Please, God, no

Dear Lord,

I thank you for finally bringing CHiPs to DVD. It's been much needed and perhaps it will set a few criminals on the straight and narrow.

But now, God, comes news that they may be making a direct-to-DVD version of Jaws 5.

You know I own every Jaws made. I think the first is the greatest film ever. The second is so-so. The third and fourth range from lame to really bad. Do we really need a fifth Jaws film? The answer to that is a very firm no.

So God, I try not to ask for much, but this is important. Really important. Please shut down any ideas related to another Jaws film.

Amen.

Look, Up in the Sky!

Look up in the Sky!, the Amazing Story of Superman is a great documentary about the history of Superman. From his first appearance to the latest film, Superman Returns.

Some highlights:

A Superman musical that was probably the biggest train wreck I've ever seen.

An early commercial for Sugar Smacks starring Clark Kent (George Reeves) and Jimmy Olsen. The funny part is that Lois Lane was not to be found in the commercial. At the time, it was considered inappropriate for Lois to be at the breakfast table with Clark. As the documentary points out, Jimmy and Clark waking up together didn't raise any eyebrows however.

The documentary pauses toward the end to discuss 9/11's effect on our country's views towards heroes. I find it interesting how often 9/11 is mentioned if fairly unrelated topics. It's so ingrained itself into our collective psyche.

"Run in slow motion!"

A really creepy tribute to Michael Bay.



Via Ain't It Cool News.

Munich

Last year was incredibly busy and because of that, I fell very behind on viewing movies as they were released. Netflix is helping me catch up. The latest is Steven Spielberg's 2005 film Munich. Having just finished it, I'm still a little numb, but my early impression is this is one of the best films I've seen in years. It's hard to watch, but it's worth every second. Spielberg is one of my favorite directors anyway, but he really hit this one out of the park. You owe it to yourself to see Munich if you haven't already.

Who knows, I may be the only person left who hasn't seen it.

UA MIA?

Seeing the latest James Bond film, Casino Royale, last year I noticed the lack of the United Artists logo before the film. My fondest memories are watching older Bond films, and most of them had the above logo. I'm sure that isn't the one that appeared in the theater for all of them, it was probably just for the DVD release. This time it was just the MGM and Columbia Pictures logo.

It probably doesn't mean anything to anyone else, but it was just odd seeing a Bond picture without United Artists being trumpeted beforehand. That's right, I am that much of a dork.

Did anyone else notice this?

The Astronaut Farmer?

Follow this link to a trailer for a movie called The Astronaut Farmer. Of course, you have to watch a trailer for a movie with that name. It looks like one of those overly sweet movies, but I'm not sure I can resist.

But, be warned, the trailer pretty well tells you everything that happens in the movie. I hate it when they do that. It's funny to watch the disconnect between filmmakers and the marketing departments at the studios. The director probably doesn't want to tell everyone exactly what's going to happen before they even decide to buy a ticket. I know I wouldn't. It takes all the mystery away and generally ruins the experience. It had better be a truly great film to entertain even knowing what is going to happen.

Netflix gets better? Not so much.

Let me start by saying we subscribed to Netflix about a month and half ago and absolutely love it. In fact most of our friends and family have heard all about it from us. It seems perfect.

Now, they are making it where you can stream the movies directly to your computer instead of having to wait on the mail. The mail is so last century, after all. The bad part is, it's not open to Mac users. I know you are reading this and thinking "so," because you aren't a Mac user. Well I am, and it pisses me off.

But now that I think about it, streaming anything off the internet sucks. Bad. If I can download it directly to my computer and watch it, that's one thing (though I prefer to watch it on my TV), but streaming is often low-quality, stuttering video. Turns out you can keep your streaming Netflix. I don't want it. Me or my Mac.

I'd have to wonder about the economics of this offer, too. It won't be any extra charge to customers, which means no additional revenue from it (not counting any advertising surrounding the video you watch, which there will be). It surely took a huge investment in infrastructure and technology to make this happen. Does anyone really care enough to take advantage of it? If I can't wait 1 business day to see Weekend at Bernies, I've got issues. Most people savvy enough to take advantage of something like this are probably techy enough to own a very large TV with a nice surround sound system. Would those same people be content to watch a movie in poor quality on a computer screen? I know I wouldn't. With the advent of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Disc (more on that later) for high definition movies, this seems like a step in the wrong direction. Maybe this will turn out a lot like mobile video.

Via American Copywriter...again.