Tag Archives: Video

Familiar terrain to regular readers of Blogcritics, but the NY Times’ Amy Harmon takes a reasonable look at the state of digital media regarding copy protection and resultant consumer issues: Lying dormant in virtually every digital cable box in America is technology that can prevent viewers from recording certain programs …

This story of Arab-Israeli pornography is tawdry and sad on every level. But the worst element, by far, is the Islamic cultural retardation sanctioning violence against those accused of violating “honor.” This is the 21st century: grow up, mind your own business, do something worthwhile with your life, repect the …

Yesterday would have been J.R.R. Tolkien’s 111th birthday, his “eleventy-first.” Fans celebrated worldwide: It’s a clear sign that a movie has passed from mere entertainment into the realm of cultural phenomenon when it starts spawning theme parties. Such is the case with “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Act two, …

The “Susan Orlean” depicted in Adaptation is a female human who wrote The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession – similarities end there: The movie Adaptation portrays real-life author Susan Orlean in so perversely inaccurate a manner that studio executives were ”terrified” that Orlean might halt the …

Regular 40 year-olds gaze at the screen or pictures in magazines and say “How do they do it?” in reference to the likes of Demi Moore and other fab forty-somethings. Here’s how: Pictures from the set of “Charlie’s Angels 2: Full Throttle,” in which the 40-year-old actress plays a villainous …

We reported a few days ago that Justice O’Connor “last week agreed to the California-based DVD Copy Control Assn.’s request for the stay, giving the court time to collect more arguments.” Having collected more arguments, she changed her mind Friday, per Declan McCullagh in CNET: The U.S. Supreme Court has …

This story would seem to fit in with thoughts on McDonald’s from the other day: reports of US cultural hegemony throughout the world are greatly exaggerated: “Whereas American TV shows used to occupy prime-time slots, they are now more typically on cable, or airing in late-night or weekend slots,” said …

Interesting BusinessWeek story on digital video, which is making it much easier for independents to shoot movies on a low budget, though it notably mischaracterizes the cost of Robert Rodriguez’ El Mariachi. While it may have been shot for only $7,225, post production work pushed to cost into the hundreds …

Court grants stay in Pavlovich case: DVD copying has come to the attention of the nation’s highest court as Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has agreed to put on hold a California Supreme Court decision restricting the entertainment industry’s ability to sue people posting programs that crack encryption codes embedded in …

E! online reports a new Headmaster Dumbledore has been named to replace Richard Harris, who died in October, in forthcoming Harry Potter movies: Michael Gambon, who picked up Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his virtuoso performance as Lyndon Johnson in HBO’s Path to War, will be donning the robes …