Anoop Desai (Caught Up) - I think this is a little bit of a risky song. It's one of those songs that when you hear it you think about original artist. I think this was not the right song for him. The vocal was decent but it comes down to him picking the wrong song.
Megan Joy Corkrey (Turn Your Lights Down Low) - I will say this was better than she has been in previous weeks, but it still wasn't that good.
Danny Gokey (What Hurts the Most) - I don't think this was his best song but he did a good job with it.
Allison Iraheta (Don't Speak) - It started off good but when she got to the chorus she really lost it for me. This is one of my favorite songs and she did not do it justice.
Scott MacIntyre (Just the Way You Are) - It's a good thing he's blind because if he saw his hair he'd probably freak out. But aside from that the performance was really good. I still think he needs to get away from the piano.
Matt Giraud (You Found Me) - It's funny that last week he was in the bottom with a good song but this week the song was not as good. I think this was his worst performance.
Lil Rounds (I Surrender) - This is a really big song to try and sing. She sang it well but it seems like the song was a little too big for her. When you sing this you have to at least live up to the standard set by Celine but she didn't.
Adam Lambert (Play that Funky Music) - OK I do not know why he picked this song. This is like something you sing at a talent show when you don't care if you make an ass out of yourself. Saying that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and parts of it were good but overall it was a stupid song choice.
Kris Allen (Ain't No Sunshine) - This song has been done a few times on this show but I think this was the best of all of the versions. This is easily the best performance of the night.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Movie review: Knowing
Knowing is the latest movie from Nicolas Cage. In it he plays a college professor who is one of those typical "I lost my wife so now I drink myself silly" characters. One day at his son's school when they dig up a time capsule that was buried 50 years ago his son gets a paper with a list of what seem like random numbers. They turn out to not be so random as they contain the dates and number of deaths of every major disaster for the last 50 years. From fires, airplane crashes, Hurricane Katrina, September 11 and many others.
So as with most movies of this type he then tries to convince people of what the numbers really mean. At the same time he tries to prevent more disasters from happening.
The movie has a few real good special effects sequences. I won't go into too much detail as I don't want to spoil any part of the movie. But they look pretty cool.
If there is a complaint I can make about this movie it's that the ending is a little weird. It doesn't really seem to fit the rest of the movie too well and I kind of wish they had gone a different route. It's almost like they were really trying to be different and therefore made it a little too different.
But the rest of the movie is good and it keeps you guessing. It doesn't fall into the traps of becoming predictable and has some pretty suspenseful moments. If you are a fan of Nicolas Cage or these kinds of movies it's definitely worth watching.
My score: 8.0/10
So as with most movies of this type he then tries to convince people of what the numbers really mean. At the same time he tries to prevent more disasters from happening.
The movie has a few real good special effects sequences. I won't go into too much detail as I don't want to spoil any part of the movie. But they look pretty cool.
If there is a complaint I can make about this movie it's that the ending is a little weird. It doesn't really seem to fit the rest of the movie too well and I kind of wish they had gone a different route. It's almost like they were really trying to be different and therefore made it a little too different.
But the rest of the movie is good and it keeps you guessing. It doesn't fall into the traps of becoming predictable and has some pretty suspenseful moments. If you are a fan of Nicolas Cage or these kinds of movies it's definitely worth watching.
My score: 8.0/10
Thursday, March 26, 2009
American Idol Week 6 Results
I think it sucks a bit that when they sing for their life they sing the same song they sang before. So that means if the song totally sucked or they picked the wrong song then there's a good chance they are screwed. Well now to the results I am not too surprised that Michael went home. He's not the best singer and he wasn't going to win. But I still think Megan should have gone home instead of him.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
American Idol Week 6
Matt Giraud (Let's Get It On) - I like the fact that he started at the piano for the beginning and then stepped away. He showed that he can be just as strong at it as he can be with just being on stage with the mic. This was a good performance and he's showing he's one of the better performers in the competition right now.
Kris Allen (How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You) - I think the vocal was good but I wasn't too crazy about the arrangement. Also I think he needs to not rely on using the guitar. His next song should be just him without the guitar.
Scott MacIntyre (You Can't Hurry Love) - I think he should eventually do a song without the piano. I thought this was real good and there was almost a bit of a Ray Charles vibe to the song, especially with the backup singers right at the piano with him.
Megan Joy Corkrey (For Once In My Life) - So this week it sounded like Amy Winehouse trying to do a Motown song. I thought the vocal was all over the place and it did not fit her voice at all. The whole thing was just a mess.
Anoop Desai (Ooo Baby Baby) - I don't think it was as good as last week but it was still pretty good.
Michael Sarver (Ain't Too Proud To Beg) - I agree that it felt a bit like a wedding performance. This wasn't as good as he can be and it bit like he was over singing the song.
Lil Rounds (Heat Wave) - This should be the genre where she's most comfortable. Now I like her a lot and I think she is a bit guilty of picking a fun song and that dress she was wearing was really ugly. It's sad that she couldn't pick a better song in her genre. This was not nearly as good as she could be.
Adam Lambert (Tracks of My Tears) - I have not bee crazy about his performances before but this one was really good. I almost think it went to the high notes a little too much but he didn't try to do too much with the song and instead he stripped it down.
Danny Gokey (Get Ready) - Pretty good. I think he's one of the front runners to win the whole thing. Not his best but still really good.
Allison Iraheta (Papa Was a Rolling Stone) - I think this is the best I've heard out of her. I didn't have much faith in her but she really belted it out.
Kris Allen (How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You) - I think the vocal was good but I wasn't too crazy about the arrangement. Also I think he needs to not rely on using the guitar. His next song should be just him without the guitar.
Scott MacIntyre (You Can't Hurry Love) - I think he should eventually do a song without the piano. I thought this was real good and there was almost a bit of a Ray Charles vibe to the song, especially with the backup singers right at the piano with him.
Megan Joy Corkrey (For Once In My Life) - So this week it sounded like Amy Winehouse trying to do a Motown song. I thought the vocal was all over the place and it did not fit her voice at all. The whole thing was just a mess.
Anoop Desai (Ooo Baby Baby) - I don't think it was as good as last week but it was still pretty good.
Michael Sarver (Ain't Too Proud To Beg) - I agree that it felt a bit like a wedding performance. This wasn't as good as he can be and it bit like he was over singing the song.
Lil Rounds (Heat Wave) - This should be the genre where she's most comfortable. Now I like her a lot and I think she is a bit guilty of picking a fun song and that dress she was wearing was really ugly. It's sad that she couldn't pick a better song in her genre. This was not nearly as good as she could be.
Adam Lambert (Tracks of My Tears) - I have not bee crazy about his performances before but this one was really good. I almost think it went to the high notes a little too much but he didn't try to do too much with the song and instead he stripped it down.
Danny Gokey (Get Ready) - Pretty good. I think he's one of the front runners to win the whole thing. Not his best but still really good.
Allison Iraheta (Papa Was a Rolling Stone) - I think this is the best I've heard out of her. I didn't have much faith in her but she really belted it out.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
American Idol Week 5 Results
Well I'm not too surprised that Alexis went home. Her performance this week left a bit to be desired. Also she is a good singer but she doesn't really have what it takes to win the show.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Game review: Street Fighter IV
One of the longest running series of fighting games it the Street Fighter series. It all started back on the NES with Street Fighter 2010. This game didn't do to well and the series gained popularity with Street Fighter II on SNES. It became one of the biggest selling fighting games of all times and was one of the biggest selling games on the system.
Since then there have been many different versions of the game including the Alpha and Zero series as well as crossovers with Marvel and SNK. But when Street Fighter III came out fans were disappointed. The move system was too much of a change and people preferred the other games much better. So Capcom has decided to do another true sequel with Street Fighter IV. This is the first original Street Fighter game to appear on next-gen consoles and it certainly looks the part. The graphic style of this game is pretty different from anything you see out there. Everything has a cell shaded look but the characters are modeled in 3D. The background stages are also very detailed with pretty much all of them having something moving around in the background. From a parking lot with people and cars jumping around to a military base with a cargo plane being towed in the background. Also in traditional Street Fighter fashion some of the stages even have destrucible objects.
All of the classic Street Fighter characters are in the game. Such as Ken, Ryu, Blanka, M. Bison, Vega, Balrog, Chun-Li and Zangief. There are also a few returning from the Alpha series with Cammy and Akuma. Along with those there are some new characters El Fuerte, Rufus and Crimson Viper. Thankfully these characters feel pretty well at home in the Street Fighter universe.
Now the overall controls haven't changed that much. For Ryu and Ken it is the standard quarter-circle move to pull off a fireball. Then for Guile it is holding back for a few seconds and moving forward to do a Sonic Boom. All the other characters follow a very similar patter so if you know the standard moves you can pull of most of the special moves. What has been added are the Super and Ultra combos. There are two meters on the bottom of the screen. Your Super meter fills up when you do damage to your opponent and the Ultra meter fills up when you take damage. When this is full you can do a super move which usually involves something like two quarter-circles or two back and forth motions to pull off and the Ultra combo adds a few more button presses. There are also the Focus attacks which allow you to counter someone else's move, but I was never able to pull these off.
Probably my biggest complaint about this game is the controls. I got decent at Street Fighter II on the SNES and that controller worked well for pulling off the special moves, however the Xbox 360 controller does not. For me I could not do Ryu's fireball on the d-pad but when I switched to the analog stick it worked a lot better. But the analog stick hurt my movement so I had to keep going back and forth which made it harder to beat my opponents.
Then there is the difficulty. The Street Fighter games have been known for being hard and this one lives up to the name. I first played the game on Medium difficulty and found myself getting beaten badly so I dropped it to Easy and had the same problem. I then dropped it to very easy and for the most part I was doing good. Until I came across Zangief. He was so incredibly cheap it took me nearly 20 minutes to beat him with Chun-Li. Every time you get close to him he grabs you and does his spinning piledriver. But if you want to talk about cheap you have to talk about the game's final boss Seth. Seth is a robot and he can do other character's moves like stretching his arms like Dhalsim, throwing Sonic Booms, the Dragon Punch, and Zangief's spinning piledriver among others. The first round when you fight him he is pretty easy but then the second round his difficulty spikes. He hits you with moves out of nowhere and will slam you with huge combos that drain your life. I struggled to get past him even on very easy and this made the game pretty frustrating at times.
One thing the game does have is online multiplayer. These games are really meant to be played with friends. I remember the feeling as a kid of playing my friends at Street Fighter II and kicking their butts. But at this point so many people have played the game that you are bound to run across people that can pull off every move with 100% accuracy. So if you find yourself struggling against the AI then do not play online unless you want to embarrass yourself.
So the rest of the game consists of the arcade mode and the versus mode. In the arcade mode you pick a character and go through a set of fights eventually fighting Seth. Before it begins you see a short animated scene showing the character's story. Then when you beat Seth there is another animated ending. The animation is done pretty well but the voice acting could be a bit better. I think it would have been better to leave in the Japanese and put subtitles.
If you are a fan of the Street Fighter series check this game out. But be prepared to possibly invest in a special controller for the game. Right now there are two on the market. One is the Fight Pad and looks like a 360 controller with a different button layout and no sticks. The other is the Fight Stick which looks like a standard arcade stick. But the pad is around $60 and the stick is $150. But again do not go online unless you are very confident of your skills.
My score: 8.0/10
Since then there have been many different versions of the game including the Alpha and Zero series as well as crossovers with Marvel and SNK. But when Street Fighter III came out fans were disappointed. The move system was too much of a change and people preferred the other games much better. So Capcom has decided to do another true sequel with Street Fighter IV. This is the first original Street Fighter game to appear on next-gen consoles and it certainly looks the part. The graphic style of this game is pretty different from anything you see out there. Everything has a cell shaded look but the characters are modeled in 3D. The background stages are also very detailed with pretty much all of them having something moving around in the background. From a parking lot with people and cars jumping around to a military base with a cargo plane being towed in the background. Also in traditional Street Fighter fashion some of the stages even have destrucible objects.
All of the classic Street Fighter characters are in the game. Such as Ken, Ryu, Blanka, M. Bison, Vega, Balrog, Chun-Li and Zangief. There are also a few returning from the Alpha series with Cammy and Akuma. Along with those there are some new characters El Fuerte, Rufus and Crimson Viper. Thankfully these characters feel pretty well at home in the Street Fighter universe.
Now the overall controls haven't changed that much. For Ryu and Ken it is the standard quarter-circle move to pull off a fireball. Then for Guile it is holding back for a few seconds and moving forward to do a Sonic Boom. All the other characters follow a very similar patter so if you know the standard moves you can pull of most of the special moves. What has been added are the Super and Ultra combos. There are two meters on the bottom of the screen. Your Super meter fills up when you do damage to your opponent and the Ultra meter fills up when you take damage. When this is full you can do a super move which usually involves something like two quarter-circles or two back and forth motions to pull off and the Ultra combo adds a few more button presses. There are also the Focus attacks which allow you to counter someone else's move, but I was never able to pull these off.
Probably my biggest complaint about this game is the controls. I got decent at Street Fighter II on the SNES and that controller worked well for pulling off the special moves, however the Xbox 360 controller does not. For me I could not do Ryu's fireball on the d-pad but when I switched to the analog stick it worked a lot better. But the analog stick hurt my movement so I had to keep going back and forth which made it harder to beat my opponents.
Then there is the difficulty. The Street Fighter games have been known for being hard and this one lives up to the name. I first played the game on Medium difficulty and found myself getting beaten badly so I dropped it to Easy and had the same problem. I then dropped it to very easy and for the most part I was doing good. Until I came across Zangief. He was so incredibly cheap it took me nearly 20 minutes to beat him with Chun-Li. Every time you get close to him he grabs you and does his spinning piledriver. But if you want to talk about cheap you have to talk about the game's final boss Seth. Seth is a robot and he can do other character's moves like stretching his arms like Dhalsim, throwing Sonic Booms, the Dragon Punch, and Zangief's spinning piledriver among others. The first round when you fight him he is pretty easy but then the second round his difficulty spikes. He hits you with moves out of nowhere and will slam you with huge combos that drain your life. I struggled to get past him even on very easy and this made the game pretty frustrating at times.
One thing the game does have is online multiplayer. These games are really meant to be played with friends. I remember the feeling as a kid of playing my friends at Street Fighter II and kicking their butts. But at this point so many people have played the game that you are bound to run across people that can pull off every move with 100% accuracy. So if you find yourself struggling against the AI then do not play online unless you want to embarrass yourself.
So the rest of the game consists of the arcade mode and the versus mode. In the arcade mode you pick a character and go through a set of fights eventually fighting Seth. Before it begins you see a short animated scene showing the character's story. Then when you beat Seth there is another animated ending. The animation is done pretty well but the voice acting could be a bit better. I think it would have been better to leave in the Japanese and put subtitles.
If you are a fan of the Street Fighter series check this game out. But be prepared to possibly invest in a special controller for the game. Right now there are two on the market. One is the Fight Pad and looks like a 360 controller with a different button layout and no sticks. The other is the Fight Stick which looks like a standard arcade stick. But the pad is around $60 and the stick is $150. But again do not go online unless you are very confident of your skills.
My score: 8.0/10
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
American Idol Week 5
Michael Sarver (Ain't Goin' Down 'Till the Sun Comes Up) - Doing this song is not a good idea. It will not show off your voice and it's fun and fluff. Vocally it was just OK but at this point in the show you should be trying to show off your voice.
Allison Iraheta (Blame It On Your Heart) - Another fun song but I wasn't too crazy about the vocals. I will say that it was pretty good but not great.
Kris Allen (To Make You Feel My Love) - I liked this quite a bit. He did make the song the song his own and he sang it really well.
Lil Rounds (Independence Day) - When Carrie Underwood did this she did a great job. She wasn't as good as Carrie but I thought she did a good job with it. The song did get better towards the middle though and she ended pretty strong.
Adam Lambert (Ring of Fire) - This is one of the greatest country songs of all time and when you are going to change up the arrangement you have to be careful. It reminded me a bit of a version that Dilana did on the show Rock Star Supernova but his wasn't as good. The vocal was better than in previous weeks but the arrangement wasn't good for me at all.
Scott MacIntyre (Wild Angels) - I don't know if this was the best song choice for him but he sang it pretty well. But it sounds pretty similar to what he did last week. I think next week he should get away from the piano.
Alexis Grace (Joleen) - I think the song choice was OK for her but the way she did the arrangement wasn't that good. I agree that it fell a bit flat.
Danny Gokey (Jesus Take the Wheel) - It's interesting to see someone singing a song by another American Idol. He started off a little rough but when he hit the more powerful parts of the song he really shined.
Anoop Desai (You Are Always On My Mind) - This is one of those songs that is so heavily identified by the original singer. Saying that he did a good job of making it his own. I think I agree with what Randy Travis said and he proved that he does in fact deserve a spot in the Top 11.
Megan Joy Corkrey (Walking After Midnight) - There was something very awkward about the vocal in this song. It's like she was trying to do something different and it just didn't work. It sounded like a bad impression of Amy Winehouse trying to do a country song.
Matt Giraud (So Small) - I wondered a bit when he chose this song. But he did a really good job with it and for me it's the second best of the night next to Anoop. But next week I would like to see him away from the piano.
Allison Iraheta (Blame It On Your Heart) - Another fun song but I wasn't too crazy about the vocals. I will say that it was pretty good but not great.
Kris Allen (To Make You Feel My Love) - I liked this quite a bit. He did make the song the song his own and he sang it really well.
Lil Rounds (Independence Day) - When Carrie Underwood did this she did a great job. She wasn't as good as Carrie but I thought she did a good job with it. The song did get better towards the middle though and she ended pretty strong.
Adam Lambert (Ring of Fire) - This is one of the greatest country songs of all time and when you are going to change up the arrangement you have to be careful. It reminded me a bit of a version that Dilana did on the show Rock Star Supernova but his wasn't as good. The vocal was better than in previous weeks but the arrangement wasn't good for me at all.
Scott MacIntyre (Wild Angels) - I don't know if this was the best song choice for him but he sang it pretty well. But it sounds pretty similar to what he did last week. I think next week he should get away from the piano.
Alexis Grace (Joleen) - I think the song choice was OK for her but the way she did the arrangement wasn't that good. I agree that it fell a bit flat.
Danny Gokey (Jesus Take the Wheel) - It's interesting to see someone singing a song by another American Idol. He started off a little rough but when he hit the more powerful parts of the song he really shined.
Anoop Desai (You Are Always On My Mind) - This is one of those songs that is so heavily identified by the original singer. Saying that he did a good job of making it his own. I think I agree with what Randy Travis said and he proved that he does in fact deserve a spot in the Top 11.
Megan Joy Corkrey (Walking After Midnight) - There was something very awkward about the vocal in this song. It's like she was trying to do something different and it just didn't work. It sounded like a bad impression of Amy Winehouse trying to do a country song.
Matt Giraud (So Small) - I wondered a bit when he chose this song. But he did a really good job with it and for me it's the second best of the night next to Anoop. But next week I would like to see him away from the piano.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Movie review: Watchmen
Watchmen is a groundbreaking graphic novel by Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore. It came out in 1985 and showed to a lot of people that a comic book could be an artform and an effective way of telling an engaging story. It was also rated as one of Time Magazine's 100 Best Novels.
The story takes place in New York in an alternate 1985. In this world costumed heroes are common and America is on the brink of World War III with Russia. But costumed heroes have been outlawed since 1977. So there is only one who is still running around fighting crime. He calls himself Rorschach and he wears a mask that has constantly changing black shapes that resemble an inkblot test.
At the beginning a hero called The Comedian is murdered. Rorschach suspects right away that somebody out there is picking off masked heroes. But the other retired heroes refuse to believe that someone is after them and it must all be in his head.
The rest concerns the character's backstories as well as the investigation to who is behind what is going on. The story is very dialogue heavy and can get pretty heavy at times. I won't go too much more into detail but it's a very good story and a very good book.
So when fans found out that the movie would finally see the light of day they were very excited. Originally the project was given to Terry Gilliam in the late 1980s and he was supposed to release it in the summer of 1990. But after looking at it Gilliam then said that it was unfilmable as a feature length movie and would only do it as at least a 5 hour miniseries. But the studio wanted a feature film so it got scrapped. It bounced between a few directors and after a while no one thought it would ever get made.
Then a few years ago it was announced that director Zack Snyder would be the director. After having a lot of success with 300 people thought he was the right choice for the job.
So is the movie any good? Yes it is.
I know a lot of the diehard fans are a bit upset with some of the things that were done. I personally think it was a faithful adaptation of the book. Yes some things were changed but I don't think they really hurt the overall feel of the movie.
One big complaint I heard was the ending of the movie. But I thought the end was good and even though it wasn't the same as the one in the comic it worked.
As for the actors in this movie I thought that everyone did a good job. The best performance was Jackie Earl Haley who played Rorschach. He had the part down and he looked the part and sounded the part. Everybody else was pretty good. Although I will agree that Malin Akerman who played Laurie Jupiter was a bit wooden. And Billy Crudup who played the character of Dr. Manhattan wasn't completely convincing as being unemotional.
Dr. Manhattan is an interesting character. He is a man who in a scientific accident is transformed into a large blue man who has the ability to control matter. He also can teleport himself and can see through time as though it was all happening at once. But be prepared to see him naked quite a few times.
The visual look of the movie is very close to the graphic novel. New York is dark and dreary and the characters look a lot like they did in the comic. It was pretty obvious that this movie was full of tons of special effects but they really helped to transport you into that world.
Some people have complained that the movie is too long clocking in at about 2 hours and 40 minutes. But to me the time just flew by and by the end I hadn't felt like I had just watched a nearly 3 hour movie.
The fight scenes in the movie were also really well done. Snyder showed in 300 that he knows how to show people beating the crap out of each other. He used a lot of the same techniques that he used in 300 to pretty good effect. There was some use of slow motion and it worked. One complaint was some of the fight scenes were a little short and there is a part in a prison that could have lasted a bit longer but it felt a little too short. Right before that part there was a love scene that was filmed well but it seemed to go on a little longer than it should have.
I wouldn't say this movie is exactly a cinematic masterpiece but it was a very good movie. When this comes out on Blu-Ray it is going to find its way into my collection and I'm sure I'll enjoy watching it over again. I know with a movie like this you aren't going to please everyone but speaking from someone who just recently read the graphic novel I thought they did a very good job with the movie translation.
My score: 9.0/10
The story takes place in New York in an alternate 1985. In this world costumed heroes are common and America is on the brink of World War III with Russia. But costumed heroes have been outlawed since 1977. So there is only one who is still running around fighting crime. He calls himself Rorschach and he wears a mask that has constantly changing black shapes that resemble an inkblot test.
At the beginning a hero called The Comedian is murdered. Rorschach suspects right away that somebody out there is picking off masked heroes. But the other retired heroes refuse to believe that someone is after them and it must all be in his head.
The rest concerns the character's backstories as well as the investigation to who is behind what is going on. The story is very dialogue heavy and can get pretty heavy at times. I won't go too much more into detail but it's a very good story and a very good book.
So when fans found out that the movie would finally see the light of day they were very excited. Originally the project was given to Terry Gilliam in the late 1980s and he was supposed to release it in the summer of 1990. But after looking at it Gilliam then said that it was unfilmable as a feature length movie and would only do it as at least a 5 hour miniseries. But the studio wanted a feature film so it got scrapped. It bounced between a few directors and after a while no one thought it would ever get made.
Then a few years ago it was announced that director Zack Snyder would be the director. After having a lot of success with 300 people thought he was the right choice for the job.
So is the movie any good? Yes it is.
I know a lot of the diehard fans are a bit upset with some of the things that were done. I personally think it was a faithful adaptation of the book. Yes some things were changed but I don't think they really hurt the overall feel of the movie.
One big complaint I heard was the ending of the movie. But I thought the end was good and even though it wasn't the same as the one in the comic it worked.
As for the actors in this movie I thought that everyone did a good job. The best performance was Jackie Earl Haley who played Rorschach. He had the part down and he looked the part and sounded the part. Everybody else was pretty good. Although I will agree that Malin Akerman who played Laurie Jupiter was a bit wooden. And Billy Crudup who played the character of Dr. Manhattan wasn't completely convincing as being unemotional.
Dr. Manhattan is an interesting character. He is a man who in a scientific accident is transformed into a large blue man who has the ability to control matter. He also can teleport himself and can see through time as though it was all happening at once. But be prepared to see him naked quite a few times.
The visual look of the movie is very close to the graphic novel. New York is dark and dreary and the characters look a lot like they did in the comic. It was pretty obvious that this movie was full of tons of special effects but they really helped to transport you into that world.
Some people have complained that the movie is too long clocking in at about 2 hours and 40 minutes. But to me the time just flew by and by the end I hadn't felt like I had just watched a nearly 3 hour movie.
The fight scenes in the movie were also really well done. Snyder showed in 300 that he knows how to show people beating the crap out of each other. He used a lot of the same techniques that he used in 300 to pretty good effect. There was some use of slow motion and it worked. One complaint was some of the fight scenes were a little short and there is a part in a prison that could have lasted a bit longer but it felt a little too short. Right before that part there was a love scene that was filmed well but it seemed to go on a little longer than it should have.
I wouldn't say this movie is exactly a cinematic masterpiece but it was a very good movie. When this comes out on Blu-Ray it is going to find its way into my collection and I'm sure I'll enjoy watching it over again. I know with a movie like this you aren't going to please everyone but speaking from someone who just recently read the graphic novel I thought they did a very good job with the movie translation.
My score: 9.0/10
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
American Idol Week 4 Results
Well they promised some kind of big twist to do with the judges this season. It turns out that when somebody is in danger of going home they have the right to save them. It takes all four judges but it can be done. Which means if someone totally sucks but the judges love them (like Adam) then they can be saved. But once somebody has been saved once they can't be saved again. There are some holes in this strategy but this is the kind of thing I think the show should have done years ago. Let's just hope it serves the purpose to keep those that are good in the show and not keep those that suck hanging in there.
As for the results I am a little bummed with Jasmine going home as I thought she did a decent job and I did text in a few votes for her. But when it comes to Jorge he just wasn't that good and he didn't really have what it takes to win this whole thing.
As for the results I am a little bummed with Jasmine going home as I thought she did a decent job and I did text in a few votes for her. But when it comes to Jorge he just wasn't that good and he didn't really have what it takes to win this whole thing.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
American Idol Week 4
Lil Rounds (The Way You Make Me Feel) - I wouldn't have chosen this song for her but she did a real good job with it and made it her own. I don't really like the outfit but she did a good job working the stage.
Scott MacIntyre (Keep the Faith) - You can tell he's most comfortable in front of the piano. He really showed that here and did a really good job. He also proved he's got a real good range.
Danny Gokey (P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)) - I think the beginning of the song wasn't that good. But when he picked up the pace it got a lot better. His voice reminds me a bit of Taylor Hicks.
Michael Sarver (You Are Not Alone) - I thought he did a good and his enthusiasm really came through on his performance.
Jasmine Murray (I'll Be There) - It seems like every season somebody sings this song. But she did a good job with it. She didn't change it up that much but it really worked.
Kris Allen (Remember the Time) - The vocals were good but I wasn't that crazy about the arrangement. I think it would have been better without the guitar.
Allison Iraheta (Give In To Me) - I don't think this was the best song choice for her. It was good to see her go a bit more of a rock route but it wasn't her best.
Anoop Desai (Beat It) - He's got a good voice but this was a bad song choice. I think he went for a fun song but it did nothing for his voice. And it was just bad overall.
Jorge Nunez (Never Can Say Goodbye) - It was a good vocal but there was nothing exciting about the performance. It was a bit forgetable. And it was a bit detached.
Megan Joy Corkrey (Rockin' Robin) - Bad song choice. Another person who went for a fun that doesn't show off their voice. She should have not have chosen this song.
Adam Lambert (Black or White) - Another weird song choice. And the vocals were verging on painful. If you are going to sing up your upper register you gotta make it work but this did not.
Matt Giraud (Human Nature) - I like that he was at the piano. He did a pretty good job with it. And he didn't overdo the upper register stuff like Adam.
Alexis Grace (Dirty Diana) - I thought this was an interesting song choice. But she did a godo job with it. The rock feel of the song fits who she is as an artist. The slow parts were a little better than the faster parts. And it kind of fell apart at the end.
Scott MacIntyre (Keep the Faith) - You can tell he's most comfortable in front of the piano. He really showed that here and did a really good job. He also proved he's got a real good range.
Danny Gokey (P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)) - I think the beginning of the song wasn't that good. But when he picked up the pace it got a lot better. His voice reminds me a bit of Taylor Hicks.
Michael Sarver (You Are Not Alone) - I thought he did a good and his enthusiasm really came through on his performance.
Jasmine Murray (I'll Be There) - It seems like every season somebody sings this song. But she did a good job with it. She didn't change it up that much but it really worked.
Kris Allen (Remember the Time) - The vocals were good but I wasn't that crazy about the arrangement. I think it would have been better without the guitar.
Allison Iraheta (Give In To Me) - I don't think this was the best song choice for her. It was good to see her go a bit more of a rock route but it wasn't her best.
Anoop Desai (Beat It) - He's got a good voice but this was a bad song choice. I think he went for a fun song but it did nothing for his voice. And it was just bad overall.
Jorge Nunez (Never Can Say Goodbye) - It was a good vocal but there was nothing exciting about the performance. It was a bit forgetable. And it was a bit detached.
Megan Joy Corkrey (Rockin' Robin) - Bad song choice. Another person who went for a fun that doesn't show off their voice. She should have not have chosen this song.
Adam Lambert (Black or White) - Another weird song choice. And the vocals were verging on painful. If you are going to sing up your upper register you gotta make it work but this did not.
Matt Giraud (Human Nature) - I like that he was at the piano. He did a pretty good job with it. And he didn't overdo the upper register stuff like Adam.
Alexis Grace (Dirty Diana) - I thought this was an interesting song choice. But she did a godo job with it. The rock feel of the song fits who she is as an artist. The slow parts were a little better than the faster parts. And it kind of fell apart at the end.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
American Idol Week 3 Wild Card
None of the performances really blew me away they were all just kind of OK. First I think Jasmine will be good in the top 12 and Megan was one that should have gone through earlier. I don't think Anoop has the best voice but he has potential to get pretty good and he's a likable guy. The top 12 should be fun to watch.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
American Idol Week 3 Results
Well I'm pretty happy with the results from American Idol. Scott, Lil and Jorge made it through to the top 12. I did vote for Scott, Lil and Felicia but I do think that Jorge did a good job he just wasn't one my favorites that night. It will also be interesting to see who makes it through on the wild card show.
Game review: Guitar Hero: World Tour
In the last couple years music games have become very popular. A while ago I reviewed the two Rock Band games. Now it is time for the latest entry this time from Guitar Hero. Guitar Hero: World Tour tries to capitalize on the use of multiple instruments. Previously in Guitar Hero you could play either guitar or bass. But now they have added drums and vocals.
The game can be bought by itself or in a bundle containing a guitar, drum set and microphone. But if you don't want to spend the money it will work with all the guitar controllers out there and will also work with the Rock Band drum set. But keep in mind if you use the Rock Band set the game does change a bit. The set for Guitar Hero has a total of five pads. Three lower ones and two that are raised above the others like cymbals. But the Rock Band set only has four pads. So the game changes the notes to only use the four pads plus the kick which means you won't get as high of a score as you would otherwise.
There are some other changes to drumming. If you use the Guitar Hero set the pads are pressure sensitive. Which means the harder you hit the pad the louder the note. There are also certain notes highlighted with silver that give you extra points for hitting them harder. The game does have freeform fill sections like Rock Band but these are just used to bump up your score and aren't used to unleash Star Power. In Guitar Hero all you have to do is hit two of the pads at the same and it will turn it on. I personally didn't like in Rock Band how some songs have either no fill sections or ones that are very far apart. Which means if you start to fail at the wrong point in a song you're screwed.
The guitar in the game has changed a bit too. The controller has been upgraded with another set of buttons halfway down the neck. These are touch sensitive and are used for several different things. First you can use it to tap out the notes without strumming or you can use it in the slide sections. You will see darker colored notes connected by lines. This means you can slide your fingers across the pad to connect the notes together. This is a nice concept but you never know when these sections are coming so the first time you play a song odds are you'll miss it. The pad can also be used to create the same effect as the whammy bar on held notes.
Bass has changed a little too. The only big addition is sometimes you will see purple lines across the note bar. This means that you strum without having any buttons pressed.
The microphone is pretty similar to that in Rock Band. You don't have to get the words to the song right, all you have to do is match the pitch. Which means a lot of the time you'll have to sing like a robot or really monotone to match everything up.
Another thing they added for this game was the ability to create a character. The system is a bit more robust than the one in Rock Band. You can tweak your character's face and body quite a bit to customize them just the way you want. You also have the ability to create your own custom instruments. With the guitars and bass you can choose everything from the neck to the pickups to the volume knobs. This is really a nice touch and helps your character feel more unique. You can also make your own drum set and even put a custom logo on the front of the bass drum.
Now the most important thing about this kind of game is the songs. The game has a pretty good song list. You've got some classic stuff like American Woman, Hotel California, The Joker and Crazy Train. There is also some newer stuff from bands like Silversun Pickups, The Mars Volta and Rise Against. But as usual with these games it seems like more attention was put into newer songs than the classic ones. But they are all still a lot of fun to play.
What Guitar Hero is known for is the difficulty. Rock Band toned it down a bit to appeal to a broader audience. But Guitar Hero hasn't let up that much. There are some songs like Van Halen's Hot for Teacher that will really give you a run for your money. But I think if you are a purest that only plays on expert you might find this game easier than pervious entries in the series.
In Guitar Hero 3 they introduced the idea of guest artists appearing in the game. In that game you battled against them and then were able to unlock them later to use. This game has ramped it up a bit and has guest appearances from Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Ozzy Osbourne, Jimi Hendrix, Travis Barker (Blink 182), Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society), Haley Williams (Paramore), Sting and Ted Nugent. These are a nice addition but they feel a bit tacked on.
In the previous games a lot of people have commented about how stiff the characters are. this hasn't changed much in this game. Even those based on real people still move a bit like robots. And for some reason Ozzy opens his mouth way too wide when he sings and his lips don't move which makes him look like a ventriloquist's dummy. I kind of wish that they'd spent more time making the characters a bit more lifelike then trying to put in guest artists.
There have been some upgrades to the game's multiplayer. There are the standard head to head and battle modes. But along with that there is band quick play and band versus band. In band versus band two bands of up to 4 players compete to see who can get the best score. This is a nice addition but it felt like it needed to be fleshed out a little more and felt kind of bare bones.
The other big new addition to the game is the music studio. In here you can create your own tracks for others to play in the game. You can put in the guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and several other things besides vocals. You can either put the notes in by hand or you can play them out on the instrument. The touchpad on the guitar even gives you some options in the music studio. The problem with it is that it takes a lot of patience to create a song. The interface is kind of confusing at first and if you aren't familiar with making or mixing music odds are you're going to get lost. Then add to that the fact that the sound quality of these tracks isn't that good. They all sound like old midi files. There are a few fun ones to play but know that if you want to make your own you'll have to devote quite a bit of time to get it just right.
The game does have downloadable songs like Rock Band and the other Guitar Hero games. It doesn't quite have the library that Rock Band does but it is trying to catch up. But since this game is such an upgrade from Guitar Hero 3 the songs you have from that game will not work in this one.
If you are into the Guitar Hero or Rock Band games I say check this one out. But if you already have the instruments from another game don't spend the money unless you really feel you want to. It doesn't take any huge leaps forward and seems like it wants to catch up with Rock Band but that doesn't make the game any less fun.
My score: 8.0/10
The game can be bought by itself or in a bundle containing a guitar, drum set and microphone. But if you don't want to spend the money it will work with all the guitar controllers out there and will also work with the Rock Band drum set. But keep in mind if you use the Rock Band set the game does change a bit. The set for Guitar Hero has a total of five pads. Three lower ones and two that are raised above the others like cymbals. But the Rock Band set only has four pads. So the game changes the notes to only use the four pads plus the kick which means you won't get as high of a score as you would otherwise.
There are some other changes to drumming. If you use the Guitar Hero set the pads are pressure sensitive. Which means the harder you hit the pad the louder the note. There are also certain notes highlighted with silver that give you extra points for hitting them harder. The game does have freeform fill sections like Rock Band but these are just used to bump up your score and aren't used to unleash Star Power. In Guitar Hero all you have to do is hit two of the pads at the same and it will turn it on. I personally didn't like in Rock Band how some songs have either no fill sections or ones that are very far apart. Which means if you start to fail at the wrong point in a song you're screwed.
The guitar in the game has changed a bit too. The controller has been upgraded with another set of buttons halfway down the neck. These are touch sensitive and are used for several different things. First you can use it to tap out the notes without strumming or you can use it in the slide sections. You will see darker colored notes connected by lines. This means you can slide your fingers across the pad to connect the notes together. This is a nice concept but you never know when these sections are coming so the first time you play a song odds are you'll miss it. The pad can also be used to create the same effect as the whammy bar on held notes.
Bass has changed a little too. The only big addition is sometimes you will see purple lines across the note bar. This means that you strum without having any buttons pressed.
The microphone is pretty similar to that in Rock Band. You don't have to get the words to the song right, all you have to do is match the pitch. Which means a lot of the time you'll have to sing like a robot or really monotone to match everything up.
Another thing they added for this game was the ability to create a character. The system is a bit more robust than the one in Rock Band. You can tweak your character's face and body quite a bit to customize them just the way you want. You also have the ability to create your own custom instruments. With the guitars and bass you can choose everything from the neck to the pickups to the volume knobs. This is really a nice touch and helps your character feel more unique. You can also make your own drum set and even put a custom logo on the front of the bass drum.
Now the most important thing about this kind of game is the songs. The game has a pretty good song list. You've got some classic stuff like American Woman, Hotel California, The Joker and Crazy Train. There is also some newer stuff from bands like Silversun Pickups, The Mars Volta and Rise Against. But as usual with these games it seems like more attention was put into newer songs than the classic ones. But they are all still a lot of fun to play.
What Guitar Hero is known for is the difficulty. Rock Band toned it down a bit to appeal to a broader audience. But Guitar Hero hasn't let up that much. There are some songs like Van Halen's Hot for Teacher that will really give you a run for your money. But I think if you are a purest that only plays on expert you might find this game easier than pervious entries in the series.
In Guitar Hero 3 they introduced the idea of guest artists appearing in the game. In that game you battled against them and then were able to unlock them later to use. This game has ramped it up a bit and has guest appearances from Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Ozzy Osbourne, Jimi Hendrix, Travis Barker (Blink 182), Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society), Haley Williams (Paramore), Sting and Ted Nugent. These are a nice addition but they feel a bit tacked on.
In the previous games a lot of people have commented about how stiff the characters are. this hasn't changed much in this game. Even those based on real people still move a bit like robots. And for some reason Ozzy opens his mouth way too wide when he sings and his lips don't move which makes him look like a ventriloquist's dummy. I kind of wish that they'd spent more time making the characters a bit more lifelike then trying to put in guest artists.
There have been some upgrades to the game's multiplayer. There are the standard head to head and battle modes. But along with that there is band quick play and band versus band. In band versus band two bands of up to 4 players compete to see who can get the best score. This is a nice addition but it felt like it needed to be fleshed out a little more and felt kind of bare bones.
The other big new addition to the game is the music studio. In here you can create your own tracks for others to play in the game. You can put in the guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and several other things besides vocals. You can either put the notes in by hand or you can play them out on the instrument. The touchpad on the guitar even gives you some options in the music studio. The problem with it is that it takes a lot of patience to create a song. The interface is kind of confusing at first and if you aren't familiar with making or mixing music odds are you're going to get lost. Then add to that the fact that the sound quality of these tracks isn't that good. They all sound like old midi files. There are a few fun ones to play but know that if you want to make your own you'll have to devote quite a bit of time to get it just right.
The game does have downloadable songs like Rock Band and the other Guitar Hero games. It doesn't quite have the library that Rock Band does but it is trying to catch up. But since this game is such an upgrade from Guitar Hero 3 the songs you have from that game will not work in this one.
If you are into the Guitar Hero or Rock Band games I say check this one out. But if you already have the instruments from another game don't spend the money unless you really feel you want to. It doesn't take any huge leaps forward and seems like it wants to catch up with Rock Band but that doesn't make the game any less fun.
My score: 8.0/10
My Opinion: HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray
Anybody who's familiar with the rise of HD video probably knows about the recent format war. That war was between HD-DVD made by Toshiba and Blu-Ray made by Sony. Essentially they both offered the same thing, movies in full 1080p HD. Now a lot of people don't see the point of HD or say they can't tell the difference. I personally like HD a lot. To me it can really bring out the finer details in something and you can see things you might have missed otherwise. Also with older movies they do a real good job of cleaning up the prints and making them look better than they've ever looked.
It was fist announced a few years ago that companies were working on a way to put HD movies onto a single disc since a standard DVD can't hold that much information. Eventually both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray were announced. People knew that there was a chance at a format war but I think a lot of people hoped there could be a happy medium.
HD-DVD was the first to come on the scene in March of 2006. Of course the discs and the players were pretty expensive just like DVDs when they first came out. They didn't sell that well because people either didn't want to put down the money or were unfamiliar with the technology.
Then in June of 2006 the first Blu-Ray movies and players started to hit the market. And like HD-DVD they were pretty expensive. The average cost being somewhere around $600 or $700 for a player and $30 for a movie.
But the big thing came when Sony announced that the new PlayStation 3 would have a built-in Blu-Ray player and all of the games would be on Blu-Ray discs. When the system came out sales of Blu-Ray movies shot way up. Since every PS3 owner could now play the movies the format had an instant install base. This made the sales of HD-DVD start to go down. Microsoft tried to counter this by releasing an HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360. This was a separate drive that plugged into the console and allowed you to watch HD-DVDs. This unit was about $200 but it didn't sell too well.
Even more nails then started to get driven into the coffin of HD-DVD. Blockbuster announced that they had chosen Blu-Ray as their exclusive HD format. Also Disney had chosen to release its movies on Blu-Ray as had several other major studios. HD-DVD did have support from Warner Brothers and Universal but the movies weren't as popular and weren't be released fast enough to compete. Then Warner Brothers decided to drop the format in favor of Blu-Ray and Universal followed suit. Also Netflix had said that they were going to stop renting HD-DVD movies and were going to go with Blu-Ray as its one format.
In January of 2008 Toshiba said that they were going to stop making players and by June of that year no more new movies would be produced. This meant that the format was pretty much dead and was doomed to go the way of Beta tapes. You can still find the movies for sale online on sites like eBay and they are quite a bit cheaper than Blu-Ray movies.
Now to get to my opinion of this whole situation. I personally think that there should not have been a format war. Throughout the history of technology it's seemed like there can only be one given format. Like the war between VHS and Beta in which VHS won out or CDs versus cassette tapes where CDs won out. But I think in each of these cases both could exist quite happily in the same marketplace.
But probably the reason behind this is consumers don't like to choose. If someone wants whatever is the newest and the best they don't want to stare at two choices and wonder which is better. Especially when the choice involves buy expensive hardware to support it. So by having these wars eventually one format will win and then the consumer is left with only one choice whether they like it or not.
There are some differences when you compare the two discs. First Blu-Ray has a storage capacity of about 25 to 50gb and HD-DVD has a capacity of 15 to 30gb. So Blu-Ray wins out when it comes to overall storage. As far as the picture quality goes both are just about equal. In fact in a lot of reviews I read if one format had better quality it was usually the HD-DVD getting the slight edge.
One thing that HD-DVD had going for it over Blu-Ray is the fact that it is region free. Normally a DVD is coded to a certain region. Meaning that if you buy a DVD in Japan it will only play on a Japanese player or what's called a region free player. But HD-DVD didn't put this in so you could import a movie from anywhere and it would play on any player. Blu-Ray is region coded so if you want a Japanese Blu-Ray you'll need a player that can support it. Also HD-DVD had the ability to have double sided discs. Once side would be the HD-DVD and the other side would be the standard DVD that could be played in any player. Because of the way Blu-Ray is made they haven't yet been able to do this. Some companies were even working on dual format discs that had the HD-DVD and the Blu-Ray but that got scrapped when HD-DVD died.
I really think that Sony could have handled this a whole lot better. It is possible that some of them are still bitter about losing the previous format war to VHS and they wanted to do whatever they could to win this one. So they used their collective corporate might to sway movie studios and companies in their favor to choose Blu-Ray over the competition.
What's probably funniest is if there are two formats out there they will compete with each other. This means coming up with new features and lowering prices. But with only one format the prices can stay high and the new features can be few and far between. So if HD-DVD was still around I'm sure Sony would be doing a lot to swing people to their side of the fence.
So as you can imagine if I was told to choose between the two I wouldn't be able to. HD-DVD has some advantages as does Blu-Ray but all in all the two were pretty equal. It should be interesting to see what the next big format war has in store for all of us.
It was fist announced a few years ago that companies were working on a way to put HD movies onto a single disc since a standard DVD can't hold that much information. Eventually both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray were announced. People knew that there was a chance at a format war but I think a lot of people hoped there could be a happy medium.
HD-DVD was the first to come on the scene in March of 2006. Of course the discs and the players were pretty expensive just like DVDs when they first came out. They didn't sell that well because people either didn't want to put down the money or were unfamiliar with the technology.
Then in June of 2006 the first Blu-Ray movies and players started to hit the market. And like HD-DVD they were pretty expensive. The average cost being somewhere around $600 or $700 for a player and $30 for a movie.
But the big thing came when Sony announced that the new PlayStation 3 would have a built-in Blu-Ray player and all of the games would be on Blu-Ray discs. When the system came out sales of Blu-Ray movies shot way up. Since every PS3 owner could now play the movies the format had an instant install base. This made the sales of HD-DVD start to go down. Microsoft tried to counter this by releasing an HD-DVD add-on for the Xbox 360. This was a separate drive that plugged into the console and allowed you to watch HD-DVDs. This unit was about $200 but it didn't sell too well.
Even more nails then started to get driven into the coffin of HD-DVD. Blockbuster announced that they had chosen Blu-Ray as their exclusive HD format. Also Disney had chosen to release its movies on Blu-Ray as had several other major studios. HD-DVD did have support from Warner Brothers and Universal but the movies weren't as popular and weren't be released fast enough to compete. Then Warner Brothers decided to drop the format in favor of Blu-Ray and Universal followed suit. Also Netflix had said that they were going to stop renting HD-DVD movies and were going to go with Blu-Ray as its one format.
In January of 2008 Toshiba said that they were going to stop making players and by June of that year no more new movies would be produced. This meant that the format was pretty much dead and was doomed to go the way of Beta tapes. You can still find the movies for sale online on sites like eBay and they are quite a bit cheaper than Blu-Ray movies.
Now to get to my opinion of this whole situation. I personally think that there should not have been a format war. Throughout the history of technology it's seemed like there can only be one given format. Like the war between VHS and Beta in which VHS won out or CDs versus cassette tapes where CDs won out. But I think in each of these cases both could exist quite happily in the same marketplace.
But probably the reason behind this is consumers don't like to choose. If someone wants whatever is the newest and the best they don't want to stare at two choices and wonder which is better. Especially when the choice involves buy expensive hardware to support it. So by having these wars eventually one format will win and then the consumer is left with only one choice whether they like it or not.
There are some differences when you compare the two discs. First Blu-Ray has a storage capacity of about 25 to 50gb and HD-DVD has a capacity of 15 to 30gb. So Blu-Ray wins out when it comes to overall storage. As far as the picture quality goes both are just about equal. In fact in a lot of reviews I read if one format had better quality it was usually the HD-DVD getting the slight edge.
One thing that HD-DVD had going for it over Blu-Ray is the fact that it is region free. Normally a DVD is coded to a certain region. Meaning that if you buy a DVD in Japan it will only play on a Japanese player or what's called a region free player. But HD-DVD didn't put this in so you could import a movie from anywhere and it would play on any player. Blu-Ray is region coded so if you want a Japanese Blu-Ray you'll need a player that can support it. Also HD-DVD had the ability to have double sided discs. Once side would be the HD-DVD and the other side would be the standard DVD that could be played in any player. Because of the way Blu-Ray is made they haven't yet been able to do this. Some companies were even working on dual format discs that had the HD-DVD and the Blu-Ray but that got scrapped when HD-DVD died.
I really think that Sony could have handled this a whole lot better. It is possible that some of them are still bitter about losing the previous format war to VHS and they wanted to do whatever they could to win this one. So they used their collective corporate might to sway movie studios and companies in their favor to choose Blu-Ray over the competition.
What's probably funniest is if there are two formats out there they will compete with each other. This means coming up with new features and lowering prices. But with only one format the prices can stay high and the new features can be few and far between. So if HD-DVD was still around I'm sure Sony would be doing a lot to swing people to their side of the fence.
So as you can imagine if I was told to choose between the two I wouldn't be able to. HD-DVD has some advantages as does Blu-Ray but all in all the two were pretty equal. It should be interesting to see what the next big format war has in store for all of us.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
American Idol Week 3
Von Smith (You're All I Need To Get By) - Marvin Gaye is a tough one to sing.Even though the judges liked it I wasn't totally impressed with it. To me it was kind of dull and boring.
Taylor Vaifanua (If I Ain't Got You) - Another performance that was good vocally but didn't blow me away. I'm sure I'll forget this in a week's time.
Alex Wagner-Trugman (I Guess Why They Call It the Blues) - He should not try to dance. Again the vocal was good but there wasn't anything special about it.
Arianna Afsar (The Winner Takes It All) - ABBA is an interesting choice. But I bet she's seen Mamma Mia a few times. I thought it was pretty bad. There were parts where the pitch was all over the place and other times when it fell totally flat.
Ju'not Joyner (Hey There Delilah) - It seems like everyone is singing this song today. With his version I don't know what was up with the pacing. It was just way too slow. I felt like the song was going to last forever but it would be good if I was trying to get to sleep at night.
Kristen McNamara (Give Me One Reason) - Tracy Chapman has a very unique voice. Sadly for her she doesn't really have the voice to fit the song. I think this comes down to bad song choice. She has a good voice and this song doesn't show it off at all.
Nathaniel Marshall (I Would Do Anything for Love) - First I have to say that Meat Loaf is one of my favorite singers of all time. It was painful and sounded like he was barely even trying. This is the worst performance so far this season. And I have to say after this performance that I would do anything to never hear him sing this song again.
Felicia Barton (No One) - This was better than I thought it would be. It didn't blow me away or anything but it exceeded my expectations. But if you want to see a real good version of this look up Lisa Lavie on YouTube.
Scott MacIntyre (Mandolin Rain) - I like this guy a lot he was one of my early favorites. I'm not familiar with this song but he did a good job with it. There were a couple parts that sounded a little rough but I think it's nerves. But other than those parts the rest was really good.
Kendall Beard (This One's for the Girls) - This style of music suits her but the vocals didn't really live up to the song and there were some rough parts. I thought it was OK but nothing more than that.
Jorge Nunez (Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me) - I think the beginning of the song was a little rough but as it went on it got better. He seems like the kind of artist that be most comfortable singing in Spanish. It would be interesting to see him sing without trying to shed the accent.
Lil Rounds (Be Without You) - She is another one of my favorites from early in the show. I think she could have chosen a better song but overall it was very good.
Taylor Vaifanua (If I Ain't Got You) - Another performance that was good vocally but didn't blow me away. I'm sure I'll forget this in a week's time.
Alex Wagner-Trugman (I Guess Why They Call It the Blues) - He should not try to dance. Again the vocal was good but there wasn't anything special about it.
Arianna Afsar (The Winner Takes It All) - ABBA is an interesting choice. But I bet she's seen Mamma Mia a few times. I thought it was pretty bad. There were parts where the pitch was all over the place and other times when it fell totally flat.
Ju'not Joyner (Hey There Delilah) - It seems like everyone is singing this song today. With his version I don't know what was up with the pacing. It was just way too slow. I felt like the song was going to last forever but it would be good if I was trying to get to sleep at night.
Kristen McNamara (Give Me One Reason) - Tracy Chapman has a very unique voice. Sadly for her she doesn't really have the voice to fit the song. I think this comes down to bad song choice. She has a good voice and this song doesn't show it off at all.
Nathaniel Marshall (I Would Do Anything for Love) - First I have to say that Meat Loaf is one of my favorite singers of all time. It was painful and sounded like he was barely even trying. This is the worst performance so far this season. And I have to say after this performance that I would do anything to never hear him sing this song again.
Felicia Barton (No One) - This was better than I thought it would be. It didn't blow me away or anything but it exceeded my expectations. But if you want to see a real good version of this look up Lisa Lavie on YouTube.
Scott MacIntyre (Mandolin Rain) - I like this guy a lot he was one of my early favorites. I'm not familiar with this song but he did a good job with it. There were a couple parts that sounded a little rough but I think it's nerves. But other than those parts the rest was really good.
Kendall Beard (This One's for the Girls) - This style of music suits her but the vocals didn't really live up to the song and there were some rough parts. I thought it was OK but nothing more than that.
Jorge Nunez (Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me) - I think the beginning of the song was a little rough but as it went on it got better. He seems like the kind of artist that be most comfortable singing in Spanish. It would be interesting to see him sing without trying to shed the accent.
Lil Rounds (Be Without You) - She is another one of my favorites from early in the show. I think she could have chosen a better song but overall it was very good.
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