Last September, Philips Norelco put a call out to new and returning college guys to submit their funniest and most creative college life hacks, awarding prizing to their favorites. Now that the competition is over, the company has collected the best life hacks in a guide that every college student should put to the test. Click the image below for a larger, easy-to-read version.
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Every Tuesday, I review the newest Blu-ray releases and let you know whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping, along with a breakdown of the included extras. If you see something you like, click on the cover art to purchase the Blu-ray from Amazon, and be sure to share each week’s column on Facebook and Twitter with your friends.
WHAT: It’s been 30 years since Kal-El was jettisoned to Earth by his father (Russell Crowe) just before their home planet of Krypton was destroyed. Raised as a human named Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) and taught to hide his superpowers, Clark eventually accepts his role as Earth’s protector just as Zod (Michael Shannon), the man responsible for his father’s death, arrives on the planet with plans to terraform it into a new Krypton.
WHY: The Superman franchise was practically DOA before Warner Bros. enlisted the aid of Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer to press the reboot button, and in doing so showed that the studio is finally starting to think about the bigger picture. One of the main problems with Superman as a character is that he’s pretty dull compared to the likes of Batman. Director Zack Snyder really can’t change that, but he at least manages to make him feel more relatable by depicting him as a bit of an outcast. Henry Cavill proves himself more than capable of carrying the Superman torch with his subtle yet effective performance, while Russell Crowe and Kevin Coster both turn in solid work as Kal-El/Clark’s respective fathers. The best thing about “Man of Steel,” however, is the action. The fight scenes are lightning fast and brutal, playing up the superhuman angle in a way that’s never been done before. The fight between Superman and two of Zod’s soldiers in the streets of Smallville is particularly memorable, delivering everything you’d expect from a modern day Superman film. Granted, it’s not as groundbreaking as what Nolan achieved with “Batman Begins,” but considering Warner’s recent track record with DC Comics characters, it’s a big step in the right direction.
EXTRAS: In addition to a feature called “Journey of Discovery” that tracks the making of the film with interviews, storyboards and other behind-the-scenes footage as the movie plays in the background, the two-disc set includes featurettes on rebooting the franchise, stunts and visual effects. There’s also a faux documentary about Planet Krypton that’s almost as pointless as the “Hobbit” promo that appears in the extras.
FINAL VERDICT: RENT
WHAT: Upon arriving in postwar Hong Kong, legendary Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man (Anthony Wong) begins teaching a new class of pupils amid a backdrop of poverty, labor strikes and police corruption. But when a local crime lord threatens one of his students, Ip Man is called into action once again, despite his attempts to lead a peaceful life.
WHY: There have been so many movies about Ip Man released over the last few years that it’s become overkill, and although “The Final Fight” takes a completely different approach by exploring the martial artist’s later years, it’s the weakest Ip Man film to date. The Donnie Yen movies featured some great action choreography, and Wong Kar-Wai’s “The Grandmaster” looks absolutely gorgeous, but the only thing that “The Final Fight” has going for it is its cast. Anthony Wong turns in a solid performance as Ip Man, handling the action sequences fairly well for an actor with little experience in the genre, while Jordan Chan and Eric Tsang are both good in supporting roles, though I would have liked to see more of both characters. Unfortunately, the film lacks focus, unable to decide whether the story is about Ip Man or his various pupils, constantly shifting attention throughout its sluggish 100-minute runtime. Director Herman Yau does an admirable job of juggling the many subplots, but in the end, it’s the movie’s undoing.
EXTRAS: There’s a making-of featurette and interviews with the cast and crew.
FINAL VERDICT: SKIP
There is no question that Volkswagen has been on a sales tear in North America, and with new offerings like the Jetta TDI, one can see a bright future indeed. We had the opportunity to spend a week behind the wheel of a 2014 VW Jetta TDI to see just how far clean diesel has come in the past few years.
The Jetta remains Volkswagen’s best-selling car three years after the sixth-generation car was introduced to the U.S. market as a 2011 model. When you take a look at this Volkswagen, it’s clear that they never rest on success and are continuously striving to make its vehicles even better. The platinum gray metallic with 17-inch alloy wheels on the 2014 VW Jetta TDI we tested looks very modern with a clean and upscale look. Marketing experts call it “class-up appeal.” It’s the offering of more, for less. Which is why, when Volkswagen completely redesigned the Jetta, it crafted a bigger car, with a longer wheelbase and 2.9 inches added to the overall length.
The increased dimensions allowed designers to incorporate clear, precise lines and muscular surfaces to impart a timeless elegance, giving the impression that this is a car from a higher class. At the front, the coupe-like incline of the windscreen and the consistent use of horizontal lines define the Jetta’s design. The horizontal blades in the grille, together with the blades in the lower intake, are designed to make the Jetta appear wider and more dynamic. To give visual weight to the lower part of the Jetta and impart a sense of the car being ‘planted’ to the road, the base of the doors is eased outwards. The pronounced wheel arches also add visual width and weight to the car.
The overall theme of a clean and modern design carries over into the cabin of the 2014 VW Jetta TDI appearance. Just open any of the Jetta’s wide-angled doors and the quality of materials, the fit and finish, and the clean, simple, refined elegance of the cabin is clearly visible. And in true German tradition, the layout of the fascia, the positioning of the switches and controls, and the clarity of the oversized, round instruments is designed to be ergonomic and intuitive.
Trunk space also borders on the cavernous. The Jetta offers a class-leading 15.5 cubic feet of usable trunk space, and can be increased significantly by folding forward the 60/40-split rear seatback. The rear seatback is also offered with a pass-through to accommodate longer items, like golf clubs and skis.
The National Geographic Channel has slowly but surely been making a presence for themselves in the field of TV movies, thanks – oddly enough – to having been provided with the opportunity to adapt a couple of Bill O’Reilly’s books. First came “Killing Lincoln,” starring Billy Campbell as ol’ Honest Abe, and, to keep things on a chronologically-accurate path, next up is “Killing Kennedy,” with Rob Lowe taking on the role of JFK.
NatGeo is going out of their way to make sure TV critics are well aware of this project, first of all by spotlighting it at the summer TCA tour and setting up interviews with various cast members, then by sending a few additional critics – including yours truly – to a press junket in Dallas, where we were fully immersed in the details of Kennedy’s final 48 hours. I mean, seriously, it was pretty amazing: we stayed in the same hotel where JFK and Jackie Kennedy spent their final night, met a few folks who were actually there that day, stood in the places where he gave some of his final speeches, and then went on a tour of various locations in the Dallas / Fort Worth area which were key to both JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald over the course of those last hours, including attending a screening of “Killing Kennedy” in the Texas Theater, where Oswald was apprehended, and then we had dinner on the seven floor of the former Texas School Book Depository, after which we went downstairs one floor to a museum dedicated to the assassination…as is only appropriate, since that’s where Oswald was stationed.
Having watched “Killing Kennedy,” I will say that, first and foremost, the reason to see the film is not necessarily Lowe and Ginnifer Goodwin as JFK and Jackie – although they both do quite well, with Goodwin in particular shining in the post-assassination scenes – but, rather, Will Rothhaar and Michelle Trachtenberg as Oswald and his wife, Marina. Rothhaar, who was with us throughout the tour of Dallas, is liable to get a serious career boost after the work he does in the film, and Trachtenberg will surprise many with her fluency in Russian…much as she surprised the producers of the film, who didn’t know she could speak the language until after they saw her audition. If you’ve got Kennedy fever, though, I recommend that you tune in early to watch “JFK: The Final Hours,” a documentary which, while perhaps a bit overlong, provides an amazing amount of detail about what Jack and Jackie did during their time in San Antonio, Fort Worth, and Dallas in the day or so before that fateful trip into Dealey Plaza. Plus, it’s narrated by Bill Paxton, who – you may or may not know – was actually in attendance for JFK’s speech outside the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth the morning he was assassinated.
Okay, enough of my yakking…not that it probably bothered those of you who were drawn here by the title of this piece, since I’m sure all you did was skip past all the opening paragraphs and go straight for the Rob Lowe interview, anyway. All things being equal, what I’d hoped to do was spend enough time with Rob Lowe to produce a Random Roles interview for the Onion AV Club, but we only had about 10 minutes together during the TCA tour, and we never managed to hop back on the phone in the intervening time, so that just never happened. As such, Bullz-Eye reaps the benefits of the “Killing Kennedy”material, while I continue to hoard the stuff he had to say about “Class,” “A New Kind of Family,” and “The Stand” until I am able to get on the phone with him. For now, though, I hope you enjoy his comments on playing the President of the United States.
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