Out on DVD this week:
1) Stay Alive – PASS: You probably already knew this, but this movie isn’t very good.
2) Stick It – RENT: It’s no “Bring It On,” but it’s got spunk.
3) Hard Candy – BUY: Hands down the best indie flick of the year… if not the best film of 2006.
Also in stores: re-releases of “Grease” and “Backdraft,” and new TV season releases of “My Name Is Earl,” “The Unit,” “Battlestar Galactica” and “King of Queens.”
Based on Sunday’s estimates, courtesy of boxofficemojo.com:
1) Gridiron Gang: $15million (first week)
Creepy. Two weeks ago, the #1 movie was football flick “Invincible,” which made $15.2 million. Maybe we’re all stuck in the Matrix after all, and this is one of those déjà vu moments.
2) The Black Dahlia: $10.4 million (first week)
Days from now, the agents for Aaron Eckhart, Josh Hartnett and Scarlett Johannson will be found brutally murdered, without the pleasure of doing a stag film before their untimely deaths.
3) Everyone’s Hero: $6.2 million (first week)
We love baseball, but putting this out now makes as much sense as putting a basketball movie out in September.
4) The Last Kiss: $4.7 million (first)
Upon hearing the disappointing performance of Zach Braff’s latest movie, Eli Cash did a happy dance… in front of his 92” HDTV.
5) The Covenant: $4.7 ($15.7 million, second week)
Go rent “The Witches of Eastwick” instead. You’ll thank us later.
Granted, some of us have found ways to convert our own DVDs into files that we could then upload to our iPods, but Apple is now making the process much easier.
In addition to upgrades and improvements to iPod, Nano and Shuffle, Apple announced Tuesday that the iTunes Movie Store is now open for business:
With more than 70 movies available today, and many more to come, you should not have any problem filling up all that hard drive space. Movies are going to run you $14.99 for new releases, $12.99 for pre-orders, and $9.99 if you can wait a week after it’s released to download it. The iTunes movies can only be viewed on your iPod or in iTunes. You will not be able to burn them to DVD or share them. Also, they will be in 640×480 resolution, which is near DVD quality but not quite. I think Apple is headed in the right direction here but only being able to get 640×480 resolution when HD-DVD is on the horizon and only being able to watch them in iTunes and your iPod are both drawbacks.
Apple also announced that iTV will be launched Q1 2007:
…the concept here is that you can connect your current TV, be it traditional or HDTV, to this box and you will then be able to access everything in your iPod or in iTunes wirelessly. With component video, HDMI, optical audio and RCA-style stereo audio ports, you should be able to connect this to any TV. The iTV also has an Ethernet port, 802.11 wireless connectivity, and a power cable.
Some other highlights:
iPod generation 5.5: $50 price drop, longer-lasting battery, brighter screen, game integration, text-based search, gapless playback, 80GB model available
Nano 2G: text-based search, gapless playback, smaller size, better battery, more color options, 2 GB, 4 GB and 8 GB models
Shuffle 2G: smaller (1.6 inches long and weighs about half an ounce), built-in clip, 1 GB for only $79
iTunes 7.0: different layout, 3 new views (including the sweet “Cover Flow”), gapless playback, replaces missing cover art
For complete analysis of these changes, click here.
EW Popwatch has assembled their list of the 50 best high school movies of all time, and they pretty much nailed it. Everybody from James Dean to the Ramones is here, with slashers and wizards mixed in as well. I am especially pleased to see that “Brick” (currently sitting at #1 on my Movies of 2006) placed as high as it did, and Buffybot will be pleased to see “Can’t Buy Me Love” earned a spot as well. No one, however, will be able to successfully convince me that “Sixteen Candles” deserved to be ranked 49th overall. Wrongheaded revisionist history, that’s all it is.
One movie that didn’t make the cut that I always had a soft spot for: The Last American Virgin.
A classic? Hardly. But one of the few at the time that dared to take a more dramatic approach to the teenage experience. I crushed on Diane Franklin big time, even more so when she was in…
Holy shit. “Better Off Dead” didn’t make the cut, either. Are you kidding me? Forget everything I said. This list sucks. What say you, Tracy?
“You know what they say about the early bird, Mr. M.”
Props to Mike Connolly for placing me in the loop on this video.
The back story, at least according to the site hosting it, is that when Edgar Bronfman, Jr., gained ownership of Universal Studios, he got into some odd marketing campaign practices, one of which is this rare employee orientation video that enlightened people about how things were going to change under new management. It was commissioned to be written and directed by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, but Bronfman didn’t like it, so they scrapped it.
Apparently, Bronfman doesn’t know comedy. This thing is HILARIOUS…and it’s got more cameos than you can shake a stick at, none of which I want to spoil for you, except to say that they’re major names. Seriously. There’s also a running gag about the studio’s new connection with Seagram’s Wine Coolers that’s really funny.
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