Hawk's Babble-Log

DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. It’s supposed to prevent copies of movies from hitting the net. It does not do this, but it does make life more difficult for those who pay for movies.

I just got a new Blu-Ray disc in the mail from Amazon. I pop it in to my Blu-Ray player in my computer. I bring up Cyberlink Power DVD (Blu-Ray Edition). I hit the play button. I get this error:

DVD Error
Error Code: 8876086A
Internal error.

In this window, I have two options: [Close] or [Detailed]. I click the [Detailed] button. The window expands and includes this text:

The error code is undefined.

Contact http://support.gocyberlink.com. Please tell us how this internal error occurred in a detailed manner.

Upon visiting the site above and searching for this error, I come across a page which tells me that I need to upgrade my video drivers. Why? The page does not say.

I’m now trying to update my video drivers. Now I’m past the point where I had time to watch this movie (the one I paid for).

Here’s my point: Without DRM, none of this would be necessary. Has DRM prevented movies from hitting the net? Answer: No. Has DRM prevented me from watching the movie I paid for? Answer: Yes.

I think I’ll download the .torrent file for this movie so that I can watch the movie I paid for.

What a hilarious film! I was laughing my ass off throughout most of it. Very, very creative stuff. I’m going to get it on Blu-Ray and watch it again.

The things that they can do to animate animals, the computer-generated stuff… it’s getting very difficult to tell which is which. These are some of the best animal simulations I’ve ever seen.

Written by Ron J. Friedman, Steve Bencich, John Requa, and Glenn Ficarra. Directed by Brad Peyton.

Starring Nick Nolte as Butch, James Marsden as Diggs, Christina Applegate as Catherine, Bette Midler as Kitty Galore, Roger Moore as Tab Lazenby, Neil Patrick Harris as Lou, Michael Clarke Duncan as Sam, and Chris O’Donnell as Shane.

Lots of fun. Highly recommended.

This movie seemed to end too soon. Just when it was starting to get good, it ended. If there is a sequel, I’ll wait and rent it.

AMC Burbank 16 has a special Sat morn: $6 movies for the first showing.  This movie was worth that price.

Not recommended, though it is entertaining. I’m not going to buy it.

Truly, an epic of epic epicness!

Scott Pilgrim must defeat his new girlfriend’s seven evil exes to win her over. That line alone would have made me go see the movie. Then I saw the preview and I was hooked. There was no way that I was going to miss that.

This movie has broken through all bounds and actually created a video game reality where you can fight supervillains for the girl and you won’t take any damage, your opponents won’t take much damage, but when you beat them up enough they turn in to quarters and your friends will stand there and cheer you on. And it’s so cool that they made this universe so cool! I’ll bet that was a tough sell. But WOW, they really pulled it off!

Visuals: outstanding! Comedy: outstanding! Story: outstanding! Acting: outstanding! Everything was outstanding!!!

I’ll definitely be getting this one when it’s available on Blu-Ray! I want to watch it over and over again. This is one of the adventures I’d have if I could. It looks like sooo much fun.

Near the end: Yes, I want to continue!!!

Written by Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright, and directed by Edgar Wright
Starring Michael Cera as Scott (Pilgrim), Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona (the girl), Ellen Wong as Knives, Anna Kendrick as Stacey Pilgrim, Mark Webber as Stephen Stills, Alison Pill as Kim, Kieran Culkin as Wallace, and many other interesting people and characters.

This is, hands down, the most outstanding preview I’ve ever seen:

Sucker Punch:
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi107256089/

It’s got it all! Action, adventure, ass-kicking, sword fighting, machine guns, monsters, sci-fi, robots, flying ships, flame throwers, dragons, missiles, guns, nazis, martial arts, hot chicks… oh my!

I can’t wait to see this movie!!!

This is, hands down, one of the greatest movies ever created. I loved it when I first saw it at the El Capitan in Hollywood, and I’ve loved it every time I’ve seen it since. I’ve watched it over and over again on DVD (sometimes by myself, sometimes with friends and family) and I’ll watch it again when I buy it again on Blu-Ray.

The main story here is about a guy who loves being a superhero. He really just wants to help. But something bad happens and superheros are told that, basically, they are not wanted. After that, things seem to go downhill for our hero. He doesn’t seem to see that he’s got an awesome family and they’re right there in front of him.

This movie is full of comedy, action, adventure, explosions, awesome lighting effects, amazing flying craft, cool doors, all kinds of buttons, fantastic music, and a slew of superheros and fantastic characters!

Written & directed by Brad Bird. Brad Bird is one of those guys I wish I could sometimes be. He’s got one of the coolest jobs around: creative movie making. Ever sit through the credits of the TV show The Simpsons? You’ll see Brad Bird’s name. Brad is the guy behind The Iron Giant, also an excellent movie.

Starring Craig T. Nelson as Bob Parr / Mr. Incredible, Holly Hunter as Helen Parr / Elastigirl, Samuel L. Jackson as Lucius Best / Frozone, Jason Lee as Buddy Pine / Syndrome, Spencer Fox as Dashiell ‘Dash’ Parr, Sarah Vowell as Violet Parr, plus a bunch of others such as Wallace Shawn as Gilbert Huph (who is always a good laugh).

Highly recommended! (in case you couldn’t tell

This was a much better movie than I thought it would be. I now wish I had seen it in the theater. It’s a story about a guy doing a long haul on the moon (three years). He’s the only crew member of a base which harvests H3, seals it into canisters, and fires it back to Earth to be used as energy. One day, he goes outside to investigate an accident and finds… himself.

Sam Rockwell does a fantastic job playing several of a very few characters. Kevin Spacey does a fantastic job playing the base computer known as GERTY, who helps run the base and take care of Sam.

The film may have been low on the budget, but I couldn’t tell at all. The effects were great, the sets were realistic, the moonscapes were beautiful… all good.

Written by Duncan Jones (original story) and Nathan Parker (screenplay). Directed by Duncan Jones.

There are a few other characters such as his wife played by Dominique McElligott, and Eve played by Kaya Scodelario, but mostly it’s just Sam.

I also loved the ending. The ending of any movie is important to me. Often, I can sit through a pretty good movie only to be disappointed by the ending, then come up with a better one. I loved the ending of this movie!

Highly recommended.

This is a very fun movie! Not to be confused with anything near reality. But I think that’s the point. It’s fun, it has nothing to do with reality, and the visuals are outstanding. I’ll never look at fireworks the same way again. I’ll never look at a coffee maker the same way again, either.

Written by The Wibberleys and Hoyt Yeatman & David P.I. James. Directed by Hoyt Yeatman.

Starring Bill Nighy as Saber, Sam Rockwell as Darwin, Will Arnett as Kip, Jon Favreau as Hurley, Penélope Cruz as Juarez, Tracy Morgan as Blaster, Nicolas Cage as Speckles, Zack Galifianakis as Ben, and Steve Buscemi as Bucky.

Go for it; it’s lots of fun for the whole family.

Johnny Depp does a good job with this one. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good movie. Some parts had me crying with joy. Some parts had me crying because it was just sad. It’s a little bit bittersweet. So I won’t be buying it, and I can only recommend it as a rental. But all the production values are excellent, the acting is excellent, and the film does a very good job showing what might have been going through Barrie’s imagination. That stuff was excellent.

Written by Allan Knee (the play) and David Magee (the screenplay), directed by Marc Forster.

Starring Johnny Depp as Barrie, Kate Winslet as Sylvia Davies, Radha Mitchell as Mary Barrie, Dustin Hoffman as Charles Frohman, Freddie Highmore as Peter, Joe Prospero as Jack, Nick Roud as George, and Luke Spill as Michael.

I thought this was an okay movie, but not great. I’m not going to buy it as I don’t want to see it again.

The story of this one soldier and what happened to him may not be so uncommon. I thought the ending was actually pretty good… relating to one soldier. The ending of other soldiers… not so good.

The fight scenes were pretty good, but the blood was a bit much. The choreography was okay. Acting and direction was all good with an excellent cast.

Written & directed by Neil Marshall.

Starring Michael Fassbender as Centurion Quintus Dias, Andreas Wisniewski as Commander Gratus, Dave Legeno as Vortix, Axelle Carolyn as Aeron, Dominic West as General Titus Flavius Virilus, Olga Kurylenko and Etain and Imogen Poots as Arianne.

Seems to me that it’s about time for intersteller aliens to visit the Earth and attempt to take over with advanced technology so that we can ban together and defeat them with antiquated technology.

I saw an interesting movie last week or the week before called Hardwired starring Cuba Gooding Jr, Val Kilmer, Michael Ironside, and Tatiana Maslany. Overall, I thought it was good. I probably won’t buy it, but definitely worth the rental. And, I’m looking forward to the sequel, if there is one.

Cuba plays a regular guy who has an accident and get’s a special chip implanted in his brain. This thing is only trying to generate images (ads) to make him buy stuff. In this world, there is no more advertising space available… except in your head.

Enter the rebels. They hack Cuba’s chip and give him instructions on how to evade his captors. This information appears directly in front of him, like it’s floating in mid air.

Some adventure, some destruction, some explosions… and it’s time for the sequel. The film has the feel of a B-movie, but still they did a good job on it, and the story is solid.