Basement Matinée

Welcome to Basement Matinée

2011-01-01T22:17:00.003-05:00

Basement Matinée has been created to show off my basement remodeling project. In 2007, I took my unfinished basement and transformed it into around 500 sq. ft. of living space - including a home theater and a home gym.

When I was building these rooms, my biggest resource for help and design came from the internet. My hope is that this site will help someone else in their basement remodeling/home theater project. I also plan to detail some of my experiences with Windows Media Center, which I use throughout my house as my DVR and media player.

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Amazon Gold Box "Deals"

2008-12-19T08:38:00.004-05:00

I just had to write on this. I love Amazon - I practically did all my Christmas shopping there - and they have some fantastic deals on video games and mp3 downloads (I haven't bought a CD in years, but I've probably bought 10 digital albums in the past year, usually under $5 - makes me wonder how people can buy stuff from iTunes). Every once in a while they have an all-day XBox 360, Wii, or PS3 Gold Box day where they have system-related game/movie deals hour-by-hour for the entire day. Yesterday was a PS3 day.

Granted, I don't need to be buying any more games; I can barely find time to play the ones I have. But one of their clues was for the new Tomb Raider game, so I thought for the right price I'd take the plunge. I noticed that they had the game for $46.99 the day before, so I was hoping for a deal in the $30 range. To my surprise, when the "deal" became active they had a price of $44.89 (or close - can't remember the exact cents) - a real savings of $2.10 (they had raised their "regular" price of the game to $56.99 for the day - so they claimed a savings of $12.10). To my greater surprise, the deal sold out within 15 minutes. Apparently $2 is the big savings folks were waiting for...

After seeing that, I thought I'd check the game today to see what Amazon was now selling for. Unsurprisingly, the price today is $46.99. What a deal.

I guess I can't really blame Amazon - hell, they sold out at a $2 savings, so they got what they wanted out of it - but that's really shady to me. If you're going to keep people in anticipation for a deal, at least save them a little money; and if not, don't lower the price back down the very next day.

I feel I should mention this though: they did offer Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway for $10, which really was a $50 savings off their regular price. That was pretty amazing (and one of the reasons I had my hopes up for a great price on Tomb Raider Underworld). However, their Deal of the Day was Motorstorm Pacific Rift for $40 - which is the same sale price that Best Buy has it for this week. They definitely hit both sides of the "bargain" spectrum yesterday.

Ledger's Golden Globe Nomination

2008-12-12T09:58:00.008-05:00

The 2009 Golden Globe nominations were announced recently; as expected, Heath Ledger received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight. I thought it'd be difficult to find someone that didn't think his nomination was well-deserved; after reading the comments for this blog post, it turns out I was wrong.

One poster in particular had a few choice entries to say about this:

Yeah, I hope he doesn't get it. I'm sick of how TDK exploited his death, and how people are falling into its commercial trap. You really think giving him an award is going to show people's appreciation for him? I'd say he will be convulsing in his grave if he gets nominated. All your doing is telling this poor artists that he had to die in order to win an award. It's the old 'until the artists dies does he gain true popularity' routine. Poor guy. I loved his stuff, but this isn't how you recognize his work. You people are all just clinging, extremist, desperate dudes.

I stopped after the first line and laughed. In what way did The Dark Knight movie or marketing team exploit his death? I don't remember ever seeing any promotional items from Warner Bros. saying "come see Heath Ledger's final completed film!". If anything, I thought they were extremely reserved and cautious about using him to promote the movie. The media may have gotten a hold of it, but in no way did the film itself.

And then there's this one:

I respect the man, I think he's an amazing actor, but I just hate how extremely out of proportion people blow things. You recommend moments of silence, you toast to a dead man. You don't give a dead man an award he can't thank you for, you're just taking away another deserving actor's opportunity. But no, people go to ridiculous extents whenever they stand for something, even if it's the stupidest things. Black or White. And they don't even know why, you don't question it. Blind devotion. it's insanity.

I'm not sure what kind of point this person was trying to make, but he failed miserably. "You don't give a dead man an award he can't thank you for"? I take it this person doesn't give to charity very often unless he can receive a great amount of praise for doing so. Giving an award has nothing to do with receiving the thanks from the gesture, it's about recognizing the work that was done.

And finally, he gets in the reasons for his hate of the character:

Are you kidding? Let's dissect Nolan's Joker... This shouldn't take too long, he's a very flat character after all...

-No background/Background is a mystery
-No motives behind his evil doings.
-Anarchist... basically anarchists just don't want order, and he has no reason (motives) for doing this. He just wants 'chaos'... that's just stupid.
-Doesn't seem to have any physical weakness. And excessively clever, perhaps to the point where he almost seems super human to a very realistically set movie.

-And he's a 'psycho'

So Nolan's joker is: a mysterious, motiveless, anarchist, omnipotent, psycho criminal that seems to work under different sets of super natural rules (unrealistic to what this movie boasts to consist of) when concocting his plans against Gotham City.

This doesn't seem like a character, but more of an 'easy-way-out' plot device. Have you noticed that the only significant parts in the dark night were ones with the Joker in them? Because the Joker is not a great character, but more of a plot device... to keep a very boring, realistic, story... interesting.

A great Character has layers and flaws and insecurities etc. The Nolan's Joker has none of these.

This is why the Joker needs to have been made by Batman, this is why the joker had to have his face permanently fully disfigured by Batman. Because Now the Joker has motives, you understand his psychosis, because Batman chooses to wear a mask, but the Joker doesn't have a choice. The joker has a goal. There are basic elements in characters you can't change because it's what makes them who they are, and why they work.

Where to begin...the beauty of Nolan's Joker was that he didn't have or need a full background story; he's more menacing and evil because of it. If you start saying that his daddy beat him as a child, you start gathering sympathy. And his motives are very clear: he doesn't want money or power, but he does want control - control over the people in power and control over Batman. This commenter later claims to be a Batman fan and that he prefers previous incarnations of the Joker, but isn't this what the Joker character always wanted? Money never mattered, power didn't matter; it was being a foil to Batman that mattered. He wants chaos, true, but he wants so much more than that.

In no way is the Joker just a "easy-way-out plot device". His whole argument in that paragraph is just mind-numbing. The Joker is not just there to move the plot along - he's the major foil to Batman and the character that makes Batman question his limits; it's one of the major themes in film, but I guess he missed that.

In watching the movie again, I never for once thought that the Joker was "super-human" or without flaws or insecurities. It is true that the Joker never really "loses"; even at the end, after being caught by Batman, he thinks he's got him beat with Two-Face. But before that, when he realizes that the people of Gotham aren't about to destroy themselves, you see a sense of insecurity and disbelief.

As you can tell, the comments I listed above kind of aggravated me. I have no problems with folks not liking the movie; that's to be expected and everyone has their own opinion. But as someone who's obviously put a lot of thought into his reasons, it blows my mind that someone can be so off-the-mark.

One final comment...I always find it interesting who gets the awards for Best Actor/Actress. It's easy to tell a good performance over a bad, but how do you differentiate between similar good performances, especially when the films are so different? My thought is this: if you feel that a movie suffers when the actor/actress isn't in that scene, there's a good clue. If you can't wait for the next scene with that character, that's another good clue. And that's why Heath Ledger deserves the Best Supporting Actor award as much as anyone; while The Dark Knight doesn't exactly suffer when the Joker isn't in a scene, you definitely look forward to the next scene with him in.

UPDATE: Ledger did indeed win the Golden Globe; an Oscar nomination is sure to follow. No matter what anyone says, he really deserves it. His death gives the media a story to talk about (too much), but his performance is worthy of the accolades.

There is No Way to Validate the BCS

2008-12-08T10:15:00.004-05:00

Another college football regular season has come and gone; while it was an extremely tough year to be a Michigan Wolverine fan, it was another season filled with great games, amazing plays, and outstanding players. Of course, it also generated the normal (if not more) amount of BCS controversy; with the bowl matchups just announced, it's once again time to reflect on why the BCS is so wrong for college football.

Over at ESPN, there are a few quotes from BCS chairman John Swofford. He attempts to validate the national championship game teams, Florida and Oklahoma, like this: "One of the interesting aspects of where we are, looking at the standings, is that Florida and Oklahoma are one or two in the Harris poll, coaches' poll and even the AP poll, which is not used in the BCS standings. You have a consistency there with the human polls on those same two teams." So since the silly human human polls have those two teams ranked 1 & 2, that validates your (even sillier) BCS? The University of Texas, among others, would definitely disagree with that.

Texas beat Oklahoma 45-35 in October and finished with the same Big XII record as the Sooners. When it came to determining the tie-breaker for the Big XII championship game, rather than using the logical head-to-head matchup result (which would be used by any other sport), they used the BCS standings - which had the Sooners slightly ahead of the Longhorns. Since Oklahoma beat Missouri in that game, they're heading to the BCS title game - even though the Longhorns and Sooners have only 1 loss and Texas beat Oklahoma earlier in the season.

Don't get me wrong - Florida and Oklahoma are both very good teams. But they're both one-loss teams, and that puts them in the same boat as Texas, USC, Alabama, Penn State, and Texas Tech. And don't even get me started on Utah and Boise State, which are both still undefeated (but while I am here, how big of a joke is it that undeafeated Boise State gets thrown into the December 23 Poinsetta Bowl while 2-loss Ohio State gets the BCS Fiesta Bowl, even though Boise State is ahead of the Buckeyes in the final BCS standings?).

So Mr. Swofford, as even president-elect Obama knows, there is no way to validate the BCS. Whichever team wins the BCS Championship Game is going to be considered national champs, but what happens to the USC/Penn State winner? Or how about if Oklahoma beats Florida and Texas crushes Ohio State? Or if Utah beats Alabama, who was the "human's" #1 team for much of the year? No, this year will have no true "national champion"; it will merely have a series of 1-loss (or even undefeated) teams that can lay claim to being the best in the country.

Everyone knows a playoff is needed; if college basketball can work in a 3-weekend playoff, I see no reason why college football couldn't do the same. And there are a number of feasible ideas out there (mine is here). There's no reason why another method wouldn't be possible, and there's no reason why it wouldn't be a great moneymaker for the NCAA. Tradition is important, I know, but the fans are asking for something more. It's time to create a new tradition - one that doesn't involve the BCS.

UPDATE: No doubt in my mind - Utah should be considered the national champions. Beating four ranked teams during the season - including crushing Alabama in the Sugar Bowl - is more than impressive enough for them to jump over 1-loss Florida for that claim. The AP and BCS may not see it that way, but there are quite a few people that do.

Year in Movies: 2008

2008-11-19T14:30:00.014-05:00

I did it last year, so why not again this year? Plus, who doesn't like making a best/worst list? So here are my favorites from the past year.

Note: Obviously, these are only the movies that I've seen, and only the films that were released in 2008. And, since it's only 2008 films, I plan on updating this list if a 2008-released movie impresses me (or disgusts me).

Best of 2008

Slumdog Millionaire

Being a huge Batman fan, I didn't think there was any way I'd like a film this year more than The Dark Knight. I was wrong. Danny Boyle directs this wonderful movie that greatly deserves all the accolades it's receiving. There was never a moment when I wasn't completely enthralled in the story. The movie essentially takes place over three time periods (flashbacks, in a way) and the execution of the time shifting was perfect. The Indian cast was terrific and even the young actors were amazingly good. There are simply not enough words to express how good this film is. Make sure you don't miss seeing this movie.

The Dark Knight

No doubt about this one. Christopher Nolan has created a near-masterpiece of a film. This isn't a standard "comic book movie"; it's more of a crime drama set in Batman's Gotham City. Heath Ledger picked up a well-deserved Oscar win for his amazing portrayal of the Joker, Christian Bale provides depth never before seen to Bruce Wayne/Batman, Aaron Eckhart is outstanding as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, and the rest of the characters are excellent and perfectly cast. Easily one of the best films of 2008, and a film that redefines what a "comic book movie" can be.

Iron Man

A great performance by Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Ironman puts this film on the same level as Spiderman 2 in terms of excellent comic book adaptions. Even as a typical superhero origin story, it goes above and beyond many similar movies due to a strong script and some excellent acting. The action scenes are well done and overall the movie is highly entertaining and re-watchable, which is one of the greatest compliments a film like this can have.

Let the Right One In

This is one of those movies that I heard so many good things about that I was afraid it would be disappointing when I watched it. It wasn't. At it's heart, it's a beautiful tale about the friendship that forms between a lonely boy and a lonely girl; the girl just happens to be a vampire. This is a foreign film, so it won't be everyone's cup of tea; you'll be missing one of 2008's truly terrific films though.

Transsiberian

One of the best true thrillers that I've seen, Transsiberian is an excellent, well-crafted film. Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer star as an American couple travelling on the titular railroad after leaving Beijing. After meeting another couple on the train, they become embroilled in a tense game of seduction, suspense, and violence. Mortimer is truly amazing - her performance is Oscar-worthy (even if few realized it). Ben Kingsley is also terrific as the detective who is at the center of all the trouble. Well-written and well-directed, this is a damn good thriller with an excellent mix of suspense and drama.

The Bank Job

Jason Stratham leads the cast of this "based on a true story" British bank heist film; one of the more memorable heist films that I've seen in a while. Outside of his usual action-hero oriented zone, Stratham is solid as Terry, the leader of a ragged crew put together to steal a safety deposit box from London's Lloyd Bank. The robbery itself is brilliantly exectued and fun to watch. It loses a bit of steam in the end, but overall this movie is a fun and tense drama; definitely worth a look for anyone who's missed it.

In Bruges

Colin Farrell (who won a Golden Globe for his performance) and Brenden Gleeson are outstanding in this comedy about two hitmen hiding out in Bruges after Farrell's character accidentally kills a young boy on a job. This film got a lot more exposure after its Golden Globe nominations, and deservedly so; it's a fun film that is powered by its location and actors (including Ralph Fienes in a supporting role).

Speed Racer

Stylish and visually stunning, Speed Racer is also one heck of a fun ride. A lot was made of the special effects, and they deliver - it's unlike anything you've seen before. But they wouldn't matter if the movie wasn't any good, and thankfully it is - if you go in realizing that this is a kid's movie made for adults. Expect some corny dialogue and some cute, family-oriented scenes, but the story is designed for adults. That's probably why the film failed to connect with a lot of people, but I enjoyed it immensely.

Quantum of Solace

While not the best Bond film (Casino Royale, among others, was superior), it is a highly entertaining action flick. Daniel Craig is again excellent as 007, and Olga Kurylenko is very good as the Bond girl; in this case, a Russian looking for revenge on the same people Bond is chasing. I love how it picks up right after Royale ended - the ongoing storyline is a first for the Bond series, and I think it really provided an interesting approach. I do think it was missing too many of the classic Bond elements, but it was still a fun ride.

Gran Torino

Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this drama about a cranky, Korean War veteran, retired auto worker who is forced to accept the people in his old neighborhood, including his Hmong neighbors. Eastwood growls and snarls, and is generally perfect for the role. The movie is funny and touching, and entertaining. It's also somewhat predictable and some of the acting isn't great - Bee Vang, who plays the Hmong boy that Eastwood takes under his wing, is sometimes painful to watch - but the movie's strengths greatly make up for those. I wouldn't call it one of Eastwood's best films, but it's one of his more memorable characters in recent years.

Worst of 2008

The Promotion

When I first heard of this film, I thought it had potential: a small-scale comedy about two men competing for the same grocery store manager job. That potential did not translate to a good movie. It was about as bland and unfunny as a "comedy" can get - something I never expected with Seann William Scott and John C. Reily as the two lead characters. But the biggest problem was that the "competition" for the promotion was never interesting; and when that's the premise of the movie you know it's in trouble.

Hancock

You can't go wrong with a summer action movie starring Will Smith, right? Wrong. The creators of this flick took an interesting concept (a superhero who doesn't care) and turned it into a mess of a movie. The first half of the film isn't bad - the comedic aspects are quite good, and Smith is solid when he's got something to work with. But the second half completely misses the mark - the film becomes more serious and loses all resemblance of plausibility and believability. It also forgets to actually be fun.

X-Files: I Want to Believe

This wasn't necessarily a bad movie, but it definitely didn't live up to its name. It came across as a standard crime drama - there wasn't anything to make it feel like you were watching an X-Files movie (besides Mulder and Scully) and it didn't have any kind of scope - it'd be a decent plot line for a weekly television show, but nothing more. Only rabid X-Files fans need apply to this one.

Step Brothers

I never thought I'd put two John C. Reily movies in a "worst" list, but this year stood out for him. This film actually had its moments and the rivalry/friendship between Reily and Will Ferrell was usually entertaining, but a movie this ridiculous and stupid can't be saved by actors alone. It's not the worst Ferrell film (Blades of Glory gets that honor), but there's no way I can recommend this either.

Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls

Once again, the fifth spot on the list goes to a film that was disappointing rather than truly bad. I was definitely anticipating the return of Harrison Ford as Indy; and while Ford didn't disappoint, the rest of the people involved did. A weak script, implausible action sequences, and bland characters paved the way for a forgettable Indiana Jones movie, something I never thought I'd have to say.

The Future of Cinema - The Social Experience

2008-11-18T15:35:00.006-05:00

I recently read a rather dour commentary by Christoper Campbell over at FirstShowing about the future of the modern movie theater. Campbell believes that theaters as we know them now will eventually cease to exist due to low profits, the current financial situation, and the inability for theaters to succeed in non-major markets. While I don't believe that will happen, he does mention a few examples of new business models that a few theaters have adopted, but I think he's leaving out a few available options that are worth mentioning.

There are a number of articles and blog posts written about how the theater industry needs to change to become relevant again - too many to even list here. For many businesses (including cinemas), change is difficult - especially when the current model is working. It usually requires a certain degree of capital and often a leap of faith that the changes will work for your customers. For those reasons (among others), I think it's too hard for an existing theater chain to completely change it's business model. It does, however, allow for new theaters to take advantage of a new environment.

First off, let me state that I don't see existing theaters ever going away. Even with the current economic state, major chains are still pulling in a profit (just not as big as previous years). There will always be a place for the big, 20-screen theaters as long as Hollywood keeps producing the type of movies that teenagers want to see. The 13-25 demographic is obviously very important to the movie industry, and most teens are not going to care about added luxuries - they just want to go to a theater with friends and watch a movie.

As for the other demographics, I think there is a solid opportunity for new formats. The biggest complaint I see from home theater enthusiasts is that they hate to see a movie in a theater because of the type of people in the theater with them (loud kids, talking teens, etc.). With that being the case, adult-only theaters are the way to go; and one of the most obvious formats is the bar-cinema hybrid that Campbell mentions (similar to the Alamo Drafthouse). I think this could go even further than what the Alamo offers though. Why not combine the bar and theater while keeping both entities intact? I can see many adults loving this - watching a movie at a great theater while having a few drinks, then being able to walk right into a nice bar area after the movie is over and enjoying the rest of the night conversing with friends or watching the end of the big game.

I don't see this as being luxurious (a la Gold Class Cinemas) - I can't see sustaining a business when it costs $35 for a ticket. The novelty might work for a while, but I think this model will have a hard time succeeding outside of major cities. I'm talking about reasonable ticket prices - your main profit will be from drinks and food anyway. By adding a movie, this could be a major draw for many adults - and this is a model that could work in any city (small or large).

This same type of model could be applied for the under 13 crowd as well - just replace the bar with a Chuck E Cheese-type place. That would be a bit riskier of a venture, but it could still work.

As for the existing cinemas, there are a number of ways to increase revenue - and most of these options involve adding more "free" stuff. That may seem like a contradiction, but I'm a firm believer that the more you give away, the more you'll get back. Just like the music industry, theaters need to realize that enticing people with free items brings in more money. In music's case, making the music free means more people are going to hear the musician, which can lead to better word-of-mouth - and in turn brings in more revenue from concerts and other promotional goods. For theaters, they can't make the movie free - but they have a great opportunity to give away other promotional items, such as t-shirts, movie soundtracks, posters, and even free tickets to a future show. Heck, make it a contest - draw a few lucky winners during each show. People love free stuff, and that would be a great way to attract a crowd.

But even beyond free, I don't see why theaters don't do a better job of selling promotional items. I've never understood why there isn't someone standing at the exit trying to sell you the soundtrack of the movie you just watched. There's been numerous times where I watched a movie and thought, "this soundtrack is great". But after a while, I forget about it and never buy it. Throw the movie poster at me; let me see the t-shirts, books, bumper stickers, and games right after I leave the showing - I'm more likely to buy it now than I am two days later.

Movie theaters will never go away. Home theaters may be getting bigger and better, but the attraction of getting out of the house and going to the movies will always exist. It's the same reason we like going to a bar instead of having drinks at home; it's definitely cheaper at home, but we love the social experience. Theaters will survive, but to really succeed they need to embrace that social experience even more.

Re: Summer Superheroes

2008-08-06T08:46:00.005-04:00

Updated 12/4/08 to reflect updated box office numbers.

Summer isn't over yet, but the majority of the anticipated superhero movies have been released, so it's time to take a look back at my predictions and see how I did...

Iron Man

Release Date: May 2, 2008
Prediction: $240 million
Current Box Office: $318 million
Prior to The Dark Knight, this was the highest-grossing movie of the summer. It was neck and neck with Indiana Jones in terms of box office, but it ended up beating Indy to finish as the likely 2nd-highest grossing movie of the year.
Unlike Jones, this was a really good movie. I mentioned that Iron Man isn't a top-tier superhero, but the movie was very well-marketed and that contributed to it's success. But the bigger reason was that it was a good film - Robert Downey Jr. was excellent, the direction and script were fantastic, and it was simply a lot of fun (which is really what a superhero movie should be). I'm glad it did well and will be looking forward to the sequel in a few years.
Summary: My prediction was a bit low, but not unreasonable. I think it surpassed everyone's expectations simply because it was such a good flick.

The Incredible Hulk

Release Date: June 13, 2008
Prediction: $140 million
Current Box Office: $134 million
Was the reboot necessary? If you go by the box office, then the answer would likely be "no". The original Hulk made $132 million, and this film has barely surpassed that. But I think that Marvel will still look at this film as a small victory since it puts the Hulk character in a place that they want him.
After the success of Iron Man, I started to think that perhaps this film would be bigger box office draw that I initially thought. But I don't think the marketing was as good, and I just don't think that the Hulk character is a very big attraction. Basically, he gets angry and destroys stuff - there doesn't seem to be a whole lot you can do with the character. Overall, the movie was solid - not great, but a decent addition to the Marvel universe - and it helps but the Hulk on the map for the upcoming Avengers movie.
Summary: My prediction was damn near spot-on. It didn't quite get to $140, but it was pretty close.

The Dark Knight

Release Date: July 18, 2008
Prediction: $310 million
Current Box Office: $530 million
Most people were expecting big things from this movie, but I don't think anyone anticipated the overwhelming success that this film has had. The box office records that it has set are just staggering. It is easily the 2nd-highest grossing film all-time (domestically) behind Titanic, and is the only other movie to cross the $500 million mark.
The reason: it's a fantastic movie. Everyone that I've talked to has loved it - I've seen it twice and am already looking forward to seeing it again. The script, direction, and acting were all superb (many people are calling for an Oscar for Heath Ledger, and deservedly so). The marketing set a new standard in the industry - its viral marketing campaign was ingenious, and I love how it was integrated with the film.
Summary: It's a phenomenon. My $310 million prediction was insanely low - hell, it reached that mark in 10 days (!). Being a huge Batman fan, I'm absolutely thrilled that Chris Nolan has made such a great movie with the character, and I'm happy to see it become such a huge success.

I mentioned a few other superhero movies that I thought might do well, and they have (to varying level of success). I said to never underestimate a Will Smith movie - and Hancock has made over $227 million, so that's a rousing success (even though it's a terrible film). Hellboy II: The Golden Army had a good opening weekend, but since The Dark Knight opened the following weekend, it hasn't done well since then. Still, it's gotten good reviews and managed $75 million. Punisher: War Zone hasn't been released yet, but I can't see that making over $50 million, even if it is a good movie.

Summer Superheroes

2008-03-13T14:03:00.006-04:00

Now that the trailer for The Incredible Hulk has hit the web, we've gotten our looks at the three major superhero movies being released this summer: Iron Man, Hulk, and The Dark Knight. Being a huge Batman fan, I may be somewhat biased toward which film I'm most looking forward too, but here's my look at each:

Iron Man

Release Date: May 2, 2008
Preview(s): Trailer 1 | Trailer 2
If it wasn't for The Dark Knight and Indiana Jones, Iron Man would probably be my most anticipated movie of the summer. Based on the trailers, I feel like this is being made out to be a summer blockbuster a la Transformers or Spider-Man: lots of action, a little romance, and a lot of explosions. That's not necessarily a good thing, but based on the talent involved I'm expecting a lot more out of this film. Jon Faverau has proven himself to be a solid director and Robert Downey Jr. is a great actor.
I wouldn't consider Iron Man to be a top-tier superhero, but the movie has been marketed well and there's quite a bit of anticipation for it across the web. The trailers are excellent. I could definitely see this putting up Transformers-type money, but with Indiana Jones coming out three weeks later, I don't know if this will have the power to get to that level.
Prediction: $240 million

The Incredible Hulk

Release Date: June 13, 2008
Previews: Trailer 1
This is basically a reboot of the film created by Ang Lee a few years back. So the question becomes: is this film really necessary? While many people have strong opinions against the Hulk, were a lot of people really asking for a reboot?
Edward Norton plays Bruce Banner in this film, replacing Eric Bana. Norton is a great actor, but I'm just not sold on him as Banner (based on the trailer and pictures that have been released). Hulk himself looks better; the Abomination is the villain this time around, and I think it's a definite step up from Lee's Hulk in that regard. The trailer, however, doesn't show us much. Frankly, it's a rather bland trailer; it showcases Norton above all else (which is fine), but it just doesn't generate much excitement.
I can't see this film doing much; like Hulk, I see a big opening weekend, but a steep drop after that (especially with Wall-E opening in two weeks).
Prediction: $140 million

The Dark Knight

Release Date: July 18, 2008
Previews: Trailer 1 | Trailer 2
I don't know too many people (on the web or otherwise) who aren't anticipating this movie. I think everyone was floored with how good Batman Begins was; it wasn't a huge box office success, but I think people were a little wary because of the previous Batman films. They won't make that mistake again.
The marketing for this film has been phenomenal. A few months ago, the Joker took center stage; now, Harvey Dent (the man who becomes Two-Face) is the promotion. Whether this was planned or due to the untimely death of Heath Ledger (who plays the Joker) doesn't matter; Warner Brothers has done an amazing job, without giving much of actual film away. The trailer did not disappoint either.
I can see no reason why this movie wouldn't blow past Begins at the box office. Better marketing, better villains, more exposure, and little competition after its release ensures that this will be one of the biggest films of the summer.
Prediction: $310 million

There are a few more superhero movies being released that are worth mentioning: Hancock (starring Will Smith), Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and Punisher: War Zone. I don't see any of them approaching the popularity of the big three (although you can never discount a Will Smith film), but each look promising.

Reviewing Netflix

2008-01-03T12:18:00.000-05:00

Netflix recently announced that they are teaming up with LG to offer a set-top box that can be used to instantly watch movies streamed over the internet. Of course, you need a Netflix subscription as well, but this is a fantastic move by the company, especially if the box if affordable. I am a Netflix subscriber and have taken advantage of their online offerings through the computer - we've almost made it through the first season of Friday Night Lights - and I've found the service to be reliable and easy to use.

Aside from that, though, I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with Netflix overall. I joined a few months ago and am on the $14/month 2-at-a-time plan. At first, everything seemed pretty good - I was getting new releases pretty quickly and the mailing process was very speedy and reliable. Lately, though, things have been less than impressive.

One of the major selling points of the service was the fact that they offered high-definition movies as well as regular DVD's. When I joined, I didn't have my PS3 or my HD-DVD player, but I knew I'd be picking them up soon. Now that I have them, I naturally prefer to get high-definition discs. Netflix is not cooperating.

I have 17 Blu-ray/HD-DVD's in my Netflix Queue right now; only 5 of them say that they are available now. Those five movies are The Good Shepherd, The Thing, Casino, Army of Darkness, and Midnight Run. Not exactly new releases. The rest have some type of wait associated with them, with 6 of the 17 movies listed as having a "Very Long Wait". I've been waiting on Live Free or Die Hard for over month now, and it's been at the top of my queue the entire time.

I'm currently being shipped the Blu-ray of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. My queue said it was available "Now". Problem is, it was apparently only available from one of their locations in Oregon - I'm in Michigan. When they do that, it takes an extra day for them to ship it out (not sure why) and then it takes longer to get it here. Today is Thursday, and it's being shipped today - I'm not even sure I'll be getting it for the weekend, even though I sent the last movie in on Monday (there was a holiday in there, but still). Update: It didn't arrive until Monday. Plus, the same thing happened on my next disc - the HD-DVD version of The Good Shepherd was "Now", but it got shipped from Maine.

It's obvious that my local shipping facility is very weak on high-def discs, but is anyone else having this problem? I'm tempted to start asking for the DVD version of new releases so I can watch them before they're no longer considered new releases, but I really don't want to do that. I paid good money for my HD players; I want to get some use out of them. To do that, though, might mean finding an option other than Netflix.

Year in Movies: 2007

2007-12-21T12:27:00.002-05:00

I'm having a little fun here...since I've been doing reviews on a lot of the movies that I've seen over the past few months, I figured I'd go all out and do a "Best of 2007" edition. And, in my opinion, no good "Best" list is complete without a "Worst" list. So here are my picks for "The 10 Best Movies of 2007" and "The 5 Worst Movies of 2007".

Note: Obviously, these are only the movies that I've seen, and only the films that were released in 2007. And, since it's only 2007 films, I plan on updating this list throughout the next year if a 2007-released movie impresses me (or disgusts me).

Best of 2007

The Bourne Ultimatum

The Bourne films have simply been the best action movies in the past decade. Ultimatum keeps the tradition going. Matt Damon is perfect in the role of Jason Bourne, and the supporting cast (Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Julie Stiles, etc.) is amazing. This is not a dumb action flick by any means either; it's smart, tense, and exciting. In my mind, it's truly the best movie of 2007.

Gone Baby Gone

This one surprised me...I had heard good things about it, and it sounded interesting, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm glad I did. Ben Affleck needs to direct more often; this is an intense drama that hits you hard. Casey Affleck and Ed Harris give great performances, and the movie never lets you go.

Juno

I expected this movie to be good, but I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. This is simply one of the sweetest, funniest, and endearing movies I have ever seen. I haven't smiled and laughed so much at a movie in a long time. Ellen Page is fantastic - her Oscar nomination is well-deserved - and all of the cast (including Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, and J.K. Simmons) give great performances.

Hot Fuzz

Anyone who saw Shaun of the Dead was looking forward to this movie, and it didn't disappoint. Paying homage and making fun of a certain genre at the same time isn't easy, but Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg pull it off. This is their take on action movies (like Bad Boys and Point Break) and it's a comedy you'll want to watch again and again.

Ratatouille

While it's easy to call this the best animated movie of 2007, it deserves so much more than that. Pixar films are always great, but this one belongs near the top of their list. I found it to be a bit more adult than their previous films, and that appealed to me. It's still perfect for the kids, but I don't think there is anyone who wouldn't love this movie.

Michael Clayton

For some reason, I assumed that this film was overrated; I anticipated a long, boring legal drama. What I found was an intense, intriguing legal thriller. George Clooney is superb and the rest of the cast is perfect. Don't underestimate this film like I did; go out and see it.

No Country for Old Men

This wouldn't be much of a list without the year's winner for Best Picture on it. No Country is a fantastic film: it's a deep character study, but the action and drama keep plugging at you enough so that you never get bored. Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) will likely be considered one of cinema's greatest villains. Unlike some previous years, there won't be any debate over how this film won Best Picture; it's unlike anything you've seen before, and it's destined to become a classic.

Knocked Up

This gave Hot Fuzz a run for my favorite comedy; it blew me away with how sweet and funny it was. I liked The 40-Year Old Virgin but didn't love it - this movie is simply great. Plus, it's the perfect date movie - funny enough for the guys and sweet enough for the girls. Seth Rogan is fantastic in the lead, and Katherine Heigl paved her way as a romantic comedy leading lady with her performance.

Grindhouse

This was the most fun that I've had in a theater in a long time. It didn't resonate with a lot of people apparently (bad box office), but it was a blast. Planet Terror was a blast, the in-between-film trailers were awesome, and Deathproof was a great Tarantino flick. It's a shame they broke up the DVD release, as the whole package together was quite the experience.

Once

I'm not one to give a musical much of a chance, but this one got enough good reviews to have me take a look. It's a charming look at the lives of two people that are centered around music. The songs are great - if you like Coldplay at all, you'll love the music here - and they really add to the movie; it never feels like they're there for the sake of being there.

Worst of 2007

Blades of Glory

While I still find Will Ferrell occasionally funny, the same can't be said for Jon Heder. In my opinion, he's the film example of a one-hit wonder. Of course, this movie isn't his fault - he's awful, but so is everyone else. This was simply one of the least-funny "comedy" movies that I've ever seen. Most of the characters were more annoying than anything else, and the story premise was simply ridiculous, even for a brain-dead comedy. There may be worse movies, but this one should've been funnier than it was, and that's why it tops my list.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

I love comic-based films, but the first Fantastic Four film was hard to like. It was somewhat enjoyable, but not well-acted or well-directed. Silver Surfer takes all the bad things from the first one and multiplies them. The acting is worse, the plot is stupid, the special effects are terrible, and the direction is awful. The character of the Silver Surfer isn't bad, but I just wish he would've gotten introduced in a better movie.

License to Wed

This one actually enticed a few chuckles, but that's about it. It was mostly just dull and boring. Robin Williams gives it a try, but he ends up coming across as creepy rather than funny. It's just a bland movie - even my wife, who loves this type of romantic comedy, found this one rather dull. Granted, I wasn't expecting much, but it was still a waste of 90 minutes of my life.

Shrek the Third

I enjoyed the first two Shrek films; yes, I know they don't hold up very well over time due to their pop culture references, but they were still fun. The third one isn't fun at all. Everything just seems to be a retread of the previous films, and nearly all of the jokes fall flat. The story is stale, and the characters just aren't that much fun anymore - with the exception of Puss N Boots. He's not given a lot to do here, but he's by far the most vibrant character.

Spider-Man 3

This was hard to put on the list, due to the fact that it's not really a bad film...just a disappointing one. The first two Spider-Man movies are great; this one just doesn't click. Too many villains don't help, but the story itself just doesn't seem to be real coherent - there's just too much going on and not enough time to develop the characters, which is something the first two thrived at.

The BCS is Good for One Thing...

2007-12-06T08:53:00.000-05:00

I realize this is going to be a little off-topic from what I usually write about, but I'm a college football fan and wanted to share my opinion of the BCS. A lot of people hate it, a few stand up for it, and everyone talks about it. Originally, I think the BCS really was designed for the purpose of crowning a national champion - now, I think the NCAA sticks with it simply because it generates so much talk and controversy every year. Basically, it's a lot of free advertising.

The BCS will never work. That is, it will never be able to accomplish its goal of crowning a team "national champion". I don't care if you have the only two unbeaten teams in the country playing in the title game - it's still hard to say that the winner is the best team in the country without some form of playoff system. Plus, that rarely happens anyway - we are usually going to get years like this: a one-loss team is playing a two-loss team for the title, while the only unbeaten team could win its bowl game and still not be in consideration as the best team in the country. Ohio State vs. LSU as a national title game is a joke.

There is NO WAY to fix the BCS; it simply needs to go away. In my mind, there are two solutions: go back to the original bowl system or go to a playoff system.

BACK TO TRADITION

I actually wouldn't mind going back to the traditional bowl matchups - was there really more controversy at that time than there is now? I doubt it. Yes, there were "split" national champions (i.e., Michigan and Nebraska in 1997), but is that any different than the split title of 2004 between LSU and USC? I think not. People that decry a playoff system say that they love the tradition of the bowl games - why not go back to it?

A major negative I see to it is that mid-major schools will be left out again - Hawaii would be in a minor bowl, rather than the Sugar Bowl. But like I said, it's not like Hawaii is going to get any national champion love even if they do beat Georgia, so the only major downsides are money and national exposure. In reality, though, it's not like the Sugar Bowl folks really wanted to take Hawaii - I'm sure they'd of rather had Missouri or Florida.

JOIN THE REST OF SPORTS

I do like the bowl tradition; however, I'd much rather see a playoff system put into place. There are lots of opinions as to how to do this; here's mine:

Put every team in the country into a conference. Yes, that includes you, Notre Dame. Get over it - you stopped being unique a long time ago anyway.
Get rid of the non-conference games - I realize you'd lose some potential good games (OSU-Texas, UM-Notre Dame, Florida-FSU), but you'd make it up later in the playoffs.
Jump right into conference games. Play a ten-game schedule to determine the conference champion. No need for a conference championship game - those things are silly anyway. And get rid of divisions (like the SEC East and West) - just have everyone together, and the best record in the end wins the conference. You might have ties, but in a ten-game schedule most teams are going to play each other at least once, so there should be a tiebreaker. And if there isn't...well, so there's a tie. That's not so bad.
Figure out a way to get the top teams from each conference into a 32-team playoff. I'd shoot for a method like this: take the top four teams from the Big XII, Big Ten, PAC 10, and SEC; the top three from the ACC and Big East; and the top two teams from Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt, and Western Atlantic. Do this based on W-L records - as before, there may need to be some sort of tie-breaking system - hey, put those BCS computers to work!
Bam! You've got a solid 32-team playoff. The ranking would be done by committee, similar to how NCAA basketball does it. That means that a team would need to win five more games to win the championship; a 15-game season doesn't seem too wild to me - most colleges are pretty close to that anyway (LSU will have played 14 after the season's done). It also means there are 31 "bowl" games to play...sounds pretty reasonable to me (there are 32 bowls this season).
As for teams that didn't make the playoff, why not do a 16-team "NIT"? That gives the middle-tier teams an extra few games to make some money. That'd be another 15 "bowl" games...plenty of money to be made there. My method: take two teams from the Big XII, Big Ten, PAC 10, and SEC; take one each from the ACC, Big East, Conference USA, MAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt, and Western Atlantic; and award the final spot based on a vote - give those AP writers something to do!
Speaking of polls, this would eliminate the need for those pointless AP/USA Today Coaches polls throughout the year. I'm sure they'd still love to do it, but they'd be meaningless (which they pretty much are now anyway).

I realize this wouldn't happen - too much politics and money are involved to make it a reality. But I love the idea, and it gets pretty close to the numbers as they are now - there's usually about 5 or 6 teams from the major conferences that go bowling (my method allows for 6). Most teams are going to play at least 11 games - and if you don't make one of the playoffs your record probably doesn't warrant more games anyway. It also allows the mid-majors to shine and provide a huge level of excitement - can you imagine Florida-Atlantic upsetting USC in the opening round of the playoffs? That's like a 16 beating a 1 seed in the men's basketball tournament, and it doesn't get better than that.

Obviously, tradition goes out the window - and that's a big thing in college football, I know. But seriously: Miami played Nebraska in the Rose Bowl in 2001 - how far away from tradition is that? My favorite thing about my idea is that you also keep the conference titles intact - winning your conference would be just as big of deal as it is now.

What do you think?

Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD: I Win!

2007-11-14T09:22:00.000-05:00

I recently purchased a Playstation 3 mostly for the use of the Blu-Ray disc player in my home theater. I was impressed by the first couple movies I watched, but wasn't taken aback with amazement; although, after watching a couple movies in Blu-Ray, then watching a regular DVD again, I can really notice a difference.

All in all, I am happy with Blu-Ray and look forward to watching more movies on the format. At the time I was buying the PS3, I was also trying to score one of those sub-$100 Toshiba HD-DVD players. I didn't get it, but I'll be seriously looking for one soon. The reason: I simply don't think either format is going to "win", and I think we'll need both players if we ever want to go beyond the realm of DVD.

Frankly, that last statement may be the problem with this entire format "war" in the first place; the problem isn't Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD; it's them vs. DVD. I'm not sure that most people will go beyond DVD. I asked my wife if she noticed a difference after watching the Blu-Ray and DVD movies - she thought the Blu-Ray was a little better, but it didn't affect her viewing experience. So do we really think that the people out there who think they're watching high-def television simply because they have a new widescreen LCD TV are really going to switch to formats that offer little strong advantages over its predecessor? That's hard to say.

DVD had a clear advantage, even to the average consumer, over VHS. Superior picture, superior sound, the ability to jump to any scene, and a familiar disc format (looked like a CD). The only thing that held people back for a while was that you couldn't record like VHS. The Tivo helped eliminate that problem, and cheaper prices for players and movies established DVD.

What are the new format's advantages over DVD? Better picture and better sound (if you have the right setup), but it's not as significant as the difference that DVD had over VHS. Special interactive features are touted, but I don't think this will have much effect. Initially, the extras on a DVD were a great selling point - but now they've lost most of their luster. People buy a DVD for the movie, not the features.

Will the recent price cuts of players have an effect? Sure they will. The sub-$100 HD-DVD players are big, as is the new $400 PS3. But the cost of the movies themselves are going to be the deciding factor. Notice I said the cost, and not just the movies - since most studios are strictly behind one format or the other, that's not going to be the main factor. Transformers may arrive on HD-DVD and sell a bunch of copies, but then Spiderman 3 comes out on Blu-Ray; it will even itself out in the end, no matter what the numbers are that the backers tout. No, the real factor is the price: many new releases arrive at Best Buy or Circuit City at around $15 for the DVD - are many people really going to shell out twice as much for the high-def equivalent? I don't think so.

I have a pretty decent DVD collection, but I don't feel like I've been screwed because my movies are being re-released on the new, better formats. That's how technology works. But I do know that I'll never be buying a movie at $30 a pop - $20 for a DVD was always a stretch for me. Yes, the prices will come down, but I won't be buying up movies left and right. Part of it is simply because I haven't bought many movies in a while; the other part is that I've discovered Netflix. There is no price difference between renting a movie in DVD, HD-DVD, or Blu-ray format on Netflix, and that was a major selling point for me in joining the service and looking to buy the high-def players. Are brick-and-mortar rental stores the same way?

Regardless, it comes down to the purchase price of the movies. One of the reasons why digital movie rental services haven't quite caught on is because people like buying an actual disc - it's why the CD is still alive today.

I don't believe that this format war will go the way of VHS vs. Betamax; I think we're going to be stuck with having two players in our entertainment center. But that's not necessarily a bad thing - competition will help drive prices down considerably. While it might be confusing, the dual formats may actually be better for the consumer. I'm not sure that I'd call that a "win", but it's not a "loss" either.

The Joys of Store Credit (continued)...

2007-11-07T12:44:00.000-05:00

This is a semi-update to my first blog entry/complaint on the joys of having store credit at Circuit City. As I said, I was in the market for a Playstation 3, and with the cheaper 40GB model arriving on November 2, I decided to take the plunge.

I had $400+ of store credit to use up and CC, so I was going to get it there. As always, I wanted to get the best deal that I could, so I looked around at other brick-and-mortar stores to see what they had to offer. Nobody had any special deals on the 40GB model (didn't expect that they would), but a lot were offering packages with the 60GB one. Walmart had the best one - a free game and the Blu-ray remote for no additional cost ($499 total).

On November 2, Walmart was also doing a Friday sale where they were selling the Toshiba A2 HD-DVD player for $99. I had no plans to dig into HD-DVD, but I figured for that price I'd consider it. Since I was at CC, I figured they'd price match it and I could use my store credit for it and use the rest on a Playstation 3 (I have a Sony credit card, so it's more beneficial for me to use my card for Sony products).

So I walked in with a mindset that I may be buying a 60GB PS3 and an HD-DVD player. I asked about the HD-DVD player first - the associate tells me that they won't price match one day sales, even though the local Walmart still had players in stock. I wasn't really surprised, just disappointed. The funny thing, though, is that the associate says to me, "We're usually really good about price-matching; we just can't do this". I held back a fit of laughter and just gave him a sarcastic smirk.

Onto the PS3. They have the 60GB model in-stock, and they are offering a free game with it too - including Folklore, which is supposedly a great game. So I find another associate, and ask if they'll throw in the Blu-ray remote too (like Walmart is). She thinks they will, but has to check. This is after she tries to get me to buy into their gamer discount program - for $20, you get an automatic 10% games and accessories for a year, and she says it works on consoles too (I knew it wasn't supposed to, but if she take it off the price, I'd do it). Of course, after she checked on it, she found out consoles don't apply. No kidding.

Back to the remote - after checking, they wouldn't include it with the 60GB PS3. Something about having to take the cost of the remote off the console price, which they couldn't do. Bullshit, I say, but whatever. So in the end, I walked out with the 40GB PS3 (I was a penny short with my gift card balance too - just thought it was kind of amusing) and will likely never walk into a CC store again.

Now I realize that CC (or Best Buy) don't have to price match anything; but this is just a good example of how I was willing to spend over $200 more than what I did. They lost out on a little business on that day, but by not working with me at all, they lost out on a lot more in the future.

The Joys of Store Credit...

2007-10-26T09:08:00.000-04:00

Right now, I'm in the market for a Playstation 3. For the last month I've read rumors about a new, cheaper40GB model coming out for the holidays. Those rumors proved true, and the new model arrives on November 2.

I own an Xbox 360 (mostly for the Media Center capabilities, but I'll get into that some other time), but I want the PS3 for the gaming and the Blu-Ray (I'll also be posting on the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray "war" too). Now back when I was buying components for my home theater, I bought an open box Sony DG1000 receiver from Circuit City for $450 - not a bad deal. I bought the thing in May, but didn't get around to actually setting it up until my theater was ready (in August). It turned out that they included the wrong remote with my receiver - I got the one that goes with the DG600 model. It worked, but I couldn't access the advanced on-screen menu of the DG1000, which is a must when setting up your theater.

I complained, but of course CC wouldn't do anything about it. Their advice was to tell me to buy the right remote from Sony for $75 - but never offered to help me out with that cost (or at least give me a little store credit - some sort of compensation anyway). What they would do was give me store credit if I returned the DG1000 - although how they plan to resell that without the right remote at the same price, I'm not sure. I started looking at the DG910 as a comparison, and I decided to go with that instead (even though it's a step down, the price was a lot nicer, and it still packs a punch). I bought the DG910 from Amazon, since it was about $150 cheaper than what CC had it for (and they don't price match internet dealers).

So I now have $450 in store credit at CC. My idea was to buy the new PS3 when it arrives next week. Of course, I'm now seeing all sorts of good deals from other places - Amazon had a good free Blu-Ray movie promotion, the 20GB model is selling for less than $400, and Wal-Mart online has a fantastic-looking deal: the 60GB PS3 with Blu-Ray remote (which I want anyway) and a free game (including Resistance or Heavenly Sword) for $499. But since I want to use my store credit, I'm stuck.

CC's price match policy is this: the price has to be from a local store that has the product in-stock. The "in-stock" thing is what annoys me; I tried buying two hard drives from them doing a price match from Best Buy (who was actually cheaper for a change). Since the local stores only had 1 in-stock, CC would only match the price for one drive. How stupid is that? I realize there are instances where if a product's stock runs out the sale is over (Black Friday sales, for instance), but a majority of the time you can either get a rain check or find it on their website.

Now I understand not price matching internet sites; overhead and other expenses can't allow them to do this. But it'd be nice if they could be a little more lenient when the site is walmart.com or bestbuy.com; CC does want my business, don't they? I've heard many stories of how Best Buy is pretty good when it comes to dealing with you...is it just my CC that's bad, or are they all like that?

Yes, I could use my store credit for other things. But it's hard - prices on the internet are usually so much better than what CC or Best Buy can offer - I figured a video game console would be pretty standard. I didn't account for the nice packaged deals though. I can only hope for a fantastic sale next week from a local store (and that they have thing in-stock!).

Posted on 10/26/2007 at 9:46 AM

Basement Matinee Quick Hits

2007-10-17T15:52:00.005-04:00

A lot of people write reviews about movies, and since this is partly a home theater blog, I thought I'd share my opinions as well. They will be brief.

A little background first - it should help determine if you share the same taste in movies that I do. I think the Lord of the Rings films are among the best of all time; I'm a big fan of the Star Wars movies; I generally enjoy comic book adaptions (Batman Begins, Constantine, and V for Vendetta are among my favorites); I will always stop to watch a Bond flick (Casino Royale was fantastic); I enjoy taking a look at the classic movies; I loathe just about all Adam Sandler "comedies"; hated Napoleon Dynamite (except for the dance scene at the end); Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are great films; the Pixar movies are terrific, even for adults; and I enjoy a good drama every now and then. Ok, so I mostly like the typical guy movies, but my range does expand quite a bit too.

1408 (DVD)

A strong performance by John Cusack anchors this very entertaining thriller. Based on a Stephen King short story, the movie centers on Mike Enslin (Cusack), a writer of books like "The 10 Best Haunted Mansions in America". Having never seen a ghost before, though, he's very pessimistic when it comes to all things "haunted". Until, that is, he checks into room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel.
This is a genuinely scary and tense thriller; nothing like the average teen horror thriller (i.e., The Grudge). Since Enslin is really the only main character (Samuel L. Jackson, as a hotel manager, gets second billing, but really only makes a brief appearance), the film rests on Cusack's shoulders, and he delivers a great performance. There are a few times where the film feels like it's going for too much, but there are plenty of twists and thrills to keep you interested. A great workout for your home theater setup too - I was impressed at how busy the surrounds were, and it really added to the suspense. Definitely a must-see.

Bullitt (DVD)

I had wanted to check out a Steve McQueen movie for some time, and this was one of his movies that I kept reading about. And for good reason - this is a classic crime/action/suspense flick. The plot is solid - McQueen is a police detective in charge of keeping a witness safe. When the witness is killed, he has to find out who did it and why. The action is pretty intense - the car chase scene is well-known for good reason - and the performances are good. Plus, the movie holds up pretty well for being made in 1969 - some devices will get you laughing (look for the fax machine), but it's the story and performances that set this one apart.
If you've never seen it and like the classics, this is definitely one to check out.

Dan in Real Life

This romantic comedy sounded like it could be kind of fun - Steve Carell and Dane Cook in a movie together must be pretty funny, right? Not so much. Not to say that this was a bad movie; it was just more depressing than it was funny.
Carell stars as the title character. He's an advice columnist for a newspaper and a single father of three girls. He and the girls take their annual trip to stay with his parents and siblings in a sort of week-long family get together. While in town (which apparently has a population of 5), he meets Marie (Juliette Binoche); they share a coffee and talk. Later, Dan finds out that she's dating his brother (Cook). Love stricken, Dan tries (and fails) to ignore the feelings that he has for Marie while dealing with his girls and family.
This actually is a pretty good date movie for the guys - it's not the usual sappy crap. It's got a nice, albeit predictable story, and it does have a few comedic moments. Carell is very good, Cook is restrained (probably a good thing), and the rest of the cast fits nicely, although most are simply there without much to do. There's just a few things that bugged me. First, we find that Dan becomes infatuated with Marie after their first meeting, but I never got the feeling that Marie felt the same about Dan. And I really never did - she was having too much fun with the family - but it was suddenly assumed that Marie couldn't stand not being with him.
A couple side plots never seemed to mature either - Dan's oldest daughter talked about how she wants to go away to college, but it was never explored beyond that. Dan also gets a chance to have his column become syndicated, but it just seemed forced into the story.
Criticisms aside, if it's your wife/girlfriend's turn to pick the movie, there could be a lot worse things than Dan in Real Life.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (DVD)

As a superhero movie fan, it usually takes a lot for me NOT to like a movie like this. The first FF movie was okay, but it was probably the least impressive comic book adaption I've seen in a while. This one is worse.
It's just a mess - no character is really developed at all (including the Silver Surfer; we find out very little about him). It's one of those films where everything just happens without reason or logic - and yes, I know it's based on a comic, but it can still be better than this.
Once again, Chris Evans fares the best as Johnny Storm; Jessica Alba and Ioan Gruffold are very stiff as Reed Richards and Sue Storm, and even Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm doesn't impress this time around. The Silver Surfer does look impressive, but that's about the best thing this film has going for it. Unless you're a fan of the first, stay away from this not-so-fantastic movie.

Fido (DVD)

This movie, while smart and ambitious, just didn't connect with me. It tries to be a comedy, drama, parody, satire, and buddy movie at the same time; I just never felt it was sure what it was trying to be.
Fido (Billy Connolly) is the name that young Timmy Robinson (K'Sun Ray) gives his new zombie. In this film, after the dead started arising and becoming blood-thirsty zombies, a war took place. Afterwards, a collar was invented that turns the zombies into controllable beings - and they became perfect for inane tasks (like servants or milkmen). Every household has at least one; except for the Robinson's, since Timmy's father Bill (Dylan Baker) is terrified of them. Helen (Carrie-Anne Moss) does get one though, and the zombie and Timmy quickly become attached.
The story is interesting and fun - the execution just didn't score for me. The concepts are good, but they just seemed cluttered. The pace of the movie didn't work either - it seemed too slow at times, and then everything just happened all at once. Much has been said of Connolly's performance, and for good reason - he's very impressive in a role that basically has him grunting and using his eyes to communicate. In fact, all of the acting is great; Ray is also good as Timmy. I just can't recommend it though; as much as I wanted to like it, it just didn't engross me like a movie should.

The Fountain (Blu-ray)

First off, this is not a film for the average movie-goer. While visually beautiful, it's a confusing and deep movie from the mind of Darren Aronofsky. That being said, to a certain degree I liked it. It takes about 20 minutes to get a handle of what is going on, but once the film starts focusing on the present day, it does become interesting.
The story is complicated, to say the least. Hugh Jackman and Rachael Weisz play a number of roles in three different time periods - 17th century Spain, present day, and 2600. The periods are connected in a way, although it's somewhat difficult to piece them together. Jackman's performance is outstanding - or, I should say, performances. He plays a Spanish explorer, a present-day doctor researching brain tumors, and a mystic-type person in the future. The weight of the movie is on his shoulders, and he carries it well. Weisz is also good as the Spanish queen and present-day wife who has an inoperable brain tumor. She provides the movie with some spunk and romance.
Upon repeat viewings, I think I'd like this movie more. It's a hard movie to recommend; my wife hated it, and I don't know of too many people I'd recommend it to. It truly is an amazing movie (especially with the sound and visuals - a great way to try out your Blu-ray player), but it's going to be far too deep and confusing for most.

Gone Baby Gone

This movie is best-known for being Ben Affleck's directing debut. In the future, I think it will be simply known as a great film. Ben's brother Casey plays the lead character Patrick; he and his partner/girlfriend Angie (Michelle Monaghan) are hired to investigate the case of a missing four-year-old girl. It appears to be an open-and-shut case, but the second half of the film focuses on Patrick's continued determination to dig deeper into the details. The story moves along briskly and while you might guess how it ends (I didn't), it's not predictable enough where you'll know what's coming next.
Co-starring Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris, there are great performances all around, especially from Harris and Casey Affleck - it's his movie, and he is outstanding. Without a doubt, this is one of the best movies I've seen this year.

Good Luck Chuck

I caught this one at the theater with my wife. I wasn't expecting much, since RT has it at a whopping 3% on the Tomatometer. I must say, though, for part of the movie I was genuinely surprised. The first half starts fairly well - in a somewhat interesting concept, whatever woman that Charlie (Dane Cook) dates, the next person the woman dates after him finds the man of her dreams. It has its funny moments, and Cook is surprisingly likable in this role (for a while). Jessica Alba plays the klutzy love interest Cam, and her and Cook have some decent chemistry. It's was fun to watch until Charlie gets obsessed with not losing Cam - then he just gets annoying. Dan Fogler plays Stu, Charlie's best friend, and he provides the most unfunny gross-out jokes I've seen in a long time, including a reoccurring one with a grapefruit. He's simply an annoying character.
It's a fun little movie for a while, but when it loses its way it becomes almost unbearable. My wife was expecting a romantic comedy...it is, just a really gross one. If you're in the mood for a gross comedy, it's worth a rental, but nothing more.

Hard Candy (DVD)

I had a hard time deciding if I liked this movie or not; at times, it was engrossing, shocking, and suspenseful. Other times, it was boring and uninteresting. Overall, if you're in the mood for a smart, provocative thriller, there are worse ways to spend a couple hours.
Hayley (Ellen Page), a fourteen-year-old girl, meets up with Jeff (Patrick Wilson) after chatting with him on the internet. They go back to Jeff's place, and it's there that you learn that Hayley is the one with "ulterior" motives - in this case, she believes Jeff is a pedophile and in order to keep him from doing anything to young girls ever again, she plans on performing a "preventive" procedure. If you've heard anything about this movie already, you'll know what that means.
Page and Wilson are great - the film credits five actors, but these are the only two you see for more than 5 minutes. They really bring some great intensity to their roles. Page is especially brilliant - she goes from young, innocent girl to flirtatious woman to psychotic at various times throughout the film.
This movie does do a good job of keeping you in suspense - we're not sure (until the end) if Jeff has actually done anything that Hayley accuses him of. But in the end, there are just too many lapses for me to give a strong recommendation.

The Incredible Hulk

I went into this movie considering it a largely unnecessary reboot of the Hulk franchise. I enjoyed Ang Lee's Hulk, but I realize why it didn't connect with everyone.
So enter The Incredible Hulk. Edward Norton takes over the role of Bruce Banner from Eric Bana and Liv Tyler replaces Jennifer Connelly. While Norton does a good job here, for some reason I still don't buy him in the role. He's a great actor, but in comparing him with Bana I prefer Bana. But overall, the acting is solid.
The story and the action sequences are really what sets this above Lee's Hulk though. Lee's film got a little silly at the end - this one plays it straight up, with Hulk going up against the Abomination (basically a bad Hulk). It makes the movie much more accessible to the average moviegoer, and it is entertaining.
The film still has its faults, but it's a worthy entry into the Marvel superhero cannon and a fun summer action movie.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I, like a lot of people, was very much anticipating this movie. Yes, Harrison Ford is quite a bit older now, but how great was it going to be to see Indy on the big screen again? The answer: Ford was fantastic, and it's hard not to love Indy, but like a lot of people, I found this movie to be extremely disappointing.
Steven Spielberg may be the director, but you can certainly see George Lucas' influence in every one of the ridiculous aspects of this film. From the CGI prarie dogs to Shia LaBeouf swinging through trees with monkeys (no, really...), you have to wonder where his mind is - and you have to wonder why Spielberg went along with it.
The story isn't bad, at least for an Indiana Jones movie. It centers around the search for an alien crystal skull that grants the holder extreme knowledge and leads to an alien spaceship that landed on earth many years ago. I think. It's all pretty jumbled. It's pretty much on par with The Temple of Doom in terms of story - and nowhere near as good as Raiders or Grail.
Rather than the Nazis, Indy is racing against the Russians this time (the film takes place during the Cold War). Cate Blanchett plays the main villain, but her role is really badly underwritten and just not very powerful. LaBeouf plays Mutt, Indy's "sidekick" of sorts (and more), and he does a respectable job with what he's given.
The film is just so ridiculous and unbelievable - if it wasn't an Indiana Jones movie, I have no doubt that I would've hated it even more. Like the Star Wars prequels, it's really disappointing more than anything. It's a movie I think you should see - it is Indy after all - but you won't want to see it again.

Iron Man

This movie blew me away. Critics were raving about it when it first came out, so I was expecting something good. But director Jon Farveau and actor Robert Downey Jr. have created one of the best superhero movies to date. It's simply a lot of fun and will easily go down as one of the best movies of the 2008 summer.
Downey Jr. is outstanding as Tony Stark, the billionaire owner of a major weapons and R&D manufacturing company. After getting kidnapped by terrorists, he escapes by building a crude metal suit. He later elaborates on that idea and creates a much more sleek and dynamic suit of armor and becomes Iron Man.
Downey Jr. plays Stark with the perfect mix of intensity, arrogance, and humor. He starts the movie as kind of a bad person, but we never really dislike the guy. Add in Gweneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts and Terrance Howard as Stark's military best friend, and all of the acting is pretty superb.
The only reason it lost of half star in my mind is because I didn't feel that the villain was very strong. While I don't believe that you necessarily need a strong bad guy anymore, I just didn't find him to be that compelling in Iron Man. But really, it doesn't matter - this is a movie that you simply cannot miss.

Juno

I haven't smiled and laughed at a movie in a long time as much as I did when watching Juno. This is a quirky, sweet, and very funny film about teen pregnancy, love, and friendship.
A lot of the press about this film goes to first-time writer Diablo Cody - and for good reason. This is an amazing story - it seems like it should be familiar, but it never feels like it. The writing is sharp and witty as well. Combined with top-notch performances, Juno is well-deserved of its attention.
Speaking of performances, Ellen Page is simply fantastic. She plays Juno as a not-so-normal high school junior, but she doesn't play it too the point where we think she's odd or completely out of whack. She comes across as normal at the right times, and that's a real testament as to how good Page is.
Page really makes this movie special, but the supporting cast makes it great. J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney play Juno's loving and supportive parents, Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman are the prospective adoptive parents of Juno's baby, Michael Cera is the father of the baby, and Olivia Thirlby (who I thought was especially good) plays Juno's best friend. All were perfect in their roles, and they make Juno one of the best movies that I've seen.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Nicolas Cage returns as Ben Gates in this sequel to the entertaining National Treasure. In this, someone presents Gates with evidence that one of his ancestors was a conspirator in the Lincoln assassination. With the help of his father (Jon Voight), Riley (Justin Bartha), and Abigal (Diane Kruger) - all returners from the previous film - he sets out to clear his name.
Doing this takes them to Paris, London, Washington D.C., and Mount Rushmore (among others). The first movie was a light and entertaining adventure - mostly fluff, but it was fun. The second continues in that manner, but the believability factor goes completely out the window. Yes, the first one was a stretch in spots, but mostly believable. Book of Secrets isn't - this film makes it seem easy to walk into the Oval Office or Buckingham Palace. I just didn't have any real moments of suspense like I felt with the first.
Ed Harris plays the rival treasure hunter, taking over for Sean Bean. Harris is a fine actor, but his character just isn't as good as Bean's. During the first part of the film, his gang is shooting at Ben's group, but it's later revealed that he needed Gates to help him find the treasure. Why would he be trying to kill him then?
If you liked the first, you'll probably like Book of Secrets...just not as much.

Notes on a Scandal (DVD)

Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench star in this drama. The story is told from the point of view of Barbara (Dench); she's a near-retirement school teacher who becomes obsessed with Sheba (Blanchett), who is a new teacher at the school. She witnesses everything that goes on in Sheba's life: a failing marriage, a boy with Down's syndrome, and an affair with a young student. Barbara is manipulative and pathetic at the same time; Dench gives an outstanding performance.
The film starts slowly, but builds into a decent thriller. Definitely worth a rental.

Once (DVD)

This is an small-budget take on a modern-day musical. The story is simple - a Guy (Glen Hansard) meets a Girl (Marketa Irglova) while he's singing on a street in Dublin one night. Through music, their romance starts, stops, and then simmers throughout the film as they work toward a weekend studio session to get his Coldplay-esque music produced.
Even though the story is simple, this is one of the best movies of the year. The film is sweet, charming, and funny, and the music is simply fantastic. Hansard and Irglova (who are more musicians than actors) are outstanding - for not having any acting experience, they give their characters great emotional depth and keep the viewers guessing as to whether or not they will get together romantically. And because they are real musicians, the music really provides a great level of emotion; all the songs feel like they are integral to the movie.
I cannot recommend this movie enough - it's a great romantic comedy/musical that you can't help but falling in love with. It's easily one of the best movies of 2007.

The Pursuit of Happyness (Blu-ray)

Will Smith gives a strong performance in this uplifting, if quite predictable, drama about the real-life story of Chris Gardener. Chris and his wife (Thandie Newton) and son (Jaden Smith - Will's real-life son) are barely getting by in 1981 San Francisco - he sells portable bone-density for a living. Frustrated but determined to provide a better life for his son, he accepts an unpaid internship at Dean Witter to become a stock broker, even as his wife leaves him and his money runs out.
My initial thoughts after seeing this were good: the story is uplifting and inspiring and Smith's portrayal of Gardener is powerful - you really feel sympathetic for him throughout the film. After thinking about it, though, the message is somewhat muddled: Chris wants desperately to provide for his son, but they resort to living on the streets instead of seeking other options (like a temporary job)? And while Chris' journey is inspiring, the movie seems to push the idea that money really does buy happiness.
Of course, most people won't put that much thought into it. In any case, it's a solid movie that would be worth a rental.

Quantum of Solace

After the success of Casino Royale, I was extremely excited to see what the next Bond film had in store. And thanks to another terrific performance by Daniel Craig, I wasn't disappointed.
Taking place mere minutes after Royale ends, Solace finds Bond bringing Mr. White in for interrogation by MI6. After he escapes, Bond spends the film looking into Quantum, an organization attempting to influence world events. The film's villian, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), has his sights set on controlling the water supply in Bolivia by having General Medrano (Joaquin Cosio) installed as the country's new dictator.
Bond meets up with Camille (Olga Kurylenko) along the way; she's looking for revenge against the general for murdering her family. He also finds help from Mathis and Felix, two characters from the previous film, and Judi Dench returns as M.
Most of the reviews I've read have generally been negative, but I'm not seeing it. There are a few quibbles - the action scenes are badly edited (it feels like they were really going for the Bourne effect), and a few characters aren't well developed. I've seen a lot of people say the story was confusing - I thought that it was pretty easy to follow, especially for a Bond movie. I was impressed by Kurlyenko and Amalric - both were impressive additions to the Bond girl/villain library.
In a way, this does feel more like an action movie than it does a Bond movie though; the classic Bond elements are few and far between. This is definitely a darker film than previous Bond entries, but I think it's a good thing - I really like how it continued Bond's storyline from Royale rather than just forgetting about it. It's not as good as Royale, but I'm certainly looking forward to the next one.

Role Models

If you're in the mood for a raunchy, profanity-laced comedy, look no further than this. It's definitely a hilarious movie; it's also really good for 2/3 of the running time - it's only in the final 1/3 where it loses its spark.
Paul Rudd - who should be a star already - proves that he is a spectacular comedic actor. He teams up with Seann William Scott here as co-workers of an energy drink company that get in trouble with the law. Instead of going to jail, the duo are teamed up with "littles" at Study Wings (think Big Brother/Big Sister). Danny (Rudd) gets assigned to Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), a role-playing obsessed teen; Wheeler (Scott) gets Ronnie (Bobb'e J. Thompson), a foul-mouthed, breast-obsessed 10-year old.
True to formula, the adults and the kids have a rocky relationship, then become best friends, then have a fall out, then make up. But for most of the film, you don't care - you're having too much fun. Rudd is hilarious playing the down-trodden Danny - his comedic timing is perfect. His relationship with Mintz-Plasse is also good. Scott is also excellent, and his pairing with Thompson is nearly perfect - some of the most hilarious scenes showcase those two.
In the end though, the film falls into the way-too-predictable and cheesy ending - everyone is happy and all is forgiven. It just seems to lose a little of its touch, and I felt that a "rougher" ending would've suited this movie better. Overall though, this is one of the better laugh-out-loud comedies that I've seen in a while.

Shoot 'Em Up (DVD)

If you accept the fact that this movie is completely unrealistic, it will be the most fun you'll have watching a movie. This is a balls-out bullet-flying action movie, and it's an absolute blast.
Clive Owen plays Mr. Smith, the carrot-chomping hero. If you were making a list of the coolest movie characters of all-time, he would be near the top. Owen is a great actor, but this role really shows his ability as an action star. He's a perfect fit for this part. His nemesis in Shoot 'Em Up is Mr. Hertz (Paul Giamatti). I wasn't sure what to think of Giamatti as the bad guy at times, but he does a good job taking his character over the top as well.
The action sequences are simply incredible; these are some of the most original moves you'll see. I never thought I'd ever see a carrot used as a weapon, but this makes use of it more than once. There are too many awesome sequences to list, but the sex scene Owen has with Monica Bellucci - he's shooting enemies all over the room - is a major highlight.
Even if you're not a huge fan of action movies, give Shoot 'Em Up a shot.

Shrek the Third (DVD)

After enjoying the first two Shrek films (especially the first one), I was looking forward to seeing what the third one had in store. After watching it, I can say that I've been very disappointed.
I realize that the Shrek movies are filled with pop-culture references and jokes that won't hold up over time. The first two seemed somewhat relevant at the time, though - this one seems like it's already 5 years too old. Also, it seemed like many jokes were rehashed from the previous films - they used the "innocent kitty" look of Puss-n-Boots twice (to predictable effect). Overall, many of the jokes fell flat and even the message - believe in yourself, not what others think of you - was muddled and unclear.
Not all was bad: the main characters really seem settled into their roles. Shrek (Mike Myers), Fionna (Cameron Diaz), Donkey (Eddie Murphy), and Puss (Antonio Banderas) have good chemistry with each other and are entertaining. Especially Banderas - a Puss spin-off would be much more anticipated than a fourth Shrek. Beyond them, though, there's just too many new characters to even register: Snow White, Merlin, Sleeping Beauty, Lancelot, etc. are all given bits of screentime, but they're all just forced into the screenplay.
The kids will like it, I'm sure, but unlike the first two Shrek's, the parents (or big kids like me) will not.

The Simpsons Movie (DVD)

I heard a lot of good things about the long-awaited film with the Simpsons, so I was anxious to watch it. After seeing it, I think it was a good effort, but it just wasn't successful.
The plot (if you can call it that) centers around the pollution of Springfield. After Homer dumps pig waste into the town's lake, the EPA determines that Springfield is a contaminated area and seals the entire town in a bubble. Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie escape, but are determined to return and save their city from destruction.
While I don't watch it every week, I do enjoy The Simpsons TV show. It's usually smart, sharp, and funny. Their movie has its moments, but as a whole it really felt like it was stretching a 30-minute concept into 90 minutes. If you're a Simpsons fan you'll definitely want to check it out; otherwise, just watch a few episodes of the show to get your Simpsons fix.

Transformers (DVD)

While this is easily one of the best big-budget summer blockbusters of 2007, it does suffer from being too long. You can tell it's trying for epic status, but there's a point in the movie where you think that it should just end. Visually, it's beautiful - the transforming of the Autobots and Decepticons are absolutely amazing, and I don't remember noticing any CGI effects that I thought were out of place. Shia LeBeouf gives a solid lead performance and the other performances were okay, but most just weren't given much to do - the real stars are the Transformers themselves anyway. Some of their "comedic" bits don't work very well, but otherwise the robots are impressive characters - although besides Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, I found it difficult to keep them straight. In the battle scenes, it can be especially hard to figure out which are Autobots and which are Decepticons.
If you're in the mood for a mindless blockbuster action flick, this is an excellent choice.

True Romance (DVD)

I had never caught this 1993 movie before, but I'd heard good things, so I wanted to check it out. Directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino, the movie focuses on Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette), two people who meet, fall in love, get married, happen upon a suitcase full of cocaine, then attempt to sell it. Of course, the drug dealers want their cocaine back, and the cops are looking for a big bust, so that's where the action comes in.
For a 15-year-old movie, it holds up very well. The characters are fun, and the story is solid. It's one of those movies that looks familiar until you realize that all films you've seen lately probably used this as a influence. You'll have the most fun picking out all of the big-name stars with minor roles - Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Brad Pitt, Tom Sizemore, James Gandolfini, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson, and Val Kilmer (as Elvis!) are just a few examples of the talent involved. If you haven't seen it before, it would be a great pickup for an at-home movie night.

Waitress (DVD)

Keri Russell is great as a small-town waitress with a baby on the way in this smart, cute, and quirky drama/comedy. Russell plays Jenna, a young woman married to a controlling husband who she no longer loves. Already feeling like her life sucks, those feelings escalate when she finds out she's pregnant (her husband got her drunk one night). She trudges through her life until she meets her new doctor (Nathan Fillion), who she begins an affair with.
In one of the unique things about this film, Jenna's moods are expressed to us by the pies she makes. She makes amazing pies, and she names them based on her current mood. It's a fun (and appetizing) method of portraying her feelings.
All of the acting is superb. Russell is definitely a treat; Fillion (one of my favorite actors) is a perfect fit for the nervous and klutzy doctor; Cheryl Hines and director Adrienne Shelly (who was murdered before this movie was released) are great as Jenna's co-workers and friends; and Jeremy Sisto gives a good performance as Jenna's terrible and insecure husband.
The film does drag out some scenes, especially in the beginning. But thanks to the performances, it's definitely worth a rental.

We Are Marshall (DVD)

As far as uplifting sports movies go, this was not one of the better ones. Far too contrived and predictable, I never really got emotionally vested in any of the characters. Matthew McConaughey plays Jack Lengyel, the football coach hired after a 1970 plane crash took out most of Marshall's football team and staff. He works with Red Dawson (Matthew Fox) and Donald Denman (David Strathaim) to rebuild the team for next season (which included getting the NCAA to allow freshmen to play, a first).
Fox fares the best, and Strathaim isn't bad, but McConaughey just didn't fit right. He plays his character as being very eccentric, but it's so over the top that it gets in the way of the story. If you really like these kind of movies, then it's not a bad way to spend a couple hours; if not, leave it on the shelf.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe (Blu-ray)

The question that I had after watching this movie was, "why was this made?". It felt like an extended version of a television show; the problem, though, is that it felt like a standard television crime drama - not an X-Files episode.
I'm definitely not up on my X-Files lore; I watched quite a few of the shows and thought the first feature film, Fight the Future, was pretty decent (at least it has an expanded sense of scope, anyway - something this movie lacked). I did miss the last few seasons, so apparently I missed quite a lot - for example, when did Mulder and Scully start sleeping together? That was a shock to see that; and it really seemed out of place.
Regardless of my lack of knowledge, though, I'm still not sure what the reasoning behind this movie was. A paycheck? Getting the gang back together? Whatever the reason, it definitely wasn't the script. Like I said, standard TV drama stuff - a former priest sees visions of women being abducted; the FBI brings Mulder back (with Scully's help) to help with the case (I'm still not really sure why though - was there no one else at the FBI patient enough to deal with this "psychic"?). Without giving much else away, it ends up being pretty standard stuff - nothing X-Files-ish about it.
David Duchovany and Gillian Anderson are both respectable in reprising their roles as Mulder and Scully, respectively, although both seem to just be going through the motions sometimes. They just didn't seem to have the magic that they used to - maybe that was due to the script though. And the supporting cast, including Amanda Peet and Xzibit, are forgettable. Unless you're a huge X-Files fan, there's no reason to give this movie a try.

Zodiac (DVD)

This is an extremely well-made movie that just suffers a bit from being too long. Director David Fincher put together a great cast in telling the true story of the Zodiac serial killer who terrorized San Francisco in the 60's and 70's. San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhall) takes center stage as the man obsessed with finding the identity of the Zodiac killer; with help from reporter Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.) and detective Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo), he risks his marriage and his life in his quest.
While definitely an intriguing film, the main problem I had with it was that the Zodiac killer himself was just never that interesting. We're teased with the notion that many of the so-called Zodiac killings weren't really done by him anyway. So while he was obviously responsible for some deaths, it's not really certain how insanely dangerous he was, and that loses some of the drive of the movie.
Of course, the main focus is really on the investigation anyway, and Fincher does shine in this regard. The leads and all the supporting characters are fantastic, and they help make the investigation truly compelling. It becomes a tad drawn-out when Graysmith starts following up on a number of leads that are never really fully explained, but I think part of it might be that we know the case was never truly solved (although the film strongly suggests a conclusion). In a way, I'm divided; I know this was a great movie - definitely worth seeing - but it just didn't have the bite that I felt I should be taking from it.

My Home Theater - Component Reviews

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Please note: I am not a videophile or an audiophile, nor am I an expert on any particular home theater topic. These are brief reviews that I hope will help an average consumer (like myself) a good idea of how these components will work in their setup.

Sony STR-DG910 7.1 Receiver

Sanyo PLV-Z5 Projector

When I was looking for a projector, I was only looking at 1080p models. After comparing prices though, I went with the 720p/1080i Z5. I'm happy I did - it produces an outstanding image for an outstanding price.
My throw distance is about 16ft, and I'm projecting onto a 108-inch custom-made screen. It takes about 15-20 seconds to start up, and switching between inputs usually takes a few seconds. There are 2 HDMI inputs, 2 component, 1 VGA, 1 S-Video, and 1 composite. I only use one of the HDMI, since my receiver has HDMI switching, so I can't comment on the quality of the other inputs. This is my first projector, so I don't have much to compare it to, but I am extremely pleased with this model.
If you want more information, check out the review from Projector Central.

Playstation 3

I was anxiously waiting for the PS3 to come down in price. I loved my PS2, and even though I already had an XBox 360, I wanted to see what Sony had to offer on the PS3. Once it hit $400, I was sold.
I have the 40GB model - I sold my PS2 and games earlier, so I didn't really care about backwards-compatibility (which this model doesn't have). It also only has 2 USB ports, but as far as I'm concerned those are plenty - I generally only use them to charge the wireless controllers, so two are fine. By the way, there's no need for batteries in the controllers; unlike the 360, these are charged easily with a standard USB cable.
The Blu-Ray player was also a big selling point, and I'm extremely happy with that. The load times are minimal (especially compared to my standalone HD-DVD player), and it works great as a movie player (I do highly recommend the extra Sony Bluetooth remote control though).
The XMB navigation interface is fantastic - I like it even more than Microsoft's Dashboard. Plus, my PSP uses the same interface, so it's nice that Sony kept that consistent. The PS3 can also serve as a media client, playing content off your home computer. I use a free program called TVersity (which I highly recommend), but you can also easily set it up with Windows Media Player.

Sony PSP

The main reason for picking up a PSP was for trips - visiting my family and my wife's family require long car rides, and I wanted to have something to do besides just reading (can't do that when it's dark either). Since I've started recording TV shows, I thought it'd be great if I could take them with me on the go. Enter the PSP.
Much like the PS3, the PSP is a multimedia powerhouse. It plays music, pictures, movies, and games (either PSP UMD games or games downloaded from the Playstation Network). It has wireless network connectivity and can remotely access content on a PS3 from anywhere in the world. And it's got a beautiful wide screen which is great for watching all that content.
The PSP I have is the silver Slim version - I bought the Daxter bundle. I highly recommend getting that bundle; for $30 more than the standalone PSP, you get the Daxter game - which is very fun - and a 1GB Memory Stick Duo.
A few downsides: you do need a Memory Stick Duo for saving game progress and any other content, and those cards aren't the cheapest things. The 1GB card I have is decent, but people wanting to hold a lot of content are going to want something bigger. Also, Sony's software for managing your PSP content, Sony Media Manager for PSP, isn't included with the PSP; that's a $17 download. I did buy it, and it works nicely (especially for transferring my recorded TV shows), but it's something that should be included (I've heard rumors that this might be coming in the future).

Pardigm Cinema 110 Speaker Package

Lutron Maestro IR Dimmer

I purchased this dimmer because I wanted one with IR; the thought of having a remote-controlled dimmer appealed to me. And I'm quite pleased with it. The remote provided is a small, simple five-button remote. Two buttons work to dim the lights completely, two work to dim by a step (I believe there are 10 light steps), and another sets the lights to a self-chosen setting. Lutron provides this in a variety of colors (mine is brown).

You can find the standard white model at Lowe's or Home Depot for around $40. For other colors, you probably have to go online; I purchased mine from Westside Wholesale, and I'd recommend looking there first if you're interested since their prices are very competitive as well.

Projection Screen

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Since this was home theater on a budget, I hardly bothered to look at an authentic, pre-made screen. At the size I wanted, I knew that the cheapest one I could get was going to run me $400+, so that wasn't even an option. Maybe in my next theater, but not now.

So I looked at a variety of DIY options, but the one that I was attracted to the most involved building a wooden frame and covering it with blackout cloth. That's what I ended up doing, and I am very pleased with the result.

I found a fantastic "How-To" article on Engadget that explains how they made a custom projector screen - I basically followed that article in building mine. I used Douglas Fir boards to make my frame, 1/2" plywood that I had to hold the frame together, and blackout cloth from a local Jo-Ann fabric store. It took me less than an hour to assemble everything; as long as your measurements are right, you should be fine.

Engadget built theirs a 2:35:1 format; that was too wide, so I had the brilliant idea of going for a 1:85:1 format. Not a good move, since my projector throws in 16:9. So as of now I'm left with wasted space on each side of the picture, since my screen is wider than my projector image. I plan to take the screen down and shorten it later on, but for now, it's fine.

UPDATE: I did trim the sides of the screen, so it's now a pure 16:9 size. It looks a lot better now. I should've researched a bit before I tried the 1:85:1 idea.

Rather than build a border for my screen, I decided to paint an area behind the screen black. This had another advantage as well - since I have on-wall speakers (that are black), I painted the area to cover the left, right, and center speakers as well. From a distance, this effectively hides the speakers; it really helps to allow you to focus on the image when watching a movie. If you have on-wall speakers, I highly recommend this approach.

Home Theater Design & Construction

2007-10-17T12:32:00.000-04:00

The construction of the theater came after the gym, and I'm very glad that it did. I wanted to do a good job here, so the experience with the gym helped immensely.

Design

There were a few interesting design considerations that I had for this room, and many options that I thought over before deciding on a room layout. The bare room itself is about 12' x 19', so I obviously wanted the projection screen to be on one of the 12' walls.

As you can see, one of those walls runs on the same wall as the stairs, so my first thought was NOT to put the screen there, simply because I anticipated that I would buy floorstanding speakers...and it wouldn't be good to run into a speaker as soon as you came down the stairs.

I also knew that I'd have to bring the other 12' wall out a couple feet from the concrete to accommodate the fuse box and water meters. Once I realized I'd have to do that, my original plans changed. The idea of a built-in media rack appealed to me, as did a projector located behind a wall rather than mounted to the ceiling. So my plans reversed.

I decided to build two built-ins - a bookshelf to hold DVD's and a rack to hold all the AV equipment. I also planned to build a basic wood mount to sit the projector behind the wall. I then started looking at in-wall and on-wall speakers since bookshelf or floorstanding models were out of the equation now. I decided to go with on-wall for two reasons - first, while in-walls appear to be getting much better, the sound quality is still going to be better for boxed speakers; second, if we ever move, it's a lot easier to take the on-wall speakers with me while still leaving the room complete (i.e., no speaker holes).

Construction

Wall construction went very smoothly here; besides having to work around a water pipe, I had no trouble building the frames for the walls. The only issue was by the stairs - furring strips were used on the wall of the stairway, and I used 2x4 studs. So the joining of the two wasn't smooth - I had to have an extra corner to deal with.

For the ceiling, I decided to make it one level and to keep it as high as possible. I had some ducts to work around, so I had to bring the ceiling down a bit. To do this, I raised a 12' long stud in the middle of the room and attached it to the side walls with joist hangers and to the floor joists with scrap 2x4 pieces. I then attached joist hangers to it and to the front and back walls. This allowed me to create a fairly strong support structure for my ceiling. This pic should give you a decent idea of what I did:

Next up was the wiring. Obviously, I wanted to run speaker wire in the walls for my speakers, so I bought 14-gauge UL2 wire from Firefold.com. Since it's recommended to keep all your speaker wire runs the same length (i.e., the center speaker wire should be the same length as the surround wire), I measured the farthest distance I'd have to go from a speaker to my receiver. In this case, the right front was the farthest away, and it came out to about 32 feet of wire. So I cut 7 pieces of wire 32' long and ran them to the appropriate speaker locations. I also ran a cable for the subwoofer and a cable coax line, even though I wouldn't be needing the latter. I used cable staples to "guide" the route of the wire, but left it loose enough that I could pull the wire out if I needed to.

For the electrical, I ran 12/2 wire for six wall outlets, another one for my projector, and three more behind my AV rack. I used two distinct circuits for this - I think the projector outlet is shared with four other wall outlets, and the AV outlets are shared with the other two wall outlets.

In hindsight, I wonder if the three separate outlets for the AV equipment was the way to go, or if I should've invested in a surge protector instead. Right now, I'm just using the outlets, but would surge protection help?

Finally, I ran 14/2 wire to four spots on my walls - these would be for my sconces. I think I placed the light boxes about 16" down from the ceiling.

I insulated the outer walls (just the two that touch concrete) and the ceiling using R13 insulation. The drywall went up next; no major issues here, and it was a relief to not have to work around any funky areas like in the gym. And I was told by a few people that I did a good job hanging the drywall, so that made me feel good.

I did discover this, though: the hanging of the drywall itself doesn't need to be perfect; it's amazing what can be covered up by a good plaster job. You should make sure to cut your outlet holes well though; I had a couple spots where the hole was too big for the cover - now I've got some patching to do.

After the drywall was finished, painting was the next step. We primed, then painted the walls and ceiling "Bordeaux", which is kind of a dark red. I wanted a dark ceiling, but I knew a black ceiling wouldn't be approved. So we tried the wall color, but it just didn't look right. We then decided to buy some chocolate brown paint and, using a sponge, applied that on top of the Bordeaux. I think we put 3 coats on the walls, 2 Bordeaux coats on the ceiling, and 2 "sponge" coats on top of that. It was a lot of work, but I like how it turned out.

I did get some black in the room though. I wanted a border for my screen, and since I was building my own screen, I decided to paint the wall behind it black instead of building a frame for it. I expanded the black about 16" on the sides and bottom too; this way, it also does a good job of masking where the on-wall speakers are located. It was definitely a good idea - I'd highly recommend it for anyone building their own screen and using in-wall or on-wall speakers.

Next up was the installation of the built-ins. I detail the construction of those here. The bookshelf was easy to get in; the AV rack wasn't. My measurements were a little tight, and the thing was damn heavy. It took a lot of pounding and trimming, but it got in. It ain't going anywhere either :-)

The baseboard, casing, and crown molding was the final part. The casing around the doorways and cabinets was pretty simple; we used the Victorian-style blocks for the top corners, so I didn't have nearly as many angle cuts as I could have. The baseboard wasn't too bad either; a coping saw came in handy here. The crown molding was a little more complicated (due to a doorway that was too tall for the molding to fit properly), but we used corner blocks, so there wasn't too much cutting involved and it was fairly easy to get up.

My Home Theater

2007-10-17T10:17:00.000-04:00

I've loved going to the movies ever since I can remember. The town where I grew up had a one-screen theater with terrible sound, so it was always a treat to go to a nice cinema and take in a great movie. While I can't stand going back to my hometown's theater, I still love hitting up my local cinema for a flick. But when I had the chance to build my very own home theater in my house's unfinished basement, I jumped at the chance.

As I was building, the internet was the greatest resource I had for ideas and direction. Because of that, I wanted to detail my experience. I created a blog to keep an account of my progress, and now this page shows an overview of the results. My hope is that someone will find these pages useful.

Photo Gallery

All of my photos from the start of construction to the finishing touches are located here. There are pictures from the complete basement construction project, including the home gym. Someday I'll attempt to organize them a little better, but feel free to take a look at everything.

Equipment List

As this is my first home theater, and since I was attempting to keep costs under control, I kept things really simple. Therefore, you won't find any extra amplifiers, bass shakers, or any other audiophile extras. I had a fairly small room to work with - around 12x16 - so I didn't feel that a lot of the extras were needed anyway.

I'm very pleased with this collection of equipment. When I have enough time, I'll try to write some mini-reviews on each item in this list, so check those out if you're interested, and feel free to comment if you agree or disagree.

Component	Model	Vendor	Review
Receiver	Sony STR-DG910	Amazon.com	go
Projector	Sanyo PLV-Z5	ProjectorPeople.com	go
Screen	self-built (details)
HD-DVD/DVD Player	Toshiba HD-A3	Amazon.com	go
Gaming System	Playstation 3	Circuit City	go
Portable Gaming System	Sony PSP	newegg.com	go
HTPC	self-built (details)
Front Speakers	Paradigm Cinema 110 L/R	Avio [info]	go
Center Speaker	Paradigm Cinema 110 C	Avio [info]
Surround Speakers	Paradigm Cinema ADP	Avio [info]
Rear Speakers	Paradigm Cinema 90	Avio [info]
Subwoofer	Paradigm CT v.3	Avio [info]
Speaker Wire	14 AWG UL2 In-Wall Speaker Wire (~250 ft)	Firefold.com
Lighting Control	Lutron Maestro IR	Westside Wholesale	go
Wall Sconces	?	Lowes

Component

Model

Vendor

Review

Receiver

Projector

Screen

self-built (details)

HD-DVD/DVD Player

Toshiba HD-A3

Amazon.com

Gaming System

Playstation 3

Circuit City

Portable Gaming System

Sony PSP

newegg.com

HTPC

self-built (details)

Front Speakers

Paradigm Cinema 110 L/R

Avio [info]

Center Speaker

Paradigm Cinema 110 C

Avio [info]

Surround Speakers

Paradigm Cinema ADP

Avio [info]

Rear Speakers

Paradigm Cinema 90

Avio [info]

Subwoofer

Paradigm CT v.3

Avio [info]

Speaker Wire

14 AWG UL2 In-Wall Speaker Wire (~250 ft)

Firefold.com

Lighting Control

Lutron Maestro IR

Westside Wholesale

Wall Sconces

Lowes

AV Rack & DVD Case

2007-10-17T09:15:00.000-04:00

Before I begin, let me state this: these aren't the prettiest or best-looking built-ins that you've ever seen. I basically built them to be functional. Of course, I wanted them to look good, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money either. In the end, I'm pretty happy with them. If you're building your home theater and you have the opportunity to incorporate a built-in DVD case or AV rack into your design, I'd highly recommend it. And, as I'll show, it can be done at a very reasonable price.

Oh, and I'm sorry for the lack of pictures; I thought I took more, but they must have been accidentally deleted. I'll try to explain the best that I can.

My Material List:

1/2" and 3/4" MDF
2" trim screws
fine-grit sandpaper (220 grit)
wood glue
Sherwin Williams sanding sealer
Minwax wood stain (Golden Oak color)

First thing to mention: we used wood trim throughout the basement, so we figured it'd be a good idea to stain the built-ins as well. Problem is, MDF doesn't take well to stain - it handles paint much easier. Staining basically turned it a dark brown; not exactly the same color as our trim. It still looks okay, but if I did it again I'd either use real wood or use paint.
Second: I used trim screws; I first bought cabinet screws, but the heads didn't go in all of the way, which would cause problems when fitting the racks into their openings. Cabinet screws may be stronger, but the trim screws worked fine and seem to hold well.

DVD Case

This simple bookshelf measured in at 47" wide, 26" tall, and 6" deep. There are three levels of storage (bottom piece plus two shelves) and I estimate that it holds about 150 DVD's. Obviously, you're width and height may be different, but I chose the 6" depth because that would accommodate a normal DVD library (including box sets).

Here's a shot of the opening I left in the framing - just a basic, window-like opening:

I used 1/2" MDF for the case. I figured it didn't need to hold anything that heavy, so it should be fine. It is, but I'd probably recommend staying with 3/4" MDF - it's easier to work with when you're screwing it all together.

I cut my boards - two 47" x 6" pieces (top & bottom), two 25" x 6" pieces (sides), two 46" x 6" pieces (shelves), and one 47" x 26" piece (back).
After an initial sanding, I applied a coat of sanding sealer - if you're using stain, this really helps. I don't think you need it if you're painting, but I'm not sure. Let that soak in for an hour, then sand again.
I ended up applying two coats of stain; the MDF soaked up the first coat like it was water. The second coat goes on a little better; I sanded some more in between coats.
After giving one final sanding, it was ready to assemble. Nothing complicated - I attached the sides to the top and bottom, putting a line of wood glue where they connected, then screwing them together. The back was put on next, then the shelves.

That's it. Simple and cheap. You could obviously get fancier with it, but I didn't need it to be. It was (gently) shoved into the opening, attached to the framing with a few finishing nails, then surrounded by casing. Final product:

AV Equipment Rack

The equipment shelves and cabinet measured 79" tall, 25" wide, and 19" deep. There are eight shelves for equipment and a 16" high cabinet (with doors) at the bottom. I inserted the shelves at different heights in the rack; my top shelf has an 8" clearance, while another has only 3". I basically measured out my receiver, dvd player, and other potential components to determine the heights that I need.

My initial plan was to add rails to the shelves so I could pull them out. But after determining that adding rails to each shelf would run me about $75, I decided to leave them out. The other idea was to have the back of the rack on a hinge; that way, I could easily access the components from the rear. A good idea if you can do it; I ended up not having enough space to be able to make it work. In the end, it ended up being pretty basic, but I'm pleased with it.

Let's start with the opening. I measured out my opening, then added more studs to support the back of the rack; basically, it's another frame that's connected to the existing wall studs to provide more support.

I used 3/4" MDF for the rack; it seems to be plenty strong enough to hold my heaviest component (which is my receiver at the moment).

I cut my boards - two 76" x 19" pieces (sides), one 23.5" x 19" piece (top), two 23.5" x 18.25" pieces (bottom shelf and bottom of rack), one 76" x 25" piece (back), seven 23.5" x 16" pieces (shelves), a 23.5" x 16" piece (front of cabinet), and two 9" x 14" pieces (cabinet doors).
In my top piece, I cut three holes for ventilation - I planned on putting my receiver on the top shelf, so I wanted a little more air to circulate in that top shelf. I've seen some people use fans to enhance cooling, but I kept it simple.
After measuring where I wanted my shelves to go, I drilled 1.5" holes in the middle of my back piece. As you can guess, these were for running cables out of the back of the rack.
After the sanding, sealing, and staining process, I was ready to assemble. I attached the top and two bottom pieces to the sides (wood glue first, then screws), then started on the shelves. Notice that my shelves are only 16" deep - I left 3" in the back for cable runs between the components.
The back was attached next. At this point, we installed it in the opening; it was easier to do that without the cabinet doors being on. Installation was a chore; the measurements were very tight, and it took a lot of pounding to get it in, but it rests snug in the two frames.
Finally, I put the cabinet face on, then installed the doors. Here's the finished product:

Home Gym Design & Construction

2007-10-12T13:01:00.000-04:00

As this was the first type of major household construction that I've ever done, I learned a lot during the building process. I wanted to do this room before the theater for that simple reason. And I'm glad I did it that way, even though I'm very pleased with this room too.

Design

What seemed like a pretty simple room turned out to have some funky design considerations. The room itself is about 11"x19" square, with windows on two of the four walls. I did have to bring the wall out about 1 square foot in one of the corners to accommodate a water pipe, but otherwise the wall framing was fairly straightforward. It's the ceiling that caused issues.

I used 4 recessed lights to light the room - two were placed where the ceiling was lowered and two placed where it was high. No problems with the lighting. I also bought a pair of in-ceiling speakers - those were installed in the high area of the ceiling. I ran 6 power outlets - 5 on one 15A circuit and one on a separate 20A circuit (for the treadmill). I also ran one Cat5e, one coax, and there's one dedicated box for speaker wire. There's actually eight wires running to it - four from the in-ceiling speakers and four from the outdoor deck speakers. I used all 2-wire cord; probably should've used 4-wire for convenience, but it wasn't too bad.

Those media outlets are all in one corner of the room. The idea is to have all electronic components in that corner.

Construction

First off, I started by buying a can of basement sealant. My idea was to cover the walls with the stuff to help with any potential leaks in the foundation. Once I started though, I realized it was going to be costly to do this. My one gallon didn't cover much - I got about 1 wall covered. So, even though it might haunt me later, I gave up that idea; mostly due to price, but also on research and opinions stating that it wouldn't help much anyway.

Framing was next. I had help to start with - my cousin came over (he had just finished his basement) and got be going. We basically got the long wall done and I did the other two later. Nothing too hard here, although I learned you need to be careful when working around the windows - make sure to get those openings correct.

Next up was the ceiling. I had a bunch of ductwork on half of the room to work around. So I basically hung a stud from the floor joists and connected that to a stud joined to the wall stud. You can see what I mean below:

This was all fine and dandy until I reached the window; I realized that my little sofitt was going to cover part of the window. Missed that one in design. So I had to raise the last 2 feet or so of the sofitt up a bit to the top of the window. So there were now three tiers to my ceiling. It's a funky workaround, but it's hardly noticeable now.

Electrical wiring was the next step. Surprisingly, this went very smoothly - this was my first major electrical wiring as well. It takes patience, but it's not difficult.

After that, I insulated the walls and the ceiling. I started with R-19 insulation, but since I only had 2x4 studs, that was a bit thick and hard to work with. I later changed to R-13 for the theater. I insulated the ceiling to try and block some of the sound from the upstairs. If you're doing a drywall ceiling like I did, I highly recommend it.

TIP: Wear gloves and a breathing mask when working with insulation, and long sleeves are a good idea too.

My first experience with drywall was next. I had some help starting this too - a couple friends gave me hand on the ceiling. This actually went pretty smoothly - cutting around outlets and light fixtures is the obvious pain. Due to the three-tiered ceiling, there were a lot of smallish pieces to cut, so this room did take longer to finish than the others.

TIP: A jigsaw cuts through drywall like butter, and is a helpful tool when cutting out outlets and other holes. If you're cutting the drywall in the basement, do not get the idea (like I did) to use the saw to cut everything - it generates a LOT of dust. You won't notice it for a day or two, but it'll be there. Use a simple razor blade instead - it's really not that hard to use, and makes a pretty clean cut.

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At this point, I moved onto the hallway and the theater. Drywall finishing was the next step, and that was going to be done all at once. So it was a white room for a few months.
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We hired out for the finishing of the drywall - I've never done that before either, and I don't ever want to (although I will be when I get around to completing the bathroom). It's very messy and very time-consuming; the people we hired did a good job though, so I'm happy.

Painting was next. We went with a simple white ceiling (the ceiling is textured, by the way). We primed the walls (using a tinted primer) and painted them with a "Yukon Gold" color - kind of a dull yellow.

I layed 7/16" plywood on the floor, then topped that off with my gym floor mats. I didn't secure the plywood with anything - I may have to in the future, as I've noticed a couple pieces that like to pop up. Nothing too noticeable, but they may need to be fixed.

After finishing the wiring of all the outlets, I worked on the floor trim and window casings. More on that is explained in the Home Theater section of the site.

Decor

Not much yet. I've got a clock in the corner by the treadmill, and I put up three Lord of the Rings-themed replica swords that I had purchased a while ago. Those are behind the weight bench. Other than that, I think this room will end up just containing a mashup of various items...I've got a few LOTR movie posters I might put up, but beyond that I'm not sure. Not that it really needs much anyway - it's a gym, after all.

What I do want is a few large mirrors on a wall - kind of like what you'd find in a standard weight room. My cousin is in the glass business, so that might not be too expensive either. Other than that, I'm pretty open to other options at this point.

My Home Gym

2007-10-11T12:56:00.001-04:00

I started getting into lifting weights and exercising when I was in high school. I lifted throughout college and joined the local YMCA as soon as I started working full time. I liked going there, but I'm pretty strict in my workout regiment, so I always hated it when a piece of equipment was being used when I needed it. So one of the first things I envisioned when we bought our house was having a home gym in the basement. And it was great to make that a reality.

Gym Equipment

We don't have a big room - it's only about 12 x 19 - so we can't fit too much equipment down there. But I do have the basics. A simple rack/weight bench combo from Dunham's, a 300 lbs Cap Barbell Olympic barbell weight set, pairs of dumbbells from 5 lbs to 50 lbs, an 8 lb medicine ball, an exercise ball, a Smooth Fitness 5.25 treadmill, and a NordicTrack ASR 630 elliptical.

Overall, nothing too fancy, but you can perform most any type of exercise that you want. I'm very pleased, and wouldn't think about going back to joining a gym - it's just too convenient to hop downstairs and do my workout. So far, I've been really good about staying motivated, so I think this is a great investment.

It helps to have some electronic goodies down here too. We've got a 32" Vizio VX32L LCD HDTV wall mounted in one corner. There is a pair of in-ceiling Mirage i-6C speakers handling the audio. Those are powered by a Sony STR-DE197 stereo receiver (which also powers a pair of Dual LU53PW outdoor speakers located on our deck). Finally, a Linksys DMA2200 Media Center Extender provides all the input sources that we need. So while I'm working out, we can listen to MP3's, watch TV, look at pictures, watch recorded TV, or listen to Internet radio stations. I definitely makes working out fun.

My Home Media Center

2007-10-11T08:54:00.003-04:00

When Microsoft released their Windows XP Media Center Edition a few years ago, I immediately became engrossed in the idea of having movies, music, and recorded tv throughout the house. I soon found out that there are plenty of other alternatives out there, but I've stuck with Microsoft, mostly because of their potential for a beautiful, user-friendly experience. I think this is a killer product, and given the right marketing and development by them this could become a common application across households. So far, it hasn't gotten there yet, but I love using it.

My original design was to have a computer set up with Vista Premium in our home office. This computer would serve as a DVR, media server, and desktop pc. I also wanted to run a RAID 5 setup for a little bit of safety (and yes, I still backup files elsewhere too). Trouble is, the motherboard that I bought to handle all of this had problems (either with the MB or with the user). It had numerous issues, but the biggest one was when I used an XBox 360 as an extender - the pc would either freeze or BSOD on me. After numerous re-installations, I gave up. After some more research, I decided to go a different route.

I decided to build a dedicated Media Center pc for use in the home theater. This machine runs Vista and handles all my television recording and also serves up over-the-air high definition television to my projector. I also have a media server running XP Professional - this machine stores and shares my music, pictures, documents, and videos. I have a laptop running Vista and two extenders; one in the living room and one in the gym.

Media Center

I was against the concept of a media center pc at first; I felt having a pc in the office and having extenders would be better, but there are some very nice benefits to having it in my basement. The computer is housed in a beautiful Antec Fusion case, and it's amazingly quiet. The main function of the HTPC is to handle live and recorded tv - it's hooked up to my projector, and there's nothing like watching college football in HD on a 108-inch screen. It also comes in handy with our Netflix subscription - they have a number of movies that you can stream on your PC, so it's nice to be able to watch those in the theater. And Hulu is another fantastic resource for catching up on any television shows I miss.
It's got a pair of tuners - I recently upgraded to two HD ATSC tuners (one of which is a dual, so I've really got 3 tuners). I have a basic rooftop television antenna from Radio Shack in the attic that serves up OTA HD channels - we just don't watch enough cable tv to warrant paying Comcast $70+ for basic cable and HD stations.
One thing I have to mention: my antenna cable run was split a couple places, so I was having a hard time picking up a few channels that I was getting prior to the split. I bought an in-line signal amplifier for $12 off of eBay (Radio Shack sells the same thing for $37), and the problem has been solved.

Here is my media center:

Component	Part/Model
Case	Antec Fusion 430
Processor	AMD X2 3600+ AM2
Motherboard	A7GM-S AM2/AM2+
Power Supply	430 Watt ATX12V v2.0 (included w/case)
Memory	Corsair XMS2 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800
Video Card	onboard Raedon 7600
Audio Output	onboard HDMI
Optical Drive	Sony DDU-1615 16X DVD-ROM
Hard Drive	Western Digital 1 TB Caviar Green SATA (x2)
TV Tuners	Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1600
	VBox Cat's Eye 164e
Case Fans	Antec 120mm Case Fan (2)
Operating System	Windows Vista Ultimate

Component

Part/Model

Case

Antec Fusion 430

Processor

AMD X2 3600+ AM2

Motherboard

A7GM-S AM2/AM2+

Power Supply

430 Watt ATX12V v2.0 (included w/case)

Memory

Corsair XMS2 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800

Video Card

onboard Raedon 7600

Audio Output

onboard HDMI

Optical Drive

Sony DDU-1615 16X DVD-ROM

Hard Drive

Western Digital 1 TB Caviar Green SATA (x2)

TV Tuners

Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1600

VBox Cat's Eye 164e

Case Fans

Antec 120mm Case Fan (2)

Operating System

Windows Vista Ultimate

I also have to mention some of the programs and plug-ins that I use, since they really enhance the Media Center experience (both on the HTPC and on the extender):

Media Browser - beautiful interface for ripped movies and television shows
Lifextender - a dead-simple program for removing commercials from recorded tv shows

Media/File Server

This machine has evolved from being an always-on server to a backup resource. It runs Windows XP; I really want to try Windows Home Server at some point, but it doesn't make sense for me right now to have two computers running at all times. So this pc currently serves as a print server, backup, and DVD ripper.

Component	Part/Model
Case	Antec Sonata II
Processor	AMD Sempron 2800+
Motherboard	Biostar NF325-A7 Socket 754
Power Supply	Apevia CW500WP4
Memory	Super Talent DDR400 512MB (x2)
Video Card	Sapphire ATI Radeon 9550SE 128MB
Optical Drive	Asus DRW-1612BL
Card Reader	Super Talent INT-AIN1-C
Hard Drive	Samsung HD400LJ 400GB SATA2 (x2)
	Western Digital 40GB PATA
Case Fans	Antec 120mm Case Fan (2)
Operating System	Windows XP Professional

Component

Part/Model

Case

Antec Sonata II

Processor

AMD Sempron 2800+

Motherboard

Biostar NF325-A7 Socket 754

Power Supply

Apevia CW500WP4

Memory

Super Talent DDR400 512MB (x2)

Video Card

Sapphire ATI Radeon 9550SE 128MB

Optical Drive

Asus DRW-1612BL

Card Reader

Super Talent INT-AIN1-C

Hard Drive

Samsung HD400LJ 400GB SATA2 (x2)

Western Digital 40GB PATA

Case Fans

Antec 120mm Case Fan (2)

Operating System

Windows XP Professional

Sony VAIO VGN-FS351J/H Laptop

This has pretty much become our home PC. It's used to surf the net, check email, manage finances, etc. It's also doubling as our Blu-ray player for the living room. This is our second VAIO laptop and I've been very pleased with them - they have too much crapware on initial purchase, but they are sleek and well-built machines.

Component	Part/Model
Processor	Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 2GHz
Memory	4 GB DDR2 6400
Optical Drive	DVD-RW / DVD-RAM / BD-ROM
Hard Drives	320GB 5400 SATA-150
Operating System	Windows Vista Home Premium

Component

Part/Model

Processor

Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 2GHz

Memory

4 GB DDR2 6400

Optical Drive

DVD-RW / DVD-RAM / BD-ROM

Hard Drives

320GB 5400 SATA-150

Operating System

Windows Vista Home Premium

Media Center Extenders

Two extenders serve up media from my Vista Media Center HTPC in the basement: an XBox 360 in the living room and a D-Link DMA2100 in the gym. The 360 is loud, but it's powerful and works very well as an extender. The 2100 is super quiet, but not as powerful (there's always a trade-off somewhere, isn't there?). I'm hoping to grab a standalone extender for our bedroom, but there's no real hurry (and I'd have to find a really good price).