It's pretty obvious what Movies & TV blog is about. We churn out recaps, reviews and news on the stuff that interests us.
Tony Black and Zack McGhee have been together for nearly 4 years. They spend altogether too much time watching movies and TV, and being glued to their computers. This blog combines all three at once, thereby gaining them maximum efficiency.
By Tony Black | Wednesday, April 22, 2009, 12:01 AM
The MTV Movie Awards will be hosted by Saturday Night Live funny man Andy Samberg this year.
Here is the first video promo for the show where rocker / comedian Jack Black and Michael Cera play proud papas whose son, Samberg, will be hosting the awards show.
Black and Cera are obviously there because of their upcoming movie together Year One (which could be really funny or REALLY awful). I expect more promo videos between now and the air date of the MTV Movie Awards (Sunday, May 31 at 9 p.m.) in which Black and Cera put in a couple plugs to their movie.
Do you think Samberg will make a good host? If you don’t know much about him, then you obviously haven’t been watching SNL for the last couple of years.
Samberg is always part of the show’s Digital Shorts which are generally the funniest skit of every episode. He, along with his creative friends, (they call themselves The Lonely Island) also writes a lot of material for SNL.
I think Samberg will work out quite well as the awards show’s host, especially if The Lonely Island is writing some of the presenters’ “witty” banter and skits.
Those Internet video geniuses at Hulu.com are working on an application that would allow users access to their collection of streaming videos on their iPhones.
Let me put it another way: iPhone users can now watch the latest episodes of their favorite TV shows from NBC and FOX the night after they air on television on their iPhone.
That’s right, kids. No more downloading it from iTunes and uploading it to your iPhone. Now you can simply watch your favorite shows FOR FREE without taking up memory on your iPhone.
So now you’re wondering why Apple would let such a thing happen since it would mean less TV show downloads from their iTunes store. And why would service provider AT&T be OK with giving users access to something which will take up loads of bandwidth?
To simply put it, Apple just wants you to buy an iPhone and AT&T just wants you to sign up for a service plan. They feel that adding Hulu to the mix will boost sales on both fronts.
Mobile video hasn’t taken off yet but I think it’s just because most streaming video sucks when it comes to quality. The folks at Hulu know all about quality so with the release of a Hulu iPhone app expect the use of mobile video to increase dramatically.
So, iPhone users, excited about this? I know I would be if I had an iPhone (I’m waiting for the rumored next model to be released this summer). Do you currently do a lot of video watching on your iPhone or other mobile device? Or would you rather use your archaic computer or DVR to watch television? That is so 21st Century…
Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears on TV together?
The Sun is reporting that Jessica Simpson wants Britney Spears to do a television show with her.
What would the show be about, you ask? Reportedly, it would be like Laverne and Shirley where they would live together and work at a Milwaulkee brewery.
Sources say Spears is interested, but will have to wait until after her tour for her latest album “Circus” is over before she can make any decision.
I don’t think I am wrong when I say that this show’s premiere would be one of the most watched in the history of the world. Who wouldn’t want to see the two of them on a sitcom? It would be like a twisted science experiment.
The sitcom aspect would take some fun out of the show. Reality TV is where a show staring the both of them belongs. Unscripted and full of drama.
Britney Spears after she shaved her head back in February 2007
Unfortunately, I just don’t see this happening. Spears has two kids to take care of and a weekly TV show on top of her music career would be too much for her to handle. We’ve seen what happens when she gets stressed…
So, will you watch this show if it comes to fruition? (Stupid question, of course you will) What kind of situations will these 2 crazy girls get into? Fighting over the same boyfriend? Will one be messy and the other super clean leading to conflicts over spilled milk? Oh the zany possibilities!
By Tony Black | Thursday, April 16, 2009, 12:00 AM
Hulu.com will offer a live stream of the newest trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at 9 p.m. EST (or follow the countdown timer below). You can watch it below thanks to Hulu’s awesomeness with embed-able videos.
After you watch it, be sure to comment below and tell me what you think about it. I will post another entry Thursday evening / early Friday morning sharing my own thoughts on the trailer.
By Tony Black | Wednesday, April 15, 2009, 12:00 PM
Fitness guru and Fairborn High School graduate Jackie Warner, best known for her reality TV show Work Out on Bravo!, will star in a new reality show titled Jackie’s Gym Takeover also on Bravo!
Jackie Warner talks with students during a question and answer session at Fairborn High School in January 2007.
Warner will visit various fitness centers and gyms and help “whip them into shape.” The premise is the same as that of Tabitha’s Salon Takeover, another Bravo! reality show (which I hope returns to Bravo! for a second season because Tabitha is a genius).
I have only caught a couple episodes of Work Out and it never really clicked with me. I know Jackie gets stressed out a lot running her fitness empire so I hope she can keep it cool while teaching other gyms to “keep it cool” (though, if she doesn’t, it will surely make for great television).
Will you be tuning in to watch Jackie’s Gym Takeover?
By Tony Black | Wednesday, April 15, 2009, 07:00 AM
According to multiple sources, Michael Ausiello is reporting that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles won’t be renewed for a third season.
It’s surely not a surprise since the show has had dismal ratings this season. Hopefully Fox will make a formal announcement of the show’s future soon so the writers can end the second season (if they haven’t already) with a series finale and not a season finale.
Zack and I own the first season on Blu-ray and tried to catch up before the second season began. We actually liked it, but it obviously wasn’t enough since we still haven’t finished watching season 1.
Do you think the rumors are true and the end is near for The Sarah Connor Chronicles? If they are unable to wrap up the show’s storyline in the finale, do you think they’ll make a movie to give the series a conclusion? Did you even watch the show? Why do you think the show had such poor ratings? Are people sick of the Terminator franchise? Does the failure of the TV shows spell doom for the upcoming Terminator: Salvation movie staring Christian Bale?
An attorney close to former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who plead not guilty Tuesday, April 14, to racketeering and fraud charges, says Blagojevich wants permission to leave the country to begin filming an NBC reality TV show titled “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!” in Costa Rica.
Here’s what NBC had to say:
“Based on the hit U.K. reality show, “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!” is a groundbreaking live series event premiering June 1 and stripped over four weeks in June. Ten celebrities of various backgrounds will be dropped into the heart of the Costa Rican jungle to face challenges designed to test their skills in adapting to the wilderness and to raise money for their favorite charities. Rod Blagojevich will be a participant on the show pending the court’s approval.”
That’s right, the ousted governor can’t go unless he gets permission from a federal judge.
Do you think the judge will let him go? Would you? If “Blago” is allowed to go to Costa Rica for the show, will you watch it?
Justin Timberlake will return to host Saturday Night Live for the 3rd time on May 9th.
Timberlake, whose appearances on the late-night sketch comedy show have produced some of the show’s most successful viral videos to date, will be joined by musical guest Ciara.
Sick of dealing with poor customer service, ridiculous prices or the weather having the ability to disrupt your television viewing experience? Zack and I were, so we decided to say goodbye to cable and satellite and hello to alternative viewing options.
Let’s face it, there are way too many “alternate viewing” options available to name them all, but here are the ones Zack and I find work best:
Free, over-the-air broadcasts You can watch all the broadcast channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CW, FOX). I could use this to watch some of my favorite shows: LOST, How I Met Your Mother, Heroes, Smallville, Ugly Betty, 30 Rock, The Office.
The benefits:
It’s free, minus the cost of purchasing an antenna
You can view the high-definition broadcast of each channel
Really good quality
The drawbacks:
Local stations put their news promos on your favorite TV shows whenever they get a chance so if the weather is bad outside, expect a continuous ticker about school closings to take up half the screen (though of course this is true when these stations are viewed via cable or satellite, as well)
There is no traditional DVR in this cable/satellite free world so you either have to watch it live or dust off the ole’ VCR *Note: Zack and I bought a device named EyeTV for our Mac computer which allows us to record TV shows off the antenna. EyeTV digitally records over-the-air broadcasts onto your Mac. You can watch it in a high quality form (better quality than Time Warner) or convert it to iPod or AppleTV formats (among others). The only downside is the large file sizes of each recording. Zack and I are very happy with it. EyeTV is our primary method for watching TV.
Network websites ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX all offer most of their shows on their websites.
The benefits:
It’s free
The drawbacks:
They only have the newest episodes online. In CBS’s case, I could only find one new episode of a show I wanted to watch online. So if you get more than 1 episode behind, you might out of luck
The quality is lacking. Since the shows are streaming, they don’t all offer high resolution viewing.
There are advertisements built into the videos. The amount of ads is minimal, however, compared to those of broadcast TV.
The sites can be hard to navigate and the interface for the video players is limiting. Full screen doesn’t always mean full screen.
Hulu.com Hulu offers streaming full episodes of news TV shows from NBC and FOX shows.
The benefits:
It’s free
They offer high quality versions for each video
Easy to use
The drawbacks:
There are advertisements built into the videos. The amount of ads is minimal, however, compared to those of broadcast TV.
They only offer new episodes of NBC and FOX shows. Given the excellent interface, it’d be nice if Hulu were able to license more content.
iTunes Apple’s iTunes offers a wide variety of TV shows new and old. New episodes are generally available the day after they air on TV. The is our secondary method for watching TV shows. We use it to watch shows which aren’t available through over-the-air broadcasts (like South Park, The Soup and Top Chef to name a few).
The benefits:
Wide selection. You can find almost anything to watch on iTunes, including movies.
Easy to use interface. You’ll have to download iTunes if you’re on a PC, but users of Apple products should find it already installed on their computer.
When you buy something on iTunes, you are downloading it to your computer so there is no lag or reduced quality like you could have with streaming media.
Since you own the episodes, you can re-watch them whenever you want
They have started offering HD versions of some TV shows and movies
You can move your purchases onto an Apple iPod or iPhone and watch them wherever you want
The drawbacks:
The cost. Most standard definition TV shows cost $1.99 while HD versions cost $2.99. Affordable, yes, but if I were to buy every show I watch off iTunes it would cost much more than Cable or Satellite.
If you don’t have an Apple iPod or iPhone and the show you purchased isn’t DRM free, then you can’t copy the episodes onto your portable media device (like a Zune … but really, who has one of those?)
Download time. An HD episode of a show can take quite a while to download, so if you are into instant gratification, this might not be the route for you.
File size. If you start buying a lot of TV shows through iTunes, be sure your computer’s hard drive has plenty of room. An HD episode of an hour long show (45 min. runtime) can take up around 1.5 GB on your hard drive.
Netflix Instant Viewing Netflix.com is always adding more and more titles to their “Instant viewing” library.
The benefits:
If you already have a Netflix account, instant viewing is free
It determines the quality of your viewings based on the strength of your Internet connection. Strong / fast connection = better quality
The drawbacks:
If you are not the primary Netflix account holder, you won’t have access to this feature
As far as I can tell, you can only watch TV shows which are currently on DVD, and even then it isn’t guaranteed to be available for instant viewing
It determines the quality of your viewings based on the strength of your Internet connection. Weak / slow connection = pour quality
Other “alternate viewing” options we have thought about trying:
This undated photo provided by Maersk Line Ltd. shows the Maersk Alabama. Somali pirates were holding the captain of the ship hostage, a day after bandits hijacked the U.S.-flagged vessel for several hours before 20 crew members overpowered them. The hijacking took place Wednesday April 8, 2009 several hundred miles off the coast of Somalia. (AP Photo/Maersk Line Ltd.)
The recent dramatic increase in piracy off the coast of Africa has made news headlines around the world and now Spike TV has partnered with the Emmy Award-winning reality production house 44 Blue Productions (“The True Story of Black Hawk Down,” “Lockup”) and Adam Friedman (“Vertical Ascent”) for production on the pilot “Pirate Hunters: USN” (working title), an up-close and behind-the-scenes look at the US Navy operation to end this deadly threat of piracy in the Gulf of Aden.
So do you think this pilot has been in the works for a while, or do you think they just whipped this together over the weekend? Could also have been an idea they tabled in the past and decided now would be a good time to move it into production.
I think it sounds like an interesting idea for a TV show. So many people think that pirates are a thing of the past but with the recent events in the news, this kind of show would be a perfect way to bring something relatively unknown to the publics attention.
If I still had cable, I might add this one to the DVR queue.
It’s surely not a surprise since the show has had dismal ratings this season. Hopefully Fox will make a formal announcement of the show’s future soon so the writers can end the second season (if they haven’t already) with a series finale and not a season finale.
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