I recently watched an episode of Inside the Actors Studio. The show is hosted by James Lipton of Pace University. Each show focuses on an extended interview of a famous thespian. Eddie Murphy as a guest defiantly caught my attention. James Lipton asked Eddie Murphy to recite the high school yearbook quotation Murphy had written. Eddie Murphy promptly without any assistance recited the quote, “In reality, all men are (we are all) sculptors, constantly chipping away the unwanted parts of their lives, trying to create a masterpiece.”

I was surprised by Eddy Murphy’s quote. After reflecting on the meaning of Eddy Murphy’s quote I started to think about which Eddy Murphy movies were memorable. My top five favorite Eddie Murphy movies, in no particular order, are Trading Places, Coming to America, The Distinguished Gentlemen, Showtime, and Beverly Hills Cop. If I wanted to speculate about which Eddie Murphy movie will survive the test of time, then the easy answer would probably be the animated blockbuster Shrek and the less obvious choice would be the 1983 classic social commentary Trading Paces.

Joni happens to enjoy anything with a strong resemblance to a penguin. I did make an effort to beat the mad rush of penguin fans to see the Happy Feet movie. After researching the Happy Feet movie release information it became apparent that the initial IMAX release would not include three dimensional aspects. I really do not enjoy watching three dimensional movies.

Even at the early Friday afternoon release day showing of the Happy Feet movie IMAX edition a large number of families with children that should have probably been in school were in attendance. Given the economics of the modern movie theater industry the concepts representative in IMAX should be revisited. Exceptional picture quality, larger theater screens, and high quality audio make IMAX a true moving going experience. For the price being charged for movie tickets the movie theater better find ways to enhance the moving going experience.

According to a Home Box Office special about the movie the penguin dancing is actually a graphical representation of dancer stop motion capture. Apparently dancers were hired to dance like penguins while wearing stop motion technology. Overall the movie would have been better with constant computer animation from beginning to end.

Right now, the evolution of technology driven media content dissemination is beginning to change the way people watch movies. Not only are companies that rent movies combating changes in technology, but also companies are facing a change in the basic business model of renting movies. Part of the momentum for this change is coming from cable television provides that are delivering digital content including movies on demand cutting into the market of potential movie renters. In response to this potential challenge to future market share, companies that traditionally rent movies are anticipating a shift in the technology curve that will allow the market of potential movie renters to change from people who own a VCR/DVD player to anyone that has a personal computer with a high-speed internet connection.
Consider the fundamental problem with this approach to developing stopgap measures that accepts that the current monopolistic approach taken by the power of national movie rental chains will extend to the internet. Generally, industry experts accept the argument that brand name does matter in terms of users trusting financial transactions on the internet. Even if brand name will be a primary factor in determining who controls the online movie rental marketplace the traditional barrier to entry of initial investment in building costs, and inventory changes to infrastructure and capacity online. Soon technology will allow any major corporation that wants to enter the online movie rental marketplace to breakdown the traditional monopolistic stronghold on movie rentals in the United States.

Dealing with this change is going to be a major challenge to companies like Blockbuster. Certainly, the current evidence of movie pass memberships and online storefronts that use the postal service to delivery movies are evidence of preventive stopgap measures denoting that the market is already starting to change. Cable television providers or a change in technology will make movies on demand a reality undercutting the entire movie rental market. In the meantime, people will rent movies from stores, have the postal service deliver them, or even join movie rental clubs, but at some point, it will be time to cancel the Blockbuster movie pass and simply use the remote to order a movie.

Today marks the long awaited, “Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story – DVD,” which is available at the Best Buy for purchase. Normally Tuesdays used to be about the Blockbuster new movie Tuesday movie pass extravaganza, but Blockbuster raised prices and the supply of new movies worth watching dwindled resulting in a trial separation period between Tuesday and the Blockbuster movie pass. Breakfast this morning was difficult to schedule, and Caryn seems to think it was mildly insane to make Fajita soup so early in the morning. However, Fajita soup was simply a way to start the day with a hearty meal in preparation of traveling to Broomfield, Colorado, to purchase the new Family Guy digital video disc.

*** Update ***

On the way to Best Buy to purchase the movie the strangest thing happened an entire truck full of small rocks tipped over on the highway leaving the highway backed up for miles. Fire trucks, rescue vehicles, police officers, and construction workers spent the better part of two hours flinging stones from the road to allow traffic to resume during the lunch rush. Getting away from the television turned out to be incredibly dangerous and time consuming, but the accident did not cause any serious injuries only a serious loss of time and a fair amount of road rage, shoulder driving, and interesting traffic behavior. Who knew that a ton of small rocks could slow down traffic to a crawl for hours? Most of the municipal works that spend the noon hours flinging rocks from the side of the road did not seem to be enjoying the good old-fashioned outdoor entertainment. However, all of the inbound traffic to Boulder, Colorado drivers had to stop and stare at the mountain range that loomed across the skyline certainly not a bad backdrop for a traffic jam.

Right now, I have the DVD set next to my laptop. If you do not hear from me for a couple days, then you know that I am still watching Star Wars. I am excited for audio commentary, special features, and digital quality. Now if I could just fast-forward to Episode 7-9 the story would be complete.

I will admit I was a little scared when Resident Evil: Apocalypse was put into the hands of director Alexander Witt. Some of the projects that Witt has been involved with have been some serious Hollywood action/swill propaganda. However, after just watching the film I like it better than the first Resident Evil. This movie was not completely coordinated with the video game, but that fact can be forgiven. Now the writer Paul W.S. Anderson who also wrote AvP (Alien vs. Predator) and the original Resident Evil did an ok job with this film. Really emphasizing the word program to organize Paul

I really liked Resident Evil, which was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. Alien vs. Predator was a good film. It had a certain degree of production quality that played off the tagline,

I have a couple hours to kill since watching the United States Olympic Basketball team beat Australia at around six in the morning. I have obtained a VHS copy of The Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition. Does everybody on the face of the planet know what will cost about seventy dollars on September 21? The answer comes from Fox Video who has graciously decided to ship millions of four-disc Star Wars Trilogy DVD sets.

I forgot what it was like to watch a good old VHS. All you have to do is put in the tape, sit on the couch, and when the movie is over the tape rewinds itself. As you already know, from your extensive research and amazing information retention abilities, VHS stands for Video Home System. This however is not an accurate historical account VHS used to stand for Vertical Helical Scan. I found out that this has something to do with the head scanning technique used on the tape. Now DVD on the other hand has prospered. Some people like Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, and of course Jersey Girl) like so many others once believe in laser disc. Kevin Smith was wrong.

Star Wars (Episode IV) released in 1977, now has a box office gross of around 461 million dollars. George Lucas had a film that would start a science fiction revolution beginning a cult phenomenon that has lasted for more than twenty years. I forgot how great it is to be able to watch Mark Hamill playing Luke Skywalker. Alec Guinness does a great job of playing the part of Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi interacting with Mark Hamill with a precision that you do not see in modern acting. Anthony Daniels who played C-3PO and Kenny Baker the mastermind behind R2-D2 are in the top fifty box office grossing actors ever. Anthony Daniels has been in five movies, I will let you guess what they are grossing 1,793,744,468 total dollars with an average of 358,748,894 dollars per movie. Star Wars has been good to Anthony Daniels.

James Earl Jones is not even credited as the voice of Darth Vader. I can hardly believe that Carrie Fisher who played Princess Leia Organa and Mark Hamill did not go on to celebrated movie careers. Harrison Ford was amazing as Han Solo and is still one of the most successful actors in history. The Empire Strikes Back (Episode V) was released in 1980, and changed the standard for visual effects while changing attitudes about the viability of almost cornering the market on blockbuster science fiction movies. For some reason the second installment only made 290 million in box office gross. The introduction of Frank Oz playing Yoda defiantly is the highlight of this movie. I might be one of the biggest Yoda fans in the history of Star Wars.