Shmee.Me

October 22, 2013October 22, 2013

Shmee Watches Pacific Rim On Blu-Ray!

It is no secret that I love Guillermo del Toro‘s Pacific Rim, so it should has come as no surprise that I am now in possession of the Blu-Ray. I am not going to review the movie again, but I am going to give my thoughts on the disk(s).

The technical presentation of the film is great! Much like Speed Racer this is a movie that you can show your friends to show off how great your TV is. There is almost no grain, and the colors really pop. The only downside of the film is that no matter how large your TV is, it isn’t as big as a theater, and this film demands big screens, so the film is a little worse on my 60″ Samsung than it was in theaters. It is still awesome, but just not as awesome.

The special features are cool. They are full of bloopers, deleted scenes, artwork and storyboards, and my personal favorite, excerpts from Guillermo del Toro‘s notebook along with some video of del Toro explaining what we are looking at. It is a great collection of extras that are actually worth watching.

If you did not see the film in theaters, please see the film now that it is on home video. If you love Pacific Rim like I do, then this Blu-Ray set is a must own.

October 21, 2013October 21, 2013

Good News Everyone! Army of Darkness 2 Is Coming!

As daily readers of my site know, I am a big fan of the Evil Dead/Army of Darkness franchise, and some big news dropped today! They are making Army of Darkness 2, and it stars the one and only Bruce Campbell! I am not sure how it will connect with the new Evil Dead movies that they are making, but they are promising a crossover of some sort, so we will see. If you want all the info that dropped you can find it here.

This has just shot up my must see list of movies. I can’t wait to see Bruce and Co. hamming it up for Sam Raimi. I get all tingly just thinking about it.

October 18, 2013July 7, 2015

Shmee Picks Wonder Woman!

I decided that since I keep crying about Warner Brothers not making a Wonder Woman movie, that I would make their job easier by picking Princess Diana of Themyscira myself. Here are my top five picks:

5: Ashley Greene

I have to admit that I mostly just picked her because she has the look. She has been the in the awful Twilight movies, but I won’t hold that against her because she looks like Lynda Carter’s daughter. The fact that she is young and unknown works in her favor, so she could wear the red, white, and blue for a long time.

4: Kate Beckinsale

She has been a leading female action star for a long time now, and that might make her too obvious for this role, but movie goers would believe that she could beat up the bad guys while in the uniform, and that is a good thing.

3: Gina Carano

She is an MMA fighter turned actress known mostly for her role in Haywire. Unlike the other women on this list, she can beat up bad guys in real life, so being the first lady of super heroes should be pretty easy for her.

2: Jaime Alexander

Jaime already has a good job as a super hero as one of Thor’s side kicks, Sif, but she has proven that she could take on the fight by herself, so why not cross enemy lines from Marvel and star as one of the best super heroes period for DC. She has the look and the acting chops, so she would be a slam dunk.

1: Gina Torres

The other actresses on this list may have the classic Wonder Woman look, but Gina has the feel and grandeur of Wonder Woman down. I would feel very safe if I knew she had come from Themyscira to protect the mortals. Plus as a geek favorite, she would get butts in seats which would be important to executive types.

That is my list, and I am sure you disagree with me, so I would love to have you post your list women to be the Amazing Amazon.

October 17, 2013October 17, 2013

Shmee Hangs Out With The Emerald Knights!

Green Lantern: Emerald Knights is an animated DC Universe movie that was released directly to video. DCU has been making quite a name for themselves in the comic book world by releasing good well told movies. This movie is about the Green Lantern Corps.

The movie is actually six short stories told by Hal Jordan (Nathan Fillion) to his new recruit Arisia Rrab (Elisabeth Moss) as they get ready for a battle against the massive Krona. The stories are meant to calm her as well as give her some history about the Corps. The stories are: The First Lantern, Kilowog, Laira, Mogo Doesn’t Socialize, Abin Sure, and Emerald Knights which is the fight against Krona.

The stories are all good, but like any time there is an anthology it can hurt the flow of the film. It does serve as a good way to get a foot in the Green Lantern universe, and it is way better than the Green Lantern feature film that Warner Brothers released. Just like Wonder Woman the DCU guys should be in charge of the Green Lantern feature films as well.

The voice actors do a good job, and anything with Nathan Fillion gets my approval. Elisabeth Moss does a good job playing the slightly overwhelmed new recruit facing almost certain death. Though as they say in the Corps, everyone dies.

This is not the best DCU movie they have released, but it is still worth a watch if you like the Green Lantern, or just want to lean more about the Green Lantern Universe. DCU continues to turn out good work, and Warner Brothers continues to ignore it, but at least fans are getting to see good DC Hero films. If you have an Amazon Prime account, this movie is free for streaming, so it is worth a look.

October 16, 2013October 16, 2013

Playing with Windows Phone 8 GR3

When Microsoft announced GR3 for Windows Phone 8, I thought I was going to have to wait forever to get it. It always takes months to get through carrier approval, but they did something a little different this time, and decided if you wanted to void your warranty, you could go ahead and upgrade now.

To do so all you have to do is sign up for a free developer account here. Then download the Windows Phone 8.0 SDK here to register you phone for development (you will need a Windows 8 PC or like me a VM in VirtualBox with USB pass through), and then download and activate this app on your phone. Once all that is done, just check for updates on your phone and let it update. Though since there is no uninstall you may want to take a backup before you install it.

Much like the last update, this is mostly for future phones with bigger screens and more cores, but there are a few things for us current Windows Phone users. The ones I care about are:

1) This biggest addition is an ‘X’ on the apps in the multitasking screen, so you can quickly close multiple apps. This is a very welcome addition.

2) Custom ringtones for text messages: Windows Phone has had custom ringtones for forever, but finally you will be able to apply them to texts, and different ringtones to different text contacts.

3) Driving mode: this turns off everything on your phone except Bluetooth and GPS apps to keep you from playing with your phone while driving. It can also send custom texts and messages on your behalf saying you are busy and you will get right back to them.

4) Rotation lock: so the phone doesn’t keep changing between landscape and portrait.

You can get all the changes here, but I think if you have a Windows Phone then getting the new update is a no brainer. It seems stable and the improvements make the phone better. The biggest bonus is that once you install the app from above you will get all future Windows Phone updates as they come out, not when your carrier decides you can have them, and that is a very good thing.

I can’t wait to get my hands on Windows Phone 8.1 sometime next year. My phone is ready.