Review: Splice (2010)

Take a moment right now to imagine watching The X-Files or Twilight Zone after it has been pumped up on steroids. This would be the easiest way to describe what I have watched in the science-fiction film Splice (2010). Most of the scientific material presented in the first thirty minutes of the story is based upon factual ideas. The whole concept of genetic engineering as a scientific practice has been going on for many years. Many scientists are hoping to integrate every bit of available amount of modern technology into their practice of research and development if it can serve as advantage toward a goal of a scientific discovery. Integrating various tools, practices, and theories can help find a cure for any of problems that may have plagued the human race in the last few centuries. The concept of an ultimate medical cure to be the king of all scientific discoveries would be the dream of every medical scientist and doctor. To find a cure for cancer or even the common cold that would completely obliterate it from human existence would be an ultimate discovery of medical advancement. The primary characters in the film have a piping hot lead in their research program that will cure several different diseases that have been a plague to humans for many years. They have discovered a particular DNA strand that naturally produces a particular type of protein that reduces the growth of various evil cells such as a various group of cancer strains. The only prominent issue about their discovery would be the lack of potency. The protein is not strong enough for complete obliteration of the evil strains from the human body. The organization that is funding their research program is showing an extreme amount of eagerness with bottling the results of the discovery as soon as possible and begins selling it at pharmacies throughout the world. However, since the strain is too weak and unstable there is a fear that the constant flow of a financial backing of the research lab may be stopped completely. The leading pair of scientists is deeply concerned of being shut down. They consider the situation to be another step closer to an ultimate discovery. Therefore, what would a pair of young scientists do when they believe to be trapped in a corner? The pair makes the controversial decision of creating an independent research program while still siphoning money from the research fund to compensate for a new program where they create a new genetic hybrid that includes a human DNA strain.

It can be hard to find a high quality science fiction film; the genre has been diluted with low budget knockoffs with a cheap looking production design and minor actors whom will never place a single step into an Academy Awards ceremony. Stumbling across any particular science fiction story that is worth its weight may turn into a cult status favorite among the fans. In some cases, such as the Star Wars movies, it can turn into an entire business franchise that will drain your pocketbook in a blink of an eye. Splice has caught my attention for its high production value. The intense creation of special effects and makeup design are mind blowing in regards to the sense of realism. To an untrained eye, it is very difficult to separate the computer-generated effects from the practical effects that were created on the production set of the movie. If the special effects are blended into the visual design of the film so well, I am unable to determine what is simulated and what is real then it enhances the believability factor of the story for me. The existence of a living being consisting of a humanoid body with the features of an amphibious gargoyle is currently non-existent in the world today, as we know it. Vincenzo Natali is the director and writer of the film who has brought the story of mythical creature to the movie screen in such a way that I actually believe such a story is plausible in the contemporary world.

The weakness of the film would be the roller coaster attempt of bringing in the human-interest factor into the mix. A movie would not be valuable if it were not able to hold the interest of the audience without an element of the human interest factor. As a resolve, the story must be presented with a sense of believability for the audience to buy into its story. Adding the human interest element into the story there is a plane of common ground that will connect the audience with the characters in the story. The pair of scientists who dabble in the controversy of genetic engineering serve as our human gateway into the story. They are independent spirits who are determined to help their fellow man by creating a product that will extend our lifespan and reduce the risk of an early death. In addition, these two characters are a romantic couple who experience the typical list of symptoms that all romantic couples experience. The only glaring issue with their relationship would be the offspring the two of them produce. Instead of creating human children in the traditional sense of procreation, the two inadvertently create a child in a scientific laboratory using the DNA of the mother. Once their child is born all hell breaks loose and the audience is taken on a crazy thrill ride of science fiction and fantasy that will blow their genes right out of the pool.

The human-interest element of the film is the weakness of the story, because of its instability. Once their creation is “born” from an artificial womb of sorts, the couple evolves into a bi-polar state of a relationship. On several occasions, often within the same scene, they would emanate positive feelings only to have their mood drastically change with an explosion of negative feelings such as hatred and jealousy with an extremely brief period. It is not the idea of the emotional situation being implausible, but the dilemma that it happens so frequently to such an extreme within a short amount of time that the story takes place. The two scientists are not always in the same scene together when one of them experiences a drastic emotional change. Dren, which is the name applied to their creation, is the catalyst for the drastic emotional changes. Most of the time she is nearby or in the same room when there is a sudden change in mood. It is a jarring experience for me while I was watching the movie develop from the beginning to the end.

The giant punch of the entire film was the high value of concentration in the story. As mentioned at the start, Splice is a science fiction story on steroids. The film attempts to squeeze as many elements of storytelling into as little room as possible including the emotional experiences of the lead characters. The high concentration of storytelling that is contained in the film does not allow very much wiggle room for the audience. To accept the entire movie as it currently stands would require having to accept its concentrated method of storytelling as well as the strange blend of elements that make up Dren’s physical characteristics. If either of these two pieces does not quite pan out for you, there is a chance that the movie would not be your cup of tea.

Review: The Aviator (2004)

If you have read the review I had published for Shutter Island, there is a particular section in the article where I cover the topic of cameo appearance. It can be tremendously distracting for me if I recognize too many familiar faces appearing in bit roles. Are you ever the same way about watching a movie with an excessive amount of familiar faces appearing within it? There are certain instances when the minor appearance is acceptable and I will shrug it off without much thought or further consideration. Any given comedy film is the single most acceptable excuse for an excessive use of the cameo performance, because the desired intention would be to provoke a laugh. However, a dramatic film is not necessarily the case unless the cameo appearance by a recognizable face is coherent to the story itself. An acceptable example of a dramatic cameo appearance that I am willing to overlook would be the appearance of Hunter S. Thompson in the film adaptation of his book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The scene in which he makes an appearance is an introspective flashback when the main character, who is a fictionalized version of Thompson, visualizes his own self at an old age. Who better to portray Thompson at an older age than Thompson himself? It is relevant to the story and perfectly acceptable. I would imagine that I am complaining too much about the topic, but it is a roundabout way to point out the irritating distraction I had experienced while watching The Aviator (2004). Too many recognizable faces and names were appearing as minor characters in the film. Were these actors making an appearance because they were given an opportunity to work with Martin Scorsese, the director of the film? Alternatively, was it just another opportunity to earn an extra day worth of a paycheck? The answer to these questions may never present itself to me directly, but it is an annoying curiosity regardless. Although it is nothing more than a personal pet peeve to play the game of Name That Face while watching a film from a highly revered name of film, directing it has not been a complete deterrence from any personal enjoyment. The Aviator is well done and completely entertaining as it currently stands. I doubt there would be anything worthwhile that I would be able to change about the film in which could serve as an improvement.

There is one particular element of the production design, which immediately caught my attention while watching the film. Did anyone else observe the development of the color saturation and hue as the movie progressed through the timeline of the story? During the presentation of the earlier years in the story, the color saturation was a bit off from the usual color palette that we are accustomed to seeing. How often do we see purplish-blue peas? I am referring to the dinner scene in the nightclub with Howard Hughes, Katherine Hepburn, Errol Flynn, and Johnny Meyer. Here is the video clip in order to observe the color tones that are utilized within the film. Right from the start of the segment, you may notice the purplish blue highlights adding a special glow around the musical performers. The particular hue is similar to the color of the peas that are placed upon the dinner table about a minute and twenty-four seconds into the clip.

Sure, it would be dishonest if I were to deny that I was rest assured about this information by watching the behind-the-scenes featurettes that have been placed on the DVD. However, when I was watching the film in the movie theater I knew there was something going on with the color palette of the film since we never see purplish-blue peas in recently produced films unless it was intentionally produced that way. The artistic decision to define a particular color palette within the film was designed to resemble the color limitations of the color film developing processes that were available to Hollywood filmmakers during the era in which each scene is set. The movie is more than just a selected color palette, but I did find the technique rather intriguing. Scorsese’s limited use of the color spectrum was a creative choice perfectly fitting for the movie as defined by its relevance to the story contained within it.

The surprising element in the film that caught me a bit off guard was the performance from Leonardo DiCaprio. The last time I remember watching one of his films with an incredibly strong performance was The Basketball Diaries. I would not want to limit his entire career down to just these two movies. He brought so much to the story in several different films with his acting performances. He is a talented actor, which is a fact that cannot be argued against very well. I am considering that the strongest suits in the production value of the film would be DiCaprio’s performance, Scorsese’s directing, the cinematography, and editing of the movie. It all holds together very well, which allows the story to unfold rather smoothly.

A Second Visit To Waterworld

All the way back in 2007 when I had just started writing a few blogging articles here and there I had made a decision to write an extremely brief review of the movie Waterworld. The article that was posted online barely resembles a reasonable review of the film since the primary focus of writing it was upon my participation in the annual event known as Blog Action Day. The entire premise of the event is to gather together a large number of writers who will individually write and post a blog article about the same subject on the same day. In 2007, it was about raising awareness of the change in the climate of the Earth. Now here I am at a standpoint three years later, with a bit of a guilty itch that I was careless in not writing up a reasonable review with a bit more focus and attention on the movie itself. The issue was brought to the forefront of my attention recently with the news of Dennis Hopper passing away, in addition to the "Great BP Oil Catastrophe" of 2010. The combination of these two current events stories will be forever linked in my memory by the connection they have within the film Waterworld (1995). In the film Dennis Hopper portrays an oil wasting villain who procures a barnacle encrusted, rusty boat formerly known as the Exxon Valdez oil rig. Gee, does the name of the ship sound a bit familiar? His character, Deacon, thrives upon the adrenaline rush of leading an army of people who consume refined oil and tobacco in mass quantity. The squad of evil doers travels around in vehicles with combustible engines that burn gas and oil so much that you could just smell the exhaust penetrate through the screen with every appearance in the movie. Would their lack of concern over wasting gasoline and refined oil worry you? If not, then how about their bad habit of chain smoking through several packs of cigarettes per day? On a random side note, I would like to point out a small concern that I have regarding the use of cigarette smoking in this film. I am under the impression that supplying a large army of smokers with enough cigarettes to smoke several packs of cigarettes per person every day would it not be necessary to have a tremendously large tobacco plantation somewhere in the world? Would it not be a proper assumption to say that the supposed tobacco plantation must produce a large crop of tobacco year round in order to keep the supply moving at a premium? I would imagine that the supposed tobacco plantation would have an extreme amount of difficulty of producing a year round crop if the just about the entire planet was completely covered in water! Just saying.

Reflecting upon several different possibilities in which the two screenwriters of the film could have been inspired to write the story may be nothing more than a direct answer. One of the screenwriters is David Twohy who has written numerous other action films that I absolutely love including the entire Chronicles of Riddick franchise. With the random appearance of the Exxon Valdez boat in the film, it would be a safe assumption to believe the inspiration of the film would be a battle between the big name company executives of oil companies and the environmental “hippies” who desire to conserve and protect the natural resources of the planet. I could prattle on for a bit longer about all the current events that are related to the BP disaster or the Exxon Valdez spill, but it would wander into a diversion of various political and environmental discussions that should be covered on another day. Waterworld is an idealistic prediction of the future of the world and the addiction its inhabitants have upon natural resources. Over the last two months, I began wondering if the producers, writers, and the director of the film were aware of how prophetic their story would be of our current conditions.

I would prefer to view the film as an allegory. Other people may see the film for its face value as an action movie set in the distant future. Sometimes there are movies that are produced to be something so much more than entertaining drivel. In my opinion, this movie has been misunderstood for many years. So many people have referred to it as horrendous film, or the worst movie of all time, but I think the word of mouth has been more damaging to the reputation of the film than the actual film itself. One of the contributing factors that may have started the rumor mill may have been the overblown budget problems when the film was being produced. This sentiment at the time may have blindsided many movie fans and film critics. These days it is uncommon to find a film that has been produced for a reasonably small budget. Maybe I perceive the situation completely wrong. In comparison, I have seen several cringe worthy films. Many of them I did not enjoy. In spite of my personal tastes, I have heard several positive reviews from movie fans that have seen these horrendous (or even mediocre) films and enjoyed watching them. For example, I considered Iron Man 2 (2010) as a mediocre action film, yet I have heard almost nothing but positive reviews for the film. I would imagine that I am not exactly in accord with the other movie watchers of the world.

There is another term that I can use to describe the film: parable. There is a long list of parables, which have been transcribed in the New Testament of the Bible. For those who are unfamiliar with the purposeful intent of a Biblical parable let me offer an explanation. Each parable is a simplistic tale, which was spoken by Jesus to a group of people. He used each one of the stories to convey a message of morality, ethics, and wisdom in a manner that could be comprehensible and understandable to as many people as possible. It was a particular method equaling the lowest common denominator, and sometimes it would be perceived as nothing more than a mindless riddle. However, the allegorical storytelling was a methodical way of conveying a message about human behavior. Waterworld is kind of like that in a far stretching example of how I perceive the entire film. It is an allegory, or a parable, about the current condition of human behavior.

Chalk up a point under the category of strange correlations among numerous others that I most frequently have conjured up in the past. On the surface, the movie is a simplistic action movie with a clearly defined outsider who serves as the hero of the story. Just like in a classic western film, the hero is always an outsider with a questionable past or lacks any social skills that would bother some of the local town folk. The genre of the typical western movie is not a frontrunner at the movie theaters as it used to be. In comparison, the golden age of the genre began during the era of silent films and proceeded to be produced in high quantity all the way into the 1960s. Toward the end of its golden age, the number of films began to dwindle off and soon moved over to the endangered species list. In the last twenty years, there have been a few patches of western films, which made it to the movie theaters.

Waterworld holds the spirit of the traditional American western film and places it in a setting based far into the future. In order to achieve the status of a vast and open wilderness it was ideal decision by the writers to utilize a contemporary issue that would create a grand scale catastrophe, which would naturally produce a brand new vast wilderness for the hero of the story to roam around at the start of the movie. When he rolls into a local town run amuck by the locals, who are gold struck for dry land, the resident sheriff warns him about potential problems of carrying a valuable commodity. Of course, the super evil villain rides into town, because he never lives in the boundaries of the town, but always a few miles away at a rigged up campsite with his army of henchmen. The super evil villain and his henchmen are always gold struck by the desire for dry land, because it is an extremely valuable commodity. There is a face-off between the outcast hero and the super evil villain, which leaves several of the town folk dead in their tracks.

I am unsure what else to mention about this film. It perfectly combines a couple of different genres together into one story which has produced an interesting platform for a scathing round of social commentary about the current addiction to the use of oil. The movie will never grow old for me.

Humor and Action is like "Knight and Day"

What a quaint play on words for the title of the movie: Knight and Day (2010). The two main characters are completely opposite of each other in regards to personality and abilities that they are as different as night and day. There is also a sly connection to the idea of the lead male character acting as a modern day version of a knight in shining armor for the leading woman. Roy Miller is his name and he works as a national security agent who holds plenty of combat skill, which serves to protect his lady in waiting, June, from the evil people of the world. The only real catalyst of the relationship would be the fact that he dragged her into a life-threatening situation, which led to the dilemma that he constantly had to protect her from the dangerous criminals who presumed she was his working partner. Would it be a mere coincidence that Roy has a minor fascination with selecting a small toy knight as the perfect item to protect and conveniently disguise a highly valuable commodity that the bad guys are hoping to get their grubby hands upon? Why did he select a toy knight? Well, it brings back childhood memories for him. Roy Miller is not his birth name, because the government had it legally changed. He birth name is Knight. The moment of enlightenment has arrived. For those of you who were expecting the film to be all about Keira Knightley might want to go rent a copy of King Arthur (2004). Setting aside the play on words insinuated by the title of the film that we are left with the true intentions of the story. It is a hybrid film of the action genre and the situation comedy. Tom Cruise is no stranger to the genre of action films. Casting him in the lead role brings to the film a certain element of confidence and physical agility that movie fans have associated with him for decades. He can make tough situations look so easy to manage. He has appeared in several films under the Mission: Impossible title and the audience buys into the belief that Tom Cruise has been appropriately named as a person who could “cruise” through any particular situation without breaking a sweat.

His co-star in Knight and Day is also very familiar with the action genre film. Cameron Diaz has appeared in two Charlie’s Angels films and has demonstrated how she is able to knock down an army of criminals with a few smooth moves during hand-to-hand combat fights. However, in this film she is playing a panic-stricken car mechanic from Boston afraid of having several guns pointed at her while she is attempting to control a runaway vehicle on a metro highway. Her character is named June Havens, which is just as a tongue-in-cheek name as her sister April. The choice of character names for her and her sister is aptly selected for the two months, which most people would consider a more serene time of the year. However, they are also the two months in the spring and early summer that would receive April showers and June gloom. Wait, what was point of that driveling trivia? Yes, her sister April is getting married in the movie, which means wedding bells and baby showers, an oddball connection, really. However, how could I forget about the heroine of the story? Her name is June and she is destined to experience a gloomy situation. Ha! Is it ever so obvious that I am really stretching it here in order to make random connection to plausible hidden meanings? Maybe the writer was not even thinking about littering his story with such ideal hidden messages when he was concocting the story from his imagination. I doubt it though.

At the basic level of the story, we have a knight in shining armor saving a damsel in distress from a gloomy situation which he accidentally placed her in while trying to save a young wizard from a fire-breathing dragon. Okay, so I have not even talked about the young wizard and the dragon in detail yet. The wizard would be a mathematical engineering genius kid who has designed and built a small battery that is close in dimensions to a D-size battery cell. It contains enough energy to power a small city for a lengthy period without ever need to be recharged. The evil fire-breathing dragon would be the government agent who wants to steal the battery and sell it to the highest bidder who may or may not use the device for evil intent. However, since the highest bidder is a weapons dealer from Spain, it would be expected to presume that he would be running amuck with all kinds of evil deeds with a small battery.

Over the course of the story, we witness several elements of the espionage action film. It begins with a traditional bait-and-switch maneuver enacted by the hero of the film, which accidentally pulls the innocent bystander into a realm of crazy government espionage. Why does this happen? Because the innocent bystander is determined to catch her flight home, which is the same scheduled flight the hero had intentionally blacklisted her from boarding. However, she is able to garner access back on to the flight and pretentiously obtained a one-way ticket upon the thrill ride of her life. Although the journey provokes her into several fits of utter panic, there may never be another opportunity for her to travel the world visiting a tropical island, several destination spots in Europe, and even board a memorable train ride to visit the Alps in Austria. The average car mechanic in America is a traditional blue-collar worker who may not be able to afford the cost of traveling the world, but she has been given the trip of a lifetime. Of course, I cannot complain, because her journey is fun and exciting to watch.

Taking a broad view of the entire film, it is definitely entertaining and fun to watch. The same level of humor, fun, and excitement that we have seen in the promotional commercials is expanded upon in the film. The experience of watching the film is not ruined a single bit if you have seen the commercials beforehand. The action sequences are fun and exciting to watch. Although a few of the stunts tend to defy the laws of gravity, I was not completely baffled by the implausibility of each maneuver. It annoys me when the action sequences tend to ignore all the natural laws of physics and gravity as if they were designed and enacted while shooting the film with benefit of zero gravity that would naturally available out in space! The humor between the two main characters is what places the icing on the cake for the entire film. The chemistry between the two people is what really pulled me into the story. It really cemented the deal for me. This sort of connection is something that has placed it apart from all the other action comedy films. I would definitely be recommending this film over a few other summer blockbuster movies. I believe it is worth the time and the money to see it.

iPhone 4 with Netflix service?

Will you allow me to jump straight to the issue at hand in which I would like to share my opinion about a current technological issue? Here is an excerpt from PC Magazine about the announcement of the iPhone 4.

Prior to Apple's big iPhone 4 announcement Monday, chief executive Steve Jobs also announced that three new iPhone apps will be available in the App Store this summer: Netflix, FarmVille, and Guitar Hero. Netflix unveiled an app for Apple's iPad earlier this year, and this summer the DVD rental company will expand its offerings to include an app for the iPhone. The app will let you tap into Netflix's Watch Instantly streaming video content right on the phone. It will debut sometime this summer and will be free, though you have to have a Netflix account to sign in.

Do you see a problem here? I see it. Well, I should say that I see a problem that I consider a problem. Let me place it into perspective a little bit. One of the artistic benefits of filmmaking is to project a visual image on to a large screen. Just about every single film that is produced in Hollywood has been shot in high definition film or video with extremely detailed visuals and a multi-layered soundtrack. Would such a full encompassing product be adequately reproduced on an iPhone? In my opinion it would be a setup for absolute failure. Well, the issue that I am looking at with a strong sense of annoyance would not necessarily be the same thing that would bother you in any way, shape or form. I am talking about watching a movie on a very tiny screen. It has been reported by a small number of other blogs that the one and only Roger Ebert has proclaimed his disapproval for the movie watching application on the iPhone. At this moment, I am unable to find a direct source on his website or any other proper channel that support the claim of his disapproval. Maybe if I were to search in all the right places using all the right keywords I would find a direct quote from the man himself about the issue.

Regardless of how convenient and amazing the iPhone can be for every user who owns one it would be a disregard to the work produced by almost every single filmmaker. I believe many of them have shot a movie with the intention of it being projected upon a large screen. Therefore, it would seem that I might be going a bit overboard in my reaction the idea of watching a movie on a small and convenient portable phone. I am no stranger to the idea of portable movie watching since I have watched many movies on a laptop computer with a 15-inch flat screen monitor. Please call me a hypocrite so that I might feel a little bit better about the unreasonable amount of complaining that I am hurling in your general direction. However, I should say that even a fifteen-inch screen is too small of a viewing area for my preference.

What is your opinion about the new iPhone application? Do you think convenience and portability should take any form of precedence over the manner of exhibition for a movie?

Standard Definition DVD discs or Blu-Ray

Two and a half years ago, I wrote an article about the battle in the DVD technology world that closely resembled a game of Capture the Flag. The competing companies were hoping to corner the market of high-definition technology and garner the official title as King of the Hill in terms of high quality DVD format technology. Shortly after publishing the article on Matte Havoc, the official winner of the format wars was declared: Blu-ray technology. In the last two years, the home entertainment market was flooded with the new proclaimed winner and I wonder if anyone even remembers the name HD DVD anymore. As the case has been proven in the past, the price tag for new technology will decrease over time. In order to maximize the experience of utilizing the new technology it should no surprise to purchase the following products for your home entertainment system. You will need a Blu-ray DVD player, a high definition widescreen television (LCD or plasma), a surround sound system (preferably with 7.1 channels or at least a 5.1 channel system), an HDMI cable, and a digital audio output cable. If the home entertainment consumer were to purchase a high quality version of each of these products, the cost would easily mark up to the thousands of dollars at the current market price. It is true to mention how the corners can be cut as much as possible with the purchase of inferior version from store brand manufacturers or low-grade materials, but these products may easily place a cap on the quality of the output of material. The difference between a cheap quality Blu-ray system and a name brand system could be similar in comparing a portable boombox to a high wattage audio system.

It would be useless if I were to drop in a large amount of technical terms such as Wattage and Ohm’s Law that I have no immediate knowledge about, which would only piss off the people who actually do know something about home entertainment technology and electronics installation. However, I do know that it takes 1.21 gigawatts and a speed of eighty-eight miles per hour in order to initiate a time travel. Great Scott! It would be a safe bet to explain that my personal knowledge about home theater systems can be graded around a C+ or maybe even a B-level. I know enough about to comprehend and explain the primary purpose of just about every major component in a major home theater system, but do not even bother asking me to rattle off information about the guts of each item that any reasonable engineer or electrician would be of better service in answering your questions. In my apartment, I have an extremely basic home theater system. Do not be fooled by the small scale of my home theater system, because I had purchased it with an extremely small budget as a step toward upgrading away from the outdated system that I had been using previously. The old “system” included a 13-inch CRT television with an electrical plug for power and a coaxial plug for a cable or antenna connection. I do not think it can be any more simple and outdated than that kind of a setup.

Although the new entertainment system that I own is missing a surround sound speaker setup, I am currently using an old set of Altec Lansing computer speakers that include a left and right speaker with a subwoofer. I have owned the speaker system for a long time now and its still in working condition. There is no reason to get rid of the speakers yet, since they are still in working condition. Maybe one day I will be able to upgrade to a surround sound speaker system. However, it would be overkill to have such a system placed in an apartment. The walls of my place are thin enough where any loud action movie would be a large nuisance to the neighbors. You might have noticed that I have randomly listed the SVGA computer cable in the list, which I use to hook my laptop computer up to the television so that I can conveniently show items from my computer to everyone in the room without a massive group of people hunching over the laptop screen.

Now here is the decisive moment for you to make the choice if you should brag about the entertainment equipment that you use at home. I have added an unscientific poll in the sidebar of the Matte Havoc site in order to find out what is the most commonly used type of DVD equipment that we use. The poll will be open for all voters until the end of June of 2011. This means that you will have plenty of time to invite all of your friends over to the site and vote! If you care to go into specifics about the specific player and television set you have at home, then make sure to leave a comment below with all the information that you care to brag about to everyone. In addition, can you honestly tell me what you think about the difference between standard DVD discs and Blu-ray technology? Do you really care about the higher resolution that the Blu-ray technology offers to the average consumer? Does it make any difference to you at home?

An Update and a Blogathon Promotion

Hey, everyone, how are you all doing? I know my posting has been rather sporadic these days with a post count that has been averaging around two articles per month. Over the last couple of months, my work schedule has been going through a roller coaster ride of a lifetime, which has left me feeling a bit worn out and tired. I have not been watching as many films lately as I would like to have been watching, let alone being able to find any available amount of time to sit down and write a detailed review or even a simple article for the site. I thought it would only be fair to offer a brief update that would inform you that I am not completely missing in action, but more like floating down a very slow moving river as I try to reorganize my time between work and play. We all have to pay the bills somehow, but my blogging has not produced any form of a steady income for me to work on it full-time. Currently I have a stack of about thirty or forty articles and reviews that are in the process of being worked on, which will be published here on the blog in due time. In addition, I am also in the extreme early stages of writing a non-fiction book about film production that I have a large amount of wishful (or hopeful) thinking about the possibility of getting it picked up by a book publisher. The book idea is so green that I just started outlining the concept and structure of how I would write the book. Once that stage is complete I will start gathering as many notes and material as can be mustered up for the guts and glory of the book. I will keep you posted on that venturous front line as often as I possibly can do so.

In the mean time, I would suggest that you head over to The Large Association of Movie Blogs website to have a look at the Director’s Chair series that I am hosting. The latest installment of the series is a three part blogathon that will be posted on June 8th, 9th, and 10th and will contain a large number of links to various articles and reviews that cover the wide variety of movies from film director Stanley Kubrick. To check out this particular blogathon event just visit the following link:

The LAMBs in the Director's Chair #8: Stanley Kubrick
Series runs from June 8th through June 10th.

In the last week and a half, I have received a large number of articles from several different websites and blogs that will be participating in the series. The collection of articles and reviews are from a wide variety of writers, which may prove valuable for you to look into the series for the possibility of finding a new website that you may actually want to visit repeatedly. In conclusion, I would like to point out how appreciative I am to have so many people be visiting Matte Havoc to read the articles and reviews. Thank you for all of you who have posted comments on the articles, signed on to become followers of the site, or even became fans of the site over on Facebook.