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Transporter 2 Review

I decided on Friday night that, since I had nothing better to do, I would head to the theater in my little country town and hope that something decent was showing. How pleased I was to see that The Transporter 2 was on. I caught the first showing and was surprised that there was hardly anyone in the theater. From what little I knew about the film, I figured I’d have a good time, and by the time the film ended I knew I had figured right.

Like I had said in last weeks article, if you like to go to movies expecting everything you see to be 100% realistic, you probably won’t enjoy this film - but if you’re like me, willing to overlook a few slightly unbelievable and unrealistic scenes in hopes of being extremely entertained, you’ll have a great time watching this story play out on the silver screen. Statham is great as Frank Martin, the driver for hire who’s latest job has him chauffeuring the son of a government official to and from school. When a drug lord kidnaps the boy and injects him with a deadly virus, Frank takes it upon himself to find the antidote, a journey which brings quite a bit of fun to the screen.

Click to continue reading The Final Cut: The Transporter 2 Reviewed

Gallery: The Final Cut: The Transporter 2 Reviewed


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This week, The Final Cut takes a closer look at two of Friday’ releases- Underclassman, with Nick Cannon; and The Transporter 2, with Jason Statham.  Also in theaters this weekend are The Constant Gardener with Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz, A Sound of Thunder with Edward Burns and Ben Kingsley, and in limited release, Margaret Cho: Assassin- the comedienne’s fourth concert movie.  As always, if you’ve had the opportunity to see one of this weeks’ releases feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts on it.  You can catch The Final Cut’s recommendations after the jump…

Click to continue reading The Final Cut: A Closer Look At Underclassman, The Transporter 2

Gallery: The Final Cut: A Closer Look At Underclassman, The Transporter 2


Blockbuster Coupons

I just walked out of Blockbuster with a total of eight coupons due to the class action settlement from way back in 2002. Apparently, the more late fees you paid, the more coupons you receive. I guess I must have paid quite a bit. This is what I walked away with:

  • Two Free Non-New Release Movie Rentals
  • Five $1 Off Rental/Nonfood Purchase
  • One Rent One Get One Free

It’s a nice gesture and all, but the fact is that I am a Blockbuster Online member. This means I get unlimited rentals by mail, plus two free in-store rentals each month. The only coupons that I will likely use are the two free non-new movie rentals. If you paid late fees to Blockbuster in the past, you should also have coupons due if you haven’t received them already. Let us know what you get!

Gallery: Tons of Blockbuster Coupons From Lawsuit


This week, The Final Cut takes a closer look at two of this weekends great releases- Red Eye, with Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy, and The 40 Year Old Virgin with Steve Carell and Catherine Keener.  Also out this Friday are Valiant, an animated film about a pigeon set during World War II, and Supercross, a story about two brothers who take a motocross championship by storm after the death of their father.  Check out The Final Cut’s recommendations after the jump, and as always, if you’ve seen one of this weekends releases feel free to voice your opinion in the comments section.

Click to continue reading The Final Cut: A Closer Look At Red Eye, The 40 Year Old Virgin

Gallery: The Final Cut: A Closer Look At Red Eye, The 40 Year Old Virgin


ASCII Star Wars

Now this is the swankiest geek presentation of the original Star Wars IV I’ve seen yet. Some creative peeps have turned the entire movie into ASCII art which is now available using Telnet. If you want to see it, open up the command line on your computer (Terminal on OS X, or “CMD” from the run option of your Windows PC) and type “telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl”. Hit enter a few times and sit back with some popcorn to enjoy the show. Speaks well to the power of good old ASCII text. If you are using IP V6, you get color!

Gallery: ASCII Star Wars Delivered Via Telnet


VloggingVideo Blogging, or Vlogging, is quietly gaining momentum in the weblog community. For those of you not in-the-know, Vlogging is basically taking the idea of podcasts to the next level. A video broadcast (yes, people also call them vodcasts) is placed into an RSS/Atom enclosure and syndicated around the web in the same way a regular blog works.
 
Apple has suspiciously added a form of video blogging support to its latest iTunes iteration. This is the first corporate endorsement of the fad/trend/media-revolution that I’ve seen so far. One of the biggest hurdles to the success of Vlogging has been the complexity and difficulty of taking video clips and getting them onto the web quickly. Traditional DV Cams require capturing, editing, encoding, and uploading before a finished video clip is online and ready for distribution.  Webcams offer some relief but usually produce low quality video in tiny onscreen windows. The mobile aspect of blogging and photoblogging is another stymie for the video blog . In the U.S. today very few mobile devices offer decent video recording with the ability to upload or publish content to the web.
 
The issue of bandwidth is also a key to the success of the video blog. Traditional and photo blogs require very little bandwidth, as text and basic images are small in size.  Video files are comparatively massive, especially when you consider syndicating these videos all over the web. The bandwidth costs associated with running a videoblog are potentially exponential compared to a text-only we. 
 
Can video blogging displace TV news reporting? Will America be tuning in to bedroom versions of 60 Minutes on their PCs while televisions begin to collect dust? Could Google Video solve Vlogging’s bandwidth woes? Comment wars in 3,2,1…

Gallery: iTunes Eyes Video Blogging, but is the Vlog Ready for Prime Time?


The Skeleton Key

This week, The Final Cut takes a closer look at two of this weekends most anticipated releases, The Skeleton Key with Kate Hudson and Four Brothers with Mark Wahlberg.  Also out nationwide this Friday are Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo with Rob Schneider and Eddie Griffin, and The Great Raid with Benjamin Bratt and James Franco.  In limited release, look for Asylum, Pretty Persuasion, and Grizzly Man.  As always, if you’ve seen one of this weekends new releases, feel free to comment with your opinion.  See The Final Cut’s recommendations after the jump.

Click to continue reading The Final Cut:  A Closer Look At Skeleton Key, Four Brothers

Gallery: The Final Cut:  A Closer Look At Skeleton Key, Four Brothers


Blockbuster OnlineI, for one, am completely tired of all the fluctuating going on in the online DVD rental space. Prices have been raised and lowered more times than I can count on one hand. Yesterday I received an email from Blockbuster stating that my monthly cost would be climbing up from the $15 range to the $18 range for my “3 at a time” plan starting August 19, 2005. In fact, Blockbuster has raised the pricing on all of their plans so that they now cost exactly as much as similar plans on Netflix, those being the 5-out and 8-out plans at $29.99 and $47.99 respectively. The interesting thing here is that while Blockbuster Online has hit the 1 million member mark - and plans on doubling that within the next seven months - the company’s “No More Late Fees” mindset has resulted in a loss of about $140 million. I guess that is cause for raising prices wherever they can.

More interesting, however, is the fact that Blockbuster Online will now be giving an added bonus to its members on a monthly basis. If taken advantage of, then you actually come out ahead even with the extra $3 per month hit. For example, this month in addition to the two in-store game or DVD rental coupons that is a standard feature of the Blockbuster Online service, they are also giving out free previously viewed titles to Online members as well. There is a list of about 25 movies that you can choose from. I even had a fourth offer in my account, which allows me to purchase an previously viewed title selling for $9.99-14.99 at the price of $7.99. Not too shabby.

Gallery: Blockbuster Online Raises Prices, Now Even With Netflix


Sony David ManningSony will end up paying over $1.5 million to theater-goers for advertising movies using a fabricated movie critic named “David Manning.”  Between 2000 and 2001, Manning’s name and fake reviews were part of the advertising campaigns for “Vertical Limit,” “A Knight’s Tale,” “The Animal,” “Hollow Man” and “The Patriot.”  Anyone claiming to have purchased a ticket to these movies between August 3, 2000, and October 31, 2001, can join a class-action settlement in which Sony will reimburse the ticket-buyer $5 for every ticket purchased, up to 4 per movie (2 adults, 2 minors).  Personally, I got tickets for at least 2 people to “Hollow Man” and “The Patriot,” which means I’m in for a cool $20. Plus, seeing how “Hollow Man” is one of the worst movies ever, anyone who called it “One helluva scary ride!” (which the made-up Manning did) should owe me $5 (which the made-up Manning now does).

Click on the link below to read the details of the settlement with Sony and find out how to receive your reimbursement.

Read More | Official Court Notice of Settlement

Gallery: Sony Pays for Inventing Fake Movie Critic


Lightsaber $200,000The original lightsaber prop used by Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in 1977’s Star Wars grabbed a closing bid of over $200,000 at a recent auction of Hollywood memorabilia.  The auction, with both live and online bidders, took place in Beverly Hills, California, and featured 550 different movie props, some from the personal collection of Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz.  Despite being made up of only a metal tube and some rubber, the lightsaber sold for far more than the $60,000 to $80,000 that was expected.  Darth Vader’s original saber also sold, but for a much smaller sum of $118,000. 

Read More | Profiles in History

Gallery: Original Lightsaber Sells for $200,000


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