Synopsis:For both comic book fans and those who can't tell the Green Lantern from the Green Arrow, IRON MAN is the type of summer blockbuster whose appeal lasts far beyond the season. Robert Downey Jr. stars as Tony Stark, a billionaire playboy and genius who puts as much effort into chasing skirts as he puts into chasing his next big idea. A trip to Afghanistan to sell weapons quickly devolves into chaos, and Stark finds himself at the mercy of a warlord who wants him to build a missile. Instead, Stark creates a powerful suit of armor, turning him into Iron Man and allowing him to escape. When he returns to America, his assistant Pepper Pots (Gwyneth Paltrow), friend Rhodey (Terrence Howard), and right-hand man Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges) all marvel at the change in the man they knew. IRON MAN is the first film to be self-financed by Marvel Studios, and they should be proud of their freshman effort. They didn't take any obvious routes with choosing the cast or crew, and it pays off. Director Jon Favreau, who also has a small role in the film, is best known for directing ELF, but his first action-driven effort is nearly flawless. Casting Downey was gutsy but inspired: this is his first big action picture as well, but the wit he displays in films such as the cult hit KISS KISS, BANG BANG works perfectly for the character of Stark. IRON MAN features nods to its beloved source material, as well as to the classic animated series of the 1960s. But even for the uninitiated, this film provides an interesting entry into the Marvel superhero's universe. Audiences who keep watching after the credits have rolled will be rewarded with a bonus scene.
Starring:Robert Downey, Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard, Shaun Toub
Director:Jon Favreau
Click Here To Watch Full Iron Man 2 Online in HD .
Directed by Breck Eisner Screenplay by Scott Kosar, Ray Wright
Sheriff David Dutton – Timothy Olyphant Dr. Judy Dutton – Radha Mitchell Russell Clank – Joe Anderson Becca Darling – Danielle Panabaker
CLR Rating:
Remake Is No Masterpiece, but Succeeds with Good Pacing and Shocks Galore
Horror film is enduring a period of what some would call “rejuvenation” and others would dub “total lack of imagination.” Good new horror is hard to find and recent remakes have been totally hit-or-miss. This weekend’s The Crazies is based on a 1973 George Romero film of the same name. This version, directed by Breck Eisner, shares basic plot points and characters, but it outdoes the mediocre-to-awful original by far. The premise is simple: small town America turned upside down by a force that pits neighbor against neighbor in a gruesome battle for their lives. The Crazies isn’t a masterpiece, but its pacing and effects ensure a good time for those in search of an old-school, seventies-style scare flick.
It is spring in idyllic Ogden Marsh, Iowa: baseball season is opening, the fields are ripe for planting, and the sound of tractors fills the air. Young love blossoms amidst the gently rustling grass, and the townsfolk go about their daily lives. The inherent strangeness of rural America is common in horror cinema, partly because it’s familiar to so many Americans and partly because there’s something eerie about such tranquility. Sheriff David Dutten (Timothy Olyphant) suddenly finds himself in a tough situation when the people of Ogden Marsh begin to go completely out of their minds. The film follows a pretty standard formula: Dutten, his wife Judy (Radha Mitchell), and Deputy Russell Clank (Joe Anderson) manage to survive the initial outbreak and have to fight their way through the hordes of crazies to save themselves. While it bears a lot of resemblance to older horror (obviously), its production values are fantastic and the pacing is ideal. Between atrocious kills there are minor chuckles. Psychologically it works wonders—the moment everyone in the theater breathes a sigh of relief, another shocker hits them.
As it turns out, the government accidentally released a biological weapon into the water supply of Ogden Marsh, causing sentient humans to go totally insane. The movie bears a resemblance to zombie films because the agent causes deterioration and spooky physical changes, but these are not zombies—they’re far scarier than the walking (or running) dead. The crazies just want to kill, kill, kill, but because the infected retain knowledge of weaponry and everyday functions, they’re a scarier threat than zombies, whose only concern is to consume. Hunting is a hefty pastime in Ogden Marsh, and when the virus infiltrates the brains of those with the shotguns, they train their sights on more familiar fodder—a terrifying but obvious twist. The Crazies plays with the idea that a person’s very universe can be turned upside down in a matter of moments, which is, on a base level, what makes horror so fascinating and entertaining.
Good horror film and literature can transform everyday objects, situations, and people into something completely off-the-wall and appalling. To a farmer, tillers, tractors, and pitchforks are simply equipment used to ensure a good crop. To an outsider, these things shriek “instrument of torture.” The Crazies features farm tools used in the latter way, which is effective considering its setting (though not new). The movie also strums on the nerves of claustrophobics and those of us who, as kids, loved the old car washes in which huge rubber tentacles slap against the windows. There are a number of really creative, smart kills that aren’t implausible, but neither are they routine. In particular, a thresher featured early in the movie doesn’t live up to its myriad possibilities, but it’s better for filmmakers to refrain from taking the easy out. It’s difficult for a movie to make a horror fan think, “Whoa!” but The Crazies succeeds at that.
The movie could easily have taken an enthusiastic anti-war or anti-government stance, but chooses to sympathize with the soldiers who appear to exterminate the infected (and anyone who gets in their way). The few military men that survivors encounter make it perfectly clear that they were only trying to help, that they were only following orders. (Though it is worth noting that throughout human history, “I was only following orders” has popped up when the worst atrocities are committed.) There is no real enemy here, and that’s terrifying. Throughout the film, satellite imagery appears, backing away in spurts from the action on the ground. Red letters pop up on the screen: Begin Quarantine Sequence. The audience is privy to the terrifying minutiae of a small town’s destruction, but someone else is watching from above, plotting the best way to save the rest of the world from contamination. It’s a creepy and thoroughly neat way to remind the audience that they’re not the only voyeurs.
The Crazies suffers from a merely adequate script, and a few sentimental scenes that have no place and feel utterly dumb. Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell are good in their respective roles, and Joe Anderson’s (Across the Universe) cheekbones and baby blues go a long way. Danielle Panabaker (Sky High) does well in a rather disposable role, adding pretty youthfulness to a cast of largely older actors. The movie’s merit lies in its smart editing, great makeup effects, and classic feel. Character development isn’t at the forefront, but that’s just as well. For a film like this, it’s important just to be effectively creepy and shocking, and at that it succeeds admirably.
With only one Oscar win under his belt for direction, Martin Scorsese has sure been on fire over the last decade with Gangs of New York, The Aviator, and his win for The Departed. There seems to be just no slowing the man down. After having just received his Cecil B. DeMille Award at this year’s Golden Globes, his latest turn behind the camera, Shutter Island, is nothing short of a masterpiece. What’s one thing his last four films all have in common? One name – Leonardo DiCaprio.
Their latest collaboration, Shutter Island, comes from a critically-praised novel from Dennis Lehane. While the author is not known for heartfelt-love-conquers-all storylines, they are rooted in a reality that’s gritty and much more palatable when you want things a little more realistic in your movies. From the man who brought us heartbreak and suspense from the streets of Boston comes the same recipe for success, but just off the shores of his native land.
Having read and loved all of Lehane’s Patrick Kenzie/Angela Gennaro novels, I made it a point to be sure to read his Shutter Island as soon as the film was greenlit. After having read the novel, it was clear that one thing must be sure of to guarantee the film a success: it must remain as true to the source as possible or it just won’t work. Thankfully, Scorsese and screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis appear to be huge fans of their source material and have given a masterful interpretation in bringing Shutter Island to the big screen.
Teddy Daniels (DiCaprio) is just offshore on a ferry bound for Ashecliffe Hospital, an institution for the criminally insane, which sits atop the rock known as Shutter Island. It’s 1954 and Teddy is on his way along with his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) to investigate the disappearance of patient Rachel Solando. Everyone seems in a rush to find their missing patient who appears to have simply vanished. The two most hurried to find Rachel is Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and Dr. Naehring (Max von Sydow).
A storm is approaching the island and with the risk of a hurricane in their midst everyone must either solve the case or find Rachel before it’s too late. Through the proceedings, Teddy’s past is peeled away, layer by layer. We learn Teddy’s really come to the island to find the man (Laeddis, played by Elias Koteas) responsible for killing his wife Dolores (Michelle Williams) in an apartment fire whom Teddy believes is being held in Ward C, where the most dangerous patients are locked away. Teddy also has plans to blow the lid on patient experimentation akin to what the Nazi’s used during WWII.
When Dr. Cawley announces that they’ve found Rachel (Emily Mortimer), Teddy interrogates her and is not convinced that this is the real Rachel. After the storm blows out the island’s power and the staff have to contain the patients Teddy and Chuck use the disorientation of the moment to have their own run of the island and this is when Teddy discovers the real Rachel (Patricia Clarkson) who lets Teddy in on some island secrets and he begins to question the motives of not just the local staff but of his new partner and himself as well.
Scorsese is working overtime in Cape Fear mode here, and some would say he may even be working at his most unrestrained. But what he’s managed to pull off here is a grand bait-and-switch of menacingly operatic proportions. DiCaprio and Williams turn in tour-de-forces while Scorsese surrounds them with spectacularly surreal and all the more frightening dream sequences seamlessly blending a gradually booming foghorn score with perfectly rendered special effects to pull off some of the most intense sequences in quite some time.
What ultimately pulls the film together is it’s true sense of ebb and flow. Everything happens for a reason and when and what Scorsese reveals along the way is all for the sake of making sure everything makes sense. Great crescendos lead the way and just when you think things are headed for their worst there’s a pause to leave you hanging before the scene hurtles into its climax. After Shutter Island you could truly call Scorsese a maestro as he pulls his strings to watch you squirm.
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
Direction: Chris Weitz
There's way too much tortured acting going on in The Twilight Saga: New Moon, even for those like me who enjoyed the earlier film.
Picking up where Twilight left off, this film follows moody teenager Bella Swan as she's dumped by her vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen for fear of hurting her. She spends months on end moping in her bedroom, before another boy falls in love with her. But Bella isn't destined to have a normal relationship. Turns out her new guy, the hunky Jacob Black is a werewolf.
What bogs down this second film that's been adapted from Stephenie Meyer's bestselling novels, is the morose nature of Bella and Edward's romance. Robert Pattinson, who became an overnight heartthrob since appearing in Twilight, plays Edward Cullen as a brooding, humorless fellow with almost no personality at all. Doesn't help that Kristen Stewart's Bella is a bland and passive character who remains sullen and self-absorbed throughout the film, pleading Edward to "change her" and then going into some sort of blue funk each time he turns her down.
THUMBS DOWN: A painfully long melodrama with affected performances from each of its 3 leads.
While the first film and its director Catherine Hardwicke successfully managed to capture the virginal yearning in Bella, New Moon directed by Chris Weitz, only gets the action portions right. The scene in which Jacob (played by Taylor Lautner) first morphs into a CGI werewolf and leaps onto another of his species is nothing short of stunning, and the same can be said for a musical sequence in which a pack of werewolves chase a female vampire through a thick forest.
But these are small consolations in what is otherwise a painfully long, uniformly boring melodrama with affected performances from each of its three leads.
It's an ordeal to endure mostly for its maudlin, morose tone. I'm going with one-and-a-half out of five for The Twilight Saga: New Moon; it made a ton of money when it was released internationally, but that doesn't make it any good. Watch it entirely at your own risk.
Recently, a picture of the HTC Trophy was leaked. The picture was also accompanied by a list of technical aspects of this mobile device. They were published on HTCPedia.com, a website for HTC users with news and information about the company HTC, including its smartphones and accessories.
The features of the HTC Trophy include:
* A wide 3-inch capacitive touch screen * A Qualcomm MSM7227 600MHz processor * It has 512MB of ROM and 256MB of RAM * TouchFLO 3D * It is a very thin device: Only 11mm thickness * It has a built-in 5-megapixel camera (which is perfect for those who like to take those unexpected pictures at any time) * It comes with a 3.5mm audio jack * Slot to insert microSD memory cards * WiFi and 3G connectivity (although there is no clear indication about what type of 3G will be supported)
Of course, the specs are very decent but not quite impressive. At this point, we don’t see a strong reason to spend money by buying this mobile phone, especially if we keep in mind that some smartphones with Snapdragon processors and 3.7-inch touch screens are starting to appear on the market. But maybe some new features will be announced soon.
Anyway, it is interesting to see that this gadget has a really slim design with a thickness of only 11 mm (so it is thinner than the original Motorola RAZR V3, which has a thickness of 14 mm).
At this time, nothing is known about the launch date. And the price is also a mystery.
The Samsung B5722 Duos just was launched in India, after being available in some European countries since last December. In this way, this mobile phone is now the first Samsung phone with touchscreen that supports two SIM cards in India.
The B5722 Duos don’t support 3G, but it allows users to use two SIM cards at the same time. Those SIM cards can be alternated all the time if the user wants so, without needing to turn off the phone.
Features of the Samsung B5722 Duos include: A robust 2.8-inch QVGA touch screen, Bluetooth connectivity, music player, FM radio with RDS (Radio Data System), a built-in 3-megapixel camera, and slot to insert microSD memory cards (up to 8GB).
The B5722 Duos also features easy access to popular social network websites (Facebook and MySpace, among others), as well as to Palringo Instant Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ and AIM.
This kit provides electrical connectivity for cell phones, PDAs and cameras. It includes an electric adaptor with 4 different international plugs that can be used in 150 countries; so, this adaptor can be easily transformed into a charger for small gadgets with USB ports.
A critical thing when traveling with an iPod or iPhone is the duration of the battery. It’s very frustrating when the battery dies in moments and places where you don’t have a plug to re-charge your gadget. For these cases, you can consider to get a battery backup. Among the options, we can include the Energizer iPodPower2 which uses 2 AA batteries, or the iPowerRush which uses 6 AAA batteries. Also, the company Kensington offers the Mini Battery Pack, a charge set that includes an USB charging cable to recharge battery pack, a high-capacity LiPo (lithium ion and polymer) battery, and a LED battery meter that displays remaining power level, among other features.
* Kensington ComboSaver Portable Notebook Lock
USA is a country that is valued as a fairly safe country. However, according to the FBI, a laptop is stolen every 53 seconds in USA. So imagine what is happening in other countries. An obvious solution is a notebook lock for your computer. And Kensington is also a well-known brand in this field. The Kensington Portable ComboSaver is a notebook lock with a cable that can be extended from 3 inches to 6 feet (2 meters). Maybe this device is not 100 percent effective against theft, but at least, your laptop won’t be a prime target of thieves.
This device kills bacterias and pathogens without needing pills or preservatives. The only thing you need to do is to submerge it into a glass or bottle full of water and it will be able to transform up to 16 ounces of water into potable liquid. This process takes 48 seconds.
This is a gadget produced by Franklin Electronics. It comes with 12,000 preloaded sentences coming from a set of 450,000 words that are recorded and stored in its internal memory.
* Talking Electronic Dictionary and Audio PhraseBook with Handheld Scanner
If you prefer a voice-recognition-based system instead of a keyboard-based translator (such as the previous one), Ectaco sells several devices that can be appropriate choices for you. Besides operating as voice-activated electronic translators, they also comes with a scanner that will allow you to insert textual content from a magazine, newspaper, etc. In that way, you will be able to translate that content, too.
This gadget can be connected to TVs, video games consoles, DVD players, laptops, iPods and basically anything with standard audio and video outputs. Once it is connected, the user can watch spectacular images by using a special visor that looks like big eyeglasses.
It could be said the resulting effect is similar to being in front of a huge 52-inch screen. Wonderful!
The brain of the operation is called Liberator, which is a “multi-media center” that comes with several accessories and functions like VGA ports, Composite and S-Video connectors, as well as USB and mini-USB ports. An optional lithium polymer battery is able to provide up to 6 additional hours of operation.
hen you want things a little more realistic in your movies. From the man who brought us heartbreak and suspense from the streets of Boston comes the same recipe for success, but just off the shores of his native land.
