Archive for February, 2008

D-War: Dragon Wars

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

For the most part, I’ve always thought that the SciFi Channel Saturday night original movies were absolutely the worst science fiction movies out there. This evening I watched what may be a step down from the SciFi Channel originals, and the sad part is, this movie even made a brief appearance on the big screen.

D-War, otherwise known as Dragon Wars is what happens when you take something that aspires to be a “C grade” (nope, not even a b grade!) monster movie and combine it with fight scenes that look like they were filmed for The Power Rangers. The movie is so cheap that the military vehicles, tanks, choppers, and even uniforms don’t have a distinguishing mark on them. No name tags, no insignias, not even a U.S. flag. I might have been able to overlook those details if the tanks didn’t spit out sparks every time they fired their main cannon.

It looks like the only way for the writers to get around the huge plot holes in the movie was to mix in bad acting with even worse special effects. By the time this one is over with, you’ll be ready to slit your wrists.

HD-DVD Is Dead

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

It’s official, HD-DVD is dead, which sadly means that Sony’s Blu-Ray format has won the war. I wasn’t a fan of Blu-Ray for the simple fact that I don’t like Sony. None-the-less, this is good news for the consumers as now there is only one high definition disk format.

Of course many still believe that HD downloads will triumph over physical media. You know, they might be right. Look at the success iTunes, Napster, and other services have had with downloadable music. Only recently have I jumped on the iTunes bandwagon. I’ve always been a fan of having the physical CD and book, but why? iTunes now offers the same book in a PDF format.

Digital storage space is so cheap these days, and once you’ve purchased several hundred DVDs, CDs, and other disks you’ll probably end up in a predicament like me. Where to put everything. With digital space, I can just add more. That’s a bit harder to do for physical media, unless I want to add on to my house.

So yes, I’d have to side with digital downloads. It looks like the way things are headed.

About All Of The Microsoft-Yahoo News

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

In the past few weeks there has been a lot more news about the whole attempt from Microsoft to buy Yahoo. People have left, everyone and their brother has voiced their opinion on the deal, and others are even suing Yahoo for turning down the deal.

There has been so much going on, that I’m tired of hearing about it. So, this is the last I’ll be posting about it until something final happens. They’ll be plenty of other blogs and news sites covering every aspect of Microhoo.

Jericho

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

Thanks to a successful fan revolt, we brought Jericho back for a 2nd season. Granted, it may only be fore 7 episodes, but so far the episodes are really kicking ass.

As good as this season has been so far, it looks like the fans are in for another disappointment. The low number of viewers so far means that this is probably the last we’ll see of Jericho. It’s a shame too, because this really is a damn good show. What can you do though when the show airs at 10:00 pm on a Tuesday.

Saw IV

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

If you can get past the extreme gore, the Saw movies so far have been fantastic. For those of you that cannot get past the gore, we’ll then you’ll end up missing the entire movie.

As with the other movies in the series, Saw IV picks back up right where the others left off, and continues to fill in the pieces of the puzzle (no pun intended). Saw IV brings in a few new faces, in addition to several that we’ve seen before. Tobin Bell reprises his role has Jigsaw, and he’s created some new traps for everyone to play with.

Bottom line is the Saw movies aren’t for everyone, but if you’ve enjoyed the others than you’ll like this one. I did.

The Spiderwick Chronicles

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

Yesterday I took the wife out to see The Spiderwick Chronicles. While she enjoyed it, I felt the movie was pretty flat and boring. Granted, it was intended as a kids movie, and it did have some fairly nice special effects, but overall it felt rushed and like it was missing something.

Actually, for those of you that have read the books, this movie was actually missing quite a bit. It might have been better if they had split everything up into two movies. The movie could have also used a bit more Nick Nolte.

Yahoo News Roundup

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

It’s been a busy week for me, and there’s been a lot of Yahoo news going on. Rather than post about everything separately, I’ll throw it all into once nice post that way I can get on to bed (I told you The Invasion bored me!).

For whatever reason, Microsoft thought it’d be a good idea to make a bid to take over Yahoo. No one that I knew expected any government to accept the deal, and thankfully yesterday Yahoo officially rejected Microsoft. This announcement came after the rumor surfaced that Yahoo may be looking to merge into Time Warner’s fledgling AOL division. AOL-Time Warner-Yahoo? Suddenly, I liked the whole Microsoft idea better.

Not long after Yahoo dissed the company Gate’s built, Microsoft issued a press release stating that it was unfortunate that Yahoo decided to turn down an offer that would create a more effective company. I guess Microsoft’s idea of being effective is releasing crap software well past the original release date (Vista anyone?). Now it looks like Microsoft has hired a proxy firm in an attempt for a hostile takeover.

Meanwhile, Yahoo has begun to layoff some 1,000 employees. Among those out the door is Salim Ismail, who has lead Yahoo Brickhouse since early 2007. According to TechCrunch, Salim left voluntary. He’ll most likely create a small startup and get bought up by Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft. Any bets?

With all the take over talks, merger proposals, and the layoffs, you’d think that’d be enough for Yahoo. Nope, today they acquired Maven Networks for $160 million.

And that’s pretty much the gist of the Microsoft-Yahoo saga that’s gone on for the past few days. Oh yeah, Yahoo also had a couple software releases, but who cares about those right now.

The Invasion

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

So, I just finished watching The Invasion. This one was so bad, it could have been a SciFi channel original movie. It’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (literally) with nothing but boredom added. I’m not sure who was trying the hardest to stay awake during the movie, Nicole Kidman’s character or me.

Really, I don’t know what else to say about the movie.

Jericho Returns Tonight

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

Back from the dead, tonight Jericho returns to CBS! Tune in tonight at 10 pm and support the great show!

Val Kilmer Is the New K.I.T.T.?

Friday, February 8th, 2008

SciFi wire is reporting that due to a contractual conflict, Will Arnett is not going to be doing the voice of K.I.T.T. in the upcoming Knight Rider sequel. Stepping in to be the voice the supped up Ford Mustang is…. Val Kilmer.

I don’t know if Val has redone the voice work for the movie which airs a week from Sunday, or if he’ll be taking over if the show is picked up down the road. My question is, how did Val get into this.