Kimputer's Weblog

No surprise that Jim Carrey opens a movie at number one, this time it’s kiddie movie Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events with a very fortunate $30.2 million. Ocean’s Twelve falls down one place, second with $18.3 million. Spanglish, starring Adam Sandler, opens third with $9 million, while The Polar Express is on a steady course at 4, with $8.6 million. Not so sharp anymore is Wesley Snipes’ Blade: Trinity, only $6.6 million in its second week, just enough to stay in the top 5.

Rate 1 (FR#^&% MESS !) to 5 (how very tidy !). Only rate the latest picture, otherwise I can’t keep track of the average.

Total: 1230 out of 391 votes > Average is: 3.146

While it received plenty of mixed reviews, the critics failed to mention is was a children’s movie only. There’s only one theme going on, believing in Santa Clause, and keeping hammering on this will not retain any adult’s attention. You can’t fill a movie with sappy dialogue all the time, so in between, you’ll get the “adventure” feeling by all the mishaps that can happen on a magical train. By the third time this gets boring, but the visual galore that will ensue will have the kids gaping in awe. By now, still an hour to go, you’ve lost hope. No humor, no sensible dialogue, no depth. Even scrutinising the 3D animation, in this case called performance capturing, isn’t necessary, as the stiffness in movement reveals the capturing wasn’t that successful after all.
Even when I discard the skewed feeling I have towards this movie (a focus on the overall greater good, instead of just a plain white bearded Santa Clause would’ve been nice), it’s still a movie that falls short on every aspect of making it enjoyable.5+.

Yupz, that’s the little one’s age right now. It’s not easy to forget, as she was born was on a movie day, a Thursday, on which James Bond’s Tomorrow Never Dies opened here, one day before it did in the States. And as such, I got to see her after the matinee, logically. Easy enough to remember, right ?
But since this is my blog, I’ll continue to focus on just me. And the fact is, that I just received “The best uncle for the past 7 years” award of 2004 ! Howzdat ? Anyways, the (anonymous, but totally impartial) committee has disbanded already (they voted unanimously, by the way), so all you can do is react either at complaintsonthebestuncleofthepast7yearsaward@kimputer.is-a-geek.com or congratzwiththebestuncleofthepast7yearsaward@kimputer.is-a-geek.com

Oh, and before you want to send a complaint, read this first.

Rate 1 (sucks) to 5 (cool). Only rate the latest pictures, otherwise I can’t keep track of the average.

Total: 666 out of 206 votes > Average is: 3.233

It’s Christmas time, people are buying PC’s again. Trllalala (sing according to Band Aid tune)

Showtime’s only new entrance this year was renewed for a second season even before the first episode ever aired. Headlined by Hank Azaria as a psychiatrist, it’s one of the few dramatic roles he’s had. Including producer credits, you could say this is THE true vehicle for him to show his talents (besides voicing for the Simpsons and walking the dog in Mad About You, he did have a nice dramatic role in Shattered Glass). The pilot had promise, a dark mix between humor and drama. The second episode was almost mediocre, churning out a few cliches, but the episodes afterwards showed strength. Building on characters, story archs, fleshing out the relationships, and a few dark themes along makes the way this series a drama series that has more potential than meets the eye (as the current dourly ratings will attest). Touching different aspects continuously (family, patients, friends etc.) combined with strong writing has kept me watching, and probably will for a long time to come.

In the sci-fi world, Ronald D. Moore is a force to be reckoned with. He turned Star Trek: The Next Generation into a fun episodic series. Moving to Deep Space Nine, he made it a character driven show that was fun, had depth and kept evolving throughout its seven years. And this year, he’s given us a Battlestar Galactica revival.
The original series was easy to digest, simple formula in a simple format. It was a nice setup from Glen A. Larson (who later on gave us a decade of TV fun with Magnum P.I. and Knight Rider), but the finishing touch that makes this one special is definitely from Ronald D. Moore’s hands. The magic trick is hard to describe. Just writing the characters like they are isn’t just it. He’s able to make every episode stand on itself, while part of a whole arch. Some episodes are filled with intrigue and moral dillemmas while others have action paced special effects and nailbiting suspense. Twists and turns has every episode pegged as special, nothing alike any other show, sci-fi or not, not even itself. It’s too bad we’re already passed the first half, with only a few more episodes to go this year.

It’s everything you’d expect from a movie with a title like that. Unsophisticated humor combined with some heavy shit swearing and a tiny tiny bit of a story. Fully predictable, but still a believable class act jerk of a Santa, played by Billy Bob Thornton, teams up with little man Tony Cox. The funny parts are of course, when they’re bitching at each other. For the rest, the middle part is somewhat slow, and as a whole, is only mildly entertaining. Easily digested and already forgotten.6+.

Some major star power makes a tidal wave at the box office, as Ocean’s Twelve’s second heist is worth $40.9 million in ticket sales. Second place is for not so bloodthirsty Blade: Trinity, opening with a less than succulent $16.1 million (compared to $32.5 for Blade II). Third is National Treasure with $10 million, currently totalling a proudly $124.2 million. Almost near it’s destination is The Polar Express, carrying another $9.8 million, bringing the grand at $110 million. Rounding off the top 5 is Christmas with the Kranks, despite suffering from humiliating critic reviews, it still manages to bring in another $7.6 million (total at $54.8 million).

When a series’ highlight of over no less than 4 years is the slight change in the opening tune (a rhythm bass riff added for extra hipness), you know something is awfully wrong. If it wasn’t supposedly Star Trek, I’d drop it like a stone during season 2. But somehow, I keep giving it a second chance (by now, it’s the 47h time already).
Last season had a long story arch, with intermittent “reset” stories woven in. It drew hope, but as a whole, it finished below a mediocre grade. This season, after finishing off the story line, they’re trying another trick. Shorter, more focused story archs. Again, drawing hope, but also again, below mediocrity. Unlike story archs on Deep Space Nine, stories flow naturally on character development, but here it’s glued together with the same cliche bullcrap we’ve seen before. Added bonus is the extra eye candy on special effects, big sets and scenery, trying to please the big crowd. However, the sensationalist mindset, gets the worst out of the writers (now turning Vulcans into a bunch of warfaring emotional raving madmen). So this is the end, I’ll just pretend the last 4 years didn’t happen. You with me ?

This movie covers the short period of J.M. Barrie’s life where he meets the Llewelyn Davies family and how the Peter Pan play came to life. Subtlety is the word here, as the crude reality is not the focus here. Only slight hints are given and an imaginitive thread leads to a more glorified and inspirational story than what history suggests. The story builds slowly, and the focus is too narrow, covering not a whole lot of different aspects or subjects. This means some parts are dangerously close to sleep inducing.
The acting however (mostly Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet), is all up to par. Combined with an able director, you’ll get a just above average of what you expect from an independent movie.7+.

Yeah, it might not make any sense to most of ya. But I’m gonna say it anyways.

A WHOPPING 12.000 3DMARKS03 !!!!

Yeah, it’s that time again. Time for a new PC. As you can see, I brought all the stuff home. Picture 1 is everything unpacked. Picture 2 is work in progress. In picture 3 you can say hi to the new big bro in the room (albeit lying on its side having open heart surgery, coz I needed to pump 200 GB of data from the old hard disk to the new one) . And in picture 4, say hi to an even bigger bro flashing its screen.

Off to the specs:
Asus P5GD1, using Intel’s new 915P chipset
P4 3.2GHz socket 775
2 x 512 MB DDR400
Maxtor 300 GB sATA hard disk
Samsung DVD-/+ R/RW writer 16x speed
Asus AX800XT/TD 256 MB PCI-Express VGA card
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS Retail sound card
Coolermaster 450W power supply
IIYama E511S-B 20.1″ TFT

That’s about it. Worth 22 days not spend burning my ass of in a southern country or freezing my ass off up north. Pretty nice deal, if I’m gonna enjoy this for at least 2 years, wouldn’t you say ?

It’s nice of Bill to mention his Windows XP is soooo complete. Users couldn’t play DVD movies with their Windows XP Home and Windows XP Pro, out of the box. Even though they paid a premium price for the computer with DVD-ROM player and the Windows XP package. Luckily, any DVD program will do. It’s either on the DVD movie disc itself, or sometimes it’s included in the DVD-ROM retail package.
Then comes the new complete home entertainment (direct quote from microsoft.com) system from Microsoft. Windows Media Center Edition 2005. Essentially it’s XP Pro with a new skin and frontpage to interact better with a TV screen and remote control. So you can have a multimedia center in your room using your computer linked to a TV screen. Sounds reasonably nice, right ? Record TV, get the TV listing from the internet, timeshift watching, music, pictures etc etc.
So, here I am, finishing the first Windows MCE PC, hardware and software installs without a hitch. Then comes the TV testing. Decoder error. And I have to deliver this system tomorrow. And it’s 17.38.
Solution ? Well, a closer look at the Hauppage website (for the TV card) already mentioned this, though it’s not of much help. Digging further reveals what we’ve lived through earlier. Except this time, not any DVD program will do. A whole arsenal of programs have already been installed to no avail (WinDVD 4 & 5 & 6, PowerDVD 4 & 5) (everytime followed by a reboot, an uninstall and another reboot), and finally, I came across PowerDVD 6. And it works. (I’m talking demo versions of course, I wouldn’t dare downloading illegal Deluxe versions).
Moral of this story ? Complete is a dangerous word. Not only did you buy an expensive incomplete Windows MCE version, you’re in a whole lot of danger of buying the wrong extra DVD program.

Nicolas Cage is on a prolongend trip to find the National Treasure, already in its third week at the top, taking in another $17.1 million.
At number 2, despite horrible critic AND user reviews, Christmas with the Kranks has enough christmas spirit to rise one spot, collecting $11.7 million this week.
At the start three weeks ago, The Polar Express seemed to be running out of coal. Apparently an emergency supply has been uncovered, as it’s still rolling along happily, with another $11.0 million. The total standing at $96.4 million, another 64% is needed to break even.
Also still doing well are The Incredibles, with $9.2 million at number four (and a respectable $226 million total).
The kids choosing for The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie are good for $7.8 million, good enough to stay in the top 5.
A limited release for Closer (starring Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen), still manages to enter at number 6, with $7.7 million.
At number 7, Alexander clearly fell off his horse, bringing in only $4.7 million. A horrible total of $29.7 million, not even a fifth of the budget.