Redbox and Warner Bros. Deal Expires. Redbox To Acquire Titles Through “Alternate Means” (UPDATED)

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It turns out that Redbox understands movie lovers: if we don’t catch a film in theaters, we want to watch it as soon as possible when it comes out on DVD Blu-ray. Unfortunately, studios have yet to realize the evolving consumer/market is not the same it was years ago.

Earlier this year, Warner Brothers proposed a deal with Redbox that would impose a 56 day delay between retailer release and rental availability. Rather than agreeing to these terms in an exchange for discounted discs, Redbox has decided to take its ball and go home. As a result, Redbox will have to purchase titles from retailers at a bulk price. The first Warner Brothers title Redbox plans to make available after finding a new source is “A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas“, which comes out February 7, 2012.

Come April, eyes will be on Universal Pictures as their deal with Redbox expires. Currently, Universal’s release window is 28 days and there is no word yet if that length will be doubled.

A few questions remain:
Will these rentals be the retail versions with all bonus features?
Will this added cost be transferred to customers?
Will availability of these new Warner Brothers discs be more limited than others?

Rather than fighting with content distributors like Redbox and Netflix, studios might be better off dropping windows. It’s no secret that consumers are cutting back. We can no longer afford to buy a title that may only be watched once after purchase. Sometimes we pass on watching a movie in the theaters because the reviews don’t justify the cost of a ticket and that rationale certainly wouldn’t change when the Blu-ray release is even more than a ticket. How about we just accept purchases are for hardcore collectors and rentals are for casual watchers and just release them both into the wild at same time?

UPDATE (2/8/2012): It looks like Redbox has pushed back the release 1 week to 2/14/2012. Source: redbox

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Humble Bundle for Android

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Pay what you want and help charity.  That’s the name of the game for the latest Humble Bundle that just released.  What’s new this time is that instead of only PC/Mac/Linux related games, this time it is for the Android and PC/Mac/Linux.  You choose how much you want to pay and how much you want to allocate between developer, charity and the organizers.  If you beat the average, you also receive a bonus game (or more) all DRM free.  As a note, previous Humble Bundles in the past have added bonus games after the fact, and for those who previously beat the average will also receive the bonus games retroactively.

The following games are being offered right now: Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Osmos, and EDGE. If you pay more than the average price, you also get the indie classic World of Goo!

This is for a limited amount of time and once again this all goes to a good cause!

For more information visit Humblebundle.com

Update: Looks like Toki Tori has also been added, bonus game is still World of Goo

Game of Thrones Season 2 Teaser Trailer

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Game of Thrones: You win, or you die.  Seems we got a nice little teaser for season 2, that makes waiting for April that much harder.

Game of Thrones is an American medieval fantasy television series created for HBO by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. Based on author George R. R. Martin’s best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels.

For more information visit the official site

Imaginary Adele B-Sides

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Adele was one of the biggest music artists of 2011. Her album, 21, was one of the top selling album and tracks like “Someone Like You” continue to get heavy rotation on stations. One could also measure Adele’s success by the number of renditions found on YouTube (Yes. Connie Talbot has covered Adele songs).

If you’re wondering what fans are drawn to, you’ll have to listen to not just music, but her lyrics. Sure she’s got a great voice that’s soulful, but what people are really connecting with is the heartbreaking story she’s telling. Is it possible that Adele has made other songs that just didn’t align with the rest of 21’s theme? After all, she’s only human. We can’t assume sadness is the only emotion she feels. There must be balance and after the critical acclaim and sales figures she’s received, we’d hope that money can buy a ounce of happiness, even if its just temporary/superficial.

We don’t know if including these tracks would have hurt 21’s appeal but they certainly would have changed the album’s tone dramatically:

Club anthem track

We all know that every hit track gets at least 3 club remixes that can turn even the biggest tear jerker into a booty shaker. But what if Adele had just released a track strictly for the clubs. It would obviously be produced by Redfoo and GoonRock (LMFAO) and feature Pitbull. Obligatory lines include mention of hanging out with he girlfriends (name dropping of course), guys trying to hit on her, her describing how unqualified the aforementioned individual(s) were, and getting tipsy from cocktails. Naturally her appearance would need to be a bit more colorful for the music video. If you’ve ever wondered what Adele might look like with green/purple highlights in her hair and a hoop nose ring, this video will present that version.  The male figure in the video would have to anatomically flawless, kind of like the guys in the late 90’s Britney Spears videos. Kudos if she ends the video by splashing a drink in the guy’s face while winking at us. After all, Ke$ha isn’t the only girl that knows how to have fun in a club.

 Teen angst song

Although Adele is amazing at telling stories of heartache, she’s also 23. She’s only a few years past the awkward years of teen love described so well by the likes of Avril Lavigne and Michelle Branch. I wonder if Adele ever had moments when she was boy crazy for the older 17 year old that rolled to school in a muscle car his dad and him worked on. Do you think Adele ever contemplated keying her ex’s car, flattening tires, or getting with her ex’s best friend? What about all the complex emotions of trying to fit in with all her classmates? I bet a lot of kids told her to pursue a more conventional career path like dentistry or marketing. Remember, no teen angst video would be complete without Adele sitting on staircase, looking to the side with a highly contemplative face.

Political/social commentary

With great power comes great responsibility. Adele has garnered much spotlight and this would be a great time to use her voice to promote a great cause. Imagine her voice belting a sweet tune about the end of war or reminding fans to think about parts of the world where the daily struggle is not coping with an unpredictable love life, but simply surviving harsh conditions like the tyranny of a ruthless dictator.

Perhaps another topic Adele could touch on is how the selfish motives of mankind will one day lead to the world’s inevitable implosion. Has anyone ever made a song about the inhumane working conditions of an electronics components factory? Now is the time.

Star Wars Uncut: Director’s Cut

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This is beyond words.  Looks like somebody took all the fan made films and compiled them all together into one large movie reenacting the entire movie of Star Wars: A New Hope.  Take a look down below (it is 2 hours in length).

According to the YouTube description: “Finally, the crowd-sourced project has been stitched together and put online for your streaming pleasure. The “Director’s Cut” is a feature-length film that contains hand-picked scenes from the entire StarWarsUncut.com collection.”

“In 2009, thousands of Internet users were asked to remake “Star Wars: A New Hope” into a fan film, 15 seconds at a time. Contributors were allowed to recreate scenes from Star Wars however they wanted. Within just a few months SWU grew into a wild success. The creativity that poured into the project was unimaginable.”

For more information go to http://StarWarsUncut.com

David Bowie + Tim Tebow = Tebowie

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The Denver Bronco’s have made the play-offs and we have not heard the end of Tim Tebow.  On top of this, Jimmy Fallon brought up an interesting idea of taking David Bowie and Tim Tebow and turning him into one person, Tebowie!

Though Tebowmania is running wild, will it hold when the Denver Bronco’s face Tom Brady and the New England Patriots?  We’ll find out this weekend!

Related Article:  Trying to Understand Tebowing

The “The Friends With Kids” Cast Looks Very Familiar

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As a trailer addict, I couldn’t help but notice a new trailer for Friends With Kids. As a man in his early 30’s, the title hit close to home, so I decided to take a gander in hope for an appealing premise or great cast ensemble. Luckily, I scored 2 for 2.

The trailer begins with a dinner table scene among two couples discussing a third couple’s whereabouts. We see Maya Rudolph (Leslie), Chris O’Dowd (Alex), Adam Scott (Jason), and a relatively unknown Jennifer Westfeldt (Julie). Jon Hamm (Ben) and Kristen Wiig (Missy) then enter the room trying to cover up the obvious scandalous act that held them up.  Next we see Jason and Julie talking about having a baby out of wedlock. In fact, they’re not even a couple. They’re just platonic friends. It’s like “Knocked Up” minus the accident factor. Later, the story introduces Edward Burns and Megan Fox, who appear to be love interests of Julie and Jason.

Curious about Jennifer Westfeldt, I decided to do some research and discovered some interesting facts about her. Her role in the Friends With Kids is actually quite significant. She stars, directed, and wrote it. She’s quite the triple threat! Just in case you weren’t jealous of her yet, she’s also Jon Hamm’s main squeeze.

It’s like someone decided everyone in Bridesmaids worked so well together, they had to do another movie and I’m totally okay with that. Sadly, Chris O’Dowd left behind his Irish accent. Since he isn’t playing a historical figure, I don’t agree with that decision but hopefully I’ll be proven wrong.

I was one of the last people to watch Bridesmaids but still found it to be a very enjoyable movie. Nope, none of the hype phased me. I just adore Kristin Wiig and LOVED Jon Hamm‘s bizarro Don Draper character, Ted.

Friends With Kids will be distributed by Lionsgate and is scheduled to arrive in theaters March 9, 2012.

War Horse

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I saw War Horse last night, I didn’t get to see this movie before last year ended, but I did get around to it.  It’s about a horse in England who’s bought by a rather poor farmer, but his son Albert Narracott (played by Jeremy Irvine) trains and bonds with this horse, Joey.  Then World War I hits and they have to sell the horse to the army to help pay for their farm.  The story follows Joey through this war.

The good; the horse, I’m sure they used multiple horses, but you care for this character.  That can be said for the other characters in the film as well.  From Albert and his family, you just get drawn in to their struggle and their family structure, it’s almost as if you’re growing up with Alby, even though you don’t see him for a good portion of the film.  Then there are the other characters, from the Captain that buys Joey to the young German Soldiers who find Joey, to Emilie and her Grandfather who also find Joey.  Every time Joey meets someone new you’re drawn in to their world and honestly care for what happens to them.

John Williams scores this film, among others in Spielberg’s normal crew, and it’s great.  I just enjoy how the music carries you through the scenes and punctuates the grandness of things.

Janusz Kamiński does the cinematography, and boy are the images beautiful.  Almost everything looks like photo, but ya know, it’s moving in the frame.

Another good thing about this film is that there aren’t very many names in it, the casting was mostly unknowns, which really helped.

The bad; I have to put something here.  War Horse is based on a children’s book, and then based on a play, then adapted in to a film.  The movie feels like a play, granted it’s about two and a half hours long, but there are definite scene/act breaks.  The use of dissolves doesn’t help this feeling any, there’s just a very present sense that this was a play.  It makes me want to read the book to see where scenes where expanded upon.

Overall, an excellent movie.  Only Spielberg can put out two movies in the same month, this is also Spielberg’s first digitally edited movie.  Go see this in the theatres, it’s one of those movies that was meant to be viewed on the big screen.

 

Netflix’s First Original Series Is Lilyhammer

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February is going to a special month for Netflix. We’ll see the end of the dreadful standard definition Starz releases and the birth of  its first original series, Lilyhammer.

The show stars the multi-talented Steven Van Zandt, aka Little Steven/Miami Steve, who is known for his guitar/mandolin work in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and his Sopranos character, Silvio Dante. As you might have guessed, Van Zandt reprises a wiseguy role as Frank Tagliano, a former gangster who moves to Norway and tries to make the best of his new life in a witness protection program.

The show is tagged Dark, Quirky, and Understated, which suggests a considerable gamble for Netflix to appeal to a less mainstream audience. Check out the trailer below. We see Van Zandt’s character, Frank Tagliano, in both three piece suits and Nordic sweaters. There’s also plenty of bleeps, a good sign for any fans who love gritty gangster dialog. And for those that doubt the show’s indie credibility, take a look at the credits and confirm names clearly native to Norway. Frank Tagliano’s role is genuinely fish-out-of-water both on and off camera.

Lilyhammer is poised to give great exposure to Norway, those in supporting roles, and mainly Steven Van Zandt, who is not only acting, but also a writer and executive producer of the show.

The trailer also happens to be the first video in Netflix’s YouTube channel.

Source: Netflix

The Adventures of Tin Tin

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I saw The Adventures of Tin Tin, the short of it; Tin Tin’s a reporter in Europe and he stumbles upon a quest for the Unicorn, a ship.  In the process he meets Captain Haddock whose ship has been hijacked/shanghai’ed by the villainous Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine.  Tin Tin must play catch up to Sakharine in a globe trotting quest for a family secret of Haddock’s.

The good; the animation is amazing.  There are a lot of shots where it looks so photo-realistic, then you have the characters walk in, which I love by the way.  They look like the comic book that they’re based on, which is a great way to adapt it to the feature film realm.  The characters’ renderings look almost real, but then there’s the touch of the cartoony nature of their facial features.

The tone is very balanced between the life or death situations to the comedy relief supplied by the bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson.  And only in the animated world can you bring about such over the top, almost slapstick, action sequences.

The film really reminded me of an Indiana Jones movie, it also being a period piece adds to that.  Tin Tin was surrounded by thugs wielding German weapons, another giveaway that they’re baddies, also like Indiana Jones, yet he hardly had a weapon to him, he used his wits.

The bad; the story.  In all honesty, as much as I enjoyed the film, it was a little off.  The action was so over the top that there wasn’t escalating action, if everything is life threatening an outlandingish, then there’s nothing to really outdo one another.  I would rather the film had started with smaller, tamer, action and built up to larger more fanciful sequences.

Another problem I have is the climax of the movie, *SPOILER* it’s between Haddock and Sakharine.  Tin Tin almost had nothing to do in this scene, which I get… but he is the main character, he should help Haddock somehow.  The fight could’ve still been left to the men, but Tin Tin should’ve had more of a role in the climax *END SPOILER*.  Another reason that the climax felt so anti-climactic was of all the action, as mentioned above, if they would’ve saved the most over the top sequence and lessened the others, the ending wouldn’t have been so tame.  Moffat contributing early as one of the writers actually does scream out at me, maybe because I know him from Doctor Who, but in this case he had to leave the project early because he became head writer for Doctor Who.  His essence of fast talky scenes remained though.  Makes me wonder why I don’t sense Edgar Wright’s (Shaun of the Dead)  style bleeding through the film?  He and Joe Cornish (Attack The Block) took over the writing tasks whens Moffat left.

Overall, very enjoyable.  Visual eye candy if nothing else.  I hope to see more in this animation style.  It felt like a good old film that brought us on a journey, Spielberg being behind the helm doesn’t hurt this vibe at all, and this is his first animated feature.   Well done sir!

2012 Anime Los Angeles Starts Next Friday

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Live in the Los Angeles area and hoping to start the new year with a healthy dose of cosplay action? Anime Los Angeles, a three day event, starts next Friday, January 6, 2012 and ends Sunday, January 8, 2012. Those who hesitated on getting a presale tickets are out of luck and will have to register at the door. Prices are $50 for the whole weekend, $25 for Friday-only, $35 for Saturday-only, and $20 for Sunday-only.

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Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

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Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is the sequel to the 2009 film.  Again we join Sherlock and Watson on an eve of mystery and intrigue, this time with the infamous Professor Moriarty as the antagonist.  The short of it; the newly married Watson has to cut his honeymoon short to help Holmes stop Professor Moriarty from inciting a war, simple enough?

The good; I love Guy Ritchie’s use of slow motion, it works well with how Sherlock Holmes’ mind works.  There’s some beautiful shots while they’re running in a forest.

I’m unfamiliar with the Sherlock Holmes books, but this film seems to be on its own, which is something I’m totally ok with.  And to add a little bit of history with the Germans being pitted against the French is great.  There’s even a bit of an almost World War I there with the peace summit, loved it.

Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are once again great.  They’re joined by Jared Harris playing Moriarty, and he doesn’t disappoint either.

The bad; the slow motion, I know I mentioned this above, but there were some scenes that I didn’t think deserved the slow motion treatment.  It was more of Ritchie showing us what he could do.  There were also a couple of times where the lighting was too dark, a good portion of this movie does take place at night, but still, that couldv’e been fixed.

Then there’s the plot, this time around the powers of deduction with Holmes felt too easy, they weren’t peppered in throughout the movie like before, instead we just get things explained to us rather than allowed to figure it with him.  It’s a small thing really, but it felt like a Family Guy cutaway, rather than part of the story.

Overall, I enjoyed the first film more, but this sequel is very entertaining.  Go check it out.