LANCOZA Blog

No sooner had I announced my return, than I disapeared again. It's all a bit of a haze, but all I remember is long days and late nights and not much else.

 Part of it was some much needed rest and relaxation but for the rest I was still working behind the scenes to get the new site up and running.

I did manage to sneak in two movies, the much hyped Avatar . It was the first 3D movie that I watched and it was phenomenal. Try not to buy into the hype or other people's opinions and go and judge for yourself, James Cameron really is a master story teller.

 I also watched Sherlock Holmes because it was done by Guy Richie , I was not expecting a classic rendition of the books. It is essentially Guy Ritchie's take on Sherlock Holmes including the signature slow-mo fight sequences. Purists of the genre may be disapointed.

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. My other life has taken over for a bit but I have managed to wrestle my way back.

 As a special treat, have a look at the Iron Man 2 trailer . Iron Man was not one of my favourite comic book series but the movie is definitely my favourite adaptation.

 Scarlett Johansson + sexy robotic exo-skeleton. I think that I need to change my pants now ... 

I have been looking for a complete solution for my multi-media centre requirements for quite some time. The original problem was in finding a device that could accomodate the plethora of media types that exist in the wild. With the mainstreaming of HD television's , HD media has become far more prevalent and with it the MKV container.

The other problem was in connecting the device to my Home Theatre system without too many wires snaking across the floor. I received a Eureka media player as a present and it works very well but it does not have a network connection which is a serious weakness and it cannot play MKV files.

My ideal media player was the Mvix with its network connection although it too cannot play MKV files. The price is prohibitive and I could never really justify the purchase. With the WD TV Live , my world has been rocked. It can play the full gamut of media types - including MKV, it accomodates any USB drive and has a network connection. In addition it has a Full-HD 1080p output and can connect to a USB wireless adapter so that there is not need for a network cable snaking across the lounge. It is also priced at about half the cost of an MVix which really seals the deal for me.

If I am very good, perhaps Santa will drop one off at my house this year - who knows ...

District 9 has made more than 37 million dollars in its opening weekend. Considering that it cost 30 million to make, it is already profitable which is no small achievement. In addition to that it has also beaten GI Joe at the box office, which is fantastic.

District 9 opens locally on 28 August. If you live next to Osama and don't know what the movie is about, have a look here .

Sony has finally revealed the long rumoured PlayStation 3 slim. The slim version has all the features of its fat big brother except for the ability to install Linux, no real loss there.

The slim will have a 120GB hard drive , it will be 33% smaller and 36% lighter. The unit will cost R2399 ($299), it will be available from September. The current 80GB version has been reduced to $299 but for my money I would wait for the Slim and cash in on the bigger hard drive.

You can have a look at the new Slim here. I like the smaller form factor, at least it no longer looks like a George Foreman grill. As soon as I have information about the local relase date and price, I will updatemy blog.

If Ninja Gaiden was re-imagined as a movie I am pretty sure this is what it would look like.

I went away for the long weekend and feel like my batteries have been re-charged. It was good to spend some time away from my PC. Aside from a TV which played movies for the littles ones, I did not spend any time interacting with technology.

A few bits of news that are noteworthy, the new Xbox Live update is available today. It is a mandatory update and will include the following: An Avatar market place, downloading games on demand and allowing you to rate any Xbox Live content. Given the price of local bandwidth, I don't think that downloaded games will be a viable option for us but it is an interesting development. Digital delivery does appear to be gaining momentum.

The PlayStation Slim rumours simply will not die. Now we even have an estimated retail price of about R3400, provided of course that this is not another fabricated post. There is also speculation around a September release date.

In line with my policy of not watching too many movie or game trailers, I saw the District 9 info but did not watch the trailer, not wishing to spoil any part of the movie. I had the vague notion that it was some alien/sci-fi action movie, I had also heard Peter Jackson's name bandied about. Upon closer inspection it turns out that Peter Jackson is the producer and it has a South African director, Neill Blomkamp. District 9 is based on District 6 in Cape Town and the aliens versus humans dynamic has obvious paralells with Apartheid South Africa. From the trailer it looks like it will have good special effects at the very least. The movie opens locally on 28 August.

Say what ?

I went to see Watchmen on the weekend, and I want my three hours back. I should have chosen Valkyrie but I thought that Watchmen would be an easy action blockbuster - I was wrong. I saw the trailer and it looked promising - another mistake. It has the same director as 300 which was not horrible - but perhaps that was another warning. I was probably misled by the fact that it was based on a graphic novel, I liked Sin City which was also based on a graphic novel.

I am not familiar with the Watchmen comic series and by all accounts it pushes the boundaries of the comic book genre which is also the reason why the creator believes that it cannot be adapted to film . The writer, Alan Moore had his name removed from the credits of the movie and has refused any royalties from it.

The movie has great special effects and bone crunching fight scenes but the characterisation is poor. We have no idea why we should care about the characters in the story.

The acting is unconvincing, aside from Rorschach - the characters are not at all engaging or believable. I have seen reviews that mention that if you are a fan of the comic series, then the movie is exactly as you may have imagined a film adaptation would be.

My guess is that reading the comic book is a better use of your time.

Do not watch the Max Payne movie under any circumstances. I read the reviews and as always added copious amounts of salt. I was prepared for it to be a bad adaptation of the game which meant that I might have been able to enjoy it purely as a popcorn action movie. But it failed in the latter as well.

 The game is barely recognisable from the movie and as a plain action flick, it fails miserably. Save your hard earned cash for one of the many awesome game releases that are flooding in.