Movie Review - The Last Man on Earth (1964)

My latest movie review is up, The Last Man on Earth. This is a good Vincent Price end-of-the-world film from 1964, based on the Richard Matheson book I Am Legend. Check out my full review here.

My Latest Project - Trailers for Movies That Don't Exist

Because I love movies and have both the time and technology...why not make trailers for movies I wish existed? First up, Revenge Road, a 60s biker/exploitation film. I made it with clips from Faster Pussy Cat...Kill Kill, The Wild Angels, Vanishing Point, and Beneath the Valley of the Dolls. Final Cut Pro X was used for editing, GarageBand for the iPad for the music and narration.

Movie Review - Masque of the Red Death

Vincent Price and Roger Corman do it up big time, with a moderate budget horror movie that turns into an examination of life, death, the meaning of existence, faith...you know, all the stuff you normally find in B horror movies. Check out my review here.

Movie Review - The Crawling Eye

What's in Switzerland? Other than the Swiss? Aliens, cuckoo clocks, chocolate...oh, did I mention aliens? Check out my review of The Crawling Eye.

Riddick Teaser - New Film Looking Pretty Awesome

First off, I love me some Riddick movies. I thought Pitch Black was a great movie. Fast paced, inventive, with nice little touches that point to a larger universe (e.g., David Keith and charges going to New Mecca on the Hadj). The monsters are neat - although the eco-system makes no sense. That's why it's called "suspension of disbelief" right? And Vin Diesel makes a kick-butt anti-hero.

The sequel - The Chronicles of Riddick - is more problematic. The story was a mess, a series of individually interesting and visually impressive set-pieces, that add up to a big mess. While I appreciate touches that set a story in the context of a larger universe, this doesn't work so well when there is nothing but "touches." It's still a "fun" movie, in the sense that I like watching it, but the sprawling - and often incoherent - story and over-acting are the exact opposite of the tightly written, well-acted original.

A teaser has been released for the next film in the series; Riddick. And it looks good. The question is...will it have the spare, energetic feel of the first film or will it be the massive, over-plotted, over-acted mess of the second? Guess I'll have to pay my 10 bucks and find out for myself.

Web Series To Check Out - 80/20

I received a recommendation to check out the Web series "80/20" a few days ago. It's a sit-com about a group of late-20s/early-30s friends in New York City. The protagonist - Jessie (Vayu O’Donnell) - is dumped by his girlfriend in the first episode. He moves in with Chris (Christopher Oscar Peña) a gay friend who says Jessie is "80% straight, 20% gay"...hence, the title. The show expands on this basic premise, using some common sit-com plot elements (e.g., disturbing blind dates, the "meet-cute"), while looking at the ambiguities and complexities of sexual identity.

After watching the 10 episodes available, I can second the recommendation. Funny and well-written, with an appealing cast, and technically polished (there are some rough patches in filming but that's to be expected with a low budget), at about four-minutes-thirty each episode is just long enough to be amusing and clever, without becoming overdone or repetitive. The last few episodes are a bit longer - around 8 minutes each - but the length is justified, as the main storyline builds to a climax.

Check it out. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised and wind up looking forward to more episodes being made.

80/20 Website

Best Music Video in a Loooong Time

The video for Bad Motherfucker by Biting Elbows is awesome. The song is okay - pretty standard punk-pop - but the video is great. A violent, funny homage to first-person shooters and ultraviolent action movies. Not even close to being SFW....unless you work at a place where blood spray is a common sight and someone says motherfucker every few seconds. Oh, and tits.

If work at a place like that, let me know if you're accepting resumes...

Anyway, check it out with someone you love...

New Movie Review - Horror Express

I have a new movie review up on Yahoo. Check out what I have to say about Horror Express.

The Comixology Meltdown And Cloud-Based Problems

On 10Mar13, Marvel and ComiXology - the popular online and tablet e-comics retailer - launched a special offer; 700 Marvel comics for free. Surprisingly, for a business that is built on cloud-based comics retail and storage, inadequate thought was put into capacity planning. Comixology's servers ground to a halt. Not only were the free issues inaccessible; existing purchases were no longer downloadable, although those on devices could still be read. However, like most people, I don't store every comic I own on my iPad. In the case of those comics purchased through the Marvel app (based on ComiXology's technology and pulling from ComiXology servers) I have spent the last week trying to restore them all, since I had to uninstall the app in order to clear the errors created by the failure to load the free comics.

The point of this is actually not to specifically beat up on Marvel or ComiXology; rather, it is to look at the whole model of cloud-based application delivery and content storage. The comics "purchased" are not files that are transferred to the buyer; rather, you are given an unlimited usage license. You do NOT own the comics you buy. This is a problem when the retailer - ComiXology - is no longer able to deliver the files to the license holder - me. What happened here, of course, is a technical problem, one that has been corrected. However, it does lead one to ask some serious questions, the most important being "what happens if ComiXology is no longer in existence?" With physical media, or with electronic media transferred to you, this is not a problem. Most people have the expectation that when they "buy" something, they will have the use of it for as long as they wish.

It also shows the limits of cloud-based solutions. When there are network problems, when you don't have connectivity, or when the provider fails to plan for increased usage, then the results can be catastrophic. While not being able to download my comics does not rise to the level of catastrophe, if this had been business critical information, then the "sorry about that" response from ComiXology would have been met with derision. As we become an increasingly electronically-based society we need to take steps to ensure the information we depend on is constantly accessible and stored in a way that guarantees it cannot be lost due to a single system failure.

If your entire model is based on convenience and accessibility, then you have to deliver those things reliably. This week, ComiXology and Marvel failed to do this...and called an entire model of business and information distribution into question.