Gadget Talks

Posts Tagged ‘Movies’

Loyal readers, I give you a Steampunk Sin City concept made on 1000 Euros. Now if one of you could kindly tell me what in the world is going on in it?

via [Dvorak Uncensored]

Who saw The Hurt Locker? Oh, right: none of you. Even if you didn’t you probably are already familiar with the basic concept: a U.S. Army guy whose job it is to disable I.E.D.s sorta goes crazy. That’s the gist of it. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense in the UK has unveiled something called the Dragon Runner, a remote-controlled robot that disables bombs.

It has four—count ‘em, four!—on-board cameras that transmit the images of what’s what to the soldat behind the controller. Said soldat can then use the robotic arm, which can lift up to 100 pounds, to try to disable a bomb or move it to a safer location.

That’s pretty much all there is to it.

Back to The Hurt Locker. It was an OK movie, sure, but there’s no way in hell you can tell me it was better than Un prophète.

I love how this is controversial. Sony Pictures (creators of Spider-Man) chairman Michael Lynton has suggested that movie theaters offer healthy snacks in addition to their usual parade of garbage, and people have reacted with blind rage. How dare you tell me how to live my life, you pinko liberal communist! It’s like, really? What is so terrible about not covering your popcorn with metric tons of liquid “butter”?

You would think movie theater owners would go out of their way to make their theaters as welcoming as possible, right? Yes, last year was a record year for Hollywood, but take away Avatar, an outlier if there ever was one, and do the numbers look as hot? Not bloody likely.

If I were a theater owner, I’d make it so that I’d have, yes, plenty of garbage (buttered popcorn, soda, etc.) on hand, but I’d also have fruits and vegetables to cater to the Whole Foods crowd. Can you imagine a small movie theater opening up in Park Slope that has arugula as a snack? I’d be a millionaire!

A selection of the comments that made me laugh…

Hmmmm, watching Terminator 12 eating blueberries. That should pack them in to the theater. I think I’ll wait for the DVD and have my popcorn at home. I hate liberals always telling me how to live my life.

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is he WANTING to kill of cinema?!

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He can have my popcorn when he pries it from my cold dead fingers.

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The sony idiot would make a perfect democrat congressman, one who loves to tell you how to live your life. When will the public quit voting for these morons?

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You might have already guessed it, but Drudge linked this story, too.

I’m trying to remember the last time I went to a movie theater, and I’m pretty sure it was to see Casino Royale. I picked a Sunday 11am showing, figuring most of the troublemakers would still be hungover. But no! Who should sit next to me but a rather large woman with two bags of popcorn and a soda! What she eats is her business, obviously, but my God in Heaven she was rattling the bag like she was auditioning for Stomp.

3D cinema may be a draw right now, but the minute I break down and say, “Eh, let’s go see Alice in Wonderland” and find that the theater is populated by loud, obnoxious people is the moment I walk right out the door.

And where is it written that you have to eat at all during a movie? Can’t people sit still for two hours without ingesting 18 bags of Milk Duds?

Flickr

I could have sworn “piracy” was killing the movie industry. Apparently not, when you actually look at the data! The year 2009 was the single best year in Hollywood history as far as “money” is concerned—if you can find a single decent movie produced by Hollywood last year I’d love to see it—where it made $29.9 billion in ticket sales alone. (Never mind how much Blu-ray and DVD sales will bring in.) So again: if piracy is killing the industry, how do you explain these numbers?

Well, we’ll try to explain them. Last year was the year of Avatar—Avatar is 3D, to be exact. A ticket to a 3D showing cost quite a premium, something like $14-$15 (or more!) depending on your location instead of the usual $10ish.

That’s pretty much the only explanation.

Avatar was to Hollywood what the Wii was to Nintendo for a while there—simply a money-printing machine.

Perhaps it speaks to an earlier thesis: you cannot “pirate” the 3D “experience,” so Hollywood should be flying high for a little while.

Nowhereelse found what amounts to be a sneak peek for a new version of Predator, now called Predators which I suspect will eat les balles. Oh well.

Hi what program/ programs can I use to STREAM movies and TV shows to a PS3 and or a windows mobile phone for FREE ( I have the Samsung Omnia & Saga ) I used to use Hulu and it worked awesome for the ps3 till they blocked it and it appears with skyfire for windows moblie it would worked great before they blocked it also.

We’ve given you a first look at Iron Man 2 way back in June last year, and two months ago, we reported it will be Marvel’s first IMAX movie when it hits screens on May 7, 2010. It’s 2.32 minutes long and very, very cool.

This is the official synopsis of the movie:

Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment present the highly anticipated sequel to the blockbuster film based on the legendary Marvel Super Hero Iron Man, reuniting director Jon Favreau and Oscar® nominee Robert Downey Jr. In Iron Man 2, the world is aware that billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is the armored Super Hero Iron Man. Under pressure from the government, the press and the public to share his technology with the military, Tony is unwilling to divulge the secrets behind the Iron Man armor because he fears the information will slip into the wrong hands. With Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and James Rhodey Rhodes (Don Cheadle) at his side, Tony forges new alliances and confronts powerful new forces.

Here’s the new trailer (Trailer on Apple.com in HD)

And to make things complete, here is the first official trailer (released in December last year):

Tonight’s Oscars are as much about technology as they are good movies. Granted, movie-making has always been about embracing new technology—critics complained when movies first appeared, when they added sound, when they added color, etc.—but Avatar can be looked at as nothing more than a glorified tech demo. A win for Avatar tonight is a win for 3D technology, end of.

I write this not having seen any of the movies nominated for best picture. This year just seemed sort of “meh.” I did grab the movie Un Prophète, but the odds of me staying away from Napoleon: Total War long enough to closely watch it are pretty much non-existent. (Note: Napoleon: Total War is my Game of the Year so far. Unless Crysis 2 is as good as it looks, and unless Gran Turismo 5 actually comes out this year, which, well, the less said the better, it’ll probably stay that way. Worst constructed sentence ever.) But let’s put it this way: if Avatar was only a plain ol’ 2D movie, would it even have been nominated for the Oscar? Based on what I’ve read, no.

So, 3D. It’s going to be the savior of Hollywood, so they say. It makes going to the movie theater a fun experience, and discourages staying at home and watching, say, There Will Be Blood on Blu-ray on your 60-inch plasma. Well, until 3D TVs come down in price, but don’t expect that to happen too soon. Plus, based on what I saw at CES this past January (and having played Battlefield: Bad Company 2 in 3D last week), I’m going to say that your Avatar-like movie-going experiences are going to be unique enough that they’ll continue to be a draw, at least for a little while. Alice in Wonderland, also in 3D, did huge numbers this weekend, so there’s that.

But will it win, and should it win? The second point—should it win—is the more contentious question. It’s basically Pocahontas in Space (again, as I understand it), and if I wanted to see a movie that’s sorta based on Pocahontas, I’d see The New World again. (That reminds me to watch The Thin Red Line again soon. Now there’s a competent director.) Will it win? Is Avatar better than Hurt Locker? I’ve heard mixed things about Kathryn Bigelow’s film: some people love it, and others think it’s just OK. Precious? Inglorious Basterds? Neither of those are really the savior of Hollywood—how much money did James Cameron make everybody with his film?

Whether or not Avatar wins tonight, 3D technology is here to stay—we’ve already seen how sports networks have begun to embrace it.

One thing I do know: come 8pm tonight, I’ll probably be playing Napoleon: Total War and listening to Ron and Fez’s live Oscar coverage (there’s no way in hell I’m going to watch the actual Oscar ceremony) on Sirius XM satellite radio—maybe I’ll even join in on that Twitter party fun?

Oh, one more thing: FIFA stinks. That has nothing to do with anything, but whatever.

Is video on demand the key to making your spiffy indie movie the next Huge Success? Depends on who you ask. The Tribeca Film Festival will experiment with VOD this year, having signed deals with cable providers like Comcast, Verizon FIOS, and Cablevision (a New York-area provider, for those of you who’ve never heard of it before) to create a Tribeca VOD channel. The thing is, even though putting a film on VOD is a guaranteed way to increase its exposure, there seems to be a bit of a stigma attached there.

So the deal is that several of the movies that make their debut at the Tribeca Film Festival, which runs from April 21 to May 2, will be available on the festival’s VOD channel. You might think, “Hey, that’s cool! I can’t make it out there to see the films, so I’ll just hop on the VOD channel, sit back, and enjoy!” But not everyone thinks that way. The idea is, what do you think of movies that come out straight to DVD, or VHS back in the day? You think, “Well, this movie must stink.” Some people associated with Tribeca are afraid that, instead of being a necessarily “good thing,” putting these movies on VOD may tarnish their appeal. “Oh, that’s the movie from VOD? Yuck.”

That’s ludicrous, of course. If I were a filmmaker, and I’m certainly not, I’d only want one thing: for as many people as possible to see my creation, whether it’s on VOD, DVD, YouTube, or whatever. I make movies so people can see them.

The point is, no, there’s no reason to be afraid of VOD. The more people who see your movie, however that may be, the better.

We were filled with excitement the moment Sony took the wraps off of its Dash personal internet viewer back at CES, but after learning that this was less of a tablet and more a sophisticated widget machine for in-home use, our joviality was understandably squashed. Today, Sony has given the doubters a reason to perk back up and pay attention, as the April-bound device will ship with the ability to stream Watch Instantly content from Netflix. As if that wasn't enough, Demand Media will also be offering Dash-tailored portals to content from eHow, Golflink and Livestrong.com, and it'll have no issues streaming "online music videos, television, or film content on-demand" to the 7-inch touchpanel. Still not convinced that this thing is worth $199? It's just an external battery mod away from greatness, you know!

Sony Dash given ability to stream TVs and movies from Netflix, new lease on life originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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