They’ve both had incredible careers, but this video from Mick Jagger and David Bowie is just brutal. You’ll cringe and laugh out loud . . .
Month: April 2012 (Page 7 of 10)
There are a lot of gadgets out in the marketplace these days fighting for your hard-earned dollars, and one of the latest to garner serious buzz is the Nike+ FuelBand, a fitness bracelet that tracks your daily activity using a three-axis accelerometer inside the device. Nike is doing its very best to build hype for the FuelBand by releasing it in limited quantities and therefore keeping demand high, but at a rather pricey $150, is it even worth it? I was given a FuelBand to test out for one week and arrived at the following conclusion: it’s complicated.
Nike has done a great job with the overall presentation of the FuelBand; it’s simple yet stylish, and although the band is a little more rigid than expected, it’s so lightweight that you’ll forget you’re even wearing it most of the time. (I actually went to sleep wearing mine every night). Additionally, the band is water resistant, so you can feel free to wear it in the shower or the rain without worrying about it short-circuiting on you. Of course, I wouldn’t have risked it if I had actually paid for mine, but Nike says it’s okay as long as you’re not completely submerging it in water, so hopefully that’ll put your mind at ease.
In addition to the bracelet itself (which can be purchased in three different sizes: small, medium and large), the FuelBand comes with two extension links (8mm and 16mm) to fine-tune your fit, a sizing tool that makes adding and removing them a breeze, and a USB charging stand for when it’s plugged into your computer. I was a little surprised at how long it took for the band to charge via the USB connecter (which also functions as the bracelet’s clasp), but the battery life is remarkably good, running on a single charge for the entire week despite Nike’s claim that it would only last for four days.
The FuelBand works in much the same way as other fitness bracelets or pedometers on the market – tracking the number of calories burned and steps taken – but what sets it apart is the concept of Nike Fuel, a points-based system that represents your level of activity for the day. You earn Fuel for just about anything you do (walking, running, pouring milk into a bowl of cereal, etc.) and can even set daily goals that the FuelBand tracks with a strip of colored lights located just below the main LED matrix. As you get closer to hitting your goal, the lights progress from red, to orange, to yellow, and finally to green, celebrating your achievement with Jumbotron-style flair. And if that wasn’t enough, the device also has a built-in watch function, which I found to be really useful.
The late, great Sam Kinison died 20 years ago today. Check out our profile of Sam Kinison that we published when we inducted him into our Stand-up Comics Hall of Fame.
Illustration by Brian Smith. Copyright 2009 Bullz-Eye.com, LLC. Click here for usage restrictions.
It’s another slow week for Blu-ray fans, with only two major titles being released, neither of which is worth more than a rental. Warner Bros.’ repackaging of “A Streetcar Named Desire” and the Werner Herzog documentary “Into the Abyss” are also hitting stores, but since I didn’t receive either of those for review, this week’s column is going to be brief.
“The Iron Lady”
Every bit the listless piece of Oscar bait that everyone expected it to be, “The Iron Lady” is essentially a made-for-TV movie with an award-worthy performance at the center. Yes, Meryl Streep is almost offensively talented as an actress, but she’s also been much better in a lot of other movies than she is here playing former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Though Streep absolutely nails her portrayal of the controversial politician (thanks in large part to some excellent make-up work), the movie itself is a rather cold and insipid biopic that isn’t nearly as interesting as it probably could have been in the hands of a more talented filmmaker. Jim Broadbent and Alexandra Roach (as Thatcher’s husband and younger self, respectively) deliver some good work in supporting roles, but this is clearly Streep’s show. It’s just a shame that her fantastic performance was wasted in such a mediocre movie, because if the actress was going to finally win another Oscar after so many years, it should have been for something much more memorable than this.
Blu-ray Highlight: Regrettably, there is none. All of the so-called “bonus featurettes” are less than three minutes long and recycle a lot of the same footage from “Making The Iron Lady,” which is more of just a standard rundown of the characters and actors that play them. It’s a bit baffling that some kind of makeup featurette wasn’t included seeing as how the film won an Oscar for it, because it surely would have been worth watching.
“The Darkest Hour”
When I previewed Chris Gorak’s sci-fi thriller back in December, I expressed my annoyance with the fact that it was being released in a month where it had virtually no chance of success. Of course, that was when I still thought the film had potential, but in hindsight, it’s easy to see why Summit showed so little confidence in the movie. Despite boasting a cool premise and a talented young cast (including Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby and Joel Kinnaman of “The Killling”), “The Darkest Hour” is B-movie material at best, marred by terrible performances, clichéd characters and a lack of excitement. The film’s only redeeming quality is the special effects, but Gorak relies on the image of the invisible aliens turning its victims to dust so often that you wonder if it’s the only card he has to play. Because when the aliens’ comically lame physical form is finally revealed, you’ll understand why they spent most of the movie hidden in stealth mode. Spoiler alert: it’s even worse than it sounds.
Blu-ray Highlight: Though fans will probably get a kick out of the short film “Survivor,” which explores the human resistance forming around the world, the “Visualizing an Invasion” featurette is an interesting look at designing the aliens, their unique POV shots and the cool “shred” effect that happens when you come into contact with them.
If Lionsgate’s new horror film “The Cabin in the Woods” had been released back in 2010 like originally planned, there’s a good chance that audiences wouldn’t have recognized any of the young faces in the cast. Chris Hemsworth’s biggest claim to fame up to that point was a cameo role as James T. Kirk’s dad in “Star Trek”; Jesse Williams had just started his recurring stint on the medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy”; Fran Kranz was working on the short-lived Joss Whedon series “Dollhouse”; and Kristen Connolly and Anna Hutchison didn’t even have a noteworthy acting credit to their names.
Though most of the actors have still yet to truly break out (save for Hemsworth, of course), “The Cabin in the Woods” is definitely the kind of movie that could put them on the map, especially with so much positive buzz leading up to its release. I was fortunate enough to see the film at South by Southwest last month and joined a group of journalists in speaking with several cast members – including Connolly, Williams, Hutchison and veteran scene stealers Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins – about their experiences making the movie. Below are some highlights from the roundtable discussions, although because of the secretive nature of the film’s story, consider this your official warning that the following may contain potential spoilers.
And when you’re done, be sure to check out my interview with co-writer Joss Whedon and writer/director Drew Goddard for more on “The Cabin in the Woods.”
Kristen Connolly, Anna Hutchison and Jesse Williams on their initial reactions to the script.
JW: Our audition sides were totally fake. I think Joss just wrote them to fuck with us. And because they’re such good writers, they could just make stuff up in two seconds and have us jump around like animals to get the part. I didn’t read the script until after I agreed to do the movie, I don’t think.
KC: I had an inkling of what they were up to because I read one of the later scenes in the movie with Fran [Kranz]… to see if we were compatible. So then I finally got to read the script and I knew it was really special right away. It’s just mind-blowing, and it’s amazing, and it’s awesome and rare to read something that makes you want to keep reading, and that you really don’t know where it’s going to go.
AH: You kind of have a bit of blind faith if it’s a project with Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, because their previous things have been so rad, you’re kind of like, “I think this might be awesome.” And you guys didn’t have much of an idea going into the film, right? But you kind of knew that it might be good, and it is. I think that’s why I was just like, “Heck yeah, get me on this bad boy,” without even reading it.
Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins on the film’s script.
BW: I’ve said this a bunch, but what’s miraculous about this is you have two guys who obviously are great imaginative storytellers, and they look at each other and they go, “What would we write if we could write anything?” And the fact that that actually got done and that that movie got made is just a fucking miracle. (Laughs)
RJ: I almost think it was a bet that they made. They wrote this unbelievably complicated story and then [Joss] turned to Drew and they flipped a coin and said, “Okay, you direct it. See if you can possibly direct something.” And you know, as good as the script is, the movie’s better, which was amazing to see.
BW: It is amazing that he’s a first-time director, because when you’re reading the script, when the elevator doors open and there’s a lot of stuff that comes out of there… How do you make that work? Modulating that kind of ridiculous horror and remaining human is really difficult. Most directors will fuck that up for you. It was a shock seeing it. Realizing that the original impulse was achieved with that kind of clarity was amazing to me.
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