I’m not all that excited about this pic, maybe because I never got into transformers when I was a kid, but then Michael Bay does do some great brain-candy-action-flicks.
So here in all it’s glory is the first leaked pic from the Movie [click on it to see a bigger pic]. Not sure what I think, but Mr Bay is being rather secretive and forcing all the legit movie sites to remove the image, but now it’s out in the bloggisphere, nothing can prevent it from being shown…
Hang on; did I just infer that this isn’t a legit movie site, and only a mere blog? Oh well. Anyway, lets just hope that Transformers will be a little more exciting that the similarly plot sounding AVP.
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/ Penguin Kills British Agent
Those pesky penguins definitely have Happy Feet, holding onto first place agin in the US, with James Bond holding off Denzel Washington’s Déjà vu to stay rooted in second place. Whilst a number one spot for Casino Royale looks unlikely, it does look like it could be come the biggest grossing Bond movie to grace the US.
On a related note, I was at the local Lions Book Fair on the weekend when I spotted a dog-eared paper back of Casino Royale, so a grabbed it for 20c and will be taking it camping over Christmas!
Believe the hype: Gears of War is the best shooter around. Forget Halo, Gears is THE game for 360 action fans.
A third-person tactical shooter, Gears usees the Unreal Engine 3 to bring the game to life in a big way. Graphically the game is amazing; I can only guess how sweet this would play on a high-def TV. The environments that you play in are all huge, with plenty to look at, and fortunately hide behind.
That’s right, hide behind. This is an action packed tactical shooter. And the game play is slightly different than most other games in that the game play, and thus the controls, are set up for shooting from behind cover, then hopping over and running for the next piece of cover as you systematically destroy the Locust Horde.
What? You don’t know about the Locust Horde? Have you been living under a rock for the last year?
The Locust Horde is the enemy. They have infested the earth, destroyed our cities and now hunt us from under ground. They can pop up anywhere, anytime. They will come at you from all sides. They have an unwavering bloodlust to see us all dead.
This isn’t war; it’s a battle for survival.
And what do we have to fight this battle? A small, but ample range of guns, the mainstay being a machine gun with a chainsaw like attachment for dispensing of the Horde in a spray of blood if you get into one on one fighting with one of these monsters of Hades.
And I’m not kidding when I say a spray of blood. Gears has the graphical grunt to make this one of the most visually gruesome games available. And it’s not gratuitous either; it adds to the feel of the game, this is after all a battle of life and death.
The audio is also fantastic, so much so that I had to revert to headphones so that I didn’t keep everyone awake whilst I was playing late at night!
And what about the game play? Well, I’ve already told you about the shooting from cover, but what I didn’t mention is your team-mates who fight alongside you. Look after them (heal them when they get hurt) and they’ll help you dispense some of the horde, and trust me when I say you’re gonna need their help!
To start off with Gears takes the game play a little differently, giving you the choice to go through a little training, or get straight into the action. This is a nice touch. After that it’s pretty much your standard fare, fight your way through the levels, with cinematic cut scenes filling in the story and giving you hints as to what you’re fighting for, and against.
There’s plenty of ammo around, so for the most part you’ll have plenty of lead to send towards the Horde, and there an assortment of futuristic weapons for all situations.
There are no medic packs however, and as in Call Of Duty 3 there is no need, as there are visual clues that you need to find cover and recuperate. Personally I find this a much better way of dealing with the mortality of man vs ongoing gameplay.
There is no real indication of what way you should be going, there are of course the physical barriers that prevent you from going certain ways, and for the most part the game play or your team-mates will keep you moving in the right direction. I did however find myself in a couple of situations where I was wondering what the heck I was supposed to be doing, but soon got things sorted.
The environments are varied with interior and exterior fighting. The main enemy is the horde, but from time to time you’ll come up against some of their little helpers, which will initially catch you off guard as they fall on you from above.
Unlike Call Of Duty, Gears does have the end of level, almost impossible to kill monsters. The first of which I met was a brutal dude that could kill with a single hit, and the only weapon capable of dispensing with the brute could only be used out side. This required some quick thinking, as you had to lure the beast outside without getting pummelled in the process.
All in all Gears of War is a tight package, and if I had to sum up the game play in one word it would be ‘intense’.
Sony has officially embarked on a journey to recreate the success of The Da Vinci Code. Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman has signed on to adapt Dan Brown’s precursor novel, Angels & Demons, for a cool US$4 million. A lot of people are reporting that’s the highest price ever paid up front for a screenplay.
That’s a whole lot of moolah just for an adaptation of an existing book, and looking at what he and Ron Howard did to The Da Vinci Code, I’m thinking it’s about US$4 million too much!
No word yet on whether or not Tom Hanks and Ron Howard have signed on for Angels & Demons but I’m sure they will soon enough. Sony is hoping to have it ready for sometime in 2008.
Just as Gears Of War gets released in New Zealand stores today, Microsoft has announced that the Xbox 360-exclusive title has already set new sales records around the world.
Gears of War has sold one million copies worldwide in just its first two weeks of release, making the game the fastest-selling title over a two-week period in 2006 and the fastest-selling Xbox game of all time.
The battle continues to rage on Xbox Live too, as more than 850,000 unique gamers have engaged in 10 million gameplay sessions while unlocking an impressive seven million Achievements.
As well as being the #1 title on Xbox Live, Gears Of War has also driven new members to the online gaming service – paid Xbox Live registrations per day have skyrocketed more than 50 percent since the game’s launch.
Tom Hunt, Xbox New Zealand product marketing manager, says, "Kiwi gamers have been gagging for Gears Of War to emerge in NZ stores – now they can find out for themselves what all the fuss is about.
"And because the multiplayer action for Gears Of War is so awesome, we want as many people as possible to be able to check it out.
“So for this weekend only, every New Zealand Xbox 360 gamer with a broadband connection can jump in to the world’s leading online console gaming network and enjoy a complimentary Xbox Live Gold membership to experience Gears Of War's mind-blowing online play."
filmcritic.com made an interesting top ten list of the best movie spaceships. An interesting and original idea no doubt, but their list is seriously flawed.
Maybe it’s just me, but surely something from the movie Serenity should have been included?
Anyway, here’s what filmcritic came up with:
Movie spaceships are legion, but which is the most awesome in the universe? We ranked the 10 best, completely subjectively. Some rules: We only drew from the movies (TV spaceships like the Battlestar Galactica -- which is killer -- and the Draconian Marauder from Buck Rogers don't count), and we only included legitimate spacecraft. Flying cars and unmanned rockets don't count. Turns out there are almost too many awesome spaceships to count, so we offer apologies in advance to the Borg cube, the Imperial Star Destroyer, the X-Wing Fighter, various other Star Trek and Star Wars tertiary ships, many many other cool movie cruisers, and umpteen flying saucers that just didn't make the cut.
10. The Thunder Road (Explorers) - Plusses: Invisible. Powered by as little as a nine volt battery. Inertia-free. Impervious to damage; can tunnel through the earth even without effort. Minuses: Named after a Bruce Springsteen song. Kids only.
9. Gunstar (The Last Starfighter) - Score high enough on a video game and you might be recruited to fly a Gunstar and defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan armada -- for real! Weapons are standard, but it has a little bonus: The "Death Blossom," which automatically targets every ship in range and destroys it. Why they didn't just build that kind of thing into the regular weapons system remains a mystery.
8. Mothership (Independence Day) - Despite its absurd susceptibility to human-made computer viruses, this bad boy has one of the most impressive weapons arsenals in the history of film. It's also enormous: a quarter the size of the moon. Inside it carries 30 or so smaller ships, each larger than Manhattan, loaded with awesome building-destroying laser beams, and impervious to all conventional weapons except for Randy Quaid.
7. Klingon Bird of Prey (Star Trek series) - Birds of Prey never seem to fare very well against Federation starships, but their winged shape makes them one of the more killer designs in the pantheon of filmed spacecraft. Too bad about the bare-bones interiors, though. Throw in some comfy leather chairs and you've got the Ferrari of spaceships. Bonus points for the kickin' cloaking device. (Whoops: Sorry, the whales were on one of these guys, not the Enterprise... thanks emailers.)
6. Discovery One (2001: A Space Odyssey) - This massive, pencil-like ship is designed for long-range exploration, features three EVA pods for single-user exploration, a centrifuge where artificial gravity is created, and an, er, slightly buggy computer system, the HAL 9000. Despite the tech trouble, HAL's unblinking red eye is hypnotically awesome.
5. Apollo 13 (Apollo 13) - The only reality-based spaceship on this list, and unquestionably the most heroic. It only flew the one time, it broke en route to the moon, and barely made it back to earth in one piece... and then they had Kathleen Quinlan waiting for 'em. Ugh.
4. Heart of Gold (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) - Never mind the oddball design (inspired by a teacup), the Heart of Gold's Infinite Improbability Drive lets it pull off a pretty cool stunt: Traveling through every point in the universe at the exact same time. Don't think about it too hard, and instead enjoy the ship's personable computer and robot staff.
3. Nostromo (Alien) - The Nostromo is little more than a space tugboat, pulling a giant ore refinery through space. Though it has no weapons, when given the (famously complex) command to self-destruct, it really goes off with a bang. An underrated ship, it could land on planets and scope out foreign lifeforms... which turned out to be not such a great idea after all.
2. U.S.S. Enterprise (various versions) (Star Trek series) - It originated on TV, but the Enterprise really started showing off in the movie series. Early ships were distinguished by photon torpedoes, phasers, and a predilection for self-destruction, but it's the only ship here that can legitimately go back and forth through time. Holodeck? Sweet. And those transporters are pretty killer, too. Later revisions to the ship allowed it to split into two separate pieces. Now that's trekkin'!
1. Millennium Falcon (Star Wars series) - It's probably no surprise that the Falcon is number one on this list, but really, who would have thought that a scrappy smuggler's freighter would end up being so critical in saving the galaxy? Outfitted with laser turrets, a speedy hyperdrive, and with ample room for up to eight passengers, the Millennium Falcon deserves the top spot easily. You find another ship that can make the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, you gimme a call.
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/ Anti PS3 Rants From The Web
Ok, so I’m a 360 boy, but that doesn’t mean I would turn down a free PS3, nor would I buy one just to smash it to pieces in front of long line of Ps3 fan boys, but smashmyps3 does make a funny video…
And to make matters worse for Sony, one of their own PS3 games gets slammed by Wired’s Game Life reviewer:
So PlayStation 3 reviewers got an email this afternoon with helpful tips for Genji, straight from the development team. That's a real interesting coincidence, because I was playing Genji when I got that email and I was coming up with some tips of my own for the development team. Tips like:
• When making a third-person action game, try to develop a camera system that lets the player actually see what's going on around him • Try to avoid creating puzzles with solutions that involve hitting unseen objects that lie off the boundaries of the screen • You might want to avoid leaving major bugs in the game that ruin your saved progress and force you to restart the whole thing
So I wasn't too too far into Genji -- I was right at the part where you get the lady warrior Shizuka, about two hours in. And I'd been putting up with unclear mission goals for pretty much the whole time. The game's camera system isn't really good for determining where important, key pieces of scenery are in relation to you. At one point you have to smash a cart so it rolls up to a locked gate, then use it to jump over. But since the camera keeps flipping between two fixed viewpoints, it's tough to tell that the cart would even go up to the gate if you were to push it.
That's minor compared to what happened next. I had to hit two doohickeys that were on top of a roof. But I could only see them in the initial cut scene that set up what I had to do, and even then the camera angle was such that I couldn't see where they were placed in relation to the ground. Checking GameFAQs after getting really frustrated, it turned out that yes, I had to stand underneath the thingamabobs while on the ground, and swing my weapon upwards to hit them.
Not that the game ever told me that I had an upward-facing weapon strike.
Not that there was any way, at all, to see the whatsits, meaning I had to just swing around like an idiot until I randomly hit them.
(Correction: Apparently, what you're supposed to do for this puzzle is get the key, as described below, and use it to enter the building and climb to the roof to hit them. But as I said -- the key was gone!)
But even that wasn't so bad when you compare it to the fact that I didn't know what to do next, and I wasn't finding anything because there was nothing to find. So it was back to GameFAQs' board, but this time there was no solution. Just confirmation that there was supposed to be an item for me to pick up, but due to a glitch in the game it disappears after a certain point. And of course, I'd been diligent and saved my game, meaning I was completely screwed. I'd have to start the game over.
That is, until I realized that -- through sheer coincidence -- I'd copied my old Genji save to a USB thumb drive when testing that feature of PS3. So I loaded it up, worked my way back to where I was, and there was the item I needed. Had I not realized that I had an old save, I wouldn't have bothered. But this is unacceptable, anyway. Simply outrageous that something this obvious would make it through QA.
Ouch.
And this from Geek.com:
Poor Sony. It's bad enough that the PlayStation 3 went through several delays and production shortages to finally see the light of day ... one would think that PS3 launch day would bring a little emotional relief for the electronic entertainment company, right? Not so fast.
Of course everyone knows that the launch of the PS3 was a little chaotic around the U.S. In Boston, however, the mayhem was a little over the top, where 500 hundred customers at Copley Plaza rushed the doors when they were opened at 5 A.M. The resulting riot resulted in damaged property and several injuries from trampling. In the end 12 police squad cars were summoned to control the rampage and many arrests were made.
When the dust settled Boston Mayor Thomas Menino was none too pleased with the carnage, and he directly blames Sony for the problem. In his opinion the riot was caused by Sony keeping the exact number of PS3s at Copley Plaza a secret and not helping to enforce crowd control. So, Mayor Menino has decided to send Sony a bill for the police services needed to bring the PS3-crazy crowd under control.
There are no details of the bill's total or Sony's response to Boston's mayor.
Oh dear.
And then there’s the PS3 720p output issues…
Apparently Sony's kicking off an early Thanksgiving break tomorrow, as they seem to be exhausting themselves today in preparation. After breaking the news that PSP Spots are US bound, floating the PSP 3.0 firmware out, and probably dealing with that massive invoice they just received from Thomas Menino and friends, the company is issuing a quasi-promise that the 1080i / 720p output problems plaguing some distraught PS3 owners will be fixed. Interestingly enough, Sony places a slightly unbelievable amount of blame on "antiquated HDTVs," as if having an HDTV that supports 720p is some sort of hidden requirement to operate a PlayStation 3. While we fully understand that most HDTV sets purchased today will indeed play nice with 720p signals, where's the love for folks who snagged those first generations sets produced by yours truly? According to Sony, a fix is on the way, but it doesn't sound like you'll be getting served with a smile.
Rating: PG - Contains Adult Themes. Duration: 115 mins. Genre: Drama, Music, Dance. Actors: Ray Liotta, Alfre Woodard, Antonio Banderas, Rob Brown, Dante Basco, Jenna Dewan, Lyriq Bent, Dianne Houston, Laura Benanti, John Ortiz, Yaya Da Costa. Release Date: Available Now.
Inspired by a true story often sends shivers down my back these days, as there’s been way too many movies that take a pinch of reality and then consume it with fiction, creating a movie that promises you one thing but delivers another.
Take the lead is slightly different. It takes a defining moment in someone’s life and weaves a story around it that is filled with sexy ballroom dancing and classic love ballads smashed against the hardened hip hop beats and street attitudes of a group of dysfunctional high school delinquents.
The truth of the story is that dance instructor Pierre Dulaine (played by Antonio Banderas) decided to help out at an inner city high school, presumably to fill a void left in his life by the death of his wife five years previously, and seeing no use for his skills, the hard nosed principle sends him to look after the usual suspects in lunchtime suspension.
I say usual suspects as this movie has many subplots looking at the lives of the kids being saved, that are as cheesy and predictable as they come – and they may be true stories, but we already know that there lives are crap, so spare us the usual clichéd details – the real problem with these side stories is that they get in the way of what this movie really excels at, and that’s the dancing and music.
It’s pure popcorn all the way, so having more dancing and less side plot would make it all the more entertaining. As it is, the grand finale dance competition brings the show to a close with a whole heap of visual enjoyment that closes the movie on a high note.
A visual and auditory feast, Take The Lead also has some great performances by Antonio Banderas and Desperate Housewives’ Alfre Woodard. All in al a very pleasurable couple of hours.
Food for thought: Is the power with the person who leads or with the person who follows?
Rent or Buy? If you like sensual dancing mixed with some youthful urban influence, they you’ll probably want to watch this more than once.
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/ Testing PS3 "Remote Play" on PSP
It seems that Sony has failed to deliver yet again on the benefits of it's much touted PS3, this just in from Wired's Game Life:
Let me explain what you're seeing: that's the PSP, wirelessly connected to the PS3, displaying the PS3's Web browser, which is being controlled with the PSP's buttons. (You're also seeing lots of dust. Man, the PS3's just a goddamn magnet for the stuff.)
This is the much-touted Remote Play capability of PS3 in action, the convergence of Sony's two machines. They've talked this up quite a bit, but they haven't made it clear what, exactly, you can do. There are a lot of misconceptions -- some of which, a few hours ago, were held by me. So here's what you can and can't do with Remote Play.
You CAN: ...view your PS3's Cross Media Bar menu on your PSP. It looks exactly as it does on your TV, just scrunched down smaller -- small enough that you can barely read the text. Anything you do here is actually taking place on the PS3. You're just using your PSP as the controller, and the PSP's screen as the display.
...use movies, pictures, and music that you have stored on your PS3 hard drive or on any external device connected to PS3. So you can be watching a movie file on your PS3, then if your mom tells you to turn off the TV and go to bed, you can turn it off but keep watching on your PSP, under the covers with headphones.
I hope you kids get a lot of use out of that little tip because that's just about the only possible usage I can think of for Remote Play at this point. Because...
You CAN'T: ...use this over the internet. You're not logging into your PS3 remotely, it's all local connecting directly between your PS3. That means that you have to have the 60GB PS3 model -- the one with built-in wireless -- or an external wireless adapter for PS3 to make this happen.
...display PS3 games on PSP. So no playing Gundam on the small screen. Similarly, no watching DVDs or Blu-Ray.
...use the PS3 as a wireless access point for PSP. Which is kind of ridiculous, as this would be an actually useful application. I don't have a wireless router and Sony hasn't released any solution like Nintendo's USB Wi-Fi dongle. PS3 would be an excellent way for me to play online PSP games... but isn't.
...do this without upgrading your PSP system software to 3.00. Right now you can get it through the Network Update function, but it's not on Sony's official site for download yet. (It is, however, on hacker site PSP Updates.)
I think you also need 3.00 to download PS1 games through the PlayStation Store and run them on your PSP. But insofar as there are no games available on the Store yet, I can't exactly test this function. Sony's just trying to keep us all in suspense.
Gears Of War launches in New Zealand this Thursday 23rd November. Are you prepared for Emergence Day?
You’d better be because this Gears of War is apparently like nothing you've seen before - gamers all over the world have been rating it 10/10. This is the must-have game of 2006, no question.
And – here’s a sneaky heads-up for our readers – this weekend you can experience GOW’s massively mind-blowing multiplayer action on Xbox Live, nothing paid. That’s right – it’s a complimentary Xbox Live Gold weekend for Aussie and Kiwi gamers.
Seth Schiesel from the New York Times logged more than 30 hours with 13 games for the PS3 over the last week. His early verdict? Sony has failed to deliver on their promise and the new video game system "just isn't that great." He criticizes the lack of in-box HD cables, having to connect "wireless" controllers to the console for recognition purposes, and the difficulty playing custom playlists in games. He basically deems the 360 the better machine for now calling it a "powerful but intuitive system" likening the PS3 to a "brawny but somewhat recalcitrant specialized computer."
From the article: "Measured in megaflops, gigabytes and other technical benchmarks, the PlayStation 3 is certainly the world's most powerful game console. It falls far short, however, of providing the world's most engaging overall entertainment experience. There is a big difference, and Sony seems to have confused one for the other."
Last year Rockstar Games released a video game based on Walter Hill’s 1979 cult classic The Warriors, and it seemed like it would be the beginning of a major resurgence for this movie. Right around the same time, a director’s cut DVD was released, and Tony Scott was rumoured to be working on a remake. But then Scott went on to direct Domino and Deja Vu, and it seemed to have been forgotten.
Recently, Tony Scott sat down with someone over at IGN and revealed that his remake of The Warriors is still very much happening. He’s just been taking extra time to prepare… by building up contacts with real gang members. That’s right, apparently Scott wants to cast the new version with all authentic real-life groups like the Bloods and the Crips, and he claims he has already done the groundwork by meeting with heads of all the different L.A. gangs. (The 18th Street Gang actually appeared in Domino.) Scott also compares his remake of The Warriors to his brother’s recent film Kingdom of Heaven in terms of scale: “My vision of The Warriors is Los Angeles in 2007 and the gangs, instead of being 30, are going to be 3,000 or 5,000″. He went on to sneak in a little jab at Gus Van Sant’s Psycho remake while he was at it: “I’m not going to do what they did on Psycho, which is a frame-by-frame remake, which would be boring… God, I couldn’t imagine that. I’d rather shoot myself than spend a year of my life doing that.”
Rating: M - Contains offensive language and sexual references. Duration: 94 mins. Genre: Comedy. Actors: Katherine Heigl, Brian Cox, Leonard Earl Howze, Johnny Knoxville, Edward Barbanell, Geoffrey Arend, Leonard Flowers, Zen Gessner, Bill Chott. Release Date: Available Now.
Johnny Knoxville stars as Steve Barker, a guy who the world labels a loser, but really just has a huge heart for people. The real trouble is that he is easily lead astray, so when he desperately needs money to help out a friend, and his dastardly uncle (play brilliantly by Brian Cox) needs to sort out a gambling debt, that uncle convinces him to pretend to be mentally challenged so he can enter and fix the Special Olympics.
I wasn’t too impressed with the premise of this Farrelly Brothers movie; I mean the Farrelly Brothers don’t exactly have a track record of good taste. But I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. It has plenty of heart as well as appropriate humour. In fact the Brothers go to great lengths to show just how appalling the whole idea is, and even go as far as giving the best on liners to the real athletes and in turn ends up being a source of strength for those special characters.
The end you won’t necessarily see coming, but is predictable and cheesy, and the movie as a whole is an uplifting riot of laughs and inspiration.
Food for thought: Is doing wrong for a right cause ever right?
Rent or Buy? I would imagine the jokes would get old real quick, so probably one viewing is enough. Rent it.
Browse > Home / / NEWS | Jackson Dropped From Hobbit
Despite the announcement a few months ago that MGM were planning to work with Peter Jackson on The Hobbit, a recent e-mail from Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh to LOTR fansite TheOneRing.net has just shattered this rumour and is sure to send all of the fanboys into a tizzy. Apparently Wingnut Films (Jackson’s production company) has been involved in a lawsuit with New Line regarding income from The Fellowship of the Ring, and although Jackson wanted and always expected to work on The Hobbit (and possibly a 2nd LOTR prequel), they hadn’t planned on doing it until the lawsuit was resolved.
Unfortunately, last week, New Line called to inform them that they simply couldn’t wait any longer for the lawsuit to work itself out. Since they had a “limited time option on the film rights they have obtained from Saul Zaentz”, they are now “actively looking to hire another filmmaker for both projects”. So Peter Jackson, Wingnut Films and WETA will all apparently not be involved. The truth of the situation is, this is probably not the last we’ll be hearing about it from either party, and it sounds like a strategic move from both sides to try and apply pressure to have the lawsuit resolved. New Line threatens to take away The Hobbit, so Peter Jackson goes and rallies his fans.
Personally I’m not even adverse to the idea of someone else doing The Hobbit, after all, it has a bit of a different feel than The Lord of the Rings trilogy. However, I just don’t honestly think New Line would go with anyone else in the end. Jackson has proven he can handle this massive franchise competently, and he has all the fans behind him. And I can’t see any other effects studio handling the effects quite as well as WETA did.
Rating: M - Contains Violence. Duration: 112 mins. Genre: Sci-fi. Actors: Edward James Olmos, Sean Young, Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer. Release Date: Available Now.
Blade Runner should need no introduction, you should have at least heard of it, if not seen it at some stage. But now Warner Bros have released a totally re-mastered Directors Cut.
Now we get to witness Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) as he searches the concrete jungle of a futuristic 21st Century Los Angeles. As part of a "blade runner" unit, it’s his job to track down and ‘retire’ replicants – human made cyborgs who have been made illegal on earth. The replicants crime: wanting to be human.
So what’s the difference with Ridley Scott's own vision of his sci-fi classic? For starters Deckard's voice narration is gone, relationship between Deckard and Rachael is given more focus and the ending leaves you hanging, forcing you to decide what happens.
The result is a more spaced out, dreamy vision, with a higher emotional toil on the viewer as question are raised and go unanswered; Was Deckard a replicant himself, what happens to Deckard and Rachael?
Food for thought: Will machines ever be able to feel human emotions?
Rent or Buy? It’s a hard one, as there are rumours of another directors cut, this time being totally true to Ridley Scott’s vision, and will be his final word on the subject coming out in 2007. If nothing else, it’s definitely worth a rental.
Despite an impressive debut as 007, Daniel Craig's Casino Royale only managed to finish in second place over its first weekend of release, as Happy Feet - that's right, the latest "animated animal" movie - scored over US$42M in receipts, and nabbed the #1 spot. Some insiders are claiming that the two films will switch positions when the "official numbers" are released on Monday, but I guess we'll have to wait and see for that. For now, the latest Bond film also dropped from its previous series release, Die Another Day, which opened with US$47M, and ended up making US$161M.
Pierce Brosnan's debut as Bond back in 1999, The World Is Not Enough, managed to score about US$36M. That said, the word on the street on the latest Bond flick is stupendous (although everyone seems to agree that it's a little "too long" for its own good), so we'll see what happens over the coming weeks.
Kiwis of course, will have to wait till after Christmas to check out the new Bond.
Browse > Home / / TECH | Zune Incompatible With Vista
In an embarrassing glitch for Microsoft's would-be iPod-killer, a Zune support site has confirmed that "Windows Vista is not supported at this time" and advises customers to "check back soon for updates." The Zune is designed to be used with Microsoft's online music store Marketplace, where songs are paid for and downloaded, but consumers will not be able do that from the new Vista operating system. [more]
Rating: M - Contains Violence. Duration: 522 mins. Genre: Television, Television Crime. Actors: David Krumholtz, Judd Hirsch, Lou Diamond Phillips, Bruce Davison, Peter MacNicol, Alimi Ballard, Sabrina Lloyd, Neil Patrick Harris, Rob Morrow, Navi Rawat, Diane Farr. Release Date: Available Now.
According to Charlie Eppes, Everything is numbers, and thus we have the premise to the latest re-incarnation of the TV crime drama. But this time instead of the blood and guts and DNA swabs of CSI we have algorithms and statistical probabilities. It’s this numbers focus that sets in apart from everything else, and makes it worth a watch.
The trouble is that because it’s based on math theories (sounds really interesting huh!) it’s not restricted to gruesome crimes. The possibilities are literally endless. And it’s these possibilities that are likely to be one of its biggest draw cards as well as being it’s archilles heel.
You see I never got into Numb3rs when it was on TV. The first episode I watched was episode three, ‘vector’. It dealt with a possible suicide, and it was all about the numbers. By the time the cheesy title sequence came on I had decided it was going to be a waste of time.
Fortunately when it came out on DVD and I was able to give it a second chance. Episode one hooked me, and episode two had me grasping for more. Then came episode four and it bored me out of my brain. But I kept going and found more to love.
The basic outline is about two brothers, Charlie a mathematical genius that grew up in the shadow of Din, his successful brother, who was working his way up through the FBI. But one day Charlie sees some of Dons work and mentions a way that he could figure out where the next crime was going to be committed by using math. Don decides to humour Charlie, and Charlie proves that maths is a powerful crime fighting force.
The show has its lighter side with some quirky regular characters, and an obvious love interest, which may cause grief later one. But in reality it’s a show about brains vs brawn with brains winning, and learning every time. You could almost call it educational, but I’ll leave it at calling is a thinking persons crime drama.
Slick production and solid script writing round off one of the best shows in an over saturated crime drama market.
Food for thought: Assuming that you’re right is the quickest way to being wrong.
Rent or Buy? Buy, you’ll want to take your time enjoying this exceptional drama series.
Rating: R16 - Contains Violence. Genre: First Person Shooter, World War 2. Developer: Activision, Treyarch. Release Date: Available Now.
There were two main players when it comes to great World War Two First Person Shooters on the Xbox; Call Of Duty and Brothers In Arms. Both were as good as each other, yet distinctively different. Brothers focussed on teamwork and squad level tactics, where as Call focussed on action. Movie style action with rich cinematic and shoot from the hip game play. Where Brothers was satisfying on a ‘higher’ level, Call gave you a shot of adrenaline and let you be the hero with all guns blazing.
So when I had the chance to play Call Of Duty 3 on the Xbox 360, I jumped at it. (The same way I’ll jump at the chance to play the latest Brothers offing next year).
So what’s new in Call Of Duty 3? Well for starters you won’t be storming the beaches again. Nope, you’ve got a foothold in France. It’s not the best foothold, and is by no means secure. But that’s where you come in. You get to play the Americans, British, Poles and Canadians as they fight there way through the Normandy Breakout during 1944.
Now to be honest, the game plays pretty much like any other Call game you may have played, but there are some noticeable differences. For starters, and as you’d expect on a next gen console, the graphics are way better. Smoke, explosions, lighting, it’s all beautifully rendered and make for a very atmospheric game. There are even missions where your creeping through the long grass, and every individual piece of grass is modelled and waves in the wind.
Graphically breathtaking, Call also has a few game play surprises. Gun into some rooms in the game and a hidden German will jump out and wrestle you to the ground forcing you to use some button mashing to throw him off. Whilst this can get annoying to have to deal with it does add flavour to the game play. Other nice distractions include planting explosives. You get the press one button to start the process, and then it’s a combination of pushing the right buttons and twirling the thumb stick. Once again it just adds that little bit to the game play. There are no medical bags to pick up this time, instead when you’re taking to many hits, the game gives you visual and audio clues and tells you to take cover. After a brief respite you’ll be fine to get back in the fight. Finally, the graphics engine allows for depth of field when looking directly down the sights at your enemy. The longer you focus before taking the shot, the more out of focus the surrounds get. Move your gun when still focused and you’ll have to wait to re-focus. It might sound weird on paper, but in action it’s a sweet touch.
And that’s what makes Call such an enjoyable game – the little details. Also that the game play is varied. Sure most of the time you’ll be running around, following orders and killing Germans with an assortment of guns. But from time to time you’ll get something a little different, like driving a jeep, or taking control of a tank and go Tiger hunting.
Of course, Call is far from perfect. It suffers from the same ills that it’ predecessors did: Fixed game play. You do this so that you can then go there and do that. There’s not a lot of freedom to choose your route. I say not a lot, as for the first time Call 3 does offer you some choices in some of the missions as to what route to take or what to do first. But it is still limiting. From time to time I’d be running and shooting so fast, killing all the Germans that I’d find I’d gotten ahead of my self, and before I could go forward I had to run back to my squad so that they could trigger the next stage of the mission.
And then there were the parts where if you missed the brief instructions (and easy thing to do) you’d be left trying to figure out what the heck you were supposed to do. One such time was the mortar. I got to a point in the game where I was supposed to use a mortar to destroy an assortment of targets, but I must have missed the very quick and brief instructions in my single focused attempts at destroying the Germans. So I’m left in charge of a mortar that I have no idea of how to aim. I tried everything and nothing seemed to work. I got frustrated and threw the controller across the room. But I persevered and through sheer determination will that thing to move around and fire. I completed the mission, but still have no idea how to use the mortar!
All in all it was great fun to get behind the gun sights in a World War Two First Person Shooter again. The step up in graphics and reflected game play was great. The dynamics of play and visual clues were good, and the good far outweighed the bad.
Rent or Buy? If you’re a hard out gamer you could probably finish this game in one 12-hour session, so renting might be an idea. However if you’re a casual gamer, it’s gonna take you a while longer. If you’re lucky enough to have fast internet and Xbox live then that opens up a whole new world, so purchasing would defiantly be on the cards.
Rating: R18 - Contains Violence, Offensive Language, Drug Use & Sex Scenes. Duration: 103 mins. Genre: Suspense & Thriller. Actors: Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth, Alison Lohman. Release Date: Available Now.
Director Atom Egoyan hasn’t really done much in the way of recognisable films, but then I didn’t get Where the Truth Lies based on his directorship. No, I my viewing was based on the calibre of its two lead actors, Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth.
Sadly however, calibre is what is missing from this romp of sex, gratuitous nudity, lies, betrayal and the occasional moments of violence. What was really needed in this story was a compelling storyline rather than one that confused the heck out of you before surprising you with the brilliant twist at the end.
I’ve often said that the way a movie ends can make or break the movie as it’s what the viewer goes away with, but in the case of Where Truth Lies, there was just too much unforgivable stuff in the 100 minutes beforehand.
To say that it was an effort to watch this movie would be an understatement, the normally fine acting of Firth and Bacon was gone – content they seemed to be with the fact that they got to play around with copious naked young women. And because so much of the movie was smokescreens and titillating nudity, there was little in the way of suspense.
There were some fine moments in the movie, and in the end the story as a whole had an air of intrigue, the bumpy, tedious journey will be too much for most viewers to take.
Food for thought: Without communication there can be no truth?
Despite grossing approximately US$41 million so far, and dropping only 12% from its opening weekend, it seems that Flushed Away has been performing way below expectations at the box office. When you consider that the film cost US$145 million to produce, it puts things in perspective (though why it cost so much is still a mystery!).
It’s the first CGI movie in a while that hasn’t completely dominated the box office (get ready for Happy Feet to destroy it this weekend), which is a little surprising considering that critical reviews have been good (it’s currently holding at 78% on Rotten Tomatoes).
Flushed Away was the first entirely computer-animated project by Aardman Studios (Chicken Run, Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit), and it looks like this is bad news for them as Dreamworks decided to end their partnership this week. It’s unfortunate, but I guess you can’t argue with the numbers. Apparently creative differences during the production of Flushed Away were also an issue. This leaves Aardman in search of a new distributor for their next project, a prehistoric comedy called Crood Awakening.
Browse > Home / / CULTURE | Nude Girls Skateboarding!
Ok, so maybe referring to these lovely ladies as nude girls, or even ladies for that matter might be stretching the truth just a little.
To be honest with you, they're mannequins and you're either gonna love this little video or be left wondering what would posses someone to go to so much trouble for such a load of...
Rating: M - Contains Medium Level Violence Duration: 154 mins. Genre: Action & Adventure. Actors: Mackenzie Crook, Bill Nighy, Jonathan Pryce, Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Jack Davenport, Keira Knightley, Stellan Skarsgaard. Release Date: Available Now.
Director Gore Verbinksi takes to the high seas once again in the sequel to Disney’s smash hit Pirates of the Caribbean. This time however there’s no need to introduce the characters, so it’s straight into the action, right?
Wrong. Dead Man’s Chest starts off rather ponderously, as it tries sets the scene for this installment of the money making franchise. Things get back to their swaggering ways when Captain Jack enters the scene, and the action and laughs soon start to mount up.
The storyline is simple, and familiar. Jack has got himself in trouble and is trying to avoid having to give his soul to Davey Jones, and he will use any means necessary, including trading the lives of his two friends, Will and Elizabeth.
Dead Man’s Chest does suffer (in my humble opinion) from being the illegitimate child of a forced trilogy, and If I were to crank the cynicism up to full, I’d say it’s nothing more than a vehicle for the third (and hopefully) final movie.
But as with the Matrix trilogy, the middle movie is still a lot of fun, and had there been no first movie, we’d be praising this effort as much as the first. But because the first Pirates movie was so damn good, and the expectations for the sequel so sky high, there was bound to be disappointment.
One thing you won’t be disappointed in is the special effects. If you were wowed by the glorious eye candy in the first movie, Dead Man’s Chest will blow you away, as Disney pulled out all the stops and balanced creativity with technology to bring the fantasy world of pirates and the supernatural to life like never before.
The formula is near perfect and will have you pining for the final installment.
Watch to the end of the credits, as there’s a little joke at the end.
Food for thought: Is love the most powerful force in the world?
Rent or Buy? This one’s a keeper, especially with a whole disc of special features to explore.
If this picture of an Instillation Error during Zune setup is real is anyone’s guess, but the associated comments on this flickr page is hilarious, and brings to us the new word of the day: Zunicide.
Rating: R16 - Contains Violence, Offensive Language & Horror. Duration: 110 mins. Genre: Horror. Actors: Julia Stiles, Pete Postlethwaite, David Thewlis, Mia Farrow, Liev Schreiber, Josh Hutcherson, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick. Release Date: Available Now.
When American ambassador Robert Thorn arrives at the Hospital after hearing the news that his wife had gone into labour, he is greeted by a grim faced doctor who has some bad news; his baby died in childbirth.
Adding to his torment the doctor informs him that his wife suffered damage to her womb during the process and would never be able to have children.
But then the doctor offers the grieving dad an easy way out, you see there was this woman who gave birth at the same time, only she died during labour leaving an orphaned new born baby boy, no one would know if the two would swap, and it would give his wife the baby she’d dreamed of.
I had, what I though would have been a clear advantage to enjoying this re-make, that is having not seen the original. I wouldn’t know what was supposed to happen, so the story would be fresh, the suspense, action and plot twists would keep me on edge.
Sadly I was wrong. The Omen played out like a bad copy of Final Destination, where the impending deaths are basically laid out for you to see before they happen. Whilst there were some frights, the movie as a whole tended to plod along in a predictable way. About half way through the movie, it was easy to see what was going to happen at the end, and the rest of the movie was only watched to be sure that my prediction was correct.
About the only thing Omen has going for it was the casting of the little kid, whose looks fit the character perfectly.
Food for thought: Would the Anti-Christ really have such an obvious birth mark?
The good people over at CityOfFilms have put together the following little nuggets of information on all 20 of the Bond intro songs, as well as having posted all 20 of the intros in YouTube format. Go take a look, go on, you know you want to…
The Bond films are known for their theme songs heard during the title credits, sung by well-known popular singers (which have included Tina Turner, Paul McCartney and Wings, Tom Jones, Carly Simon, Madonna, and Duran Duran, among many others.)
Shirley Bassey performed three themes in total, and is the only singer to have been associated with more than one film.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the only Bond film with a solely instrumental theme, though Louis Armstrong's ballad "We Have All the Time in the World", which serves as Bond and his wife Tracy's love song and whose title is Bond's last line in the film, is considered the unofficial theme.
The main theme for Dr. No is the "James Bond Theme", although the opening credits also include an untitled bongo interlude, and concludes with a vocal Calypso-flavoured rendition of "Three Blind Mice" entitled "Kingston Calypso" that sets the scene.
From Russia with Love also opens with an instrumental version over the title credits (which then segues into the "James Bond Theme"), but Matt Monro's vocal version also appears twice in the film, including the closing credits; the Monro version is generally considered the film's main theme, even though it doesn't appear during the opening credits. The only singer, to date, to appear within the titles is Sheena Easton, who sang the theme for For Your Eyes Only.
The only singer of a title song to appear within the film itself as a character, to date, is Madonna, who appeared (uncredited) as a fencing instructor, Verity, as well as contributing the theme for Die Another Day.
Chris Cornell performs "You Know My Name" in Casino Royale. He is the first male lead vocalist to perform a 007 song since A-Ha in 1987 for "The Living Daylights". This is also the first Bond theme song since 1983's Octopussy to use a different title than the film.
Rating: M - Contains Medium Level Violence. Duration: 143 mins. Genre: Suspense & Thriller,. Actors: Audrey Tautou, Paul Bettany, Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen, Alfred Molina, Jean Reno, Jürgen Prochnow. Release Date: Available Now.
I said when this movie was first announced, that it would suck big time. With Ron Howard driving it and Tom hanks in the lead role, nothing good could come out of the movie.
Often watching a movie with such low expectations you can be pleasantly surprised. After all you weren’t expecting much so just about anything would be an improvement. The problem with The Da Vinci Code is that it was even more of a disappointment than I had expected.
The book on the other hand was great, if somewhat preachy. The pacing was dynamic, the characters lovable and the whole mystery was, well mysterious, if a whole load of bollocks.
But none of that was passed onto the movie.
To start with, Tom Hanks was the wrong person for the part, but I’d had time to get used to that, and in the end I will accept that maybe he was all right. But the movie was devoid of action. It had about as much suspense as a snail race involving two dead snails. The movie was also a visual mess of confusion, as Howard and his writers tried to cram a significant piece of fiction into a two hour twenty-three minute timeslot.
Possibly if I hadn’t read the book when it came out, there would have been a little more suspense, but due to the amount of publicity surrounding the book and movie you’d have to be a deaf, dumb and blind hermit not to know the big surprise at the end.
Not that Howard left it too the end to give huge visual clues to what the climax was.
The cinematography (at least in the present storyline) was crisp, but that too was problematic, with Howard going for cool trendy modern shots when the action was supposed to be heating up, leaving what little action the script had, colder and more lifeless than a rotting carcass of a dead fish on a Siberian beach.
All in all probably the biggest cinematic disappointment to come out on DVD this year. Avoid it like a plague of zombies.
Food for thought: If the truth is a lie, does that mean there’s no hope?
Yes I’ve started another blog, but this will be one of those occasional blogs (once or twice a week) rather than a daily blog, but if you have a slightly off wack sense of humour like me, you’ll want to add this one to your bloglines or whatever blog subscriber service you use.
And why start another blog you may ask? It keeps my creative thinking skills sharpened by challenging my self to think up of zany (stupid?) predicaments to place my zombies in…
The Nativity Story Catherine Hardwicke's upcoming drama The Nativity Story tells a story with potential for great controversy - that of the life of Jesus' mother Mary (and her husband Joseph) from being called by God to giving birth to Jesus - but this film will clearly be courting absolutely no controversy as the Catholic Church has just given it the ultimate seal of approval by allowing the film to premiere at the Vatican on November 26th.
And as if this unprecedented first wasn't enough, the event will also serve as a benefit with proceeds going towards the construction of a school in the village of Mughar, Israel. Kudos to whoever thought up this particular marketing ploy because this premiere should be at least somewhat memorable. Will The Pope be there? Will he cruise down the red carpet with his squad of bishops and cardinals? Will he eat popcorn? What's it like to look down the aisle and see The Pope munching on some skittles? Would someone be crazy enough to shout something like "Yo, Eminence, dog, make with the popcorn already!"
Browse > Home / / COMMENT | If Newstalk ZB was a blog…
I had the unfortunate necessity to have to drive someone else’s company car around Auckland this morning, and as such didn’t want to re-tune their radio, so for two hours was stuck listening to Newstalk ZB. I know, I could have turned it off, but I figured I’d listen in to see what the appeal was.
It is of course very opinionated, but you’d expect nothing else from talkback, or a blog for that matter, but the thing that really got me was the sheer amount of adverts. And radio adverts, unlike those little google adverts I have down the side, are an in your face part of the listening experience.
So what would Newstalk be like if it were a blog, well basically you’d have to post at least three adverts – or infomercials – for every real blog post you made. So instead of having a happy blog that people wanted to read, you’d have frustrated visitors struggling to find the actual content.
But the listener ship of Newstalk doesn’t seem to mind. Maybe that says more about the people who (regularly) listen to Newstalk then the business model behind that station.
The new full length trailer for Spiderman 3 was all over american tv last night like a bad rash. Happily at the same time the trailer went live on ifilm so the rest of the world can see it too.
Of course it would have been better had it gone up on apple.com as well, like the teaser trailer did, but then I'd say Sony is trying to create it's own online movie loving community, and Spiderman 3 is, I guess just about the best Sony move to do that with. In fact I'd go as far as to suggest that Spiderman 3 could be one of the first, exclusive to BluRay DVDs. Imagine if Sony did that, then every Spiderman fanboy (and girl) would be forced to buy into Sony's expensive technology....
Enough of my conspiracy theories, on with the trailer, which seems to be keeping up with the current trends by showing 3 seconds from every minute of the actual film, basically revealing the entire story… including how Sandman will probably die…
Also the word is that Venom (that creepy black stuff the overtakes the spidey suit, well that eventually hooks into the Topher Grace, blonde photographer boy.. and creates Uber bad-guy Venom) is only going to be in the film at the very end… as a lead into the 4th movie. I can always take more spiderman, but this serialisation of movies (a la 'POTC Dead mans chest') in order to make people go out and see the sequel is starting to bug me. If it was beneficial to the plot and characters I might understand it, but It just seems like a way to drag more money out of people. Studios… you suck. Spiderman.. you're still ok.
Rating: M - Contains Violence & Offensive Language. Duration: 90 mins. Genre: Documentary, Spiritual. Actors: Narrated by Gabriel Byrne. Release Date: Available Now.
I decided to watch Flight From Death: The Quest For Immortality because of two reasons. The first being that it promised to be the most comprehensive investigation with humankind’s relationship with death ever captured on film. Secondly, because it was narrated by Gabriel Byrne.
Let’s deal with my lessor reason first. I love Gabriel Burn, he’s had some outstanding roles in movies and I figured he’d be a great narrator. The only problem being is that Flight doesn’t really give him enough narration time.
Now onto the main focus of the movie. The most comprehensive investigation. Sounds like a level, even sided investigation into death, right? Wrong. Instead it focuses on one mans views – those of the late Ernest Becker, through the eyes of several of his proponents. What this gives us is a long way from comprehensive. And to say captured on film hints at some possible interviews with people who are about to face death, or those who have had near death experiences. But instead we get filled with images of humankinds brutal nature in a effort to portray our inescapable need to perpetrate violence over others in an effort to escape our inbreed focus on our own mortality.
And as if being misled wasn’t enough, the quality of the filming, editing and essentially the complete package is poor. The interviews seem to have been done on cheap video cameras, with no for-thought for continuity, location or flow.
Food for thought: Does our superior knowledge that helps us understand our own mortality create in us a morbid fascination with our own death?
Rent or Buy? Flight From Death really made me want to add another option to this part – Rent, Buy or Avoid at all Cost!
Browse > Home / / NEWS | Playing on the BIG Screen!
In these days of dwindling box office numbers, theatre owners are always looking for new ways to fill seats, whether it be projecting sporting events and pay per view wrestling on the big screen, or in this case… video games. Starting on November 18th, a Kinepolis theater in Brugge, Belgium will be offering customers a chance to play Playstation 2 games on the big screen through the use of their digital projection system. The cost will be 15 Euros (US$19) for every half hour.
While it’s only available in Belgium at the moment, I can definitely see a service like this catching on here in North America. Even with the advent of big screen TVs at home, movie theaters will always have the edge on home theater systems when it comes to size. And as everyone knows, size does matter. I wonder if this could be the second coming of arcades? The only thing I’m unsure about is how profitable it will be. Renting an entire theater to a group of 10 friends seems like a bit of a waste for a theater that can seat hundreds of people. Apparently there aren’t many people watching movies in Belgium on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons!
Browse > Home / / NEWS | Snipes Plays Fugitive Again
In the strange continuing saga of Wesley Snipes and his tax fraud indictment, there have been conflicting reports over the past week regarding whether or not Snipes may have cut a deal with authorities that would allow him to avoid serving jail time.
Initially it was reported that he had agreed to a payment plan with the IRS, but then a few days later federal prosecutors announced that there was, in fact, no deal in place. “He’s considered a fugitive who seems to want to cooperate,” said a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Paul Perez.
Snipes is currently in Namibia where he is shooting his latest film Gallowwalker. Apparently they are making preparations for him to return to the U.S. to face charges, but they sure seem to be taking their time about it.
I’ve got nothing against Snipes, but why is it only the disgustingly rich people of this world try to avoid paying tax? Maybe that’s how they stay rich…
Darren Aronofsky's new film 'The Fountain' is turning it’s back on traditional CGI methods to create interstellar backdrops for his shots. Instead they employed an English dude called Peter Parks (left), master of the 'microzoom optical bench' to create backdrops using water, yeast and all kinds of crazy chemical reactions. Wired say it better than I ever could…
Aronofsky's team discovered the work of Peter Parks, a marine biologist and photographer who lives in a 400-year-old cowshed west of London. Parks and his son run a home f/x shop based on a device they call the microzoom optical bench. Bristling with digital and film cameras, lenses, and Victorian prisms, their contraption can magnify a microliter of water up to 500,000 times or fill an Imax screen with the period at the end of this sentence. Into water they sprinkle yeast, dyes, solvents, and baby oil, along with other ingredients they decline to divulge. The secret of Parks' technique is an odd law of fluid dynamics: The less fluid you have, the more it behaves like a solid. The upshot is that Parks can make a dash of curry powder cascading toward the lens look like an onslaught of flaming meteorites. "When these images are projected on a big screen, you feel like you're looking at infinity," he says. "That's because the same forces at work in the water – gravitational effects, settlement, refractive indices – are happening in outer space."
Taking another step further in making the XBox an entertainment-based console rather than just a video game machine, Microsoft has announced a plan to make movies and TV shows available for download through the XBox and XBox Live. Microsoft has partnered with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, CBS, MTV Networks, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. and Ultimate Fighting Championship to deliver a variety of programming to users.
Beginning on November 22nd (the first anniversary of XBox 360), XBox Live will feature rental HD copies of movies like Nacho Libre, Superman Returns, Mission:Impossible 3 and Batman Begins as well as download-to-own TV shows like "CSI," "South Park" and "Star Trek." Microsoft also hopes to have over 1,000 hours of downloadable content available by the end of the year. Oddly, none of the programming will be transferable to Microsoft's new Zune player, which they hope will compete with iPod. So far a pricing structure and file sizes have not been announced.
The question of course is; will there be enough room for iTunes, Google, Xbox and (eventually) Sony having their own download services? Who will win? Who will fail?
But more importantly for Kiwi XBox gamers, will this service be available in New Zealand? I’m awaiting news from XBox New Zealand, but I’m not hopeful. When Apple announced it was in the movie downloading business, there were severe regional restrictions outside of the US, and with New Zealand having no iTunes store, there was nothing for Kiwis. Similar can be expected with the XBox, as regional TV and Film distribution is owned by different companies, where as the XBox model would see all the revenues going back to the States, by passing the licensing deals struck with companies in New Zealand.
However, if Microsoft have thought this through and dealt with these issues, then the only thing left would be delayed releasing for different regions. Then the only issue is, would anyone in New Zealand be bothered downloading a movie with New Zealand’s archaic broadband speeds?
This is a cool time waster for fans of South Park, you get to build your own little version of you, South Park style. I may have taken a few liberties with mine, being a tad militant after having no sleep due to my neighborhood sounding like it was a war zone right up till 4am. If I don't get a good nights sleep tonight, I'll be out hunting for revenge...
Some people will do anything to get their hands on the planet’s hottest next-generation gaming console – and this was demonstrated last night, when a mystery bidder at the Raukatauri Music Therapy Centre fund-raising auction paid $7,500 for the ultimate ‘big night in’ at the Xbox 360 Room in Auckland.
The bidder will be able to take up to 10 friends to the Xbox 360 Room for an evening of next-generation gaming hosted by New Zealand hip hop stars Scribe, PNC and Con Psy of Frontline, playing some of the latest and Xbox 360 gamess.
Xbox product marketing manager Tom Hunt says, “We know Kiwis love Xbox 360, and this phenomenal bid really proves it.
“We’re pleased to have been involved with the RMTC again in 2006, and we’re absolutely stoked with the auction result for this extremely worthy cause.”
Personally, I think it’s a bit steep for a night out with the boys, but then it is for a very good cause.
The latest poster for Tom Tykwer’s dark thriller Perfume is a deliciously subtle, yet totally creepy masterpiece. The tag line sums it up nicely; He lived to find beauty. He killed to possess it.
Perfume is based on the bestselling novel by Patrick Süskind, and is a terrifying story of murder and obsession set in 18th-century France. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille has a unique talent for discerning the scents and smells that swirl around him, which he uses to create the world’s finest perfumes. Strangely lacking any scent of his own, he becomes obsessed with capturing the irresistible but elusive aroma of young womanhood. As Grenouille’s obsession turns deadly, twelve young girls are found murdered. Panic breaks out as people rush to protect their daughters, while an unrepentant and unrelenting Grenouille still lacks the final ingredient to complete his quest.
Despite reassurances by Microsoft and Peter Jackson that HALO would be a-OK after Fox and Universal bailed on the film due to budgetary concerns, Jackson's Wingnut Films announced this morning that production on the film has been halted indefinitely. "At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the 'Halo' video game universe," said the release. Jackson's agent said a few weeks ago that Microsoft was already in talks with other distribution partners after Fox and Universal backed out. But it seemed that Paramount/DreamWorks were the only studio truly in the running. Sony and Disney were out because of their competition with Microsoft (Sony owns Xbox rival Playstation while Apple founder Steve Jobs is the largest Disney shareholder). New Line was also out because of an ongoing lawsuit with Jackson over LORD OF THE RINGS. That left Warner Bros. and Paramount but word started to get out that the price was too high for the WB who was coming off a difficult year. That left Paramount and the likely destination but clearly that deal was unable to materialize as Jackson and Microsoft opted to instead put the film on hold. Should the film ever get back underway (and at the time both Jackson and Microsoft hope that it can), director Neill Blomkamp will likely still be involved as the release also noted, "We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp's vision of the film."
I’m not all that excited about this pic, maybe because I never got into transformers when I was a kid, but then Michael Bay does do some great brain-candy-action-flicks.
