Posted by admin on January 4, 2008
I had My first Experience with the world of DRM over The Holidays.
As I wrote about Earlier, We Stayed out on Black Friday to get Jamie a Zune
.
Later, I bought the Special Edition Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
from Target. This version came with a special disk that contains two digital versions of the movie: One for the PC and one for Mobile Devices.
I opened the disk, entered the CD-key and the whole thing blew up in my face.
Both files are on the PC. When I tried to open one, It asked for the key again. When I entered the key, It told me I had already registered the product for the maximum number of times. Eventually, I discovered that My Daughter was running Windows Media Player 9 and needed an upgrade.
That got them working, but right now both copies are only registered for use on the PC. Even though One is labeled “hp5_PC” by the distributor and the other is “HP5_Mobile”, there is no way to get it off the PC and onto the Mobile Device. I am waiting for a response from the help line, But am not holding my breath.
When I upgraded from VHS to DVD, I bought many of the same movies I already owned.There was a lot of value added to the DVD format: Increased resolution, the special features, Ability to skip to specific scenes and chapters. It never occurred to me that I already bought the right to watch them in my own house.
So the producers have gotten addicted to selling me the same product over and over again. If I don’t pay to see the movie or concert, they can sell it to me as a DVD. Or a Download. Or on Cable. One Use equals One License equals One Price.
There are two problems with this.
First, There is consumer push back. If I buy a Blu-Ray, I want to be able to play my old DVDs without upgrading. If I can use my DVD in my PC, I want to be able to save a backup. Once I have a backup, I want to put it on my MP3 Player. If I have it in my MP3, Why can’t my Wife? What about Jamie? Do I need to by three copies?
Second, How do I pay to keep developing these multiple formats I’ve become addicted to? How do I know whether consumers will embrace Blu-Ray or HD-DVD? Will iTunes or Zune or Napster shake out as the Winner? Xbox or Wii?
The answer, of course is DRM. The consumer has no “Fair use” rights, and instead purchases(or is Given” only limited rights to your product. Each new use requires the purchase of more rights. Want Harry Potter on three MP3s? Pay three times. Want your DVR on each TV? Pay for it again. And Again. And Again.
Posted by admin on November 5, 2007
Posted by admin on June 28, 2007
It’s almost an axiom at this point that movies based on video games stink on ice.
So when my daughter dragged me kicking and screaming to see Silent Hill at the cheap seats last year, I had low expectations. The movie had not received good reviews and did not attract a large audience. But for a buck, it might be worth it.
I was blown away when I realized, however, that the creators were riffing not so much on the games ( Although they were extremely faithful to the plots and conventions of the Silent hill game series) but on my favorite film genre, the Italian horror films known as Giallo.
The plot’s pretty interesting, introducing a varied Scooby Gang and then trapping them in two, no three, alternate realities to unravel the mysterious death and undeath of the Town of Silent Hill.
In the primary Plot, Mother X IS taking her adopted daughter x to the town to help her unravel the frightening nightmares x keeps having. Mom then crashes on entering the mysterious town and wakes to find her daughter missing. She allies with a motorcycle cop who is also trapped in the gray mist world of Silent Hill. At certain random points, they are drawn into a darker, hellish version of the town (right out of the games) where secrets are revealed.
Meanwhile, her husband is both trying to find them and unravel the mystery of his daughters origin in the real world, where Silent hill is just another small ghost town and the survivors are loathe to talk about past sins.
Using nicely surreal imagery and some truly shocking supernatural creatures, the story builds to its satisfyingly apocalyptic climax (set to a Goblin-esque synth organ score), followed by a creepy, but totally expected denouement.
t’s not really scary, and isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, but it’s a nice ride. It’s a shame this film wasn’t more popular. After riding the J-horror train the last few years, it would have been nice to see a rash of I-Horror films in the market.
Posted by admin on June 19, 2007
I’ve always been a sick little kid.
When Other ten-year-olds might have read Spiderman or Batman, The only comics I remember reading as a kid had a decidedly occult bent. House of Mystery, a horror comic featuring the hosts Cain and Abel later used for Sandman, Tomb of Dracula featuring the original Blade Character,and of Course, Ghost Rider
Now, Ghost Rider was always kind of an also ran in the Marvel Universe. It was extremely uneven in it’s stories and arcs- Alternating between horror, occult and superhero on a whim. The villians were both serious and ridiculous and the tone changed nearly every month. Blaze went from being controlled by the demon, to controlling it and back again. I believe there was even a period where the demon was banished an the stories were just about Blaze himself.
So I had high hopes for the movie. And it lived up to every one of them.
Really, there’s not a second of this film, not a single frame that can’t be mocked. From the dead on perfect casting of Peter Fonda as Mephistopheles and Sam Elliott as “Yoda, the Surprise Third Act Reveal-(didn’t see that one from the credits did you?) to the Slama Hayek wanna be Eve Mendes– Everything falls into place perfectly.
And let’s not forget the casting of Elvis as Everyone’s favorite Dead Avenger.
And The Ghost Rider himself. Of course he had to be CGI, and he’s pretty impressive, especially when he’s on his bike tearing up the city. His flames are a vibrant, fluorescent color not seen in nature. However, he neither moves nor looks much like Nicholas cage at all.
The plot is a loopy mess that basically tells the origin of the Ghost rider, throwing in the later Blackheart character and a bunch of Old West/ New west motifs that neither are followed through nor payoff. Perhaps if BlackHeart and his gang looked more, um, like a posse and less like your standard Euro-trash vampires.
Like marvels nearly direct to DVD punisher, the movie sets up Evil-On Evil violence, then doesn’t pay it off in order to get the PG-13 Rating. Take the kidnapping and menacing of Eva Mendes. Blackheart kills everyone he comes into contact with but the Ghost Rider’s old Flame ( Ha). She even gets to hang onto his arm as he gives his impassioned final speech to the Devil, then seemingly disappears.
The result is a gloriously silly romp that is tailor made to ridicule. it is both Pretentious with the capital P and Cartoonish at the same time. A movie that is pulled in so many different directions it ends up competing with itself. This is a movie for the seven year old goth in all of us.
