The Possibility of Hope

I finally got the chance to see "Children of Men", and enjoyed it very much. There is a documentary on the hd-dvd called "The Possibility of Hope" which kind of gives you an overview of our world and how we F it up and continue to do so. I found it to be very scary yet fascinating. Check it out in 3 parts:

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

This makes me smile...

When Hitchcock Meets Scorsese...

Yummy Japanese Pizza!

Mayonnaise and Shrimp filled crust. Awesome.

The Forbiddon Kingdom trailer

If this had come out about 10 or 15 years ago I would spoiled my pants. Jackie Chan and Jet Li in the same kung-fu epic! Still this looks fun.

Rambo 4 trailer

It's on bitches...



nostalgia goosebumps!

The Format War Rages On !

Hola. It has been a while since I have been blogging. Work has been quite steady at the old Immotion Studios. I finished my two rough cuts this week on our two big videos this month, go great feedback and high praise for the work, and today I find myself completely burned to a crisp creatively... Hopefully over the next month or so I should be blogging about more crazy films, and even some good news from the filmmaking front here in Funkytown.

I have seen a few films recently... 28 Weeks Later was a lot of fun to watch. I really hope they make one more to complete a really sweet trilogy. Also watched Mr. Brooks, a serial killer movie with Kevin Costner. I thought it was decent, but could have explored the inner self more than getting caught up in the procedural side of things.

I have been really into the high def dvd market for a while now. It has been almost 2 years now since both hd-dvd and blu-ray came out, and blu-ray still is kicking arse it seems. However as much as I am a supporter of the Blu, a funny thing happened on the way to Wal Mart the other day. It seems that Toshiba (the only manufacturer of HD-DVD players) got super desperate the other week and decided to offer the old HD-DVD A2 player for 98 bux at Walmart and Best Buy. Granted there are many wonderful films that are only on HD-DVD that I am dying to peep in HD, that I can't get my blu-ray hands on, so i took the plunge, and picked one up and got 5 free hd-dvds to boot. So actually the player was free in one sense.

So now after reading all the articles about which one is better and so on, I had the chance to check it out with my own eyes. And the truth is, the difference is minimal as expected, but what i found on some heavy extras discs, there is not enough storage capicity to but everything on a single platter, so again like in normal dvd we are back to the flipper disc, or the double disc set. The image itself looks great on films, though this 98 buck player only outputs 1080i not p like the blu's do. But unless you have a highly trained eye, it won't matter too much to the average movie lover. Now the one thing I am totally digging about hd-dvd at the moment, is the "In Movie Experience" on some discs. What it is, is that you start your flick, and turn on this feature and boom while you are watching the movie, a little PIP window pops p and gives you insight into the making of the film. Wheter it be an interview with crew or cast, its really cool. Now this dvd player also has a ethernet pot to where you can take that experience even further and say you see a sweet ass car in Miami Vice and want to know more about that particular car, you can scroll over the car and it hooks up to the web during the movie and gives you info on that car as you are watching it. Pretty sweet! Apparantly blu-ray will have this next year.

So am i traitor for this act of home video treason? Nah, I just wanted to see Batman Begins in HD! If you really stand back and look at this current format war, its kind of sad that Toshiba is having to basically give players away to stay in the game, but hey for home entertainment geeks like myself it gives me the chance to get a few movies i really love and see them in a better light. And after its all said and done, thats what its really all about, is seeing movies the best way possible and to enjoy them the best way you can. In the immortal words of the Highlander, there can be only one. I think that will be Blu-ray when the holiday wars settle. It's a more robust and advanced technology that came out too quick to try and get in there before hd-dvd took over. And by the way, "2001" on blu-ray is un freaking real.

I'll try and write up some hd-dvd/blu-ray reviews on vacation. There are a bunch of titles waiting for me at home to spin, like Close Encounters, Oldboy, Children of Men, etc. To keep up with the mighty small war, i would go to this site called HighDef Digest. Click HERE

Slso a good article on the war is over at dvdfile.com:

Click HERE for that one.

D-Harp

Was watching the pre-game show for the Mavs/Blazers game on Saturday night. Found this to be most interesting....

Congrats to the Draganic's!!!

My partner in crime at Immotion Studios, Marjia had her baby this Monday in the front seat of a car on the way to the hospital. (and if you know her, this makes total sense) Fox 4 was there!

Darth Vader Fun Time!

Blood on the Highway trailer

Good friend, Barak has a trailer up for his new feature, "Blood on the Highway". Check the website HERE or peep the trailer below.

The Season begins again...

Well the basketball gods were quite cruel to the Mavs and the Rockets last May. Only the Spares (I mean Spurs) were lucky enough to win the prize. With the new season on the horizon on Halloween, here are some HSO's on both the Mavs and Rockets...

The Dallas Mavericks:

This is without a doubt the best team in the NBA. Even with the fizzle in the Finals and last years total breakdown in Round 1, they still have better chemistry and talent than any other team in the league. They can beat the Spurs without even thinking about it. The problem is the one team out of every other team in the NBA that the Mavs can't beat is the Warriors. Hopefully the tweaks of Eddie Jones, Trenton Hassell, and Brandon Bass will be enough to knock that little problem child off this year. They looked great in Pre-Season when all the starters played. Devin looks improved as a leader much like Tony Parker did earlier in his career. The question marks are in the Center position. With Damp still hurt till December, and his usual long comebacks, will the Mavs have any depth at all in the center position. Diop can't play the entire game, and putting Dirk in there, only hurts our offense in stretches. The other big question mark for me is the starting shooting guard. It looks as if the greatness of JET will be on the bench this season. And a rotating starter of Stack, Jones, and maybe even Hassell will be back court with Devin. The Mavs need to concentrate on winning but not winning every game they can to the point of exhaustion by the end of the year. The Spurs will remain the lurking snake in the grass they always are. Other than them and the Rockets and Warriors, it seems pretty smooth sailing. PHX could always be a problem, but as the Spurs did so wonderfully last year in the playoffs, and expose them as the one-trick pony show they really are, i don't fear them in a series much, just on a per game basis.

The Houston Rockets



Many people say this could be the year for the Rockets. So was last year and the year before that. However this is the most loaded this team has been in a while. New couch Rick Adelman will cast out a lot of van gundy's defensive mind numbing play style for a more up tempo old school Kings offense. McGrady now has plenty of ball handlers, which frees him to be T-Mac and not a point guard. The Spurs may have made the biggest blunder in the draft by giving Luis Scolia to the Rockets for Jackie Butler? Scolia went on to be the MVP of the FIBA games this year and is impressive. He will prolly end up being a starting forward once he adjusts to the NBA. He's a rookie, but has played for along time overseas and has kicked many a NBA player ass int he Olympics. He's tough minded with no fear and is a younger stronger Ginobli. Spurs, what were you thinking? I would have waived Finley for him. The other thing that concerns me is Yao in Adelman's offense. Can he keep pace up and down running. We all know this is Yao's weakest spot. He gets winded and is always last one down the floor. I only saw on pre-season game so I don't know how this will play out but ESPN has them in front of the Mavs and Spurs for the year in terms of records. And finally Mike James and my beloved Stevie Francis is back on the team. Great to see those guys back. Especially since both have played with Yao before and know where he likes the ball sent to in the post. Looking forward to wearing my old Francis jerseys to a Rockets game!

And finally I leave with this piece of uncomfortable journalism. A young reporter who may be dead now, tries to interview one of my fav players of all time, Sam Cassell. Sam is the point guard for the LA Clippers, and this is one of the most cringe inducing interviews of all time.

My Wife's Dreams are like this....

Is This Necessary? And Will I Watch? Of Course.

Zu:The Cat Warrior from Magic Mountain ?

One of my co-workers today found this cat with 4 legs and only 3 paws. We are taking him in for a while.

I have named him Zu.

The Jacques Tati Experience

Well I must admit that this weekend I did get on a bit of a foreign film fetish. My former boss and close friend, Bobbie introduced to me the works of French auteur Jacques Tati. I was not all that familiar with his work until Bobbie had a screening at the Modern of one of his films, called Mr. Hulot's Holiday. I really enjoyed the film and set out to see some of his other films, particularly those featuring his alter ego Mr. Hulot. Tati stars and directs his films that are at times on par with Chaplin and Keaton. His alter ego Hulot is a bit of a mix of Seller's Clouseau and a tad of Mr Bean for those looking for something to describe him as. He's a French klutz that means well but usually his honesty and good nature bring him nothing but trouble. Tati started as a mime and his films continue this theme as the films work on a silent level, with pretty much minimal dialog and lotsa sound/fx for all the sight gags. He wears his trademark raincoat, umbrella as a cane, and pipe. In Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953) he takes a vacation to a resort that results in a series of misunderstandings and physical gags that have such genuine charm it makes you love the character of Mr. Hulot so much, you hate to see him leave.



I started my new Tati journeys with the follow-up to "Mr. Hulot's Holiday", "Mon Oncle" (1958). In Oncle Hulot lives in a small town near his nephew whom he seems to be closer to in age than the adults in the town. His sister and husband live in a super-duper state of the art home with automatic gates, robot kitchens and the best gag of all the Fish statue that spits water out whenever someone comes in the gate. Although the funny thing about that particular gag is that it's Hulot's sister that has to turn the fountain on b4 anyone can come into the gate of the home. This theme is what is at the heart of Mon Oncle to me. Tati has a series of failed attempts at working in a factory, and a disastrous attempt at a romantic hookup at a dinner party by his sister, but alas the theme of this movie all goes back to that Fish. Tati to me at least is saying look at how silly we are that we worship gadgets, technology, and appearances. Tati does a good job here in balancing the comedy with satire. My only complaint was that it felt maybe about 20-30 minutes too long. Other than that I had a lot of fun with Mon Oncle, and I would welcome another view sometime.



The next one I popped in was called Playtime from 1967. It took Tati 3 or 4 years to film it, and after watching it you can see why. It's attention to detail is amazing. most scenes are played all in long shots with tons of extras and gags all going on at once. The film takes place in Paris mainly in a modern state of the art skyscraper as Tati's Mr' Hulot attempts to track down a busy executive to finish running an erand. the scenes with Hulot are great, but tend to drag at points. And where the film lost me is Tati's obsession with technology. Like a bad hangover from Mon Oncle's house he dwells on this for way too long. There are points where Hulot disappears from stretches of the film for what seems like half an hour. At over two hours the film is overlong. The best genius in this film is that as Hulot is tracking this guy down there is a secondary story of a female tourist dying to see Paris, when all she does is tour this crazy skyscraper. Whenever she opens a door in this building there is a reflection of the Eiffel Tower and other great Paris locations. I thought that was a genius visual move on Tati's part and I think it gets his point across better than anything else in the film. What I loved about Hulot's holiday and even mostly in Oncle is Hulot's humanity in this crazy world. In Playtime the character of Hulot gets lost in Tati's huge message canvas. It's technically a sight to behold as a filmmaker you can feel him growing as you go along, but at the same time I felt I signed up for a Hulot film, and although I was enlightened I was somewhat disappointed.

There is one more Hulot adventure I have not seen called Trafic, where Hulot plays a automobile inventor on his way to an auto show in a tech loaded RV. That sounds really fun, and I can't wait to see it. i did some more research on Tati, and on the Playtime DVD from Criterion, there is a second disc of documentaries and interviews that shed some more light on this really genius and incredible influential comedian that has influenced Mr. Bean, Monty Python, Peter Sellers, and countless others. For first timers I would recommend Mr. Hulot's Holiday and Mon Oncle. And yes Amy there are dogs in outfits.

Here is a the official Tati website. Be warned its design is more complicated and confusing as Tati could have ever imagined! Also look below for the trailer to Mon Oncle..

Click HERE to enter Tativille.com

DVD Review: Born to Fight

This weekend I watched one of the most insane movies ever. It's a kung-fu flick called "Born to Fight" from Thailand that defies explanation. It's not a good movie per se, its just that the fighting scenes are so bizarre and over the top that you can't help but have a good time. The plot is simple, a rogue terrorist group takes over a small country village in Thailand and sets up a nuclear missile aimed at a big city, and unless the government hands over some $ the prisoners get it. And boy do they. This movie is harsh with its violence, but then a crazy dude with one leg shows up and kicks a gord off a tree and into the head of a terrorist with a gun. Then soccer balls are used to knock off a few dudes in tree houses. That one had me rolling.

This film stars Dan Chupong and amazingly he survived this insanity directed by the equally insane Prachya Pinkaew. Mr. Pinkaew made a few of the Tony Jaa Films, like Ong bak and The Protector (aka Tom Yum Goong) Then there are the stunts which are all totally real and not CG. I mean some of them are downright painful to watch. In fact I've seen every Jackie Chan movie ever made and there were stunts in this movie that i have never even imagined were possible. Jackie would never be insane enough to do some of these. I'll be honest with you the mid section of the movie is a little drawn out, but then the ending action sequence happens. It's at least 45 mins long, and is the most insane thing you have ever seen. It really is almost too much to take in one viewing. I wanted to explain it to my wife, but I didn't know where to start. ( a dude gets toasted at short range with a missile launcher!) Like I said, this is not fine cinema, its not even a good movie, but the action is so over the top it ascends to some other form of cinema greatness of which I have not seen since the 80's films of JC.

But more than anything this film brings back the lost 80's art of Gymkata. Oh yes, the greatness! This film is without logic, and it could care less. Go rent it now!!!

Check out a fight megamix video that someone made:

Lone Star International Film Festival trailer

Howdy yo. Have a somewhat kind of premiere blog movie here. Sorta. See, my friend Barak Epstein directed a Grindhouse-esque trailer http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.giffor the Grindhouse movie earlier this year which I greatly admired and showed here on the blog. I was approached by the Lone Star Film Society to do a trailer for the 1st Lone Star Film Festival in Fort Worth on November 7-11.

I didn't really have time or money to shoot anything totally original, but one morning I thought about Barak's trailer if re-cut would be perfect for what they were looking for. So I hit up the Barak, and he said cool, so I cut a demo for them. They bit on it hard, and here we are. Barak and I re-cut the original a few weeks back, and this whack ass trailer should be hitting Rave Theater cinema chains, local bars, schools, and T.V. screens near you real soon...

Download it in Quicktime HERE.




Local hommie, James M Johnston also did a trailer featuring my favorite horror movie characters, Zombies. Check it here:

City of Violence

I know its been a while since I blogged anything, but right after Atombomb.tv went up, my dayjob as commercial maker got real nuts, so much so that I really have not had much free time. But last night I watched this crazy Korean kung-fu flick called "City of Violence". It's crazy wicked and the ending fight sequence is worth the price of rental alone. It's lke taking a time machine back to all the great 80's and 90's Jackie Chan flicks, just more bloody! Here is a trailer from youtube. It's available here in the states on the Dragon Dynasty video label. Kick it.

3000 viewings of Powerpoint and counting!

This morning "Death by Powerpoint" hit over 3000 viewings that we know of for just yesterday alone. Thanks to everyone in the cast and crew and all the viewers out there for making this first Atombomb production a great success!

Welcome to Atombomb.tv

Hope all of you are doing well. I wanted to let all of you know that starting today my new short film site, www.atombomb.tv is live and ready to roll. What is Atombomb.tv? For years I have wanted my short films to have a life beyond the tiny film festivals. They usually sit in my closet for the rest of their lives. So I have created a web page to show not only my own short films but other filmmakers in the DFW area. Think of it as an internet television station if you will. Now I have a place to show these short films the way I would like them to be shown. You can watch it on the page, or download a Quicktime, ipod, or if you have a lot of patience, Quicktime High Definition format.

The goal is to show a new short film every month. Some will be original programs produced for atombomb.tv. And others will be those made outside of the site, but ones worthy of being seen. Once you land on the page, you can enter and watch a short film on the page. If you want a copy of it, there are many options for downloading. If you want to email it to a friend or even embed it on your website or blog, you can do that as well. There are also bonus features like filmmaker commentary, photos from the set, and sometimes even some bloopers. There is an even a blog where the filmmakers will write articles about the film's production. Or maybe even an article written by the actors about how cruel the director was. You can leave comments and interact with the cast and crew as well. There is also a store coming that you can buy atombomb.tv merchandise. All the procedes to this go into our next films budget. So by buying stuff in the store you kind of become a co-producer!

And this brings us to our debut film, "Death by Powerpoint". (in fact it's our only short on the site right now, but just wait...) We filmed it in June , and it is a comedy starring Tom Zembrod and Matt Tindall. This film follows a ordinary business man trying to get out of an accounting presentation on Friday afternoon. It's written and directed by myself. Produced by Jason Todd Hampton, Erik Clapp, and Amy Clapp. With Music by Paul Unger and special visual effects by Kevin Flach.

This site is designed to showcase some of the great talented filmmakers in the DFW area. I hope everyone enjoys the new site. Check back often and please email all your friends to check it out and please put the shorts on your own sites and blogs!!!

CLICK on the link BELOW TO GO TO THE SITE!

http://www.atombomb.tv/

"Death by Powerpoint" can also be seen on:

youtube, funnyordie.com, break.com, googlevideo, yahoovideo, ifilm.com, spike.com, and stupidvideos.com.

peace out,
erik clapp

Highlander: The Source

They made a Highlander 5 movie a few years ago, and has been sitting on a shelf for quite a while now. By accident, I discovered that tonight it premieres not at the movies, not on DVD, but on the Sci-Fi Channel. Sci-fi Channel? My, how the mighty Highlanders have fallen. Oh well I was a fan of the movies, good and bad, and the TV show was actually really good. I didn't see seasons 5, 6, or 7, but i heard they were very good. Adrian Paul is back as the Highlander, Duncan. No Conner storyline this time with Christopher Lambert. (he he he) So tonight Highlander 5: The Source premieres. It's not a good indication that it's debut is on the Sci-Fi channel, but we will give it go...there can be more than one.

UPDATE: This is without a doubt one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It is jaw droppingly bad. A disgrace to all things Highlander. The movie makes Highlander 2 seem like a masterpiece... I am in shock.

Blood on the Highway

More shout outs in store for my man, Barak Epstein. Barak just wrapped yesterday on his second feature film, Blood on the Highway, a crazy vampire comedy. Knowing Barak, it should be a shit load of fun. You can go to the website by clicking HERE.

To see a trailer for Barak's first film, "Prison A Go-Go" look below:

Merrily, Merrily trailer

Shout out to James M. Johnston, my fellow FW filmmaker and vegan chief extreme on finishing his newest short opus, Merrily, Merrily. This is the first part of a trilogy according to JMJ. Good work my friend, and all of you should check out his trailer on his official blog HERE. Word.

Diary of the Dead's first review from Toronto!!

Found a Toronto Film Fest blog that posted the first ever review of George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead, the fifth film in the Romero zombie cannon. According to this reviewer it sounds as if the social commentary is stronger than ever and that the zombie kills are just as potent. I'll be there opening day.

Click HERE to read the review. I'm sure there will be others popping up by Monday morning.

Click HERE for a review of Diary and the new Coen Bros. flick, "No Country for Old Men".

REVIEW: 3:10 to Yuma

Wow. Finally a remake that kicks ass! With so much summer rubbish disgracing the screen this summer, this movie is of a quality that we just don't see often anymore. There is really nothing bad I can say about this film. The performances by Crowe and Bale are spot on. And dare I say Bale is becoming my new favorite actor. Yuma is a remake of the Glen Ford classic of the same name. I know I have seen bits of the original growing up in a western film fanatics household, but my memory of it is pretty bare bones. The films premise is quite simple, but emotionally complex at the same time. Bale's character is one-legged ex solider who can never seem to catch a break on his ranch in Arizona. Even his sons and wife doubt his will to care for them. And that is what the heart of the film is. Meanwhile Crowe, a ruthless outlaw is captured in a nearby town and Bale enlists as one of the men to escort him to a nearby town to board the 3:1o to Yuma, AZ. He will be payed enough money to help his family see the season through.

Crowe's posse follows and the action flows from there. This western in RAW. Its not the romantic west, its the hard edged fend for yourself West. And PLEASE go see this at the movies. Westerns can't truly be appreciated on a computer screen or on a TV. They need to breath, and the big screen is only place that can happen. The score by Marco Beltrami is also great here. As soon as I got home I got it on itunes. But for me what I loved most about this movie is that Bale didn't need to do this job for the money, he did it so his sons could look him in the eye and be proud of their father. That's what drives his character through all the madness and hardship of bringing Crowe to justice. Crowe is also really good, but by far the actor that steal pretty much the whole movie from everyone is Ben Foster as Crowe's second in command. This is what a bad guy should be. Nasty and mean. You really hate the guy, and that's such a huge issue now in action movies. The bad guys are either so over the top that you see through it or they just simply are not interesting enough to care about one way or another. Foster is really powerful in his role and he captures your attention as a villain.

Enough praise, GO SEE THIS!!!!! NOW!

The Coolest Movie News Ever?

Today a story broke out in the showbiz trades that Tobey McGuire's production company had acquired the rights to my favorite geek robot show of all time, Robotech. People have asked me if you could do a big budget movie what would you do? I always dreamed of seeing a Robotech live action movie. I guess I'll never get to make that, but Spidey will. Tobey plans to play the title character Rick Hunter. (can't see that one yet) Robotech blows Transformers away in every respect, most notably in story. Robotech had a very distinct story at it's core, and it took three years (seasons) to tell it through three generations. I would skip school to watch this show sometimes. I don't know how well its story will hold up today and I'm sure they will muck it up somehow, but Tobey was quoted as saying that the story is long enough to sustain a long series. It's an epic story and not a weekly toy commercial. but thanks to the Transformers success, it looks as though the giant robot movies are coming. Voltron is also announced as well. What about Starblazers???? I want to experience the wave motion gun in THX in my lifetime.

Diary of the Dead is nigh!

Sir George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead has a premiere this Saturday at the Toronto Film Festival. It will be a while before it gets here. Until then enjoy this little web video from the Diary myspace page.

The Roots

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REVIEW: Live Free or Die Hard (aka Die Hard 4.0)

If I had a choice to live free or die hard during my time spent watching Live Free or Die Hard, i would prefer to die hard. Actually I saw the R-rated international version, Die Hard 4.0 as it's called outside America. I don't know how it may compare to the U.S. version, but I'm sure there can't be much to help this sad excuse for a Die hard flick. I mean come on, Die Hard is one of THE best action films EVER made bar none. I remember my friend in high school said that this movie Die Hard with that guy from Moonlighting is really good. I went in hating Moonlighting and Willis, and emerged a fan. (Of Willis at least) The second one was so-so, and the third was pushing the limits of believability, but this one is almost a parody of a Die Hard movie. I couldn't take it seriously. It was just so over the top action wise that it made me almost as mad as Zombie's Halloween. This is John John McClaine here, not Superman. McClaine was a guy who got stuck in a tight situation and was able to overcome his fears and pull of some crazy yet realistic tricks. Now he dodges flying cars, helicopters with fire hydrants, and can even and get ready for this take down an F-15 fighter jet with a semi truck. This is not our John McClaine. This is like a 13 year old telling you about Die Hard, but with a 13 year old's embellishment on the material. Live free and rent Die Hard 1.

There Will Be Blood

This is the new teaser poster for the new P.T. Anderson movie, "There Will Be Blood". P.T. (Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia) has not made anything in years, so I'm really looking forward to this! It opens day after X-mas, and yes there will be blood.

REVIEW: The King of Kong

When I first saw this title, I thought oh God, Peter Jackson must have made another King Kong documentary to suck more life out our favorite giant ape. But this is not about King Kong at all, but rather Donkey Kong. Yes you read right. The first Mario game is the focus of this incredible documentary that I encourage everyone to see as soon as you can. It is not playing in many theaters, but I hope that changes as it becomes more popular. This really is in my top 5 films of the year thus far.

King of Kong details the proposed showdown of two top Donkey Kong players from the 80's. One is an arrogant prick named Billy who thinks he is God's gift to everything and holds the current record. Then there is Steve, a family man and goodhearted guy who always came in second in life. One day Steve video tapes himself breaking the Donkey Kong high score held by Billy. The tape is then inspected as is the game and ruled by self proclaimed Donkey Kong experts to be unofficial since it did not occur in public.

Steve decides to travel to the Video Game arcade to have it officially counted and have a showdown with Billy. What follows is several years worth of crazy happenings in this odd and cultish world of 80's video game fanantics that even have 24 hour parties of just watching video tapes of guys playing games for over 15 hours at a clip!



There is everything you could ever want in this documentary. Drama, comedy, tension, and most of all real life characters. The type of people you don't see much of everyday. It's so great. I cannot speak highly enough. I got to go there is a kill screen coming up! Enjoy the trailer below and GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!!! NOW.



This will help wash the nasty taste of Rob Zombie's Halloween out of your mouth. I also had the misfortune of sitting through Live Free or Die Hard. (more on that later..) The more I think about that pile of garbage, Halloween the more I want my Blu-Ray of the original in my hands on in October. I even threw out my copy of House of 1000 Corpses in digust and protest.

REVIEW: Rob Zombie's Halloween

I don't even want to get started on how much this movie disappointed me on almost every level. Hopefully this is not a career killer for director Rob Zombie, because he does have talent. (Devil's Rejects) But not here. The idea behind the movie is good, it's just executed horribly. Malcom McDowell is one saving grace as Loomis. But that's not saying much. In fact I can't even see the point of me wasting any more energy typing anything on this movie. Let me sum it up for you: IT SUCKS.

P.S. And one other thing that I wanted to point out to Rob. Why does everyone in your movies have to look like you? That's very annoying.

"PEAK" a blog premiere flick

Amy and I strapped a dv camera on the front of the Cog Railway at Pikes Peak and filmed the entire hour plus ride to the top of Pikes Peak in one take. It's an hour ride in 4 minutes. If you are dizzy or get motion sickness, you may not want to watch. Mucho Props to our other crew, Bob, the train engineer who helped us build a mount with an Altoids can and a paper towel. And Jeremy from Kileen, TX who sat next to us and helped us out. Without further adieu...PEAK.

Gorgeday

Well Monday was Amy's birthday and for her surprise we went to Canon City and took the Royal Gorge Train all through the mountains of Colorado and under the Royal Gorge Bridge, the largest suspension bridge in the world. On the train ride we had lunch and then took to the open air car where we saw a real live in the wild Black Bear looking for food on a nearby ledge. That sent the train into a frenzy on the return trip, cause no one was really concerned about scenery anymore, it was all about the bears. It was really the highlight of the trip and easily the best train ride we've ever had.

Next we went to the Royal Gorge bridge and walked across. Amy was quite nervous which I felt was odd since she loves roller coasters and I don't at all. To cap off our trip we drove in the mountains to Cripple Creek to do some Casino games. I didn't lose more than 20 bucks. I think the most I won was $10. We left there at 11pm and it actually got really cold and rainy on us. The drive back which we thought would be all highway turned out to be an hour drive in the pitch black mountains with rain. We were so nervous driving that we took turns. Tuesday we got up and drove from 9am to 11pm back to Texas. I had a great time with Amy celebrating her birthday, it was the most relaxing and fulfilling trip in a long time. And best of all it was with my girl!

Check out all the new photos that Amy added to the gallery:

CLICK HERE!

Come back to the Blog premiere of our vacation video about Pike's Peak called, "PEAK" !

14,110 Feet

Not much time to blog, since we have to get up early for Amy's birthday surprise trip. Here is the link for some new photos that we took on the way to the top of Pikes Peak. By the way when you click on the photo gallery now, be aware that there are quite a few photos so be sure and click above the photo for page 1, 2, 3, etc.

CLICK HERE!

Arcades, Caves, and Corgis

Word from CO again. We are having a blast in Manitou Springs. Yesterday we got up played some basketball. Amy made 15 shots in a row! Impressive. I was hitting from long range pretty well, but I am quite rusty. Broke in a virgin ball that my cousins gave me for a wedding gift. NBA regulation ball too. Anyway we went to eat at a place on the river for lunch and had an open faced turkey sandwich with brown gravy. Then we walked the shops of Manitou Springs and found the most awesome arcade we have ever seen. It's about 5 or 6 different buildings with games from the 40's all the way up to present day. They even had those deals where you put in a penny or a nickel and watch index cards with photos on them flip by as you crank them. We played the original Asteroids, Donkey Kong, and Tron. We also witnessed some bad ass folk drumming at the local music festival. I took this on my cell phone for all of you to jam to:



Next we took a drive up a very large mountain with no guard rails and at the top we explored The Cave of the Winds. The cave itself is pretty worn out and small, but it was a nice 50 degrees in there. Amy found a Corgi dog she liked tied up to the bleachers, and since we could not take him we ended up at Petsmart later so Amy could see some cats. We then went to Old Colorado City and walked around for a while before eating dinner at the Mason Jar. (A kind of Cracker Barrel type place.) I thought food here would be pricey but so far its not bad at all. We drove over to Colorado Springs so Amy could buy a non headache inducing pillow. We then returned to Old Colorado City so I could get my annual vacation chocolate covered frozen banana at a chocolate shop.

Everyone here is very friendly. There are dogs everywhere. It seems like dogs are more prevalent than children here. The weather is great. We have not had to turn on the AC at all. Its cool in the mornings around 50ish. Today we take the cog Railway to Pikes Peak, and tomorrow is Amy's birthday surprise trip. Here is the link again for more updated photos:

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS!!!

Howdy from Colorado !

Yo everyone. We are having a blast in Colorado. We went out last night and ate Wendy's at the Garden of the Gods at sunset. Really beautiful. Amy and I shot some incredible photos. Today we are going to downtown Manitou Springs to peruse the shops and gallerys. Then we are going Cave exploring at the Cave of the Winds. I have set up a new web gallery of all the photos we are taking. It makes things much faster than posting on the blog page here. So click below where it says CLICK HERE.

CLICK HERE. CLICK HERE. CLICK HERE.

Amarillo by Morning

They took my saddle in Houston, broke my leg in Santa Fe. Lost my wife and a girlfriend somewhere along the way. It's been a busy trip.

Here are some pics from our morning in Amarillo. We got in last night around midnight, and got up early to eat at the Big Texan, which seems to be the main attraction in town. If you haven't heard of it before, it's the home of the 72oz steak dinner, which is free if you finish it in under 1 hour. There's even a raised area in the middle of the restaurant with a table and a digital clock, so everyone can watch as you attempt to finish your mammoth steak (including baked potato, salad, dinner roll and shrimp cocktail). We settled for the breakfast buffet, which was just as impressive.

After our scrumptious breakfast, we practiced our shooting skills, and checked out the rest of the place. Erik was quite the sharpshooter. I held my own. I rang some bells, and knocked down some cans. It was a proud moment.

Amarillo was fun, but Colorado was calling. Let's get this vacation started.

by special guest blogger, Amy of the Short Ones

F___ Michael Bay

Now he changed his mind. I guess he is the anti-christ after all. Read HERE.

I Love Michael Bay ?

Today is a great example of how the geek wars of gadgetry bring people together when it seemed to rip them apart. Recently it appeared the battle of the High Definition War was coming to a close and the victor was clearly Blu-Ray discs. The sales stats were there, even the president of Universal who is the only supporter of HD-DVD exclusively said that the HDdvd format is fragile and that if he pulled support from it, it would die.

A few weeks, maybe a month or so ago Paramount home Entertainment came forth and said that Blu-Ray is the way to go, and that they were turning all their attention to the blu format because it could hold all their content on one disc including the extras in HD. They explained that HD-DVD was not able to do this. Yesterday Microsoft (aka Satan) who backs HD-DVD slid a nice 150 million dollar check into the pockets of Paramount execs to drop Blu-ray for what we now know is for 18 months. They announced yesterday they were going all HD-DVD.

However, here is the kicker. There was an asterisk on this deal. This deal includes all Paramount titles except those directed by Steven Spielberg. He did not agree with the move. So none of his movies will be available on HD-DVD. (he is in fact working on his first Blu-Ray release of Close Encounters!) Then late yesterday in a counter move Fox came out in total support of Blu-ray. Crazy. I'm not so mad so much about the payola Paramount received because I'm sure that happens everywhere, and I'm sure Blu does the same thing. What pisses me off is that I had several Blu-ray Paramount releases in my Netflix queue and now they are gone. Its just really corporate greed when you see just a few weeks back a company say how much better the technology and sales have been for Blu-Ray, then next week say the opposite in favor of a measly 150 million which is nothing for Paramount. This is really a slap in the face of movie lovers and hard working people. But thats business and sadly I'll have to question paying for any Paramount releases for a while.

On to the title of this post. This morning I logged on to Blu-Ray.com and low and behold the director of The Transformers (big summer flick from paramount and Spielberg) said he is so pissed at Paramount about dropping Blu-Ray that he will not direct Transformers 2. He was probably working hard on the extras for the Blu-Ray release which was announced, and got pissed off. So I am now pleased that he and Steven are standing up for this act of corporate greed. It makes Paramount look really sad and the HD-DVD/Microsft camp look even sadder. Michael my son, you may have atoned for your cinematic sins today. But really other than Hotmail, what good or innovative has Microsoft given us in the last 15 years?

Classic Lil Penny commercial

Penny Hardaway is coming back to the NBA to play with his ex Orlando teammate Shaq. I found this classic commercial on Deadspin.com...

Samurai: Winds of Justice

Funny short about Samurai from the classic Super Friends show....

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

I had never seen this before, but what a real gem. It's been playing on HDNET recently and is a treat in black and white HD. I can't recommend it enough. Amazing cast. A really challenging film about this world's darkest time of WWII.

My New Hero, Kige Ramsay

Edgar Wright interviews the Superbad cast.

Director Edgar Wright of Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, and Hot Fuzz interviews the Superbad cast. You must watch this!

Bush Zombies

I saw this on Attack of the Show last night. I thought it was genius...

The Blu-ray Experience

I have wanted to write this article for a while now, but I have been patiently waiting things out a bit to see how things were going to play out in the High Definition DVD world. On the one hand I was a little concerned that by the time the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD war had settled that some miracle device would come out that would offer 50GB downloads right to my dvr that would eliminate the need for discs at all. (much like music and standard definition movies are now) Well, besides Apple TV which is dangerously close, nothing in direct HD downloads is really happening. So I decided instead of watching my movies in standard definition DVD and upconverting them to fool myself into thinking they looked HD, I decided to take the plunge. I decided to go with Blu-Ray over HD-DVD. Here are some of the reasons for that decision:

Blu-Ray has every major Hollywood studio supporting it except Universal, which is exclusive to HD-DVD. That sucks for all those great Uni titles, like Deer Hunter, Big Lebowski, etc. that I can't get my mitts on. But Blu-ray is picking up more studios than HD DVD by an alarming number.

Blu has the capacity to hold 50GB on each disc. (and can someday go up to 250GB) HD-DVD can only do 30GB. (Even though in 2005 they promised up to 45GB) What does this mean to you? With 30GB you can have enough disc space to make a beautiful HD transfer, but with 50GB, you can make an even better one. So if you're going to spend the money go for Blu, and take advantage of the extra space. This also means you can but two or 3 HD-DVD transfers on one Blu-Ray. That's pretty cool folks.



So picture quality wise what's the difference? Not much really? In fact a lot of times the HD-DVD transfer and the Blu transfer are identical, using the same exact codecs for the transfers. But here is where it gets interesting. See studios like Paramount for instance started doing stronger transfer for Blu-Ray so that they can use the extra storage capacity of the disc for the transfer. They also are now going all HD with the extras on the dvd as well. On HD-DVD, most if not all of your extras will be in regular old standard def because after putting the movie down on the disc, there is not enough room to put extras in HD.

Movie titles: Slight edge goes to Blu-Ray because they have more studio support. Disney and Sony don't go Blu. Warner is neutral and have the biggest stake in the hiDef disc market because of that. Like I said before I am pretty content with the selection of Blu-ray discs. There are a few Universal titles I would like to have, but they will come in time.

Sales of Blu-ray have exceeded HD-DVD all year. And a good example is the movie 300. It came out last week on all 3 formats, dvd, hd-dvd, and blu-ray. 250,000 hi-def dvd's were sold. 168,000 of those were Blu-ray. And the bad news for HD-DVD peeps, is that the 300 HD-DVD had more interactive features than the Blu-Ray, yet Blu-ray won. In fact HD-DVD was sure that this would end the war. Not so much. Other things to consider... Blockbuster and Target are going all Blu now. Overall sales are 2 to 1 in favor of Blu-ray all year.



Price: What everyone cares about. HD-DVD players are cheaper. Sad but True. You can get an HD DVD Player for fewer than 200 buckaroos now if you look around hard enough. Blu-Ray players started at over 1000. But they have gone down to 450. Sony and Samsung both have players at 400-450 now. I got a Samsung first gen player on clearance for 450 in March I believe at Best Buy. The coolest thing about it is that it’s an excellent up converting regular dvd player. It does almost make your old DVD’s look like high def. It does a much better job than my pricey Oppo player I bought not long b4 the Samsung Blu. In fact this Blu-Ray player was 500 bucks cheaper than my uncle's new standard def DVD player from Pioneer Elite, and has the exact same upconverting chip in it. Sorry Earl... So if your going to spend say 250 or 300 on an HD-DVD player, spend a tad more and get something classier. Now the movies themselves are about the same to buy. 20 bucks at the low end and 40 on the high end. However I have found that Frys Electronics sells Blu-Ray really cheap. I don't know why but a $40 title on it's release day is about 25 bucks. And every weekend they have a 12.99 sale on about 5 Blu-rays. You can't beat that. And also if you buy a new Blu-Ray machine now you get 5 free movies to start you out.

(NOTE: To Harry at Ain't it Cool News... You misreported in your article saying why you went with HD-DVD over Blu-Ray was because you can't play regular dvd's on a blu-ray machine. WRONG WRONG WRONG. That is retarded and totally untrue. You should do some research before you talk tech fat man. Stick to movie reviews, not that you do that much anymore either. Pet Peeve)

So what do the movies look like in 1080p. Total greatness. If you have ever watched a movie in HD from say digital cable or satellite in 1080 i, you notice some ghosting and maybe some digital grain we will call it. That is gone in Blu-ray. Even if you walk right up with the screen at your nose, it looks crisp. Better than film in some cases. As my Dad says "sharp as a tack". It is really fun watching old movies in this format. I've seen Superman: The Movie probably 50 times in my life and I saw stuff in the background I had never seen before. And not just trivial stuff, but things that really add to the story and experience. For example we had Kung-Fu Night a few months back and we watched Curse of the Golden Flower. The colors in that film were unreal. Never have I seen that deep range of colors on any TV screen. It was jaw dropping, and everyone in the room mentioned it at least twice. (Curse is only available on Blu-Ray...)

Sound: Here is a downside at least with the player I got. It says it supports your old sound system like DTS, and Dolby Digital. Well it does not exactly. For whatever reason on this player the DD signal is converted to Dolby Pro Logic (so 90's) but on your new Blu-Ray movies you can do PCM uncompressed sound which is very cool. At first it took my ears a while to really appreciate 5.1 uncompressed sound, because I am so used to the loud ass Dolby Digital or DTS. But now I kind of like it subtle nature. I'm not sure if HD-DVD's do uncompressed soundtracks or not. It takes up a lot of space but with Blu-ray you have room for that, DD, and DTS. Pretty amazing.



I have about 15 Blu-ray movies now. Some new, some older movies. If you are worried about your Netflix subscription being sad after you go Blu, don't be. All you do is go on the site and tell them you have Blu, and presto on your Queue you can select regular dvd or Blu-Ray next to your titles. (if available) I'd be glad to show anyone a Blu-ray demo if you let me know. The most impressive disc to me so far is The Descent. A movie I originally watched in Standard def then found a used copy at Movie Trading Co for a good deal. Wow. The picture transfer uses the full 50GB capacity of Blu-Ray. It's nothing short of remarkable in its detail. Considering it's a movie all in a cave that's saying something. Then the bonus features can run on top of the movie as its playing. So for instance say you are watching a scene that is pretty crazy, and your thinking how the hell did they do that? You hit a button and boom a picture in picture comes up that shows the making of that scene as it was being filmed in perfect unison with the movie you are watching. Geekasim. I believe this is all done using Java.

They have not enabled it yet, but in the future you will be able to hook up your player to your network and update the disc with new bonus features or updated interviews, commentary, and stuff like that via the web. I like that idea a lot. It makes the disc have a bit more after value instead of having to buy a new edition.

If you don't have HDTV yet, I would recommend you get one with 1080p capability and at least 2 HDMI ports. That way when you do get Blu-Ray or sigh, HD-DVD you will be set to full experience this new format. But please go Blu! There was a new story the other day about some guys that broke into a video store and stole nothing but the Blu-ray Rack of dvd's...nice.

Here are some titles that are coming out on Blu-ray that I can't wait for: Dawn of the Dead, Evil Dead 1 and 2, Halloween, Day of the Dead, The Shining, 2001, Eyes Wide Shut, and Blade Runner, all three Spiderman movies.

Here are some cool Blu-ray sights to check out:

blu-ray.com

high def digest

hollywood in high def

Peace Out Michelangelo Antonioni....

Man, this is a bad week for great directors. The greatness Michelangelo Antonioni passed away today at the age of 94 in Rome. One of Italy's greatest directors of all time. My father is a huge fan of Antonioni's work, and turned me onto his work at a very early age. Specifically my dad was always way into the film Blow-Up, which centered around a photographer. I recently got a bunch of his work on dvd, that i have yet to tear through. With his passing and Bergman, I have a lot of films to revisit and explore for the first time. Michelangelo Antonioni had such a special relationship with the frame and his films seemed poetic and free from the constrains of structure. He seemed to really love life and it's moments no matter how small or big. Right now Antonioni and Bergman are having brunch and how much would you love to be a part of that conversation? A true loss for the world of film.

Peace Out Bergman

Ingmar Bergman, the great master filmmaker has gone to the great beyond to make some more films.

The Next Prodigy?

I discovered this kid at a party last night...He could be big. I only had my trusty cell phone to grab some video of his tremendous performance. Click HERE to see the kid in action.

The Iron Unkind

This is what would happen if I could dunk...


http://view.break.com/336209 - Watch more free videos

Something that didn't Happen to me on Vacation

Click HERE to see what it is.

Links are Working again...

All of the links on the right side of the blog are active again. I am hosting them on a different server now. MediaMax can blow me quite frankly. (no pun intended to the above picture of the links aka franks) There is one or two that are still not working, but most of them are all back and ready to be viewed.

Peace Out, Laszlo..

The brilliant Cinematographer Lazlo Kovacs checked out Saturday night in his sleep at the age of 74. He was the Director of Photography of such films as Five Easy Pieces, Ghostbusters, Say Anything, Mask, Targets, Easy Rider, New York, New York, and tons of others. Click HERE for the article. Thanks Laszlo for all the great images you have put before my eyes.