Sherlock (2009) – s1e1

Sherlock: A Study In Pink -- This image may only be used for publicity purposes in connection with the broadcast of the programme as licensed by BBC Worldwide Ltd & must carry the shown copyright legend. It may not be used for any commercial purpose without a licence from the rights holder. © Hartswood Films Ltd 2009

A new TV series based on the well known character Sherlock Holmes and the respective books written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I am not yet sure if I like or not this new Sherlock incarnation. It takes some time to digest. Sherlock is too young, we are talking about modern London, with cars, cell phones, computers and all that.

If you read the books, you will notice that the story is not exactly as it is shown here. There are some new deductions, there are new characters, there are some changes in the story (big changes, I would say). I can’t recall exactly the original Study in Pink, so I do not know if the changes are because of the new era where the action occurs, or if directors just wanted to change the story.

Final complain: Sherlock talks too fast, subtitles goes fast as well. Hard to keep up for non native speakers…

The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008)

The X -Files: I want to believe

This afternoon was time for The X-Files, I want to believe. I was never much a fan of the series. Probably because when it started in the TV, in Portugal, I was young and probably afraid of the unknown. In any case, I wanted to see this movie to redeem myself.

What I liked on this movie was that Mulder and Scully weren’t after the paranormal guy, but were after a common human killer. So, where are the X-Files? Well, this time they used the paranormal guy to reach the killer.

About the movie, I can complain of some dead scenes, with Mulder and Scully talking. They were not many, but started to bore me a little.

Final vote of 8 in 10.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)

Ice Age 3 - Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Today was cartoons day. Ice age 3 (hope I am counting them correctly) is great. Personally, better than the first, better than the second. Why? Not so much drama, much more action, much more fun. And, of course, Scrat is there, running around with his love… the acorn (nut).

Classification in IMDB? I am in doubt whether to give it the maximum classification. Yeah, I will…

Zatoichi (2003)

Zatoichi

To change a little from Hollywood movies, this one being original from Japan (as far as I could understand). About the movie, the story is well told, with some returns to the past to understand characters histories. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to understand the full history from Zatoichi, the main character. Nevertheless, the movie is well done and with nice action scenes. Also typical from this kind of movies, there is some excess of blood around. No, not complaining about the amount of deaths, but complaining about the quantity and the pressure of blood that the producers think is inside the human body.

A final remark, at least four calm scenes, with music and choreography. While the first two are nice two watch, as a group of workers work, and a group of children play at the rhythm of the music. The third moment, with people constructing an house is not that good and, the final dance shows the director was completely out of the mind trying to find anything to make the movie bigger…

Voted 7 in 10.

Shrek Forever After (2010)

Shrek Forever After

Today I went to the cinema to watch Shrek Forever After, the fourth Shrek movie. I was expecting it to be a plain 2D session but, unfortunately, it was a 3D one. Unfortunately because I do not like to be with the glasses (specially because I use glasses as well), second because it causes headaches and finally, because the 3D was not really needed in the movie. The 3D effects are irrelevant for the movie. Unless there aren’t other options, I will keep with my old 2D movies.

Regarding the movie, nothing greatly new. Some funny moments. But nothing really comparable with the first movie, that was joke after joke, laugh after laugh. 6 in 10, in IMDB.

Kick-Ass (2010)

Hit Girl @ Kick Ass Movie

Today I watched Kick-Ass, and before anything, I would like to give my compliments to Chloe Moretz (the actress in the photo) that would teach a lot on acting to most of Portuguese actors. Very nice (and I am not talking on the action parts, where stunts and special effects help a lot).

Second, I wasn’t expecting much of the movie. That might have helped. I was expecting a parody to super-heroes. It is not exactly that, and the story, while easy to predict, is nice to follow. Voted 9 in 10.

Before finishing, Lyndsy Fonseca is a nice girl. Very hot.

Samsung Blue Earth – Review

As I posted earlier, I bought a Samsung Blue Earth. You will find out that it is also known as S-7550 and GT-7550. When trying to know its specification, try any site in the web, but run from Samsung website. Its website specifications for this mobile phone are wrong. As a simple example, they state it doesn’t have WiFi, while it has.

The box contains the minimum. A quick manual (after looking at Samsung website, found out it is the short guide, as there is an expanded guide you can download), the warranty document, the mobile phone, the battery, a USB microphone and a earphone (standard earphone that you can use anywhere else, or plugging it into the microphone adapter, that is, you can’t connect them directly to the phone, and that is a shame). What is missing, it the standard USB cable to connect it to a computer, and a CD with software to interact with the phone. Talking about the software, it is available to download in the Samsung website, but it isn’t available for Mac OS X.

The phone, itself, has a dark blue color that can be both appealing or repelling. It is one of the details that mark it, for the good or the bad. Another interesting detail is the solar panel in the rear. More on that later.

Operating System and User Interface

Nowadays, geeks are fascinated by Android or iOS. Unfortunately S-7550 operating system is none of these. It is a Samsung proprietary system. While the interface is clean, it is not as intuitive as I would like.

S-7550 has a dashboard-like space, with three virtual desktops. This means you can add widgets to each desktop, and cycle through them when needed. This is great as it does not limit the widget area for a single screen. But I do not like the idea of having this value hard coded. In the other hand, being hard coded, means one can have a wide image background that moves correctly when you cycle through desktops. More on the widgets later.

To use any application you need to switch from the dashboard to the menu. This is a typical menu with small icons, and different tabs (or different menus, or different desktops, as you prefer). It is easy to move icons along, and cycle through the menus.

Regarding input: the touch screen sometimes can be insensitive. The virtual keyboard is based on a mobile phone keyboard, meaning that you need T9 input to type faster. Fortunately it includes dictionaries for different languages, making it easier to write messages and e-mails in different languages.

Connectivity

My current tariff does not include data connection, and therefore I will not comment on that type of connections. Regarding the others:

• Bluetooth works quite easily for document sharing. It uses the mobile phone PIN for handshaking. I do not own any other kind of bluetooth device, and therefore I can’t test much regarding this. I would love to have bluetooth to sync address book with something in the Mac, but it doesn’t seem to exist. I can send files to the phone from my Mac, but when browsing files on the phone, none is shown. I just see the folder names, not the files. Fortunately there is an option to send file by Bluetooth that can be used when browsing the files directly on the phone.
• WiFi configuration is similar to the Bluetooth one. The fact of using a similar interface makes it easier to get used to. Also, as soon as one of this connectivity protocols is activated a clear icon appears in the top of the display.

Web

My experiments with the Web browser were using WiFi. The pages load relatively fast, and render correctly. Unfortunately, the interface to navigate (zoom and pan) in the webpage is not easy to control. When using the mobile websites (like mobile interface for Gmail) things get more usable.

Some times some links get unresponsive. While trying to follow the link, the browser does not move. That’s infuriating.

To fill in forms, there is the need to click in the input element, and another screen to input the text will show up. In this screen you will use the phone keyboard to input your text, and then return to the browser.

GPS

Accordingly with Samsung, this mobile phone does not have a GPS. But it has. By default there is a configuration option where S-7550 shows the satellites and your coordinates. Or I am lost, or it doesn’t work, as they do not change from 0, 0, 0. The phone also includes a Java application to navigate in Google maps. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell at the moment, it doesn’t in Portugal. The error message redirects the user to http://www.google.co.uk/mobile/gmm/configure.html where Portugal is not listed. I might try to install some other applications but report the result on other post, as it is not a built-in feature.

Also curious is that the manual redirects the user to http://www.66.com/samsung/ where this model is not listed.

Widgets

I did not test all widgets yet. But you can expect the usual calendar, digital or analogous clock, world clock, shortcuts to read or send messages, information on the current selected communications courier, weather information, notes, etc. It also includes two multimedia widgets, the MP3 player and a FM Radio.

Solar Panel

You do not need to put the phone in full solar light. As far as you are outside, and some sunlight is lighting part of the panel, a small light near the panel will lit, and the charging from solar energy icon will show up. As you might guess, this is just to help and delaying the usual electricity based charging procedure.

Pushing E-mail

There is an option to push e-mail to the phone. Unfortunately and as far as I can tell, it does not work using WiFi, only 3G. That sucks.

NOTE: I might add more notes to this review, including pictures, but I think I should make this text available now.

The International (2009)

The International

After yesterday’s shitty movie (The Grudge 2), I got some better luck with this one: The International. It is mostly the usual Hollywood kind of movie, with the hero surviving everything. But, instead of the usual end where everything changes and truth and justice prevails, this movie shows that unfortunately there are too many bad guys. This means that unless the correct people are in the correct places (tribunals, governments, etc), there isn’t any justice possible for the big guys. But do not change side. Just take care to elect the least of the corrupt candidates to the government

But back to the movie, some great scenes, and nice acting. Voted 8 in 10 at IMDB.

The Grudge 2 (2006)

The Grudge 2

I can’t remember what I saw in 2006 to note on my list that this was a movie o see. Now, my only explanation would be: I need to be mistaken.

This movie is boring. If it is supposed to be horror or suspense movie, let me tell you that I did not jump in my sofa any time. There is nothing really horrifying. The special effects are kind of trivial for this kind of movie. And the plot is.. wait, is there any plot? Many times I compare movies with Lost in Translation, because I think there isn’t any story on that movie. But comparing, on that movie at least there is a beginning, a middle, and one end. In this one, nothing starts, nothing ends, just a set of bad-glued scenes.

Voted 1 in 10 at IMDB.

007 – Quantum of Solace (2008)

Gemma Arterton @ 007 Quantum of Solace

After Get Smart, a less clumsy super agent, 007 in Quantum of Solace. Do not continue or I will give some spoilers. Not that I will tell you the full story but I need to do some complains:

1. first, there is no excuse to wreck the Aston Marin in the first minutes of the movie. Instead they could offer it, and I would take care of it with love.
2. second, there is no excuse to let Mrs. Fields (Gemma Arterton) to die. Instead… yes, I would take care of her with love. Beautiful girl.

Now, enough of complains. The movie is full of action, and that is nice. There are no dead scenes (as it existed in other movies from the series, when 007 goes to bed with girls). The only scene related to that would be the one above, but it is quick. Oh, and it has Gemma.