I have more info to follow up with on the <I>Blood Diamond </I> Blu-ray Disc but that nonsense is going to have to wait in the wake of the passing of our friend and colleague Randy Tomlinson.
Today I bring very sad news. Randy Tomlinson, a valued contributor to Ultimate AV and, more importantly, a close personal friend of over 30 years, dating back to when we were both in the Air Force, was killed this past Saturday morning in the crash of a private plane in northern California.
How Intel works with Windows Vista to create the "Ultimate" HTPC
Over in the June issue of the Home Theater print magazine, I wrote about the wonders of the Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate, the most highly-featured version of their new operating system, and how its many features make it a great match for the latest HTPCs. Which begs the question, "What are home theater PCs wearing in the Vista age?" And to help answer my query, Intel sent over a test machine custom-built around their Intel Core 2 Duo processor, specifically designed for audio/video applications, running Windows Vista Ultimate.
In a Diablog about my pianistic hero Sviatoslav Richter, I ended by wishing aloud for the re-release of an 18-disc boxed set Philips originally issued about 15 years ago. Following up with an email, I got this response from Ken of the Decca Music Group: "I'm happy to confirm that all
Decca and Philips's Richter recordings are due to be re-released over the
coming months, and you'll be able to read about them, with US release date
information, on the iClassics site." The first three freshly released two-disc sets entitled Richter: The Master celebrate his command of Beethoven and Mozart, with a third volume of Scriabin, Prokoviev, and Shostakovich and presumably more on the way. The packaging is nothing special but it's great to see this material becoming widely available again. The reissue series will cover both the Philips and Decca catalogues, including (I hope) Richter's late-in-life examinations of Haydn. And it will give a new generation of listeners a chance to buy recordings sold until now only in used form by ripoff artists. Some of the Philips "authorized recordings" titles, issued separately from the box, command secondhand prices as high as $60--and the box itself goes for up to $2000. Me happy boy.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
Okay, I admit it. I like Will Ferrell. His movies are almost always funny and entertaining, from the recent Blades of Glory, to Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and back to his evil turn as Mugatu in Zoolander. Some are also surprisingly sweet and touching. (If you haven’t seen Elf, go rent it.) Ferrell’s honest and genuine acting allows him to connect to characters and audiences with ease.
Video: 3
Audio: 2
Extras: 4
Rarely before this movie had such bad people been seen getting away with bad things. You love Steve McQueen’s Carter despite the fact that he’s a bank robber and he kills people. Add in Ali MacGraw, explosions, and the fact that this is one of the only movies made almost entirely in sequence (as in the first scene was shot first, the last one last), and you have a classic of American cinema.
Video: 2
Audio: 3
Extras: 3
Wouldn’t it be nice to jet off to an exotic location the moment your life turned sour? The Holiday, directed by Nancy Meyers (Something’s Gotta Give, Baby Boom), takes on this idea. As Iris (Kate Winslet) and Amanda (Cameron Diaz) simultaneously reach crossroads in their love lives, they find each other on a home-exchange Website and swap houses—and countries—for two weeks. While both women think they’re vacationing from love and all its disappointments, it ends up finding them anyway.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 2
In the world of magic, nothing is as it seems. It’s only fitting that the same would be true of The Prestige, a film about two rival Victorian-era magicians determined to learn each other’s secrets, regardless of the cost to those around them. Based on a novel by Christopher Priest, the film has been carefully crafted by screenwriters Jonathan and Christopher Nolan to be its own magic trick. Even if you believe (as I did) that you’ve figured out the trick halfway through the film, Chris Nolan’s artful direction—or, more appropriately, misdirection—cleverly toys with you, pulling your attention elsewhere without ever losing its grip on the story.
Video: 4
Audio: 4
Extras: 4
For those who thought the world wasn’t ready for a fair-haired James Bond, Daniel Craig acquits himself extremely well in this twenty-first entry in the franchise, which plays fast and loose with the series’ chronology to show the super spy as a newly minted double-0. Cool, steely-eyed, and, above all, physically and emotionally vulnerable, this Bond can actually love a woman, although we learn in short order why he stopped doing so. In this installment, Bond infiltrates an arms financier’s high-stakes poker game staged to win back clients’ lost money. While the story line doesn’t hold up to close scrutiny, we get to see the evolution of the shaken vodka martini and the spy’s signature line of introduction.
