Entertainment

Purchased my copy of Band of Brothers on Blu-Ray and have made it about halfway through the series. Review shortly, stay tuned.....

Finally one of my favorite movies of all time is getting released on Blu-Ray (01/20/09): This is Spinal Tap. (Not surprisingly to those who know me) I have both versions of the previous Spinal Tap releases (Criterion Collection and the Special Edition) and yes, I do watch both . And, of course, I will be picking up this version as well. Now, if only Lord of the Rings would come out on Blu-Ray....

I have finally had the chance to view this searing documentary, I strongly recommend that people view it, especially Americans; whether they are conservative, liberal, Republican or Democrat is irrelevant. It is very disturbing and disquieting, to say the least, to see the American government condoning the same actions into law that we normally associate with other countries that are violators of human rights. An interesting footnote is a posthumous interview with Alex Gibney's dad, Frank, himself a former Navy interrogator during WWII, stating, among other things, how some of the laws that the Bush administration put into effect made him lose his faith in the American government. One (among many) interesting point is how John McCain was one of the strong opponents of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, but sadly, was allegedly strong armed by the Bush administration into supporting the Bush bill that effectively pardoned the Bush administration from any wrong doing from Abu Ghraib, after he was threatened with being discredited by the Republican party during his Presidential run.

IronMan has been released on DVD and Blu-Ray disc and of course I had to pick up the 2-disc Blu-Ray Ultimate Edition. I haven't had a chance to get through the extras yet, but the movie itself looks outstanding. DigitalBits gave a good review (and making note of the Dynamic Range Compression (DRC) issue with the Blu-Ray disc). I haven't had a chance to work through the extras yet, but give me time...

The good news: have acquired and watched Heroes: S2 on Blu-Ray. The bad news: some of the special features are for Blu-Ray live, which I don't have yet. Season 2 was decent, but it did suffer from the Writer's Strike (as did many of my favorite programs). At least I am now caught up and ready for the start of Season 3: Villains starting on September 22nd 2008.

I finally broke down and purchased the Harmony One Remote, after seeing it at the lowest price ever (online or in-store - it was on sale at Best Buy ) (I have been eyeing this remote ever since it was released, so I don't feel too bad). After installing the latest Logitech software (and a quick call to the Logitech Support center to clone my account, so I could still use my Logitech 880 as well), I was in business with my new remote set up. I have only been using it for a couple of days, but the initial feedback is positive. The touch screen is nice and sharp and is a welcome improvement as is the new key layout). Customizations (with the improved Logitech software) are also very easy to do. Currently, I am hard pressed to find any negatives. (maybe after a couple of weeks...).

This review has been a long time coming, but finally got to see The Dark Knight at the IMAX Theater. I would have to concur with the masses that this sequel is one of the few that lives up to it's predecessor and even surpasses it at some points. And, I also agree that Heath Ledger's Joker was one of those truly inspired performances. This second installment is definitely darker than Batman Begins, but it is just as well written (if not better) as Batman Begins. I am not a Batman fan by any stretch, but I will definitely be picking this one up when it is finally released on Blu-Ray.

Finally saw the movie Wall-E with my nephew. This is the latest movie from Pixar Studios and, despite my low expectations going into the movie, I was very surprised at how much I liked it. I definitely liked it better than Cars, though I am not sure if I liked it better than The Incredibles.

This weekend (in between reconfiguring my nephew's new computer ), I had a chance to view a special by CNN called "Black In America", a two part special that examined the lives of Black Americans from different perspectives since the death of Martin Luther King Jr.
(This is evidently will be available for download on iTunes as well).

(Note: Another good examination was done by the NYTimes several years back called How Race is Lived in America, a fifteen part written series that also examined the issue of race in America from different perspectives.)

OK, I'll admit that I am very late to the party on this one, but my generous coworker has (again) shown me the light and hooked me up with the TV show Scrubs. Let's just say that I stop watching it at work, because I was trying to hard to not laugh out loud. (so now I am watching it at home laughing out loud - currently meandering through Season 1).

Since I was a big fan of Alex Gibney's Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room, I had a piqued interest in his later movie Taxi to the Dark Side. Very appropriately, this movie won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Needless to say, I'll be viewing this when it finally comes to my area (hopefully before it is released on DVD {which is rumored to be on 09/30/08 } ). Update (10/09/08): Have finally had the chance to view this searing documentary, I strongly recommend that people view it, especially Americans; whether they are conservative, liberal, Republican or Democrat is irrelevant. It is very disturbing and disquieting, to say the least, to see the American government condoning the same actions into law that we normally associate with other countries that are violators of human rights. An interesting footnote is a posthumous interview with Alex Gibney's dad, Frank, himself a former Navy interrogator during WWII, stating, among other things, how some of the laws that the Bush administration put into effect made him lose his faith in the American government.

Finally! After patiently waiting , Entourage: Season 4 will finally be released on DVD August 26, 2008. Sadly, this show (like many others was hit hard by the writers strike, so there are not a lot of episodes for Season4). However, it seems that production for Season 5 started in April 2008, but due to the writers strike will start being shown in September 2008 instead of June.

Some more sad news as I found out that Jim McKay and Bo Diddley as well as Harvey Korman had all passed away recently.
While I wasn't a huge fan of his music (slightly before my time), I certainly do admire Bo Diddley's pioneering efforts as an artist, to say nothing of his longevity on the music scene.

Jim McKay is probably known best for 1972 Munich Tragedy and ABC's Wide World of Sports, coining the phrase "The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat".

Harvey Korman was best known probably for the Carol Burnett Show (he is certainly fixed in that role in my consciousness - who can forgot "Ed and Eunice" ), but he also had a key role in Mel Brooks' movie Blazing Saddles.

Rest in peace....

After being a fan for so many years of the group Rush, I finally had the chance to see the in concert (thanks to one of my friends getting a sweet deal on tickets). There was no opening band and Rush played from 7:30 pm - 11:30 pm, with only a 15 minute intermission. There was a good mix of the old and new songs to keep everyone happy and it was quite nice to see that after 30+ years of making music, all three members of the group still have it (how many other groups from the 70's can you say that about? ). Happily, my Nikon binoculars worked fabulously, especially for seeing Neil Peart do his awesome drum solos (yes, there is no doubt that he is a drumming demigod ) It was also obvious that there is quite a bit of creativity (not just musical) within the band. The light show was pretty cool and there were several short outtakes in between songs and a couple of the more entertaining ones was the South Park outtake doing the lead-in to Tom Sawyer. Also, the cartoon dragon that ended up spouting real fire on stage was also a nice touch. All in all, a very well spent evening and definitely worth the price of the ticket (and how many stadium concerts can you say that about? )

With my nephew turning into a regular movie buff ;-), I am getting the opportunity to see quite a few movies this year. So the movie for this weekend ended up being The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Since the movie running time was given as 2 hours 20 minutes and the reviews hadn't been that good, I was a little nervous about seeing this one (it must be stated as well that I was a big fan of the CS Lewis books when I was younger ). So I was pleasantly relieved when it actually turned out to be a decent movie - it certainly didn't feel like 2:20 hours of sitting and as further proof, my nephew's attention was also held for the entire movie. Again (like in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe), the movie remains fairly faithful to the book. I also must complement the special effects - it seems that more movie makers are learning the lesson of letting the special effects support the movie, rather than upstaging the movie (George Lucas, are you listening? ). If you were a fan of the first movie, I could certainly recommend this one.