Saturday, December 15, 2007
DVD Review: Bug
Title: Bug
Genre: Thriller
Certification in Singapore: M18 (probably due to nudity)
I love to watch horror movies. With a title like Bug, I was expecting a horror movie about bugs. They probably have some scary giant bugs in this movie. Good or bad movie, I don't care. I just want to see some scary bugs. Boy, I was wrong again.
Plot - The movie is centred around 2 characters, Agnes White and Peter Evans played by Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon. Agnes was a lonely waitress with a tragic past. Her son was abducted and she's escaping from her husband, an ex-convict (played by Harry Connick Jr). Agnes stayed in a rundown motel and one day her good friend R.C (played by lovely Lynn Collins)brought a newly acquainted male friend, Peter, to her place. Peter did not have a place to stay so Agnes allowed him to stay at her place. They later fell in love with each other. However, Peter had some dark secrets which Agnes would soon uncover. The dark secrets involved some government conspiracy and bugs infestation.
My viewing thoughts - Even though the movie sounded like a horror show especially when bugs are involved, I would describ it as thriller and it definitely wasn't scary in my opinion. You can't call it Science Fiction either. There's no scary bugs in this movie. I was pretty disappointed. Most of the scenes took place inside the motel room (probably above 80%). This is a pretty low budget film it seems. We don't get to see Agnes' son during her flashback. They show a candy machine to show that her son had disappeared. We also don't see a Pizza Delivery guy in the movie. We only hear his voice. Even IMDB shows 7 cast members only.
Trivia - The movie was actually based on a stage play and Michael Shannon reprises the stage role he was in previously. The movie was directed by William Friedkin who gave us The Exorcist more than 20 years ago.
DVD - The Code 3 DVD contains some special features. There's an interview with the director. There's also a short making-of featurette. Not a lot of features but I don't expect to see much special features anyway. Printed on the DVD cover is written "One of the most disturbing horror movies imaginable". Yea, right! You need to use your own imaginations, man. Cause it's not found in this movie.
The above picture shows the DVD menu. The bright light at the top right is just my camera flash, not some cool animations.Crazy Credit - There's a short scene in between the credit roll. I find it pointless for the filmmaker to include it in. It didn't seem there would be a sequel. The few seconds short scene didn't suggest anything, maybe they have spare film left?
My Recommendations - ...
Friday, December 14, 2007
DVD Review: I Know Who Killed Me
Title: I Know Who Killed Me
Genre: Thriller
This is my first DVD review. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the movie. :) I rented this movie a week ago. With a title like I Know Who Killed Me, I didn't have high expectations for the movie. I was expecting a cheesy slasher movie that could give me a few laughs. Boy was I wrong.
Plot - First, let me give an overview of the movie. The movie was about a girl called Aubrey Fleming (played by Lindsay Lohan) who was abducted and tortured by a serial killer. Luckily, she wasn't killed and was found 2 weeks later lying unconscious in the woods. When she regained her consciousness in the hospital, she claimed she wasn't Aubrey and her name was Dakota Moss, an exotic dancer. Nobody believed her and thought she was so badly traumatised by the ordeal causing her to suffer from delusions. (She didn't seem that traumatised to me, too calm actually). Now, Dakota must unravel the mystery surrounding her and Aubrey. And if Dakota and Aubrey were 2 different persons, then Aubrey would still be in grave danger. That's all for the plot. I would not give too much away here. :)
My comments - I find the story pretty interesting and I didn't guess correctly the identity of killer until it was revealed towards the end of the movie. This is a movie that may keep you thinking "Hmm...are they.....?" or "Is she ....?" even after the end of the movie. Oops...Hope I am not revealing too much here. This is not a typical slasher movie and the body count is few.
Effects - There are some pretty gory scenes and realistic special effects in this movie. They do not look cheesy at all. Some scenes could be pretty disturbing but I could still stomach them. :)
DVD - The DVD I rented was a Region Code 3 DVD. The running time as shown on the DVD disc is 102 min. According to IMDB, the running time is 105 min. Amazon website shows 106 min for the Code 1 DVD. Maybe there's a few min cuts for the Code 3 DVD. :( The Code 3 DVD that i watched did not contain any Special Features. According to the official website, the Code 1 DVD contains the following: Alternate Opening, Alternate Ending, Extended Strip Dance Scene and Bloopers.
The above picture shows the picture on the Code 3 DVD. The actual DVD case is not blue on the insides. The DVDs where I rented from come in blue cases. :)
Genre: Thriller
This is my first DVD review. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the movie. :) I rented this movie a week ago. With a title like I Know Who Killed Me, I didn't have high expectations for the movie. I was expecting a cheesy slasher movie that could give me a few laughs. Boy was I wrong.
Plot - First, let me give an overview of the movie. The movie was about a girl called Aubrey Fleming (played by Lindsay Lohan) who was abducted and tortured by a serial killer. Luckily, she wasn't killed and was found 2 weeks later lying unconscious in the woods. When she regained her consciousness in the hospital, she claimed she wasn't Aubrey and her name was Dakota Moss, an exotic dancer. Nobody believed her and thought she was so badly traumatised by the ordeal causing her to suffer from delusions. (She didn't seem that traumatised to me, too calm actually). Now, Dakota must unravel the mystery surrounding her and Aubrey. And if Dakota and Aubrey were 2 different persons, then Aubrey would still be in grave danger. That's all for the plot. I would not give too much away here. :)My comments - I find the story pretty interesting and I didn't guess correctly the identity of killer until it was revealed towards the end of the movie. This is a movie that may keep you thinking "Hmm...are they.....?" or "Is she ....?" even after the end of the movie. Oops...Hope I am not revealing too much here. This is not a typical slasher movie and the body count is few.
Effects - There are some pretty gory scenes and realistic special effects in this movie. They do not look cheesy at all. Some scenes could be pretty disturbing but I could still stomach them. :)
DVD - The DVD I rented was a Region Code 3 DVD. The running time as shown on the DVD disc is 102 min. According to IMDB, the running time is 105 min. Amazon website shows 106 min for the Code 1 DVD. Maybe there's a few min cuts for the Code 3 DVD. :( The Code 3 DVD that i watched did not contain any Special Features. According to the official website, the Code 1 DVD contains the following: Alternate Opening, Alternate Ending, Extended Strip Dance Scene and Bloopers.
The above picture shows the picture on the Code 3 DVD. The actual DVD case is not blue on the insides. The DVDs where I rented from come in blue cases. :) I recommend renting this movie even though it didn't give me a few laughs. However, I would not recommend buying due to the lack of Special Features. The back design on the Code 3 DVD's cover looks cheaply done also.
Check out the movie trailer on the right side of the page.
My new toy - Creative Zen
I just bought an 8 GB Creative Zen MP3 player 2 days ago. This is my first MP3 player that comes with a colour screen. I also bought a clear case for the player. :)
The brown box (as shown in the above picture) contains the power adapter that came free with the player.
From the above picture, you can see the player playing a video while inside the case. The picture didn't do the player justice as the video quality is really good. You can also see the free power adapter on the right. On the top is the shortest usb charging/transfer cable I ever seen (came with the player). I doubt I will be using this cable. As this is a standard cable similar for other usb devices, I will use another usb transfer cable instead.
The earphone (shown in the picture below) bundled with the player looks pretty cheap. The sound quality was just ok and I will be using another earphone instead.
The picture below shows a closeup of the player. You can see there's a slider to power on/off and lock the player. When the player is locked while playing a song, the screen will turn off to save some power. Pretty neat feature. However, the thick plastic clear case makes the sliding difficult, especially for people with short fingernails. It is easier to slide with fingernail than finger as the case makes it more difficult to reach.
The thick case is also making the front right buttons slight difficut to press. To take the player out of the case, you have to slide the case open from the back. That's pretty tough to do too. To slide the case close is even tougher. I probably won't be opening or closing the case often. If you do not like the carabiner-style key ring that came with the clear case, it actually can be removed and replaced. Even though my review may not sound favourable for the clear case, I did not regret getting a clear case. It protects my player and I do not need to worry about scratching my display screen. The screen protector pack (comes with 3 pieces) that creative is selling costs the same as the clear case. I find the clear case a better deal and it did not affect my viewing pleasure.
The brown box (as shown in the above picture) contains the power adapter that came free with the player.
From the above picture, you can see the player playing a video while inside the case. The picture didn't do the player justice as the video quality is really good. You can also see the free power adapter on the right. On the top is the shortest usb charging/transfer cable I ever seen (came with the player). I doubt I will be using this cable. As this is a standard cable similar for other usb devices, I will use another usb transfer cable instead.The package doesn't come with a hardcopy manual, only a Quick Start Guide. There's a user guide in the CD that came with the player. Creative calls it a manual but it's more like a guide to me. I prefer it to be in pdf format instead of this:
The earphone (shown in the picture below) bundled with the player looks pretty cheap. The sound quality was just ok and I will be using another earphone instead.
The picture below shows a closeup of the player. You can see there's a slider to power on/off and lock the player. When the player is locked while playing a song, the screen will turn off to save some power. Pretty neat feature. However, the thick plastic clear case makes the sliding difficult, especially for people with short fingernails. It is easier to slide with fingernail than finger as the case makes it more difficult to reach.
The thick case is also making the front right buttons slight difficut to press. To take the player out of the case, you have to slide the case open from the back. That's pretty tough to do too. To slide the case close is even tougher. I probably won't be opening or closing the case often. If you do not like the carabiner-style key ring that came with the clear case, it actually can be removed and replaced. Even though my review may not sound favourable for the clear case, I did not regret getting a clear case. It protects my player and I do not need to worry about scratching my display screen. The screen protector pack (comes with 3 pieces) that creative is selling costs the same as the clear case. I find the clear case a better deal and it did not affect my viewing pleasure.The front buttons on the player do not have backlight so if you are using the player in the dark, you have to use your instincts to navigate the buttons. This may take some time to get used to as the buttons are small and close together.
Those are my first impressions of this player. You may like to check out this player's video review by CNET on the top right of this page.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
My HDMI DVD player
My Philips DVD player (DVP5956K) supports multiregion DVDs and could upscale DVDs up to 1080i resolution via HDMI. I have no problems with watching Code 1 (US) and Code 3 (Southeast Asia) DVDs. I like the slim design and it has Divx certification and could even display subtitles for divx videos. There's even a usb port so I can connect a thumbdrive and play videos or photographs directly off the drive. I have a few minor complaints though. There's no DTS support and the subtitles may appear garbled occasionally. I am quite satisfied overall.
There's a new DVP5986K model that could upscale DVD's resolution up to 1080p. It supports both Dolby Digital and DTS. The retail price is S$200. The design looks similar to my player.
There's a new DVP5986K model that could upscale DVD's resolution up to 1080p. It supports both Dolby Digital and DTS. The retail price is S$200. The design looks similar to my player.
Philips DVP5986K HDMI Player
Saturday, December 8, 2007
My budget home theater setup
Hi everyone! I have a very simple home theater setup in my room. I did not spend a lot on this setup.
32 inch LG LCD (32LX2R) - S$3,200
Philips HDMI DVD player (DVP5956K) - S$250
Yamaha 5.1 Home Theater Sound System - S$279 (If I remember correctly)
All prices are denoted in Singapore dollars
32 inch LG LCD (32LX2R) - S$3,200
Philips HDMI DVD player (DVP5956K) - S$250
Yamaha 5.1 Home Theater Sound System - S$279 (If I remember correctly)
All prices are denoted in Singapore dollars
My messy theater :P
Both my TV and DVD player were bought about a year ago. My speakers should be older than 2 years (they still sound good enough for my ears). My existing equipment is already obsolete but I have no plans to upgrade at the moment. I am still satisfied with what I see and hear. I have a PC connected to this LCD and Sound System but I use my PC mostly for gaming. I prefer using my DVD player to watch DVDs. :)
I also have a portable DVD player but I seldom use it nowadays. I prefer to watch movie on a bigger screen. A portable player used to cost a lot in the past and my player cost me more than S$800.
My Shinco 8.5 inch portable DVD player
Friday, December 7, 2007
Why DVDs are great!
Hi folks! Welcome to my blog in which I will blog about my favourite pasttime. That's watching DVDs. Besides blogging about DVD movies, I may also review some tech toys that I bought. I love to watch and collect DVD movies mainly for the following reasons:
1) I can watch my favourite movies and scenes over and over again
2) The Special Features. If you love a movie, you would want to know what goes on behind the scenes.
3) Collecting dvds is a hobby just like collecting stamps. Sometimes you just have the urge to buy different versions of the same movie. Even if the sequels sucks, you may want to collect the dvds just for completeness sake.
4) The sense of achievement you will get when you have your favourite movie in your possession..especially those hard to find or Out of Print movies.
5) I can watch at the comfort of my own home.
6) I can pause, fast forward or stop the dvd and watch another day.
1) I can watch my favourite movies and scenes over and over again
2) The Special Features. If you love a movie, you would want to know what goes on behind the scenes.
3) Collecting dvds is a hobby just like collecting stamps. Sometimes you just have the urge to buy different versions of the same movie. Even if the sequels sucks, you may want to collect the dvds just for completeness sake.
4) The sense of achievement you will get when you have your favourite movie in your possession..especially those hard to find or Out of Print movies.
5) I can watch at the comfort of my own home.
6) I can pause, fast forward or stop the dvd and watch another day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)