Category: movies Page 7 of 9

It’s made of people!

On Mon March 3, 2008

It’s been a mad television weekend! Here are some highlights:

Fahrenheit 451

This 1966 film is so European, I feel like I should be in an art-house cinema while watching it. Despite this, Ray Bradbury’s story is one that needs to be told in today’s world. Political correctness and censorship are on the rise and should they continue to grow, we may one day find ourselves at odds with the law if we say anything that upsets anyone. Given how books can bring forth powerful emotions, they surely won’t be allowed. Thus the story begins. The principal character is a fireman, a professional book burner.

The word in the street is that Fahrenheit 451 is also going to be remade and released in 2009. Tom Hanks is rumoured to play the leading role. Much like the coming remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still, I have a bad feeling about this.

Soylent Green:

Cheesy Charlton Heston at his b‑movie best. Well, maybe not best, as I prefer Omega Man, but this 1973 film is fun too. It’s especially fun to see 70s technology tarted up and portrayed as the latest thing from 2022.

Still, the film poses a valid question. Should the ecology crash and the population continue to grow, how far should we go to keep the growing numbers of people alive? Clearly Heston’s Robert Thorn character and the Soylent Corporation come to different conclusions.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

I was very disappointed in this 1964 film, given how the word ‘classic’ is often used to describe it. Allow me to disagree. It was like a really bad spoof of Failsafe.

Veronica Mars

I watched the final eight episodes of the third season and am really sorry to see this program end. Yea, I know it’s directed at teens, but this doesn’t mean it can’t be good. It’s clear the writers know there are many viewers outside the target demographic as the pop culture references come on fast and furious, and are not limited to the last decade or two.

Briefly, Veronica is a modern-day Nancy Drew. Her dad’s a private eye and she follows in his footsteps, sometimes helping him out with his cases. Other times she’s got cases of her own, ranging from finding stolen tape recordings to finding out who killed her best friend. All the while she’s just bursting with sass.

My favourite relationship in the program is between Veronica and her father. Not your typical father/daughter dynamic, but very charming none-the-less. My least favourite is between Veronica and Logan. The guy’s far too mopey and willing to let people just walk away from him. God forbid he try to stop them. Of course that would cut down on his moping time.

I’m still surprised whenever I read any references to Kirsten Bell’s actual age. Mars is in her very late teens during the final season while Bell turned 26 a month after the last episode was aired. It’s just weird.

The program started with Veronica in high school. It continued with her attending college. Included in the season three bonus material is a twelve minute teaser made to sell the network on a fourth season in which Veronica starts an internship with the FBI. It’s a shame the network didn’t bite. Oh they bite all right, just not in the right way.

Enforce the law by violating the law

by Rick

On Mon December 10, 2007

In idiocy, law, movies

Community-developed free software is often distributed under the General Public Licence (GPL). This is certainly not a fancy acronym for ‘public domain,’ but rather a very permissive licence allowing the source code to be freely modified and distributed. The major obligation on the part of the person/organization making modifications is that they publish the details of their changes and make their source code available. I gather the idea is that everyone will be able to examine and incorporate changes others have made and thereby accelerate innovation.

Enter the Motion Picture Association of America. In their zeal to prevent their products from being traded by university students, they released the MPA University Toolkit. Setting aside what a ridiculously large security hole this kit might create, the MPAA was distributing their toolkit in violation of the GPL, and therefore in violation of copyright law.

Isn’t the hypocrisy delicious?

The tool kit is based on Ubuntu, a Linux distribution licensed under the GPL. Since the MPAA customized Ubuntu as part of their tool kit, the GPL requires that they publish the changes and make the modified source code available to anyone who asks for it. They didn’t do so.

Matthew Garret, a member of the Ubuntu technical board, attempted to contact the MPAA by e‑mail to inform them of their violation. He didn’t receive a response. He called and and spoke to receptionists who promised the people responsible would call him back. Again, he didn’t receive a response. He finally resorted to using the legal blunt instrument the entertainment industry lobbied for. Contacting the MPAA’s ISP, he delivered a DMCA takedown notice. The toolkit is no longer available. As Garret wrote in his blog, “MPAA don’t fuck with my shit.”

Beautiful.

I have no doubt the MPAA will minimally comply with the GPL and make the software available again, but in the meantime, they’ve got a henhouse-worth of egg on their face. The MPAA, eager to point out copyright violators, has itself willingly violated copyright.

Another case of “do as I say, not as I do” on the part of the entertainment industry?

A word from your DVD’s sponsor

by Rick

On Mon November 26, 2007

In consumer life, marketing, movies

According to Ars Technica, a recent patent application by IBM details a system by which commercials could be included in DVDs … commercials you can’t skip or scan through. I know what you’re thinking. DVDs already have ads at the beginning and they often disable the scan or seek functions. The difference with IBM’s idea is these ads will interrupt the film, just as they do on television.

All is not lost however, as it’s being pitched as a cheaper way to rent movies if you’ll accept the ads. The $5 you pay now will still get you an ad-free film, but you’ll get the rental for $2 if you agree to watch the ads, for example.

I see two problems. First, the system requires you buy a new DVD player. Whether you agree to watch the ads or pay extra to avoid them, the DVD itself is the same. The player itself contacts the mother ship to find out whether you’ve paid to avoid the ads.

Second, do they really expect us to believe the ad-free rental will remain $5 while viewing the ads will drop the price? I’ll believe it when I see it. Instead, I believe it’s far more likely that the current rental fee will be applied to the presentation including the ads and they’ll charge more to avoid them.

I can see why the studios would wet their pants in excitement over this. Right now they sell DVDs to Blockbuster and their revenue is at an end. The payment for the disc is all they get. With this system, the studios would certainly want to get all the ad money directly from the advertisers. The rental companies will have to sign on however, because their systems will have to send the payment data to the servers the players contact.

And who loses? Again, we do. Will they implement this for discs we buy? If the system comes to rental discs, bet on it being included in discs we buy. They’ll promote it as the best thing since sliced bread. We’ll need to buy new players, requiring a network or telephone connection. And what will happen if there’s no connection nearby, or if their servers go down? If the movie will play at all, you can bet the player will default to forcing the ads on us. This is yet another system in which we’ll have to ask permission to use what we’ve already paid good money for.

When will we finally realize these companies need us far more than we need them? We should stop letting them control whether we can use the content we’ve already purchased. No wonder they’re growing bolder and treating us like more obviously like idiots. We’re acting like idiots.

August Rush

by Rick

On Mon November 19, 2007

In idiocy, movies, music

The film August Rush is coming out. I saw a television commercial for it in which Robin Williams’ character states,

Music is a harmonic connection between all living creatures.

What utter bullshit.

Movies in China

by Rick

On Sat November 10, 2007

In consumer life, movies, piracy

In North America, we’ve got to get serious about pirating DVDs.

Warner Home Video is going to start selling legitimate copies of DVDs in China for just $3! The idea is to remove price as a reason to buy illicit movies. I understand this, but it doesn’t exactly give the warm fuzzies to largely law-abiding movie fans in other countries who spend five to ten times more for the same product.

Hmmmm, I wonder what Amazon.cn would charge for shipping to Canada.