Here are the things I’ve been talking and writing about over at <a href="http://moviebyte.com/">MovieByte</a>.
<h2>The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1</h2>
Last week, the focus was The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1. I quite liked the film. Fizz joined me on the podcast since Joe needed to take a week off, and he didn't like it as much as I did.
I wrote a review as well:
<a href="http://moviebyte.com/mbpodcast/114">The MovieByte Podcast #114: Anti-Captain America »</a>
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TJ and Fizz discuss what’s good and bad about ‘The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1’. As ever, they don’t always see eye to eye, but that will give you, dear listeners, some fun things to chew on. They also discuss the redesign of the MovieByte website, Disney’s live action ‘Cinderella’ trailer (no, really, it’s a thing), the Russos possibly directing ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ parts one and two as opposed to Joss Whedon — which leads to a lot of discussion — and of course what theaters will have the ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ trailer.
</blockquote>
<a href="http://moviebyte.com/entry/2014/11/the-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-1">The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 — Review »</a>
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Don’t let the critics fool you. They are such a fickle lot. The <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_hunger_games_mockingjay_part_1">Rotten Tomatoes Critic Consensus</a> says that the film comes up short on the action. As if the critics think action is the end all and be all — what a joke. I found the film to be compelling, it did in fact have some action which I deemed to be enough for me, I liked the pacing and much of the acting, the story is improved upon from the book, and I quite enjoyed watching the film in the theater.
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<h2>Star Wars: The Force Awakens Teaser Trailer</h2>
Last week, Disney and Lucas Film released the first teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Despite some misgivings, I'm super excited!
<a href="http://moviebyte.com/entry/2014/11/star-wars-vii-teaser-trailer">The ‘Star Wars VII’ Teaser Trailer is HERE!!!! »</a>
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Overall, I’d say this teaser is trying to strike a balance between making us feel nostalgia for the old Star Wars (and I certainly don’t mean any of the prequels), and making us feel like this is something altogether new and interesting and different.
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<a href="http://moviebyte.com/mbpodcast/115">The MovieByte Podcast #115: Bonus Episode - ‘The Force Awakens’ Teaser Trailer »</a>
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It’s a special bonus episode of The MovieByte Podcast where TJ, Joe, and Clark talk about — actually dissect might be a better word — the first new teaser trailer for ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’. There’s no shortage of opinions, fun, and just generally geeking out. You won’t want to miss this!
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<h2>Birdman</h2>
Joe and I had intended to review The Immitation Game on The MovieByte Podcast this week, but it turns out that film is in an extremely limited release at the moment. We didn't feel like driving a few thousand miles to see it. So we decided to see Birdman and talk about it instead.
<a href="http://moviebyte.com/mbpodcast/116">The MovieByte Podcast #116: It Felt Purposeless »</a>
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TJ and Joe didn’t get to watch the movie they wanted to watch because it was in limited release, so they watched ‘Birdman’ instead. And they are glad they did. There’s a lot to chew on with Birdman and TJ and Joe relish in the analysis. Also don’t miss some follow up on ‘The Force Awakens’ trailer, news of the ‘House of Cards’ season 3 premiere date, and Batman vs. Darth Vader. It’s most impressive!
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<a href="http://moviebyte.com/entry/2014/12/birdman">Birdman — Review »</a>
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This film is filled with fantastic performances, not the least of which is, of course, Michael Keaton. There is hardly a moment when the film leaves his headspace. He plays someone who has become quite the odd-ball.
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So if any of that interests you, be sure to check out MovieByte!

Hungry Birdman Had a War in the Stars

The topic over on MovieByte this week has been Big Hero 6. Tuesday, I <a href="http://moviebyte.com/entry/2014/11/big-hero-6">wrote a review</a>:
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Where Big Hero 6 really shines is the thematic elements it brings to the table. I think this is again where we see John Lasseter’s influence over Disney Animation Studios most strongly. Think about the films he has either directed or overseen. They had strong thematic elements in the same vein. The Toy Story series is applicable again here in the themes it tackled. Yes, like Big Hero 6, all three of those films were ostensibly children’s films. And yet the themes were big, grown up themes. Love, sacrifice, forgiveness, selflessness, character growth, everything that goes into good filmmaking is present both in that series, as well as this film. The themes this film tackles are what makes it such a strong film. It offsets the comic humor, some of the goofiness, the intentionally cartoonish animation, and more, by connecting with us on a deeply emotional level. Like the best of those Pixar films, the characters have a way of becoming quite real and meaningful to us. We feel their losses keenly, we grieve and weep with them (as usual, I may have had wet eyes a time or two), we identify with them in friendship and in hurt. We desire the revenge our characters desire, and we grow with them. This is the strength of this film. And this is sometimes where we can feel uncomfortable.
</blockquote>
<a href="http://moviebyte.com/entry/2014/11/big-hero-6">Catch the full review here.</a>
Joe and I also talked about the film on The MovieByte Podcast. Did you guys know that podcasts on MovieByte have an embeddable player? Well, we do, and I've embedded it below for your listening enjoyment. But if you would like to download it, or subscribe in iTunes or other podcast client, <a href="http://moviebyte.com/mbpodcast/113">head on over to the episode page</a>.

I've Been Talking and Writing about 'Big Hero 6'


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Our intrepid podcast explorers are on a journey across the vastness of the movie landscape to see what can be deciphered from Christopher Nolan’s ‘Interstellar’. Is it “stellar” or not so much? On this once in a lifetime quest, TJ and Joe are joined by none other than former co-host of the show, Chad Hopkins, to see if they can discover the true meaning behind podcasting and wether they might even be able to bend the fabric of space time enough to affect what happened all the way back at the very first podcast. You can also find out in the episode about Johnny Rockets bringing back drive-in theaters, Matt Damon returning to the Bourne franchise, ‘Toy Story 4’ happening in 2017, and the new title for ‘Star Wars VII’.
</blockquote>
Obviously, I recommend you listen to us talk about this film. It wasn't a "great" film, but it's thought provoking and makes for great conversation. Joe and I were also joined this week by Chad Hopkins, who used to be full time host with me of the show. Fun times!

The MovieByte Podcast #112: Michael Pain


My Podcast on 'Interstellar'


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Unfortunately I do think this film suffers from that one thing I mentioned early in my review when speaking of Nolan’s previous films, and that is a trumped up sense of self importance. Many times throughout this film, Hans Zimmer’s score swells to unbelievable heights meant to communicate to us the importance of this entire trek and film for mankind. There were at least four recitations of Dylan Thomas’ poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night,” which borders on the point of tedium. The tone is somber and solemn indeed. In fact I would say this film suffers from it. I cannot remember a single joke that worked or was put forth in a way to lighten the mood or the tension. Not a single line of this film was uttered in triviality. But that doesn’t work very well because that’s not the way humans operate. In life we need something to break up the tension once in a while, and in films we do too. What makes a film tedious is often not so much its length (although that can obviously have a major impact), but its unrelenting solemnity. Throughout its 2hr 49m runtime, the film never gives us a break, and the result is tedium.
</blockquote>
From my review of Interstellar, the latest offering from director Christopher Nolan which is now in theaters. I saw it last night in theaters with a good friend of mine in preparation for The MovieByte Podcast, and to write the review about it I’ve linked to here.
This marks me starting to try to use my personal blog to promote my other work. It may not work, it may fail utterly. And it may be weird to link to myself, but I'm trying something here.

Interstellar — Review

My 'Interstellar' Review


I know I've completely let this site go, and I hope one day to return it to some manner of glory. But I did want to let you know, if any of you still have this site in your RSS feeds, that <a href="http://infrequenttech.com/1">I recorded a podcast about iOS 7</a> and the iPhone 5C and 5S. Head on over and give it a listen in honor of the launch of iOS 7 tomorrow.

The Infrequent Techcast

<img src="/images/blog/2012/10/11/podcast-post-thumb-matrix.jpg" alt="podcast-post-thumb-matrix">
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In this episode of MovieByte, TJ and Joseph discuss Matt Damon’s recent comments that he thinks it unlikely he will return as Jason Bourne, the ‘Hitchcock’ Trailer — Joseph thinks it looks like a fantastic movie, TJ is nonplussed — and a little bit of discussion about the ‘Taken’ franchise and the fact that Taken 3 is “a go”. And then they are joined by special guest Stewart Adams to talk about ‘The Matrix’. TJ and Stewart are fans! (that might be an understatement). They talk about all the different themes of the film, the multiple layers you get out of subsequent viewings, the fact that Stewart first saw this film in the form of a TV edit, the characters and casting of the film, the stylistic choices and so much more. Join us for a lively discussion!
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If you are wondering why I haven't been saying much here it's because I'm pouring all my spare time, effort, and energy into <a href="http://moviebyte.com">MovieByte</a>. And you should really check out <a href="http://moviebyte.com/mbpodcast/13">this week's podcast</a> (that is of course if you don't listen to every episode, as you should be doing).

The MovieByte Postcast 13: Mr. Anderson


Mr. Anderson

<blockquote>
Facebook has announced that it has finally rebuilt its iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch app for speed. Facebook’s previous iOS apps displayed and loaded all content view customized embedded mobile sites, but this new update is completely reengineered using native tools. Facebook says that the new update runs twice as fast as previous versions of Facebook for iOS.
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This is a huge update. Some things look different, in a good way. But mostly, everything is simply fast and responsive. Facebook for iOS went from being easily the worst app I use on my iPhone on a daily basis to being one of the best with this update. Highly recommended!

Mark Gurman writing on 9to5Mac

Facebook for iOS 5.0

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GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT
But we didn’t really want to do all that waiting. We wanted to get our first episode in your hands right away. Trouble is we’re still working on some backend stuff, coding, design, and all that fun stuff. So we quickly put together this static page to host our first episode of the podcast for you to enjoy. The robots that will power the rss feed are also not fully functional, but stay tuned, we’ll be working out the technical details before you know it.
You can listen right here, or you can download the mp3.
</blockquote>
Our Pilot episode! We’re not quit ready to launch the site, but we are so ready to launch the podcast. So we put up a temporary page where you can access the first episode. Go listen!

The MovieByte Podcast - Episode 1 - Hope for Humanity

<blockquote>
Upon opening Coda 2 for the first time I was pleased to see that, though obviously different, there was something fairly familiar, if slicker looking. The sites that I currently had set up in Coda 1 were all right there, waiting for me and ready to go. One really nice touch though, and one I have personally wanted for years, was the ability to organize sites into groups. I immediately did a preliminary organization. It works very simply and is quite discoverable, especially if you have ever used an iOS device. Drag a site icon onto another site icon and a group is instantly created.
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Just a taste of my review of Coda 2. It’s not all roses though. Click through to read all 2,693 words of the good and the bad.

Your Truly writing at Mac Appstorm

My Coda 2 Review

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If, like me, you maintain a multi-terabyte hard drive of your ripped media, how do you get everything to look pretty, embed artwork, add the proper metadata for proper display in iTunes, make HD-SD pairs play nicely, and so on? Well, there is a way, and that way is called Subler. Let’s check it out.
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My review of Subler on Mac Appstorm.

Yours Truly on Mac.Appstorm

My Review of Subler

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I used Thunderbird off and on as my email client back in my Windows days (dark days indeed), and then again on Mac OS X for a while. I finally switched to Apple’s official Mail client and haven’t interacted with Thunderbird much until I started thinking about writing this review.
So, can Thunderbird earn its keep as a primary email application? Let’s find out shall we?
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My review of Thunderbird.

Your Truly writing at Mac.Appstorm

My Thunderbird Review

<blockquote>
When Apple announced the Mac App Store, many felt that they were pushing OS X toward a model similar to the iOS ecosystem, in other words, that Mac applications would someday be restricted only to the Mac App Store. One could certainly make the argument that this would be better in many ways for end users. For instance, if applications only came from the Mac App Store, and had to pass through the scrutiny of the app reviewers, then the end user could be assured a high degree of probability that the downloaded application is not malware.
But this model would also not be without problems. We are used to installing any third party application we please. Many called foul on the Mac App Store and warned to stay away from it. Well, at least with Mountain Lion, Apple has not taken that route. But Apple also did not sit still on this issue.
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Yours truly on Gatekeeper at Mac.Appstorm. My editor changed the title to be a bit more sensational (which I’m not a huge fan of, but I see the appeal), and the first 2 paragraphs are a summary also written by my editor. Other than that, it’s my work.

Posts tagged “Shameless Plugs” from the blog