Movie Reviews 2.0

How crap is it that PC's don't, out of the box, have the capacity to play DVDs/BluRays? DVDs are easily remedied, but BluRays are proving to be a real nuisance too. I managed to get it working on our Ultrabook, but that one occasionally stutters with some movies, and on my i7 DeskTop I haven't managed it yet at all ....

Grrr. Such a contrast with the Playstation 3.

 

Are you referring to Microsoft and Windows out-of-the-box or the OEM's and their own extra software not including the capabilities. A "PC" isn't exactly a PS3 or a Mac where the ecosystem is built and governed by a single entity. HP will make a all-in-one desktop desktop with Bluray/DVD capabilities built-in as it it advertise that as a entertainment PC. They will also make a small business desktop that doesn't have it because it isn't needed and would raise the cost unnecessarily.

If you want Bluray support then buy Total Media Theater or PowerDVD and be done with it. They're the only ones making software that pay for the BR licensing and conform to their specs to continue havings rights for the updated keys and protection schemes.

 

I think it's just great that you can buy a PC with Windows 8, buy a BluRay player for it, and still can't use it for replaying unless you buy playback software. And worse that since I bought a USB 3.0 one so I could hook it up to multiple PCs, even just buying the software once isn't a complete solution.

I've been testing PowerDVD and it's decent (though weird you can't use mouse for controlling BluRay menus) but $70 ...

Well, at least my wife still watches DVDs mostly and the BluRay player is also a dual layer BD burner ...

 

I wonder if the workaround/partial solution posted here would work for you.

 

That's what I got to work on the Ultrabook, but not yet on my desktop.

 

Olympus Has Fallen 2/10 - What a piece of shit! I like mindless action films on occasion, but this one put me into MST3k mode within 5 minutes. It's basically death porn. Eckhart and Butler should've had sex at the end, that smoldering dudebro gaze just simmered with barely repressed sexual tensions.

The Way Way Back 8/10 - An endearing, smartly written movie that anyone with a jaundiced childhood can relate to. Sam Rockwell was fantastic in it

 

I liked Elysium quite a lot. Lot's of nice directed action with funny gadgets. Overall very entertaining imo.

 

Seconded.

What a waste of a saturday night.

Few things are as homoerotic as a sweaty male bonding boxing scene.

Cheers

 

wot about the movie '300'

 

Whyyyyyyyyy?!

Aaaaaaaaargh!

Boooo!!

 

Wow. Talk about pointless.

 

And it gets better, they have writers who have scripted the shitfest that was Terra Nova. Oh the humanity!

 

The SyFy channel already broadcasts Continuum which has some similar story points. Season One is on Netflix and I enjoyed it a lot.

 

Wife and I watched the original 1960 Psycho over the weekend. I'd seen it before but it was the first viewing for her and I enjoyed watching her reactions. Such a great classic.

 

Riddick, not much of a story reminiscent of pitch black
shame the top necrmonger dude thing was dealt with within 2 minutes

 

And thank the lord for that. I guess I'm back on board now. Introducing the weird Star Warsian necromonger angle to a franchise that started off as a gritty, low-budget and properly r-rated white-knuckle sci-fi creature flic was as misguided a direction as I've ever seen.

 

So, I finally got around to watching Sucker Punch at the weekend.

Appears my guess was pretty much on the ball. Utterly pointless movie unless you're looking for a bit of girls'n'guns titillation in endless slo-mo.

I've not actually been to the flicks for a while so can't really comment on any of the recent releases, but I enjoyed one older movie I watched again recently for the first time since the 1990s. Swingers from back in 1996.

An entertaining film which has aged pretty well to my eyes though that is the only film I've ever seen in which Vince Vaughan doesn't look like he needs to sleep for a few weeks. My fiancee enjoyed it as well, although it was from a bit before her time.

More of this kind of movie, please, Hollywood, and fewer crappy comic-book adaptations which are nothing but special effects and gimmicks.

 

Snyder needs to learn about making movies people actually want to watch. Not just look at. Superman was better.

 

Agreed.

 

Just finished watching Star Trek: Into Darkness on blu-ray. Had blueberry pie to go along with it, too. Home-made, no less.

JOLLY GOOD ROMP OF A MOVIE, in my opinion. Not high-brow, certainly. In fact, nowhere near even semi-intelligent, plot-wise (what little it had in the way of that). In fact I'm sure it had entire fleets of plot holes large enough to drive a 915 meter long alternate-reality USS Enterprise through, but seen just as an action movie it works really well, I think. Some action scenes are a bit ridiculous, but that's true of pretty much any action movie these days when visual effects are practically unrestrained in scale and grandeur.

What carries this movie, despite whatever shortcomings it has in the writing, is the excellent casting, IMO. They really nailed all the characters I think, and this is what saved the first movie, that and the excellent visual design. There's less lens flares this time - too bad I think! JJ should have stuck to the formula he created in the first installment, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Oh well. At least it'll be fewer nagging memes this time. Too bad also much of the crew get so little screen time, but that's the nature of feature movies I guess, it doesn't seem possible to avoid. There's still a lot of great rapport between the crew members, and Kirk getting chewed out by Christopher Pike is also a really memorable scene.

I loved the bad guys in this movie. This is the second time Peter Weller does a star trek

Spoiler

badguy

, and he does it SO WELL. I loved it, and I love Peter Weller. Well, not in THAT way, but as an actor. Sillys! Whatsiscalled Cumberbatch was also pretty great. Perhaps not as enigmatic and charismatic as Richardo Montalban was originally, but certainly more psychotic, and modern action movie formula makes him a much more physically threatening villain. I do miss the wild mane of hair, though...

And: KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNN!!!

Heh.

8/10

PS: JJ, next movie, can you please make the Enterprise kick ass in a firefight instead of just getting shot up to pieces all the time? That'd be great, thanks. -The Internet.