Tuesday 23 February 2010

TV

Mad Men
3x05 The Fog
[Watch it again in HD on iPlayer.]

Tinga Tinga Tales
1x05 Why Lizard Always Hides Under Rocks
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Alice in Wonderland will not be shown in Odeon cinemas
(from BBC News)
Hurrah to Odeon for sticking to their guns and standing up to Disney (unlike the other major cinema chains). On the other hand, Disney's attempted new model (which has been in the offing for a while) may indeed be the first steps toward the future of film distribution. With piracy on the increase something clearly has to change, and a shorter cinema-to-home window is one way to do this -- when there's no legal way to see a film (that period when it's not in cinemas and not out on DVD), people still have an excuse for obtaining content illegally. You'll never get rid of people who want something for nothing regardless of whether they should pay, but the music industry has shown that by providing viable ways to access content (in their case, downloads; movies may still want to pay attention to DVD and Blu-ray) you can significantly change the culture of how people acquire their content.

iPhone developers angry as Apple purges adult apps
(from BBC News)
For all their amazing hardware and fully-integrated software, sometimes Apple really suck. It's not so much that they have removed the adult content as the way they've gone about it -- no warnings to companies that rely on the business; excluding some stuff because it's 'well known' (or bribed, perhaps?); and all while they could just implement parental controls, which they surely must have a system for already as they sell explicit-branded music and 12/15/18-rated (or R-, in the US) films?
Poor show, Apple.

Worm Hunter makes shortlist for oddest title award
(from BBC News)
Afterthoughts Of A Worm Hunter and Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich have been shortlisted for this year's oddest book title award.
By its inclusion in the article title, ...Worm Hunter has clearly been deemed the oddest (at least by the press, and by extension their anticipated readers) and so should surely win.
The article also mentions that it "has not sold a single copy in the UK or US" -- bet that changes now!

new reviews at 100 Films

It's been an awfully long time since I last posted a notification of a new review at 100 Films to this blog. Mainly, it's a bit tiring posting a whole update here having done a whole review there, especially as I've been churning them out almost daily for weeks.

From now on, then, every Sunday will see a "this week on 100 Films"-style update. Yes, I know today's Tuesday -- starting next Sunday it'll be weekly, this is just everything since the last review.

So, since Avatar I've posted 24 reviews (24!), and they are...

  • Air Force One (1997)
  • An American in Paris (1951)
  • Anna Boleyn (1920)
  • Die Austernprinzessin (1919)
  • Die Bergkatze (1921)
  • Children of Heaven (1997)
  • Cinderella (1965)
  • Copycat (1995)
  • Culloden (1964)
  • Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin: From Schönhauser Allee to Hollywood (2006)
  • The Gruffalo (2009)
  • Hamlet (2009)
  • Hard Candy (2005)
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
  • Ich möchte kein Mann sein (1918)
  • Jumper (2008)
  • Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
  • Die Puppe (1919)
  • Rage (2009)
  • Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
  • Sumurun (1920)
  • Wallander: Mastermind (2005)
  • Wallander: The Secret (2006)
  • Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950)

  • As I said, more on Sunday...