I saw Star Trek Into Darkness, it’s the direct sequel to the rebooted Star Trek universe. The short of it is the crew on board the Enterprise goes on spacey missions and does spacey stuff, we all know what Star Trek is.

The good; everyone’s back, I liked what the young cast brought to the table and I’m glad they’re all back.

The uniforms, it’s taking a more Starship Troopers approach, lots of greys.

The first half of the movie.

Peter Weller in Star Trek again.

Benedict Cumberbatch carried the most presence with what he had to work with.

The shirts, the shirts are just well pressed!

The bad; how can I put all that feel here? I won’t try, but I’ll hit on some important things.

This movie is not Star Trek, I blame the “writers” Orci, Kurtzman, and that ever wonderful Lindelof. Collectively this team butchered Transformers, Cowboys and Aliens, the Alien franchise, and now Star Trek…
The first half of the film was great, it was attempting to correct the things that were sorely wrong with the first movie. Scotty is telling Kirk that they’re explorers and not a military vessel, so he resigns… thinking back on this, that was all Simon Pegg, cause he knows, where those other guys clearly don’t know Trek.

*SPOILERS* Star Trek is about hope and bettering humanity, I get it, 9/11 happened, but does Star Trek need to remind us of that? Also, if you’re going to create a new world for Star Trek, and close the old one off, why are we rehashing the “old world’s” stories? They tried it within world with Nemesis, and that ended all the Next Generation films, “hello McFly” are we not learning from history?

Why Khan? I get it, that’s the best movie from the franchise, and you’re a fan, that doesn’t mean you should make Wrath of Khan over again now does it?

Why is Carol Marcus in this film? Just cause she was in Wrath of Khan? Then we reverse the whole Spock death by putting Kirk in radiation? There were more than a few scoffs in our audience when that scene came up. This new Trek hasn’t earned that moment.

And at one point Spock goes and talks to Spock Prime… that’s lazy story telling, cause Spock can just ask Spock how it all happened in the “old” universe, really?

Overall I fail to see how a Star Trek fan can like this movie, it’s all flash and no substance, literally, flashes of lens flare galore. The future in Star Trek is bright, but not literally bright. Into Darkness lost me as soon as Khan’s name was revealed, from that moment on I was beamed away. See what I did there?

Save your time and watch some real Star Trek. *END SPOILERS*

Finally got to see Iron Man 3, it’s the third installment in to the Iron Man franchise, this film being directed and written by Shane Black. I’m a Shane Black fan, he’s done; the Lethal Weapon movies, Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang, The Last Boyscout…
In short, the third movie is about Tony Stark battling a new villain as well as personal demons.

The good; Robert Downey Jr, he carries this movie completely and thoroughly. His comedy timing and delivery is great, there’s some scenes in particular with a kid, but I won’t get in to it.

The scene where Iron Man has to rescue passengers suddenly ejected from a plane is great. There’s a real sense of geography and urgency amidst this chaotic situation and it’s pulled off very well.

The bad; it wasn’t the movie I had hoped for, not typical of Shane Black’s previous work. The twists and turns aren’t hard to spot, and much like The Dark Knight Rises, there isn’t much of Iron Man in this film. It seemed that there was too much to service in the story, you have the Extremis stuff as well as the Mandarin.

Overall, enjoyed it better than the second movie, but the first movie is still the best one out of the trilogy.
Again… wait till the end of the credits (as you should) for a tag at the end.

Yesterday, Netflix took a step further in removing more useful information by removing expiration dates from the API.

The reasoning behind this change is because “the expiration date can be inaccurate as a result of frequent, often last minute, changes in content flow.”

The information can still be found while browsing the Netflix website. Unfortunately, rather than having all this information conveniently listed on sites like Instantwatcher, you’ll have to view title pages individually or in your queue list.

I wish Netflix would just be as transparent as possible with a disclaimer that they reserve the right to change details. It’s not like we’re expecting Netflix to blatantly lie to us about titles outside the scope of their agreements with studios. We just want to know what we can look forward to or need to watch before it’s no longer available.

Source: Netflix

I went to see Oblivion last night.  Didn’t get to see it over the weekend, apparently everyone else did…
It’s about Tom Cruise as the last man on earth, sort of, the planet is ravaged and he his mission is to repair the drones that repel the alien presence.

The good; I love the premise, it reminds me of all those post-apocalyptic movies before the eighties, the ones that immediately come to mind are; Planet of the Apes, Omega Man, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Silent Running and Damnation Alley.  Then more recently Moon.

The production design in creating the world is great.  Everything is a variation of white, the equipment, living quarters, clothing… all white.  But Tom Cruise plays tech Jack Harper who goes out in to the wasteland so his white uniform is grayish from all the dirt and grime.

Oblivion is directed by Joseph Kosinski, who previously did Tron: Legacy. It’s nice that he got a second chance to direct a movie with a stronger story.  This film really feels like a lover-letter to all those previously mentioned movie in the seventies.

The bad; the film does drag in spots, but there’s something about Cruise, he can carry a movie, much like Mc Queen in Bullitt.  So I was able to forgive the pacing in areas.

The story is nothing new, there’s a lot of aspects of other movies and stories that we’ve seen here.  I know I mentioned this above as something I liked, but it felt more like here’s this movie and then now here’s that movie, the melding needed work.

*SEMI-SPOILER* There’s a twist/reveal at the end.  Basically if you’re an uninformed movie goer (a Michael Bay fan *ahem) then you’d be gasping when this plot point reveals itself.  I could see this twist coming a mile away, and again, it’s nothing new that we haven’t seen, so I guess I was just predisposed to expect it.
When the revelation hits Harper I find that he buys in to it way too easily.  Some might say that was already fighting mentally with what he was doing, so when the truth hit him, it was always something he knew but could never see or hear.
At this point in the movie taking more time to explain the “truth” of what’s going on wouldn’t have been so bad, cause they did take their sweet time getting there.  Just felt weird, why take your leisure and then when something important like this comes up we speed right through it?  It’s basically told in exposition, which felt very lazy.
*END SEMI-SPOILER*

Overall I enjoyed this movie more than I thought it would be.  The visuals are great and Tom Cruise, luv him or hate him, he can certainly carry a movie.  Viewing this movie made me want to watch all the other movies that I thought of, so I know that the filmmakers’ hearts are in the right place, cause they like some of the same movies I like.

Warner Brothers just got into the streaming service war with its own channel for Roku. It’s niche appeal is directed towards hardcore buffs looking for rare movie and TV series.

Priced at $9.99/month, we aren’t sure the price is low enough for anyone to replace or add Warner Archive Instant to their service lineup. Warner probably could have just made a deal with Hulu or Netflix, which are both available on more devices so this service would only be a deal for those that have been waiting to track a piece of  television/movie history.

Source via Engadget

I saw G.I. Joe: Retaliation this weekend.  G.I. Joe: Retaliation is a direct sequel to Rise of Cobra, it’s the on-going mission of the Joes in the fight against a ruthless organization called Cobra.  This time we get a completely new cast with the Joes; Flint, Lady Jaye, Roadblock, and Jinx, among others.

The good; Flint’s in this movie, he’s my personal favorite G.I. Joe character from the Real American Hero incarnation of Gijoe.  So it’s nice to see him in live action finally along with Lady Jaye, played by Adrianne Palicki .  Dwayne Johnson as Roadblock is a great choice as well, I’m ok with this ethnicity change in a character, unlike Ripcord… who’s character was completely changed.

On the Cobra side we get Lee Byung-hun back as Stormshadow, a new Cobra Commander, Firefly and Zartan.  Firefly is the only new Cobra character we get, and Ray Stevenson does a good job interrupting this saboteur character from the Real American Hero cannon.

Other than the characters we get new vehicles/armor, and they look like a HISS tank and a FANG.  It’s great to see these things in a non-animated form.

The action between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow is great as usual.

*SEMI-SPOILERS* There’s some nice easter eggs/nods to the Real American Hero series.
-They explain Cobra Commander’s face mask.
-Zartan’s connection to Storm Shadow from the comics is integrated.
-The Cobra private military soldiers have helmets that look like a pre-Viper, it’s the helmet portion without the face mask.
*END SEMI-SPOILERS*

The bad; the movie’s pace is rather speedy.  Things move quickly from scene to scene, it’s an action scene cut next to a scene explaining how they get to the next action scene.  That’s not a bad thing, but here it feels like they could’ve worked more on the transitions between scenes.

The action scenes are covered in the typical modern day transition… why is everything shakey cam?  And why all the close ups?  There are scenes where you can tell it’s Byung-hun going against Ray Park (even though he’s masked through-out the movie), I know these guys are capable, so let’s put their skill on display.  There’s a lot of action with the other cast members too, but the geography of the scenes is muddled and messy at times.

There’s also a lot of death in the movie, I know they’re making it modern day GiJoe, where there are no lasers or parachutes deploying last minute… but we’re killing off main characters here, I was surprised that they would do that to non-red shirts.

Overall, 5 year old me enjoys this movie, but older me also sees this movie objectively.  Retaliation is movie in the spirit of what A Real American Hero was all about.  I liked that it acknowledge the mistakes of Rise of Cobra and then it moved forward.  Check your brain at the door, go back to the eighties and imagine what a 5 year old boy wanted to see in a theatre. 

Oh… and Duke stays dead, and knowing (that) is half the battle.

I saw Olympus Has Fallen this weekend.  The audience was so strange, a mixture of families, old people, teens, and more old people.
The short of it is, Gerard Butler plays a secret serviceman who’s been sorta drummed out, but when foreign terrorists attack the White House, he’s the only guy that can save the day.

The good; I really enjoyed this premise.  I enjoy the actors in the cast.  The lighting.  The trailers, I loved the trailers, they succeeded in getting my butt in the theatre.

The bad; the movie is almost like a B-Movie, in that there isn’t much to it.  The film is rated R, boy do they let you know that this is an R Movie, f-bombs everywhere.  Not sure that was really necessary.

The action scenes are covered in the typical way, close ups with hand held camera work… why?  I wanna see things, again, it feels like they’re compensating for the lack of skill.  I wouldn’t mind a stunt double, even like that horrible one in Robot Jox.

Overall, worth a rental, if only to escape the movie going audience these days.  I don’t want to sound too mean, but elderly people at an 8pm showtime for this movie just don’t go together, I could make the obvious joke about how they should already have been asleep for 3 hours, and that they’re way past their bed time, but I won’t.  Lately they have just been noise generators that detract from the movie viewing experience.

According to StreamingSoon, Netflix will soon have classic and newer James Bond movies back in it’s streaming catalog.

Titles such as Goldfinger, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice will be back for fans to stream April 1, 2013.

Let’s hope this isn’t a joke. Be sure to check the calendar for more updates

I saw Oz The Great and Powerful this weekend.  In the vein of the musical Wicked, this film is a prequel to the adventures we have with Dorothy.  It’s how Oz became the wizard of Oz.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you should.

The good; I love the opening sequence, it’s in 4×3 black and white.  We’re treated to this retro/turn of the century… well, slide show thing.  It’s this old timey puppet show music box thing, just a delight to see.  Then the black and white continues with the live action, not until we “leave Kansas” do we get the full widescreen as well as color.  I really enjoyed that bit.

Like with any prequel, we come in to the story knowing a little about the characters.  So it’s nice to see nods to what we know appear.  A couple of them (which aren’t spoilers) are Oscar Diggs (Franco) going by Oz and being a magician.  He also meets a former flame, who’s visiting to let him know that she’s marrying a John Gale, it’s Dorothy’s family.  I love stuff like that.

Once we get in to the land of Oz the film takes a different look, granted we have color and are utilizing the whole screen now, but it feels more like Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.  Lots of visual effects to take in.

And then we have Rachel Weisz, she looked great.

The bad; I wasn’t too thrilled with some of the make-up *SPOILER* Mila Kunis turns in to the “traditional evil Witch” that we know as the villain from the Oz story.  I just felt she wasn’t up to pare for that role. *END SPOILER*

Overall I enjoyed the movie, I’m not the biggest fan of James Franco, but he managed to do all right, it didn’t help that Kunis wasn’t working for me.  The 3D was a blend of the “viewing in” aspect of Avatar, but also had enough “gimicky” qualities of traditonal 3D where things flew out at you.  Definitely kept me invested, and it made $80 million this weekend, so I wasn’t the only one.

Amazon isn’t going to just sit around and watch Netflix continue to offer exclusives to its customers.

It recently announced an exclusive deal with PBS to stream Downton Abbey and earlier today,  Amazon announced it has made a deal with CBS to become the exclusive in-season online stream provider for it’s upcoming series, Under the Dome. Unlike Hulu, shows will be available to Prime subscribers 4 days after their original air date. If you aren’t a Prime account holder, Amazon will also be the exclusive renter/seller of episodes.

Under the Dome tells the story of a small New England town that is suddenly and inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world by an enormous transparent dome.Under the Dome earned widespread critical acclaim and #1 best-seller status when it was first published by Simon & Schuster’s Scribner in 2009 and was an Amazon.combestseller in both Books and Kindle Books in 2009.

Source: Amazon