Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Attention Justin Beiber fans in New Zealand ....
I don't care how easy it is to get lost in his big brown bear eyes ... Get a life!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
District 9 Blu-Ray Disc Review
Ok, the alien vs. human genre of films have been done to death, but District 9 is a really great film that not only has brilliant visual and special effects, but a story-line with human overtones.
The basic story is this, a large alien space ship comes to a stop over Johannesburg in South Africa and after some time, humans go to the ship and break in to discover the aliens, referred to as prawns by humans, sick and starving. The prawns are rescued and nursed back to health, but are quickly treated like second class citizens by being kept together in one segregated area. The human side of the story comes into play when you see South Africans complaining about the prawns, saying they have diseases, they are dangerous, not to be trusted, etc. It is a direct play on apartheid in South Africa, though ironically the Africans are the ones advocating apartheid along with everyone else in the narrative of the film. You also get a touch of corporate malfeasance via the cold, calculated actions of the MNU corporation in the film.
Most of the actors in the film are not familiar to me at all by name, but all the performances are solid. Peter Jackson puts his producer muscles behind the film which results in fantastic production values. The visual and special effects are second to none, and it is easy to see why District 9 was nominated for Oscars in said categories. The prawns are rendered so vividly that you forget you are seeing CGI!
Video: Crisp clean picture with nice black levels and color reproduction.
Sound: Mostly dialogue driven at the start of the film, but the sound of weapons fire both human and prawn in the third act comes through nicely via a DTS HD 5.1 mix.
So, District 9 is a sci-fi film for you if you want to go beyond Alien vs. Predator, with equally good effects and a much more human story to it.
Video: 5 out of 5
Sound: 5 out of 5
Story: 5 out of 5
Monday, April 19, 2010
The synergy of PR and advertising
So, a person can be a product. And when your product is a person, and the person 'messes' up, PR serves as damage control for not only the person, but the product and the brand.
In the case of Tiger Woods, Nike waiting to air that introspective commercial with nothing but Tiger's face and his deceased father's voice lecturing him seemed to be more PR then advertising to me.
In my PR class our instructor indicated she thinks that Nike waited to long to do anything and that when they finally did something (the commercial) it was not effective.
I wonder what Nike would have done if Michael Jordan would have been found in such ostentatious circumstances? Especially considering that Michael Jordan is still a huge cash cow for Nike.
I wonder what Nike would have done if Woods had won the Masters? Some triumphant ads of some sort?
We shall see what Nike has in store for Woods in the future ..... hopefully nothing scandalous!
In the case of Tiger Woods, Nike waiting to air that introspective commercial with nothing but Tiger's face and his deceased father's voice lecturing him seemed to be more PR then advertising to me.
In my PR class our instructor indicated she thinks that Nike waited to long to do anything and that when they finally did something (the commercial) it was not effective.
I wonder what Nike would have done if Michael Jordan would have been found in such ostentatious circumstances? Especially considering that Michael Jordan is still a huge cash cow for Nike.
I wonder what Nike would have done if Woods had won the Masters? Some triumphant ads of some sort?
We shall see what Nike has in store for Woods in the future ..... hopefully nothing scandalous!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Heat - Blu-Ray Disc Review
I remember when I bought the two tape VHS version of heat back in the late 90's ..... Now that I've dated myself let me continue. Heat was released in 1995 to critical acclaim. I rented it and was blown away!
Then DVD comes along and I swapped (gave the VHS copy to my dad) and upgraded to the DVD version of Heat which was a decent enough transfer.
In 2005 a tenth anniversary edition was released and after reading reviews online the picture and sound were apparently not tweaked, and despite a bonus disc with extra features, I wasn't going to drop the money being asked .... so patiently I waited.
In 2009 the Blu-Ray version was released and after watching it I was not disappointed.
The picture is clean, crisp, and clear pretty much throughout the entire film. One issue that was not cleaned up with the original DVD transfer was the presence of grain and noise that was common with virtually any VHS release (and was why I didn't want to buy the 2005 special edition) and those issues are almost nil on the Blu-Ray version. There are a lot of scenes at night and the black levels are fantastic which gives off excellent contrast in full 1080p.
Hi-def sound comes via a Dolby TrueHD track, and even though the film is dialogue driven for the most part, the gunfights are really present and there is enough ambient sound in different scenes ranging from the hustle and bustle of a hospital to the hotel evacuation at the end of the film and the intense climax at LAX with the sound of jet engines roaring through your rear channels .... whoa baby!
Heat is based on a True Crime novel involving Chicago cops and robbers which I am not to familiar with. Insight into the real life inspiration for the film and why it took so long to go ahead are a couple of the bonus features you get in this version as well.
The story line is great and although Pacino's relationship with Deniro's character is dynamic and interesting, Pacino's character goes through a marriage breakdown because of his obsession with catching the bad guy, his wife having an affair, and his step daughter trying to commit suicide, which can come across as a little much to take in during the course of the almost three hours you will be watching. Don't get me wrong though, overall the narrative is excellent, with stellar performances from the whole cast, and Michael Mann, who loves a wide shot, films LA in cinematic epicness.
So, all that being said, if you like a good cops and robbers genre movie wise, Heat is the ticket. Who knows what the next gen of hi-def will give us ..... In the meantime, I will give my DVD copy to my dad. It's alright, he only wants to be one step behind technology anyway.
Picture: 5 out of 5
Sound: 5 out of 5
Story: 4.5 out of 5
Then DVD comes along and I swapped (gave the VHS copy to my dad) and upgraded to the DVD version of Heat which was a decent enough transfer.
In 2005 a tenth anniversary edition was released and after reading reviews online the picture and sound were apparently not tweaked, and despite a bonus disc with extra features, I wasn't going to drop the money being asked .... so patiently I waited.
In 2009 the Blu-Ray version was released and after watching it I was not disappointed.
The picture is clean, crisp, and clear pretty much throughout the entire film. One issue that was not cleaned up with the original DVD transfer was the presence of grain and noise that was common with virtually any VHS release (and was why I didn't want to buy the 2005 special edition) and those issues are almost nil on the Blu-Ray version. There are a lot of scenes at night and the black levels are fantastic which gives off excellent contrast in full 1080p.
Hi-def sound comes via a Dolby TrueHD track, and even though the film is dialogue driven for the most part, the gunfights are really present and there is enough ambient sound in different scenes ranging from the hustle and bustle of a hospital to the hotel evacuation at the end of the film and the intense climax at LAX with the sound of jet engines roaring through your rear channels .... whoa baby!
Heat is based on a True Crime novel involving Chicago cops and robbers which I am not to familiar with. Insight into the real life inspiration for the film and why it took so long to go ahead are a couple of the bonus features you get in this version as well.
The story line is great and although Pacino's relationship with Deniro's character is dynamic and interesting, Pacino's character goes through a marriage breakdown because of his obsession with catching the bad guy, his wife having an affair, and his step daughter trying to commit suicide, which can come across as a little much to take in during the course of the almost three hours you will be watching. Don't get me wrong though, overall the narrative is excellent, with stellar performances from the whole cast, and Michael Mann, who loves a wide shot, films LA in cinematic epicness.
So, all that being said, if you like a good cops and robbers genre movie wise, Heat is the ticket. Who knows what the next gen of hi-def will give us ..... In the meantime, I will give my DVD copy to my dad. It's alright, he only wants to be one step behind technology anyway.
Picture: 5 out of 5
Sound: 5 out of 5
Story: 4.5 out of 5
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