Tuesday, February 19, 2008
RIP HD DVD and hello Juno
Well that's it, the plugged has finally been pulled on the HD DVD format, despite gaining Paramount as an official backer last year (cos they preferred the format they said), Warner have since pulled out, and now Toshiba has swung the final blow and stopped manufacturing HD DVD players. So that's it for the format I think, everything will be Blu-shaped from now on in the HD market. This is a shame in a way because Blu-Ray wasn't regionless but HD DVD was, which means we can only really get Blu-Ray discs from the UK now that will work, damn! But hey-ho, it was a format war and only one format could have won (finally Sony get it right!). So I better start selling my HD DVDs on ebay.
Different note time, I went and saw Juno at the pics on Sunday and after a fairly slow start I was pleased to say I really enjoyed it. Juno (Ellen Page who is great in it) is a "kooky" (OK hate to use that word) 16 year old girl who has gotten pregnant courtesy of one of her male friends (Michael Cera) and she is on the verge of having an abortion when she has a change of heart and decides to have the baby, but she doesn't want to raise herself, she wants to put it up for adoption. This is a charming little movie, really it is, it doesn't really rely on f-words, major profanity, or gross-out gags to be funny. Ellen Page is not only pretty damn cute, she is also a really good actress and this role will almost certainly ensure her career will take off. J.K. Simmons and Alison Janney also provide great support here too as Juno's parents. The dialogue is also pretty funny too, one of my favourite scenes is when Juno says to one of the prospective adopted parents "And I bought one of those Sonic Youth CDs and they suck! It's just noise!".
Anyway that's all the blogging time I have the now.
Different note time, I went and saw Juno at the pics on Sunday and after a fairly slow start I was pleased to say I really enjoyed it. Juno (Ellen Page who is great in it) is a "kooky" (OK hate to use that word) 16 year old girl who has gotten pregnant courtesy of one of her male friends (Michael Cera) and she is on the verge of having an abortion when she has a change of heart and decides to have the baby, but she doesn't want to raise herself, she wants to put it up for adoption. This is a charming little movie, really it is, it doesn't really rely on f-words, major profanity, or gross-out gags to be funny. Ellen Page is not only pretty damn cute, she is also a really good actress and this role will almost certainly ensure her career will take off. J.K. Simmons and Alison Janney also provide great support here too as Juno's parents. The dialogue is also pretty funny too, one of my favourite scenes is when Juno says to one of the prospective adopted parents "And I bought one of those Sonic Youth CDs and they suck! It's just noise!".
Anyway that's all the blogging time I have the now.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Bye bye HD DVD??
Well I've just read on the web that HD DVD could be kissing itself goodbye as Toshiba are on the verge of pulling the plug on the format, Toshiba have been the main manfacturer of HD DVD players and now it looks like even they are jumping ship. HD DVD has already lost backers on the disc front as Warner have dropped out and gone over to the Blu-Ray format as have HBO too (I think who are owned by Warner). So could this be the end of the HD DVD format? Maybe.
Either way I'm not going to buy anymore HD DVD discs for now, seems a waste of time, I guess once the format has gone kaput and gone the way of Betamax, we will have to sell all this stuff on ebay. Seems a shame, why have a format war in the first place? Why don't we just have one format and use that one anyway?! Achhhh well that's the latest news anyway on HD formats. Until then I'll stick with decent ol DVD.
Either way I'm not going to buy anymore HD DVD discs for now, seems a waste of time, I guess once the format has gone kaput and gone the way of Betamax, we will have to sell all this stuff on ebay. Seems a shame, why have a format war in the first place? Why don't we just have one format and use that one anyway?! Achhhh well that's the latest news anyway on HD formats. Until then I'll stick with decent ol DVD.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Ahhh feel better at last!
Well I've been feeling pretty yucky and out of it from all last week so far, so I'm glad to say tonight I'm starting to really feel a fair bit better, my appetite seems better, feel less tired, so thank the Lord for that, I also had my first game of golf of the year today, which was good, so I'll see how I get on this week, hopefully better.
On a different note I had a rather interesting day on Saturday there were I went to one of my fellow acting chum's Tom's flat, who with another guy from our class, Mark, went over some scenes from scripts and improvisations just for practice. Mark also had an audition for this Monday to go over and Tom who has already previous experience of auditions and acting helped him with how to do the scene, which was from a BBC drama which is due to be on this Autumn. We all had a go at Mark's audition piece as well to give him a different flavour of how to do it. I quite enjoyed our get together as it allowed us to try out some of the exercises we had learned already from our acting classes in addition some new ones from Tom. Tom was hoping he could get more people up for a get together round at his next weekend for more of the same, I for one would like to try more of this little workshop.
On a different note I had a rather interesting day on Saturday there were I went to one of my fellow acting chum's Tom's flat, who with another guy from our class, Mark, went over some scenes from scripts and improvisations just for practice. Mark also had an audition for this Monday to go over and Tom who has already previous experience of auditions and acting helped him with how to do the scene, which was from a BBC drama which is due to be on this Autumn. We all had a go at Mark's audition piece as well to give him a different flavour of how to do it. I quite enjoyed our get together as it allowed us to try out some of the exercises we had learned already from our acting classes in addition some new ones from Tom. Tom was hoping he could get more people up for a get together round at his next weekend for more of the same, I for one would like to try more of this little workshop.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Wabbidy wabid its Febwuawy
Well I was off work today feeling a bit under the weather, my legs and arms feel weighed down like lead balloons so to speak, so when it came to getting up and going to work time I could hardly lift myself out of my bed. I haven't been doing any exertive stuff lately so I'm guessing its some kind of bug that is on the go just now which I've picked up, I have heard in previous weeks a few people in my work mention about having something like it so I guess that's what it might be, so I'll just need to keep at the water and paracetemols and see how I feel.
On a different note (and before feeling like this) I went and finally saw No Country For Old Men, which was pretty good, also rather intense and creepy in places. The cast were all pretty good, Josh Brolin did a very good Burt Reynolds in Deliverence type performance, Tommy Lee Jones effortlessly did the old wisened Sherriff, and the surprise turn came from Kelly MacDonald, who affected a very good Southern accent (perhaps she might be up for Oscars!). I can't of course forget to mention the chilling performance from Javier Bardem, who plays the "human" version of the Terminator and racks a fair body count by the end of the picture. A few people have said that the end of the film was someone strange and left some things unresolved which I can sort of see but I happen to think the ending is fitting.
Anyways back to some water and paracetemols.
On a different note (and before feeling like this) I went and finally saw No Country For Old Men, which was pretty good, also rather intense and creepy in places. The cast were all pretty good, Josh Brolin did a very good Burt Reynolds in Deliverence type performance, Tommy Lee Jones effortlessly did the old wisened Sherriff, and the surprise turn came from Kelly MacDonald, who affected a very good Southern accent (perhaps she might be up for Oscars!). I can't of course forget to mention the chilling performance from Javier Bardem, who plays the "human" version of the Terminator and racks a fair body count by the end of the picture. A few people have said that the end of the film was someone strange and left some things unresolved which I can sort of see but I happen to think the ending is fitting.
Anyways back to some water and paracetemols.
