Your Daily Dosage

Set Wristcutters Free!

Wristcutters:  A Love Story was initially shown with great reception at Sundance 2006.  This movie has an 86% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.  Why has it not seen even a limited release?  Granted, the subject matter is a little, shall we say dark, but the overall film itself is uplifting.  IMDB lists September 2007 as the next USA release.  In the meantime, the teaser trailer is shown below.

Downloading the Academy Award Nominees

Waxy.org has written a nice article on the ease with which pirated copies of films nominated for the 79th Academy Awards can be found.  From the article: 

"I researched every nominated film, excluding the documentary and foreign film categories. Out of those 34 films:

• Academy members received screeners for 30 out of 34. (Everything except Click, Monster House, Poseidon, and Black Dahlia.)
  
• 31 out of 34 films were released online in some form,
  including camcorder footage. (Everything except Letters from Iwo Jima,
  Notes on a Scandal, and Venus.)
  
• 24 screeners were leaked online. (In several cases, they were leaked months before Academy screeners were mailed.)
  
• The average length of time between a film's USA release and its first appearance online is 12 days.
  
• 9 screeners appeared online before they were mailed to Academy members.
  
• On average, a screener appears online 24 days before it's received by Academy members. (Excluding these early leaks, the average time is 13 days.)"

Of course, many of the films released earlier in the year have been officially released on DVD.

For Your Consideration ...

The nominees for the 79th Academy Awards were announced today, and for the most part, the list is a respectable one, devoid of mainstream, blockbuster movies.  Children of Men is much more deserving than The Queen for the best picture nomination.  Thankfully, the Academy did not give Dreamgirls a "Best Picture" nomination.  This prevents the Academy from repeating their boneheaded mistake in 2002 when Chicago (I think I threw up a little) won the award over two exceedingly superior films:  The Hours and The Pianist. 

My longshot prediction is the following:  Martin Scorses and Clint Eastwood will split the vote and Paul Greengrass (director of United 93) will pick up the Oscar. 

Upcoming DVD Alert - The Science of Sleep

According to IGN, Michel Gondry has succeeded again.  This time The Science of Sleep "fulfills the director's promise as a teller of idiosyncratic and beautiful stories".  His earlier Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (penned with Charlie Kaufman) is one of my most favorite movies.  This received only limited release and I have looked forward to its DVD release on February 6th. 

A Scanner Darkly

With the vast majority of dialogue drawn from its source material,  A Scanner Darkly is a fabulous adaptation of Phillip K. Dick's seminal novel A Scanner Darkly.  Done in the same rotoscoped style of Linklater's earlier film Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly follows an undercover drug agent as his reality slowly slips away. 

Jacktracker Is Back!

Jacktracker is back up for Season 6.  Combining Wayfaring and Google Maps, you can follow the real locales Jack visits in his next 24 hour adventure.

Top Ten Dystopias according to Reel Pop

Reel Pop has listed their top ten dystopian films with video links:

1. Gattaca.  While I agree this is an interesting dystopian near-future, there are others I think should make the list instead of this one.
2. THX 1138
3. Blade Runner.  Yes!  This would be my number one choice of dystopian futures.  A brilliant and spectacular piece of film making from Ridley Scott.  Be on the lookout of the four DVD collector's edition due later this year.
4. Akira
5. Mad Max 2:  The Road Warrior.  Another soft call as there are more interesting choices.
6. Logan's Run
7. Alphaville
8. Brazil.  This would be my second overall choice.  Brazil and Bladerunner are easily among my top 10 favorite movies of all time.
9. La Jatee.  And by extension, one could then include 12 Monkeys.  There is speculation Criterion may release this on DVD later this year.
10. The Running Man.

Other potential choices would include V for Vendetta, A Clockwork Orange, the aforementioned 12 Monkeys, A Scanner Darkly, and  1984 (which is sadly out of print on DVD).

More Ugliness from Universal (and Sony, too!)

As if the Zune did not suck enough, apparently both Sony and Universal have prohibited Microsoft from allowing certain songs from the Zune store to be shared between Zune users (all three of them) with Microsoft's already restrictive "three days or three listens" DRM.  You've gotta love the "social".

More Tivo Hacks

23 interesting tips gathered in one place.  Here you will find a roundup of hacks and modifications located across the wide expanse of the world wide web.  (origianally via Lifehacker and a couple subsequent hops).

More Random iPhone Tidbits

1. Apparently, I am not the only one to think that the "iPhone" may endup being the applePhone by release time.  Robert X. Cringely predicts the same.
2. Cisco may not own the rights to "iPhone".  According to Ed Burnette's blog, Cisco may have lost the rights to the trademark in 2006 because it was technically "abandoned".  This is also discussed in a lengthy and informative Slashdot thread.   My guess is that Apple believes this to be the case and they stand a good chance to prevail in court. 
   
3. The New York Times apparently has become confused with the difference between FairPlay and the iPod/iPhone hardware.  Do you want to avoid DRM on your Apple device?  Do not buy from the iTunes Music Store.  Unlike Microsoft's beleaguered Zune, music and video you rip yourself is not restricted.  Check out half.com or Amazon for good prices on second hand CDs.