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Redbox - A Review
Hello Red. What are you doing here?
You may have seen Redbox in your local grocery store, Wal-Mart, or even your local McDonald’s. It’s a DVD rental machine. You get a DVD for $1 dollar for one day. Not a bad deal considering your other brick-and-mortar options (e.g. Blockbuster). I went to their website to see what movies they had to offer.
The site is easy to use. After creating an account, you can access their DVD catalog. Registering only requires an email address. Search is easily done by movie title, release date, category, or even by the Redbox closest to you. I was disappointed by the number of titles offered. I wanted to watch The Reader, since it is listed as Long Wait in my Netflix queue, but Redbox doesn’t offer this movie.
When you find a movie you want to rent, you can reserve it online with a credit card. The DVD is reserved for about 24 hours. If you don’t pick up the DVD, it will be released for rental and you’ll still be charged. After reserving, go to the machine’s location (listed on the site), and swipe the credit card you used on the website. The DVD will pop out encased in a firm plastic case. It’s that simple.
It appears Redbox may start offering Blu-ray titles, but there doesn’t appear to be a start date for this. If they offer Blu-ray and a broader selection of DVD titles, it could prove to be a successful alternative to my Netflix habit. If they continue to only offer limited titles, they may not make a significant dent in my rental habits.
Slumdog Millionaire
I think there’s something on your face.
I finally watched the Oscar-winning-feel-good-movie-of-the-year on DVD. Yes, the actors are likable. Yes, the story is predictable. Yes, I’ll watch it if it’s on cable television, but I don’t think I’ll buy the DVD or rent it again. If you have two hours to spend on a movie, this isn’t a bad choice. You won’t have to think about the plot points too much, and it’ll make you, well, feel good.
Rating: Cable TV
Casablanca
Oh Rick!
Casablanca is one of my favorite films. I’ve seen it on VHS, laser disc, and DVD. I anxiously wanted to see this on Blu-ray. I wasn’t disappointed with this rental. The film looks crisp and clean, and it sounds amazing. The amount of extras on this small blu-ray disc is astounding. There is deleted scenes, commentary by Roger Ebert, and documentaries galore about the making of the film.
Rating: Full Admission
Filipino Food
I follow people on Twitter for specific reasons. I try not to follow people just to gain followers in kind. This sounds like the subject of a future blog post.
One of the Twitter feeds I’ve been following is @FilipinoFood. The feed is interesting to follow, especially for me, because I don’t eat much Filipino cuisine. My wife partakes in a broad variety of Filipino dishes, most of which I shy away from. I’m not sure why I haven’t acquired a taste for this cuisine. I’m a standards eater: pancit, lumpia, and adobo.
The subject of adobo was on FilipinoFood a while back. A few years ago my mother finally showed me how to make her version. I have, for the most part, been able to recreate it successfully. But as with any recipe, there are variations. One of those variations offered via FilipinoFood was cited here. I’m anxious to try it because it calls for coconut milk, something my mom’s recipe doesn’t use. I am interested in how coconut milk will change its flavor.
Memories of Philippine Kitchens
The blog entry about chicken adobo also made me seek out the book, Memories of Philippine Kitchens. I found the book, written by Amy Besa and Roma Dorotan, at my local library. I want to try a few recipes from this book.
The Third Man
Orson Wells!
I was able to watch a few movies over the last several weeks. A few were classics reworked on Blu-ray. The first film was The Third Man. I’ve watched it a few times before and each time I’m reminded that Orson Wells, who plays Harry Lime, portrays an ultimate scumbag very convincingly.
Rating: Matinee
Windows Viruses
I dealt with two different Windows viruses this week. The solutions were radically different.
- With one, I spent 6+ hours backing up data, reformatting and reinstalling Windows XP Media Edition on a Dell machine. Most of the time spent was with lousy Dell support.
- The second one was simpler: I ordered an iMac for a friend
Both problems solved.
A New Profile Photo?
[Reposted because the ‘Let people answer this’ wasn’t enabled]
I need to create a new profile photo. You can see my current profile photo on Facebook, as the favicon on this website, or on my old Vox account. I don’t want to fall into any of these traps, something I feel my current profile photo doesn’t fall into.
For a new profile photo should I do a simple headshot or does anyone have any other ideas?
Watchmen
Hey, it’s the Watchmen!
The graphic novel finally comes to the big screen. It translates fine and looks great on a big screen. There was a lot of information to digest in the 2-hour 40-minute movie, but some of it not working for me. See it on the big screen if you can - or get it on blu-ray (when it comes out) and see it on a nice HDTV.
Rating: Matinee
Eagle Eye
It started out as a promising thriller but devolved into a forgettable action film. The leads are both likable, but they cannot save this movie from its flawed rehashed storyline.
Rating: Cable TV
Kung Fu Panda
Finally saw Kung Fu Panda on blu-ray. A simple straightforward movie, with humor and action that is appealing to both kids and adults.
Rating: Matinee
Mr. Brooks
A surprisingly solid and suspenseful film. Solid acting all around by William Hurt, Demi Moore, Dane Cook, and even Kevin Costner.
Rating: Matinee
Australia
Watched Baz Luhrmann’s Australia on blu-ray this weekend. The movie seemed to be two movies in one. The first part was light and breezy. The second half had a more serious tone. Fair acting by most of the cast. Some of Nicole Kidman’s hysterics were getting on my nerves though. The film is beautifully shot, with gorgeous scenery throughout the film. If you watch it in HD or blu-ray you may enjoy it more.
Rating: Cable TV
How I Rate Movies
I’m changing the way I rate movie reviews on the site. I started with an old standby - the letter grade. I recently moved to a liked it slash didn’t like it scale, but I found that didn’t have much flexibility. It was too black and white. Now, I’m moving to actually a scale Farrah and I use in the real world. The scale, which I am sure is used somewhere else, is based on how much you are willing to pay to see a movie.
The scale is as follows:
- Full Admission - Willing to pay for a full-price theater ticket, especially on a crowded Friday night.
- Matinee - See it in a theater, but do it as cheap as possible.
- Rental (DVD, Blu-ray, whatever media you choose) - See it right when it hits the retail market.
- Cable TV - You can wait until it shows up on cable to watch.
I’m sure there are other ratings that can be placed in there (e.g. cheap theaters, broadcast television) but I don’t find those ideal situations to watch most movies. Plus I don’t have a cheap theater near me and broadcast television has too many commercials to suffer through.
Here are a few samples of movies I’ve reviewed and how I would rate them on this new scale:
- Full Admission - 300, The Dark Knight, Wall-E, Juno
- Matinee - Quantum of Solace, Grand Torino, Knocked Up
- Rental - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Transformers
- Cable TV - Nights in Rodanthe, Spider-Man 3
This makes sense, right?
Samsung LN46A630 - A Review
[Note: My reason for documenting my HDTV purchase is to simply share my experience. I’m just your average Joe trying to figure this out.]
I was only slightly hesitant in ordering a HDTV through Amazon. I heard good things regarding their white glove service when you order an HDTV directly from Amazon. They deliver the TV to your home, unbox it, place it where you tell them, and they will even take the box away if you desire. They wait while you hook up the TV, turn it on, and inspect the TV for any damages. Pretty sweet service. Just to get it out of the way, for this purchase they did all of the above very well. I was very happy with the delivery of our first HDTV. Now onto my thoughts regarding the Samsung LN46A630.
The 46-inch HDTV looked physically very nice. I’m not much into red, probably one of my least favorite colors, but the red tinge on this model was barely noticeable. One of the first things I learned about HDTVs is that they don’t look great with their initial settings. I went forum post and a personal blog - here, and here - to get advice on settings. The menu system is easy to navigate. The remote buttons are big and labeled well.
Once I tried a couple of the settings presented in the postings, the TV pictured looked good. It even looked better when popping in a blu-ray into the Sony PlayStation 3. Standard Definition (SD) channels looked fair, some bad and some good. High Definition (HD) channels looked very good. We lived with the Samsung for three weeks with everything going fine. I watched Super Bowl XLIII in HD and enjoyed the experience.
But there are two downsides with the Samsung that became apparent after time. The first is sound. Now, I know it should probably be hooked up to a nice AV system, but the TV is in a small room. The speakers on the set are on the bottom grill pointed down, similar to an iMac. The sound is projected downward, and at times, seems muddled. I don’t have the greatest hearing so I need to pump up the volume a bit.
The second issue for me is the quality of off-axis viewing. At times I am about 30-degrees to the right of center when watching TV. Why? Well, I’m on my desktop computer. From where I sit, the colors become extremely washed out. It is watchable, but painfully so, knowing the quality of the picture could be better. I understand this is prevalent with LCD sets, whereas plasmas are more forgiving. I don’t know.
I’m looking, still, at the Sony KDL-40XBR7. We’ll have to see how it compares to the Samsung.