• YIPPIE! Looks like the WGA strike is at an end. The final ducks have to put in the row, but looks like that light at the end of the tunnel is about to be within reach. Here’s hoping it goes smoothly to get them all back in play on Wednesday. Now, to see what the results of all this fallout with finally be. The Oscar ceremony will be cutting it darn close. Let’s hope they can get things in order quick enough to get the ceremony under control.
• This presenter’s “Immigration Gumballs” speech is spot-on.
• The Microsoft takeover of Yahoo may end up being rejected. It’ll be interesting to watch this play out.
• Check out this awesome Vanity Fair piece, recreating Hitchcock with modern actors.
• A hilarious tally of kills (and other facts) about the Rambo films. I’ve got my review of the new film pending. I liked it, despite the simplicity. But yeah, it’s a VIOLENT film (I’m actually surprised the total kill count is only as high as 236). It’s interesting that the first and last film are the two that are more grounded in realism, and they are on the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of the amounts of violence.
• Speaking of hilarious, here’s a 1985 Cherry Coke commercial. It’s, like, totally awesome.
• A great write-up on the historical computer failure known as Coleco’s ADAM. I own a couple ADAM computers, and used them as a kid to do reports and such during elementary school. I have a nostalgic fondness for the system, but the design flaws it had were anything but subtle. The printer was flaw number one. It was also flaws number two through ten. The fact that it was the only possible power supply for the system meant that even if you were never going to use it, you had to keep it in the mix. And it was unwieldy and big. It was also INSANELY noisy, even for a daisy wheel printer. Let’s just say that the printer was a joke of an excuse for every single function it served - and it sadly server more functions that it should have. The tape drives were also the other primary weakness, as the article pointed out. Still, I remember that system with fondness. The ColecoVision game system is a different story. I completely loved that system, and not just for nostalgia reasons. It’s still one of my all-time favorite game systems. The ColecoVision rocked.
• I’m your KITT… Cool news that Val Kilmer is now going to be the voice of KITT. The reason for the recast may be stupid, but I’m all in favor of it.
• I finally got around to picking up the CD for James Newton Howard’s score to I Am Legend. I remember liking it when I saw the film, but clearly I wasn’t paying too close attention. I’m really loving this score on CD. What a gorgeous main theme he laid in to the score. Reminds me a bit of his beautiful theme work from King Kong, with an almost hymn-like texture to it. Howard’s scoring over the years has been widely varied, and I very often under appreciate him as a composer.
• I’ve also been catching up on the last couple episodes of House. Not counting cable shows like Battlestar Galactica, which work on a different season schedule and such, House has been the best this season of the returning shows. This has been the best season of the show to date, which is quite an accomplishment for being the fourth season of a medical procedural. Granted, this isn’t the most typical medical procedural. House made some marks in the record books with the episode that aired following the Super Bowl (which was a fantastic episode, btw). Pushing Daisies, of course, easily qualifies as the best new show of the season. But unfortunately, it ran out of new episodes thanks to the WGA strike.
• Cool, Amanda Seyfried (Lilly Kane from Veronica Mars) has joined on to Jennifer’s Body. I already wanna see the movie since the team of Diablo Cody & Jason Reitman are writing and producing.
• Here’s a cool compilation of jets making high speed fly-bye runs.
• Another volume of Greg The Bunny is coming on DVD.
• Holland is prepared to float
• Hey, I just noticed that the list of quotes I’ve added to bit-by-bit over the years has hit the 300 entries mark (it’s where the random quotes on the top of this site are pulled from). Neato.
• Ah, just Smurf it all…

• Son of a…… So Universal didn’t stop releasing Sliders on DVD after the 3rd season release in 2005 after all. They’ve suddenly announced the pending release of season 4. Excellent. Now, if only Sony would release the second (and last) season of Ned & Stacey, Fox would release the last 3 seasons of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, the last 2 seasons of The Bob Newhart Show, the second (and last) season of The Loop, Warner would release ANYTHING beyond the first season of Everwood (heck, they need to release the first season of Everwood CORRECTLY), anything beyond the first season of Night Court (best of collections DON’T count), BBC would release the second (and last) season of Manchild, MGM would release ANYTHING beyond the first season of the new Outer Limits series (and stop constantly re-releasing the classic Outer Limits). I think that covers the series that have had partial releases then dropped off the face of the earth. Oh, and Sony, get going on those Parker Lewis Can’t Lose sets. Seriously. It’s my mostest wanted series on DVD that is yet to get any release.
• I’m 2 chapters into a fascinating book I picked up yesterday. I had a 40% off coupon for Borders to burn off and did my usual perusal through the Media book section. I stumbled upon a new book titled Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise and Fall of the WB and UPN. I’m a TV nerd, and knew the broad strokes of the story and some of the players involved, but this book covers it in such wonderful detail and insight. The WB was my favorite network during the majority of its 12 year run, so it’s interesting to find out how things really went down behind-the-scenes. The book is well written and has already revealed far more than I ever knew about the formation of the networks. I’ll be reading this book during my meals (my typical routine) with great interest over the next week or two. Highly recommended.
• Happy birthday to the transistor - 60 years old yesterday
• Arthur Clarke has released a brief video on his 90th birthday (the man just keep on going…)
• Speaking of Arthur Clarke, it looks like Morgan Freeman continues his quest to get the Rama movie made.
• Here’s an amusing write-up on why you should make the upgrade from Vista to XP. I agree with many things it said. I made this upgrade on both my home desktop and work laptop, and was very happy after having done so.
• Speaking of which, PC Mag has named Vista the #1 tech disappointment of 2007.
• A funny cop story
• A perfectly executed jump
• I Am Legend had no trouble at the box office
• Unknown actress Gemma Arterton has been cast as the next Bond girl
• I’ve got more reviews rolling in, just not as fast as I’d hoped (raise your hands, all you who are surprised)

Make no mistake, this is a flawed and uneven movie. That said, much of it is excellent.

Writing: The plotting of the story is all over the place in terms of quality and logic. Frankly, if the last act of the film could have been anywhere near as good as the first act or two, this would have been a stellar success. The nihilistic, isolated and desperate nature of the first half of the film works fantastically. It’s when this story tries to resolve itself where things completely fall down. If they could have tossed the need for a (nearly) happy ending, or even a resolution of any kind, it would have worked so much better. Add to that some poorly defined character traits and some very flawed physical staging in the later part of the movie and you’ve got a script that needed another pass or two by some first rate script doctors.

Production: Having said all that, the film is still very engaging and entertaining. Much of it is thanks to some mostly fantastic visual effects and cinematography work. The VFX of the devastated and lonely New York City are jawdropping and stunning. Absolutely fantastic visual effects work. Which is a shame because the creature effects and animation leave a whole lot to be desired. Not only do they feel completely fake, but they’re VERY generic of the zombie genre. These zombie-like creatures that the human have become are almost completely ineffective on screen. Recent movies like 30 Days Of Night have done far, far better a job through far more simplistic means. Cinematography by Andrew Lesnie is fantastic throughout. He brings the sense of grandeur and style displayed with the Babe films and Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy and King Kong. This might not be quite as stunning in cinematographic terms as his work on King Kong, but it’s still darned impressive.

Cast: This is pretty much a one man (and one dog) show. There are a few supporting performances, but for the vast majority of the film this is the Will Smith show. Thankfully, it’s one of his best performances. No matter the scene, he’s giving it his all. And from dramatic to comedic, it all works. Even when logic is gone and story falls short, Smith’s performance is still going strong. It’s the most consistently impressive thing about the film.

Music: Unlike the plotting, James Newton Howard hits his best moments during the final part of the film. He’s got a gorgeous, delicate requiem of sorts that works amazingly well. I can’t wait until the CD release just for that one theme/cue. He’s got a talent for the gorgeous melody with lush orchestration, and he sure pulls one off for this film. The rest of the score is pretty sparse, but effective. Definitely some fine work.

• I’m writing this as I sit here listening to the new 3 CD set of the Blade Runner soundtrack. I scrounged up an early copy online to check out. Don’t worry, I’ll be buying the set when it comes out next Tuesday. The Blade Runner/Vangelis/film score nerd in me just couldn’t resist hunting it down early to check out. It’s a great set, btw. The first CD is a repackaging of the existing soundtrack CD from the early 90’s. The second CD is a bunch of unreleased material from the original score. It’s a very cool disc for us fans. It has a style and flow of its own, surprisingly well rounded away from both the film and the first CD material. It’s mostly the lower key, moody material. A cool CD to play in a dark room during the late hours while you’re typing away at the keyboard. Disc 3 is odd but cool. It’s assembled kinda like the first disc, as primarily music with some dialog thrown in as atmosphere. This material, however, is newly created and not from the film itself. Much of it is a reworking of material from the film, both musically and in terms of dialog (moody and atmospheric). Yet it’s also kind of an album in and of itself. It’s easily as cool to us Vangelis fanatics like myself as it is to us Blade Runner fanatics (guilty as well). It could do with less saxophone, though (but that’s just me and my dislike for that instrument). It’s like having the Vangelis of old back again.
• As you’ve likely noticed, more movie reviews are starting to finally appear. I aim to have all remaining reviews posted by the end of this weekend.
• NYC cops are taking entrapment to the next level. Good grief.
• A nice collection of photos from the recent Mutant Enemy Day on the picket lines for the WGA. If you’re looking for more video and photos of the day, there’s tons and tons of it online. Just do some searching.
• Johnny Depp as Pee-Wee? Hmmm. That’ll surely be interesting.
• Journeyman has apparently bitten the proverbial dust
• Avatar has been pushed from summer of 2009 to winter of 2009. Hmmm, a James Cameron movie getting bumped from summer to winter? How unusual.
• The overzealous RIAA continues their shenanigans
• OK, I’m off to the midnight preview screening for I Am Legend. I might get my review posted when I get back. If not, I promise to get it posted tomorrow.