Category Archives: Movies
Will Ferrell Has Jumped the Shark
Can we all agree that Will Ferrell has jumped the shark and has stopped being funny? I have said this since Anchorman, but while then I was mocked for saying so, it appears the rest of the world has finally caught up.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved Old School. I think however that the definition of what is “funny” is fluid and changes over time. Ben Stiller style comedy was funny in the late 90s – think Meet The Parents weird real world that could potentially happen to a normal guy comedy. Then Will Ferrell took over with Old School, and what I would call stupid, brazen, asshole comedy. That waned and Borat style “reality” comedy was big. Now it is Apatow and crew comedy where with the lovable loser and one liners (Knocked Up/40 year old virgin).
After Old School, came Anchorman. Even then, I felt it was more of the same. But most people loved it. Anchorman was followed up with Talladega Night: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Here most people had fallen off the bandwagon. The basic laughs were just rehashes. Nothing new or provocative.
Sure, he had his ups. I love “Stranger Than Fiction”, but even in reviews it was noted that this was not typical Will Ferrell fare. And who can forget Pearl the Landlord?
This was largely successful because it was shockingly different. It might have been Will Ferrell humor, but we were startled by a toddler saying the lines instead of a man-baby.
Ferrell then went back to what he knew. Semi-Pro, which was god awful, followed up quickly with Step Brothers, another terrible attempt.
This past weekend, Will tried again with the same tired routine. Land of the Lost opened this past weekend. It got terrible reviews. It did even worse in sales. It opened third behind “Up!” and “The Hangover”. Up! was in its second week, not even a debut weekend. The Hangover didn’t have any A-list celebrities but still beat out Ferrell’s film. (by the way, Hangover was really funny – go see it!). In fact, it didn’t even make half of what Hangover did.
Will needs to revamp his comedy. I know he is used to recurring characters on SNL, but we can’t laugh at the same material 8 times. His core audience of 12 year olds is growing up. He should grow with them.
Entertainment Producers Encouraged to Come to Virginia
A new bill going through the Virginia General Assembly is poised to bring more entertainment projects to Virginia by offering state funds to help them pay for their projects.
The bill is Senate Bill 1421 and it states that anytime someone rents a movie in a hotel room, a 10% tax will be applied to the price of that movie rental.
Half of that tax goes to the Virginia general funds, half goes to the Governor’s Motion Picture Opportunity Fund. This fund is stated to “support the film and video industries in Virginia by providing the means for attracting production companies and producers who make their projects in the Commonwealth using Virginia employees, goods and services.” And “The types of projects eligible for consideration will be feature films, children’s programs, documentaries, television series or other television programs designed to fit a thirty-minute or longer format slot.” So the type of projects open to the funding is pretty broad.
Why would the state fund hollywood projects? Because when a huge movie crew comes to shoot a movie, they bring a large crew and cast. These people have to eat, lodge and basically live here for a few months. They will spend money, which helps out the economy far larger than the amount the state would be giving to the producer.
Like Warm Apple Pie, That’s Been Reheated Four Times
Apparently American Pie 4 is in the works and about to be released unto the world.
I guess Jason Biggs isn’t getting the work he wants and is trying to rework the magic formula that got him his big start- humping pies, premature ejaculation, and other frat boy sex jokes.
No kidding- I LOVED this movie when I was in HS/middle school when it came out. I actually bought it on DVD. Saw the second one in theaters with a big group of friends. But aren’t we a bit past all of this now? This was classic 90s comedy. That era has passed. Its all about the Apatow now.
Considering how little anticipation this movie is creating, I can’t see it making much money- so it probably won’t have much funding and probably will be poorly made. Sigh.
PS – I did a quick google search. Did you realize how much mileage they got out of this brand? There were a BUNCH of straight to DVD movies. Just tarnish the fond memories of my childhood.
- American Pie
- American Pie 2
- American Wedding
- American Pie Presents: Band Camp
- American Pie Presents: Naked Mile
- American Pie Presents: Beta House
Now only the first three had the original cast. The last three were completely different. If this new one has the same old cast, perhaps just maybe it will be good. Good luck convincing everyone to come back. I’m sure many of them want to put this series behind them.
Stop Watching Chick Flicks
I’ve been espousing this theory for years, but I’m glad this concept is being recognized in more media sources.
Relationship experts are saying that romantic comedies are creating too high expectations for people in their relationships.
Last week, researchers at Heriot Watt University’s Family and Personal Relationships Laboratory in Edinburgh, which studies best practices in relationship counseling, completed a study of 40 Hollywood romantic comedies released between 1995-2005. They found that problems typically reported by couples in relationship counseling at their counseling center reflect misconceptions about love and romance depicted in Hollywood films.
People watch these films, where the guy knows exactly how to win the girl over by some miracle or doing just the right thing that is perfectly suited for the female lead. Apparently people are too dumb to realize that these stories are written pieces of fiction. You’d think that since women constantly ask “what are you thinking?” they would know that humans don’t have the ability to read minds. But they don’t.
Relationship counselors often face common misconceptions in their clients — that if your partner truly loves you they’d know what you need without you communicating it, that your soul mate is predestined. We did a rigorous content analysis of romantic comedies and found that the same issues were being portrayed in these films,” the university’s Dr Bjarne Holmes says.
Now, before you call me unromantic – I like romance, I just think you can’t expect hollywood style storylines in real life. This is the same thing as the 13 year old girl watching Super Sweet Sixteen on MTV and demanding a mercedes and TI to perform at her birthday party. This is the same reason guys shouldn’t watch too much porn. It simply creates unrealistic expectations. Girls – don’t expect your guy to somehow sense exactly what you are feeling and thinking at all times and Guys- don’t expect her to be up for a threesome with that strange girl you just met in a bar.
Admitted- Maybe I am just bitter because I am single during the holidays.
Streaming HBO Soon?
With the networks like FOX and NBC streaming full episodes online many of the shows I watch can be viewed online. This model works for the networks because they broadcast for free, and pay for shows through advertising. This is the hurdle preventing subscription channel cable networks like HBO from doing this model. Sure, you can buy episodes from iTunes, but you are still paying twice -once for the network, once for the downloaded copy.
So, if you subscribe to HBO but are on the road and miss that episode you are out of luck (and some money). Soon however, this might not be the case! HBO put out a survey asking if people would take advantage of an HBO.com streaming service. There weren’t many specifics, but this at least shows they are thinking about it.
It would probably work so that if you subscribe to HBO you could also view the network from the website while away from home. It will be interesting to see the verification process to determine you are a legitimate subscriber. The other way this could work is as a simple pay service. So, whether you subscribe or not, you could purchase streaming rights to HBO.com for a monthly fee. This is probably one of the few things still tying me to my cable service. Everything else I can find (legally) online. If I could pay something like under $10 a month for hbo.com I would find it very easy to cut the cable.
Star Trek Trailer
At the risk of being outet as a closet nerd. I think I am a bit excited about the new Star Trek movie. Its directed by JJ Abrams (creator of Lost), and it looks pretty good. Check out the trailer below before YouTube finds out and takes it down.
Time to cut the cable?
My Comcast bill is an astounding $180 per month. Unlike some, I have nothing negative to say about their service. In fact, I can’t remember it going out or having any trouble at all. It has been more stable than the electricity in my apartment.
However, I don’t know if it is worth $180 per month. The rundown of my package:
Cable: all basic channels, expanded channels HBO, Showtime and the HD package and DVR.
Internet: Basic lowest tier service- which is actually still VERY fast.
Now, what do I really watch?
Entourage, 30 Rock, Mad Men, MSNBC, CNN Religiously. Otherwise? I’ll catch an episode of Weeds or HBO movies or The Hills.
Recently, more and more services have been going online- either for free, or available for purchase through iTunes.
So, how hard would it be to give up cable? For this purpose, I would still need cable internet, but that runs about $50 per month, so I could eliminate a big part of my bill.
Any of the network shows (30 Rock, Office, Project Runway, Hills) I could get on NBC.com, Mtv.com or Hulu.com. If I wanted higher quality HD video I could purchase it from iTunes. Then, I could run a VGA cable from my computer to my TV and watch it pretty easily.
For pay services like AMC’s Mad Men or Entourage I would have to wait for it to come to iTunes (which with Mad Men is next day) or buy it on DVD when the season comes out a few months later. Not too bad of a deal really.
The biggest problem would come from sporting events. However, friends’ houses or hell even bars would work for big events like the superbowl.
News is extremely easy – any website. Plus, I can even get my liberal talking points from Keith Olbermann on MSNBC.com on video the night of!
Movies that I catch on HBO could be covered by a Netflix subscription – easily cheaper than HBO and Showtime are currently.
The hardest part would be quality. For any free service, the video would be on my tiny laptop screen, probably around 480 dpi. Certainly quality will improve with time.
Anyone actually living without the cable? Hows it working for you?
Flash of Genius
Great IP themed movie just came out.
If you want to get your friends to understand why IP is important and exciting to you, this would be a good movie to get them to see.
Billed as educational while also inspiring and entertaining, the early reviews have been positive. The story is based on the true story of college professor and part-time inventor Robert Kearns’s (Greg Kinnear) long battle with the U.S. automobile industry and his fight to receive recognition for his invention. Kearns took on a battle that nobody thought he could win.
Kearns invented and patented the intermittent windshield wiper mechanism for use in light rain or mist and tried to license it to the big automakers. They all rejected his idea and then some went ahead and put intermittent wipers in their cars beginning in 1969. In 1967, he received the first of more than 30 patents for his wipers. He sued Ford in 1978 and Chrysler in 1982 for patent infringement.
Ford argued that Kearns’ patents were overly broad and therefore invalid. In 1990, a jury decided that Ford infringed on Kearns’ patent, though it concluded the infringement was not deliberate. Ford had contended the patent was invalid because the windshield system contained no new concepts. But Kearns argued a new combination of parts made his invention unique.
That jury failed to reach agreement on how much he should be awarded, and another jury later ordered Ford to pay Kearns $6.3 million, trimmed by a judge to $5.2 million. To settle the case, Ford agreed to pay $10.2 million and to drop all appeals. Chrysler ended up paying Kearns $18.7 million plus interest.
Batman’s Voice
The Dark Knight was a great movie. Even better than the first one. But seriously, whats up with Batman’s voice? Someone needs to get Christian Bale a cough drop… and a good attorney.
High Def DVD Format Marketing
The HD-DVD v. Blu-Ray format war is almost over. Blu-ray signed 80% of major movie studios to exclusive deals, so soon the choice will be made.
Why did Blu-ray win? Just like the Betamax v. VHS war of years past, the technology was not the driving factor. Also, strangely, the more competitively priced product lost. So, what was the magic factor?
I would argue that the same thing that makes most products successful is what won the day for Blu-Ray. Marketing, and more specifically the names of each product.
HD-DVD seems like a logical trail. HD is High definition television. So, HD-DVD should be High definition DVDs, right? Think about how many of your friends (or at least their parents) own a brand new flat screen, but still don’t subscribe to HD programming. They assume they are watching TV in HD because they got that expensive, giant plasma. The same problem happened with HD-DVD. Some people bought HD-DVD players, and then never bought an actual HD-DVD disc. They just assumed it amped up their normal DVDs. Some bought HD-DVDs and tried to play them on their normal DVD players.
Just to add salt to the wound – some normal DVD players “upscaled” normal DVDs to high definition resolution. But this is not true Hig-def. From about.com’s explanation:
The upscaling process does a good job of matching the upscaled pixel output of a DVD player to the native pixel display resolution of an HDTV capable television, resulting in better detail and color consistency.
However, upscaling, as it is currently implemented, cannot convert standard DVD images into true high-definition images. In fact, although upscaling works well with fixed pixel displays, such as Plasma and LCD televisions, results are not always consistent on CRT-based high definition televisions.
This did not stop the players from being labled “High Def compatible”.
On the other side, Blu-Ray, from the name alone is understood as a brand new product and concept. It has a neat web 2.0 name. There is no confusion with the old, normal DVD.
The ultimate litmus test came when I was home for the holidays. My dad who still doesn’t get the concept that he can check his yahoo mail on any computer. He thinks the email resides on his computer at home. My dad, upon seeing an ad for Blu-ray, leaned over to me and said “thats the next big thing in home entertainment”. This was after I had bought an HD-DVD player on one of those crazy black friday ads. So, I knew I was cooked.
It’s all about the name of the product.
