Cinema: January 2008 Archives
He's already posted his first one, which is of a rather odd looking film... Not that I'm surprised by that !
Back in the days of the .com boom in Ireland Peter was a contributor to some of the now defunct RondoMondo sites, including Muse.ie (the original version - not the new one).
I was going to post a link to the archive.org version of the sites, but there is very little to see there unfortunately!
If anyone else would like to post reviews let me know :)
The weekend before DomainFest we were having a drink in the lobby of the hotel when we got to see several stars including John Travolta.
And here is the photo to prove it!
It certainly looks like Atonement will pick up at least one award. I still haven't seen it, but it's had fantastic reviews. I was hoping to see it on the plane back from LA, but I ended up sleeping instead!
Ratatouille, which was one of my favourite films of the last year, has a couple of nominations, but didn't get listed under the "main" film category, which is a pity.
So for the next few weeks I'm going to be trying to watch as many of the nominated films as possible... That should keep me out of trouble for a few days!
This is my third trip to Los Angeles in the last 12 months and my second time in Hollywood.
What is Hollywood famous for?
Movies - naturally, but it's only on this trip that I'm getting to see any films.
So far I've seen I Am Legend and Cloverfield - both in the Chinese Theater, which has pretty good Dolby sound.
Today is the last bit of freedom before DomainFest kicks off, so I'm contemplating going to the cinema again today. I've also been tasked with picking up some boots for my younger sister, but that's proving to be a bit problematic !
Last night was a bit special, as we got to see Harrison Ford, Callista Flockhart and John Travolta who were all at an event in the hotel. Several other stars were meant to be in attendance, though that may have simply been rumour
Technorati Tags: domainfest, cloverfield, film review, hollywood, i am legend
I went to Warner Brothers this time last year, during my first trip to Los Angeles. At the time The Gilmore Girls was still shooting and on both days we were able to see the crews at work. Two and Half Men was in full production and Sheen waved at us as he drove out. The post-production areas were buzzing and over ten thousand people were on the lot.
One year later and things couldn't be more different.
The writers' strike has meant that production in Hollywood has practically drawn to a complete halt. The lot is almost completely deserted. Sound stages are literally gathering dust.
I spent most of today out at Warner Brothers in Burbank and while I had a great time it was sad to see the place so empty.
On a positive note there has been progress with some groups, with the directors reaching a settlement in the last 24 hours. However there is still no sign of agreement being reached with the writers, so the entertainment industry and those who work in it are on extended "vacation" at present.
When I heard that Royal Mail were doing a special release this year to celebrate the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth I was really excited.
The issue is simply gorgeous (the image from the Royal Mail site really doesn't do it justice).
Rather than limit myself to the first day covers I also opted for the mint stamps set and both overprint options. I guess in philatelic terms that's a bit nerdy ! But they are amazing.
Check out the Royal Mail site for more details on the issue
Back in December I posted about my quest to find a multiregion capable HD DVD or Blu Ray player.
It was a very frustrating quest, but not nearly as frustrating as the entire HD DVD vs Blu Ray format war. As a consumer I felt like "piggy in the middle".
However, in the last couple of weeks the format war between HD DVD and Blu Ray seems to have almost drawn to a close, as Warner Brothers decided to drop HD DVD later this year.
So that means that investing in a HD DVD player now would probably be a really bad idea.
A couple of people suggested that I get a Sony Playstation 3 and "chip" it ie. open the "black box" and get "down and dirty" with a soldering iron.
Anyone who knows me personally would know that giving me a soldering iron probably isn't a good idea. While I used to dabble in electronics (and other things) when I was a teenager I am not to be trusted with such things in general.
So what are my options?
With my "normal" DVD player I was able to find a simple code hack that allowed me to render it region free very easily, but if such codes exist for Blu Ray players they aren't "in the wild", or at least I haven't been able to find them. And believe me, I have been looking!
Fortunately people more adept with soldering irons have come up with a couple of solutions.
A Swedish company is offering a couple of pre-hacked models, though their site is in Swedish! A quick conversion shows that you'd pay over 650 euro for the cheapest one exclusive of shipping costs.
Another solution lies with a company in Holland that has a number of models available 600 euro upwards.
The Sony BDP-S300 comes in at EUR599, while the Sony BDP-S500 is EUR899.
Checking out the two models (unhacked) on another site which has a comparison tool wasn't particularly illuminating.
Both machines seem to do exactly the same thing, or maybe I'm missing a subtle but significant difference?
I'm leaning towards the BDP-S300 simply because it is EUR300 cheaper.
Of course I could live without a HD movie player, but I'd really like to be able to take advantage of the higher definition and extra features on the discs.
Oh what to do??
