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| Unique Visitors: 0 |
| Total Unique Visitors: 0 |
| Visitors Out: 2911 |
| Total Visitors Out: 2911 |
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| Things We Lost In The Fire (2007) R 119min |
| 2008-03-14 23:18:14 |
The plot: After her husband (David Duchovny) died in a tragic accident, Audrey, his wife (Halle Berry) is trying to piece her life together and take care of her two kids. The house is falling apart without a man in it, and she turns for help to her husband’s childhood friend Jerry (Benicio Del Toro), [...]...
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| Short video of Saturn through the telescope |
| 2008-03-14 01:00:53 |
Just came home from work, and wanted to glance at Saturn through my Meade ETX-125AT telescope. Wow, I had never seen it so sharply - I could even make up the orange color of the planet. The planet is very far, and at that distance human eye can’t make out the color and the planet [...]...
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| 10,000 B.C. (2008) PG-13 109min |
| 2008-03-07 19:26:37 |
The plot: Narrator (Omar Sharif) talks about a legend about a blue-eyes child. It’s a girl who was discovered by tribal hunters in the mountains clinched to the body of her dead mother. Her mother and their clan were killed or enslaved by the “four-legged demons”. The girl, Evolet (Camilla Belle), is adopted by the mountain hunters tribe [...]...
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| The Wicker Man (2006) PG-13 102min |
| 2008-03-07 14:51:43 |
This is a remake of 1973 British horror movie with the same title written and directed by Neil LaBute and starring Nicolas Cage.
The plot: a motorcycle cop Edward Malus (Nicolas Cage), traumatized by the road-side death of the occupants of the car he had stopped, receives a letter from his ex-fiance Willow informing him that [...]...
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| Over The Hedge (2006) PG 83min |
| 2008-03-05 20:03:52 |
This DreamWorks studio’s animated adventure directed by Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick won several awards, such as Best Family Film at Indianapolis International Film Festival and Best Animated Film at Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards. Some well-known actors have gave their voices to the characters.
The plot: A garbage-stealing raccoon RJ (Bruce Willis) is in debt with [...]...
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| Click (2006) PG-13 107min |
| 2008-03-05 00:43:24 |
Not a big fan of Adam Sandler, who always plays the same character: a good-hearted childish idiot. I’d never pay $10 for the movie ticket to see Adam Sandler, but I thought if I rent a DVD for less then a $1 he’d go well with my evening cup of tea.
The plot: Michael Newman (Adam [...]...
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| Vantage Point (2008) PG-13 90min |
| 2008-03-03 09:02:50 |
WARNING: this review may contain spoilers.
This is yet another fiction thriller movie about a President of The Fee World (that is, USA) being saved by his security detail.
The plot: President Ashton (William Hurt) arrives to Salamanca, Spain to attend a summit on global terror. Two secret service agents, Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid), for whom its a [...]...
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| La Môme (2007) PG-13 2h 20min |
| 2008-02-27 18:21:46 |
I got the DVD for La Môme (it’s released in USA under the title La vie en rose) from Netflix a few days before the Oscars but haven’t seen it until after. Needless to say, I was anxious to finally see it after Marion Cotillard won the Oscar for Best Performance By A Female Actor [...]...
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| My first photos of Saturn |
| 2008-02-26 00:55:46 |
Well today the sky finally cleared up, and I could get to the telescope early enough after work. The moon is rising 3 hours after Saturn does today. Saturn is very far, and it looks like a tiny star to the naked eye. Even in my telescope it looks tiny. When the image if focused, [...]...
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| The Devil Wears Prada (2006) PG-13 109min |
| 2008-02-24 00:14:18 |
The plot: Andrea Sachs’s (Anne Hathaway) dream was to become a journalist. A naive young woman, she comes to New York and scores a temporary job for the Runway [fashion] magazine working as an assistant secretary to ruthless, if not sadistic, chief editor Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep). Andrea puts up with her extravagant boss’s requests because [...]...
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| Lunar Eclipse February 20, 2008 |
| 2008-02-20 23:57:08 |
Today’s eclipse is the last one until 2010.
Unfortunately I missed the beginning, but as soon as I got home I set up my rig and began shooting. I captured the full eclipse and the beginning of the end, when the Moon started to show a thin crescent. Another unfortunate thing about this photo session was [...]...
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| Photos of the Moon and Mars (Feb 16, 2008) |
| 2008-02-20 23:35:48 |
The entire slideshow is here: http://public.fotki.com/MaxiMovieBlog/moon-and-mars-photos/
I looked up in the sky and saw Mars almost lined up with the Moon. I set up the telescope and the tripod with Canon EOS 20D camera, 300mm image stabilzing zoom lens and 2x telephoto adapter.
The difficulty of photographing the Moon and Mars together is that:
a) Moon and Mars [...]...
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| Lady in the Water (2006) PG-13 110min |
| 2008-02-20 12:50:07 |
M. Knight Shyamalan, the creator of “The Sixth Sense”, wrote, directed and starred in this fantasy movie based on the book he wrote for his own daughter.
The plot: an apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) rescues a woman from the swimming pool he maintains. She turns out to be not a regular woman, but a [...]...
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| Definitely, Maybe (2008) PG-13 |
| 2008-02-18 01:43:16 |
This is a new romantic comedy from the makers of Noting Hill and Love Actually.
The plot:Â Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds - Sabrina the Teenage Witch, In Cold Blood, The Outer Limits series, Dick, Van Wilder, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, Blade: Trinity, Smokin’ Aces etc), a 30-something man in the midst of a divorce, [...]...
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| The death of HD-DVD: Toshiba abandons HD-DVD. |
| 2008-02-16 23:44:11 |
It has become known on Saturday that Toshiba will abandon its HD-DVD format, resulting in the complete victory for Blu-Ray by companies like Sony, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Hitachi and Sharp. The format war has been going on since 2003. HD-DVD format has many advantages over Blu-Ray, but Sony and its partners had managed to attract movie studios, one [...]...
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| Video of the Moon through telescope (Feb 15, 2008) |
| 2008-02-16 18:06:24 |
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You need to have flashplayer enabled to watch this Google video Video of the Moon shot through Meade ETX-125AT telescope with just a simple cheap Canon A620 7.1MP point-and-shoot camera that can also take 640×480 videos at 30fps. The camera is mounted on top of 26mm eyepiece.
You won’t see THE flag, but you can quite [...]...
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| Fool’s Gold (2008) PG-13 113min |
| 2008-02-16 15:44:42 |
The plot: Ben Finn Finnegan (Mathew McConaughey) and his wife Tess (Kate Hudson) were passionate about each other and treasure hunting, but now they are fed up with each other and decide to get divorced. Just as Tess has begun to rebuild her life, working aboard a mega-yacht owned by billionaire Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland), [...]...
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| Becoming Jane (2007) PG 120min |
| 2008-02-14 01:19:30 |
Director: Julian Jarold
Writers: Kevin Hood, Sarah Williams
Producers: Jeff Abberley, Robert Bernstein, Julia Blackman, Graham Broadbent, Noëlette Buckley, Nicole Finnan, James Flynn, Tim Haslam, Morgan O’Sullivan, Douglas Rae, James Saynor
Original Music: Adrian Johnston
Cinematography: Eigil Bryld
Winner of American People’s Choice Award (Best Independent Film)
The plot: this is a biographical movie about Jane Austen (Anne Hathaway - The [...]...
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| Martian Child (2007) PG 108min |
| 2008-02-13 01:10:46 |
This is a feel-good drama starring Hollywood sweethearts John Cusack and Amanda Pete based on a novel “Martian Child” by David Gerrold.
The plot: a widowed science fiction writer, who writes about Mars, decides to adopt a child. He picks a 6-year old who claims he’s from Mars. A series of events happen that make the [...]...
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| Across The Universe (2007) PG-13 131min |
| 2008-02-11 15:09:10 |
This is a musical set in the 1960s. The music is based on over 30 Beatles’ songs.
The plot: an dock worker comes to United States from England to find his estranged father. There he falls in love with a teenage girl Lucy. When her brother is drafted into Vietnam, the young couple become peace activists.
The good: [...]...
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| There Will Be Blood (2007) R 158min |
| 2008-02-11 00:19:55 |
“There Will Be Blood” based on the novel “Oil!” by Upton Sinclair and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Cigarettes & Coffee, Punch Drunk Love, Magnolia, and of course several episodes of Saturday Night Live) who also wrote the script. It was in theatres in wide release for a month now, but the seats were all sold out [...]...
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| Vanity Fair (2004) PG-13 141min |
| 2008-02-08 01:52:58 |
I didn’t read William Makepeace Thackeray’s classic novel yet, but looking forward to it (should have read it when I was a kid - everyone I know did). The movie is directed by Mira Nair and script written by Matthew Faulk and Mark Skeet.
The plot: Becky Sharp (Angelica Mandy/Reese Witherspoon) was from a lower class, [...]...
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| Movies to see this weekend (Feb 08, 2008) |
| 2008-02-07 11:36:06 |
Opening in theatres in wide release:
Fool’s Gold (2008) PG-13 113min - Action/Adventure/Romance. Matthew McConaughey plays Ben Finn Finnegan, a treasure hunter on the hunt for legendary 1715 century Queen’s Dowry lost at sea, while trying to keep his wife Tess Finnegan (Kate Hudson) from leaving him. Ben Finn discovers a clue and convinces owner of [...]...
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| Bill Maher: The Decider (HBO Video/DVD) (2007) R 60 min |
| 2008-02-06 23:25:47 |
This is one of the best Bill Maher’s stand up comedy shows. He performs on stage in Boston in jeans and t-shirt, some time after the Bush’s “surge” began and presidential campaigns were at full speed, probably summer of 2007 when it came out live on HBO, ironically on the day Bush had a colonoscopy. [...]...
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| Movie Review: Rescue Dawn (2006) PG-13 126min |
| 2008-02-04 16:33:54 |
This Vietnam War drama was written and directed by Werner Herzog. The movie is vaguely based on Dieter Dengler’s book, “Escape From Laos”. The actual Dieter Dengler died just before the movie came out of ALS - Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Herzog previously filmed Dieter’s story a documentary in 1997 entitled “Little Dieter Needs to Fly.”
The plot: This is [...]...
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| Movie review: Away From Her (2006) PG-13 110min |
| 2008-02-03 20:23:36 |
This movie is a debut as a director for young Sarah Polley, based on short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” by Alice Munro.
The plot: A man (Gordon Pinsent) who’s wife Fiona (Julie Christie/Stacey LaBerge) loses her memory due to Alzheimer’s, has to commit her to institution. He has to cope not only with not [...]...
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| Movies to see this weekend (Feb 1, 2008) |
| 2008-01-30 19:13:32 |
Opening in theatres (wide release):
The Eye (2008) PG-13 1h 37min
In this remake of 2002 Hong Kong movie “Jian Gui”, a woman-violinist who’s been blind since childhood receives an eye transplant that happens to let her see into supernatural world. Terified by what she now sees, she tryies to find out to whom her eyes used to [...]...
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| The Lookout (2007) R 99min |
| 2008-01-30 01:25:36 |
This movie passed relatively unnoticed at the theatres: it wasn’t aggressively promoted, and other, bigger movies were also showing.
The plot: Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was once a great high-school hockey player, but after a car accident that kill two of his friends and Chris had a head injury that caused the short term memory loss. He takes [...]...
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| Rambo (2008) R 93min |
| 2008-01-27 01:10:49 |
20 years since Rambo III Sylvester Stallone has revived Rambo. He wrote and directed this new action flick. I went to the theater with very low expectations because Rambo in Afghanistan was a major disappointment.
The plot: John Rambo lives peacefully in a jungle in Thailand. When Christian aid-workers disappear amidst war in Burma, Rambo leads [...]...
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| “Murder she said” night |
| 2008-01-26 01:17:35 |
Tonight has been the night for detective stories. USA was showing new episodes of Monk and Psych, but before that I also watched a couple of Agatha Christie’s mysteries, some from Netflix’s collection. I loved Miss Marple series since I was a kid. Agatha Christie is brilliant. No wonder she made more money selling books [...]...
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| Movies to see this weekend (Jan 25, 2008) |
| 2008-01-24 01:23:10 |
Opening in wide release in theatres:
Meet The Spartans (2008) PG-13
Yet another spoof making a parody of everything from “300″ to “You Got Served” to Britney Spears. This movie was created by the same guys who made “Epic Movie”, which was complete garbage.
Comedy.
Rambo (2008) R
(a.k.a. Rambo IV, a.k.a. Rambo IV: Blood Ties, a.k.a. Rambo IV: Holy [...]...
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| SiCKO (2007) PG-13 123min |
| 2008-01-23 18:22:14 |
I live in LA, and I remember a recent “episode” that was all over local news when a security camera noticed the ambulance pull over in Skid Row and dump a lady with head trauma with almost no clothes on the street. The lady was disoriented, didn’t know where she was and had bandages over [...]...
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| The Reduced Shakespeare Company (2000) |
| 2008-01-22 17:05:54 |
A.k.a. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).
I heard an interview with Adam Long on NPR a few years back, and immediately added the film to my Netflix queue, but only now it arrived in mail. Damn, I have a long queue!
The plot: the Canadian trio performs on stage 37 plays by William Shakespeare in [...]...
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| Movies to see this weekend (Jan 18, 2008) |
| 2008-01-17 17:24:55 |
Opening in wide release:
Cloverfield (2008) PG-13 84minA going-away party in Manhattan is interrupted when a mysterious, giant-sized monster launches an attack on New York City. With camcorder in hand, a small group of friends make their way out into the chaotic streets, scrambling to stay alive. Mike Vogel, Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, Michael Stahl-David, Odet [...]...
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| Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) PG-13 145min |
| 2008-01-16 16:25:35 |
It’s interesting that Steven Spielberg was the executive producer of this movie. I didn’t read the book, but I interviewed some people who did and they said that the movie is mostly faithful to the 1997 best-selling novel, with just a few scenes dropped from the book for the sake of making film short enough.
The [...]...
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| HD-DVD still well positioned against Blu-Ray |
| 2008-01-15 10:57:17 |
Toshiba slashed prices to its HD-DVD players again this week. Now the entry-level Toshiba HD A3 player has suggested retail price of just $150 - very close to what regular DVD players sell for, while medium and top players, HD A30 and HD A35 with 1080p output now have MSRP of $200 and $300 respectively. [...]...
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| The Bucket List (2007) PG-13 93min |
| 2008-01-14 17:50:58 |
The plot: two terminally ill old men (Morgan Freeman and Jack Nickolson) in the cancer ward of the hospital owned by Jack Nickolson character decide to write a list of all the things they’d like to do before they die. Then they escape the the hospital to actually go on the road trip to see [...]...
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| HD DVD camp may lose more of its supporters |
| 2008-01-10 19:50:51 |
After Warner Bros. decided to commit to Blu-Ray and stop releasing their movies on HD-DVD in May 2008, the HD-DVD camp has been reduced to just Universal Studio and Paramount as far as Hollywood studios go. The latter has an “escape” clause in their contract to switch to Blu-Ray should Warner Bros. switch too (WB is [...]...
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| Movies to see this weekend (Jan 11, 2008) |
| 2008-01-10 03:37:14 |
Opening in theatres:
The Bucket List (2007) |Â PG-13Â |Â 97 min
Two terminally-ill old men escape from the cancer ward and go on the road trip with a to-do list of things to do and places to visit before they die.Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman star. Director Justin Zackham. Comedy/Drama/Adventure.
 Warner Bros.
First Sunday (2008) | PG-13 | 96 min
Durell (Ice Cube) and [...]...
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