Freyburg

Last week, thanks to a rare weekday off, myself and the better half took in X-Men: The Last Stand at a matinee. My verdict? Not as bad as the fanboys would have you believe, but not as good as the first two films.

First, the good. The effects and spectacle are as good or better than the previous outings of Xavier’s mutants, and Kelsey Grammar does a credible job as Beast, one of my favorite characters from the comic book. Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart could read grocery lists and still be entertaining, and seeing the Golden Gate Bridge get ripped off its foundations and used to transport a band of mutants to Alcatraz is pretty damned cool (if a mite impractical…ever heard of boats, Magneto?)

Now, the bad. Storm comes off as a bit of a ninny in this one. Halle Berry was never all that great in the role to begin with, but she kind of goes off the rails with a performance that’s more gangsta than detached weather goddess. Plus, she needs the mohawk from the comics. Hugh Jackman nailed Wolverine perfectly in the first two films, and in this one he seems a little out of character, probably due to fauxteur Brett Ratner’s limited directing skills. Actually, that isn’t really fair; Ratner delivers the requisite slam-bang action, and the performances of everyone involved aren’t terrible, per se. But Bryan Singer’s writing and directing chops are noticably absent (and will be seen in Superman Returns later this summer.)

Still, it’s not a bad bit of escapist summer fluff. But is it as good as a bunch of geeks re-enacting Secret Wars? That’s the real question here.

At least according to an article on GigaOm. I’d take issue with this statement, since sites like MySpace are a bit of an eyesore and rife with junk….but then I realize that the same can be said for the bulk of television. At least now it’s people in their bedrooms making crap I’ll never watch/listen to/read, rather than some overpaid “creative” with a drug problem in Los Angeles. 🙂

If you spend any amount of time reading magazines or surfing websites, you’ve probably seen some variant of these photos. My personal fave is the one with the bespectacled girl….that’s a cliche that’s been used for book covers and anything vaguely internet or social network related for eons. Plus girls in horn-rims are hot. 🙂

(via Kottke.org)

According to Ars Technica, Apple is looking for game developers, possibly for some iPod related gaming, and possibly for the Mac. But since you can boot into Windows on Intel Macs….why bother? Apple will never be able to match the PC gaming market, and really, it doesn’t need to. Lots of gamers are now thinking of switching to the Mac because they can have everything in one box. And from the other side, I know the first thing I thought when I heard about Bootcamp was “about time, now I can play Half Life 2 on my Mac.”

Still, I’m not complaining if Apple wants to extend the capabilities of my machine. Just do it soon.

In an incident with resonations of the My Lai massacre, a group of American troops apparently went on a kill-crazy rampage last November and killed 15 or more Iraqi men, women and children. Lberators, indeed.

Indie media tyro Jim Munroe, the brains behind No Media Kings, has a new interview on his site where he details not only the positive aspects of downloading tv shows off the net (like word of mouth unsullied by promo hacks, and widespread exposure for artists) but also interviews Kirin, who runs #digitaldistractions, one of the more esoteric torrent sites.

Some would argue that the Mac Mini should have been a PVR out of the box, but since Apple’s pushng tv shows on the ITMS, that’s pretty unlikely. But Ars Technica has reviews of a couple of PVR solutions that let your Mac watch and record TV. Personally, I’d use these boxes more for live news and the like, but to each his or her own.

Despite the usual Wired hand-waving OMGREVOLUTIONBBQ nonsense, this article about using the network to get a job done more efficiently and cheaply, or “crowdsourcing,’ is actually pretty interesting. In some ways, this development isn’t really news, as anyone who ever fired up an IM client or IRC for computer advice knows, but it’s a neat summation of how some companies and media outlets are doing an end run around traditional sources of content and labour.

It took long enough, but the head villains at Enron, Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, are guilty, according to a jury of their peers. Of course, they’ll probably while away their days in some white-collar country club prison, but tat least they didn’t get off scott-free.

For a far better summation of what these polecats got up to than I can give, check out Enron: the smartest Guys in the Room, a great movie that details the rise and fall of Houston’s pride and joy.

And for further entertainment, check out this article in Slate, which shows that current CEOs really haven’t learned anything from the Enron fiasco.

Our Illustrious Leader has decided the Ottawa press gallery can shove it, pronto. He’s refusing to give press conferences, and instead using Republican tactics and talking to voters through local media. On the one hand, this kind of high-handed media snubbing burns my chaps on general principle. On the other hand, the press gallery probably IS biased toward the Liberals, and I can hardly blame Harper for getting a little sick and tired of what’s undoubtedly a fairly insular, hostile group. But playing fast and loose with the fourth estate probably isn’t the way to reign them in.