In The Seats

For years I worked in the video postproduction/DVD industry, so I’ve probably forgotten more about video compression/broadcast video and the technical specs of DVD/Blu-Ray and streaming video then most people in the general public know or are even aware of. Blu-Ray came out, and yes I fully admit it was better, but the price to quality upgrade ratio was unimpressive, DVD to Blu-Ray WAS NOT VHS to DVD. As people were screaming from the mountain top, to ditch their DVD’s and upgrade, I stood pat. High-Definition Television and Televisions began to proliferate more and more into the market and people would scream from the mountain tops to replace everything but I stood pat. Downloads and streaming became popular, “The Disc business is dead!” everyone said, but I stood pat all the while knowing I would eventually have to make the switch. This February I got a letter from Bell Canada (My Internet and TV provider), that my current service was being discontinued as the technology was obsol...

As we enter the 2011 Academy Award season, every professional pundit to film fan across the land will be adding there two cents to this year’s Oscar debate and while I personally tend to take the handing out of these awards as a pseudo-political farce that Hollywood engages in each year and I am ultimately no different from anyone else and I will be throwing my opinion into the wind as well, but at least in my humble opinion the nomination is the award, the actual statue is B.S. I could go on for hours about the categories (and probably will) but I’d like to bring two specific things to light. Winters Bone with nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress and Best Picture has to be a huge feather in the cap for everyone involved in this fantastic film that began its journey at Sundance and is now ending at the biggest award show of them all. It probably won’t win anything but it always makes me happy when the little movie that could…does. On the flipsid...

It was the 68th Annual Golden Globes tonight, and as a general rule these awards tend to be the main barometer for the Oscars when it comes to handing out the film awards for that year. Nobody undeserving won, but when it comes down to it, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is more or less a joke...and every celebrity in that room knows it. It's a party thrown for the Brangelina's of the world where they basically get paid to show up, eat and drink and catch up with one another and pat each other on the back for making movies. It's a roast hosted by a man who has enought money that he simply doesn't care about the system, and will make fun of it while they pay him. I love the arts, I always have and I always will but this is basically a televised party, and it's gotten boring. We as indviduals don't go to the same party all the time, you've got to mix it up and it would be nice if the HFSP would start to take this as seriously as the bulk of the view...

In a shock heard around the entertainment world in October 2008, Joaquin Phoenix announced his retirement from the acting world, brother-in-law Casey Affleck was there filming it all as he attempted to transition into a career in hip-hop which ultimately turned into a documentary about a star and his nervous breakdown which lasted nearly a year. In September 2010 upon the film’s release we find out what we had all suspected that it was all bullshit. One could make the argument that this was a masterstroke in filmmaking, working the 24 hour news cycle in the media and the very Hollywood system itself in believing this farce and turning into a cunning social comment on the very system that Phoenix and Affleck make a living on…or it was just a couple of assholes running around doing whatever the hell they wanted. 2 talented actors got bored, got high and wanted to make their own version of Borat, Bruno etc, and is usually the case it was only funny in small doses. There incessant inside...

Danish director Lars Von Trier, has done some pretty weird and emotionally evocative stuff over the years, The Kingdom mini-series, Breaking The Waves, Dancer In The Dark, Europa, Dogville et others, but his latest quite simply tops them all. Antichrist debuted at Cannes in 2009, with critical acclaim but also with some shock and awe due to it's explicit sexuality and moments of graphic violence. I wont bore any of you with a plot summary that can easily be found elsewhere(or in the trailer link below), but I am compelled to tell you, the avid readers of this blog that I have never found a piece of film so compelling, yet so uncomfortable to watch all at the same time. This is why films(dare I say art) is made to challenge, to provoke, to spark any and all kind of observations and discussion about what ever we please. You might not like this film once you watch it, but I guarantee you will talk about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw03QayJ2fU Cheers, DRV

4.5 out of 5 stars The North American television viewer suffers the disadvantage of not always having access to the finer small screen events from across the pond. The art of the television mini-series hasn’t been properly displayed since the 1980’s when we were treated to such sprawling epics like Shogun, The Thorn Birds & Roots. Thankfully our friends at the BBC still know how to get the job done. Having first aired in 2007, Jekyll is the story of Dr. Tom Jackman a clinical psychiatrist with a dark secret. He is the only surviving member of a family whose bloodline can be traced all the way back to the infamous Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Tom Jackman is a mild mannered family man who will do whatever it takes to protect his family from his alter ego Mr. Hyde, who quite simply does what he wants, whenever he wants. Using every means at his disposal, Tom Jackman has made a deal with his very own devil, allowing his alter ego his decadent ways in order to buy himself time to find ...