Day: January 15, 2007

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Reviews

Review: Thunderball + Ultimate Edition James Bond

Hey hey! I finally went into Best Buy to pick up my James Bond DVDs as their warehouse still hadn’t sent them from my Boxing Day purchase. Sure enough, the store honoured the price I ordered them online for ($45 bones each!!!, down from $80) and I managed to get Volume 2 with a bonus 007 Scene It disc! Excellent day yesterday was.

So after realizing that my Xbox wasn’t making the cut in the DVD playing department (the Special Features disc had Japanese menus and I couldn’t figure out how to get rid of them) I switched my old DVD player on and it worked! I then rewired my entire home theater system so I don’t use my Xbox for watching DVDs anymore. It will only be used for gaming and watching files on the network (read: TV shows we download).

I was thinking of watching them from the beginning but am toying around with the idea of having ‘Nights of Bond’ again so I decided not to start with Dr. No, but to watch Thunderball as I had just read the novel last month and wished to see how it related.

Considering the novel had ideas from the producer, Kevin McClory, it stayed pretty true to the novel. I was very impressed and have realized that I’ve only seen Thunderball one other time in my life back in Long Sault with my buddy Regan. That was…13 years ago? Wow, it’s been awhile.

What’s the big deal with the Ultimate Editions of James Bond films I picked up? The digital restoration my friends! It was amazing. The picture…oh my…it looks like something created in 2007. The sound…the glorious DTS soundtrack…the bombastic horns when an action scene in in full tilt. This is what James Bond is supposed to be like.

Thunderball is an epic Bond film (actually the first filmed in Widescreen) and it makes use of the new technology (1965ish). The spanning vistas create a painting of exoticism. I never realized how great of a film Thunderball really was. It may be up there in my Top 5 Bond films. I believe From Russia With Love takes the Number One slot but I’ll have to watch it again to see if it holds true today.

The special features disc was pretty great also. Chock full of documentaries, I watched what the world was like back in ’65 when the movie was released – commercials spawning James Bond ‘Action Slacks’ for purchase were hilarious, as well as other oddities.

I am most impressed with the Ultimate Editions of James Bond and no doubt will have rave reviews for the rest of the series.

iplaying: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is – JET (Shine On)

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Uncategorized

Fiscal Genius

If I were in charge of making money off of a hit show, what would I do?

Well, first I would put it through the regular channels, aka sell it to a network, make the mucho buckos.

After that, heck, there are DVD sales.

The question is, how can I squeeze a little more money out of this TV show I have?

Season 6 of the show 24 started this week, and even though I have never seen this show (one day I will, one day), I am impressed with the marketing gurus who came up with this idea: Premiere the show on television, but before that, sell the first four episodes of the season on a $10 DVD.

Bingo. Those craving more just have to rush over to Future Shop and lay down the equivalent of eating out in a cheap restaurant and pick up the first four episodes of their favourite TV show before the slowpokes have to wait an entire month while watching it on television. Suckas.

Brilliance. I would like to think that there are people who would be fiscally-responsible and realize they are already paying for their TV cable connection, just wait and good things will come to you, but I have a feeling sales on this may be decent and will start a new trend in the serialized tv show/dvd craze which has taken our generation by storm.

Anyhow, I hope that I have provided some knowledge to those who didn’t know the first four episodes of 24 are available for sale and they are rushing out right now!

iplaying: Lovedrug – Mobile (Tomorrow Starts Today)

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Sens Vs. Canadiens

Saturday brought Vero’s Christmas gift to life – a hockey game! Saturday was Hockey Day in Canada, so what better way to celebrate than to head on out to the ScotiaBank Place?

Well, that must have been the thought of every other soul in the area as traffic sucked heading in there. We got there in time to see the puck drop, so that’s what counts.

In the ‘no-knowledge’ zone of Palmer, I had picked up some tickets that were in Row S. “Great!” I thought. “At least it’s closer than those poor souls who have to stand up in the top of the bowl (aka, the 900 Level). Little did I know that the rows don’t go from A-Z in my section, they went from A-S! So we were sitting in front of the guys standing up. Not a big deal. Armed with a beer and some peanuts, life was good. Vero pointed out the fact that salted peanuts in the shell aren’t actually salted inside, it’s the shell that’s salted! You know…it makes total sense, but I had never thought about it before.

We had picked up some Habs jerseys from Benoit (thanks buddy!) and were prepared for the onslaught of torture we would receive inside the Sens Home. However, I must say that a good portion of the crowd are Canadiens fans and we didn’t have a problem. In fact, our entire row were Habs fans so whenever someone started a cheer of ‘Go Sens Go’, we dwarfed them with our vocal might yelling “GO HABS GO!”

Unfortunately for us, the Sens TROUNCED the HABS in an 8-3 score. I don’t really follow hockey anyhow so I just like going to the game and hanging out with my girl, my beer, and my peanuts. Annie, Eric and Mike were appalled that we were there cheering on the Canadiens. I summed their feelings up by asking the following: “Well guys, if we all picked up and moved to Toronto who would you cheer for? Not the Leafs? That’s what I thought.”

We laughed at the little guys (aka the Timbits) on the ice during the intermission and had high hopes to win the 50/50 draw (so I can buy a MacBook!) but it was not in our cards that night. Plus, the Zambonis are always a treat.

A good game nonetheless, and I felt a moment of national pride taking part in something that all of Canada was taking part of on Saturday – Hockey Day in Canada.

iplaying: Looking Out – Mobile (Tomorrow Starts Today)