Best of 2009: Movies February 2, 2010
Posted by David Card in Media.Tags: Academy Awards
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The Oscar noms are out. Here are my faves of 2009, some of which actually got nominated:
- Up in the Air. Sweet and sad and funny: snappy patter from great cast.
- Red Cliff. Big spectacle; LOTR-class battle scenes.
- It Might Get Loud. Charming doc about guitar heroes; Jimmy Page is still god, er, the devil.
- Star Trek. Tons of fun even without added nostalgia bonus.
- Avatar. Justifies 3D and CGI: just let it wash all over you.
I gave all of these 3.5 stars (out of five), but I probably enjoyed Star Trek and the documentary the most. Last year, I gave one 4-star rating (Dark Knight, of course, I concede that I am a nerd), and only two 3.5’s.
To get to a Top Ten, here’s the next five:
- The Hurt Locker. With a better script you’d have a really taut, heroic-though-still-ambiguous, classic.
- District 9. Killer premise and technical execution that doesn’t quite deliver on the morality play. Or was that satire?
- Where the Wild Things Are. Very, very smart re-imagining with convincing kid’s-eye view.
- Crazy Heart. Riddled with cliches, but, hey, what do you expect: it’s a movie about country music!
- Inglourious Basterds. Some great scenes, but the whole thing barely hangs together. And it’s not nearly funny enough to justify its indulgences.
You can see that, as usual, I have no problem with genre flicks. You know, what used to be B-movies, before they cost $200 million. Along with District 9, Paranormal Activity (also 3 stars) showed just how much fun you can have making a B-movie on a B- or even C-movie budget.
I like movies for grown-ups, too; they just don’t make all that many of them. Unfortunately, I don’t think on-demand, Hulu, or iTunes is going to help much.
Here’s the list of 2009 box office champs. At least the Top 15 has one chick flick (The Blind Side: a chick flick disguised as sports move – great for dates! 2 stars), and it and three of the franchises have books behind ‘em. And if you look close, you’ll see there’s a raunchy comedy mixed in there with all the cartoons.
Late-Night Lessons Learned? January 21, 2010
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Act II of the latest soap opera over late-night talk seems to be drawing to a conclusion. (Haven’t we seen this before?) Act III concludes when Conan O’Brien shows up on Fox — more likely FX — or Comedy Central, I guess. The action was fun, in a nasty, massive Hollywood ego-puffing sort of way, but have we learned anything?
David Carr’s New York Times piece suggests talkshows were old-school search engines, summing up the day’s highlights as we drifted off to sleep. As such, they’re unnecessary now, replaced by online, on-demand substitutes.
David Letterman disagrees. He proposes that there’s room for everybody, about 4 minutes in to this very funny bit. Maybe, as the Wall Street Journal says, the lessons are just in succession planning.
Always a maverick, Mark Cuban thinks NBC’s failed attempt to move Jay Leno into prime time was a ballsy attempt to address the crazily out-of-whack economics of network TV.
I don’t disagree, but then I wonder why no one’s asking NBC chief Jeff Zucker why it didn’t work. At the time, he said NBC’s lower ratings would be more than compensated by its lower cost of production. Leno’s ratings were better at 10PM than they had been at 11:30, and though they were pretty shabby compared to big 10PM hit dramas, they were in line with what NBC expected. That should have resulted in a profitable, cheaper-to-produce strip for NBC. Did it? Or did advertisers pay even less? Or did the audiences lost by local affils from Leno’s weaker 10PM lead-in kill the experiment? Or was it the additional audience going to CBS and ABC at 10, not to mention at 11:30? (Letterman was killing Conan where Jay had previously been number one.)
So what should Conan do next? Neither Fox, ABC or cable is going to pay him like NBC did, but I suppose a $30 million buy-out can tide you over for a while. I don’t think any real pundits has suggested he go online/digital-only, though I think I saw some reader comments to that effect. That’s a bad idea; the money’s not there yet. But wherever he ends up, he should follow James McQuivey’s advice to Oprah and accommodate the new media, if not optimize for them.
Happy Birthday, Dr. King January 17, 2010
Posted by David Card in Media.Tags: Martin Luther King
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Best of 2009: Music January 13, 2010
Posted by David Card in Digital Home & Personal Tech, Media.Tags: top ten
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It may not be in time for Christmas, but here’s my “best of” list. You’ve been warned.
I didn’t make as many new discoveries this year as last, but for some reason, I bought a lot more. Probably had something to do with getting a new Mac with more disk space, and even more to do with Amazon’s $5 album sales.
I bought about 65 albums (and only a few singles), for prices ranging between $1.99 and $11 or $12. My mix was about 40% new versus back catalog – same as last year - and only 15% physical versus digital. My total spending and digital changeover rates are way above that of the normal American. Count me among the 15% or so of US adults that Jupiter calls “aficionados” – heavy spenders ($300) and active in digital music activities. And now, in no particular order:
Best Albums of 2009
- Girls “Album” – Eclectic alternative hit-machine
- The Decemberists “Hazards of Love” – Prog-rock concept album
- Wilco “Wilco” – A little mellow but very catchy
- Phoenix “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix” – French hipster pop
- Tegan and Sara “Sainthood” – Canadian post-feminist pop
- Ben Harper “White Lies for Dark Times” – (Mostly) rockin’ blues
- U2 “No Line on the Horizon” – Not a bad comeback for the nth time
- Dead Weather “Horehound” – Indie super-group
- Muse “The Resistance” – Picking up the mantle of…Queen?
- Japandroids “Post-Nothing” – Fierce
I almost squeezed in We Were Promised Jetpacks’ “These Four Walls” – how could you not love that name? – but they’re a little too much like Frightened Rabbit wannabes OD-ing on U2. Chuck Prophet’s “Let Freedom Ring” is also a great rootsy effort. And dear god, I am turning indie, aren’t I?
Devices and Platforms: Special-Purpose vs. General-Purpose January 8, 2010
Posted by David Card in Digital Home & Personal Tech, Media.Tags: Amazon, Apple, devices, gadgets
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Two articles in the Journal today – both CES summings up, on e-books and on Internet TVs – along with that looming product announcement from Cupertino, got me thinking about the pros and cons of general-purpose versus special-purpose devices and platforms. When you’re evaluating the evolution of things like PCs vs. netbooks vs. tablets vs. e-books vs. game consoles vs. TV sets vs. smartphones – you’re all doing that, right? – don’t forget a few planks for your frameworks:
- General-purpose doesn’t always beat special. See consoles vs. PCs for gaming
- “Open” doesn’t always beat closed-loop. Ditto, and TV set-tops and phones, so far
- GP advantages: flexibility, leveraging existing bases of apps or other ecosystem elements
- Special-purpose advantages: optimization
Let’s dwell on that special-purpose device optimization angle for a few bullets:
- User interface/experience: a Tivo is a better video program guide than a PC, but it’s pretty lousy for managing your music collection. And look how well Windows works on phones
- Cost: some things are better off without the Wintel tax, and hardware and software licensing and costs can aim for optimal tradeoffs
- Form-factor: some things need to fit in your pocket; and do you really need an 11″ color screen to read a book?
Does this mean I think e-books will beat tablets or smartphones? Not necessarily. I’ve been a Kindle user for over 18 months, and I’m a huge fan. I occasionally use my iPhone to read Kindle books, but will never default that way. But I doubt $250 e-books are ever going to be mainstream consumer products. And as James McQuivey tweeted earlier, there’s still a lot of innovation coming.
Likewise, Michael Gartenberg correctly tweeted that we should all remember that e-books aren’t just about devices, but their surrounding ecosystems. Regular readers will remember the old “platform” definition.
JupiterResearch defines a “platform” as a set of core technologies and services that other applications and services, from other companies, can use. These core technologies often include application-programming interfaces, file formats, user interface elements, and, these days, syndicated Web services. Google extends the notion of platform to include revenue streams or business models – for example, paid search and keyword-based contextual advertising – that partners can plug into. Platforms spawn economic ecosystems and feedback loops, and are solidified by habitual usage. Successful ecosystems must offer value to all links: user, partner, and platform provider. Paid search epitomizes that kind of win/win/win situation.
Here’s a behind-the-paywall link to an oldie but goodie on Google’s platform approach back in the day. And Barry Parr applied the concept to understanding online media networks.
What do you think? Am I all wet on the value of specialization?
Hello Again, World January 2, 2010
Posted by David Card in Media.2 comments
This blog’s going live again. I’ve left Forrester and will use this space for commentary on media new and old and whatever else seems fit. “Best of” lists coming soon. See you in the funnypapers.
Andreessen & Frank Black: Separated at Birth? August 14, 2009
Posted by David Card in Uncategorized.add a comment
Frank Black, Marc Andreessen – can you tell the difference?
Great Guitar Hero Ad for March Madness March 29, 2009
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Quite amusing. Contextually-integrated, as we say in the bidness.
Battlestar Galactica Series Finale March 22, 2009
Posted by David Card in Media.Tags: Adama, BSG, review
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Adama: We’ll be in too close for nukes. The same thing goes for missiles. No, this is going to be strictly a gun battle — like two old ships on the line slugging it out at point-blank range. I want the gun captains to do their job and start firing immediately. And to continue to fire until they run out of ammo. And then…I want them to start throwing rocks.(smiles)
I liked the return to old-war-movie-cliche bits. I like the fact that human (Cylon?) nature and depravity screwed things up. I liked the resolution to the opera house. I’m pretty okay with Starbuck’s fate, and with Baltar’s, but way, way less satisfied with Cavil’s. And I liked the very “end.” But I’m very concerned about the whole hippy thing, and the fate vs. free will vs. religion vs. destiny vs. evolution cop-out. On balance, it was a little like LOTR 3.
There, I think I delivered my opinion without any major spoilers.
