'The Invisible'[2007] Review

This is the story of Nick Powell(Justin Chatwin is also filming for Dragonball he will be Goku) a student raised only by his mother, a woman with a "perfect" life that never shows her feelings. Nick is a senior student who dreams at leaving USA and going to London to become a writer. The other character, important to this story is Annie Newton(Margarita Levieva) a child with a short temper who lives in a broken home. Nick and Annie both lost one of their parents at and early age.
Nick's dreams are shattered when he is betrayed by his best friend Pete(Chris Marquette) in order to save his skin and when beaten to death by Annie, who though that Nick turned her in to the police. Abandoned in the woods Nick shortly realizes that he's "invisible" the others. Trying to get the attention of those who are searching for him he is confident that he is dead. Only he finds out he's not dead he's near death, but how can he lead the cops to his body if nobody hears him. Nobody? No. There is only one person who can hear his voice, Annie, the same person that almost killed him.
His quest is now to persuade Annie to tell the cops where she left his body. Will he succeed? Will he find his body? It worth seeing for yourselves.

'The Invisible'[2007] Trailer:

'Harsh Times'[2005] Review

I've seen this movie a few months ago, it was made in 2005, but I haven't heard of it until 2007, lack of publicity. This movie is directed by David Ayer the creator of: Training Day(2001) and the one who made the screenplay for: S.W.A.T.(2003) and The Fast and the Furious(2001). Some people told me that Harsh Times is "Training Day 2", because of the style and those who enjoyed Training Day sure will like to see Christian Bale(ex-Ranger Jim Luther Davis), Freddy Rodríguez(Mike Alonzo) and Eva Longoria Parker(as Sylvia).

The story starts with ex-Ranger Jim Davis who mets his best friend Mike "Miguel" Alonzo in order to have a few beers and to cruise around Los Angeles. Jim is hopping to be recruited in the L.A. Police Department. Jim seems to lose his minds, not being able to make distinction between reality and his memories from war. He becomes mad when he finds out that he was rejected from Los Angeles Police Department due failure of psychological test. He starts acting violent, gets involved in a few fights, robs some gangsters and drug dealer. Good news come fast and Jim finds out that he will be recruited by the Department of Homeland Security for a job in Columbia against a drug lord.

Because of Jim, Mike gets into a fight with his girlfriend Sylvia and tries to get a job to prove that he's not "good-for-nothing". The line that I like the most is: "You're crazy and you're dangerous! And my biggest nightmare is you with a badge!" when Sylvia is having a fight with Jim. So basically Jim is begging to lose his mind when he tries to kill his girlfriend, the same woman he wants to marry, because she told him that she is pregnant.

This drama is one of the best movie in which Christian Bale performed since Equilibrium(2002).

Trailer 'Harsh Times'[2005]:

'The Nines'[2007] Review

A few days ago John told me about "The Nines" and made me curious, so today I've saw it. And for 3/4 of the movie I was like: "What the hell is this?" I was not getting anything from the movie, although John told me the plot. First I thought it was the wrong movie, it was not the one that John was referring to. But soon pieces came together and at the end I could say: "It was a good movie!".
The main character is interpreted by Ryan Reynolds and actually this character is in three different roles. The main idea of the movie is that there are beings more powerful that humans, from a scale from 1 to 10 humans are number 7. God is the supreme being so it will be 10, and below God there are the nines, beings with a lot of power and that can travel between dimensions, and Gary/Gavin/Gabriel(Ryan Reynolds) is one of them. Only G is a junkie, his drugs are humans, he likes to spend time between them to make sure that they are ok. But this drugs turns against him, when the other nines come to take him back, in order to remember what he was. So because he spent so much time with the humans he started to feel something for one of them. But in order to become what he has forgotten he decides to live the humans behind.

Trailer "The Nines":

'Day Break'(2006) TV-Show Review

What if you will live your worst nightmare and what if you'll get trapped in that nightmare? Detective Brett Hopper(Taye Diggs) from Narcotics Division of Los Angeles Police Department, is accused for killing of state attorney Alberto Garza, being captured by the police he tries to explain that he's being framed. Next day when he wakes up he realizes that it's the same day over and over again. Brett discovers that the events that day change only if his actions change. In order to save his friends from getting killed and searching for evidence to prove his innocence Brett figures that he wasn't a good brother/partner/friend for those around him. Each day he knows it will be the same, but he doesn't know if he will wake to live tomorrow or it will live today forever. Each 'today' Brett discovers more dark secrets about people around him and in his run from the police, he receives help from his partner Detective Andrea Battle(Victoria Pratt), from Damien Ortiz(Ramon Rodriguez) his informant and from other people close to him.

'Day Break' it's a nice TV-Show, each episode will bring something new into Brett Hopper's life, in each episode Brett will try to fight against those who are framing him and who proved to be people without any hold-backs and very resourceful.

Day Break - Every Day Is Exactly The Same(music by Nine Inch Nails)



- more info about 'Day Break' on imdb.com
- more info about 'Day Break' on tv.com

'The Pretender'(1996) TV-Show

"There are pretenders among us. Geniuses with the ability to be become anyone they want to be. In 1963, a corporation known as the Centre isolated a young pretender named Jarod and exploited his genius for their research. Then, one day, their pretender ran away..."
This is how the story begins, with Jarod(Michael T. Weiss), a genius-boy abducted by 'The Centre' in order to perform simulations, that 'The Centre' sold to the ones with enough money to buy them, in order to kill/steal/destroy.
When Jarod finds out about the purpose of his simulations, he decides to run away from 'The Centre' and help others. His primary objective is finding his lost family, that he thought dead. Trying to run away from the tracking team conduced by Miss Parker(Andrea Parker) and the one that once was his mentor, Sydney(Patrick Bauchau), Jarod reveals the most hidden secrets of 'The Centre'.
Finding bits of information about his past, and members of his family, then losing them one by one Jarod is constantly on the run. Punishing the ones that deserve it, Jarod is more like a modern action hero, always with a step before everybody else he proves that he really is a genius. Story becomes complicated with each episode and for about 4 seasons Jarod is fighting the evil and 'The Centre' helping he will get reunited someday with his family. Although at the end of those 4 seasons things are unsure about what happened with Jarod, there are four more episodes from the miniseries "The Island of the Haunted" who try to reveal the secrets left unsolved in those 4 seasons of Jarod.
-more informations about 'The Pretender' TV-Show on tv.com
The way one of the seasons end:

'Dexter'(TV-Show) Review

His name is Dexter Morgan(Michael C. Hall) and his is the "hero" of the TV-Show 'Dexter'. I have to warn you, this is a movie with lot of blood. Dexter is a forensics expert with the specialty blood's pattern. As the first sight Dexter seems to be a normal person, too normal, spending time with his girlfriend Rita(Julie Benz), his co-workers and his sister Debra Morgan(Jennifer Carpenter), a young police officer recently transfered to Homicide Department. With so many people around him you could say that Dexter doesn't have time for anything else. But Dexter has a secret, when the night falls he brings justice to those who escaped justice. His own justice. Following 'Harry's Code' Dexter avoids random kills, and he only kills when he is convinced of the guilt of his victim. Dexter thinks that his thirst for blood comes when his childhood, when he witnessed the killing of his mother. Following the 'Code' and faking his feelings Dexter manages to stay invisible to the rest of the people, except for Sergeant James Doakes(Erik King) who believes that Dexter is hiding something. On each episode for two seasons Dexter discovers more about himself, about his pass. Some thinks that Dexter is a 'monster'(including himself) while other see him as a hero, doing the justice that the police couldn't do, killing the criminals. At the first I was skeptical, but after watching two episodes I was convinced, watching Dexter was a priority among TV-Shows from my list.

For more informations about the TV-Show I recommend:
-tv.com(episode list, trailers);
-Dexter's page on Showtime site;

'Dexter: Morning Routine'

Butch, one of my favorite artist

First time I've heard Butch's name was in 2005 at a concert, launch of Rapace album(a band from Hades Records Romania). He was working as a bartender in Griffins Club, place of the concert. We never talked face to face, someday maybe.
After 2005 I began hearing songs of known rappers featuring Butch and I liked his style. Calm with a nice flow and smart lyrics now I can say that Butch became fast my favorite Romanian MC. I haven't seen too much Hip-Hop concerts with Butch and I feel ashamed, due lack o time, but I promise I will try to repent for my sins and go to more Hip-Hop concerts, for Butch, for the move.

From what I've heard Butch's first album will come out on September 2008, the name of the album will be "Fiul Risipitor"(as in LUKE 15:11-32 the saying of the spending son). I just can't wait for the next concert where Butch will perform. I'll be there.

Here is a song from Butch, it's called "Noiembrie 64":

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

If you want to listen to more songs, go to Butch's profile on Myspace, or go and see his performance on stage at the concerts and remember: "Respect the work! Sustain the Hip-Hop move! Buy the albums! See the concerts!"

'I Am Legend'(2007) Review

What would you say, if you will turn to be the last man on Earth? What would you do, knowing you are the last chance humanity has? Would you go crazy, if after three years of struggling your only friend is you dog and you can exit your house only from dawn till dusk? At this questions must answer Robert Neville(Will Smith), a high ranked military, who wants to find a cure for the virus that has corrupted the world. The virus was initially created to cure cancer and soon spread into the whole world transforming the infected ones into zombies. After three years of loneliness Dr. Neville and his dog Sam are fighting their way through what's left of 2012's New York City. Neville is among those 1% of Earth's population immune to the virus. After three years from the outbreak he's lost all of his hope because of not coming close in finding the antidote for the virus, always reviewing the time he lost his wife and daughter during the evacuation of New York City population Neville seems to be near losing his mind when his best friend, the dog, Sam dies in his arms.

After losing Sam, the only thought that Neville has is to die taking with him as many zombies he can. In his attempt of "suicide" Neville is rescued by a young girl Anna(Alice Braga) who heard Robert Neville's radio broadcasting and came to New York City. Although Neville considers the zombies are not human and the only thing that matters to them is providing food, they seem to be extremely well organized and lead by the most powerful of them.

Because Anna was careless when she rescued Neville, zombies followed her home, they are ambushed by zombies and when everything seemed worthless Neville realizes that he found a cure for the disease, but he sacrifices in order others to live.

In 'I Am Legend' Will Smith performed a beautiful interpretation of his role, a very dramatic one, and although there have been several movies made on the subject of global infestation and zombies this was the one i liked the most. With a hand of actors, the film director Francis Lawrence(the creator of Constantine) succeeded in making an outstanding movie.

*And because it's 24 of December:

"Merry Christmas to all! Wherever you might be..."

'John Doe' (TV-Show) Review

The story of "John Doe"(played by Dominic Purcell which you know from Prison Break - a review of that TV Show will came later - and Blade Trinity) begins when John wakes up on an isolated island and he realize that he has knowledge about "anything in the world"(literally speaking) but he don't know one thing: "Who is he?".

Using his talent John Doe starts making money and enjoying the life in Seattle. Until one day as he watches a news report about a kidnapped girl, John Doe realizes that he is seeing the child in color(John is color-blind), thinking that the girl might have something to do with his unknown life he decides to help the police with the investigation. This is the start of beautiful collaboration between John Doe and the police force. While solving the impossible cases and saving people to life John Doe finds time to search for his past, posting ads on the internet asking if anyone knows anything about him. John plays in Digger's bar each night and the two of them become friends.

While searching for his life, not knowing if he was kidnapped by aliens who erased his memories, or if he is a product of a special research made by a secret organization, John Doe finds that "The Phoenix Order" is trying to capture him. As he is being chased by "The Pheonix Order" some branch of government is offering the help to John Doe, no knowing who to trust John refuses the help continuing his fight against "The Phoenix Order". His only two friends are detective Frank Hayes and lieutenant Jamie Avery, Karen Kawalski and Digger.

The only bad part is that "John Doe" TV-Show has only one season, because he was left unfinished, but I'm sure that there is a lot of people who want to see the end of the the show and to find out if John ever finds his family. There is also a petition so the show will continue. 26206 people already signed that petition, I hope FOX will decide to continue John Doe.

'This is England'(2006) Review

As it was expected, it's movie time review.
'This is England' made in 2006 directed by Shane Meadows. The time of the story is placed in England, year 1983, main character is a small boy named Shaun(Thomas Turgoose), a 12 year old boy that lives only with his mother and who's father died fighting in Falklands War. One day when the schools were breaking for the summer holiday, after Shaun has a fight at school with a kids that picks about Shaun's dad, he meets Woody(Joseph Gilgun) - a teenager charismatic Skinhead - who seems to like Shaun and take him under his wing. Woody and the rest of the gang embrace Shaun and treat him like one of their own. Shaun also likes his new friends and shortly after joining the group he becomes one of them by adopting the same haircut, same clothes and always hanging around with his new friends.

The situation changes when one night at one of their parties recently prison released Combo(Stephen Graham) - an old Skinhead - returns home. Once best friends Combo and Woody now divide the gang in two. Blaming England's economic woes, growing unemployment and post-war grievances on the influx of foreign minorities, Combo persuades Shaun and other members of the pack to make a stand, preserving England for the English. After attending a meeting of right-wing nationalists, Combo takes his new found gang of hooligans to threaten the local Pakistani community.

The end of the movies reveals Combo's emotional battles with loneliness and isolation. Combo's hate and envy overflows when one night, he turns his rage against the only black member of the gang, Milky(Andrew Shim). Combo's explosion of fury ends tragically with Milky's death which changes Shaun's viewpoint.

For those interested in more details about this movie:
- pictures from making "This is England";
- trailer for "This is England";
- imdb page for "This is England";
- official page for "This is England";

Quinzelle's Blog Review

I haven't heard about Quinzelle until a few days ago. When I've first entered on her website I was struck by something, something red, because the background is red, the text is red. I was expecting to be just another website made in a hurry so she could post her thoughts, I was wrong so that's why I owe her(and Joker) some apologies!

Quinzelle website is not maintained by only one person(Quinzelle), there is second one named Joker. So Quinzelle and Joker are two complementary sides of a woman and a man. According to what Quinzelle wrote on her about section of the website there are two ways the website could be seen as:
-from "her" perspective;
-from "his" perspective;

Now to get back to the blog configuration, as it can be seen from the first time you enter Quinzelle's blog you will notice that there are no ads on her website. So everything she writes it's for pleasure and not for money. The blog is structured this way:
-a banner in the upper side of the page;
-after the banner comes a bar with four links(Home, Quinzelle&Joker-about, Pictures with Quinzelle&Joker, Contact);
-in the left side a column with categories and links to other blogs;
-in the right side a search bar, latests posts, latest comments, archive of posts, login section, how many people are online, and a calendar;
-in the middle between left and right column came the posts(a thing I like is that the post is not entire shown on the main page, you will have to click on the post to open it and to read it all);
-another thing I've observed on Quinzelle&Joker's page is that you can collapse the comments with only one click on them, but the default setting is so you can see all the comments when opening a post.

At the end, after watching the site one more time, I think that this website is the work of Joker, if I'm wrong I ask that Quinzelle to forgive me. :)

The worst thing is that the website is only in Romanian and not English(it's kinda hard to make a site bilingual) so because Quinzelle's site is only in Romanian I'll have to make another review in Romanian on my other blog on 360. :)

*As a later edit: I've found out that the website is the work of Quinzelle. And Quinzelle told me that she is proud of her work. Well, she should be. :)

Review my LCD Monitor

Well... I guess it is time to review my 19" LCD Monitor, it's more than a week since I've bought it. My 19" LCD Monitor is LG model L1919S-SF(it is silver).
I will start with technical informations and continue with my own opinion after that.

LG L1919S-SF Technical Informations:

Size of display: 19 inches (yeah...big...too big for me)
Max. Resolution: 1280 x 1024 (that's what I'm using now, on 75Hz)
Pixel Pitch: 0.294 x 0.294 (I've never measured the size of pixels, so it might be true)
Brightness: 300 cd/㎡ (well...if they've put that question mark there...)
Contrast Ratio:1400:1(that's due new technology used Digital Fine Contrast, I'm not using it to the full potential, I'm a vampire...)
Viewing Angle: 160/160< (that might be true, I'm only standing in the front of the display)
Response Time: 8ms (some websites say it's 5 other say 8)
Display Colors: 16.7M (never counted them)
Horizontal Frequency: 30 ~ 83 kHz (maybe it's never displayed, nowhere)
Vertical Frequency: 56 ~ 75 Hz (maximum it's 75 Hz)
Video Signal: RGB Analog (maybe)
Sync type: Separate, Composite, SOG (don't know, might be true :) )
...

You can find more technical information on LGe.com. Now let me tell you about my experience with this display.
After I've disconnected my old LG monitor model 500E Studioworks(15") and plugged in my new LG L19191S-SF. And I've just realized that 19" are just too much for me. At first I thought that I could never capture the entire display with my eyes. Eventually you'll familiarize with the display. And when you'll see a 17" you'll say: "wow! so small!". The colors looks ok, the contrast is nice. You'll get some time to set you monitor to optimal settings. I recommend you "Auto Image Adjustment" it the button labeled the same as "Enter" key, first button above power button.
Auto resolution after you exit from a game where you played in a lower resolution work really good.
A note from one(1) to ten(10) would be eight(8).

*As a little joke: everywhere I was looking for more information I was receiving different infos, some were saying 1400:1 contrast, others 2000:1, some were saying TCO99 others TCO03. But the best part was that the Romanian LGe site had the wrong picture for this monitor. So after installing it and entering on Romanian LGe site I had a shock: "Did they gave me a wrong monitor?"*

Yahoo!'s new feature "My Yahoo!"

As you may or may not know Yahoo! is testing it's new service: "My Yahoo!". I've just discovered "My Yahoo!" a few days ago, when I was trying to add some feeds to my 360 blog.
What I was trying to do(and I'm still trying) on my 360 blog(and that is add the feeds for some of my favorite webpages), I've done it with "My Yahoo!" in a few seconds. This new service from Yahoo! seems to be very handy, you can hear about:
sports(by http://sports.yahoo.com),
weather(by http://weather.yahoo.com),
tv(by http://tv.yahoo.com),
stocks(by http://finance.yahoo.com),
shops(by http://shops.yahoo.com),
music(by http://music.yahoo.com),
local infomations(by http://local.yahoo.com),
your favorite comic(mine is Garfield) and you can also share that page with your friends.

Also you can add your feed and you can read you favorite articles from your page. But the thing I've liked the most was: "You can set and alert for each feed and you can receive it by mail, phone or as an alert on your Y! Messenger." So you will always know when something new is on. So practically you'll be the first to read the news.
Yahoo! is still testing this service, but I think they will have a lot of success with it. :)
Good job Yahoo! you've finally done something that will come in handy after Yahoo! Messenger(also accessible as an web application with Yahoo! Web Messenger , I think My Yahoo! will be the next outbreak.