iP3K

Some people will see this as blasphemy, others will see marketing genius. On my part I saw today the trailer of a movie I will never see in theater or DVD and will patiently wait for it to go on a local cable station. The movie is called Underdog and is set to be released later this summer. I didn’t really laugh at the trailer, but enjoy the premise of making fun of Superman. When the narrator talks you’re under the impression they’re going to reveal a super hero, only to find a flying dog. There will probably be a lot of bad jokes but you should check out the trailer anyway.

Illico is the brand name of the digital TV service offered by Vidéotron. This company is located in Québec and is a pretty serious cable provider that offers television, Internet, phone and even cellular service. Two years ago I took their service for regular phone and have been pleased by it ever since. I don’t talk much on the phone myself but my parents don’t seem to complain at all. The transition was seamless to them. I also had their Internet service for a long time but got sick of the bandwidth cap and paying extra charges for those.

When it comes to television I decided to try it out and see what’s on TV. To my surprise there is not much out there. I got used to have my shows over the Internet, in a way I could pause and check them whenever I wanted. For that I should of purchased a PVR (personal video recorder) from them… I don’t see the point of paying some extra for a functionality I could get elsewhere. Until now, what I truly enjoy is their On demand service, where you can rent shows or movies and play them as a DVD. Then again I have no interest in paying each time I want to watch something. I guess I’ve been spoiled a bit. All that taken in consideration, the only reason that motivated me to pay cable is to get a foot inside to see what’s on television. Hopefully the day I’ll buy and HDTV the transition shouldn’t be too hard.

Vidéotron gives you a wide variety of channels and on the pricing they let you customize the programming so you could pay a minimal price and still get the channels you really watch. Overall, even someone with all the channels will find a few moments where there is nothing interesting. When it comes down to it I watch a bit of G4techTV, and a lot of shows over the web.

Should anyone have expected more out of a third Pirates of the Caribbean movie? When I saw the trailer for the last chapter I got interested again. I wasn’t disappointed for my money since I got near 3 hours of entertainment out of it. Was the movie any good? I don’t get all the bashing it’s getting by some reviews. To me there was a lot of annoying things and things that happened in the story just to justify their budget. If you have not seen it yet I would suggest one of those Tuesday matinees at $5. It’s great if you have some time to spend.

I’ve heard that the budget for this movie was around the 300 million dollars and I can tell you that it shows that they invested a lot of money into it. The visual shots were impressive and the action sequences were edited in a very dynamic way. By that I mean that many shots could of been done very simply but they rather add rain, explosions and pieces of wood flying in the background. It’s a shame only the first movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, had a novelty to it. Looking at the overall story arc this one could be a fitting end. Unless they decide to make more of those. I could give it a 7 out of 10.

*Yes, the design of the blog changed… it was a bit overdue*

I never grew up reading comic books. But somehow when ever a comic book based movie is released I have to see it! Spiderman is the morning cartoon that introduced me to all the others heroes and villains of the Marvel universe. So here I was yesterday sitting in for the third installment of the Spiderman franchise. With the crazy marketing and budget they injected in the sequel I wasn’t really looking forward anything spectacular. I remember how X-Men 3 was deceptive!

I never hype to much about a movie, it’s the best way to enjoy your time at the movies. In this case it served me well and I ended up liking the movie a lot. It’s even possible I liked it over the first two movies. There were three villains (Venom, Hob Goblin and Sandman). I didn’t really care about exposition. I just wanted what I had from my cartoons where Spiderman had to deal with many villains at a time. There never was an episode centered on just one villain, why take two hours for just Octopus or the Green Goblin.

The visual effects where pretty good but I have to say that on many occasions I though they were making Sandman look like Godzilla, giant monster busting things… it’s cool but it’s a freaking sand figure, hulk like. Just picture this, on it’s opening day, it bashed the previous record it’s first movie had made and crushed Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest that held the record last year. Read on the article at Box Office Mojo. Don’t miss out on this movie, it’s a really good one and will make a nice challenge to the other summer blockbuster. A quick guess, since that many other great movies are to be released I decided to go on it’s release weekend, not because I couldn’t wait for it. But because I’ll have other movies to look for in the weeks to come.

Beware! The movie has serious flaws, it brings NOTHING new, it’s the same save Mary-Jane, my love life is a wreck, I have to deal with my powers.

Had I known I would enjoy Hot Fuzz this much I would of seen it the first day it hit theaters. I remember how worked up I was about the trailer and how much I had anticipated this movie. On many occasion a movie doesn’t live up to it’s hype and the previews inflate the movie in a way that you are disappointed with the final result.

You have no idea how much fun it was! I was late to the party and got to see it on a Tuesday matinee when the tickets are extra cheap. The theater was empty but it made me feel like I had a showing just for myself. I enjoyed it so much more since I could laugh out loud any time I felt like it!

Hot Fuzz stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as cops of the country side in a town called Sanford. Nicholas Angel, played by Pegg was the top of his class in police school and his record shined by excellence in mastery of combat, driving and various skills. For the most part he was a “super-cop”. He was so good in London that he made all his colleagues look bad and they transferred him to the country side to get rid of him. His partner is played by Frost and you then recognize the amazing duo they made in Shaun of the Dead. It’s by no means a sequel to it’s story but I would call it a spiritual sequel. Hot Fuzz was made in the same vision, to fool around and have a good laugh at the cop movies like Bad Boys. At first the town seems as boring as they come and everyone seems peaceful, of course the new Sergeant is a bit zealous about his job and on his first day arrests underage drinking kids at the local pub. But around half way through the movie you start noticing that strange things happen.

The trailer does give much away but when everything unravels it becomes a totally crazy ride. It becomes over the top in a great way and the comedy makes you enjoy your time even more. I know there a huge blockbusters coming this May, like Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Caribbean and Shrek 3. But Hot Fuzz is a MUST SEE. I’ll go ahead and give it a 10 out of 10. Very dynamic feel, quick transition, unpredictable plot, plain fun.