New Movies: Friday, July 24th, 2009

Note: These are the movies coming out NEXT week. If you want the movies coming out THIS week (Friday, July 17th), you can find them at the previous post. I know--it's confusing.

And, boy, are there a lot of them! Here we go:

• G-Force. Genre: Comedy/Family/Action. From producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the man who brought you the Pirates of the Caribbean films, comes another super-powered action adventure. When our world is threatened...when an evil mastermind threatens to take over...our only hope...is guinea pigs???? In this movie, yes. PG for some mild action and rude humor.
• Orphan. Genre: Horror/Thriller. Saddened by the loss of their unborn child, a couple decides to adopt. They choose a little girl named Esther, but she is not as innocent as she appears to be. R for disturbing violent content, some sexuality and language.
• The Ugly Truth. Genre: Romantic comedy. A successful woman makes a deal with a tough-talking TV show host so she can get some relationship advice. R for sexual content and language.

Those are all the movies for this week. Here are their official websites.

G-Force

Orphan

The Ugly Truth

A New Movie: Wed. July 15th, 2009

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Genre: Fantasy/Action/Adaptation. Potterfans, the wait is finally over!!!!!!!!! In the sixth chapter of the wildly popular Harry Potter series of movies, our three heroes, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, must work to defeat the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). (Trivia: The younger Voldemort in the flashback scenes is played by Fiennes' nephew.) Surprisingly PG for scary images, some violence, language and mild sensuality.

That's the movie coming out this week. Visit its official website.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Office 2010: The Movie

I found this on movie website /Film (http://www.slashfilm.com/). It's a trailer for the fake film Office 2010: The Movie ("coming soon to an office near you!"). It tells the story of secret agents hired to take down a hacker who made a font that, when people read it, causes them to believe everything they read. The website featured at the end of the movie, http://www.office2010themovie.com/, is, in fact, a real website. Both trailers were created by Microsoft to promote their upcoming office suite Office 2010.

First up, the teaser trailer:



And next, the theatrical trailer:

District 9: All-New Trailer

CAUTION: The following trailer contains some violent content and scary images. It may not be appropriate for younger viewers. It is, as the green band before the trailer states, "approved for appropriate audiences".

28 years ago, aliens first made contact with Earth.
We waited for the hostile attack,
or the giant advances in technology.

Neither came.

These aliens are refugees. They were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa called District 9. Control over the aliens has been handed down to Multi-National United (MNU) (read more at http://www.multinationalunited.com/), a private company that doesn't give a darn about the aliens' well-being and comfort. They will gain lots of money if they can make the alien's weaponry work. But activation of those weapons requires non-human DNA. One day, while discovering one of the non-humans' homes, an MNU worker sprays himself with a mysterious non-human spray, causing him to contract some of the non-human DNA. Now, he is on the run from the company he worked for, and there is only one place where he is able to hide...

District 9.

The movie is rated R for bloody violence and pervasive language, and comes out on August 14th.

The Informant!

What do you get when you mix Matt Damon, Steven Soderberg, and corn? You get The Informant!, an upcoming comedy from the director of the Ocean's movies. The movie tells the true story of Mark Whitacre, who blew the whistle on Archer Daniels Midland's price-fixing. The FBI recruits him into being a sort of spy to document the goings-on at ADM. And so, armed with a wire and a tape recorder, Whitacre documents the events, but his account often changes. As it turns out, Whitacre served 10 years in prison, three times more than the other conspirators. The Informant! comes out in September and is rated R for language.

District 9: Three Viral Marketing Multi-National United PSAs

As part of the viral marketing for the upcoming sci-fi thriller District 9, here are three public service announcements that are centered around Multi-National United, a fictional organization that was designed to keep the non-humans at bay. District 9 is rated R and comes out on August 14th. For more info, check out the viral marketing sites http://www.d-9.com/ and http://www.multinationalunited.com/. The official movie website is http://www.district9movie.com/.

PSA #1: "High Alert"


PSA #2: "Level 5 Alert"


PSA #3: "Multi-National United"

YouTube Fireworks Displays

Fourth of July weekend is almost coming to a close, but if you couldn't see the fireworks yesterday or just didn't want to, here are some fireworks displays on YouTube. I found all seven of  these on the technology website Mashable.

1: Walt Disney World, Florida: 2005


2: New York City: 2008


3: Cabazon, California: 2007. According to the video, this was the last 24 inch firework shell ever launched in the States.


4: Boston: 2006


5: Florida: 2007. Never keep your fireworks in a tent.


6: Disneyland, CA: 2007


And if you thought that 24 inch shell was big...check this one out that's double that size. 48 inches! According to the uploader, "somafire", this was launched in Japan.


Happy 4th of July! For more tech tidbits and interesting news items, check out http://www.mashable.com/.

BURN-E

Another day, another adventure on Earth...and this is only about 700 years after humans have left. Contained on the DVD of Pixar's WALL-E comes an amazing short film, or, as the originating website likes to call it, a "shorty story": BURN-E. Here is how the story goes.

One day, WALL-E the robot is running his hand through the rings of Saturn. One of the particles of rock that accidentally swirls away zooms past Mars and increases in size, becoming a meteorite. The meteorite veers closer to the spaceship Axiom, destroying a lamp on its side.

Someone's gotta fix it. BURN-E to the rescue!

(Note: The quality of this video leaves much to be desired; it isn't exactly HD. You can catch it in a higher resolution on the WALL-E Standard and Special Edition DVD. Enjoy!)

New Movies: Wed. July 1st, 2009

• Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Genre: Comedy/Family/Animated. In the third prehistoric adventure, Manny, Ellie, Scrat, and the rest of the gang discover that their world has just become inhabited by dinos. PG for some mild rude humor and peril.
• Public Enemies. Genre: Action/Gangster. Johnny Depp plays John Dillinger, a bank robber who is on the run from a detective named Melvin Purvis. R for gangster violence and some language.

That's it! Here are the websites for these films.

Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Public Enemies

Fun, Free Friday: LinCity-NG and Enigma

• If you've ever wanted to own a copy of a "city simulation" game like SimCity but don't want to shell out the money, try LinCity-NG. It doesn't have the great features of SimCity, but it is free, and runs on older hardware.
• In Enigma, you control a black ball in a world. To go to the next level, you have to unlock certain locks of different colors. But be careful, because if you unlock one lock, another lock would close. A puzzler.

Download and play LinCity-NG.

Download and play Enigma.

The Last Airbender: Teaser trailer

Here's a trailer for The Last Airbender, the new movie from director M. Night Shyamalan. Based on an animated TV series (which I have never seen), the film tells the story of a young boy named "Aang". It seems that wherever the movie takes place has been divided up into four nations: the "Fire Nation", the "Water Nation", the "Earth Nation", and the "Air Nation". Aang must stop the fire nation from taking over all the other nations. This movie looks more action-y than horror, which is what M. Night is famous for (The Sixth Sense, The Happening). The movie comes out next year.

CNET.com

If you like tech, then you'll love CNET.com. CNET, which was recently bought out by CBS, hosts many blogs and other sites dedicated to technology, like news, reviews, downloads and more. Here are some of the things CNET has to offer.

• Download.com is a website featuring "spyware-free free downloads". Some of the downloads have videos of CNET editors testing them out. You can also search for downloads using the search box.
• Webware spotlights Internet applications and the latest in "Web 2.0" services and sites.

And of course there's...

• CNET Tv. This CNET site features a plethora of CNET shows including "Top 5", "Mailbag", "Apple Byte", and more, all hosted by editors.

http://www.cnet.com/
http://www.download.com/
http://www.webware.com/
http://www.cnettv.com/

Hoax-Slayer.com: Debunking Urban Legends

"Debunking email hoaxes and exposing Internet scams since 2003!" is the tagline of Hoax-Slayer.com, a website whose mission is to reveal the truth behind all those chain emails you get where Microsoft supposedly gives you money (not true), or something about a new virus (Depends, can be real or fake). The website is listed into categories so you can find the one you want easily.

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/

Note: In the future, I will be also spotlighting some other "hoax debunker sites". Some of the hoaxes may contain inappropriate content.

New Movies! Wed. June 24th, and Fri. June 26th, 2009

First: on Wednesday...

• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. (Dun dun duuun!) Genre: Action/Adventure. In this highly anticipated sequel to 2007's Transformers, Sam Witwicky finds important information about the Transformers' history on our planet, but the Decepticons (Don't worry, I usually don't follow this stuff either) hatch a plan to try and catch him. PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material.

And on Friday: something less action-y, but more sentimental:

• My Sister's Keeper. Genre: Drama. Director Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook) makes you cry again in this story about a girl who was born to save her sister from a killer disease. PG-13 for mature thematic content, some disturbing images, sensuality, language and brief teen drinking.

That's it! Check out the official websites for these movies below:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

My Sister's Keeper

Cake Wrecks

Remember those handyman videos I showed you a while back, and commented that handymen would probably like them? Well, if you like baking, or if your occupation is baking, then you'll love this site. Cake Wrecks is a blog that spotlights what happens "when professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong". Grammar and spelling errors come alive at this site, which also includes some cakes that are just...weird. White it does have its fair share of sometimes inappropriate cakes, they're made up for by other, appropriate cakes and commentary that is just hi-larious.

http://www.cakewrecks.com/

2012: Feature Trailer

Director Roland Emmerich destroys the world again in 2012, out for release in the fall. The movie is about hwo the world is supposed to end on 12/21/12 according to the Mayan calendar, and once the world does end, the struggles the survivors must face. The movie's website is http://www.whowillsurvive2012.com/. Enjoy!

Yedda

If FixYa is for tech, then what is Yedda for? Tech, and everything else. Yedda is similar to Yahoo Answers. On the site, you can explore what others have asked, and ask a question yourself. For example, a question might be: "How do I buy the perfect television?" or "How do I bathe my dog?" Answers are produced throughout the site's community of visitors.

http://www.yedda.com/

Bing: "The Decision Engine"

Well, I don't really think so. What about Hunch? Anyway, Bing is Microsoft's brand-new search engine. Some people may know it as Live Search. Bing could be called the "reincarnation" of Live Search. Every day, Bing's homepage will show you a new picture. There are little orange squares that display information if you roll over them. If you search for something, Bing shows you "related searches" on the side of the page, and if you search for a company (like Google), the site displays an orange bar that has subcategories under it. Could this be a Google killer? Maybe.

http://www.bing.com/

Bing has also rolled out some advertisements (they spent a whopping 10 million dollars on their ad campaign), one of which I will embed below. It's actually pretty funny.

New Movies, Yaay! Friday, June 19th, 2009

• The Proposal. Genre: Romantic Comedy. Sandra Bullock plays a book editor who is desperate for a green card. When there is a problem with her Visa (which could mean going back to Canada) she discovers a solution right that very second: Marry her assistant (played by Ryan Reynolds). PG-13 for sexual content, nudity, and language.
• Year One. Genre: Comedy/Adventure. Jack Black and Michael Cera star as hunter-gatherers in the very first year of humanity. When they are banished from their village, they set out to form a new tribe, encountering countless people from Biblical times. PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, brief strong language and comic violence.

That's all the movies coming out this week. Here are their official websites.

The Proposal

Year One

Search easier in Firefox browser

Here is a way to search the web easier and faster in the Firefox browser. Enjoy!

Orisinal.com

Orisinal.com is a website specializing in cute Flash games to make you relax and have fun. There are a ton of short games on the site, all featuring cuddly animals. If you want, you can click the "Flowers" button to send flowers to brighten someone's day. The site also has a guestbook, tell-a-friend, and link-backs. Enjoy!

Toodledo

Here's another nifty reminder service called Toodledo. It's kind of similar to other websites such as Remember the Milk. Toodledo lets you organize tasks into folders (so there could be one for "Work Projects" or something like that) and displays a visual calendar for when all those tasks are due. You can also give tasks "priorities" (tasks with a low priority will not appear on your todo list) and tasks with the highest priority will appear on a "hotlist". You can also attach notes to any task. The site also boasts that you can make a foldable booklet of your tasks, but I wonder if they're just trying to be funny. They also have an iPhone application for easy toodledoing on the go.

http://www.toodledo.com/

Video Break: More

This stop-animation short film, entitled More, tells the story of an inventor. By day, he works in some sort of factory, but by night, he is planning an invention that will change the way he and others look at the world around them. Enjoy!



This video is from YouTube, and many commenters talked about what they thought the movie meant. I like the comment from "Goatmon":

"I think the children represent innocence. Unfiltered emotion. The adults have lost their color, but those children are ripe with it.

I think the meaning behind this film can be interpreted many ways: How one can accomplish so much by embracing their inner child and not giving in to conformity; How one must sacrifice so much in order to achieve greatness; How all of the money and power in the world cannot buy the blissful happiness of youth.



To name a few interpretations."

The Princess and the Frog

Disney returns to hand-drawn animation this Christmas with The Princess and the Frog. If I am correct, I think it is based on the story The Frog Prince. So, we know the story about how the frog got turned into a prince. Now the princess (who, in this movie, is Disney's first black princess) must kiss him, in order for him to turn back into a prince. But what happened after? Watch the trailer (and if you're interested, the movie) to find out.

Cc:Betty

There is a tool for building a blog from your email (Posterous), and Cc:Betty is similar. Instead of a blog, it's a "mailspace" (they call it "a webpage created...along-side your email conversation"). If you Cc: an email to betty@ccbetty.com, "she" creates a "mailspace" from that conversation, tracking replies, maps, videos, pictures, files, and more. Free to sign up.

http://www.ccbetty.com/

Time-Waster: Falling Sand

This is a fun website to experiment with. When the applet starts, colored dots will be falling down on the screen. The first is sand, the second is water, the third is salt, and the fourth (I believe) is oil. Since I probably won't do a good job of explaining this game, here is a paragraph from the site:


"Falling Sand Game", also "World of Sand", (2005) is a Java applet first found on the Dofi Blog via Fark thread, later enlarged and rehosted by Chirag Mehta. The game has been popular on community link sites like Digg and Delicious and involves four main falling particles: sand, water, salt, and oil. Each of these particles have special properties that can be manipulated; among these include burning, desiccating, growing, eroding, and more. Along with these four, main particles are auxiliary environmental manipulators: Wall, Fire, Plant, Spout, Cera (or wax), ???, and Eraser. By putting these together, one can thoroughly enjoy the modeling and construction of very complex structures and systems. There is an additional special feature that can be turned on, off, or told to remain in place. This is called the namekuji. In japanese, "namekuji" means slug, naturally for the properties of a slug when salt is poured onto it. Several different versions exist, varying from applets with zombies, or human bodies, that have their own unique properties to applets where auxiliary environmental manipulators have additional properties.

http://www.fallingsand.com/