Long Absence

I just noticed that it has been ten days since my last post. How the heck did that happen!?!?! Well, tomorrow starts the Halloween season so I'll have something new every day. Also, I'm working on a complete redesign of the site. Stay tuned.

Stuff To Buy - X-Men: Days Of Future Past

I enjoyed XM:DOFP (check out my review here). So, I was all set to buy the Blu-ray when I read that there will be director's cut that will be released in 2015. This cut will restore the entire Rogue sub-plot that was dropped from the theatrical release. This is great news - more mutant mayhem! - and I'm pleased that this was announced before XM:DOFP went on sale. I've had to double-dip in the past and it'll be nice not to with XM:DOFP.

iPhone Updated...Finally

Finally got my iPhone updated to iOS 8. I had to do a factory reset, then upgrade the OS, ten restore from a back-up. That is a fail on Apple's part. So far, the new OS seems okay. The Quicktype feature isn't as annoying as I thought it might be. The Messaging Details feature might be useful in the future; I haven't had a need for it in the last 24-hours, but I can see where being able to recall a messaging history could come in handy. I mean, I need to keep track of who is sexting me what, right? Time Lapse for the phone is a fun feature; since I shoot a lot of iPhone video, this could come in handy. And, the Battery Usage feature is also useful, particularly for someone like me who obsesses about the state of resources on his i-devices.

So far, I would say that iOS8 is worth installing. Like many capability upgrades, it will take some time figure out how I'll use the new features. However, I do wish I had waited until whatever back-end issues Apple was having were resolved. Anyway, I'm not going to put this on my iPads yet. Let's just see how the phone fares for a while.

Attempt To Update iPhone Failed

So, after hours of "installing" iOS 8 iTunes through an error indicating the update failed. And now, I've been trying to restore for over over an hour and that looks like a fail as well. Thanks Apple for killing phone.

Cult Of Apple: iOS 8

Wired has a pretty article on iOS 8. I'm looking forward to playing with the new OS (I'm updating my phone as I write) but wanted to share a few of the new features from the article.

Camera

Whether you’re using a brand-new iPhone 6 and its much-improved camera, or you’re on a freshly updated 5, 5c or 5s, there are some new features in the default iOS 8 camera app. First you might notice that you now have a Timelapse video feature. To use it, put your thumb anywhere on the screen and keep swiping your thumb to the right. Watch the horizontal slider at the bottom. Just after the Slo-Mo setting, you’ll see Timelapse. Go point it at some clouds, or at a busy intersection at rush hour. Another welcome addition: you can also now adjust the brightness of any photo before you click the shutter. When you’re setting up your shot, look for the vertical exposure slider next to the focus box. Slide it up and down to make the picture brighter or darker. You can still edit your pictures after the fact, but now you have a better chance of getting the photo you want right away, without having to brighten it later.

Mail

In the default iOS 8 Mail client, you’ll notice that when you swipe a message to the left, you get additional options. In iOS 7, there was just “More” and “Archive.” But now you get options for “More,” “Flag” for follow-up, and “Trash.” Cool! But try this. Swipe to the right, and you’ll see an additional fourth option: “Mark as Unread.”

Battery Management

Want to see which apps are sucking up the most juice? Go into Settings > General > Usage. You’ll see a list of all your apps, ranked in descending order, with the biggest battery hogs at the top. The default view shows the worst offenders over the last 24 hours. Move the slider at the top to see your usage over the last week. Android has had this feature since the Bronze Age, so it’s nice to see iOS 8 add it.

QuickType

As you’re thumb-typing away, you’ll see iOS 8 suggesting the words it thinks you’re shooting for. Tap the correct ones and they appear in the text input field. Not only does this change the whole iOS autocorrect paradigm, but it should also speed up your typing. This is one of those obvious differences, you’ll notice it right away. But here’s the hidden bit in this new QuickType feature: When you’re typing a message or an email, iOS 8 will pay attention to who you’re chatting with, and it will adjust your tone to suit the nature of communications you usually have with that person. So, QuickType will suggest an entirely different set of words (and let those LOLs and WTFs slide) when you’re texting with your husband than when you’re sending an email to your travel agent. HTH!

All of this sounds pretty neat. Of course, it is taking 87 hours for the update to happen, so I'll have my phone sometime next week (or month...or year).

New Issue Of Far Horizons Out

And I have a poem in it. The best poem ever written in the English...nay...in any language. See, I used 'nay' in a sentence. I must be a poet. Anyway, check it out here.

Avatar Lawsuit Rejected And How Creativity Works

I don't like James Cameron's Avatar. I recognize it is a technical achievement; but the story was hackneyed, the characters cliches, some plot points were offensive and...you know, maybe I'll just write an Avatar review.

I was happy to hear that an Avatar related lawsuit against Cameron was tossed out yesterday. Here are some details from Deadline:

A New York judge today [17Sep14] threw out a copyright-infringement suit by artist Roger Dean — who has created album covers for the likes of Yes, Asia and Uriah Heep — that claimed his fantasy artwork inspired Avatar. “The similarities of each such work are substantial, continuing, and direct so as to rule out any accidental copying or similarity in scenes common to the genre,” the $50 million suit alleged. Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York disagreed and dismissed the suit, which named Cameron, 20th Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment as defendants. Dean claimed the look of the 2009 film was derived from his images of floating mountains and the like, but the court found no substantial similarity.

Here's a comparison of one of the images claimed to have been ripped off along with a still from the film;

While some of Dean's work does look reminiscent of the aesthetic in Avatar the same can be said of many artist and writers. Let's stick with the idea of floating mountains.

While you could look at that and say "ah ha!" the image/concept of floating landmasses is not unique to either Avatar or Dean's work. For example, the anime series Cowboy Bebop featured a terraformed Venus with inhabited islands floating in the sky (image at right). Both Star Trek and Stargate SG-1 had episodes with cities in the sky (The Cloud Minders and The Nox, respectively). And the 1960 Bullwinkle cartoon featured a series of stories around Mount Flatten, which floats due to it containing Upsidaisium. Hey wait, mountains that float because of a mineral with a silly name (Unobtanium)...that sounds more like Avatar than the Dean image. Maybe James Cameron liked Bullwinkle a lot.

Bullwinkle J Moose, savior of Pandora.

I like Dean's art, but the idea of a mountain in the sky is so obvious - haven't you ever looked at a cloud and thought "man, that looks like a hovering snow covered mountain" - that there probably is no single source of the idea. It is certainly possible that Dean's work was one of many things bouncing around in the head of Cameron when he wrote Avatar; after all the artist's work is well-known from rock albums. But to say that significant parts of the visual language of Avatar were copied from this one man's work ignores the fact that many elements of the images and design aesthetic for Avatar can be found in other works of art, film, and literature.

This is an important case for artists, because there is a constant tension between trying to create something original, while realizing that all of our ideas come from a cultural stew. This stew is derived from the stories we read, the music we listen to, the films and TV we watch, all the things we are exposed to that tickle our brain or fire our imagination. Protecting intellectual property is important; but we also have to realize that no creative person is an island. Taking someone else work and directly and knowingly copying it is a problem. If I took one of Dean's painting, removed his name and put mine on it, that would be a crime. But taking images - whether a floating landmass, a dragon in flight or a man in powered armor - that are widespread in art, film, and literature and using them is not a threat to any artist. It is just the way creativity works; a huge feedback loop that builds on the artistry of the past, while offering new sights, sounds, and ideas for the future to mine.

Paranomal Activity 5 Gets Release Date - World Can't End Soon Enough

I liked Paranormal Activity. It was obviously low-budget and kind of repetitive, but it tried (successfully) to create an atmosphere of dread. While I was never frightened by anything in the film, it was creepy at times. Each sequel has gotten progressively worse. Do we really need another another one of these movies? Why do we need another sluggishly paced, scare-free PA movie. Oh, wait, they've made $800 million worldwide on a combined budget of $18 million. That's why we need it; because it's a money-making machine for Paramount.

Anyway, it's coming out on 13 March 2015...buy your tickets now! Because Brad Grey (Paramount CEO) needs to put food on the table.

Source: Deadline

Crack The Spine - The Omnivore's Dilemma By Michael Pollan

In The Omnivore's Dilemma Michael Pollan looks at how our food is grown, processed and eaten. He focuses on the rise of corn as the keystone crop in the American food system, and why this is not a good thing. He also looks at how the animals we eat are treated from birth to their final trip into a slaughterhouse, the growth of the organic food movement and how it has transformed into an industry, a highly successful sustainable farm (Polyface Farm) and wraps up with a final section on hunting and foraging. The organizing theme - and subtitle - are four meals the author has, each of which reflects a different food system; A meal from McDonald's, one made from organic food, one from Polyface Farms and a final meal that has to made from whatever he can hunt and forage for in California.

The book is well written and while the author's positions are pretty clear - particularly how much he dislikes the fossil fuel intensive, corn-centric, inhumane conventional agriculture industry - this really is not an advocacy piece. There is no point where he writes "this is how you should live." Instead, he shows the alternates that are out there, points out their failings and, in the end, comes to a conclusion that hard core opponents of conventional agriculture won't find satisfying, that there is no instant answer to the food issue in America.

There are many take-aways from the book. One if that government agricultural policy, particularly supports for the corn industry have heavily distorted what is grown, how is grown and processed and how it is priced. So much corn is being produced that it is used in one form or another in almost all processed food and many that aren't, like most of our non-organic meat, as well as other, non-food products (e.g., ethanol fuel). This would not have happened if various government policies - many well-intentioned - had not been implemented. This then created expectations from Americans for inexpensive, readily available food. This vast bio-machine - corn to cow to consumer - will be very difficult to change. Another is that the disconnect between how food is produced and how Americans consume it, has led to inhumane (and unhealthy for consumers) conditions in the meat packing industry. Many people don't even think about what is in their food or where it comes from, something the author (and I) think is odd, given that we a) need to at to survive and b) it is one thing that we should want full control over.

The book's thrust, however, is not about offering solutions; it is about laying out how food is produced today and how the production systems evolved. It is only through this kind of basic information - and a desire on the part of the consumer to want to know what goes into what they put in there mouths - that the problems in the food system can be addressed. Worth reading.

Note: If you think this sounds interesting, but are not a reader, check out Food Inc.. Many of the themes of the book are addressed in this film; which is not surprising, since the author is in the film and was a consultant to the filmmakers. The movie doesn't get into the issue of hunting and foraging - the last third of the book, but, quite frankly, this was also the least interesting part of the book since it has little applicability to how a nation of 330 million people can feed itself (not to mention a world of 7.5 billion people).

Out Of Town

Off to the City of Brotherly Love (Devil's Lake, North Dakota) tomorrow, so no posting until Sunday. Remember, head body head. Just work that and you'll be fine.

One Paragraph Review - You're Next (2011) - With Minor Spoilers

You're Next is a pretty generic low-budget entry intro the slasher/home invasion genre. A large family - mom, dad, 3 sons, 1 daughter, all with significant others - are attacked in their remote estate by a group of masked killers. The film looks good for a movie made for around $1 million. The pacing is good, with few moments that drag. The acting isn't bad; Sharni Vinson is particularly good as the kick-butt final girl Erin. The practical gore effects are well-done. And, that's about it, as far as good things. The story doesn't make much sense, the plot relies on characters acting really dumb (splitting up, running off into the dark woods where the killers are, etc) to move forward and there are a number of clunky exposition dumps needed to explain what is going on. The characters are all pretty one-dimensional; but, it's not that important since they are killed off pretty rapidly. I won't spoil the second act twist, except to say that it makes most of the actions of the killers nonsensical. Anyway, if you are in the mood for a dumb, but well-paced survival horror film with a great final girl, check out You;re Next. If you are prone to thinking too much about movies - like I am - you might find the plot holes and contrivances annoying; but, I still recommend checking it out.

Nothing But Godzilla

One of the problems with this year's Godzilla film was the lack of Godzilla. Some awesome guys have extracted all of the Godzilla scenes from the movie and posted the resulting 8-minute long video. Check it out below. See, who needs to buy the disc and sit through 897 hours worth of boring human interactions?

RIchard Kiel Has Passed Away

Richard Kiel died yesterday in a California hospital, age 74. The 7'2" actor is probably best known for his role as Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. But, he had a long career and appeared in many memorable roles. He was the human-eating alien (all of them) in the Twilight Zone episode To Serve Man. He was in a couple of Kolchak episodes, although in one of them - The Spanish Moss Murders - he was buried under a layer of, well, Spanish Moss. He was in The Longest Yard, the original film with Burt Reynolds, not the horrible remake. While not a great actor, he always gave the impression of having fun acting. There's a good interview with him from a few years back over at Den Of Geek. Check it out.

Poster Of The Day - The Single Girls (1974)

Now this is a great poster. Who does not want to see a movie where the girls are "half clad - all bad?" The poster sets up what looks a Seventies sexploitation drama or comedy. The title is reminiscent of films like The Student Nurses, The Student Teachers and The Swinging Cheerleaders. It promises uninhibited hotties taking long, sensuous showers...or is that just me? We have a trio of scantily clad hotties, front and center. There's also cheeky tag line ("If they couldn't get him easy...they got him hard.") and the promise of an exotic location (lamp trees, light house). On closer inspection, there is one oddity - the ax heading for the couple in the mid-left. Huh.

Well, that actually is a hint at what the film really is; a hybrid between a sexploitation/stalker movie. It's all pretty tame - not enough nudity or blood to be very interesting - but the film does have Claudia Jennings, who is one of my favorite B-movie starlets of the Seventies. This also gives me an excuse to post a photo of Jennings, which I will do at any and every opportunity.

While the film itself isn't great, the poster is pretty good. It's not exactly accurate, since it promises a conventional tits and ass flick of the kind that populated that drive-in screens of that decade, not the tepid giallo-esque film actually made. One item of note: the writers/directors/producers - Ferd and Beverly Sebastian - are a husband and wife team that made some pretty entertaining films in their time, including the amazing Claudia Jennings vehicle 'Gator Bait. And, you know something, being able to make films with your spouse...that's pretty cool.

As promised, Claudia Jennings, Seventies babe extraordinaire.

Published In A Real Live Book

That would be me, your humble narrator. I've just had some work published in the Far Horizons Anthology. While my writing is, of course, the best (basically, like God is whispering a bedtime story in your ear) every piece is pretty freakin' awesome. So, go forth, click on the little Amazon box and buy, buy, buy! Oh, and for those people who don't want to kill trees for their literary pleasure, there's a Kindle edition as well.

What We'll Be Wearing In The Year 2000 (1939)

What did fashion designers think women would be wearing in 2000? Climate control belts, dresses of spun glass and aluminum, and..."gasp"...no moreskirts. Shameless hussies of the future. As for us guys, we'll have utility belts and a phone the size of a brick attached to our chest. Sigh; I wish that society had gone the utility belt route. Every man a Batman.

8-BIt Godzlla Is Awesome

Imagine this year's Godzilla movie as an 8-bit video game. Yep, it is as neat as it sounds. Check out the video below.

Cinema Thougts: Found Footage Films

Found footage movies are ubiquitous in the horror and sci-fi genres these days. If one includes faux documentaries (which I do, since both are using the conceit that what the viewer is watching is real) this is not a new sub-genre; but it is more popular now then ever. I have strong feelings about found footage movies, mostly negative, although there are some that use the visual style and tropes to good effect.

Some of the elements of found footage visual language are:

• Unsteady camera work (i.e., shaky cam) or the use of odd angels to imply handheld or amateur filming; e.g., Evidence in which almost every shot uses a Dutch angle...not unlike the old Batman TV series;
• Film grain or video artifacts, often used to cover-up action or to create the necessary visual break for a subsequent jump scare. On a side note, I've been filming with both tape and digital for years; I've never had any of the visual artifacts you commonly see in found footage films;
• A plot element that explains why a person (or persons) are filming things. For example, Frankenstein’s Army deals with a Soviet film crew during World War Two;
• Muffled or distorted sound;
• Many have a framing device to explain why the footage is being watched (the V/H/S films explain that each stroy segment is a VHS tape begin watched in a framing story);
• Attempts to make the film look like is was filmed by amateurs, including focusing on things other than the central action, loss of camera focus, poorly framed shots, etc. This doesn't always hold true; many faux documentaries have a polished look, mimicking the look of actual documentaries. CSA: The Confederate States of America is a good example of this, mixing "talking head" segments with vintage newsreels, modern-style news reports, advertisements, film clips, and so forth in a variety of styles.

Found footage style movies have a long history. Films like Peter Watkins' The War Game and Punishment Park utilized a documentary style, narration, hand-held cameras and the like to create a visual style that enhanced the story being told. Other movies, like Rob Reiner’s This Is Spinal Tap and the Christopher Guest trilogy (Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind) mimic the documentary style for comedic effect. Woody Allen’s Zelig places the title character in numerous “historical” newsreels and faux-film footage. Rogerdo Donatos' Cannibal Holocaust uses the concept of the found footage in a literal sense, with the gruesome fate of a documentary crew in the Amazon being shown through cans of film recovered by a rescue team. The 1980s saw a number of fake news programs that fit comfortably into the genre including Without Warning (alien attack) and Special Bulletin (nuclear terrorism).

What distinguished these films from less-impressive modern efforts is that the visual tropes were integral to the story. What modern filmmakers have found is that this visual style can be a cost savings measure. The conventions of the genre can be used as excuses not to show much in the way of action or special effects; in short, it is a budget saving measure, not an artistic choice.

A good example of a film that suffers because it uses the found footage format is Cloverfield. There was very little of the titular monster seen, the “cameraman” seems more interested in the worried faces of his vapid companions, the camera bounces and shakes to a nausea-inducing degree, there's a poor decision to intercut the monster attack with previously shot footage or happier times, which makes no sense, given how cameras work; in short, visually it is unsatisfying and as a story-telling device it doesn't work. A conventionally filmed version of the same story could have given us better visuals of the monster, smoother camera work, a nice mix of the epic and personal…in short, Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla. The concept of a completely “street-level” view of a giant monster attack is a good one. But, ultimately, following the tropes of found footage lead to a frustrating viewing experience.

An example of a film series that straddles the line between effective and ineffective use of the visual style are the Paranormal Activity films. The first film had a very low budget. In this case, the limited scope of setting (one house) and the limited effects were enhanced by the verisimilitude brought by shooting on video. The low-key scares (creepy sounds, doors slamming, lights flickering all building up to the kinetic ending) seemed more realistic and acceptable in the context of a found footage film. This is primarily because the decision to shoot in a found footage style was integrated into the story. Subsequent movies in the series become less satisfying as the low-key scares of the original become repetitive and, ultimately boring, while, at the same time, cameras are being used in situations that no normal person would use them in. This brings us the suspension of disbelief, something every genre filmmaker has to be concerned with.

Suspension of disbelief is what allows the viewer to accept things like ghosts, vampires, aliens, space empires. It allows us to look at the unreal and accept it in the context of the story being told. This can also apply to genre conventions, like teen-agers in a slasher flick splitting up when they know a killer is stalking them. In a found footage film, one of the things that needs to be accepted is that a person with a camera would behave in the way presented in the film. It doesn't have to be "real world" realistic; for example, going back to Paranormal Activity not many people would set up cameras all over their house to video a ghost. But, it works given how the characters are presented and even how the scenes are filmed with static cameras documenting day-to-day life instead of someone running around with a handheld.

Going back to Cloverfield, if the cameraman were behaving in a believable fashion in many scenes he would be either focusing on the monster or dropping the camera and running away. Obviously, the latter is unacceptable; if he drops the camera and runs away, there is no movie. So, as a viewer, we can accept that he'll keep filming as a 500-foot-tall creature devastates New York City. However, what he does - focus on something other than the primary point of action (the monster) - eventually breaks the suspension of disbelief agreement; I accept a giant monster and a guy filming it, but I don't accept that he'd be more interested in filming anything other than the monster when he has the opportunity. For an example of a film where this works, there is Peter Watkins’ Punishment Park (1971). Set in a mid-70s America in which political prisoners participate in a frequently lethal law enforcement training exercise, the movie is being filmed by a BBC camera crew. This is an airtight device for explaining why the cameramen are filming, why there is editing, in short, the plot and visual style are mutually supportive.

This all points back to effective storytelling. A good creative team doesn’t choose the found footage format just because it is popular or allows for inexpensive filmmaking. These can be important and reasonable factors, of the course; the latter in particular will appeal to low-budget filmmakers. At the same time, most low-budget filmmakers don’t use this format. So, the decision to use a particular visual style should have something to do with the story being told. If it doesn't, that becomes obvious to the viewer. Given that many modern found footage films don't work on a visual storytelling level, I have the feeling that the decision to use this format is a combination of bandwagonning and laziness. And that makes for an unsatisfying viewing experience.

Here are some good found footage/mockumantary films to check out.

• Punishment Park
• The War Game
• The Bay
• REC
• REC 2
• V/H/S 2
• Europa Report
• Special Bulletin
• This is Spinal Tap
• Best in Show
• CSA: Confederate States of America
• Drop Dead Gorgeous
• The Blair Witch Project

One Paragraph Review - Antisocial (2013)

Take Videodrome in which a signal (in this case, a subliminal message on a web-sight) causes tumors. Add 28 Days Later with an infection (the tumor) that drives people into a homicidal rage. Sprinkle in a dash of heavy handed satire (social media sites are literally turning users into monsters). Mix well and you have Antisocial. Well, actually you have The Signal which came out in 2007 and is a much better film. But, now you have Antisocial. The film looks pretty good, although there are some visuals (like a rip-off of Guy Richie's slow mo/sped-up style from Snatch) that feel added in at random. Visuals have to tell a coherent story as well and not just be a collection of styles that the filmmaker thinks are neat; see House of 1000 Corpses for an example of how bad following that impulse can be. The acting is okay, although the characters are very stereotypical. The main problem is that the film, while having an interesting central premise, just doesn't have enough else going for it - like strong acting or a engaging story - to prevent it from running out of steam around the end of the second act. It's not horrible; but it isn't that good either. If you are in the mood for an average zombie film (which is basically what this is even though the infected aren't dead - at least until the "no-surprise" surprise ending) that has a good central premise and is competently shoot, check it out.

Happy Trailers - Lars Von Triers Nyphomaniac: Director's Cut - Now With Extra Porn!

I love Lars von Trier. I first encountered his work with Elements of Crime, then started to work my way through most of his filmography. His films consistently deliver interesting imagery, that is often both beautiful and grotesque (every scene in Anti-Christ). It would be quite possible to mute the volume (or, at least the dialogue track) on his films and still know what is going on. Perhaps, even better than you will with the sound on.

His latest latest film is Nymphomaniac (I'm counting both Part I and Part II as a single film). I have not seen it yet. It's in my Netflix queue but I've been re-watching Sons of Anarchy to prep for the last season. Priorities.

Anyway, it is supposed to have some pretty explicit sex scenes. The thought of seeing Stellan Skarsgård in his birthday suit is not a drawn, but I will check it out. However, there is apparently a director's cut that von Trier wants to release. A trailer is now out. All I can say is...wow. If this is an indication of what is in the film (and not just the most explicit 45 seconds) this version is basically porn.

I've included a link to the not safe for work, not safe for kids, not safe for anyone who has a problem seeing giant black dongs DPing a chick...um...yeah, not safe for much of any place where viewing explicit sex is a problem or anyone who doesn't want to see that sort of thing.

I'll have to watch the "safe" version before deciding if it is worth it to see the director's cut. That said, if a director has a preferred version that for some reason can't be released (time, content, studio pressure, etc) I prefer to see that. However, the movie is already 241 minutes long. According to IMDB, the uncut version is almost 90 minutes longer. If it's 90 minutes of moderately attractive to moderately unattractive people having explicit sex...well...I can just set up my camera and...umm...okay, too much information there.

I just wonder how much of this is about trying to shock the mainstream film industry. I mean, nothing here hasn't been done millions of times in your garden variety porn. Putting people having explicit sex on film is not that original. It's not even that original having name actors in a sexually explicit film (see Last Tango in Paris and Caligula for examples). I wonder if von Trier has finally missed the point of film; it is not just to put shocking images on the screen. That's easy. It is to tell a story. A simple story, a complex story, a story in dialogue or one in just sound and image. If you can't tell an engaging or entertaining story, then you're not making a worthwhile film. That's right, I'm the final voice on what makes a worthwhile film. So there.

If you want to see it, click this link to Vimeo. Again, very explicit stuff.

Cool Tech - Army Getting A Frickin' Laser

The US military has been working on directed energy weapons (lasers and particle beams) for some time. Boeing recently rolled out the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD)— basically a truck-mounted 10-kilowatt laser — for some successful tests against UAV drones and 60mm mortars rounds.

The test was done in poor weather conditions - windy and foggy - which is important for showing lasers are battlefield ready, both for land and sea use.

One other that power the HEL MD’s laser are charged by a 60 kW diesel generator. So, as long as the generator is fueled, the laser can fire. Given how it is intended to be used - knocking out incoming UAVs, rockets, artillery shells and mortar rounds - this essentially unlimited ammo capacity is a great selling point.

The next step for the laser is to up the output 50-60 kilowatts, which is what the military considers a “tactically significant power level.” It will take a few more years of development, but our armed services will soon be fielding weapons that a century ago were the stuff of a Flash Gordon serial. Check out the Boeing promo video below.

One Paragraph Review - Blood Glacier (2013)

Set in the Austrian Alps at a remote climate monitoring station, Blood Glacier is a throw-back to movies like Forbidden World (1982) and Parasite (1982). There is a remote location, small cast, mostly practical effects, multiple monsters, gore, mutant dog babies and the worst dubbing I've seen (heard) in a long time. We're talking Seventies chop-socky movie style-dubbing. The effects are pretty good, the director (Marvin Kren) keeps things moving along and stark alpine environment is well used. On the debit side, the acting is hard to judge due to the bad dubbing (but people do scream and grimace theatrically), the plot doesn't make much sense and there's half-hearted environmental message that is lost in a flurry of blood and pincers. However, if you in the mood for a decent, low-budget monster film that harkens back to the days of Cannon Films and New World Pictures, then check out Blood Glacier.

BONUS!!!! Here's Parasite for your viewing pleasure. Because I care.

New Trailer For American Horror Story - Clowns!

We all knew this was going to happen with a carnival themed season of American Horror Story. Clowns. Freakin' clowns.

Emergo For The 21st Century

Some of you may know the name William Castle and his reputation as a cinematic showman. For those who don't here's the short version. Castle wrote, produced or directed dozens of movies over a career that spanned thirty years. He is best known, however, for his film related gimmicks. For the movie The Tingler, he had seats in some movie theaters wired to buzz and vibrate when the titular monster was lose in an on-sceen cinema. In the movie Mr. Sardonicus, a"punishment poll" was conducted before the finale, in which the audience would decide the fate of the villain (although, of course, only one ending was filmed). And, in House on Haunted Hill, he came up with "Emergo." During the film a skeleton advances towards the screen. In some of theaters, a skeleton with glowing eyes on a wire was pulled across the ceiling of at that moment.

Now, it looks like William Castle's brand of ballyhoo for low budget B-movies is being resurrected for major studio blockbusters. Only they call it 4DX (because it's like 3D...only with one more D...and a variable...hey, calculus!) and it involves spraying water in people's faces. Seriously. Check out the promo video below.

Sweet! It has an ankle tickler. That would make any movie better.

Groan.

What a terrible idea. You go to a movie to be drawn into the story, through acting and images, dialogue and music. We go to thrill to special effects on the screen not to be subjected to gusts of wind, strobe lights (that sounds particularly horrible), shaking chairs...why not just have guys dressed up as characters from the movie running around the theater? This gimmick has been used before in some theaters, like Disney World's Muppet Show. But in these cases, it is part of the act. The movie was designed to work with the real-world effects as, basically, a ride. Movies, even movies described as a "thrill ride" are supposed to tell stories, not just bombard the audience with sound and light...and now water and air and kidney jarring vibrations.

Hopefully, this will be another fad, one that will never go beyond a theater or two. However, if theaters want to start wiring glowing skeletons to the ceiling, I'm all for that.

Possible Ending For The Stand Adaptation

The good people at Jo Blo have a story on the developing big screen adaptation of Stephen King's apocalyptic epic the Stand. The purported ending of a recent script has been leaked which, if accurate, does not bode well. Here's the ending;

In this version, from last year, the good guy survivors from Boulder get together in an army and march on Las Vegas to kill Randall Flagg. Flagg's headquarters is, of course, the Luxor Pyramid. The Boulderites invade the city while, off to the east, a squad fights at the Boulder Dam - which Trashcan Man explodes, killing Larry Underwood and sending a deadly flood to Vegas. In the city Flagg squares off against hero Stu Redman... who now has the power of God, and they have an Akira-like battle on the Las Vegas Strip, with Flagg trying to take Stu's magic. Cars are thrown, Excalbur's turrets are tossed, the people of Vegas are used by Flagg as disposable cannon-fodder. Meanwhile Nick Andros sacrifices his life taking out a howitzer. The Boulder forces, while armed, try to only take prisoners and rescue people from being under Flagg's evil spell. It all comes down to Flagg and Stu, and whether or not Stu will absorb Flagg's evil magic.

And there's a mid-credits tag that sets up a sequel. Yes, a The Stand 2.

Wow, that sounds horrible. It is clear that the creative team does not understand the novel at all. To turn King's ending, which is a test of faith and courage in the face of evil, into some boring CG fight is stupid idea. While novels and movies are different animals, if you miss out on a big part of the book - that faith isn't as flashy as worldly power, but that it is more effective, that quiet self-sacrifice is more heroic than violence and that the lust for power leads to one's own destruction.

As for sequels, the novel is perfectly set up for a trilogy, as is. In fact, as I recall, the novel is divided into three parts. This whole idea sounds like a typical Hollywood approach to a property that, apparently, is too subtle (which is something I never thought about The Stand) for them to adapt without resorting to video game aesthetics.

Source: Jo Blo

Stuff To Buy - Lifeforce On Blu-Ray

Shout! Factory is releasing Lifeforce (1985) on Blu-Ray next week. For those unfamiliar with the film, it's from Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) as part of a three picture deal he had with Cannon (which also saw him make Chainsaw 2 and a remake of Invaders From Mars). It takes place in the near future (at least, the near future as far as 1985 is concerned). An expedition to Haley's Comet finds a massive alien spacecraft in the tail. Three space vampires are brought back to Earth (London to be specific) and start to infect humans as they drain their "life force." The film has a pretty good pace, decent mid-Eighties effects, a good cast (Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Patrick Stewart, among others), an energetic (if kind of baffling) finale in a London overrun with energy vampires and Mathilda May as the lead space vampire who spends most of the movie naked. And I am looking forward to seeing her glorious...ummm...talents in HD.

Anyway, not a great movie, but a fun one.

Hilarious Madden 15 Glitch

I'm not a big fan of sports games; however, a few years ago in my brief "I should understand football in order to converse with other males" phase, I did pick up Madden 12. I still break it out on occasion, focusing mostly on the team management aspects of the game. Anyway, that really has nothing to do with this, the funniest game glitch I've seen in a while.

Apparently, one of the players, 6'2" Browns linebacker Christian Kirksey, shows up as being 1'2" in a Titans uniform. Check out the video below. He's just so adorable!

There’s a funny little glitch in the latest “Madden” video game that when activated makes a wee little man on pop up on screen. No, it’s not Kevin Hart. It’s Cleveland Browns rookie linebacker Christian Kirksey in a Tennessee Titan uniform. Listed at 6 feet 2 and 235 pounds on the Browns’ roster, in “Madden 15,” Kirksey is 1 feet 2 and looks to weigh about 2.35 pounds. The “Tiny Titan,” as the glitch has come to be known, really is quite adorable.

Guillermo Del Toro Wants You To Make A Movie

Del Toro and Legendary Entertainment have announced a contest for budding filmmakers. In association with YouTube Spaces, which provide production and post-production facilities for YouTube creators in Los Angeles, Tokyo, London and New York. Hey, what about where I live? Guess I need to move to LA.

Anyway, the films will issue sets "inspired by" Del Toro's new film, Crimson Peak. The contest starts on 22Sep and ends on 28Oct. Del Toro will pick the winners and work with the creators on improving their films. Legendary Entertainment will offer a development deal to the creator behind the best film.

Pretty neat, if you happen to live in near a Youtube Spaces facility. Guess I'll have to stick with filming in my closet.

Source: Variety

Happy Trailers - Monsters: Dark Continent

There's a new trailer of the upcoming sequel to Gareth Edwards' 2010 alien creature flick, Monsters. Looks like director Tom Green (whose directed some British TV) has ramped up the action, increased the stakes, introduced new aliens, has more human; basically, a major upgrade of the original. It looks pretty good and seems to have a very different focus and tone compared to the first one. If the trailer is any indication, this should be worth checking out.