In the newest installment of the critically acclaimed Battlestar Galactica, director Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama) takes the story of Cylons and gives it the 2-hour treatment.  The Cylons, as any connaiseur of sci-fi will know, are robots that Humanity created as servants.  After rebelling, they disappeared for 40 years before coming back to wipe Humanity off the face of the galaxy.  Additionally, they no longer look like robots but have skin and bleed like Humans.

WARNING:  Spoilers abound after the break.  Do not read unless you have seen The Plan or *at least* all four seasons.

Quick rating (before the break):  4/5 if you like Battlestar and want to see things resolved, 2/5 if you are only half-engaged and want more food for thought/questions asked. Continue reading

It has come to my attention that the public is not educated about the intertube’s latest sensation, FilmRiot, the Revision3 show that shows you how to pull off the techniques you see in the movies without having to sell your soul for an FX budget.

So I present this Public Service Announcement for the betterment of my readers.

So I’m a big BSG fan, and can’t wait for the latest instalment in the Reimagined Series, The Plan.  The Plan is the entire series from the perspective of the Cylons and explores what was going on behind the scenes in the Cylon camp.  While the Series gives you – mostly – the Colonial point-of-view, The Plan will be an interesting balance.

Picture after the break.  Contains Battlestar Galactica spoilers.  No peeky unless you know 11 of the 12 Cylon models.

Continue reading

No matter what you think of Microsoft or Office, this is absolutely excellent!

I’m an MS Office fan and look forward to the rumours of Firefox support I’ve heard for Office 2010’s cloud version.  Take what you may (hopefully a few laughs) from this video.

Today mom and dad picked up a movie from the video store:  The Tale of Despereaux.  I had previously written this one off as a “kids” movie but watched it anyways.  To summerize it quickly, it was spectacular.

Now, I’m going to start out with my usual disclaimer that I like my flawed heroes more flawed than heroic.  While the “hero” of the work has no discernable flaws (even his foolhardiness is interpreted as going against the grain – watch the movie) the characters who surround him certainly do.  While it did not end with at least some tragic element (I’m a catharsis junkie) it did satisfy that more morbid urge of mine to see characters pass through the shadow of the valley of death.

The story of this animated movie, to quickly sum it up, is about a kingdom called Dor.  In the preamble to the movie we see that a tragedy befell the kingdom robbing it of its most cherished tradition (watch the movie if you’re really that curious) and that this was caused by a certain member of our cast.  Later we meet the hero Despereaux – a small mouse with big ears.  He explores the traditional fairy tale themes of chivalry, honour, bravery, yada yada yada.  On the sidelines are Roscuro (a rat), Princess Pea, and Miggery Sow the servant girl.  Though the story is focused on the hero (as stories usually are) these characters all have their own very clear character arcs.  These are my kind of heroes, if you know what I mean (watch the movie!  Here Not Be Spoilers). Continue reading

mm hm.

You read that right.

The choice was between Garrett and Dad’s choice of Paul Blart:  Mall Cop (…) and the aforementioned Shopaholic.  Suplies! (inside joke.  Ask me and maybe I’ll explain it)

Basic premise:  Lady can’t control obsessive consumerism and then gets a job at a finance magazine to finance her continuing descent into debt.

All in all, it was very, very funny.  It didn’t have that much chick-flickishness (at least, nowhere near what I expected.)  While it was most definitely a Hollywood feel-good story, I think it did a very good job not being preachy about it.

Great movie, especially for people who write without actually knowing what they’re talking about