According to DPreview:

The EOS 550D redefines the boundaries of Canon’s consumer DSLR range, incorporating technologies and features more commonly found in semi-professional DSLRs into the compact, lightweight body favoured by consumers. With a newly-developed 18 Megapixel (MP) APS-C CMOS sensor, coupled with Canon’s advanced DIGIC 4 image processor and the ability to shoot Full HD movies, photography enthusiasts are empowered to explore new levels of creativity.

Yes, full HD and an ISO range of 100 – 6400 (expandable to 12800) means you’ll get a lot mileage from scenes with natural (often poor) lighting.

The camera itself is too new, so the previews have been based on pre-production units but I’m pretty excited!

Cate Blanchett as Maid Marian? All my doubts are suddenly washed away by a torrent of relief!

So if you’re renting it (or downloading it), make sure you pay special attention to Ethan Hawke and Maggie Q. Ethan’s monologue is a treat!

A German movie about autocracy (dictatorship)? Sure, sign me up. There’s just one thing that would make this movie better… set it on a German U-boat during WWII. Alas, we can’t have every German movie on a U-boat like my favorite Das Boot.

The premise of the movie is quite simple – take a group of high-school students, dress them uniformly, drill them, and voila, you end up with a true brown (black) shirt movement from 1930s (a.k.a. Fascism). The movie is based on a book that is based on a true story that happened in California, not Germany. The moral of the story is that it could happen anywhere with the right ingredients.

In terms of filmmaking, the movie is very solid. I could imagine it done with an even smaller budget in true Dogma style, without losing much of its appeal. It’s definitely worth checking out.

He takes it to a whole new level for the Prince of Persia. The Jerry Bruckheimer’s production seems to be of epic scope indeed, since Jake has an year to get in character: note the hair, it’s not a wig (I think).

I find it amazing that someone in Hollywood has “underwritten” transferring Prince of Persia to the big screen – as a summer blockbuster too.

Effectively, this is a $150-million one-way bet on video games. Uwe Boll shot video game movies in Canada for 10M and barely broke even. Some even claim he did it for tax purposes, as German investors could write off the losses as an “investment in art.”

I can tell you right now what the NEXT game movie blockbuster is going to be. Sam Raimi was attached as Director to a World of Warcraft movie. Blizzard makes a billion a year in revenues from their MMO, I’m certain they can fork up $150 million.

How to increase the Canon 7D dynamic range (Tutorial) from Luka.

Wired announced that Robert Rodat (the screenwriter of Saving Private Ryan) has been working on a draft for Director Sam Raimi.

That’s my first concern, when hearing about a game-based movie – the script. Uwe Boll has created a dozen of infamous movies with mediocre (putting it mildly) scripts.

I still think a Diablo horror movie based on Diablo will work MUCH, much better for Blizzard but it’s pretty obvious they want to exploit WoW’s popularity while it lasts. I hope they want to release Diablo 3 first to spark up Diablo’s popularity.

The book describes in detail the development of nonlinear editing (NLE) and computer graphics. The book is written from his perspective of working with Lucasfilm and Pixar.

I think this could be a valuable tool for independent filmmakers too, after all, the cost of doing computer effects has been falling steadily.

According to the NYT: “Roman Polanski lost his first bid to win his freedom Tuesday as the Swiss Justice Ministry rejected an appeal by the 76-year-old to be immediately released from prison, an official said.”

Galli told The Associated Press that the risk was too great for the government to accept bail or other security measures in exchange for the release of the filmmaker who is wanted by U.S. authorities for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl.

Polanski was apprehended Sept. 26 as he arrived in Zurich to receive an award from a film festival. Authorities in Los Angeles consider him a convicted felon and a fugitive, and Switzerland says there has been an international warrant out on him since 2005.

His legal representatives are also asking Switzerland’s highest criminal court to free Polanski. Galli said the Justice Ministry has submitted a letter to the tribunal explaining why it opposes release even on bail.

So the Oscar-winning director remains in jail with very little chance to get himself off the hook (again, that NYT story). At the time of his arrest he was working on The Ghost, a movie starring Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor.

And on the surface, you could say that Warcraft and Spiderman aren’t that different. Both are cartoony and appeal to nerds.

However, I can’t imagine what a scrip meeting will be like … in Blizzard’s Global domination HQ. Sam will want to limit the protagonists to a reasonable trio, with one being a love interest and one being the comic relief (see Conan). Blizzard will argue that a party of three will get nowhere even if they have been twinked up. Plus, PVP isn’t balanced in groups of three.

A Diablo movie on the other hand will be Sam Raimi’s dream come true. After all, he made his name with the Evil Dead (at least in my book). Total nightmare, one protagonist… hell, he could use the already excellent Diablo 2 cinematics as a jumping point!

Worst of all, when the Warcraft movie gets awful reviews, Uwe Boll will be telling everyone that he was the first to come up with the recipe for turning a good game into an awful movie.

What an amazing career – spanning 60 years! Rest in peace.

Conan The Barbarian
Amazing soundtrack and little dialogue to distract you from the imagery/music

Das Boot
The only war movie that runs close to 4 hours and I still feel it was cut short

The Engish Patient
Walter Murch took an year to patch this movie together and I’m still confused after seeing it for the fifth time.

Lawrence of Arabia
Every time someone tells me I’m the most arrogant person they know, I check out Lawrence to make sure I’m still a dwarf (albeit standing on the shoulders of a giant)

American Movie
I think of Mark whenever I feel I’m giving 110% and still failing miserably.

The Producers
When I was a kid I dreamed of meeting Mel Brooks because he’ll recognize me as his rightful heir… the time is running out

What’s your reason for viewing a movie again and again?

I have seen part one and it was typical teenage fair. In typical Michael Bay tradition, he amped it up in the sequel. The most obvious result is that Megan Fox is SO sexy, it hurts my eyes.

That’s her at the LA Premiere of Transformers… The only way for Michael Bay to go further will be to have Megan Fox go topless in T3!

• is born in Austria (check)
• has been a pro bodybuilder (check)
• probably sports a thick Austrian accent (check)

I guess the list could go on and on. I could imagine someone from Nu Image is having a DUH moment right now. They’ve looked everywhere but the one place where Arnolds are born and bred.

The movie is based on a memoir by British writer Toby Young. So you could say, this is a TRUE story. Or rather, it would’ve been, if the the script writer didn’t change the memoirs almost completely… which is an irony itself.

The plot is straight-forward: Sidney Young, a small time journalist, goes to New York City. His task is to cover the world of celebrities. In order to keep his job, he has to do a favorable article about Sophie Maes (sexy Megan Fox).

Sindney is attracted to Sophie and all the glitz. However, when Sophie is high and he has a shot, he … well, misses.

The movie has a few funny moments but it goes too many times from romantic comedy to satire and back again. The only redeeming feature is that we get to see Megan Fox wet and almost nude.

The movie is definitely low-budget (rumor puts it at less than two million) and some of the scenes can be improved with better lighting or better camera locations.

One of the most talked about “features” is the lead character, a high-end escort by the nickname Chelsea, who is played by real-life pornstar Sasha Grey.

Now, I can understand the attraction of a A-star shooting a hot, sex scene. But I don’t think it works the other way around. Sasha’s face is flat, her tone is monotonous… and frankly, she’s not even sexy.

Shockingly, Sascha is the only professional actress in the movie … the others could be people from the street (or Soderbergh’s less-known friends).

The majority of the scenes deal with Sasha Grey listening to a confession from a “boyfriend” paying for the girlfriend experience. It’s incredibly boring and doing it over and over again doesn’t make it better.

In short, the movie could only be viewed as a sort of an exercise for Soderbergh. If you’re interested in Sasha, there are better “titles” out there. If you’re interested in a coherent movie with at least one professional actor, same thing applies.

Tobruk is a solid war movie. I’m not using the term drama here because it’s next to non-existent. Some reviewers have attributed it to lack of action scenes. Not so.

Tons of TNT have apparently been used to recreate the battle of Tobruk. Yet, I couldn’t care less if anyone from the section (about 10 men) dies or lives.

Part of the reason is we don’t get a lot of background on them, e.g. protagonist Liebermann wants to open a bookstore when the war ends…

This kind of shallow characterization is one reason why the movie seems to go for hours, when in fact, it’s just a bit over the bare minimum (at 100 minutes).

I’m not going to ruin the “suspense” by describing the last scene but it felt anti-climatic and cliché.

To sum up, the production values are what sets this movie apart. When you look at some of the desert cinematography, you feel this could be The English Patient or Lawrence of Arabia. Unfortunately, the similarities end there.