Cassandra’s Dream Review

Cassandra’s Dream is Woody Allen’s 3rd London based movie he has made in as many releases and at first, I thought this was a very different type of story compared to anything Allen has done previously, but after a few days of thinking about it, I realized I was wrong.

First off, the movie stars Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell, has Tom Wilkinson in a small, but interesting role as well as Woody Allen finding one of his most beautiful leading ladies he has ever put on screen, Hayley Atwell, a woman I can understand wanting to do anything for, to keep interested in me.

The problem though is that after seeing Match Point, this London based Allen film falls flat. The acting performances are uneven, at best and there was more than one scene that was written to be serious, but ended up causing laughter from the audience! Collin Farrel’s performance was by far the most varied, there were some scenes where he shined, but for a majority of them though, he was pretty disappointing to watch. Wilkinson, an actor who has become one of my favorite actors to look out for, after his small, but memorable roles in such films as In the Bedroom, Batman Begins and Michael Clayton, also had scenes that switched from well acted to absurd in what seemed like a blink of an eye… very disappointing.

The ending, something I won’t reveal here, just seems too tidy for a writer/director as talented as Woody Allen. It’s a shame, I adore Allen, but this movie seems like a far inferior combination of Match Point and Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Thanks to 20minutos.es for the above pic.

Dany

Windows Tweaks with allSnap and Taskbar Shuffle

I have a great love-hate relationship with the Windows operating system. I have been a faithful user since installing Windows 3.11 with a handful of 5.25″ disks way back before laptops came in color! I love that there is a whole hell of a lot of software is created for this operating system, even if it is probably the least stable OS of the big 3 (Windows, OS X and Linux).

There are a few things about Windows that I wish were different, so ever since I found out about allSnap over a year ago, I have made sure to use it on all the computers I use on a regular basis, but it wasn’t until I heard the program mentioned on the most recent episode of Security Now, that I thought about talking about it.

The other issue is that that during that same episode of the podcast, Steve Gibson talked about a program that I hadn’t heard of, which is great for those like me who want certain programs to be in a particular place in the taskbar. The program is Taskbar Shuffle and with it running, it allows you, for example, to drag your mail program to the leftmost section of the taskbar, even if it is the last program opened instead of the first program opened.

Thanks to TWIT and GRC for the tips. Thanks to b.tech.review for the above pic.

Dany

Free Swiss Army Knife Digital Media Players

There are a lot of media players on the market and I’ve tried a whole heck of a lot of them. There seem to be more media players than there are media formats… and there are a LOT of media formats.

The most well known all-in-one player is probably the VLC player. This is a great player for playing almost any audio or movie format you can think of, dvds, iso, divx, mp4, mp3, the list goes on and on and you can also use this player for transcoding these files into one of the other formats as well. This program works with pretty much any system, Windows, Mac, Linux, BeOS and BSD!

There are some people who do not like this player. For those of you who fall into this category who run Windows, you might want to try GOM player. I tried it 2+ years ago and enjoyed using it, it looks nicer than VLC, but since I hadn’t really had any problems with VLC, I didn’t really need GOM player, especially since VLC handled dvd playback better.

I heard a few of my favorite podcasts (Tekzilla and Windows Weekly) talk about GOM player today though, so that reminded me about this player and now that there is a lot more HD content available compared to 2 years ago, it’s important to note that GOM player seems to handle HD files a bit better than VLC (at least on my humble XP laptop).

Thanks to Tweakers.net for the above pic.

Dany

The Orphanage - Review

The Orphanage is a new movie that has gotten a lot of press for being produced by Guillermo del Toro after his success with Pan’s Labyrinth. The movie is directed by J.A. Bayona and he looks like someone we should be watching out for in the future.

I will avoid giving away as much plot as I can, since finding out about this story is part of what makes this movie fun and I carefully avoided hearing anything substantive about the story before seeing the film and was rewarded greatly for that decision.

Let me just say that this movie was truly scary, there were no fake scary moments where they used music and quick camera moves just to make the audience jump and no scenes of torture porn, which does not make a movie scary. I really appreciate seeing a film that is still able to scare the living daylights out of me sometimes.

Also, I have to say, this movie’s ending gave me a real Hillary Clinton moment, I teared up and it almost made me cry. This was the only part of the film that really even reminded me that del Toro had a hand in this film.

I saw this film in a PACKED theater and there was one scene which scared one woman so badly that her scream made the ENTIRE rest of the audience jump from their seat! It was great! If you like creepy, scary movies, you should definitely find a theater and see this movie.

Thanks to European-Films.net for the above pic.

Dany

Macbook Air Idea Stolen from Brian Hogg!

This is a really funny short from Brian Hogg over at dobBoom that explains how Steve Jobs REALLY got his idea for the new Macbook Air.

dotBoom is a great adult oriented puppet video podcast. No, adult oriented does NOT mean this is puppet porn!

Enjoy it.

Dany

Tiki Bar TV Brings in a Battlestar Galactica Mainstay

These clips may not be new, but they are still worth seeing for any Battlestar Galactica fan. The people at Tiki Bar TV were able to bring on Cally (Nicki Clyne) acting all crazy and pixie-like and shot a two part episode. Episode 2 is at the bottom of this post.

Enjoy

Dany

The Simpsons as Simpsonzu

This is a great artistic rendition of the mainstay Simpsons crew created by spacecoyote. See the original Simpsons pic below and his take on the cast of Futurama (not a show I really like, but a great piece of art nonetheless) below as well.

Thanks to Diggnation for turning me spacecoyote’s way in their recent episode.

Dany

50 Things Men and Women Should Know About Each Other

Here are two stories, the first is 5o Things She Wishes You Knew and the second is 50 Things Men Wish You Knew both are from Men’s Health and they are both funny and accurate… well, I can only vouch for the accuracy of the tips that women should know.

Thanks to Diggnation (Eps: 132 and 133), where I found out about the above pic (from IncredImaging) of the amazingly sexy of Carmen Electra as well as the the second set of 50 things to know, which is a funny coincidence since the picture is a perfect example of tip#11.

Enjoy

Dany

Urban Legend ER

After subscribing to the podcast (get the iTunes version here) called College Humor TV, I saw this Urban Legend ER video and I HAD to share.

Thanks to College Humor, a site I don’t spend much time on, but it’s a good site that is a pretty good filter for funny videos.

Dany

Dexter on CBS This February

After weeks of speculation, it is official, CBS will be airing Dexter, season 1, starting in mid February!

This looks to be the same model that TBS took with Sex in the City and A&E uses to air The Sopranos. The episodes will be edited for tv, which means commercial breaks as well as content neutering of more extreme language, sex and violence. I am not a huge fan of this style editing, but I am a fan of bringing this show into more people’s homes to give them a chance to experience, what I think is one of the best shows on TV. I think this model has really been a boon for Sex in the City, so I hope this does the same thing for Dexter.

I first heard inklings of this when I saw an ad for CBS tv shows and after seeing the poster for CSI flash across the screen, they followed it with a signature shot of our favorite serial killer. Now I came across this press release from Showtime which confirms this story!

I still think the best way to watch this show is on either Showtime, DVD or both, but this is still exciting news and I WILL be checking out the network airings starting this February to see just how much the show changes with these edits.

Thanks to Toxic Shock TV for the above pic.

Dany

More Scientology Insanity From Tom Cruise

If you watched this video from Tom Cruise and didn’t understand some of the slang, check out the companion video I’m posting below, which is cut down a bit, but also fills in some of the missing slang and also adds some editorial commentary about Cruise and Scientology.

Thanks to Webbalert for bringing this to light.

Enjoy the insanity!

Dany

Sweeney Todd

I already knew the general story from the theatrical production that Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street came from, since I had family who put on the production in the past. After hearing a very positive review from a trusted source of this film version of Sweeney Todd I got pretty excited about seeing this film.

This was not one of the best movies I’ve seen recently, but I did enjoy this film quite a bit. I thought Tim Burton does an amazing job of making what must have been buckets of blood look absolutely beautiful. I haven’t seen such amazing blown out colors in a film and blood treated so beautifully since Dario Argento’s Giallo masterpiece Susperia. I was just a bit disappointed by the music and story

Johnny Depp keeps making a great leading man for Burton. His performance, especially when he gets to play off of Helena Bonham Carter (who is enthralling to watch as the ghostly bleached white, sickly brown eyeshadowed partner/potential lover for the former Edward Scissorhands). The performances of the supporting Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall were just a pleasure to watch whenever they were allowed to overtake the screen.

One of the biggest problems is that the songs were not all that great, but I WAS surprised at how some of them sounded, I wasn’t sure how they would turn out with the main actors doing their own singing, even though I thought there may have been too many times when the characters broke into song. The beginning and end of this film are pretty tightly done, the mid section is a bit story thin though.

Let me go back to the production values though, because THIS is where the film really shines. Most every scene is shot perfectly. over 95% of this film portrays the gloomiest London, very similar to the way Burton shot Sleepy Hollow, but it was never more noticeable than after Carter’s BEST hopes and dreams musical number which brought all those blown out colors to the screen, that are a stark contrast to the rest of the movie. I must say though, there was one scene, when Depp was getting off the ship where Burton makes the mistake of lighting him with a warm street lamp, which gives him a slight rosy glow which is a total mismatch for EVERY other scene in the film for his character. Other than that scene, the film looks absolutely amazing.

Thanks to Movies and Life for the above pic.

Dany

Gelaskins keeps you from getting bored with your tech

If you love your technology (laptop, iPod, iPhone, Moto Razr and more devices as time goes on) but you’re bored with how plain it looks, maybe you want to cover up those annoying scratches, you just want to make it cooler looking or much prettier. Go over to Gelaskins and see if you like their designs. The company uses 3M technology to make sure that these skins don’t leave any residue on your device when/if you decide to change skins. Prices are ~$15 for phone/mp3 player skins and ~$30 for laptop skins.

Thanks to Gelaskins for their amazing pic above as well as to the wonderful Macbreak, a great podcast which is also available in amazing quality HD here or here in iTunes! Their coverage of Macworld 2008 has been amazing, with many different guest hosts. Their coverage that revealed this company to me in one of their latest videos. You can also check out the video below.

Dany

DRM Free Music - Unwired

There are a lot of podcasts that I listen to through iTunes and Unwired is one of the newest ones I’ve subscribed to, but it has quickly become one of the first ones I end up watching whenever they come out with a new episode.

Recently, the host, Wil Harris, went over some of his favorite sources for DRM-free digital music. You should really check out his picks for his favorite sites, he doesn’t just talk about iTunes or the Amazon MP3 Store.

Remember, you DO NOT NEED an iPod to get Podcasts!

Thanks to übergizmo for their very cool pic seen above.

Enjoy

Dany

Bill Gate’s Last Day at Microsoft Video

Bill Gates gave the keynote address for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and he was able to get a handful of famous people to help him out… like Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, Bono, Jay-Z and George Clooney. It’s pretty funny considering it stars Bill Gates.

Enjoy

Dany

Movie Trailer Monday Cassandra’s Dream

Woody Allen seems to be making a different style of movies lately. He made Match Point back in 2005, which was an extremely well made romantic drama, but very different from the types of movies that made him famous (like Annie Hall and Manhattan).

Now that his latest movie, Cassandra’s Dream, is going out on limited release this Friday, January 18th I wanted to bring some attention to the film. I know I’ll be seeing the film here in NYC, if not on opening night, maybe this weekend. This film looks to be a tightly made, hard nosed, murder mystery, but the film looks to be following the killers instead of what most films do: follow the people tracking down the killers. The movie stars Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell and Tom Wilkinson (an actor who is becoming one of my favorite actors, by picking some really memorable roles).

Check out the HD trailer over at Apple Trailers.

Dany

Tekzilla’s Inkjet Printer Cleaning Tips

Do you still use an inkjet printer at home or at the office? I know I do, but I find that I use my home printer quite sparingly. The problem is that the ink can dry out, usually from lack of use. I know I’m not the only person who has printed a document (even after installing a brand new ink cartridge), only to have an individual one of the colors not print correctly.

Well, Tekzilla has a few great tips for those who share this problem even after attempting to clean the print heads a few times using the software print utility. Check it out here.

Enjoy Tekzilla’s other daily technology tips as well by subscribing to the their podcast directly through iTunes or their other versions here, which even include an HD version of the show. Thanks to Wired for the above pic.

Dany

Invisible Shield - Protect the Look of Your Gadgets

If you own an iPod/MP3 player, an expensive watch, a GPS device or any device that you don’t want to get scratched, you can keep it protected for very little money compared to the price of your new, pretty technology purchase with Invisible Shield. They basically use technology originally invented to keep helicopter blades from getting damaged.

Enjoy

Dany

Juno

After leaving Juno, yes, I know this is a really late review of Juno, but I had intended on seeing it at least 3 times previously with plans falling through, anyway let me start over.

After watching Juno, I realized that this was probably one of the most enjoyable movies I’ve seen from 2007. When I first heard of the movie, I wanted to see it, but after it was actually released and I heard about its RAVE reviews, I’ve been hoping that once I actually got to see the film that it would be able to live up to the ever rising expectations that were building in my mind. Well, the movie did not disappoint. Ellen Page’s performance in the title role makes me want to go back and see her previous film Hard Candy, a film whose trailer made me want to avoid the film like the plague.

The casting of the adult characters was also great. Juno’s parents, played by Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons (who actually gets the best line of the entire film, I won’t ruin it for those who haven’t seen it, but it has to do with Bleeker’s wiener) as well as Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner, especially since I thought these last two were JUST going to be quirky characters. I also liked how the burger phone, that is getting a lot of press is owned by two of the important characters, which is given away in a throwaway scene, but means so much for the characters.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the teenage slang that was used in the film, (ex: wizard and shiz) but I had the same problem with Superbad, the difference though, was that this was pretty much my only problem with the film.

If you’re one of the few who haven’t already seen the film, GO NOW.

Thanks to Wild About Movies for the poster.

Dany

There Will Be Blood

I watched There Will Be Blood… I don’t know what made me see it, maybe Daniel Day-Lewis or that it was written/directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, but it definitely was NOT from the trailer, I thought it looked quite bizarre. Anyway, the film was based on the story Oil.

The film spans 4 decades and follows Day-Lewis, who is good at exactly two things: Oil and Talk, but with everything else, seems to be poison. He gets what HE wants and reminds me in many ways of a coiled snake. What this movie has going for it is the entrancing performance by Daniel Day-Lewis and the amazingly desolate scenery and directing by Anderson, but sadly, at least for me, the story did nothing for me. I left the movie just wondering what I had spent over two and half hours watching.

I really like PT Anderson, but I don’t know what to say about the story, I really don’t know what to make it. I neither liked nor disliked the film, it was just something I couldn’t turn away from while watching…

Thanks to Express How Stuff Works for the pic.

Dany