Handbrake doesn’t find main movie / feature?

Posted by Evan in Apple, Computers, Movies

I’ve been in the process of ripping my DVDs onto my computer for quick access. In the process I found that for some DVDs Handbrake didn’t find or detect the disk’s main feature so I was unable to rip the DVD. Initially I thought this was just because of the way the DVDs were encoded but I found an easy workaround.

When you initially load the disk into Handbrake you usually choose the “Detected Volumeâ€? option to scan the contents of the DVD disk. However, to correct this problem we’ll use the “DVD Folder/Imageâ€? option and browse to the VIDEO_TS folder on the DVD and select it instead. Now Handbrake will find the main feature and detect it properly and you’re on your merry way!

Sting: Broken Music

Posted by Evan in Movies

I’ve always felt that there’s something extremely rare and delightful about Sting’s abilities as a songwriter and performer. I recently purchased his memoirs, Sting: Broken Music and added it to the short list of books I’ve read. These are my thoughts.

My love of his music is very hard to understand, let alone articulate. Let is suffice to say I love his music… all of it. I was hoping to get a glimpse into his mind through his memoirs, and hopefully find a way to apply his in-depth understanding of music to my own struggles as a musician. What I got instead was felt like a personal letter from a friend baring his life, in full detail, to me. He discloses very early in the book that his motives for writing are selfish, he has so many memories and experiences that he doesn’t want to forget, so many lessons he doesn’t want to lose over time.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of rock history chronicled in this book as well. We get a first-hand glimpse into the early days of The Police and how the band was formed as well as the not-so-glamorous early shows they performed. However, as much as this book touches on The Police I imagine some will finish the book and feel disappointed The Police aren’t even mentioned until the last few chapters of the book. To fault the book for this reason is to miss the point entirely.

What I appreciated most about the book is the seemingly unfiltered look at the events in the life of a man who would become one of the most respected musician/songwriters in the world. If you have any interest in Sting or The Police I highly recommend Sting: Broken Music.

fade-IN Film Screening Series!

Posted by Evan in Movies, Richmond

For those of you in the Richmond/Wayne County that happen to enjoy films I wanted to bring Richmond Art Museums new film series “fade-IN Film Screening Series” to your attention. From their website:

“RAM’s new film screening series, fade-IN (Focusing on Art, Diversity, and Education – Indiana) will showcase a variety of films that fall outside the box of mainstream cinema and were most likely not shown in our area. The series will include independent, foreign, and experimental films, and even a scattering of older studio works that deserve another look. Opening dialogue by local filmmakers and film aficionados along with discussion following the films will offer a unique experience to film lovers. Screenings will be held the last Friday of each month, September through June.”

The first film of the series will be “American Movie” which was released in 1999 and tells the story of an amateur filmmaker trying to release his latest film. The film will be shown on Friday September 29th at 7:00pm in the auditorium at the Richmond Art Museum. Admission is $5.00 or $3.00 for Richmond Art Museum members. For more information see the Special Events page on the RAM website.

And the reviews are in…

Posted by Evan in Movies, Uncategorized

I’ve been looking forward to Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong since I first heard about the project shortly after the last Lord of the Rings film was complete. I’m a big fan of Peter’s and I have a great amount of respect for him as a director.

Not long after production started on the film I found a wonderful website that offered lots of news/inside scoops on the production of King Kong as well as some short production diaries in video format. I was hooked. If you haven’t already seen them, you can check out the full list of production diaries on KongIsKing.net. The movie was released yesterday and the critic’s reviews have been astounding, some even calling it one of the best films of all time.

As much as I would have loved to have gone and seen the film on opening night, that’s one of several movies I plan on seeing with my dad when he gets into town this weekend. So, I’ll have to keep myself from thinking about it until then.

The draw of old westerns

Posted by Evan in Movies, What's new with me?

I’ve never been a big fan of western movies. I remember being a little kid and being over at my grandparent’s house. My grandpa would always be watching a western and I always complained that they were so boring and why didn’t he watch something fun. It’s amazing how we can grow to like something that we hate when we’re younger. It just goes to show that you never know as much as you think you do I guess.

A few months back I watched The Good, The Bad and the Ugly starring Clint Eastwood. I had seen the movie before, back when I was in junior high. My dad had the film as part of his collection and for some reason I was going through an epic movie phase where I wanted to find very long movies and then watch them. Stephen King’s The Stand was the first film that I watched and this one was the second. I didn’t really think much of it at the time and didn’t really enjoy it that much either. This last viewing, however, was different. Maybe it is the fact that I’ve been to the dessert and the "old west" now, who knows, but that movie really struck me.

Since then I’ve been much more open to watching westerns. I recently watched The Searchers, which is credited by many well-known film makers as their most influential movie. I have Stagecoach coming from Netflix as well and I plan to watch that as soon as possible. There’s a great sense of history, romance and adventure that is packed into all of the westerns that I’ve seen so far.

Land of the Dead

Posted by Evan in Movies

Just about anyone that’s ever seen a film is familiar with his work. He single-handedly created an entire sub-genre, and he’s been recognized as a revolutionary film maker. No, I’m not talking about Stephen Spielberg, I’m talking about George Romero.

Getting his start creating commercials for light-hearted companies such as Calgon, George Romero changed the film world when he and his friends formed Image Ten Productions in the late 1960′s and each chipped in $10,000 to create their first feature film, Night of the Living Dead. The film has since become an icon of not only horror films, but all genres.

Being a horror fan back in the day I was very familiar with George’s work. My favorite type of horror movies just happens to be zombie movies so to me he was the end-all in horror directors. I grew up watching his films, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, and even though there were always rumors of George’s next zombie film proof never materialized and the rumored film never surfaced. Well, you can imagine my surprise when George started showing up on the horror radar again and rumors of his next zombie film were buzzing, and this time he was confirming. The name of the film wasn’t nailed down then, but after the buzz died down George finally annouced that the film would be called Land of the Dead.

Just this last week I got a chance to see the film and while it didn’t blow my socks off, it was George through and through. One thing that I tried to avoid before seeing this movie was forming expectations. Yes, this is George Romero, but it has also been more than 20 years since the last "Dead" movie was released. Could he still pull it off, could he still produce a movie that outshines it’s brothers and sisters in horror? These were the questions I had. In many ways I guess I wanted him to prove to the world that he still had it.

I walked into the theatre with my bag of Rieces Pieces, sat down and waited impatiently through the barage of trailers, 20 it seemed, then the movie began. The credits hinted at something different from horror movies of late. Then the first images come on screen. We’re shown an empty world that shows no sign of life, a park that rather than being filled with families is filled with standing (though barely-moving), rotted corpses. The world has been infested with the zombies for many years and has since gotten used to having them there. It’s no longer a fight for survival, but rather a fight for a better quality of life.

In general I really liked this film. It doesn’t have quite the atmosphere that the other films have and there are some writing issues that I don’t quite understand. There are several times when there’s some interplay between cast members that doesn’t make sense, like one cast member winking to another for no reason. There are also some technical issues with the film, odd scene endings are just one example.

Perhaps one of the most dissapointing things about the film was the performance of the actor playing the lead zombie "Big Daddy". Dispite the fact that he was playing the leader of the zombies and was showing signs of learning basic reasoning skills, he was a little too responsive and coherent during most of the film. He just didn’t seem like a very good zombie to me at all.

So, should you see this movie? Maybe, depending on whether or not you typically like this genre of film. However, if you’re looking for the next Gone with the Wind, you might want to check out something else.