Down with my Life by Vic Barry

Monday, May 11, 2009

The one with the iPhone App that goes wrong!

NSFW - Funny!

The one with Canon Freecording!

Check this out! Will be entering meself and will also be chatting to Liam Cunningham on this weeks Late Night Interview!

Lights, Canon, Action For Ireland’s Upcoming Directors!

Hollywood star, Liam Cunningham, To judge entrants

To celebrate the launch of Canon Consumer Imaging’s new High Definition camcorder range, Canon wants to discover Ireland’s next upcoming director as they launch ‘Lights, Canon, Action’ which is open to all members of the public. Liam Cunningham, star of Hunger and The Wind That Shakes The Barley, will be one of the judges who decides which entry shall win a Canon XH A1, the digital filmmaker’s tool worth €4,000.

Canon Consumer Imaging is looking for three minute short movies based on freecording. Spontaneity is at the heart of this style of video making. When a video has been pre-planned, everything can seem a little bit stilted and staged, not with freecording. Entries can be as diverse as a little piece of art, a personal statement or just friends mucking about.

Commenting at the launch of the Lights, Canon, Action competition, Jonothan Sultan, Marketing Manager, Canon Consumer Imaging, said, “Thanks to websites like YouTube, the public are increasingly capturing every aspect of their lives – whether it’s their Saturday night out or their nephew’s christening. We have developed a new range of High Definition which makes film making accessible to even the most novice film maker. We’re calling on the public to capture some of the spontaneous moments that happen everyday, enter them into our competition for the chance to win a fantastic professional camcorder and to have their entry judged by Hollywood star Liam Cunningham.”

The competition is being launched in conjunction with Connector, a monthly networking event. With a special finale event being held in June to announce the winner, all eyes will be on www.connector.ie to view the entries submitted.

So send in short movies that capture spontaneity for the chance to win a Canon XH A1, the digital filmmaker’s tool. First runner up prize includes €500 cash, with the second runner up prize being €250 cash. Entrants can submit their admission by uploading their video to a video sharing website like YouTube and submitting the entry on www.connector.ie The closing date for receipt of videos is June 1^st.

For more information on freecording or Canon’s products, please visit www.canon.ie

The one with a lickle linkage

The shower of bandits who produce and present the award winning Big Red Bench (Sat / Sun 6pm-7pm on Corks RedFM) have entered into the land of blogs, with a really good blog for all your sporty types and even if your not a sporty type, pay a visit!

And if you needed any more temptation to pay a visit to "A load of balls - The Big Red Bench Blog" then here it is

Sunday, May 10, 2009

The one with bits from the Movie Bit (May 10th)

Terminator Salvation - Extended 4 minute clip: This is rated PG 13 in the states, all the alarm bells are going off in my head now. For 2 reasons - PG13 and a 4 minute extended trailer!!!Hope I'm wrong as I'm really looking forward to this!!!!!!!

Hangover - Worth it for Tyson singing alone!

The Land of the Lost - Hmmmmmm

Last Chance Harvey - Dose of ahhhhh and quality methinks

Year One - Hmmmm. promising!

Thursday, May 07, 2009

The one with the mini movie review – Star Trek

After much waiting and anticipation from the world, the next movie to get the reboot treatment has arrived. Star Trek opens in Cork cinemas today. And yes, this is the same Star Trek that made William Shatner a household name and probably got him the TJ Hooker gig at the same time!

Star Trek as many of you know dates back to the 1800’s or something and has some of the most hardcore fans the world has ever seen. So, I would speculate that the director, J.J. Abram's (Yes he of Lost and Cloverfield fame) grew some very large testicles before he took on. the monumental task of bringing Star Trek, once again, back to the big screen.

The story starts before Jimmy Kirk was born and immediately you know this is a very, very different Star Trek universe from what you may have been used to. James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine) is born and the story progresses from there, with his induction into Star Fleet and his eventual clamber onto the captains chair. The story is basic enough and I don't want to go into much detail as not to give anything away, but the world needs saving!

There are some fantastic moments in this movie including an uncanny Mr.Spock and a fantastic performance from Simon Pegg as Scotty . But Chris Pine is the show stealer. While some of the Shatner mannerisms are still intact, he brings a whole new lease of life to the character who I never liked in the first place. The new Captain Kirk is one cool dude and a tough son of a bitch to boot. Nero, the bad guy doesn't have a whole lot of screen time and Eric Bana doesn't do much to melt your mind, he’s adequate at best.

The special effects are stunning (excluding the teleporting scenes which just look weird) and the first glimpse you get of the USS Enterprise is a very special moment. It has never looked better and the battles and scale of the movie are absolutely huge. There is great pace here and the picture thunders along at a frantic pace or warp speed if you like. You are never left hanging around wondering what will happen next.

As a devout Star Wars fan I am very surprised I enjoyed this so much. That said, I wonder how the hard core trekkers or trekkies (or whatever your called this month) will feel about it. Abrams version has far more grit, action and intensity than any of the other movies combined and this may lead to some of the hardcore fans hating it! That said, it still is great to see the evolution of Kirk and Scott and the second most famous ship in the galaxy, the USS Enterprise.

So the reboot is complete and like most reboots, the following movie should be better again. Finally, Star Trek is a hugely enjoyable movie for all, no doubt some of the real fans may be disappointed, but J.J. Abrams really has brought the Star Trek franchise into the true, next generation!

9/10