vista xp

my work desktop. using windowsblinds with the vistaXP theme. reflex vision as an expose emulator. and konfabulator.

At The Movies: The Guardian

Director Andrew Davis (“The Fugitive,” “A Perfect Murder”) does a fantastic job of bringing the audience into the shoes of an Aviation Survivalman (ASM) in “The Guardian.” An experienced ASM named Ben Randall (Kevin Costner) has let his job take over his life, thus wrecking his marriage and leaving him with nothing left but a job and a long list of records and accomplishments at sea.

Because of a recent trauma, Ben Randall has been reluctantly repositioned as a teacher where he meets newcomer Jake Fischer (Ashton Kutcher). Of course they don’t get along at first but Randall sees a younger version of himself in Fischer and starts to investigate the truth behind him. Their relationship is developed slowly and honestly, which allows you to see the movie in a more raw and realistic sense.

Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher put on surprisingly convincing performances and work well together on screen. There is a great supporting cast, and a few well woven subplots that compliment the main story. The original music by Trevor Rabin (“National Treasure”) and the views of the vast, stormy emptiness of the ocean prove useful in bringing you into the scene during the rescue missions.

It was refreshing to see a film that didn’t rely on an abundance of special effects, sex, and violence to keep the viewer’s interest, but focused on the human story. Despite all of these great things, there were moments in the film that you will probably wish you could fast forward through. The pace was extremely uncomfortable and unnatural at times. The ending scenes could have been fleshed out much more as they were the most important. Rather than a truly great ending we have an abrupt but expected ending with the voiceover of Ashton Kutcher’s character.

The Guardian is a great dramatic film, but may leave you feeling unfulfilled.

8.5 out of 10.

Originally published in The Hammonton News

Complete iTunes 7 + iPod 1.2 Update Review

Today Apple has released iTunes 7 along with iPod Update 1.2. The latest update adds plenty of tweaks to the iTunes software as well as to the iPod itself. I personally use an iPod w/Video (30 GB) white model. And I decided to make a photo-review of my experience updating.

Now it is interesting to note that I sync my iPod with my home library, but bring my iPod back and Forth to work. This information comes into play during the review. Hope you enjoy.

The iTunes 7 Experience
The first thing you will notice are the shiney new icons:

Now the exciting part, opening up the program. I have installed this at my work computer and had my iPod already plugged in, and immediately iTunes told me there is a new update. This is what the iPod update process is now like, as it is now built into iTunes.

And that's that! Much more simple than the previous method. My iPod Video now has all the same features of the one that was released today (except of course for those nice new headphones, which probably aren’t that great). I'll talk about the new iPod features in the end of the review.

Now that I'm all synced up. What's new? As with every release of iTunes there is more eye candy. I won't get into it all, but for example you can now scroll through your television shows and movies in a unique way, system taxing way:



But getting down to new features, there are some nice things like more options in your parental controls:


Perhaps my favorite is the ability to sync purchased items from computer to computer:

It's nice, but until I can sync my whole library I'm going to stick with YamiPod.

iTunes has also built a feature to add album art to your music, but as for lyrics you're still on your own (iArt does a great job for that):

You can now see exactly what is taking up space in your iPod, and how much. As well as manage all your iPod settings on different PC's:

Notice that there is count on the right side telling you how many unheard podcasts you have, as well as a new way of having your items and playlists organized. The iTunes Music Store is now fittingly called the iTunes Store. Although if they really want to name it aptly, how about iContent Store? Or iMedia Store? Hmm.

The iTunes Store has a fairly newly arranged layout, with Games and Movies added:


Outside of this, there are not many new features in iTunes 7. Just a lot of eye candy, tweaks, and speed improvements. So let's move on to the iPod.

iPod w/Video 1.2 Update
[I will be updating this later with pictures/scans of the new menus]

The first thing you will notice, and I may be wrong about this, is that ever since your iPod got updated the brightness on the screen is almost unbearable. But now in the settings menu we have a way to control the brightness level. You also now have Gapless playback and "bugfixes." But there are still some problems, mainly:

Edits:

Once nice feature would be that instead of just the backlight going off, the entire screen goes off and the iPod keeps playing. I'm sure this would save some energy, afterall it works for the Pocket PC platform.

As far as the gapless playback goes, it would be much better as a setting, rather than a switch for each individual song.

And syncing feels much slower as well.

Outside of these things, I am very pleased with all of the improvements. I will try other things like purchasing songs and games on my work computer and see if I can transfer them back to my home machine. It is quite possible that you can only take from your home machine that your iPod is synced too, but I could be wrong.

I'm sure there are many more features that I will learn as I use my iPod and iTunes. Perhaps the best thing is being able to change brightness while watching a video, as well as see battery life.

.andy lardi

At The Movies: Invincible

At a seemingly low point in Philadelphia Eagles history, coach Dick Vermeil (Greg Kinnear) decided to invite fans to compete for a spot on the team's roster. At the same time, Vince Papale (Mark Wahlberg), a 30-year-old bartender and teacher, hit a low point in his life. Not only had he lost his teaching job, but his wife left him behind with nothing but a scorning letter declaring he would never amount to anything. Soon after this, he tried out for the team, and to everyone's surprise was the only fan invited to play with the Eagles. The events of Papale's journey are the basis for the new Disney sports film, "Invincible."

Portraying football on film as opposed to seeing a live game is always a difficult task because it's compressed into a few minutes and the camera movements are premeditated. "Invincible" has some fantastic directing and shows on-field views that you may have never seen before. Director Ericson Core finds new ways to make the opposing teams such as the Dallas Cowboys feel big and intimidating in every scene.

The story is told with a tenderness that shows exactly what Papale was going through. Despite the audience knowing that in the end Papale made it to the team and had a three-season career, you are able to feel the suspense as he sits on his bed in training camp, wondering if he has been cut from the team. You really understand that not only was it Coach Vermeil's last resort to allow a player with only high school football experience on the team, but it is Papale's last resort to try out as well.

The film shares many undeniable resemblances to "Rocky" as a "pick-me-up" sports film about a Philadelphia man during the 70s. Much like "Rocky," there is at least one character everyone in the audience can relate to, and you are quickly pulled into the downbeat 70s time frame. That said, unlike "Rocky," the film does cover a fairly long time period, so the story and character development are forced to move along quickly and at times abruptly. For that reason Invincible will leave you wanting more and feeling a little unfulfilled.

Rating: 8 out of 10

This Week on DVD: Keifer Sutherland gives a "Jack Bauer" like performance while chasing down Michael Douglas in "The Sentinel." Rising star Keke Palmer gives a career-making performance with Laurence Fishburne in "Akeelah and the Bee."

Originally published in The Hammonton News

At The Movies: World Trade Center

Oliver Stone has not tried to make a movie that sets out to be the definitive 9-11 film, nor does he try to harass anyone with political statements or conspiracies about the events like some of his previous works. In that sense "World Trade Center" is a tasteful movie that tells the story of two surviving Port Authority Police officers John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Pena) who were in the towers when they collapsed.

While Cage's acting is fantastic, many of the other actors seem out of place at times. Some of the reactions to the events portrayed are completely over the top, while others are far too underwhelming. Sadly, the movie fails to be emotionally gripping throughout its entirety, and your mind may start to drift to your own memories of 9/11 rather than focusing on what is on screen. One whom would agree even more so would be Jeanette Pezzulo, widow of Port Authority officer Dominick Pezzulo (Jay Hernandez) who has expressed disgust with the film even being made. She has been quoted saying she does not "need a movie" to explain "what a hero" her husband was.

There are moments in the film, specifically conversations between Cage and Peña that felt manufactured by Hollywood. As it would turn out some of the conversations are only inspired by the conversations or ideas that Jimeno and McLoughlin had. So rather than taking the route of being a perfect re-creation of what they went through, "World Trade Center" uses some forged conversations as a way to ease the audience of the tension with the occasional chuckle.

Overall, you may be impressed with the film on technical standpoints as I was, but when it comes down to it "World Trade Center" falls short from being a truly great film. If you can put your views aside for two hours and forget about yourself, you will see a really great tale of two people who didn't hesitate to face danger to save others, and those who did the same for them.

7 out of 10

Originally published in The Hammonton News