My Latest Purchase

In June I made a life changing decision, I decided to never again (never is a long time, but I’ll try my best) purchase music or movies on the iTunes store. I don’t have cable so I may still purchase a TV show or two just to keep up, but music and full movies are out.

Why? What is the method to my madness?

Well it all began a few years ago when iTunes started releasing movies. It was cool and novel but tragically iTunes could just not match the glory of a DVD or Blu-Ray case, a hard disc and all the special features that went along with them. Perhaps for some the movie is all they want, but I can’t bare to forego my making of, still gallery and director’s commentaries. So I decided I would not buy any movies with the iTunes store. (Back when they first added movies I got ‘Clue’ and ‘Rocky’ just to test it out).

However recently I have been thinking more and more about the music component of the iTunes store. I like it, but quite frankly it’s too easy, I just sit on my computer and get music, I feel like if I want music I should walk or drive (easier then walking not as easy as sitting on the computer) down to the local music shoppe and actually buy a CD which spins in my disc drive and scratches when I drop it. I guess you could say then that my main problem with iTunes is the lack of hard media, you know, CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Ray discs. That is one of two major issues that I have.

The other issue I have is something that I had been sitting in the back of my mind for a while but I really started thinking about after reading J.J. Abrams article in the May issue of Wired. It was an amazing issue and J.J. Abrams’s article was the crown jewel of the issue. Be sure to check it out. Basically J.J. basically stated that our lives are becoming too easy, you can get all the music you want without leaving your house and experiencing something new, you don’t hear music you haven’t heard before (maybe you don’t even like), you don’t see strangers flipping through CDs, you just sit at home and stare at your download’s progress. It’s easy, and the problem with that as the old saying goes “no pain no gain”. However that’s even becoming archaic because downloading music on your computer is just the opposite it’s “no pain all gain”, which is sort of a shame because if everything in life was free and easy people would become fat hermits who lived out of there beds (we’re not too far away from that). We have no social stimulus of any kind when we buy music online.

Now, please dear reader, don’t take this hate for purchasing media from the iTunes store as hate for iTunes. In my opinion iTunes is possibly the best program of the last ten years. I know there are a lot of haters, but I am certainly not one of them. It is really the best program to organize and listen to your music collection. And if I had to buy a song from the iTunes music store a month to keep iTunes I guarantee I would.

So in the interest of actually working up a sweat, smelling nasty smells, being stuck in traffic and occasionally getting a headache, I now purchase all my music at Borders and The Beat Goes On (which is a great place for cheep used CDs in the Kitchener/Waterloo area). It’s obviously not as easy or as convenient but I get a hard disc with album artwork and personal credits, I get fresh air and a chance to experience something I otherwise would not have.

Abrams, J.J. “The Magic of Mystery”. Wired May 2009: p76

Image: brucespringsteen.net

written by Travis \\ tags: Apple, Blu-Ray, Borders, CD, DVD, iTunes, J.J Abrams, Music, The Beat Goes On, Used CDs, Wired

I think when writing a review of this film one should state there bias, personally I watched a good bit of Star Trek the original series as well as the movies which featured that cast. I am by no means a Trekkie but I have an appreciation for the Trek universe.

That said, I want to make it clear, you do not need to know anything at all about ‘Star Trek’ to enjoy this film. It’s a prequel not a sequel, however for those who have seen ‘Star Trek’ it’s cool to see the back story that was mostly only alluded too in the past.

The film kicks off in high gear (the pace seldom slows over the corse of the movie) with an all out adrenalin fueled battle, during which young James T. Kirk is born.

We get a few scenes in Iowa setting up Kirk’s (Chris Pine) rebellious, delinquent, character. There’s a good western-style bar fight shortly after Kirk meets Uhura (Zoe Saldana). As Kirk is growing up on earth, Spock (Zachary Quinto) is growing up on Vulcan, conflicted: his mother is human and his father is Vulcan. Should he embrace the Vulcan way of life: pure logic? Or the human way: less logical more emotional? Life’s tough for a multi-species kid.

Back on Earth, Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) walks in and breaks up the bar fight. Knowing what an exceptional captain Kirk’s father was Captain Pike invites Kirk to enlist in Star Fleet, Kirk curtly declines but later reconsiders.

Kirk boards the ship that will take them to Star Fleet headquarters, along with Uhura and several of the guys who beat him up the night before. On board Kirk meets Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy (Karl Urban) and strikes up a conversation.

At the academy Kirk and Spock quickly begin a rivalry after Kirk cheats and passes Spock’s ‘unbeatable’ test. Kirk is taken before the academy leaders and tried for cheating however before a verdict is reached word comes in that Vulcan (Spock’s home planet) is under attack. With Captain Pike in command Spock, Bones, Uhura, and Kirk (with some help from Bones) board the brand new Star Fleet vessel “Enterprise” and set off for Vulcan.

That’s really just the beginning. As I said this film moves fast, but it’s well written and easy to fallow.

About the writing: it’s brilliant. Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman were able to reboot one of the largest and most beloved franchises of all time, making it very accessible to people who have never even seen one episode without alienating the fans. There were moments of genuine sadness, in which you really felt empathy for the characters. The writers also found room for quite a bit of humorous banter: part of the reason the original show and movies were so beloved.

The large ensemble cast which included, Eric Bana, Leonard Nimoy, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Winona Ryder and Anton Yelchin hit most of the notes perfectly. The resemblance between some the films young actors and the original cast is almost uncanny.

This film is beautiful, literally, every frame looks as if it was painted my a master. Daniel Mindel (who collaborated with J.J. Abrams on MI:3) did in incredible job playing with light. When you see ‘Star Trek’ you’ll notice the incredible use of light which seems to radiate from almost every part of the enterprise.

Well written, well played, well shot and well scored. This is an excellent motion picture, it also reinforces my opinion: J.J. Abrams is a genius (that really did not need to be reinforced).

Rating:

written by Travis \\ tags: Alex Kurtzman, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Greenwood, Chris Pine, Daniel Mindel, Eric Bana, J.J Abrams, John Cho, Karl Urban, Leonard Nimoy, Roberto Orci, Simon Pegg, Star Trek, Winona Ryder, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana

Take a good look at that poster, yeah I know everybody’s seen it like a million times sense it was first released but it to me it never gets old, it’s one of the best/most provocative posters of recent years. But enough with the marketing campaign lets move onto the film…

The story begins with a group of twenty-something year olds awaiting the arrival of there friend Robert Hawkins (Michael Stahl-David) at his flat. He is about to leave for Japan and the group is having a surprise good bye party for him. The seldom seen Hud Platt (T.J. Miller) is given a camera to document the events of the night and so Rob will have something nice to remember his friends with whilst he is in Japan. Hud goes from person to person capturing there good-bye’s, the entire film is seen through the lens of Hud’s camera as he insists on carrying it everywhere.

The party is disrupted by a temporary power-failure and earthquake like trimmers, the group goes to the roof for a better view. On the horizon we see a building explode, rubble rains down from the sky unto the roof. Hud and the others run down the stairs in a very chaotic and claustrophobic sequence where the camera is bounced all over the place. Emerging on the street the camera pan’s up and we see one of the most accelerating images of the film (I would not want to give it away but it’s in all the trailers); the head of the Statue of Liberty.

The rest of the film chronicles the events of Rob, Hud, Lily Ford (Jessica Lucas) and Marlena Diamond (Lizzy Caplan) Searching for a girl Rob has loved sense collage.

After the first tremor the rest of the film is a hard core thrill ride filled with action and some very well done suspense scenes. Lots of people and critics have been likening the events and images in the film with those of 9/11, sky scrapers leveled to heaps of smoldering ash, people running in a confused state, people screaming it’s powerful stuff. Some have criticized this film for hitting two close to home but I disagree, New York is always a target for monster movies and the images of 9/11 have changed the way those monster and disaster films are made, there’s no doubt about it but I definitely don’t think there’s any exploitation.

Another thing that struck me about the film was how intense and violent it was for a PG-13 movie. There’s plenty of bloody wounds and images of carnage, lots of language also, I think if this had been made in the early 90’s it would have definitely received an R rating. I often compare films like this to The Matrix (the first one)- if that film had been made today I think it could have pulled off a PG-13 rating.

I liked it, a lot. It definitely had it’s flaws, quite a few of them however, it was a very intense and enjoyable film.

On a closing note, I want to briefly talk about the shaky-home video style in which Cloverfield is filmed. I liked it, it worked for the movie, it was an interesting and pretty original (I know, I know Blair Witch did it 10 years ago) way to shoot the film. I just hope this does not become a popular thing to do, in other worlds I hope it’s not a trend setter.

Rating:

written by Travis \\ tags: Cloverfeild, J.J Abrams, Matt Reeves, Mike Vogel, Travis's Review