameplay in Tomb Raider: Legend, but he has played far longer than that, and has gotten nowhere near completion. It then gets relegated to his growing stack of unfinished games.

Gamers are aging and have more responsibility to work and to participate in family activities. As a result, those who can afford today's consoles have less time to play them.

With developers spending millions to bring you the newest next-gen gaming experience, how long should a game be?

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DVD | The Devil’s Rejects

Rating: R18 Contains Sadistic Violence, Sexual Themes & Offensive Language
Duration: 106 mins.
Genre: Horror.
Actors: Geoffrey Lewis, William Forsythe, Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sheri Moon, Ken Foree, Leslie Easterbrook, Matthew McGrory.
Release Date: Available Now.

In The Devil’s Rejects, Rob Zombie once again pushes the cinematic boundaries of this genre, with a family whose motto, it would seem, is ‘The family that kills together, stays together’.

Of course, plenty of people are going to be wondering why anyone would want to see a movie that ‘Contains Sadistic Violence’. For me there were two reasons. Firstly I was curious, I had read a review when the movie was first release in theatres, that claimed The Devil’s Reject’s had some very rewarding redeeming features. Secondly, the Horror genre is a growing force in the box office, and if you want to be able to comment on popular culture, you have to take not of such things.

So back to the movie, the opening scenes show a line of police cars driving along a dusty road and surrounding a house, the occupants of which are soon to become known as The Devil’ Rejects. This family is one of the most dysfunctional families in movie history, and together they have killed, maimed, done all manner of evil things to an unknown (but huge) number of victims.

Sheriff John Quincy Wydell, is a religious man, and tells his officers that they are there to do God’s work, and thus starts one of the most interesting transformations of the movie.

A gun battle ensues, the brother is killed, his mother taken hostage, but two family members escape, to joining up with another member of the family and continue their killing whilst on the run from the law.

Wydell, of course, dedicates his life to tracking them down. And track them down he does.

What started out as a fairly simple story of good vs evil – there’s that evil word again, and I don’t use it lightly, if you want to see what evil looks like, then this is a fantastic movie to watch – now gets more complicated. The family you see are evil spawn of the devil type people. It’s easy to despise them, hate them, and want all manner of horrible things to happen to them.

But then a transformation takes place, not in the Rejects, but in Wydell. Wydell finds out that they had killed his brother, and Godly justice is replaced by a homicidal thirst for revenge. But not just any revenge, sadistic, painful revenge.

The tables are turned on the viewer and we start to have compassion on the rejects. It highlights a great dilemma for those of the Christian faith: Jesus calls us to forgive. Period. He didn’t say that we could pick and choose those who are worthy to forgive, Jesus only said to forgive. Everyone. But Wydell, the main ‘Christian’ character in this movie chooses to embrace revenge, and soon finds that revenge only leads to destruction.

Scott Derrickson (Hellraiser: Inferno, Urban Legends: Final Cut, Exorcism of Emily Rose.) has an interesting (and I think very valid) theory about horror movies: “No other genre offers audiences a more spiritual view of the world, and no other genre communicates a more dearly defined moral perspective - the recognition that there actually is a spiritual realm.”

According to author Ted Dekker “we need to paint evil with as dark a brush as possible.” Rob Zombie paints with as much darkness as he is able, the result of which is a movie that is visually and emotionally hard to watch. But without such darkness, evil is able to hide behind the façade that it doesn’t really exist, or that, as portrayed in comedies, evil isn’t really a big deal. And that’s the real danger.

Food for thought:
Could you forgive anyone, no matter what they have done? Or do you have a line in the sand, with forgiveness on one side, and revenge on the other?

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POSTER | The Good German

Die Deutschen kommen! The Germans are coming!
Looks like another classic movie poster on on-screen, but look closer and you’ll see that the film stars George Clooney, Cate Blanchett and Tobey Maguire, which makes it very, very modern. Even the title should give it away, The Good German.

It is in fact, a very cool poster for Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming movie based on Joseph Canon's novel, that tells the story of a U.S. Army war correspondent (Clooney) who sets out to help his mysterious former lover (Blanchett) escape from Berlin in the ruinous aftermath of WWII.

The really funny thing is that I have Joseph Canon's novel on my bookshelf, untouched hardcover version, that I bought at the Warehouse some time back for a couple of bucks. Maybe it’s time to get it down and start reading it!

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CULTURE | Little People Blog

Ok, so maybe I picked the most gruesome picture off the site, but this is a funny blog that is going to keep you coming back to see what crazy antics and situations are being acted out all over London, by the little people.

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DVD | Poseidon

Rating: M
Duration: XX mins.
Genre: Action & Adventure.
Actors: Kurt Russell, Andre Braugher, Richard Dreyfuss, Kevin Dillon, Emmy Rossum, Jimmy Bennett, Joshua Lucas, Sheila Allen.
Release Date: 27th September.

How long can you hold your breath? That’s the question posed by Poseidon’s publicity. The cynical answer would be: Longer than Poseidon can stay in the box office top ten.

In theatres, Poseidon was just another of a long line of ‘summer’ blockbusters that failed. It seemed that the average moviegoer wanted to be bored rather than wowed as movies such as the DaVinci Code creamed the money, and sequels broke the records.

But then there was DVD. Apparently movie execs see DVDs akin to printing money – it’s all profit, and if a movie has sunk at the box office, often it gets its life back through DVD.

So why did Poseidon sink at the box office – poor expectations would be my guess. I didn’t think a remake of one of the pivotal disaster movies of the 70’s would really cut it, and I wasn’t going to waste $15 at Village Cinemas to see if I was right.

Poseidon is your typical summer blockbuster. It wows you with its visuals, and gives you a story larger than life. It takes a group of characters, and makes then the underdogs in a fight for survival against all odds.

The original Poseidon did this well, and the remake is just as good. The story line (from memory) is similar, but not a carbon copy, which is always good, as it keeps you guessing.

Being a survival adventure, it was fun to be able to predict the next victim – I know that sounds morbid, but these aren’t real people, so it’s okay. As predictable as these pivotal scenes are, it doesn’t take away from the suspense of the whole movie, though the ending did have a little bit of the whole Day After Tomorrow overdone final scene.

The biggest difference between the two Poseidon movies, and again this is from memory, as I haven’t seen the original since I was a kid, is not only the special effects, but also the body count.

The sheer number of people we see dying is a little over the top, and Warner Brothers don’t stop with showing us the dying, throughout the movie we see the underdog survivors having to clamber over mountains of dead bodies, so much so that you half expect it to turn into a zombie movie and have hordes of the living dead come after the survivors as well.

I know it’s a disaster movie on a grand scale, but I can grasp that an enormous amount of people must have lost their lives with out having to be personally introduced to half their corpses.

An entire disk of special features, including a documentary of the phenomenon of rouge waves looks very enticing (and I will watch this at a later stage) and makes for a great companion to a disaster movie remake that holds it’s own.

Food for thought:
Do you forge your own path, or passively follow the crowd?

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NEWS | Study to research games' effect on Kiwis

Not to be outdone by the United States and its government-funded study on video game violence, the island nation of New Zealand is funding its own study on the effects of video game violence on Kiwis (the people, not the animal or the fruit). The $140,000 study is being headed by Dr. Gareth Schott, a psychologist at the University of Waikato who has previously looked at girl gamers, fan culture and the educational applications of games.

With any luck, Schott's study will garner more evidence that can be used by the pro-gaming forces in the U.S. Then again, it might show that video game violence has a totally different effect on Americans than it does on New Zealanders. Wouldn't that just blow everyone's mind?

NEWS | Hammond: "significant brain injury"

Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond has suffered a "significant brain injury" after crashing a jet-powered car at speeds of up to 300mph during filming.

Doctors at Leeds General Infirmary said they were "reasonably optimistic" the 36-year-old would make a good recovery. The BBC, which is likely to face close scrutiny, has begun an inquiry. The police and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are also investigating. Event organisers insisted that proper safety precautions were taken.

Hammond's wife Mindy was at his bedside in the Leeds hospital and he was also visited by Top Gear co-hosts Jeremy Clarkson and James May. Referring to Hammond by his nickname, Clarkson said in statement: "Both James and I are looking forward to getting our 'hamster' back."

The presenter had been driving a jet-powered dragster similar to the Vampire - used by Colin Fallows to set the British land speed record of 300.3mph. Primetime Land Speed Engineering, which is jointly run by Fallows, organised the event. A spokesman for the firm said the vehicle Hammond was driving "had been prepared and was being operated to the highest of standards".

Keith King, an inspector for the HSE, said it was a "very unusual case", adding that the executive would look at the preparation and planning of the event and contingencies for an emergency. Meanwhile, Supt Martin Deacon of North Yorkshire police, said his officers would initially focus on the road and the vehicle.

On Thursday afternoon, the dragster was lifted on to the back of a lorry and taken away for forensic examination at an undisclosed location.

The BBC said in a statement that it had begun an investigation into the accident and promised full co-operation with the HSE. "We continue to be concerned about [Hammond's] condition and we are keeping in touch with his family," the statement said.

Top Gear has courted controversy in the past over its big-budget car stunts, and in 1999 a group of MPs criticised the series for being "obsessed with acceleration and speed". Last year, lobby group Transport 2000 called for the show to be taken off the air accusing it of "glamorising speed and failing to make the connection with danger on the roads". At the time, Hammond defended the programme, saying: "Top Gear is an entertaining show, for people that are interested in cars, that is driven by people who have been motoring journalists for many, many years."

Hammond had to be cut free from the car on Wednesday evening after eyewitnesses at the Elvington airfield near York described how he "veered off to the right" and the car's parachutes were deployed.

NEWS | TV host seriously hurt in crash

Top Gear's Richard Hammond is seriously ill in hospital after a crash in a rocket-powered car while filming for the programme.

The 36-year-old presenter was taken by air ambulance to Leeds General Infirmary's neurological unit. A spokesman for the hospital said Mr Hammond was "stable". Mr Hammond had been driving a dragster-style car capable of reaching 300mph at the former RAF airfield in Elvington, near York.

Former firefighter Dave Ogden, who runs private firm Event Fire Services, was one of the first people at the scene of the crash. He said: "We were down there with Top Gear who were filming him trying to break the British land speed record. "On the previous run, the car had just gone over 300mph but I am not sure if it had broken the record.

"They had just done one more run and were planning to finish when it veered off to the right.

"One of the parachutes had deployed but it went on to the grass and spun over and over before coming to a rest about 100 yards from us." He said his crew and an ambulance that was already on the airfield rushed over and found the car upside down and "dug in" to the grass. Mr Ogden said he felt for a pulse and heard Mr Hammond breathing before the emergency crews worked together to turn the car the right way up and then cut him free. He added: "He was regaining consciousness at that point and said he had some lower back pain. But he was drifting in and out of consciousness a little bit."

Former Top Gear presenter Quentin Willson said the presenter was "irreplaceable". He said: "He is a wonderful, unique and distinctive Top Gear presenter. "He has brought an awful lot to the programme and his indefatigable energy, the fact that he tries absolutely anything once, may have been the reason that he has overstepped the mark a bit. "He has turned Top Gear into a gang show with Jeremy and James and the three of them have wowed audiences all over the world and he is an international personality."

Mr Wilson added: "There is no pressure from the BBC or the producer to take undue risks. "But that pressure is in your own head. You want to do an item on the programme which is mindblowing. "You want to do a fantastic item that blows everybody away." The presenter, who works on Top Gear with fellow hosts Jeremy Clarkson and James May, was born in Birmingham, educated in Yorkshire and lives near Cheltenham with his wife and children.

NEWS | Clive Owen Loves Daniel Craig

With only weeks to go until the release of the long expected Casino Royale, another actor says that choosing Daniel Craig to replace Pierce Brosnan in the blockbuster franchise was the best move the studio ever made.

The Sin City star, Clive Owen, told BBC in a recent interview that, when the movie will run in all cinemas, all critics will be silenced by Craig's ability to give life to the suave superspy. Initially linked to the part, Clive bears his colleague no harsh feelings and really supports him professionally.

'I think when Craig first took the part he got a pretty rough ride, which to a certain extent is inevitable because there are so many different people who have so many different ideas about something like that. You are never going to please everybody', Owen said.

He stands by his view on just how appropriate Daniel is for the part of Bond, James Bond, saying that there is no other actor in all Hollywood to equal him in seriousness and dedication to his work. 'The thing that is really exciting is that he is a proper actor. He is not shallow or posing, they have cast a really serious actor and I think that when the film comes out everyone will see what a great choice he was', the actor said about his former 'rival'.

So just who is the best modern action hero? Vote in our new Poll!

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DVD | Unknown White Male

Rating: M - Contains Offensive Language.
Duration: 92 mins.
Genre: Documentary.
Actors: N/A.
Release Date: Available now.

Imagine suddenly discovering that you’re on a train, travelling through a part of the city that you don’t recognise. You’re not even sure of how you even got on the train, so you decide to get off at the next stop and try and orientate yourself.

When you get off the train, nothing is familiar, and then it dawns on you, that you actually don’t even know who you are.

In this gripping, if somewhat unexciting, documentary we follow Doug Bruce as he goes from total amnesia to discovering parts of who he was and onto his journey of discovering who he is.

It’s that last bit that makes Unknown White Male interesting. Doug will never be the same person as he was – that’s all gone now, but he gets a chance to become someone new. Lucky for Doug, he had been a successful stockbroker and wasn’t short of a bit of money.

It raises the question of what makes us who we are. If we’re born a certain way, and can’t change who we are no matter what we do, then Doug, even with his total amnesia, would still be Doug. However, if Doug, through not knowing anything about his upbringing, or even his life as a successful stockbroker, can turn into a totally different person, that would suggest that we are a product of our environment, and through our choices (and those of our parents!) can become someone better (or worse).

Food for thought:
If you could start you life all over again, would you change anything?

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NEWS | Drink Beer Like Bond

If you ever wished you could drink a beer that made you feel like a globe-trotting superspy then prepare to have your prayers answered as Heineken is teaming up with Sony and Eon Productions to bring you the first ever James Bond beer. The beer, on top of being a one-of-a-kind brewski, will of course serve as part of the marketing campaign for the upcoming Casino Royale. The beer's own promotional campaign will include a commercial, directed by Syriana director Stephen Gaghan no less, showing Bond girl Eva Green drinking the beer. Get more details here.

Little Known Fact: Beer will not actually make you feel like a globetrotting superspy unless, of course, you actually happen to be a globetrotting superspy.

Source: JoBlo

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NEWS | Reid Direct To Download

Boy I thought it was bad when your career was relegated to direct-to-DVD movies, but it must really be bad when your movies don't even get released on DVD. Case in point: Tara Reid's next movie INCUBUS. This movie isn't going direct-to-DVD or TV, it's going directly online. AOL will offer the movie for $7.99 courtesy of a new service, AOL Red, which will launch on Halloween (it's currently available to AOL subscribers only). Producer Adam Shapiro told the LA Times that he decided to go direct to download "after they were unable to find an attractive deal for theatrical release." Ya think? The US$7.99 price is for the purchase of the movie, which will be unable to be burned to DVD (a five-day rental is available for US$3.49).

Source: JoBlo

I'm still not sold on downloading movies, but then living in New Zealand, it's not something I can do legally anyway!

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POSTER | Star Wars

This has to be one of the most iconic movie posters of all time, and it’s made all the more sweeter by Roadshow releasing the special edition DVDs recently (and sending me some complimentary ones!) that contain both the revised versions and the un-molested original as-you-saw-them-in-the-theatre versions. Sweet.

Empire Magazine has Star wars listed at number five in it’s 100 Movies That Changed The World List because it re-defined what sci-fi was. It created a fully realised universe, inhabited by amazing alien life forms that went about there everyday life as if they actually existed. It made the spectacular commonplace, and the unbelievable, believable.

And without Star Wars, there would be no big, special effects blockbuster movies, no blue screen, no Industrial Light And Magic and probably no Weta Workshop (gasp).

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TRAILER | Shoot ‘Em Up

Every time is see Clive Owen in a movie I love him more. Even if the movie sucks (Inside Man) Clive comes through as the best thing about the movie.

Of course in the up-coming Shoot ‘Em Up, Clive’s got some serious company for character, even if he is an elusive ‘Mr Smith’ and he’s giving Jason Statham a run for him money for ‘next action hero’ status. And that company comes from Mr Paul Giamatti, who plays the bad guy and runs the risk of having us all in fits of uncontrollable laughter.

Boy if the trailer is anything to go by, Shoot ‘Em Up will be THE action flick of next year.

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DVD | Tristan & Isolde

Rating: M - Contains Medium Level Violence.
Duration: 120 mins.
Genre: Action & Adventure.
Actors: Rufus Sewell, James Franco, David O'Hara, Sophia Myles, Bronagh Gallagher, Jamie King, Tiffany Knight, Thomas Morris, J.B. Blanc.
Release Date: Available now.

Tristan & Isolde is tragic love story, set in tumultus medieval period where Britain is split into four tribes and finds herself under the iron fist of Ireland’s greedy and malice King.

But hope is in the air, as one tribe tries to unite all the tribes together to make Britain strong enough to stand up to the Irish.

Treachery is the name of the game however as one of the tribes leaders has signed a secret pact with the Irish, and the meeting is attacked, and almost everyone killed. What Britain needs is a charismatic fighter, and one of the survivors, A little boy by the name of Tristan would be that fighter.

Fast forward to Tristan the man, and the Irish send another hunting party, stealing all the young women. But it’s here that Tristan’s king allows Trsiten to set a trap, and seek vengeance on the Irish. The trap works, but Trsitan receives what is thought to be a fatal wound, and is cast out to sea on a funeral boat, but the winds douse the fire, and his boat finds shore in Ireland.

The daughter of the tyrannical Irish King finds him, and secretly nurses him back to health. They of course fall in love, but it’s a love that can never be fully realised, due mainly to politics.

It’s a storyline that we’ve all heard a thousand times, but this doesn’t stop Tristan & Isolde from being a gripping yarn of a story, with plenty of bloody action to keep the boys happy, and enough doomed romance for the girls.

James Franco and Sophia Myles bring life to the characters of Tristan and Isolde, presenting the viewer with a believable couple that should be together, if only in a different place and time. Director Kevin Reynolds manages to keep the pace going, with the right mix of action and character development.

Visually the movie is a mixture of windswept highlands, forest greens and wintery coastal locals, with a brooding sense of forbearing that suits the storyline perfectly.

A great underrated adventure.

Food for thought:
Should true love ever be sacrificed?

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PS2 | Bully Gets a T Rating

In a move predicted by more than a few comments at Joystiq, Rockstar's controversial title Bully has received a T for Teen rating from the ESRB. Questionable content includes Crude Humor, Language, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence. Go ahead, let that one sink in, we'll wait.

What does the T rating mean, exactly? Most retail outlets follow one simple rule of thumb: don't sell Mature-rated games to minors. According to the ESRB's official ratings guide, "Titles rated T (Teen) have content that may be suitable for ages 13 and older." Come October, little Billy won't need to ask him mom or bribe a homeless man into buying the game, he can do it himself.

Wal-mart, after pulling Bully pre-orders a few weeks back (for various, disputed reasons), is now taking pre-orders on its web site.

With the political season in full swing, we imagine more than a few politicians will cite this case as an example of the ESRB's negligence, or how the ratings system is "out of touch with" or "destroying" American values. Keep in mind the game has no guns or knives, disproving the theory that this title is a "Columbine simulator" (as purported by anti-game activist Jack Thompson).

Bully will be released (in the US) October 16 for the PlayStation 2.

Source: Joystiq

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DVD | Inside Man

Rating: M - Contains Violence & Offensive Language.
Duration: 123 mins.
Genre: Suspense & Thriller.
Actors: Denzel Washington, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, Jodie Foster, Clive Owen, Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Release Date: Available now.

Inside Man promised to be a taught thriller, with plenty of twists and turns, and an ending that would have you guessing until the last minute.

It certainly had the talent; Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster just to name a few of the known names and a capable director in Spike Lee, but I guess what really let it down was first time writer Russell Gewirtz.

It’s not that Inside Man is a bad movie – it’s got a great storyline, some interesting dilemmas, and great edge of your seats thrills. It fails however in the most important part of the movie; the ending.

You can make the best movie in the world, but have a crap ending where the audience walks away feeling ripped off, and you movie will suck. And this is exactly what happens with Inside Man.

If they’d finished the movie five minutes earlier, we’d have been left hanging, not knowing, Granted, it would have been slightly frustrating, but at least we wouldn’t feel cheated.

The actors do a great job, and the set up of the plot, combined with the tenuous position that Denzel’s character finds himself in all make for gripping viewing. The pacing of the action is great, with never a dull moment (until the end), so it’s a pity I can’t reccoment this movie, just because of the last 5 minutes.

Food for thought:
Your actions always have consequences.

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TECH | Apple Enters Console Market

Well, not quite, but Apple has always been ahead of it’s time, and one of the risks of being ahead, is sometimes people just aren’t ready. Then there’s the times when the realisation of the product takes too long and it’s already been surpassed. That’s what happened with Apple’s attempt at making a game console…

The Apple Pippin was a technology for a multimedia title player marketed by Apple Computer in the mid 1990s. It was based around a 66-MHz PowerPC 603e processor, and ran a cut-down version of the Mac OS. The goal was to create an inexpensive computer aimed mostly at playing CD-based multimedia titles, especially games, but also functioning as a network computer. It featured a 4Å~ CD-ROM drive and a video output that could connect to a standard television monitor.

Apple never intended to release its own Pippin. Instead it intended to license the technology to third parties, a model similar to that of the ill-fated 3DO. However the only Pippin licensee to release a product to market was Bandai.

By the time the Bandai Pippin was released (1995 in Japan; 1996 in the United States), the market was already dominated by the Nintendo 64, Sony PlayStation, and Sega Saturn, game machines that were much more powerful than the more general-purpose Pippin. In addition, there was little ready-to-go software for Pippin, the only major publisher being Bandai itself. Costing US$599 on launch, and touted as a cheap computer, the system, in reality, was commonly identified as a video-game console. As such, its price was considered too expensive in comparison to its contemporaries.

Ultimately, Pippin as a technology suffered because it was a late starter in the 3D generation of consoles, and was under-powered as a gaming machine and personal computer. Bandai's version died quickly, only ever having a relatively limited release in the United States and Japan.

In May 2006, the Pippin was voted one of the 25 Worst Tech Products of all Time by PC World Magazine.

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DVD | Kinky Boots

Rating: M - Contains Low Level Offensive Language.
Duration: 103 mins.
Genre: Comedy.
Actors: Linda Bassett, Kellie Bright, Joel Edgerton, Nick Frost, Jemima Rooper, Josh Cole, Chjwetel Ejiofor.
Release Date: Available now.

Kinky Boots turned out a little different to what I had expected. AS I sat down to watch it last night, I was expecting a riotous, over-the-top comedy. What I got instead was fabulous human drama.

Sure it had its laugh out loud moments, but this wasn’t just your average comedy, it had a story to tell.

Charles Price has no desire to take after his father and run the family shoe making business, instead he runs off to London with his money hungry fiancé, but before their new life can start, Charles gets a phone call.

Price senior has died, and Charles has to go back home to sort things out, and he finds himself the owner of the shoe factory he had no interest in.

As if that’s not bad enough, he soon discovers that the company is broke, and he’s got to lay off the staff. It’s as he’s telling hiss staff, one by one in personal meetings that he comes across Lauren, who plants a seed in his mind.

Later when he’s visiting London again, a chance encounter with a drag queen helps cultivate that seed.

Kinky Boots is a delight to watch, with Chiwetel Ejiofor stepping way out of character in the role of Lola the drag queen, and loving every moment of it.

Sure it’s clichéd for the most part, and predictable as hell, but it does showcase the human sprit as well as inbred prejudices. It also show that it takes patience, love and understanding to break down these prejudices, and to bring acceptance for everyone.

Kinky also shows the power of following your dreams and not worrying about ending up looking like a fool.

Food for thought:
If you were a book, would you want to be judged by your cover?

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PS2 | Jack Bauer vs Toni Cipriani

I rented two games from United Video this week, 24 and Liberty City Stories. I used a two for one voucher and figured that if 24 turned out to be a suckfest like Commandos, I could at least rely on GTA’s Liberty City to fulfil my gaming needs….

Of course, with 24 having been developed by one of Sony’s European game studios, in partnership with Fox and just about everyone involved in the actual TV programme, I didn’t really need to worry. Or did I?

The game is set between Seasons two and three, which is handy as that’s about the time I gave up watching 24, and uses the same style and formula that the TV show does.

I’m pretty much just over halfway through the timeframe of the game and already I’ve played most of the main characters, as well as trying out many different forms of game play.

The game is played primarily in 3rd person, and the first mission has you playing Jack and dispatching numerous bad guys while running through a container ship trying to find a bomb attached to a cache of deadly nerve agent.

On completion of the mission, once you’ve found and secured the area, in come the bomb squad to diffuse the bomb. This is where one of the games many puzzle like challenges comes into play as you suddenly become the bomb disposal guy and have x amount of time to diffuse the bomb.

It’s this variety that gives 24 it’s legs – along the course of the game so far I’ve played numerous characters, killed an unknown number of bad guys, chased, followed and been chased in a car, hacked into someone’s PDA, interrogated some poor fellow and used a sniper rifle to kill a host of snipers.

Graphically the game is good; the likenesses of all the key characters, and the voices are spot on. The problems are with the handling. Third person mode on foot took a bit of getting used too, and even though you soon get into the groove of it, I’m still having occasional issues. The driving was pretty ho-hum. Sure taking the corners with hand break assistance is fun, but as with most games of this type, driving isn’t its strength. And then there was the sniping – not the most memorable sniping experience in the world.

But these are minor gripes and don’t really bring the game down.

Overall, 24 is a good solid game that’s going to keep you playing. The odd thing is that I don’t recall being given the option on a difficulty level, which is unusual.

So if 24 was this good, just imagine how great Liberty City Stories was going to be…

Liberty City Stories was GTA’s foray into the PSP market, and due to it’s success (and the need for revenue in the wait for the PS3 to be released) it got ported over to the PS2.

Toni Cipriani returns to Liberty City, the city made famous by GTA3. GTA3 in my eyes is the best in the GTA franchise. It took the game from a top down 2D game to a fully realised 3D environment. It was set pretty much in the present day, and it just blew the socks off anything you’d ever played before.

Then came Vice City. It was an ok game, but the 80’s just didn’t do it for me. GTA3 was still king in my books.

Then came the much-anticipated San Andreas. It was cool. It had some really cool features, but two things let it down: The sheer size of the game play area was frustrating for anyone having to drive from one place to the other. And then there was the flight school – you had to master flying a plane before you could go onto the last third of the game. The flight mechanics were not GTA’s strong point, and flying wasn’t mine. GTA3 was still King.

So Liberty City Stories would be like visiting a dear friend and having a ball right?

Wrong.

I still love Liberty City, but playing Stories was just like going through the motions. There was nothing new. It was stale. I was certainly glad that I had Jack Bauer to play with, cause Toni certainly didn’t fulfil my needs any longer.

Having said that, it will be interesting to see what the GTA franchise bring to the world of next gen gaming.

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NEWS | Black Sheep Footage

The World Premiere of Black Sheep was at the Toronto International Film Festival, and fottage from New Zealand's One News is now online. It's looking a little cheesey, but also like a whole lotta fun. Scarey fun.

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POSTER | All Quiet On The Western Front

According to Empire Magazine’s 100 Movies That Changed The World, 1930’s All Quiet On The Western Front was the first anti-war movie:

From the iconic shot of a butterfly fluttering amongst the remains of a battlefield massacre to powerful scenes such as that where a German soldier wounds a French soldier, then tries to save him as shells wiz past the trench where he is pinned down, this film was miles ahead of it’s time.

Without it, there’d be no: Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, Schindler’s List, The Thin Red Line

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TECH | Dress Like A Mac

It had to happen sooner or later!

NEWS | Jackson To Do Dragons?

Peter Jackson, looking to fill his upcoming production plate, has optioned the rights to the fantasy novel series Temeraire from rookie writer Naomi Novik.

The books are described as "a re-imagining of the epic events of the Napoleonic Wars with an air force— an air force of dragons, manned by crews of aviators." It actually sounds pretty damn cool and I was just thinking the other day how we haven't had a decent dragon movie in... well, a real long time. Jackson himself said, "I can't wait to see Napoleonic battles fought with a squadron of dragons. That's what I go to the movies for." You and me both.

Jackson hasn't decided yet whether he will direct the film or simply produce it but it seems like it will definitely follow The Lovely Bones (which Jackson plans on directing next summer) and HALO (also going into production next year). The three books in the series - "His Majesty's Dragon," "Throne of Jade" and "Black Powder War" - were released in mass-market paperback earlier this year. Novik is currently writing the fourth instalment in the Temeraire series.

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TECH | It’s Showtime!

It’s Tuesday in America, and that means Apple’s big news day. But I didn’t have to fire up Firefox to get the news, as soon as I turned on my Mac I was asked if I wanted to update my iTunes (so that it would be compatible with movies and games). What I did need Firefox for was to see the new range of iPods…

Apple is the king of the trendy, fashionable (but only for this season), expensive gadgets. I own both a video iPod and an iPod Shuffle. Both have now been replaced with (apparently) better versions.

The iPod Shuffle is now so small, you can just clip it on your lapel, or anywhere you want. Of course you could just forget where you clipped it and put it in the washing machine with your clothes…. I wonder if Steve Jobs thought to make it waterproof?

Don’t get me wrong I think it’s extremely cool, but I’ll be hanging onto my old Shuffle, ‘cause I like the way it hangs around my neck. That, and it cost me $110, and it’s not that old! (It’s still under warranty).

Of course the new 80GB iPod Video would be nice, especially as Apple are now in the movie selling business. But wait, they’re only selling Disney movies. Oh that’s right, because Steve Jobs & Pixar own Disney. But then, as was quotes in Wayne’s World 2, “If you build it, they will come.” As with music, it should only be a matter of time before Apple shows the world that they know how to sell movies online, and then all the other movie companies will join up.

But then Apple doesn’t really care about the world. Well, not the whole world. To Apple, the world consists on America. In New Zealand there still isn’t an iTunes store to buy music. I’ve been tempted to try and set up an Australian account, seeing as everyone thinks we’re apart of Australia, but when I checked out the Aussie iTunes store it was devoid of the obvious: movies. Sure it had the games that can now be bought and downloaded to you new iPod, but no movies.

And this is pretty significant. iPods, like Sony’s PSP are portable, and like the PSP, iPods shouldn’t be constrained by regional zooming on it’s product, especially as most of the movies currently available on iTunes are back catalogue.

So c’mon Steve, make the Aussie iTunes available for Kiwis, and give us some Movies and TV programmes… there’s a whole different world outside of America.

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NEWS | Green Light For The Hobbit?

While other studios are cutting back on big budget tentpole films, MGM has decided to do the exact opposite and recently announced a slate of tentpole films budgeted in the 150 to 200 million dollar (US) range. Among those, which include Terminator 4 (cool) and a sequel to the The Thomas Crown Affair (huh?!?), is the one prequel most of us have been waiting for ever since we first laid eyes on Frodo and Samwise Gamgee.

That's right, not only is MGM planning to make J.R.R. Tolkien's prequel to the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, The Hobbit, but also they're planning "one or two instalments" and they'll be teaming with New Line to produce and they are hoping will be directed by Peter Jackson.

The main point of contention that had prevented The Hobbit from coming to the big screen was a complex rights issue between MGM and New Line that, for all intents and purposes, wouldn't be resolved until the universe caved in on itself but someone apparently worked some magic to clear up that issue. The only question now is, are they really willing to move forward if Jackson doesn't return to direct?

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DVD | A History Of Violence

Rating: R18 - Contains Graphic Violence & Sex Scenes.
Duration: 91 mins.
Genre : Suspense/Thriller.
Actors: Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, William Hurt, Maria Bello, Stephen McHattie, Peter MacNeill.
Release Date: Available now.

I was a little taken back when I discovered – just before watching – that David Cronenberg had directed A History Of Violence.

Cronenberg is a capable director, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that he normally chooses movies with a stranger subject. In the end however, it became easy to see why Cronenberg had chosen to tackle this movie.

History’s plot is simple: small town diner owner Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) is a loved member of the community, with a loving wife and two children. Then one night, as he’s closing up, two men enter his diner and demand to be served. Tom senses something isn’t right and tells his waitress she can go home, but then men stop her and Tom takes action. With in seconds Tom has disarmed both men and killed them. Tom is hailed a local Hero, and the story is picked up by the media and he becomes front page news.

The attention is unwanted, as Tom has a dark past that is about to catch up to him, and put his life and the safety of his family on the line.

The quality of the preview disk that I viewed History on, was such that the tonal range was all wrong, and the movie was devoid of a full range of colour, and resulted in a very dark image. Being a dark subject matter, I’m guessing that some of the scenes would have been filmed a little darker, but it’s hard to judge based on my viewing.

The camera work however was good, with some interesting angles, and the pacing was perfect, with Cronenberg finding the right amount of action vs reflection.

If you watch History purely as an entertaining movie, you might end up disappointed with the ending, but if you’re prepared to delve deeper into the subliminal subject matter, you’ll get the fullness of the story.

Cronenberg you see has strong beliefs in the Darwinian theory of survival of the fittest, and in History takes a look at inherited survival traits.

As the film’s title suggests, these survival traits are violent in nature, which comes as a shock to the viewer when they manifest in Tom’s son Jack, who has spent his entire life shying away from confrontation.

It’s in this dark and violent movie that Cronenberg wants us to believe that we are all capable of hideous acts of violence, if we are forced into a situation where our survival – or the survival of loved ones – depends on them.

It also seems to be Cronenberg’s belief that we cannot escape our past, that we are born a certain way, and that is what we will be for the rest of our lives.

It’s an interesting, if seriously flawed theory, which makes for an engaging movie.

Food for thought:
Are we born a certain way or do our decisions in life develop who we are?

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PS2 | Commandos Strike Force

I’d played Commandos once before, back when It was a really cool, think your way through the problem, played from an isometric view point.

It was clever because you could see the objective and think you route to it, and hard because you had to use you wits not to get caught!

So when I discovered the series had gone the way of the first person shooter, I was excited. The screen shots on the back on the box seemed to show damned good graphics, and if the game play was just as addictive, this would be one of those defining games.

Sadly though, Commandos Strike Force was an abysmal balls up.

Graphically clunky the game played like the dogs breakfast. Without the overview, the ability to plan was gone, and in its place was a confusing mess of uncertainly and annoyance.

What should have been a combination of Splinter Cell and Call of Duty, was instead a nightmare of wasted money.

NEWS | Pirates Continue Plunder

Despite the first Pirates Of The Caribbean flick making all kinds of money, the second one managed to out-monetize its predecessor and become the 3rd highest grossing movie of all-time over the past week, clearing the US$1 billion dollar mark worldwide, and placing it behind only Titanic at US$1.8 Billion and The Return Of The King at US$1.1 Billion. The original Pirates, in contrast, only made US$636M worldwide, placing it in 26th place on the overall list.

DVD | Land Of The Dead

Rating: R16 - Contains Horror Scenes & Violence.
Duration: 93 mins.
Genre : Zombie.
Actors: Robert Joy, Dennis Hopper, John Leguizamo, Simon Baker, Asia Argento.
Release Date: Available now.

Land of the Dead is cult director George A. Romero’s 4th Zombie movie. Having made a name for himself in 1968 with the most celebrated of zombie movies; Night of The Living Dead, Romero’s name became synonymous with anything zombie.

It’s been 20 years since his third outing, Day of the Dead in 1985, but the recent spate of zombie movies, including the remake of Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, enticed him to continue his Dead Series.

In Land of the Dead we find that the balance of power has been shifted, with zombies controlling the vast stretches of America (because, America is the entire world after all) and the living are forced to live in a walled city, run by corruption and greed.

Things, however, are about to get interesting, as the living dead are showing signs of intelligence, and their eyes are focused on the last remaining outpost of humanity.

Having not seen any of Romero’s previous masterpieces, I can’t comment on his previous works. I have however seen a number of the recent zombie movies, and in my opinion Romero isn’t king anymore.

Whilst Land of the Dead does have its freak me out moments and some tense situations, as a whole it’s a pretty ho-hum affair. The zombies aren’t very scary at all, and to some degree are far too over the top to be believable (disclaimer; I do know that zombies aren’t real, but some movies make them more believable than others!). They seem to have superhuman strength with little effort, being able to dismember the living with ease.

The blood is bright red and plentiful, making it look like Romero’s believes that we will all be filled with fear just because of some liberally used red food colouring.

What Romero was apparently good at, was weaving social commentary in his movies, and this is something he’s still good at.

Land of the Dead passes judgement on our corrupt, money loving western society, where the almighty dollar is the most important thing, and people are nothing but a commodity to be used, traded and abused.

There are three groups of people in Land of the Dead. The rich and powerful live in the intercity, in a controlled community. The rest of the living, circle the inner city in what is essentially a slum. And then there are the living dead. They roam the rest of the country, looking for food.

The slum dwellers are sent out in teams to the zombie controlled wastelands to raid supermarkets and chemists for supplies, along the way dispatching of as many zombies as they can – kind of like what big corporations do in the developing world.

When they get back to the walled city, the supplies are distributed to the living, but the cream of the crop go to those in the controlled community – money and power still buy you the best in life, with little in the way of hard work.

If anyone steps out of line, they’re likely to find themselves as zombie fodder, as he that controls the money, also controls the military.

As a zombie movie, there’s plenty of more entertaining movies to choose from, my favourite being 28 Days Later. As an interesting social commentary, Land of the Dead rules supreme.

Food for thought:
Money isn’t evil, it’s your attitude towards money that decides how it affects you.

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DVD | March Of The Penguins

Rating: G - Suitable for General Audiences.
Duration: 80 mins.
Genre : Documentary.
Actors: N/A.
Release Date: Available now.

March of the Penguins is a remarkable documentary. Produced by French director, Luc Jacquet, it follows the annual mating rituals of what must be the most resilient of animals: the emperor penguin.

Every summer, fresh from a period of feeding they march over 70 miles to their nesting grounds, where they find a mate, then after laying the egg, the mother passes it onto the father who looks after it for three months while the she walks back to the sea to get food. The father waits, and protects the egg for these three months with nothing to eat, and endures some of the severest storms that winter can produce.

Stunningly beautiful, March of the Penguins is a visual feast of an alien like landscape, complimented by the smooth narration of Morgan Freeman and an original musical score.

Initially trumpeted by the American Bible-belt’s moral agenda, for it’s family values, Penguins Director Jacquet, was quick to point out that whilst it was a story of love and commitment, the penguins choose different mates each year, so could hardly be a role model for Christian monogamy.

A better cause to trumpet would have been the love and self sacrifice of the emperor penguins that they literally risk their own lives, marching on empty stomachs to find food and enduring the worst living conditions known to man, all for the single purpose of pro-creating.

A remarkable and brilliantly produced documentary.

Food for thought:
Does western society place enough value on the upbringing of children?

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DVD | Battlefield Britain

Rating: PG - Contains Low Level Violence.
Duration: 497 mins.
Genre : Documentary.
Actors: N/A.
Release Date: Available Now.

Father and son Peter and Dan Snow team up to take a look at 200 years of battles that have helped shape British history.

Using a combination of computer graphics and re-enactments, pivotal battles in British history are bought to life. The focus is quite wide, with the Snow’s looking at the lives of the men who fought, the type of weaponry used and the tactics employed. They manage to show the human side of history through interview type segments where the men and women of the day (played of course by actors!) describe what is was like through there own experiences.

Because of the depth and breadth of the series, some episodes will be more enjoyable than others, and for me the most interesting was the last, which outlined the Battle of Britain. This also had the advantage of actual footage, and authentic accounts.

Overall, a very well done documentary that utilises several means of visualisation, to bring history to life.

Food for thought:
History has many lessons for those willing to listen.

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POSTER | Dr. No

I’m starting a new feature: Movie Posters. I saw a book in PaperPlus last night on the subject of classic movie posters. I spent a little time looking through it, but decided I couldn’t justify the expense. So instead of buying a book on the subject, I’m going to compile my own collection of movie posters online, and to kick it off we have who else but James Bond!

Dr. No (sometimes published as Doctor No) is the sixth James Bond novel by Ian Fleming, originally published in 1958. The novel was adapted as the first official Bond film in 1962, the success of which would lead to a popular, long, and continuing series of films made by EON Productions.

The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman with Sean Connery in the first of six official appearances (and 1 unofficial) playing the role of British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond.

I choose the French version of the Dr. No movie poster for two reasons, it’s unique in as far as it’s not overtly sexualised, and I love the simplistic approach to the brush work – simple, but bold, and it conveys Bond’s character very well.

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NEWS | WoW Memorial Service For Croc Hunter

With many still lamenting the unfortunate death of Steve Irwin, the man who struck fear into the hearts of elusive crocodiles everywhere, several World of Warcraft players have decided that it would be a marvelous idea to have an in-game memorial service. User Bubbrubb asserts in a WoW forum post that he's deeply upset about the Australian's passing and that a dignified gathering on the computerized coastal area, Zoram Strand, would be a fitting way of saying goodbye. "I would like to spell out CRIKEY with players as a tribute to his wonderous catch phrase, and then we can dance and swim in the ocean to celebrate his life instead of mourning his death."

The World of Warcraft has been host to similar events in the past, providing a common virtual ground for those hoping to express their grief with others. Of course, it also provides an outlet for those hoping to barge in on funerals and completely wreck the proceedings with little fear for real repercussion or reprisal. Let's hope there's a magical security detail for this one.

[Via CVG]

Because only sane people play WoW....

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DVD | Firewall

Rating: M - Contains Violence & Offensive Language.
Duration: 100 mins.
Genre : Suspense/Thriller.
Actors: Paul Bettany, Virginia Madsen, Harrison Ford, Alan Arkin, Robert Patrick, Robert Forster, Mary Lynn Rajskub.
Release Date: Available Now.

Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford) has a very comfortable life, a loving wife, two kids and a dog. He’s living the American dream. His life is made comfortable because he’s good at what he does – he heads up computer security at a bank’s head office.

But changes are afoot, the bank is looking at a merger, and Jack is being head hunted. Changes, that could make Jack even more comfortable.

Unfortunately, because of his position, Jack is also a target, and when his family gets kidnapped, Jack finds that he has to use his skills to hack into the bank and steal money or his family will be killed.

Yes, we’ve seen the plot a million times before, and Harrison Ford plays it by the cards, it’s predictable, formulaic and has a saccharine sweet ending.

So why bother watching a run of the mill suspense flick? Because its fun, it’s easy on the brain and it’s got a warm fuzzy ending.

It also has a few twists and turns that you might not see coming, so there’s the possibility that you, like me, will be on the edge of your seats from time to time.

Production wise, like the plot and action, it’s average, but probably a lot better than anything you’ll be watching on TV!

Food for thought:
Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can make you a target!

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TECH | The Amazing Colossal iMac

Apple has done the unthinkable, introducing new computers on - gasp! - a Wednesday, not a Tuesday. If you haven't seen yet, check out the specs on the simply breathtaking 24" iMac. So massive but so delicate.

I never could have guessed eight years ago that the iMac would have gotten so small and so big at the same time. This is a product introduction that really caught me off-guard. In the mean time, the whole iMac line has gone to the Core2 Duo line of processors, so even the older models will scream.

The Mac mini has seen a similar update, though more modestly, hopping from Core Solo at the low-end to Core Duo across the line.

How quickly are we going to see those Core2 MacBooks now? Will it be Showtime Sept. 12 or do we wait until the 25th of the month? Why does Apple do all its introductions so close together?

Source: CultofMac

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NEWS | Code DVD Releases October 11

Sony have announced that The DaVinci Code will release on DVD in New Zealand on October 11th, with a single disk and a double disk Extended Edition. The weird thing is that the US release date has just been announced as November 14th, a month behind New Zealand!

Special Features on the extended edition are:

* Extended Film includes 25 minutes of additional footage!
* Filmmaker Commentaries
* First Day on the Set with Ron Howard
* Book To Screen
* A Portrait of Langdon
* Who Is Sophie Neveu?
* Unusual Suspects
* Close Up On Mona Lisa
* Recreating Works of Art
* Magical Places
* Da Vinci Tours
* Da Vinci Props
* The Filmmaking Experience
* Visual Effects
* Editing The Da Vinci Code
* Scoring
* Da Vinci (Film) Codes
* Da Vinci Cameos
* Deletes Scenes Featurette
* DVD Introduction From Ron Howard

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NEWS | Welcome To The Third Place

Europe, Australia and New Zealand PS3 Launch Pushed Back to March 2007
Xbox Europe boss Chris Lewis will surely have cracked a smile this morning as he, along with the rest of the world, awoke to the news that Sony has been forced into ordering a humiliating delay of PlayStation 3 in Europe. He perhaps even allowed himself a hearty chuckle.

For when Microsoft embarked upon its audacious global next-generation crusade with Xbox 360 it could scarcely have hoped, nine months after launch, to be in the lofty comfort zone it finds itself in today in Europe.
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Acutely aware of the importance of being first to market, Microsoft smashed the traditional hardware launch model in a back-breaking effort to ship to the US, Japan and Europe near-simultaneously. And in the face of intense skepticism it pulled it off. Just.

Last year's launch of Xbox 360 was far from perfect, as any number of shortage-ravaged retailers or empty-handed gamers would have testified. But it launched on time and thus immediately reset consumer and trade expectations of a hardware launch; and, significantly, gave Europe hope that it would no longer be treated as the second-class citizen of the gaming world. For once, the rhetoric rang true.

And 360's unprecedented worldwide roll-out came, lest we forget, hot on the heels of Sony's own clumsily delayed European PSP launch. That Microsoft had therefore changed the rules of engagement became abundantly clear earlier this year as both Nintendo and Sony quickly fell into line, promising grand, effectively copycat, global launch initiatives for Wii and PlayStation 3.

[read more]

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NEWS | Lost's Hanso Revealed

The Lost plot has thickened significantly. Over the last several months, the creators of Lost have been trickling information to fans while the show is on summer hiatus, through an innovative "game" called the Lost Experience.

The latest phase of the game has had users tracking down fragments of a video featuring none other than the legendary Alvar Hanso himself -- the mysterious founder of the Hanso Foundation, an organization referenced in the show that has something to do with the island the show's main characters find themselves on. In the video, Hanso claims that the DHARMA Initiative was formed to "do nothing less, than save the world."

Hanso says that an equation exists (probably having something to do with Hurley's numbers, I'll bet) that can predict the years, days, and hours to when humanity will exterminate itself -- through nuclear war, pandemic, or some other means. DHARMA is an acronym that stands for Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications. Most interesting of all, Hanso mentions the Lost island at great length, revealing that its location is the greatest of secrets, and that DHARMA uses the island as its base of operations, via "underground laboratories." Other notes of interest include mentions of perpetual food and supply drops and the island's radio transmitter.

When the video ends, the camera pulls back to reveal that it was playing for a group of modern-day scientists, who are attempting to succeed where Hanso failed, using some sort of virus...

Ho-hum

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DVD | Life Is A Miracle

Rating: M - Contains Sex Scenes, Offensive Language and Drug Use.
Duration: 155 mins.
Genre : Festival & Foreign.
Actors: Slavko Stimac, Natasa Solak, Vesna Trivalic, Vuk Kostic, Aleksandar Bercek, Stribor Kusturica, Mirjana Karanovic, Branislav Lalevic, Nikola Kojo.
Release Date: September 13, 2006.

Luka is a man with a vision. He lives in a small Bosnia town and has a passion for trains. It’s these trains that form his vision.

You see Luka is building a scenic railway to encourage tourists to visit his village. But no everyone shares his vision. His wife would rather be somewhere else, with someone else and his son just wants to play football. But the townsfolk are behind him, so that’s something.

And then the war starts. Luka’s son is drafted into the army and his wife runs away with another man. Luka’s dream and family has been taken from him. The army takes over the railroad and forces him to stay and maintain it.

Storm clouds have gathered and threaten to engulf Luka when a ray of unexpected sunshine brightens his life, in the form of an attractive young Muslim nurse called Sabaha.

Initially brought to him, as a prisoner of war, and entrusted to his care, Luka and Sabaha soon sense a spark passion, and embrace each other and life with renewed vigour. There’s of course is not an easy romance.

Life Is A Miracle is a light hearted, warm human drama/comedy that takes a different look at the Bosnian conflict, with a hilariously eccentric cast that includes reoccurring scenes with a very stubborn donkey.

Clocking in at a whopping 155 minutes, you will need a bit of stamina, but it’s well worth the effort to see story telling as rich as this.

Food for thought
Sunlight always comes after the storm.

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DVD | Yesterday

Rating: PG - Contains Adult Themes.
Duration: 96 mins.
Genre : Festival & Foreign.
Actors: Kenneth Khambula, Leleti Khumalo, Harriet Lenabe, Lihle Mvelase, Camilla Walker.
Release Date: Available now.

Yesterday is a moving story set against the harsh landscape of rural South Africa. You can almost feel the sense of hopelessness during the movies agonisingly slow intro, and you start to wonder what kind of a movie you’ve just sat down to watch.

But once Yesterday unveils it’s secret you’ve come to love the lead character, a fiercely independent and proud mother by the name of Yesterday, and the discovery comes as a savage body blow.

Yesterday is sick – she’s been walking the two-hour plus journey to the clinic every two weeks in an effort to see the doctor, but she’s always too late and the queue is too long. When a friend steps into to help and pays for a taxi ride, Yesterday gets the news that she has contracted AIDS from her husband, who works in Johannesburg, and is rarely home.

It’s here where the movie really kicks in. We get to see the human face of AIDS. The violent denial of her husband, the forgiveness and acceptance of Yesterday, and the ignorance and fear of the other villagers.

To say that Yesterday is a powerful and moving story would be a gross understatement. To claim that it offers hope and understanding would be a lie. What it does do is force you to confront some of the issues facing the uneducated people of the developing world, and makes you look at your own life, taunting you to complain about the traffic, or the price of petrol, and mocking you for doing so.

Food for thought
Ignorance strips away dignity and denies love its opportunity to shine.

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NEWS | Jackson Goes To War!

Peter Jackson has signed on to produce the WWII action flick Dambusters for Universal with his longtime associate Christian Riversa making his directorial debut. Rivers, who was worked with Jackson in various fashions over 17 years, recently served as animation director on King Kong. The film is based on the WWII air raid attack on three Nazi dams that were essential to running German steel factories. The story of the dam busters was previously made into a movie in 1955.

Jackson said of the film, "When Michael Anderson made his thrilling version of this story in 1955, many details of the dams raid were still a closely guarded secret. It has since been declassified by the British government, making the dynamics of the story and the people involved even more intriguing."

Universal is looking to get into production on the US$30-$40 million Dambusters next summer with a 2008 release planned. Jackson, who is also producing HALO for Universal and Fox, is expected to next direct The Lovely Bones based on Alice Sebold's novel.

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DVD | Lord of War

Rating: R16 - Contains Violence, Offensive Language, Drug Use & Sex Scenes.
Duration: 117 mins.
Genre : Black Comedy.
Actors: Ian Holm, Nicolas Cage, Ethan Hawke, Jared Leto, Bridget Moynahan, Eamonn Walker, Sammy Rotibi.
Release Date: Available now.

It’s hard to categorise Lord of War. I went into it thinking it would be a little like The Rock or Con Air – an action flick with some seriously funny one-liners. But alas, it was slightly more sedate. It was a mix between a black comedy, action story, political protest and true story.

It’s essentially the story of one man, being voiced over and acted by Nicolas Cage. It’s disturbingly funny and has numerous one-liners to keep you smiling – or cringing, depending on how black you taste in humour is. The pace is sufficient to call it more of an action movie than a drama, but probably not enough to satisfy a die hard action fan. It is beautifully shot and has some colourful characters and great chemistry.

Its moral agenda is clear – guns are inherently bad – and it’s political views are rammed home right at the end of the movie.

It is an interesting mix, the kind of movie you’d expect if you combined Michael Bay with Michael Moore, and in the end gets you thinking as well as being entertained.

Food for thought
Guns don't kill people. People kill people, right?

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TECH | Zune Is a Modded Toshiba Gigabeat

As you may have noticed, this is the time of year when everyone begins to assume that some great new device will unseat Apple's iPod as king of the digital media player hill.

The newest entrant in the field (so new it isn't, you know, officially unveiled), is Microsoft's Zune. A lot of people think that Microsoft, using all of its resources, will inevitably kill the iPod.

Not so fast, noted American Technology Research Analyst Shawn Wu to Forbes.

"Microsoft had hinted of an all-new design from the ground up, but from our analysis, it appears that the Zune is essentially a repackaged Toshiba Gigabeat that has seen limited success," said Wu in a report.

Yeaahhhhhhhh. There's the way you take down a dominant force -- repackage a previously unsuccessful solution. I am officially unafraid of Zune now. Do your worst Microsoft!

Oh, right. You already have. It's kind of pathetic.

Via MacSurfer.

Not that I was ever afraid of Zune.

DVD | The Grid

Rating: M - Contains Violence & Sex Scenes.
Duration: 270 mins.
Genre : Television Drama.
Actors: Dylan McDermott, Tom Skerritt, Julianna Margulies, Bernard Hill, James Remar, Jemma Redgrave, Paula Devicq.
Release Date: Available now.

The Grid is a three-part BBC mini-series that plays on our post 9-11 fears. As gritty and realistic as HBO’s Dirty War, The Grid outpaces and out classes HBO’s TV Movie by taking the threat world wide and involving a combined British and American team.

Where as it is your typical Muslims-are-the-bad-guys plot, as everything is these days, The Grid takes a more balanced approach and shows normal, everyday Muslims as being a valid part of modern society.

The story takes the action across the globe, as the good guys are taken on a wild goose chase, and the terrorists seem to have the upper hand.

ER’s Julianna Margulies fits in perfectly to her new counter terrorism role, and is aptly supported by Dylan McDermott. But what makes The Grid really stand out from the usual crop of US crime dramas is the inclusion of the British side, and approach.

The BBC has crated a winning formula with a human drama that has a fast paced plot, plenty of twists and turns, and some great on screen chemistry.

Food for thought
Hatred left unchecked will grow into rage and devour you.