Archive for June, 2006

Transformers teaser trailer

Friday, June 30th, 2006
Transformers Movie

I pretty much never grew up with their toys, and only saw part of the original TV show, as mentionned in a previous post I was more of a Beast Wars fan that introduced me to the hole Transformers concept. Now the website has been up and running for some time, and just like in the upper picture their website show a menacing eye looking over Earth. There was a countdown on the website that was probably set to release the teaser next week but since it was leaked earlier today on YouTube and several websites they’re starting to release it early. However their official website seemed to be down for sometime and I had to get the trailer off The Movie Blog and a full quality one from Michael Bay’s blog who is the director of the Transformers movie. That movie will be huge, first impressions will come with a real trailer but it will be unleashed on the Fourth of July 2007.

Ultraviolet

Thursday, June 29th, 2006

Ultraviolet as Milla JovovichYou know what? It seems like no one can get enough of Milla Jovovich, seriously she is now tagged more then ever as a fighting great looking women. Her latest movie call Ultraviolet is a comic based movie. The story is not too complicated, she’s a kind of mercenary that has a change of heart and decides to wage her own destiny and fight against all the bad guys that want to destroy her race. I say we can’t get enough of her because with the recent release of Blu-ray titles she appears in The 5th Element and Resident Evil: Apocalypse. It’s simply a fun movie, nothing to win an Oscar but there is something about those action scene that you just love, whenever she is fighting 10 to 20 anonymous guards and slice them you see how fierceful she is. The movie also stars Cameron Bright as a boy with some kind of scientific value (cure of some sort) and is pretty much playing the same role he did in X-Men: The Last Stand. I know the movie had initial bad ratings and the script itself is REALLY light, meaning don’t bother with the logic of understanding much. There is a lot of CG (computer generated) elements and it sometimes tarnish the movie. At best it’s a fair rental and is from the same writer/producer then The Recruit (2003) and Equilibrium (2002).

Ultraviolet on a killing spree

You’ll love it or hate it but you’ll have something to talk about at least for a few days (hopefully not only the back shot of Milla).

Spiderman 3 Trailer

Wednesday, June 28th, 2006

Spiderman 3 Black PosterSo just in case you did follow all the buzz around the next Spiderman a teaser trailer has been released you can go and see it right now. I remember being all excited about the first movie and remember being extremely disappointed. I brought my hopes down for the second one and found it to be ok. Now seeing that trailer brings my hopes up and I wish for the best on this next installment starring Tobey McGuire as Spiderman. They will clearly introduce Venom, Sandman and the return of the Green Goblin giving Spiderman more then he could deal with. It will be released next year, meanwhile you can feast on Superman Returns that I’ll try to see over the week-end.

Opera 9 – Your web, your choice

Tuesday, June 20th, 2006

Since they become totally free, Opera web browser has been having grooving releases. I’ve been testing the beta version for months already and I can tell you version nine makes no exception to their elite talent to bring a stable, secure and enjoyable browser. You can get your hands on the installer by going to Opera.com or join the party to discover all the exciting features Opera 9 has to offer. I’ve posted on many occasions about their products, here is a small highlight of their features:

Opera 9Opera 9:

  • Tabbed browsing
  • Widgets
  • Email integration
  • RSS & IRC support
  • BitTorrent downloads
  • Toolbar search box
  • Skins & customization of the layout
  • Pop-up & Content blocker

A full list of the features is available here, then there is the direct download link and the link to the grooving splash opening. I still like Opera over Firefox and of course Internet Explorer is out of order. You can read my fair preview of these three browser in a previous post.

Firewall

Monday, June 19th, 2006

Firewall MovieMany people nowadays know that without a firewall on their computers, they could be at serious risk. However, Firewall is also the title of a movie starring Harrison Ford. Now I clearly remember being interested by the initial trailer but was quickly reminded that there is a ton of movies in witch the family is held hostage in exchange of some fraud.

In this movie, Harrison Ford is truly back in the action scene with a good movie (unlike Hollywood Homicide witch was awful). The Firewall also stars Paul Bettany and Virginia Madsen and reminded me of those great times were Ford was a fugitive or President of the United States. Now I know that the critics in general hated the movie but I really liked it! There is a lot of action, fair script, glory, death and treachery! I had it lying in my collection since it came out on DVD but never got to watch it. If I had known I’d spend am hour and forty four minutes enjoying it I’d of seen it sooner, even in the theaters perhaps.

Of course the movie is not all good. We get to see an over-heroic average father who because a kind of vengeful fighter when it come to protect his family. The dialogue is not weak, but there are a few evil guys cliché and you can guess the ending quite easily. The characters are a bit transparent but that’s good, because whenever they do something out of character you are surprised and laugh out loud. I’ve seriously enjoyed it, and is worth a good rental. I give it 4 out of 5 (seriously!)

Why Blu-ray is not the next UMD

Sunday, June 18th, 2006

It’s been known for some time now, the next generation of optical disks is rolling out this summer and this fall. HD-DVD players are already on the market but their main competitor, Sony, has plans to release their answer to HD content with the launch of the PS3. Many may be sceptic knowing that Sony is the main backer of this technology considering the fallout of their recent UMD.

UMD is the custom media storage that came with Sony’s PSP gaming console. Their PlayStation Portable got a fair success but Sony had in mind that the UMD (Universal Media Disk) would be massively used to bring movies to the portable era. However, the last few months have proven that the UMD is not very popular amongst users and movie studios. With the upcoming PS3 someone may wonder if Sony will fail again, or loose the war like with their old Betamax.

In short I think the answer is no, they have everything on their side to make Blu-ray a major success. Let’s review the current specs of both formats before going deeper on the subject.

Universal Media DiskUMD

  • Dimensions: approx. 65 mm
  • Maximum capacity: 1.80 GB (dual layer), 900 MB (single-layer)
  • Laser wavelength: 660 nm (red laser)

Blu-ray

  • Dimensions: approx. 120 mm
  • Expected capacity: 50 GB (dual layer), 25 GB (single-layer)
  • Laser wavelength: 405 nm (blue laser)

The thing that must be understood about UMD is that it brought a lower technology that currently available DVDs. As for the Blu-ray disc it brings an upgrade for high definition content. Let’s say you decide to get a PSP and buy a movie with it. The UMD movie is down scaled to fit on the small UMD and resolution of a PSP. So you have to buy a movie that is readable on one hardware only. If you add the fact that current DVDs can be cheaper and can be played on many different devices confirms the demise of the UMD.

However, the Blu-ray will be a new story since Blu-ray players are already announced and it will not be specific to one console (PS3). You also have to consider that the movies will have a much higher resolution and if wanted could be down sized by the user. It is obvious that there will be a war between this new breed of “DVDs” but I believe that they will eventually balance themselves out just like DVD-R and DVD+R are right now. I have an LG DVD burner that can handle all current DVD formats, LG even announced that they will do the same for Blu-ray and HD-DVD.

All things considered, Blu-ray is not an attempt to grab more money from users by making them buy the same movie in multiple formats, it’s rather an upgrade that had to come up one day or another.

SanDisk Sansa e250 Review

Monday, June 12th, 2006

SanDisk Sansa e250It’s a few weeks since I last got the opportunity to listen to music on my way to school, work or church. My old CD-MP3 player is still working but since my second pair of headphones died on me and I had to keep fixing the CD player to keep it working. Point taken I wanted to buy an MP3 player for sometime and I always delayed it. That, until I got my first paycheck and found a good deal on the Sansa e250.

This is a sleek iPod killer, it got a much larger screen than the iPod Nano and got a ton of extra features such as video playback, picture viewer, FM tuner, voice and FM recording. There is also an expansion to add a MicroSD card. The case seems rather resistant and you can easily change the rechargeable Li-on battery already supplied. As usual the headphones are nothing phenomenal but the included travel pouch and lanyard are a blessing. This MP3 player comes with 2GB to put most of your mp3s, videos and pictures. There are two alternative models, e260 and e270 respectively giving you the same features but with 4GB and 6GB instead. Most I think of this product is rather positive but the only down side might be the four buttons surrounding the scroll wheel. You can’t see it on their promotional pictures but the scroll wheel is raised and the buttons are so slim they become hard to access. So on this point you may need a few days to get use to it and manage to click the button on the first try. Besides the buttons, the lovely illuminated scroll wheel is not loose so you really feel the motion you initiate.

Bottom line, this is a great MP3 player and not that whole expensive. I got it for $175 CND and it retails on SanDisk’s web site for $180 so I’d consider it a great deal.

Beast Wars Rules

Monday, June 12th, 2006

Beast WarsDo you remember those TV shows from the 90’s? Yes there were a lot of them but I’m talking about 3D animation like ReBoot or Shadow Raiders. Beasties, aka Beast Wars makes no exception. Beast Wars is inspired directly from the Transformers story-line and features numerous cross-overs of villains and good guys alike. In this series the Maximals and the Predacons fall on a mysterious planet filled with Energon. Those crystals store huge amount of energy and would short circuit their robotic bodies. In order to preserve their systems they must convert to beast mode, using a local species DNA. The show is for kids, at most young teenagers but looking back at it I still find it to be a really good show. It got all the basics you need, some robots, action, punching. The show really kicks off in the second season where aliens and the fate of the Universe is in the balance. The show ended with three seasons but was then remade later in a new show spin off called Beast Machines.