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With the 2.0 (“Take 2″) update to the AppleTV you can now rent HD movies directly from your TV (admittedly I could already do this with my Xbox 360 but have not yet done so). So for my first rental I went with Live Free or Die Hard.
Die Hard 4.0 as it’s known in the rest of the world, is the story of a new-age terrorist attack and John McClane must stop it. Basically since everything’s done by computer now, the terrorist try to take everything (utilities, all communications) down and hold the country ransom, and it’s up to John to stop it. Overall the movie was great, 4/5.
So my brother and I went and saw the new Resident Evil movie today, and I have to say it wasn’t bad. For starters as any good sequel it builds off its predecessors nicely. Still following Alice (Milla Jovovich), we now see how royally frakked over the Umbrella Corporation has made the world. Basically think of how the world is in Command & Conquer, except where there’d be Tiberium in C&C there are zombies in RE. Extinction continues the trend of bringing actual characters from the game over into the movies, this time with Claire Redfield (Ali Larter). Also in keeping with the backwards order established in the second film, the main bad guy ends up being the boss from the second game. Go figure.
Anywho, go see it, it’s actually well put together (though they seem to have dropped almost all of the horror elements), and at least if you’ve seen the other ones you’ll probably enjoy this one.
Ahem, the executive summary to Stardust (with possible spoilers:
Stardust is about a guy named Tristan who goes after a shooting star to prove his love to a girl, and ends up finding his true love — which just happens to be the star that fell from the skies.
But the movie is so much more than just that simple premise, Easily the closest movie comparison would be to A Princess Bride, and that can only be a good thing. Of course nowadays movies have all the crazy cool CGI, and in that respect not only does Stardust not disappoint, but does not go overboard as well. After I got home I actually went on amazon and ordered the book of it (the fully illustrated version).
Anywho, go see it, I’ve babbled enough about the movie now. Go see it, again, a few times.
W00t! My copy of 300 on HD DVD came today, this made me very happy after a long day of work. So I watched it tonight of course, and it’s still as frakking awesome as it was in theaters, granted on a smaller screen. So go get it now if you have an HD DVD player, or go get the regular DVD version (or even [shudder] Blu Ray).
As for the special features, I’ve only gotten a chance to look at some of the videos in the special features, haven’t watched the PIP yet, but will definitely soon.
Well, I finally got my HD-DVD copy of Children of Men even though I hadn’t seen the movie yet. I have to say though that after watching it just two words pop to mind: Holy Shit. And I mean that in a good way.
Mini synopsis for those in the dark about the movie: Children of Men is set about 20 years in the future where mankind has lost the ability to have children, and shows the world in a collapse. The story revolves around Theo (played by Clive Owen) and his trials getting the miraculously pregnant Kee to the Human Project so they can try and save humanity.
In all the commercials they quote someone’s review stating that this movie “is this generations Blade Runner“, and after watching it I can see why in a way it is.
Another thing that gets mentioned a lot is the fact that they use a lot of long cuts (really long), to tell the story. I for one think it’s awesome and works so well to give a sense of immediacy to the film that other films are missing. It’s lovely, at first when you’re watching it you might not notice the fact that there aren’t any cuts, but you do notice it doesn’t quite feel like other films, and then it dawns on you that they haven’t cut away yet.
Having only watched the HD-DVD side of the disc I have to say the movie looks awesome, and even though it’s set in the future, it’s not the distant future where we’re all flying around in hover cars and jet suits. Instead it’s more of a present day setting all blown out from terrorism, bombings, wars, etc, etc.
All of that said, there’s just one simple thing you need to do: go buy it now!
So my brother and I went and saw the 300 on sunday, along with everyone else apparently. One thing is for certain though, “300″ is frakking good. One might expect that with all the cgi in the movie that it micht be, too unbelievable, but it all just works and the whole thing is well written. Anywho, I haven’t been one for a lot of words lately. After all I can’t go about all articulate and such, ‘cuz you know that’d be cool and all.
Anyways, just go see the movie already!
Well I finally saw, A Scanner Darkly, ane in a word I have to say trippy. The way they rotoscoped the entire movie instantly gives the films makers loads of options and really makes it so you can get the full effect of the story. If you haven’t heard the story before, basically it follows the story of a guy named Archer who works as an undercover drug cop. As the story unfolds he gets deeper and deeper and goes about taking all the drugs, and (spoilers) in the end he succumbs to them. In the end it is a pretty good movie. But as far as a rating goes, I’d say like a 3.75, not quite a 4.
Well I went to go see “Night at the Museum” with Ben Stiller and have to say that it was good. Granted it has some typical kids/family clichés in it, but not unbearable. If you haven’t seen a trailer for it yet then I shall have to elucidate you. It all starts with the lead character losing his previous job and needing to find a new one. And of course the museum is hiring, and then the fun starts. Over the remainder of the movie the inhabitants of the museum come to life at night and run amok. Overall without spoiling anything it’s a good movie. I give it a 4 out of 5, or whatever scale you want to use.
Bond is back, baby! Pure and simple, 007 is back and in some ways better than ever. Daniel Craig does an excellent job as the new James Bond, and I for one hope to see many new Bond movies coming out, especially in this more raw format without all the special effects of the last couple Brosnan movies. It’s nice to see the beginnings of Bond and how he got his Double-0 status, and why he doesn’t fall in love anymore or get attached to people. In short I wanna go see it again.
As an aside I went with my brother to go see Casino Royale at the Carmike theatre here in town, and what was cool is that all of the Carmike theaters have been upgraded to/with DLP. In short, it looks awesome. There are none of the pops and dust and scratches that you see once in a while (or a lot, depending on theater) with regular film. One randomly cool thing is that before the movie starts the screen is only the size of the slides for the ads, but when the movie starts the screen subtly expands out to full size. Now Carmike just needs to upgrade their seating and they could conceivably get a lot more business than the Century Theatre here in town.
Whoops, look at the time. Work, work, work, work, oh–and did I mention work?!
That’s all I’ve been up to as of late. In between the previous post and this one, I’ve seen a few different movies, and gotten some new games.
As for movies, I went and saw The Descent: Pretty good, not really as jump-scary as people have/had said, more a kind of freaky scary. But overall it was pretty good, and I think I’ll probably get the dvd when it comes out over here.
I saw some movies on dvd lately, too; Inside Man is a pretty dang good heist movie plain and simple. Go get it. 
Kingdom of Heaven is mighty long (about 3:30 hrs), but ultimately a really good Middle Age movie.
And finally, The Transporter is a really, really good action movie. Great chase scenes, great fight scenes. What more is there to say about it?
Onto some gaming newsies…
I’ve gotten a few new 360 games (as you can see by clicking on my Gamercard on the side there);
Dead Rising: Basically think Dawn of the Dead as a video game. You play as Frank West–a photo journalist–on the job to discover what is really going on in the area and where all the zombies are coming from. Anywho, the game is really great even when your just dinking around killing zombies.
N3 – Ninety Nine Nights: Basically Dynasty Warriors but not set in ancient China or Japan. and of course it’s more “next-gen” than even Dynasty Warriors 5 for the 360 is, you can see all the way across the level (or pretty dang close) and the fallen enemies stay on the battlefield until you finish the level, so by the time you finish the field is just littered with bodies.
And finally, I got rid of my PowerMac G5 that I had (a dual 1.8 Ghz machine), and got a new Mac Pro (from MacPros). Needless to say I’ve been playing with that the past few days, and it’s just way too much fun. 
That’s pretty much it for now. Just working (or more accurately, slaving) away. Until next time!
