The apes are back!

The Planet of the Apes franchise is coming back yet again this summer for another go but this time it’s quite different from the previous six iterations. None of the previous tellings have really tried to explain how these apes came to have human-like speech and cognitive abilities.

This is where the prequel [...]

Apple goes too far with subscription money grab

You have to give Apple credit for chutzpah. Last week they announced a new subscription system for content available on iOS devices and they are trying to grab revenues that they have no legitimate claim too.  I love Apple design and I prefer to use Apple computers and iPods over any [...]

Spartacus: What a difference 50 years makes

Having now watched the first two episodes of the Starz series Spartacus:Gods of the Arena and re-watched last year’s Spartacus:Blood and Sand, I decided to go back and re-watch the 1960 Stanley Kubrik film based on the revolutionary gladiator.  Wow, what a difference half a century makes. I’ve long been a [...]

Movie remakes

We got the new 2006 version of The Omen in the mail from Netflix today and it raises a question. What is the point of remaking a film shot for shot from a one that was good to start with? If you have nothing new to offer, why bother to spend tens of millions [...]

Best Ford and Sony commercial ever

Jules, Max and I went to see Casino Royale this afternoon and it’s definitely the best Ford and Sony commercial yet. Oh yeah and it’s also a really good James Bond movie. The first chase sequence after the opening credits was absolutely amazing, and must be seen to be believed. The whole movie was [...]

Improving bad Star Wars Dialog

Star Wars creator George Lucas has long been accused (rightfully so) of being incapable of writing decent dialog. Some of his dialog has in fact been truly awful especially in the Episode 1,2 & 3 movies. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t be improved. Checking Digg this morning, I found the following site. Top [...]

Young FrankenSteve

Some years ago a video surfaced on the internet that could probably be considered one of the earliest viral videos. This video became widely known as the MonkeyBoy video. Someone shot it a Microsoft professional developers conference during a speech by Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer. Ballmer has always been known as being rather loud [...]

It’s time for the big one

OK the time has come for long awaited big earthquake that sucks California into the Pacific. At least Hollywood needs to be put out of our misery. They clearly have nothing worthwhile left to offer the world. I was scanning through Digg tonight and what should I find but a story about the trailer [...]

An Inconvenient Truth

We went to see Al Gore’s global warming movie yesterday, An Inconvenient Truth. The movie was great and really laid out all evidence of global heating. Although I have seen and heard much of this evidence before, seeing it in one place really brings it home. One thing that concerned me going in was [...]

Free video for small devices

I recently replaced my Motorola V710 cell phone with a palm Treo 650 smart-phone. The phone came free as a result of a class action settlement with verizon wireless. The timing worked out great because although the v710 worked great for me as a phone, the batteries in both the phone and my palm [...]