I love Avatar

I am a huge fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender. When I was out of work for a few weeks in 2005, I happened to land on this Nickelodeon cartoon while channel surfing. The depth of the universe, the chemistry between the characters, and the fact that it had something for both kids and adults simply mesmerized me. I was astounded that the writing for an animated cartoon could be so good.

Over the next few years, I watched Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Zuko, Ihro, Appa and little Momo grow together as a family, and saw Aang grow from being the boy in the iceberg to a fully-realized master of all four elements. The build-up to the finale kept me on the edge of my seat, and the final battle between Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Ozai was simply epic! When the story ended, there was closure for all of the characters. Although I knew I was going to miss the show, I was happy that it ended on a high note.

Expectations

When I heard that M. Night Shyamalan was going to make a live-action Airbender film, I was both excited and worried. Very few re-makes have done their originals justice. Superman Returns, Spider-man, [The Incredible] Hulk, Transformers — I’m looking at you. You guys weren’t very good, and I wasn’t expecting much from you. Notable exceptions are the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jurassic Park and the Harry Potter films. While not perfect, these re-makes did an admirable job at standing up on behalf of the source material. Even the Bourne trilogy, which notoriously deviated from the books, was at least a great set of movies.

Despite M. Night being pretty hit-or-miss over the last decade, I still considered myself a fan. Luke Y. Thompson, E! Online, described M. Night as:

“Director M. Night Shyamalan is, of course, best known for slow-burn, low-key suspense films that end with dramatic twists.”

If you’re familiar with Airbender, you’ll know that its story doesn’t fit the typical M. Night criteria. The Sixth Sense, Signs and The Village were all good flicks; Unbreakable and The Happening were so-so; Lady in the Water was unbearably boring. So which way was this re-make of one of my favorite TV shows going to go?

Luke Thompson goes on to say:

“And that probably makes him exactly the wrong person for a would-be epic like this adaptation of the popular animated serial Avatar: The Last Airbender.”

Of course, I hadn’t read this review before I saw the movie. I did, however, see a quick quote from the Roger Ebert review:

“The Last Airbender is an agonizing experience in every category I can think of and others still waiting to be invented. The laws of chance suggest that something should have gone right. Not here. It puts a nail in the coffin of low-rent 3D, but it will need a lot more coffins than that.”

Sometimes Ebert is right; sometimes he’s wrong. I figured I’d take my chances. I was horribly, horribly wrong.

Story and pacing

Listed on IMDb as the sole screenwriter for the film, M. Night had the job of packing nearly 8 hours worth of source material into a 2 hour movie. But rather than pulling out the most interesting parts of the first season and trying to create a worthy film portrayal that was true to the characters and storyline, it seems that he opted for simply taking the entire season on DVD and pressing the fast-forward button on the remote.

The backstory is pretty much non-existent for much of the film. Some storytellers will introduce parts of the backstory through flash-backs; some will have the backstory come out as part of the natural progression of the characters so that the audience can figure out how we got here. The backstory was barely glossed over as exposition, and not even good exposition.

In the pilot episode, “The Boy in the Iceberg,” there is an extended intro where Katara narrates the backstory of how the 4 elemental nations lived in peace and harmony until the day the Fire Nation attacked. It tells of how the Avatar — master of all four elements — vanished 100 years ago, and in that time, most people came to believe that he was dead.

An episode or two later, we learn that the Avatar is re-incarnated into the next elemental nation in sequence — this time it was Aang, an Airbender. Before him was Avatar Roku, a Firebender. The film barely touches on these fundamentally key plot points, which leaves any semi-intelligent movie-goer somewhat confused by what’s going on.

The poor pacing of the movie made the whole story feel very jerky. The movie clocked in at an hour and forty minutes, culminating in a battle of good vs. evil at the Northern Water Tribe. The last 40 minutes were spent on what was essentially 4 out of 20 episodes worth of material. Interesting and important plot points throughout were skipped, but as long as we got some awesome CG effects, that would make up for it, right? Wrong.

Unfortunately, M. Night had done such a poor job of developing the characters and the backstory that I didn’t really care who won as long as I knew I would be out of my misery soon. 20 minutes from the end, I nearly fell asleep. Once the credits began to roll, I nearly tramped an old woman while trying to get out of the theater.

Characters

I don’t believe that M. Night has seen a single episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Okay, maybe one or two — but certainly not the entire series. If he had, he’d know that the most important element of the show was the characters and the relationships that they formed over 3 seasons. Neither the writing nor the actors provided an accurate portrayal of the characters we’ve come to know.

Aang is a 12-year-old boy that is generally playful and fun. He cares very deeply for his friends, and would do anything for them. But Aang is also very reflective about his place in the world. Being the Avatar, he’s very respectful of his lineage, and spends a lot of time in self-discovery.

Sokka is the comedy relief. He always knows the wrong thing to say at the wrong time, and is great at drawing the wrong conclusion from his experiences. Being the eldest, however, he carries a certain weight in wanting to protect his friends.

Katara is motherly and nurturing, and has a certain insight and sensitivity that helps Aang along the way. When Sokka is telling bad jokes, and Aang is reflecting on what it means to be the Avatar, Katara is making sure that the bonds of their friendship stay strong.

Zuko, the prince of the Fire Nation, is a tormented soul. Never able to earn the love and respect of his father, Fire Lord Ozai, Zuko was banished from the Fire Nation by his father. The only way for Zuko to regain his honor is to capture the Avatar and bring him back home to the Fire Nation.

These are the characters of the Airbender universe. With the exception of Dev Patel who had a barely-adequate performance as Prince Zuko, the rest of the characters might as well have been made out of cotton balls and popsicle sticks. No chemistry, no character development, no emotion, and totally wrong character traits.

In particular, I felt that casting Jackson Rathbone as Sokka was a huge mistake. Not only was he incredibly stiff and humorless throughout the film, but his inability to show any sort of emotion toward either his sister or the northern water princess provides nothing more than a devastatingly awkward and abysmal performance.

Quotes

Think I may be over-reacting? Here’s what others had to say:

“After waiting extremely eagerly for this movie, I sat in the theater and was extremely eager for it to END. Ear-oh? Oong? Soak-ah?! Could they have butchered the names anymore than they did? Worse, the entire movie felt like a string of clips put together for an hour and a half and not like a movie at all.” — Tamisura

“So where did this movie go wrong? The better question would be: where didn’t it go wrong? The writing was horrendous. High school freshmen could probably manage to come up with a better screenplay. I’m not sure who gave Shyamalan permission to write this film, but whoever it was needs to formally apologize to the fans and to the people who wasted their money hoping to see something worthwhile.”— LunaRaven

“Void-ness of emotional moments are what really plague this film. I would blame this on the script but the performances are what make it not work. Every actor in this film (minus Shaun Toub) delivers dialogue as if they were reading it for the very first time. Not one thing anyone says carries any weight, none of it resonates emotionally. To say the actors suffer from wooden acting would be insult an to wood.” — lukeg37

And lastly, my favorite:

“Just saw this, I don’t know what to call it. It was the only movie I’ve seen where everyone in the theater booed at the end and threw things at the screen. I feel like it was written by someone who can’t read, write or care about their or anyone else’s work. How do you take something that seemed like such a good idea and make it so terrible. I hope that the man or men responsible for this never get work again. This is what I would hope qualifies as a career killer, because I wish I had slept instead of going to this movie. I want my money, time, and expectations back. As in I expected at least good fun with the ‘bending’ or fight/dance scenes. I feel like I just got served… Do not watch or let ANYONE YOU KNOW GO TO THIS MOVIE, AND SOMEONE SHOULD PETITION TO CANCEL THE OTHER TWO.” — Partofthevoid

I’ll wrap things up with a quote from Ty Burr, staff writer for the Boston Globe:

“It would be heartening to report that Shyamalan has wrangled a good movie out of this litany of disaster, but no such luck. “The Last Airbender’’ is dreadful, an incomprehensible fantasy-action epic that makes the 2007 film “The Golden Compass’’… look like a four-star classic.”

M. Night Shyamalan was once one of my favorite writer-directors, but I’ve had enough. In the end I’ve decided to vote with my wallet.

I’ll never pay to see another M. Night movie again.

Most of the 3D movies I’ve seen in years-past have been very gimmicky. The 3D is overbearing, and the directors seem to think it’s funny to break “The 4th wall.” Avatar is an entirely new approach to bringing 3D into films. Not only did they have to invent new technology to do the 3D film work, but the way that 3D was used in this film did a lot to enrich the experience. No gimmicks, no games.

The only way to see this film is in IMAX 3D. The use of 3D made the entire world of Pandora so much deeper and richer than anything I’ve seen before. It almost made you feel as though you were right there with the soldiers, the Na’vi, flying on the backs of the dragons, and trying not to get crushed by the construction equipment. It’s been quite a while since I’ve felt that immersed in a movie.

That being said, the story itself was fairly mediocre and predictable. If you compare the story of Avatar to the stories of Terminator (I & II), Aliens, The Abyss, Strange Days and Titanic, it just doesn’t compare. All of the other movies he’s written have either had deeper, richer story lines (Terminator, Titanic), have had better action (Aliens, The Abyss), or have been darker (Strange Days).

At one point, the film’s political message got so heavy-handed that my B.S. meter jumped the tracks and it actually pulled me back out of the movie. James, I didn’t come to see this movie so that you could preach to me, m’kay? But really, this is the same political message that was at the end of the special edition of The Abyss.

On the other hand, the story line is still better that most Hollywood blockbusters or summer action flicks — I had just expected something better from James Cameron. Bottom Line: A-minus.

Cinemanow bills itself as “the #1 legal movie download store” and sells movies a-la-carte, but for the same price, if not higher, in some cases, than actual DVDs, killing part of the incentive for purchasing a digital download.

Why would anyone want to spend more on a movie in a format that is significantly less flexible than a DVD? Yeah, I’m not sure either.

I flew from San Jose to Omaha last month, with a layover in Minneapolis. All-together I was on a plane for roughly 5 hours. I had my Powerbook, PSP, and iPod 5G with me. I had some videos I’d purchased from the iTMS on my iPod, and a couple of DVD’s for my Powerbook. While I was waiting for my flight to leave, I went to go find a UMD video to watch on the plane, since the iPod gets about 2 hours of battery life when playing video, and my Powerbook (with a 2-year-old battery) gets about 45 minutes of juice.

I walked up to the counter, looked at the selection, and found a couple that I’d've liked to watch. Then I saw the price: $32. Excuse me? Thirty-what? With a DVD, I can watch it on my TV, watch it on my computer, I can rip it to my iPod or PSP and watch it from there. With a UMD disc, I can only watch it on my PSP. Why would I want to do that? Since the format is so limited (along with any sort of “legal” (read: DRM’d) movie downloads from an online store), how on earth does it make sense to charge more for it? It doesn’t, and that’s why the format is failing. It isn’t because it’s a bad idea — it’s actually a very good idea — but they need to drop the cost to 50% of the price of a DVD.

Seriously, if most DVD’s are around $17-$22, then they should sell the UMD’s at $8-$12. Paying $30 for a 10-year-old movie is completely out of the question.

Sony (and all other movie companies), if you’re not willing to drop your prices on your UMD movies, then it’s definitely time for the format to go the way of the Aibo, Mini-Disc, BetaMax, ImageStation, Connect Music Store, and all of the “iPod Killers” you guys have had in the past.

Okay, so have I ever mentioned how cool my wife is? Yeah. I had my 26th birthday last week, and when I got home that night, I had one of these awesome little toys waiting for me. The 60GB model. Yeah.

But that one was broken.

So I exchanged it for a new one, and that one has been awesome. Combine that with Tivo, Tivo AutoPilot, and a few hours of patience, and I was watching Tivo’d episodes of Alias, Lost, Veronica Mars, and the Mind of Mencia on my iPod the next day (which came in handy because I had a lot of riding-in-a-car to do that day).

I seriously have the best wife ever.

So this year, I’m going to write about the movies that I was able to see any time at all throughout the summer (they were rather sparse), and one of them was already on DVD. Let’s begin.

The Others: The movie started out a little slow, and some of the characters were quite strange, but the ending has a twist worthy of a M. Night Shayamalan flick. A woman and her children have just moved into a house that seems to be haunted. Her children are photosensitive (allergic to light), and someone keeps opening the curtains in the rooms. The “help” (the maid, the yards keeper, and their daughter) seem to have an intimate knowledge of the house, and seem to be keeping something secret. This isn’t the typical Hollywood “gotcha” horror/suspense flick, it’s very involved and leaves a lot to the imagination, which is what makes this movie so much better than the same ol’, same ol’ crap that tends to be in this genre. Bottom Line: B

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: First off, I need to explain that you should not compare this movie to the original “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. This is a different movie that has its own merits, and if you try to compare it to something it’s not, then you’ll naturally be disappointed. Tim Burton is a brilliant director who gives this film a standard Burton feel. The cinematography is all about the darker feel, the “film noir” contrast of dark and light, and the feeling of creepiness as you go through the chocolate factory tour. Gene Wilder (in the original) was a gleeful, excitable Wonka who teetered on the edge of insanity. Johnny Depp is a creepy, schizoid Wonka who doesn’t like children much, and who has issues that stem from his father being an overprotective dentist. The original was a movie for the whole family, while this remake is a movie for adults and teens who are old enough to understand the darker feel. Bottom Line: B+

The Constant Gardener: I hadn’t even heard of this movie before the day I was listening to the Ebert and Roeper podcast, and they gave the film two enthusiastic thumbs up. Usually, I have to give their thumbs a few grains of salt, although they’re usually pretty good at separating the good films from the typical Hollywood garbage. The Constant Gardener is about a British ambassador and his wife who go to Africa to help those in need. 10 minutes into the movie, she is murdered, and her husband starts digging around to find out why she was killed. At first he thinks that she was cheating on him, but as we go through the movie, he discovers that she was fighting the Pharmaceutical companies and the unethical tests they were doing on the African people, and only falls more in love with her as he realizes the strength and passion she had. This is a very well-made movie that is also very depressing. I would definitely recommend it to anyone, but it’s the kind of movie you only see once (much like A Beautiful Mind with Russell Crowe). Bottom Line: A-

The 40 Year Old Virgin: Steve Carell gives a brilliant performance as a man who reaches his 40th birthday and has never had sex. He reminds me of the teenager who has never had it, and didn’t think he could get it, so he just gave up the fight. He’s got toy figurines from all kinds of movies and TV shows completely covering the inside of his apartment, he rides his bike everywhere he goes, and he just has that dopey ignorance about sex that teenagers have before they’ve ever done anything. One night when he reluctantly accepts an invitation to play poker with the guys, they start talking about some of their sexual escapades. When it gets to Andy (Steve Carell), he begins uncomfortably describing some details about “this one girl”, including the fact that her breasts felt wonderful like two big bags of sand. It’s at this point where his friends realize that Andy’s awkward behavior isn’t because he’s a serial killer, but rather because he’s a virgin. The point in every romantic comedy where something happens, the guy and the girl get in a fight, and it takes some sort of romantic action to bring them back together again is also here, except that it just doesn’t feel right. You kinda hit a moment of “Star Wars logic”, where the pieces don’t quite fit together, but they went with it anyways. This movie is less about American Pie-style sex gags, and more about romance and waiting for marriage before having sex. Bottom Line: A-

Red Eye: When I heard that this movie was done by Wes Craven, I started likening the film to Scream, where the first 10 minutes is really, really good, and then it becomes a typical Hollywood “formula” movie. Not so with Red Eye. It’s definitely not a scary movie by any means, but it keeps you squirming the whole way through. A girl is on her way home on a last-minute flight, her flight is delayed, she meets a guy, they hit it off, they end up sitting next to each other on the plane, he jokes about being an assassin, and then tells her he’s serious. From then on, it’s edge of your seat the whole rest of the way through. Most movies like this, only have about 45 minutes of story, and the rest is just action filler that isn’t really all that important. Can’t think of a good way to end a movie, throw in a good guy chasing a bad guy with guns blazing. With Red Eye, you have actual worthwhile storyline the whole way through. Bottom Line: A

• 24
• Alias
• House
• Lost
• Prison Break
• Smallville
• Supernatural
• Veronica Mars

These should work with any iCal-enabled applications, such as iCal, Mozilla Sunbird, Mozilla Calendar, Ximian Evolution, and many others. Microsoft Outlook doesn’t yet support the iCal standard.

Last year, the top 32 sang in groups of 8 people per week for 4 weeks, before the group got whittled down to the top 12. In the first group of 8, the first person to sing was Diana Degarmo, and the last was Fantasia Barrino. After hearing them sing (and before I’d heard the other 24 contestants sing), I made the “official” prediction to my friends and family that 4-5 months later, Fantasia would finish #1 and Diana would finish #2. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened.

This year, I made the prediction back in early February that out of the top 24, Carrie Underwood would be #1, Bo Bice would be #2, and Vonzell Solomon would take #3. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. Granted, I only predicted it 3.5 months in advance this year, but I still called it!

Maybe I should go to work for American Idol. Or go to Vegas and place ridiculous bets on certain people winning. I did it two years in a row, maybe I can do it again? C’mon lucky sevens…

What do we need?

Before we get started, we need to make sure that we have everything we need:

1. Either a Windows 2000/XP PC or a Mac running OSX
2. A TV (which I think just about everyone has)
3. A Networked TiVo Series2 with system software 7.1 or better
4. iTunes
5. TiVo2Go Software (Mac or PC)
6. iSee iTunes software (Mac or PC)
7. Airport Express
8. Speakers of some sort that are connected to your Airport Expres

This next part is the initial setup that you’ll need for the method that I’m about to explain.

Prepping your TiVo

If you haven’t already, you’ll want to begin by connecting your TiVo to your home network. You can get started by going over the TiVo Network Setup Instructions. This will involve purchasing either a wired or wireless (11 Mbps; 802.11b) network adapter for your TiVo. If you’re going wireless, remember to allow 802.11b devices on your network, and understand that TiVo only understands WEP security — not the newer WPA. I was ready to rip my hair out over this before I figured out what the problem was.

Next you’ll need to get system software version 7.1 (or newer) installed. Assuming you know how to work a TiVo, go into the System Settings screen and check what software version you have. If it’s older than v7.1, you’ll have to request the update. It can take up to 3 days for your TiVo to receive the software update.

After you’ve got version 7.1 or newer installed, you have to enable a hidden mode called the HME mode (which I think stands for Home Media Entertainment, although I could be completely wrong). Instructions taken from this page are as follows:

You can tell that HME is activated if on the Main TiVo Screen the “Music & Photos” menu option is now called “Music, Photos & More”.

You will need to re-enable HME every time your TiVo Reboots.

If HME isn’t already enabled on your Tivo running Software verson 7.x or above go all the way into the System Infomation screen and enter CLEAR-CLEAR-0-0 on your remote (there will be no direct feedback that it did anything).

Return to the Main TiVo Screen and you should see “Music, Photos & More” listed.

Prepping your computer

Go ahead and connect the Airport Express to your home network, if you haven’t already. The instructions for that are outside the scope of this posting. Connect your speakers (home stereo or surround sound system, preferably) to your Airport Express.

Launch the iSee iTunes application and allow it to start up. On Mac OS X, I had to open a port to make it all work properly. Open up the “Sharing” System Preference, and go to the “Firewall” tab. Create a new entry called “iSee iTunes” (or whatever you want to name it), and set the port value to 7288. Hopefully it’s the same on your system. If not, you can run Rendezvous Browser (OSX-only) to find what port iSee iTunes is wanting to run on.

Bringing It All Home

Launch iTunes, and start playing the music through your Airport Express to your home stereo (or whatever you’re using to play the audio through). I assume that it will be in the same room as your TiVo’d TV (since that would make the most sense).

Turn on your TV, and bring up the TiVo main menu. Choose “Music, Photos & More”, and then “iSee iTunes on <server name>“. When the iSee iTunes menu comes up, choose the “Now Playing” option, and iSee iTunes will display the track name, artist, rating, and album art on your TV. The forward and back buttons work the Next/Previous track in iTunes. You can even pause as necessary.

There! You now have your music playing on your home stereo and a visual layout of the track info and album art all together. (Almost-)instant Home Media Center!

Alternate Method

An alternative method that I’ve tried out worked well since I have a PC and TiVo’d TV in my bedroom, and I have some 5.1 Surround speakers connected to my Windows XP machine. I launched iTunes, iSee iTunes, and Nicecast on my Powerbook. I broadcast a signal (via Nicecast) to iTunes on my PC, and had the audio play through my fancy speakers. Meanwhile, I used iSee iTunes to display the cool music info on my TV screen. Not quite as fancy, but still works well.

[You'll need to be familiar with the TV show "Alias" to understand anything in this post. If you are an Alias fan, please let me know your thoughts on Season 4 thus far.]

Earlier today, I started watching the first season of Alias on DVD (again). Starting with the pilot, I found myself simply gripped by the story. Going through the first 8 or 9 episodes, and then comparing them to what we’ve been seeing on Wednesday nights, here are some of the reasons, I believe, that our much-beloved Alias is in trouble (in terms of remaining a good show, rather than being cancelled).

1. Mystery and intrigue. Seasons 1 and 2 had that. There were so many questions, and you didn’t know who to trust, or what would happen next. There’s nothing like that in season 4 so far.
2. Depth of character relationships. From Sydney finding Danny dead in their bathtub in the pilot, to the awkwardness of the kiss with Will, to the heart-tugging involved with Sydney’s mom. The show was full of deep relationships, whether comfortable and casual (Syd, Will, and Francie), intense and angst-ridden (Syd and Jack/Irina), or filled with romantic tension (when Vaughn was still with Alice). All of those relationships are missing this season, with no replacements.
3. Continuing storylines/multiple missions per episode. Alias was very edgy and fast-paced. There was always so much that happened that it almost left your head spinning by the end (in a good way, of course). Many episodes were cliffhangers going into the next, and they had a feeling of continuity to them. This season feels very… disconnected. I believe that self-contained episodes plays a large role in this. Also with the whole one-mission-at-a-time thing, this season feels very slow by comparison. Comparing Alias seasons 1 or 2 to the Fox show “24″, they were right on par as the two best shows on TV. Now, only 24 can hold that spot because Alias felt the need to reinvent itself again.
4. Current relationships are very wrong. Jack hated Irina, then trusted her for a season (3), and then killed her. WTF? Dixon and Sloane work together now, but didn’t they kill each other’s wives? Didn’t Slone get the death penalty by lethal injection last season?And now he’s everybody’s boss? I know that they’re trying to fix the show this season, but they’re asking us to forget an awful lot about the characters we know and love.
5. Too much Sydney. Sydney is in nearly every single scene of every single episode. What about scenes like when Will was investigating Danny’s death? Or when Sloane and Sark or Irina were working together? Or scenes between Arvin and Emily Sloane? The show needs more character balance. I like Sydney too, but it’s getting to be too much of a good thing.
6. Too much sex, not enough character. I know that making the show “sexier” may be a way to get more viewers, but I think it’s a detriment to the show. Syd is sexy, but also very intelligent and capable. We don’t need to see her in bikinis or lingere to know she’s hot, because that’s not her sole characteristic.
7. Sydney needs to have some fun. That’s one of the biggest problems of last season that JJ said would get fixed, but it hasn’t happened yet. And even then, how can it? She’s only just met her sister. How can they have fun like best friends do? Syd, Francie, and Will had an awesome dynamic that I don’t think can be filled by adding some new character. She needs to feel a closeness with people to be able to relax and have fun, but she doesn’t have that. Since Will is the only one still alive, he really needs to make a full-time comeback. But in order for him to fit in this season, they really need to go back to a season 1 or 2 format for shows — when there was room for other characters with or without Sydney.
8. Everything is inside. Have you noticed that? She’s never *out* doing stuff anymore. She’s always in a room somewhere doing whatever it is she does. It may be minor (like complaining about lighting), but it can really set the right mood for the show.
9. Be like “24″. It used to be. The shows were very comparable: season-long plots, deep characters, mysterious and intense, very edgy. Now Alias has turned into a show just like every other so-so show on TV, while “24″ is still awesome! You’d better bet that I’m at the edge of my seat waiting to find out what’s going to happen next to Jack Bauer from CTU. I used to feel that way about Alias… even in season 3 (although season 3 just got really heavy and dark). I want to feel that way again.
10. Back to roots. Rather than continuing to try to reinvent itself, Alias needs to go back to being the show it was during the first two seasons simply because it was a winning formula for a fantastic show. Maybe it didn’t get as many viewers, but it was a much better show. And again, if “24″ can do it, why can’t Alias?

I love this show so much that it makes my physically sick to my stomach to see this show in the rut it’s in. These are my suggestions for fixing it. No, I won’t stop watching it (unless it continues to get significantly worse), but I really, really, really want it to go back to it’s roots… back when it was the best show on TV.

I just bought my wife a TiVo for Valentine’s Day (*giggles like a little girl*). No, she’s definitely not a geek like me, but I seem to have passed along the “Electronics and Gadgets Virus” to her. I am absolutely stunned by the coolness that is TiVo.

Pausing live TV? Record anything you want by saying “Record this show whenever it happens to be on.” It actually came in handy tonight when we were watching 24 tonight. A couple of friends of ours were going to come over to watch it with us, but were running about 10 minutes behind. Never fear, TiVo is here! We simply paused TV and waited for them to get there. Brilliant.

TiVo is better than a VCR for a number of reasons. First, tapes suck. And they get old and dusty. And they suck. But with the coolness that is TiVo, there is no tape—it’s all digital. TiVo can also record shows for you that it thinks you might be interested in. Right now it doesn’t seem to be guessing that well, but we’ve only had it for a couple of days. I’m sure it’ll get better.

We can record the entire seasons of 24, Alias, and American Idol with only a few button clicks. Granted it can’t hold three entire seasons of TV shows at once, but it can hold a few weeks at a time so that I don’t have to worry about getting home late from work or going on vacation.

Right now I’ve got it plugged into my phone line while I wait for my wireless adapter to get here. Actually, I’m waiting for a second TiVo (for our bedroom), a wired ethernet adapter (for the one in our bedroom), AND the wireless adapter to get here so that I can connect them to my home network. I’ve read that I can pull recorded shows from my TiVo onto my computer. Since I haven’t heard anything other than that about the networking abilities, I’ve got some questions:

1. What format/codec are the shows recorded in?
2. Since I’ve already got Nero 6.6 Ultra, do I really need to buy that other program listed on the TiVo website to burn them to DVD?
3. Is it true that there are traces of DRM in the recorded TV shows? Any way to strip it?
4. How easy is it to compress the video into a computer-friendly format like QuickTime, MPEG, DivX, or Windows Media?
5. How long does it typically take for a 1-hour show recorded on “Best” to transfer from one TiVo to another?
6. All I’ve seen are 802.11b wireless adapters. Any 802.11g adapters known to work?
7. Any other nifty-cool things I can do with TiVo with or without a network?

To be honest, I’m not really a TV person at all, with the exception of the 3 previously mentioned shows… I typically watch movies. But being able to sort through all the TV in the world and watch only the interesting things when I’m home is a fantastic opportunity. It’ll also allow me to watch shows that I like, but haven’t gotten into watching yet. I used to watch Veronica Mars before the holidays, but never got back into it. I also hear that J.J. Abrams other show LOST is really good too (J.J. is also the creator of Alias).

Although historically I’ve never really liked TV, I’m beginning to see some awesome possibilities here. Has anyone got any other TiVo-related thoughts or ideas to share?

So every year, when my wife and I go on a week-long vacation, we usually end up seeing several movies. Last year I posted about the movies I saw, and I’m doing the same thing this year.

Collateral: This was a “formula” movie. Everything that happens in this movie is expected to happen. Although there weren’t many surprises, this movie was very well written and very well acted. Personally, I like it better when Tom Cruise plays stronger characters like the one in this movie. I haven’t seen Jaime Foxx in anything for quite some time, so it’s good to see that he still knows how to act. Jada played an uncharacteristically weak character, but that’s how the part was written, so she did an excellent job. I watched “13 Going On 30″ the night before, so Mark Ruffalo played a very different character by comparison. Overall, I’d say that this movie is worth seeing. Bottom Line: B

I, Robot: Man creates robots. People trust robots. One man doesn’t trust robots and gets made fun of. One day, robots become self-aware and try to destroy man. Man fights back. One guy was right. The story is a cross between Matrix, Terminator 2, and Minority Report, with the action and explosions of a Jerry Bruckheimer film, all done with the style of Will Smith. Although I personally like character development far more than action in movies, this film did a decent job on characters and a good job on action. Bottom Line: B+

Little Black Book: This was a fun movie along the lines of “How to lose a guy in 10 days”, although it’s not a romantic comedy. It is, however, a movie about a girl who starts digging through her boyfriend’s little black book. She ends up getting betrayed by her good friend, loses her job, and ends up happier than ever. Fun to watch, but you wouldn’t miss anything by waiting for it to come out on video. Bottom Line: B-

The Manchurian Candidate: A man with post-Desert Storm stress disorders begins to have dreams about one of his men killing innocent people. Years later, that man is the vice-presidential candidate. With stellar performances all around, you will find yourself surprised by what happens in the end. Bottom Line: A

The Village: M. Night Shyamalan has a fantastic way of filling you to the brim with fear, mystery, and suspense without ever showing you something scary on-screen. As in his other movies (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs), the audience learns something about 80% of the way into the movie that completely throws you for a loop, but the movie continues to make perfect sense. Bottom Line: A+

Napoleon Dynamite: This movie requires a certain understanding prior to watching it. You have to have been there. You have to have been a geek, nerd, dork, or whatever else that most people don’t want to be in high school. Having that understanding allows you to realize that this film is brilliant. I went through many of the exact same things in junior high that these guys go through in high school. The overreacted gestures, the things they tell people to try to be cool when they’re obviously lies, and the physical movements made by the characters are flawless. My favorite random quote from the movie is: “You need to take your stuff back. It’s taking up too much room in my locker. I can’t fit my numchucks in there anymore.” Hilarious. Bottom Line: A+

Over the last couple of months, I’ve gotten more and more into American Idol. After the auditions (where we all saw William Hung for the first time), I watched the very first group perform, and Diana DeGarmo and Fantasia Barrino were part of that group. They make up two of the three finalists! I remember saying to my wife and her friend that these two would be in the final three or four, and I was right.

After the final 12 were chosen, I said “Fantasia is gonna win this competition.” I haven’t been proven wrong yet. However, one thing that bothers me is how America has voted this season. Instead of voting for the best singers/performers, America has been voting for the contestants that they feel bad for. John Stevens was the first one to stay way longer than he should have. He should have been voted of a solid month before he was. Sure, he seems nice, but that’s not the point. The point is to vote for the better ones, so the worse ones have to leave.

The same thing happened this week. Jasmine did horribly, and began to cry on National Television because she knew she did poorly. So what happened? The person who went last (Diana) was still fresh in everyone’s mind, so she got more votes. People felt bad for Jasmine, so they voted for her too — thinking that most people wouldn’t vote for her. What happened? Jasmine stayed, LaToya left.

Now, this might not have been too big of a deal, since I think LaToya would probably have left this upcoming week anyways, but it still sucks that the people watching American Idol — the ones who are voting — are voting so poorly. I think that they should cut it down to one vote per telephone. Thay way, Hawaiians (and anybody else) can’t “stuff the ballot box”.

Anyways, I really like Diana and Fantasia both, but if I had to pick one, I’d say “Go Fantasia!”

I came across a review this morning for the movie, and it only reinforces my desire to go see it.

First of all, it has one of the most realistic depictions of a relationship I have ever seen. The ups, the downs, even the most awkward moments. The only film that compares to this aspect of the movie would be High Fidelity, which is a completely different kind of film.

The casting really seems off at first as well. On paper, Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood, and Kirsten Dunst seem like a completely strange cast. Face it, they all have parts they’re known for, so they have something to prove with this film. Carrey is finally able to be taken seriously, Wood proves he’s not just Frodo Baggins, Dunst isn’t just a ditz cheerleader or damsel in distress, and Winslet shows she is capable of more than just hogging the floating debris while her lover freezes to death in the ocean. They are amazing in the film, and they play their parts perfectly. They no longer need to prove their worth to me, at least.

Has anyone else seen it already? Is it good? Spill your guts!

After having vanished for two years, and awakening to find absolutely everything different, Sydney (Jennifer Garner) tries to make sense of it all in the typical kick-butt way that she does.

It’ll be interesting to see where the show goes from here. The show revamped itself for the better twice last season, and it seems to be doing the same thing again this season.

The last show that I was interested in was Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, but it got cancelled halfway into it’s fourth season. We were left with a married Lois and Clark finding a baby on their front doorstep.

I just hope that this series doesn’t make some of the same mistakes to lose viewers like L&C did.

Finding Nemo: This was an excellent flick. The guys over at Pixar have done it again. Finding Nemo is funny, touching, and kinda yanks at those heartstrings from time to time. Ellen DeGeneres does an excellent job as the voice for “Dori”, the short-term-memory lacking fish who accompanies Nemo’s dad along the way. Mike Wazowski (from Monsters, Inc.) makes a short cameo at the end of the film’s credits (which nobody catches except dorks like me who sit through the end of the credits in every movie). Bottom Line: A+

Pirates of the Carribbean: This was definitely not one of the movies on my list to see this summer. My wife had to buy the tickets behind my back and trick me into the theatre to go see it. After I saw it, I was walking through the shopping center telling everybody to go see “Pirates”. Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom (the kick-butt bow-and-arrow elf from “Lord of the Rings”) give spectacular performances in this comedic-action film. I’m going to see it again this week, and probably one more time over the weekend. Bottom Line: A+

American Wedding: American Pie was, and still is, one of my favorite movies that is reminiscent of High School. American Pie 2 was not as good, but still entertaining as it narrowed it’s focus from 4 best friends to a guy (Jim) who ends up liking a girl (Michelle). American Pie 3: “American Wedding” was almost as good as American Pie 2, but not quite. Jim and Michelle are getting married. Jim’s two remaining best friends (what happened to Chris Klein?) and good ol’ Stiffler are there to help out. Stiffler and Finch end up going after the same girl (Michelle’s virgin cousin), and Stiffler ends up eating dog crap, winning a dance contest in a gay/trans bar, and having sex with Jim’s strict jewish grandmother. The movie seemed to focus a lot more on Stiffler than anyone else. I was kinda irritated at Michelle’s cousin’s attitude towards the sacredness of sex. Also I didn’t like how the screenwriters just wrote out the other characters. There was no “oh, this person moved to Japan, and this person is in Jail”. Nope, they just didn’t exist anymore. Sorry, see ya later. Bottom Line: C

Freaky Friday: This movie was pretty good. No, there weren’t any crazy action sequences or anything, but the movie was good overall. A mother and daughter bicker and argue all the time over things that teenagers and their parents argue over. They go to a chinese restaurant for dinner, and open fortune cookies at the same time that both of them say “You wouldn’t last one day in my life…”. Of course, this makes them switch places until they both do something selfless for each other. It’s funny watching a 15 year old act 40, and a 40 year old act 15. Although the teenager vs parent dynamic is a bit over the top (and obviously written from a parent’s point-of-view), I’d say catch the matinee showing and take your kids. Bottom Line: B

Bad Boys II: Will Smith and Martin Lawrence play police officers for the city of Miami (read: Will Smith in Miami). Mike (Will Smith) and Marcus (Martin Lawrence) are cops that are after the bad guys. Except that there are bad guys that go after the bad guys, and those bad guys are worse guys. The Russians and the Cubans are at each other’s throats, and one of the Russians gets cut up into pieces and stuffed into a barrel. There are high-speed chases, explosions, half-naked girls, and a “Phantom Menace”-caliber plot. Martin Lawrence whines alot, both before and after he accidentally ingests some ecstacy, giving him “an enormous erection”. Bottom Line: C+

Finding Nemo: This was an excellent flick. The guys over at Pixar have done it again. Finding Nemo is funny, touching, and kinda yanks at those heartstrings from time to time. Ellen DeGeneres does an excellent job as the voice for “Dori”, the short-term-memory lacking fish who accompanies Nemo’s dad along the way. Mike Wazowski (from Monsters, Inc.) makes a short cameo at the end of the film’s credits (which nobody catches except dorks like me who sit through the end of the credits in every movie). Bottom Line: A+

Pirates of the Carribbean: This was definitely not one of the movies on my list to see this summer. My wife had to buy the tickets behind my back and trick me into the theatre to go see it. After I saw it, I was walking through the shopping center telling everybody to go see “Pirates”. Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom (the kick-butt bow-and-arrow elf from “Lord of the Rings”) give spectacular performances in this comedic-action film. I’m going to see it again this week, and probably one more time over the weekend. Bottom Line: A+

American Wedding: American Pie was, and still is, one of my favorite movies that is reminiscent of High School. American Pie 2 was not as good, but still entertaining as it narrowed it’s focus from 4 best friends to a guy (Jim) who ends up liking a girl (Michelle). American Pie 3: “American Wedding” was almost as good as American Pie 2, but not quite. Jim and Michelle are getting married. Jim’s two remaining best friends (what happened to Chris Klein?) and good ol’ Stiffler are there to help out. Stiffler and Finch end up going after the same girl (Michelle’s virgin cousin), and Stiffler ends up eating dog crap, winning a dance contest in a gay/trans bar, and having sex with Jim’s strict jewish grandmother. The movie seemed to focus a lot more on Stiffler than anyone else. I was kinda irritated at Michelle’s cousin’s attitude towards the sacredness of sex. Also I didn’t like how the screenwriters just wrote out the other characters. There was no “oh, this person moved to Japan, and this person is in Jail”. Nope, they just didn’t exist anymore. Sorry, see ya later. Bottom Line: C

Freaky Friday: This movie was pretty good. No, there weren’t any crazy action sequences or anything, but the movie was good overall. A mother and daughter bicker and argue all the time over things that teenagers and their parents argue over. They go to a chinese restaurant for dinner, and open fortune cookies at the same time that both of them say “You wouldn’t last one day in my life…”. Of course, this makes them switch places until they both do something selfless for each other. It’s funny watching a 15 year old act 40, and a 40 year old act 15. Although the teenager vs parent dynamic is a bit over the top (and obviously written from a parent’s point-of-view), I’d say catch the matinee showing and take your kids. Bottom Line: B

Bad Boys II: Will Smith and Martin Lawrence play police officers for the city of Miami (read: Will Smith in Miami). Mike (Will Smith) and Marcus (Martin Lawrence) are cops that are after the bad guys. Except that there are bad guys that go after the bad guys, and those bad guys are worse guys. The Russians and the Cubans are at each other’s throats, and one of the Russians gets cut up into pieces and stuffed into a barrel. There are high-speed chases, explosions, half-naked girls, and a “Phantom Menace”-caliber plot. Martin Lawrence whines alot, both before and after he accidentally ingests some ecstacy, giving him “an enormous erection”. Bottom Line: C+