The Karate Kid is in Da Hood!

I got this trailer randomly while searching for Movie times at Fandango:

I do love that they put in Fort Minor!!!

Weirdly enough this movie actually looks entertaining!

That being said, I do have something to say on the idea of Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. Though realizing that this while inevitably be a kids movie (which it so rightly should) I feel that because I've grown up so much that this remake wont appeal to me like the original one did.

Not to mention that not everyone is from the Bronx so we wont understand the whole racial issue thing that will most likely be involved (but than again I'm just speculating).

I guess me point is what I mentioned above, that this movie does look entertaining, it doesn't look like it would interest someone of my age group.

DVD Vs. BluRay!!

Before I start I just want to say that this isn't a arms race between Blu-Ray's and DVD's. Obviously Blu-Rays are better I'm merely stating that they need to really think about what they are doing before they come out with something.

I mean DVD's have only been around since 95, why the sudden change in products!? It's took VHS 25 years to get the product out.

Ever since the DVD has been around it's been talked as being a huge step in our home entertainment! Same was said for the Blu-Ray Disc.

And in that regard I agree.

But when they talk about Hi-Def I get confused. I personally don't have a Hi-Def Plasma TV, my TV is Standard Definition (meaning it's almost Hi-Def) but when I want to watch something on Blu-Ray I go to my dads house (he's got a 62" Plasma TV). And I noticed something a while ago...

The difference is almost completely unnoticeable. And Actually while watching a Blu-Ray on my dad's TV I could see some places where the pixels weren't fitting correctly to the screen (if that makes any sense...)

I found this list of Pro's and Con's of various websites such as Helium, Yahoo Answers,

Blu-Ray

Pros:

-high storage capacity of 25 Gb per layer.

Having more storage capability means that more data can be stored per disc. For movie watchers, this means that the image and audio quality can potentially be better than other formats such as DVD (which can only store 4.7Gb per layer). More content (such as trailers, interviews, behind the scene clips) can also be squeezed into the standard disc. For gamers, it means basically the same thing, more space equals less compression, which means better graphics and sound. Bonus materials such as more levels, weapons, etc.

-supported by big name retailers such as Blockbuster Video and Target Corporation.

Blockbuster Video, one of the largest video rental store is set to carry Blu-Ray movies in 1450 other stores, while Target Corporation, one of USA's top retailer, announced that it will expand its Blu-ray disc inventory as well as exclusively carry Blu-ray stand alone players through the holiday season. It currently does not carry any other high definition DVD Players other than Xbox 360's HD DVD addon. This means that the availability of Blu-ray products will be more widespread as compared to its competitor such as HD DVD.

- Ownership

Unlike downloads -- or cable's Video on Demand service -- Blu-ray enables you to own your movie. Like the standard-def DVD, you can start collecting a library of Blu-ray films that can be watched over and over.

Cons:

- Blu-ray players generally more expensive than its competitors.

- Hi-def media requires hi-def ready television sets.

If your television set is not hi-def ready, the difference in quality between Blu-ray and normal DVD would not be that apparent.

- Region Coded + DRM enabled.

In an attempt to stop/deter piracy, Blu-ray employed both region coding as well as DRM (digital rights management). Region coding makes it such that movies bought from a region A (eg. USA) cannot be played on a player that is bought in region B (eg. Europe). DRM is used to only allow the disc to be played if certain conditions (such as whether the player has been tampered with, whether the disc being played has the correct ID, etc) were met. It usually would not pose any problem unless you want to make a copy of the protected disc.

- Data stored very close (about 0.1mm) to surface of disc.

Data in the Blu-Ray Disc is stored very close to the surface of the disc (0.1mm) as compared to DVDs and HD DVDs (0.6mm). Scratches of more than 0.1mm will possibly damage all data stored under the scratch marks. However, various companies have came up with their own method of hard-coating the surface to make it scratch proof. TDK's Durabis technology is one such method and claims to be able to withstand steel wool scrubbing.

- Downloads

While this site believes digital downloads are years away from becoming a convenient way to watch movies at home, some analysts disagree. They say companies such as NetFlix, Microsoft and TiVo will soon enable viewers to watch a new video release without having to leave the house -- and waiting long periods of time for the video to download. If true, the Blu-ray business could sputter and eventually die away.

It just bugs me that they are trying to force us to spend more money by buying more expensive TV's, more expensive Videos, And more expensive Video Players. Some of us aren't shitting out money.

Thank God For Delays!!!!

Now as most of who ever stumbles upon this blog (I like poking funny at the fact that only one or two people read this thing, but only if I continuously bug them to XD) know.

I LOVE Video Games!!!

And the one Game that has stuck in my heart (other than Halo) is Splinter Cell. This game has been around since the Original Xbox (I remember I got it back in '02). After that faithful day every time a new Splinter Cell Game came out I immediately went out and bought one (or "Borrowed" it from a friend).

When the news came down the pipe that they were going to make another Splinter Cell I jumped out of chair, after coming back from the Hospital, I rejoiced.

Seeing that it still had The "Tom Clancy" Name on it I knew that it wouldn't disappoint.

With the news that Splinter Cell: Conviction was being delayed at in 2007, At first I was really saddened, but seeing stills and somewhat vague reviews on the progress of the game and it's multiplayer, I can't help but jump for joy about the delay news.

Weirdly enough I just now found out that it was delayed in '07. Thanks to the very helpfully Wikipedia (though there info tends to be wrong a lot of the time, since it's written by people, and people tend to spin bullshit and pretend to know what they are talking about when, in reality, don't know anything).



Though at the beginning of every delay, it has this effect that makes you sad that you won't be able to play it from a few more months. This Delay gave the guys over at Ubisoft Montreal more and more time to get this game right! They rebuilt the fighting mechanics to make a more violent Sam Fisher. They upgraded the graphics to finally make a true NexGen Game. They took what they learned (or were learning) from Assassin's Creed 2, and fitting it into the world of Splinter Cell. To explain this I'll have to show you...

Watching this I very nearly Crapped my pants (I would have said the other thing but that would have come out as a little to vulgar even for me).

While This game looks amazing, I'm a little confused at the fact that Assassin's Creed 2 was made by the same guys, so why are the graphics so astoundingly different? Don't get me wrong the game has some amazing Gameplay graphics and Gameplay mechanics, I have to cringe every time I watch a scene within the game that has HORRIBLE motion (what That means is that whilst playing the game some of the characters movements were poorly animated, they twitched and moved in ways humans don't normally move)

And I could have sworn I saw a part in the "cinematics" where I saw through someone!!! I Thought they got rid of that!!!!!

Anyways, here's the trailer they showed during E3, Enjoy!!!

The Tournament Review

Thanks for checking out our Review, this film is from first-time director Scott Mann, I doubt this film made it to a full American release. It came out some time in September. surprisingly it has some great american and british actors including one Scottish actor who is slowly rising to earn great roles in Tv and film, Robert Carlyle!

The Story
Every Seven years in an unsuspecting town, The Tournament takes place. A battle royale among 30 of the world’s deadliest assassins. The last man standing receives the $10,000,000 cash prize and the title of World's No 1 (which itself carries the legendary million-dollar-a-bullet price tag). The Tournament is set up by a group of sick high-stake billionaires who watch the mayhem unfold via CCTV and bet on its outcome. Each of the assassins carry a tracking device, embedded under their skin, allowing the observers to monitor the Tournaments movements and the assassins to track each other.The tournament lasts twenty-four hours, and if no assassin has won then the tracking device under their skin will explode. When the French man removes his tracker and throws it into a coffee pot, a local priest (Robert Carlyle) who inadvertently swallows it is caught in the crossfire.

The Good
Surprisingly this movie uses the camera really well, watching through the entire movie. I never saw a bad angle or shaky cam that made me dizzy. Finally a well done action flick without shaky cam that is actually entertaining to watch. Gasp!! Have people finally realized that to much shaky cam just looks stupid. The action in the movie is excellent, sooo much blood, and kickassery that it made me giggle like a school girl (well... more than I already do XP). It's one those films where anyone of them could die at anytime, and you wouldn't see it coming, I love it!!!

The Bad
I'm really getting tired of these movies about Battle Royales (unless it's actually "Battle Royale" cause that book is fucking awesome.) Being controlled by billionaire's and gambling over people's lives. I do have another problem with this movie, (kind of a spoiler, but it's just explaining his character) Robert Carlyle plays a whining, terrified priest. And throughout the whole movie, that's all he does.

All-In-All
This is one of those movies you should rent on a long lazy weekend, along with others. 8.5 out of 10.

Gaming Talk: Microsoft Natal

Today I want to talk about the new project that Microsof t has been working on. The Microsoft Natal is supposedly going to be better than the Wii. It revolutionary Motion sensors are made to watch your every move and than move then character the exact same way.

It also comes with facial recognition, so you wont ever have to recover your gamertag, it will automatically sign you into that persons Xbox.

The Good
This looks to be really fun, The interactivity between family members looks promising (It's been a LONG time since me and my family ever sat down to do anything together). The graphics also look to be a step up from the Nintendo Wii's graphics (though still toned down a lot.)

The Bad
There are actually a lot of things that look bad about this thing. First, The fact that you now have a camera sitting in your living room, your bedroom, or where ever you play your games. This leaves it open for anyone to watch what you are doing. Secondly, The price of this may come out to be outrageous. Thirdly, I've been hearing rumors around that this product may not Fully work with your older 360 models. Which means you'll have to go out and pay another $299 just so you can use this product to its full potential. Plus what I said earlier about its price, what if it comes out to being $150, that plus the xbox would come out to almost $500!!! Would you spend all that just for the Natal?

Another thing that I thought I should talk about separately is the utilization of this product in the games itself. The President of Bungie stated that Halo: Reach will be using this during parts of the game. Now here's where I'm sitting, I'm sitting here reading that going "WHA--!! You mean to tell me that during any point in the game you'll have to get up really quickly from your VERY comfortable coach and do some stupid move for five seconds and than sit down. Now that's to much work for me!!" Weirdl enough I'm not fat! I'm just really lazy!! I guess it's from all those years of using a controller, that's gets me worried that I might not get into this new type of gameplay.

All-In-All
I'm sure my kids are going to love this, when I'm all old and talking about the good ol' days when we used to play with Controllers, and they'd look confused and ask me what a Controller is!

The Fourth Kind Review

This is one of those movie's that plays off of people's paranoid fears of Aliens and being abducted. They use the footage to add a bigger sense of creepiness to the film.

Story:

In 1972, a scale of measurement was established for alien

encounters. When a UFO is sighted, it is called an encounter of the first kind. When evidence is collected, it is known as an encounter of the second kind. When contact is made with extraterrestrials, it is the third kind. The next level, abduction, is the fourth kind. This encounter has been the most difficult to document…until now.

Structured unlike any film before it, “The Fourth Kind” is a provocative thriller set in modern-day Nome, Alaska, where—mysteriously since the 1960s—a disproportionate number of the population has been reported missing every year. Despite multiple FBI investigations of the region, the truth has never been discovered.

Here in this remote region, psychologist Dr. Abigail Tyler (Milla Jovovich) began videotaping sessions with traumatized patients and unwittingly discovered some of the most disturbing evidence of alien abduction ever documented.

Using never-before-seen archival footage that is integrated into the film, “The Fourth Kind” exposes the terrified revelations of multiple witnesses. Their accounts of being visited by alien figures all share disturbingly identical details, the validity of which is investigated throughout the film.

The Good
The thing I think freaked me out about the movie was the "Never-Before-Seen" archival footage that they showed in the film. Just the sudden realization of what would happen if you were forced to remember something horrible happening to you, again.

The Bad
The Actor who played Dr. Abigail Tyler (Not Jovovich! Yes, this movie was a fake! Get over it!!), her eyes bugged the hell out of me! Every scene that shows her I'm just sitting there thinking Jesus! Her eyes are HUGE!!!! and "Dear God, Woman! BLINK!!!" Not to mention Milla Jovovich's horrible acting. Her voice is completely void of any emotion, everytime she'd talk I'd cringe in my seat.

All-In-All
I'll give this movie a decent rating just because of the effort they put into making this movie as believable as possible.

I'm giving it a 5.5.

2012 Review

WARNING: This review may contain Spoilers.

This was one of those movies that I thought was going to suck, same with "The Day After Tomorrow" but I ended up loving that movie. Same goes for this one. Why would anyone want to miss the end of the world. As of right now it's up 300% on imdb.

General Idea
When a prophesied apocalypse appears to be coming true, a struggling writer and father (John Cusack) has to race against time and the odds to lead his family to safety and salvation in the latest film from Roland Emmerich, the director of The Day After Tomorrow and Independence Day.

The Good
Two Things. The first being, Just like most of Emmerich's films, it starts off like an average day and than disaster ensues. This is were it hits its strongest, this movie has some of the most amazing graphic disasters throughout the film. I'm sure millions of CGI people died. While watching I couldn't do anything but go "Whoa... look at the pretty boom boom."
Secondly, is the emotional aspect they throw into the pot. Every single one the main actors conveys amazing emotion during the duration of the film. The two that showed the most (actually the three) in the movie were Danny Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and John Cusack. They portrayed the loss of peoples lives amazingly, it felt like they truly cared for the people who died.

The Bad
The only thing that bugged me was the occasional shitty extra, that spat a few lines in the movie. If you have a keen eye for mistakes in movies you'll see what I'm talking about. and the fact that John Cusack and Chiwetel Ejiofor seem to be the main focus of the movie and we already know that neither of them are going to die, while millions of others die horrible during the duration of the movie.

All-in-All
for a giant, epic, disaster movie I'd have to say it lands right up there with the greats (thats for you to decide what the great are). I'll give this movie a 9.5! I would have given it a 10 but people seem to think I like movie's to much, so I'm toning the ratings down (I'm kidding, the reason is because there were some things that bothered just me and I don't want to ruin the film for others.)

Halo... That's All You Need To Know!

When you say the word "Halo" People immediately think of the FPS (First Person Shooter) Video Game Franchise. But actually I prefer the books of the games over the game itself.

The reason for this is because the books give more insight and more information, and explain the story in more detail than the games ever could.

Don't get me wrong I love playing the games. It's just how they go about the story in the games that bug me, they seem to like to hold onto a linear story plot and never let go. (i.e. The Flood)

Sidenote: The Flood are the stupidest characters they have ever introduced to the games (Even in the first one). They are just lame. It's funny how the completely forgot about them when making ODST.

Now to mention, Reach! Ok! This I am excited about only because IT'S REACH!! They are finally gonna tell that story. But here is where my excitement ends. I know for a fact that they will most likely stick to only one particular storyline and they will never explain the whole story like the book did. I don't see why they can't, Bungie is big enough now to create a vastly awesome LONG game (their games tend to be very short, my little brother Ryan beat all four games in less then two days.)

I know that making a game that immense would cost a load of money and time to make but the fans can wait (and trust me they will buy it, I would.) Seeing as how it's not a film that has to be a length of 2 hours, a game like this shouldn't have such time restrictions.

Reach is such a big planet, why would you only tell a story that would last only 16 hours of gameplay, when you could create something that lasts weeks! Maybe if they start a thing with microsoft to ship out one story but when you buy it you can later download more and more of the storyline from Bungie. that way they can keep the story of Reach going, while making money.

I know people will hate me for this, but I will always live by my philosophy which is "To never sacrifice Story just for an easy buck."

Metal Gear Solid "Why Hollywood Should Never get a Hold of it."

First off let me say that I've been a fan of the "Metal Gear" Franchise since I was a kid. Although back than they didn't have as massive a storyline as the newer ones do. and when I heard the news that the game was getting made in Hollywood at first I was excited, but now that I heard they are thinking of making Christian Bale "Solid Snake" I was like "Whoa, Whoa!!! He looks nothing like him and plus his voice is to fucked up to even sound like him!!"

Not to mention that people are saying that he should play both Solid and Liquid Snake. This is where my tolerance for stupid ideas hits its limit. And here are my reasons!!

1) They may be twins but so many different things happened in their own lives, so that now they look nothing alike!

2) Liquid has long Blond hair. Snake has slicked back long brown hair.

3) Liquids jaw is thinner than Solid Snakes.

4) Liquids brow-ridge is bigger.

5) Solids has more muscle than Liquid ( at least until MGS 4)

My vote get Sean Bean to play A little Older Liquid.

or have Jesse Spencer play him if Bean is to old to play the young Liquid,
And Bradley Cooper to Play Solid Snake!!

Why not Bradley Cooper!? The guy needs to expand his Acting Resume. Plus I think he can pull off playing Snake, or hell, even Naked Snake (Big Boss) if he has to. Cause weirdly enough he looks a lot like both of them.

But I will damn the movie if they do that Bullshit with green-screen and have him play both rolls!!!! Every time I see that in movies I can never believe it. Not to mention the fact that Big Boss is already pretty old when Snake first meets him (Againish).

Also, another thing that could possibly condemn this film is if the studio goes its own way with the story of the film. Why the hell don't they collaborate with the creators of the game and make a true adaption of the "Metal Gear Solid" Franchise!! I know for a fact that Hideo Kojima would never let his game be disrespected with a shitty American Adaption (Face it, when it comes to making a true adaption we tend to shit all over it).

So Basically, all I'm saying is that I hope they don't fuck it up and hire the wrong people.

My Top 25 Upcoming films to See (2010-2012)

Before I start I want to let everyone know, these are the movies I want to see make it big (I'm not saying that they all will, I'm pretty sure many of them will flop at the boxoffice) But I will try and fix them so as not to seem one-sided about my movie choices.

1) Alice in Wonderland
2) Bioshock
3) Clash of the Titans!!!
4) Iron Man 2
5) Kick-Ass
6) Mortal Kombat
7) Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time
8) Metal Gear Solid
9) Splinter Cell
10) Toy Story 3
11) Tron Legacy
12) Conan
13) Deadpool
15) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II
16) RoboCop
17) Terminator 5
18) The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn
19) The First Avenger: Captain America
20) Warcraft
21) Flash Gordon!!
22) Ghostbusters III
23) Halo
24) Monsters Inc. 2
25) The Avengers

of course, me being and huge nerd. I put down a lot of video game and comic book movies that are coming out, but that's just because those are mainly my favorite one's that I want to see get made.

I grew up with basically all of them, all I want is to see a good adaptation of them.