Talladega Nights

I saw Talladega Nights last night, and I liked it much more than I was expected. I heard from people that it was only alright and only funny for the first half hour or so, but I was actually laughing throughout the whole thing. In case you haven't figured it out, the plot revolves around the racing career of Ricky Bobby, but he gets into a bad wreck and has to get his life back together in its aftermath. While having many of the same people involved as Anchorman, I didn't find it as funny as Anchorman, and it had many more subtle jokes (probably why less people like it) though also a good amount of off-the-wall jokes. I felt it was a good mixture of the two overall that kept the movie entertaining, and even though it clocked in at only 90 minutes I felt that I got my money's worth (especially since it was a totally sweet DLP cinema). To me, the big problem with it was that it was confused as to what kind of movie it is. It was definitely a parody of NASCAR, but I think it tried to hard to make fun of other things as well (like over-zealous American conservatives) that the overall flow of the story began to fall flat. Some of the scenes that tried to bring heart couldn't decide whether to be funny or serious, and it made things awkward. Despite those things, it was definitely a worthwhile movie to catch with some buddies and so I'd give it a solid B. Not everyone will enjoy it, but if you go into it understanding that it's ok to laugh at even the dumb jokes, you'll have a great time. Just try to not go in after being saturated with the marketing campaign.

We may soon see high-quality, lossless audio on iTunes due to an upgrade in the iTunes Producer software that allows for the creation of lossless AAC files. These files would be a good bit larger and studios may even try to charge more for the higher quality, which I think would be ridiculous since it's the exact same music, but no word from Cupertino yet on their exact plans with this. Apple may soon find itself off of Nasdaq if they do delay filing their 10-Q quarterly reports, but I'm honestly a little confused on the source of delay. In any case, it sounded like this may come up again very soon so I wanted to at least bring it up real quick. Digital Trends, like many other sites, think that they have Apple's strategy with Leopard all figured out, and they're banking on further media enhancements. Their mistake is that they put too much stock in people being satisfied with OEMs and Windows except for media creation, whereas I think people are more worried about spam, viruses, familiarity, and the integrity of their system. Still, it's an interesting read if you buy it. Oh, and if you want to see more of the Mac Pro, you can check out a video walk-around of the system over at YouTube. Speaking of which, Time Warner is unveiling a service similar to YouTube called PhotoShowTV where subscribers can, for free (supposedly), create slide shows and videos and then share them with other Time Warner subscribers. It sounds cool in theory, but I just wonder how effectively they can pull it off. I've brought up the concept of group text messaging before and now Kiboze is trying to make it a reality, thought I wonder if the potential for obtrusive text messaging advertisements will hurt it. Samsung has developed a 3" VGA LCD screen that you may see on digital cameras in the near future, which would really be awesome. I love my SD 450's 2.5" screen, and I think that it's so much better and easier to handle than the 1" ones I've seen on pricier camera models. Lastly, a site called Famster has come to my attention that is really awesome and does what my brother and I proposed to do a while ago: create a hub for family information and pictures and such. I'm playing with it right now and highly recommend you at least give it a quick visit to see its features if you care about keeping in touch with more with your family and keeping a family tree.

Number one in the box office this weekend was Talladega Nights once again with over $20 million and edging out, get this, Step Up, which took #2! I wonder if Oliver Stone is pissed that World Trade Center was number three behind a poorly received dance movie, but it's still more than United 93 grossed its first weekend, which had much better reviews. Oh well, at least Zoom tanked (under $5 million). AICN has an early review of Scorcese's The Departed, and it sounds quite worthwhile. With a cast like that though, it's hard to screw up. There are also a few pictures from the movie online now if you're interested. Lastly, DOA may look like a horrible movie, but it has some hot chicks so I just have to share one of the several character posters the studio has released:



Now for some Unconscious Mutterings:

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Kim :: Bauer


2. Designate :: Driver


3. Liner :: Coat


4. Weed :: Pot


5. Infusion :: Asian (I'm thinking of Asian fusion restaurants)


6. Nutritious :: Delicious


7. Favorites :: Movies


8. Transform :: ers


9. 42 :: Math


10. Sunday afternoon :: Maroon 5