New Release Tuesday

This big,bloated summer movie took a beating from the critics and audiences stayed way.  This movie had tons of issues with bad weather, bad direction, the script, and then the Lone Ranger himself got busted for pot in Texas.  Now with all the bad things I just said about this it is not as bad as the critics or myself would lead you to believe.  The main issues are the movie is way too long and it is too big for itself as most Bruckheimer productions are now a days.  This is a western and the production went way over the top.  This was meant to be a trilogy and this movie actually got in the black with its over seas take but with the critical beating it took this will probably be the only Lone Ranger movie we will get.  So far Lone Rangers movies are 0 for 2 on the big screen.

This is my favorite show on TV right now.  It has a loyal audience and FX has treated the show well by bringing it back as season 5 starts on January 7.  Season 4 changed gears a bit and went with a robbery murder mystery that covered the whole season.  For the record I sniffed this whole thing out about episode 4 and let the all the office watchers know it so I could be proven correct.  Stars Timothy Olyphant and Walter Goggins are fantastic in this and are even better when they are on the screen together.

A good looking sci-fi flick and Matt Damon has a cool haircut.  Why did they cut it off on the cover?

I loved the first one but this came and went quickly at the theater with out much noise.  Look forward to checking this out.

Scream Factory brings us this cool 80's horror movie.   It stars the creepy Klaus Kinski as the son of a Nazi who runs an apartment house for women with secret passage ways in it.  I have not seen this since the late night Cinemax days so I have been looking forward to this title.

Another Reason Why Downloading or Streaming is a Failure

A little note from my friend's at The Digital Bits:

And here’s a little cautionary tale of the digital downloading age: Amazon may have recently pulled access to select Disney holiday titles from their Amazon Instant Video streaming service – at Disney’s request – even to customers who had purchased “ownership” of the titles.  One of the titles in question was Prep & Landing 2: Naughty vs. Nice.  Customers who experienced lack of access to this title were initially told by Amazon customer service reps that their access was pulled because Disney wanted to make the titles exclusive to their own channels for a limited time during the holidays.  But then Amazon hastily changed their tune in e-mail replies, saying instead:
“The problem you experienced was a temporary issue with some of our catalog data and it has been fixed.  If you still have problems, please let us know.  Customers should never lose access to their Amazon Instant Video purchases.  If they have any issues accessing purchased videos, they should contact customer service.”

Still, the Amazon Instant Video terms of use do say:

“Purchased Digital Content will generally continue to be available to you for download or streaming from the Service, as applicable, but may become unavailable due to potential content provider licensing restrictions and for other reasons, and Amazon will not be liable to you if Purchased Digital Content becomes unavailable for further download or streaming.”

Bottom line: When you “buy” digital content, you’re not really buying anything concrete and your access can be denied at any time, for any number of reasons.  This kind of thing has been a problem before and it will absolutely be a problem again.

I will continue to buy my movies on a disc so I can watch them anytime or anywhere I please.  

Lightsaber Safety

Happy Friday the 13th!

New Release Tuesday

Fast cars, crashes, babes, and muscled up bald guys make this series a huge guilty pleasure for many.  R.I.P. Paul Walker, he seemed like a pretty cool guy in real life and word is Universal is marching on with part 7 as they have shut down production to rewrite and figure out how to retire Walker’s character.   This looks like a lot of fun and we get one cool dude that shows up at the end of this.

Billy Bob Thornton is a pretty cool, normal dude that just throws out a lot junk about himself just to see what will stick and because of this people thinks he is a weirdo.   He does all this as he sits there and laughs to himself and thinks are these people (mainly the press) really going to believe this story?  The guy is a brilliant screenwriter as One False Move and Slingblade are fantastically crafted stories and he proved to be a good director too.   Billy Bob got frustrated with Hollywood as his version of 2000’s All the Pretty Horses was cut to shreds so he basically gave Hollywood the finger and only acts in about a movie a year to support his band the Boxmasters.  Unfortunately he gave up writing and directing until now.  Cannot wait to check this out and I hope it is successful so Billy Bob will give his audience some more scripts he is sitting on.  This has the great Robert Duvall in it so it is sure to be great!

I caught this in the theater and it was not as good as the first one but the smaller people here in the house enjoyed it.

It’s a spaghetti western with Lee Van Cleef.  What’s not to like?

Movie Poster Wednesday- Godzilla 2014

Pancake Monday- Special Iced In Edition

Today I served up Christmas pancakes for breakfast since the kids where home again and reflected on what happened over the long iced in weekend.  Think of it like my scatter shooting of the week.  Here is what I have in the barrel this week:

*Great College football season.  We end up with only one undefeated team to close out this season before the playoff format takes over next season.  It is always great to see Nick Saban stomp off the field like a mad four year old after a game.  I bet he puts a cover guy on long field goals from now on.  All right Florida State, time to see what you got.

*The local DFW weathermen are 1 for 2 in calling storms so far.  They whiffed badly for last weekend's storm prediction but made up for that calling this past weekend's perfect.  Four days, many cancelled events, two missed school and work at home days, and we there are still having many traffic issues out there today.  Over all it was a nice weekend as we did not suffer any injuries or damages, ate a lot of comfort food, and got many Christmas movies watched.

*I do not watch the Dallas Cowboys much anymore and since they are 7-5 everyone has playoff aspirations.  They are a not a good team and have the worst Cowboys' defense of all time.  I think 8-8 is a good record for this team with all the injuries they have incurred and the coaching they receive.

*Black Friday shopping has turned into idiocracy.   I can usually find what I am looking for in the store at nine on Friday morning instead of Thursday at six in the evening.  Oh and for all you people calling in Brown Thursday it is actually called Thanksgiving.

* The Rangers have ended the past two seasons with a thud and kicked Nolan Ryan out to the curb.  Real Rangers fans are a bit discouraged so the Rangers know they need to make an impact this off-season unlike last off-season.  So they start with a monster trade in doing a classic one for one trade in swapping second baseman Ian Kinsler for Detroit first baseman Prince Fielder and 30 million to pay part of his contract later on .  This definitely should boost the offense that was horrible last season.  It also gives Jurickson Profar the chance to be any everyday player now.  Word is Fielder wore out his welcome in Detroit only after two seasons so hopefully a fresh start somewhere else and the homerun porch will help him out.

* Yes, Die Hard and Lethal Weapon are Christmas movies.