Category: Entertainment

Blu-ray review: Vantage Point

Post author By prawn1
Post date December 22, 2008
2 Comments on Blu-ray review: Vantage Point

United States President Henry Ashton (William Hurt) is in Salamanca, Spain to attend an anti-terrorism summit. An American cable news channel is tracking the event, and Rex Brooks (Sigourney Weaver) is directing traffic from the OB van, when she notices Secret Service agent Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid), back on detail so soon after taking a bullet for Ashton earlier on in the year. She watches on her monitors as Ashton is introduced by the Spanish mayor, and is about to deliver his speech. Without warning, Ashton is shot twice in the chest, and utter chaos ensues. She watches as Secret Service agents surround the president and usher him into an ambulance, and amid the confusion, a massive explosion goes off in the plaza, completely destroying the podium and killing several people. At this point, the camera rewinds to the point in time where we initially joined Brooks, but the perspective changes.

The tagline for Vantage Point is “8 Strangers. 8 Points of View. 1 Truth”, and over the same 23-minute period that is looped over and over, the assassination of the U.S. President unfolds through the eyes of different people. With each perspective and subsequent rewind, a valuable new piece of the puzzle is revealed.

How complex does the puzzle get? Read on and find out.

Tags car chases, confusion, puzzles, thriller

Entertainment Movie Reviews

Blu-ray Review: The Tudors Season 1

Post author By prawn1
Post date December 21, 2008

If you’re anything like me, school history lessons left you yawning and, with a faint mouldy scent in your nostrils. English history especially always seemed so tedious with its endless supply of royal Charles’ and James’. The one English king who stood out from the rest was Henry VIII – the rather portly man with the neat red beard, elaborate clothing, and a penchant for chopping off his wives heads!

It’s good to be king and in Showtime’s Golden Globe-nominated series The Tudors, prepare to see King Henry VIII as never before. The handsome, athletic, virile Henry (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is in a loveless marriage to his brother’s widow, Catherine of Aragon (Maria Doyle Kennedy). The young, hot-blooded Henry delights in combat sports and chasing women. His obvious philandering doesn’t seem to make much of an impact until he falls desperately in love with Catherine’s lady-in-waiting Anne Boleyn (Natalie Dormer). Henry didn’t happen to meet Anne by chance; she was “pimped” by her father Thomas Boleyn (Nick Dunning) so that he and the Duke of Norfolk (Henry Czerny) could gain favour with the king.

Will Henry get the jewel he desires? More after the jump.

Tags adultery, england, intrigue, king henry VIII, sex

Entertainment Movie Reviews

Blu-ray Review: Surf’s Up

Post author By prawn1
Post date December 21, 2008

Penguins. I don’t like them (childhood nightmare, don’t ask) but lots of people do. They’re cute, they dress in black and white outfits, and they walk funny. Trust Hollywood to cash in on this. Now, after March of the Penguins, Madagascar, and Happy Feet, comes the animated flick Surf’s Up.

Surf’s Up is a mockumentary that tells the story of fatherless Cody Maverick (Maverick Senior had an unfortunate confrontation with the business end of a whale). Cody (voiced by Shia LeBeouf) is an up-and-coming surfer living in Shiverpool, Antarctica. When surf talent scout Mikey Abromowitz (voiced by Mario Cantone) visits the area, Cody gets recruited to compete in the Annual Big Z Memorial Surf-Off, an homage to Z, a deceased surfing legend whom Cody has idolized since childhood.

Will Cody get some bad sets at the Surf-Off? Find out after the jump.

Tags animation, surfing

Awesomeness Entertainment History Lists Photoworthy

The Year 2008 in Photographs

Post author By prawn1
Post date December 21, 2008

2008 has been an eventful year and Boston.com has compiled a set of photos to show what life has been like over the past 12 months.

Here are a couple I lifted off the article (click the pictures to see in a larger resolution):

Firefighters battle a blaze at the Namdaemun gate, one of South Korea’s most historic sites, in central Seoul, on February 11, 2008. An arsonist started the fire, destroying the gate – the oldest wooden structure in Seoul, first constructed in 1398 and rebuilt in 1447. (Kim Jae-hwan/AFP/Getty Images.

An Afghan refugee child hides from a dust storm behind a tent at a refugee camp in Kabul, Afghanistan on October 7, 2008. Over a quarter million Afghans have returned home this year from Pakistan and Iran, many of them reportedly due to economic and security uncertainties faced in exile, the United Nations said. (MANPREET ROMANA/AFP/Getty Images.

A polar bear shakes his body to remove water at the St-Felicien Wildlife Zoo in St-Felicien, Quebec on March 6, 2008. (REUTERS/Mathieu Belanger).

Samuel Peter from Nigeria receives a punch from Vitali Klitschko of Ukraine during their WBC heavyweight boxing world championship fight in Berlin, Germany on Oct.11, 2008. Klitschko won the fight after round nine due to technical knock out. (AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski).

Drummers perform during the Opening Ceremony for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics at the National Stadium on August 8, 2008 in Beijing. (Adam Pretty/Getty Images.

See the amazing 3-part photo narrative at Boston.com – Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3.

Tags 2008, photo narrative, top photos

Entertainment Movie Reviews

Blu-ray Review: Men in Black

Post author By prawn1
Post date December 20, 2008
1 Comment on Blu-ray Review: Men in Black

Adapted from Lowell Cunningham’s cult Marvel/Malibu comic book series, Men in Black is definitely a comedy sci-fi classic that deserves a place in your Blu-ray collection. This film is action packed and highly entertaining with excellent performances by the inspired pairing of Tommy Lee Jones (Agent Kay) and Will Smith (Agent Jay) who protect the earth from the scum of the universe.

James Edwards (Will Smith), an energetic young NYPD detective is recruited to a top-secret underground government agency known as Division 6 by Agent Kay. The agents from Division 6 are known as the Men In Black on account of the smart black suits they wear as a uniform, and as Agent Jay (Will Smith) says himself, he does make that suite look good. The suit is just the beginning; Kay shows Jay the ropes and introduces him to an incredible array of extra terrestrials that have come to earth for one reason or another. Initially it seems that most of the alien visitors are benevolent or just slightly crooked, but soon through a bizarre chain of events involving a farmer and a small ginger cat, Kay and Jay realise that they are dealing with a deadly intergalactic terrorist plot…

Tags aliens, black power, comics, pugs

Entertainment Movie Reviews

Blu-ray Review: Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Post author By prawn1
Post date December 20, 2008

Made in 1977 by Steven Spielberg, Close Encounters of the Third Kind was (and still is) an epic science fiction adventure. The story revolves around an ordinary cableman Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) who gets caught up in very extraordinary happenings. One night, Roy is sent out to investigate a power failure and experiences a close encounter of the first kind. He, along with other people witness UFOs flying through the night sky. In other parts of the world, scientists experience close encounters of the second kind — military objects that have been missing for decades suddenly re-appear in odd locations.

After his encounter, Roy starts having strange visions of a mountain-like object, and five musical notes play over and over again in his head. He is compelled to discover the meaning of his visions, so much so that he is prepared to give up his job and forsake his wife Ronnie (Teri Garr) and children to find out the truth about the UFOs.

Will Roy discover the source of the music and ultimately meet the visitors from across the galaxy? Find out after the jump.

Tags aliens, contact, UFOs

Entertainment Movie Reviews

Blu-ray Review: The Professionals

Post author By prawn1
Post date December 19, 2008

The year is 1917 and the Mexican Revolution is in full swing. Set against this backdrop, The Professionals is a hard-hitting western that tells the story of a group of mercenaries hired by an arrogant Texan oil baron, J.W. Grant (Ralph Bellamy), to rescue his kidnapped wife Maria (Claudia Cardinale). Maria went riding across the border into her native country Mexico, and was kidnapped by a ruthless revolutionary, murderer, thief, and all-round bad guy Captain Jesus Raza (Jack Palance). Raza has Maria stored away in a hideout protected by a 100-strong army and demands a $100 000 ransom for her safe return.

Will the hired guns be able to reclaim the billionaire’s trophy? Read on and find out.

Tags mercenaries, mexico, westerns

Entertainment Movie Reviews

Blu-ray Review: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Post author By prawn1
Post date December 19, 2008
2 Comments on Blu-ray Review: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Walk hard down life’s rocky road with the brilliant John C Reilly as Dewey Cox in this gritty, funny, warts-and-all fictional biopic that parodies the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle of great rock artists of the 60s and 70s.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story captures and lampoons the spirit of rock history by following the roller coaster career of Dewey Cox from a down home-country boy to a successful artist to a drugged up burnt out rocker struggling to keep his sanity.

Tags johnny cash, parodies

Cautionary Tales Entertainment Lists Weirdness

Five Historical Figures Who Died The Weirdest Deaths

Post author By prawn1
Post date December 18, 2008

Cracked.com reports on the 5 individuals not content with just leaving their names in the footnotes of history.

Chrysippus: Death By Performing Donkey

Chrysippus (280 – 207 BC), renowned philosopher and party fiend, was boozing it up with his donkey (name still unkown) when the animal tried to eat some figs. The donkey’s attempt were so funny that Chrysippus laughed so hard, keeled over, and died.

President Félix Faure: Death by Bow-chicka-bow-wow

On February 16, 1899 French president Félix Faure made a booty call in his own office with a gold-digger named Marguerite Steinheil. Story has it that Faure has fatal stroke right in the middle of orgasm. At least he died happy.

Aeschylus: Bludgeoned With a Turtle

Sicilian eagles love turtles and have a cunning way of getting past the hard shells of their prey. The eagles lift turtles up to great heights, and then drop them on rocks to crack them open.

Aeschylus, widely regarded to be the founder of Greek tragedy, was loitering around one day when an eagle mistook his bald head for a rock, and proceed to drop it’s catch onto his head. Aeschylus died but the turtle survived.

Arius: Death by Expoding Bowel

Arius one of the most prominent heretics of early Christianity, and someone obviously wan’t happy about him suggesting that there might have been a time when Christ hadn’t existed.

This is what one of this political opponents said:

“A faintness came over him, and together with the evacuations his bowels protruded, followed by a copious hemorrhage, and the descent of the smaller intestines: moreover portions of his spleen and liver were brought off in the effusion of blood, so that he almost immediately died.”

Herod the Great: Gangrene of the Genitalia

Herod the Great, king of Judaea, was responsible for the Massacre of the Innocents. God tends to frown upon acts involving the senseless murder of babies and thus imbued unto Herod what is known today as Fournier gangrene – a horrendous necrotizing infection of the genitalia.

Read the full article at cracked.com.

Tags death, donkeys, exploding bowels, gangrene, penis, sex, turtles

Entertainment Movie Reviews

Blu-ray Review: Broken Trail

Post author By prawn1
Post date December 18, 2008

Broken Trail is set at the end of the 19th century, a time in America when Chinese immigrants were treated worse than livestock. Five young Chinese girls are sold into slavery by their families to the creepy trader Captain Billy Fender (James Russo). The girls are destined to be the new, “exotic entertainment” (prostitution) at a saloon (brothel) in a neighbouring mining town.

Meanwhile, ranch-hand Tom Harte (Thomas Haden Church) is busy at work when his estranged uncle Prentice “Print” Ritter (Robert Duvall) rides on in. Print has some bad news to deliver — Tom’s mother has died and left the family farm to Print, not Tom. Print also has a business proposition and wants Tom to be his partner. He wants to mortgage the family farm to buy 500 mustangs and transport them to Wyoming where a war profiteer will pay top dollar. Tom agrees to his uncle’s plan and they set out on the trail from Oregon to Wyoming, 800 miles across the harsh frontier.

Are the cow-hands and the slaves destined to meet? Find out after the jump.

Tags boring, cowboys, slavery