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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.
My First Five Blu-ray Movies
I remember the first five DVDs I bought when I purchased my first DVD player. They were:
Yes, The Wedding Singer appears to be the odd choice, but I found the movie very funny. Anyway, now that I’ve converted to blu-ray, I wondering what my first five discs should be? I already have a head start with three, two of them coming from a deal when I bought the PS3. The discs we current have are:
I only bought Life of Brian because it was part of a deal. There were no other movies on the available list that I thought I would enjoy. I like Monty Python, but I enjoyed Monty Python and the Holy Grail more than Life of Brian. But anyway, I’m still trying to determine (1) what my next purchases will be, and (2) how big is my blu-ray collection going to be. I don’t want to repeat what I did with DVDs - a collection that grew close to 300 discs.
Why don’t I want to collect a bunch of blu-ray discs?
It’s not the whole ‘investing in a technology that may change’ thing that makes me hesitant. It seems to be a fact that anything you/I have a lot of - whether it be clothes, cds, mp3, or whatever - you/I only seem to really use, what, 20% of whatever you have of. Seriously. There are plenty of mp3s in my collection that I haven’t listened to since ripping. There are plenty of clothes that I’ve only worn once, if not at all. There are DVDs that I haven’t watched since buying them. They all take up space. They all took up $$.
Well, let’s see how I do. Saying and doing are two different things.
Trying to Figure Out the HDTV Thing
[Note: My reason for documenting my HDTV purchase is to simply share my experience. I am, by no means, an expert in this or have a particular 'eye' for TVs.]
I've been lusting after an LCD TV for about a year.
In general I like to research purchases as thoroughly as possible. I avoided researching TVs because I couldn’t get the green light for an LCD TV purchase from Farrah. Well, recently she relented. Off I went to research.
I knew zero about LCD and plasma TVs. I relied on three resources for my research:
- Amazon.com reviews
- The forums at avsforum.com
- Advice from friends such as Tage, Rol, Steven and Bigfil
First, I thought about the room the TV would be in. It would be placed in a spare bedroom. The viewing distance would be about 5-7 feet. From the chart on Amazon.com the size of the TV would be anywhere from 26" to 46". I was always told to go bigger than you think you should get, so I narrowed it down to either a 40" or 46" TV.
You can find various reasons to go for either a plasma or LCD TV. For the type of room and the price range I was interested in, an LCD TV instead of a plasma fit my needs.
I looked at all the brands, settling on Samsung and Sony. All of the TVs I have personally owned have been Sonys, the last being a 36" XBR monster weighing a ton. I’ve heard good things about Samsung though and wanted to seriously consider an alternative to the pricey Sony sets. I narrowed the field of sets to three: the Samsung LN40A650, Samsung LN40A750, and a Sony KDL-40XBR7. I went to Best Buy, a Sony Style store, and my local Fry’s to see the three sets in action.
All the sets I saw looked great picture-wise. I’ve been told when you head into the showroom to look at TVs know that the sets are calibrated to look their best. When you get home with your new TV you will need to do a bit of calibration to get the TV to look right. (Luckily there are a lot of good posts on avsforum.com to help you out.) From a design aesthetic, the Sony KDS-40XBR7 was the most pleasing. But when you think Sony you must also think extra dollars.
After fielding responses to the question of Samsung versus Sony question I posted on Facebook and twitter, I placed on order through Amazon.com for the Samsung LN46A630. Wait, that wasn’t on the list of TVs I cited before?
Well, I exchanged email messages with Tage, who sold me on some details on the LNA630. The LNA630 is basically the LNA650 but with a semi-matte screen. I chose the 46" instead of the 40" because, like a mentioned before, you should go bigger than you initially think if possible.
I’ll let you know what I think about the Samsung LN46A630 in a later post.
Half A World Away
The last time I saw my uncle was thirty-three years ago when I went to the Philippines. It was the first and only time I had been to the homeland of my parents. I was young and bratty, traveling without my sisters for the first and only time. I’m not sure why my parents took me, but I went willingly.
At that age, I had two concerns going to the Philippines, (1) the lack of a tv, and (2) the lack of food I was accustomed to eating. I was a child comfortably familiar with fast food, enjoying McDonald’s and KFC more than any Filipino dishes.
To be even more honest, I was afraid that any meat I would eat on this trip would be a dog. I bought into this notion for some reason. Perhaps it was my sisters who sold me on the possibility, I’m not exactly sure, but it was ever present in my thoughts around meal time. I was still young enough to scream and cry if I didn’t get my way. But while in the Philippines I would often not get my way because I just couldn’t. For those occasions, I just did not eat.
But one day my Uncle David gave in. He had two dogs when I first met them. From what I recall the dogs were friendly and full grown. He traded his dogs to another person for chickens, chickens for me to eat. I thanked him, at my mom’s prompting, not fully grateful for his kind gesture. Only days later did it really sink in what he did for me.
I gravitated to my uncle as the days passed. He was the only other person I could talk to since he spoke English, the others talking very little. He would translate for me and talk to me about anything and everything. We spent as much time as we could knowing the days would pass by quickly.
My uncle was always there for me during our time in the Philippines. One day I was a complete idiot and hurt myself while hanging out with the cool adults. I managed to get my foot caught in the back spokes of a motorcycle as it was being pushed forward. He picked me in his arms and rushed me to the local hospital.
He did so much more for me now that I think about it, and I wish I could recall more, but the memories are fading.
I do remember the last day I saw him, the day we left. I hugged him and cried, not wanting to leave him behind. I told him I would write him every day when I got back home. He said, “Of course, you will, but you will forget in time to write.” He was right.
I wrote for the first several months when we got back. The months then turned to a letter once a year. Then it turned to no letters at all. When he would call my mom, and I would answer the phone, there was no longer a sense of connection when we talked. We had grown apart, time and distance creating a wedge I believe he know would exist.
Now he is gone, at rest. But he lived a full life, and I had a brief moment to remember him. I might have never met him if I didn’t go on that trip thirty-three years ago.
Quantum of Solace
Solid action from beginning to end. But the story falls short of the superb Casino Royale. The Bond character doesn’t develop as much as he did in the previous movie. Daniel Craig still kicks butt though.
Gran Torino - Quick Review
Eastwood’s solid acting skills are on full display in this movie. The other actors, some apparent first-timers, are not so great. The movie moves at a brisk pace, with a mixture of humorous and dramatic moments. Eastwood’s character is more William Munny than Dirty Harry.
Grade: B+
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Quick Review
On a previous version of janella.com…
…when I would write a movie review it would be long. Time is short, so my new movie reviews - when I have a chance to watch a movie - will be short. It won’t be extremely insightful, but it will convey what I feel about the movie.
For The Curious Case of Benjamin Button:
Brad Pitt grows young while Cate Blanchett grows old. Acting done well by both, and Fincher’s direction was spot on. But the ending left me unsatisfied.
Grade: C-
And So It Begins Anew
I blame the economy.
The web hosting account for janella.com has come up for renewal. Dotable, where the site is hosted, has been a great web host this past year. Their pricing and support have been great. I have nothing bad to say about their company or service. But money is money.
Granted it only cost “x” amount of dollars a year for the account. But “x,” when factored with “y” and “z,” makes hosting a web site an extra expense I can do without. I must consider alternatives to web hosting.
There are many free platforms to blog out there - Wordpress.com, Vox, LiveJournal, MySpace, Facebook, etc. The logical choice would be to go with Wordpress.com. I know Wordpress well, as my blog ran on Wordpress. But I love how Tumblr works. Tumblr is drop dead simple.
Yes, I’ll need to deal with the fears I’ve mentioned in my old blog postings: lack of control of data and loss of data. But I’ll learn to deal with it. I trust in Tumblr. (Now don’t let me down.)
And so it begins anew…here on Tumblr.
Thoughts About the Palm Pre
The Palm pré looks very interesting. Too bad it’s going to be on Sprint. I was with Sprint once. I had a problem with their billing / customer service, which made me move to Verizon (then later to AT&T). More info on the Palm pré here and here.