• Jeff Bridges continues to show his willingness to do a Tron sequel. He was more game than most people back when the original was made (it was not an easy movie to sell to a studio, let alone actors). Here’s hoping the sequel can finally get off the ground.
• Like the moronic DRM systems needed to be any more confusing. Sure am happy I don’t use any of ‘em.
• A spot-on article about the types of end-users those of us in IT deal with day-in and day-out. I have interactions with pretty much every type of person on the article’s list most days. And I agree with the assessments. I particularly agree with the dream user bit at the end. So very true.
• Amazon scores some points for showing a sense of humor. Good stuff.
• Best web site navigation design, EVER.
• Man, I continue to drool in anticipation of next Tuesday’s release of Blade Runner: The Final Cut on DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD. Bill Hunt has put up a wonderful review of the set.
• Speaking of Blu-Ray & HD-DVD, I continue to hate this format war. Case in point: Harry Potter & The Order Of The Phoenix. I had to do research into which version of the release I was gonna get, cause they have different features/content between them. Ultimately, I decided on the Blu-Ray version, cause the unique stuff on the HD-DVD was primarily interactivity kind of features, which I consider useless (yeah, I care about being able to host a viewing of the movie sync’d between multiple locations…). The Blu-Ray not only has content that the HD-DVD doesn’t, but more of it is in actual HD quality. I will say that the encode of Order Of The Phoenix on the Blu-Ray version I got is absolutely amazing looking. What a fantastic transfer. I also picked up the Prisoner Of Azkaban Blu-Ray, which I haven’t yet taken the time to check out. I didn’t pickup the big mega-set for Harry Potter, as it’s not only expensive but I didn’t have enough interest in the other films to justify it. I don’t love the first two quite enough to spring for ‘em without a good price deal (I figure they’ll be included in the 2-for-1 deals that are so common for the HD formats at some point). I don’t like the 4th film, so I obviously didn’t pick that one up. The third and fifth are excellent movies, though. Had to snag those. I’ve flip-flopped my support between Blu-Ray & HD-DVD a couple times to date, and given their pro’s and con’s, I’m just gonna say I don’t support either higher any more. Frankly, I don’t care who wins, as long as somebody does, sooner rather than later. Frankly, I think Blu-Ray’s larger storage space is a big pro for the format (yeah yeah, HD-DVD is trying to get a 51 GB triple-layer disc out there - we’ll see), as it affords more space for higher quality encodes for extras on discs (Witness the Order Of The Phoenix release - which also had many more languages included, not that I care specifically about that).

While this movie doesn’t break much new ground, it’s solid enough to be entertaining, thanks largely to the talented cast.

Writing: Written and directed by Peter Hedges, who had previous written and directed the great independent movie Pieces Of April, the story revolves around family. Unlike Pieces Of April, this is an openly warm and loving family. It’s kinda the opposite approach from Pieces, where you had a love story amidst a family that begrudgingly shows affection to each other. Like I said, nothing here you haven’t seen in another film (I was particularly reminded of the recent Family Stone), but it works all the same.

Production: The production is very straight forward. Nothing stylized or flashy here. This is a movie that’s about character development, where the production just stays out of the way and lets the cast and writing take center stage.

Cast: Here’s the real strong suit of the film. Steve Carell is excellent, of course. He’s certainly funny, but he down plays the comedic aspects and focuses more on the dramatic aspects of the performance. He definitely gives it a great everyman vibe. Juliette Binoche is a somewhat unexpected bit of casting, but she works well enough. Dane Cook is one of those actors who doesn’t have too much by way of varied acting skill, but he’s fine when given the right type of role. This is one of those roles. Other supporting roles are well cast. John Mahoney and Dianne Wiest work well as the parents. The the girls they cast do a fine job as the daughters. Brittany Robertson does perhaps a bit too good a job with the teenage girl histrionics.

Music: Norwegian folk singer Sondre Lerche is somebody I had zero familiarity with before looking up his credit as composer on this film. This is apparently his first film score (and his only as of yet). I remember little about the score beyond it being simplistic and average enough.