I’ve been in the on again phase of Netflix online watching movies through our Xbox 360 Elite and somewhat ironically came across the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Those with a Netflix account around the time this is being published should be able to go check it out in the instant viewing. If you don’t have an account, it’s like $9 but to get one and this movie alone is worth the price of a month’s membership. And then you can go and watch a bunch more movies for no more $$. Quite the late Xmas 2009 present for yourself.

Maybe I should couch that a bit by saying you will love this movie if one of the following does not apply:

1. you aren’t portrayed negatively in the film
2. you are a videogame geek who takes gaming way too seriously

Bonus points for loving this film if you, like me, dug hanging out in the arcades in the early 80s and played games like Pac-man and Donkey Kong. The title is no joke, those games could gobble quarters like none other.

King of Kong is a documentary that primarily follows one gamer’s quest, Steve Wiebe, in trying to set the world record for Donkey Kong.  His chief competitor is a guy named Billy Mitchell who is portrayed in the first half of the film as the master of gaming because when he was like 16 he set some extremely impressive high scores at Centipede and Donkey Kong. The much older and presumably wiser Mitchell opines about life and video games and it’s difficult at times to determine where one stops and the other begins. If Mitchell is being serious – which I kind of doubt – he’s every dweeb’s worst nightmare reflection.

Later in the film, Mitchell buys an 80-year old lady a Q-bert machine and sends her to the annual Funcom event where she can compete for the world’s high score live but she also has another mission: take this VHS tape of a new high score Billy has set. Switch back to Steve Wiebe who tries to get Mitchell to meet him for some “friendly competition” at Funcom – but Billy doesn’t show up to play. Wiebe goes on and sets the world record for a live referee event of 985,000 or so. Enter Billy Mitchell’s tape which puts a new wrinkle on the situation. That’s about all I can say about Mitchell and Wiebe in the documentary without ruining it, so I’ll leave them be but the hilarious parts include such classic moments as a gamer stating that he doesn’t drink or smoke or do drugs, but has a far worse addiction in playing video games. And perhaps my favorite part of the movie is where one of the veteran gamers walks around and eagerly tells the other Funcom attendees: “just to let you know we may have a Donkey Kong kill screen coming up.”

Priceless! And if you think I spoiled the documentary, forget about it. Just go and read the intense off screen drama that followed the documentary with posts like this one from Robert Mruczek. But instead of pointing out the obvious that the documentary is also about entertainment, not to be confused with the exact truth of how good or bad these people really are, let me point out this quote from Mruczek about how he has painstakingly analyzed the Donkey Kong footage and sees how a nearly unbeatable Donkey Kong high score could be reached (editor note: I left the spelling errors as written):

I sent BOTH Steve and Bill my completed yet unreleased comparative articles citing their 1.006M and 1.014M performance. I sent them the EXCEL spreadsheets as well. In fact, I spoke with Steve on at least two occassions, and publicly stated as much on the forums, that after watching his performance, it was clear that he had the potential for higher. I also discussed some specifics and analysis from my spreasheet data, and pointed out where the two gamers differed startegically in the various stages. For example, I discussed how in the hammer stage Steve made more points on top than Bill, and this was again the 1.006M vs 1.014M performances. I discussed my logic as to why. I also discussed the pie factory differences and how both players shared the same propensity overall to point press on all stages thru perhaps level 10, then stave off, and then press again once they reached level 17-18. I suggested that eventually, one of them will want to try pressing every step of the way, and whoever can first pull it off…press in every stage successfully and reach stage 115 on the 1st life, then milk three times and go to the kill…that would be a nearly unbeatable record. Bil lwas told same, yet neither player had tried that to date.

I never reached this level of videogaming prowess with Donkey Kong. I think my best score ever is in the 50k range. I’ve done a little better at Pac-Man, but again  … kill screens? Only the Obi-won Kenobi’s can achieve such greatness.  And yes Billy Mitchell is actually compared to Obi-Won in one segment by Twin Galaxies Videogame Referee and budding musician Walter Day. No, I can’t make this up, but I’m chuckling as I write this post. This movie made me laugh out loud. Rotten Tomatoes critics loved it too, giving it 97%. It’s easily in my top three favorite documentaries ever. Grade: A+

Never thought a movie could have too much action but if you ever needed an example go see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. That’s not an endorsement because it’s like running a marathon without taking a breath or gulping any water along the way. We paid $40 to go see this movie last night and I wanted to ask for my money back.

There were a few redeeming moments in the film like where Megan Fox runs around and her breasts bounce through her shirt or the bit part machines making some humorous asides. I read a few reviewers saying that there was no plot, but there is one and it goes something like this: there is a magical shard that Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) carries with him that sets off in his brain an ancient map to a massive power source in Egypt. Because the Decepticons took over a satellite they can listen in on the world’s conversations and they just happen to catch that Sam is the man they need to target to find this power source. The Decepticons want this power source so they can kill the sun and the only one that can stop them is a Prime like, well, Optimus Prime.

If you are saying yeah, right, then you probably understand why some reviewers felt the movie was thin on plausibility and long on grinding, loud action scenes. The movie is ouch loud too. We made the mistake of coming in early before they show the 15 minutes worth of previews at the movie start time (when are they going to end this stupid trend?) and before the volume goes from 15 out of 100 to 110. No, really, my ears were hurting at times.

I was going to show a picture of the Transformers tickets price but a Google image search of Megan Fox is much better. This movie is not even rental worthy, don’t bother. Grade: F

Runpee.com serves mankind well by offering up a service that tells you when you can take that much needed bathroom break. Check out the logo which runs, pun intended, from white to yellow. Creative, I like.

To use the site, just click the movie you’re going to see and then the radio button. It will show scrambled spoiler text that can be unscrambled with what happens while you are gone runpeeing.

Hat tip to Lestat for sharing this one and helping to save bladders everywhere. Lestat, you must be off on a long bathroom break, as your blog was last updated in November 2008

Mike Tyson singing Phil Collins (video) In The Air Tonight is funny stuff. I don’t want to spoil the best part other than show you a peek of this video frame.

Maybe Mike Tyson can make back some of his won and lost wealth on the comedy movie circuit. This video is taken from the trailer for the movie The Hangover in theaters everywhere on June 5. Looks like a funny movie, even if Tyson is only a bit part player.

Rotten Tomatoes:

Two days before his wedding, Doug (JUSTIN BARTHA) drives to Las Vegas with his best buddies Phil and Stu (BRADLEY COOPER and ED HELMS) and his future brother-in-law Alan (ZACH GALIFIANAKIS), for a blow-out bachelor party they vow they’ll never forget.

But when the three groomsmen wake up the next morning with pounding headaches, they can’t remember a thing. Their luxury hotel suite is beyond trashed and the groom is nowhere to be found.

Even if you aren’t into this movie, the trailer is worth watching for sheer comedic value a few times. Mike should cut an album with the likes of William Hung.

J.J Abrams having created the Firefly TV series and Serenity movie is no stranger to space fantasy (Correction: Abrams is behind Lost, Joss Whedon is behind Firefly & Serenity. My bad.). At the same time many of the Star Trek motion pictures have been terrible. Then add in that retelling a space fantasy as fabled as Star Trek and the bar is pretty high.

I’m happy to report after seeing this afternoon’s showing of Star Trek along with our whole family ($75 later after tickets, popcorn, candy and drinks) that Abrams and company did very well. This is the Star Trek motion picture that long time and new fans should go see. Is it perfect? No. The whole time travel cliched plot device was used to help pave the road for a different Star Trek than we remember going forward. How that will equate in the guaranteed-to-be-coming-down-the-road sequel mill will be left. If they do continue making Star Trek using the new Original Series crew, then please, please, please do something with the Gorn next.

The movie takes place by thrusting us into an alternate time where baby James Kirk is being born in the midst of his father captaining a ship fighting a vengeance-driven enemy from the future. Fast forward to a rebellious Kirk with fast cars, run-ins with the law and bar fights with Starfleet officers. Don’t worry, not too much time is spent in history mode which is what the writers of Wolverine should have figured out.

Throughout the movie we are treated, and don’t take that word lightly, to the introduction of the other famous members of the original series crew like Scotty, Bones, Chekov, Sulu and Uhura. There is some weird romantic thing going on with Uhura and one of the other members that I won’t ruin here, but this is one distraction that didn’t work for me. Always seems to be some hollywood urge to thrust romance into every plotline where it’s not needed.

Then again there could be some tension to this side story in a future sequel. There is more than a cameo part by the original Spock. I’m going to stop here before I ruin any of the movie for those who haven’t seen it. I think even the most hardened Star Trek fans will be hardpressed to find much wrong here. Go see it in the theater, it’s well worth it.

Grade: A

A couple years ago I ranked the comic book superhero movies. With several more superhero movies being released since like the most recent Wolverine, redo of Hulk and Iron Man it’s time for an update. Oh, and I added what I consider to be the worst superhero movie of all time: Lightspeed as well as ranked in the Superman flicks.

If you want to laugh out loud at how stupid a movie can be, Lightspeed is the ticket. What was the guy’s special power? That he could run fast! Words don’t even describe how hilarious that is. Let’s dazzle the enemy with speed. Howard the Duck is light years better than Lightspeed.

1. Spider-man 2
*2. Iron Man
3. X-men
4. Spider-man
*5. Superman (1978)
6. X-men 2
*7. Superman II
8. Spider-man 3
9. Fantastic 4 Rise of the Silver Surfer
10. Superman Returns (2006)
11. Ghost Rider
12. X-men 3
*13. Hulk (remake)
14. Fantastic Four
*15. Hulk (Ang Lee 2003)
16. The Punisher
17. Daredevil
*18. X-Men Originals: Wolverine (2009)
*19. Superman III (the one with Richard Pryor)
**20. Superman IV The Quest for Peace (1987)
21. Howard the Duck
22. Elektra
23. Blade
*24. Lightspeed

*additions and changes are denoted by the asterisks. While the first list was meant to be comprised from my favorite comic book publisher list (Marvel), I’ve added all the Superman (DC Comics) flicks. Superman is my favorite DC Comics superhero. More on the obvious franchise omission from this list in a minute.

** consider this a ranking that could change. I vaguely remember watching Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and would like to rent and watch again. It could go up in rankings (or down) depending on the re-watching. I miss Christopher Reeves as Superman, it is sad what happened to both he and his wife, Dana.

I put the remake of the Hulk movie ahead of Fantastic Four. The new Hulk movie wasn’t that much better than the Ang Lee directed one, but I liked it better than the original Fantastic Four (FF). Not the FF sequel though with the Silver Surfer.

Iron Man came very close to besting Spider-man 2 as my favorite superhero movie of all time to date while X-Men Originals: Wolverine barely edges out Howard the Duck. No change for Elketra (yech!) or Blade. Still haven’t seen Blade II or the III.

Holy missing Batman, Batman!
I realize with leaving out the numerous Batman flicks this list has a huge gaping hole in it. The reason they aren’t here is twofold: one, I haven’t watched all of the Batman flicks (nope, not the newest one) and two, the TV show withstanding I’m not a huge Batman fan. I need to pick a weekend and rent or buy all the Batman flicks to date and do a Batman marathon. This way I can best rank them with the list above. I do remember enjoying parts of some of the Batman movies. I think the part about Batman that I didn’t like most was that he was way too dark and the city backdrop (Gotham City) was a bit corny.

In the meantime, feel free to suggest where the various Batman flicks should rank above in the comments below. You could also tell me the optimal order to watch the various Batman movies in. Or should I watch them from oldest to newest?

Ever since seeing the first X-Men I’ve been curious of Wolverine’s history.  I never followed the comic book so don’t know the story line.  How did he get all that weird metal inside him? Why? Sure, I could Google all this or be lame (and lawless) and seek out the pirated version, but what’s the fun in that? Even less fun and more stupid would be losing your job by reviewing the pirated version like Roger Friedman did.

In a couple days, those of us who don’t know the history (and please, no spoilers in the comments), will find out. Wolverine is the first movie to come along in the theaters in awhile that I’m interested in seeing. I’m also looking forward to Star Trek. We might not be going opening weekend, but I want to see Wolverine in the theater. 

By online vote, Tempe, Arizona got the first screening last night. Fans in Mexico no thanks to the swine flu pandemic will have to hold off on their premiere:

A spokesperson for Twentieth Century Fox said: "We were not only concerned about Hugh’s welfare - and we would never send anyone into harm’s way - but we also have an enormous office filled with people we care about.

You going to see it in the theater or wait for the DVD / Blu-ray?

Update Monday 5/4/2009 7:41am PST: Caught the 2:50 showing on Saturday and man this movie dragged … and dragged. And dragged. The history is there, but I’d rather have seen the History channel do something on this fictional character. If you are as anxious as me, prepare to be disappointed. This one has ‘rental when nothing else good is there’ written all over it. Saved from a failure in that the history about Wolverine is told. Too bad there isn’t much else worth watching.

Grade: D+

Something interesting happened the other day.

I was talking to a friend and the subject of whether to buy Blu-ray or DVD came up. We’ll get to my answer shortly, but this got me thinking: will that be on the minds of casual technology shoppers this holiday? The friend I’m thinking of isn’t what very geeky, so I’m sure there are people like that.

This holiday season there are some killer DVD deals out there. If you want to build on your DVD collection or buy DVDs as gifts for friends, family and fellow workers it’s an exciting time to be shopping. Yes, even with these troubling economic times:

But studios are facing a scarier fact: perhaps consumers are losing interest in buying DVDs. One particularly bleak spot is the sales of Blu-ray, which was intended to spur consumers to buy expensive DVD players to match their new HDTVs, then replace their libraries with expensive new Blu-ray discs so they could get better picture quality than from standard DVDs. But sales of players have been slow, and sales of the discs haven’t been much better.

While we have a library of over 600 movies, very few are in Blu-ray or the now-defunct HD-DVD format. I’m not and have never been as optimistic about Blu-ray. Let’s face it, DVD will be here for awhile.

Don’t get me wrong, from a quality standpoint, there is no better at home video fix than Blu-ray, but with compelling services like Vudu available offering more HD titles in 1080p than even on Blu-ray, you have to wonder how long the format is going to last.

Blu-ray as a holiday gift? Tread carefully

Back to my friend asking me about buying Blu-ray as a gift for a family member. I suggested to buy the DVD version instead. Here are the reasons I outlined to choose DVD over Blu-ray this holiday season:

1. Blu-ray is best at 1080p TV and despite prices plummeting, most people still don’t own 1080p-capable TVs. You might as well buy the DVD version if it won’t be watched at 1080p. Buying Blu-ray for TV sets that are at lower resolutions is a waste.
2. Blu-ray selection is still too anemic compared to DVD, particularly if you enjoy watching old TV shows. Take the complete series of Get Smart for example which I recently bought for $109 at Best Buy. The other day I saw a Blu-ray 4-set of movies selling for $90! Let’s see, 66 hours of content vs. 8 for close to the same price?
3. Too expensive. Every time I think about buying a Blu-ray movie, I have a hard time justifying the prices. $25-35 for one movie?  Sure, you get it at the best quality ever, but unless it’s a movie you’re going to watch many, many times over, you might as well get 2 or 3 DVD movies for the same price.
4. Too risky. The chance of the Blu-ray format making it another couple years is not very good. If you want to build a library in Blu-ray it better be with a collector’s mindset.

If the person you’re shopping for has a 1080p-capable TV — and if you don’t know, just ask them (if they don’t know chances are very good they don’t) — and IF the person has a PS3 or standalone Blu-ray player. If they don’t have the equipment already and/or don’t plan to upgrade, buy the DVD version instead. If they are 1080p equipped, Talk to them about the type of movies they like and how they feel about their Blu-ray player.

If you asked me what I’d rather have: one Blu-ray disc or a TV season on DVD, I’d choose the latter 9 times out of 10. Again, it’s not that I don’t like Blu-ray, because I think the quality is awesome, but I’d rather watch 65 hours of Get Smart than 8 hours of movies I’ll probably only watch once or twice at a higher resolution.

My last Blu-ray purchase is pictured atop this post. Space Ace (paid same price: $29.99 at Best Buy) is a cool interactive game (Don Bluth along the lines of Dragon’s Lair), digitally remastered in HD. It’s a better version than what was in the arcades. These are the kind of great Blu-ray gifts.

Last night there was the annual Best Buy customer private party and I saw voodoo for the first time. Er, VUDU [vudu.com] rather which is pronounced like voodoo. Here’s what this VUDU $299 DVD/HD/1080p on demand in a box badboy looks like:

Little bigger than the now defunct Xbox HD-DVD drive and a little smaller than the Xbox 360. What does it do? Delivers movies up to 1080p/24 to your TV over broadband internet.

VUDU comes neatly packed with everything you need to hook up to a 1080p TV and broadband network:

- network cable
- HDMI cable (also includes standard AV cables for those without HDMI)
- VUDU box (pictured above) which has 250GB storage
- AC power supply
- radio frequency antenna for remote (shown in the right rear of the picture)
- remote + required 2 AA batteries
- $200 in free movie credits (cannot be used on adult movies), more on this later

Don’t be dumb like us and forget to screw in the radio antenna first before trying to use the remote. The "Start Here" manual tells you to do this, BTW. Good idea to thumb through before digging in.

With RF frequency you don’t need to point at the box in order for the signal to make it to the box. You can put the box behind the TV if you want and it will work just fine. Downside to this is getting it to work with Slingbox, but in the VUDU forums I found some people who were successfully using VUDO with a Slingbox and IR dongle.

The VUDU has a USB 2.0 port which is planned to be used for external storage since it only has 250GB of storage. In the meantime you can use the VUDU servers for archival storage if you decide to build a library of movies in addition to renting movies. Not sure it’s wise spending too much money on buying movies from a service you probably haven’t ever heard of before. I hadn’t heard of VUDU until last night and I’m looking for new gadgets like this to try out.

Gotta dig the VUDU remote which looks like an alien’s head and has a simple, but effective design:

Pressing and holding the VUDU button for five seconds starts the step by step process. Vudu will test your broadband network and decide how long it takes for Standard Definition (SD) and HD movies to play. If you have 2.0 Mbps - 4.0 Mbps you can watch SD movies instantly without any waiting but you’ll need to wait for the HD movies.

You need to activate the VUDU at vudu.com/activation which involves entering in a VUDU activation code provided in the setup, putting your information in on the website along with credit card and agreeing to fund your vudubucks account with at least $20. The website is also where you turn on the adult movie feature if you want to be able to watch any adult movies. By default, VUDU is set not to show any movies in the After Dark category.

There are a handy set of parental controls to restrict what movies can be rented and watched without a pincode. By default everything is wide open (except adult as mentioned above) without any code required.

Once you provide your details and give VUDU at least $20 via credit card, the VUDU box will go through the final update stage and then you can start browsing, renting and/or buying movies to watch.

$200 in free movies — the catch

If you buy the VUDU during the promotional period you are also given the $200 in movie credits. Reading the fine print I learned that:

- the $200 in movie credits must be used within 4 months of activation or you lose the credits
- the $200 credits do not apply to any adult movies through the AVN after dark area
- if you return the VUDU they will bang your credit card for whatever movies you’ve rented, the credits only apply if you don’t return VUDU

Tall tales by VUDU sales rep

The VUDU rep wasn’t completely straightforward with us on the whole "having to wait" thing. I asked him point blank if there would be any waiting time of HD and he said there wasn’t. Wrong. There can be a wait, and can be a substantial one if you get the HDX (1080p) movies which are around 10GB in size. If you have 4.0 Mbps or greater connection you can get the HD movies instantly according to the documentation.

On every page of the VUDU website you can test your connection. When VUDU tested my speed through the box it put it at 2.0 Mbps speed, but from browser I’m seeing this:

From the Info & Settings menu you can force VUDU to use the higher setting.

The VUDU rep also told me the average price for movie rentals was $2.99. I found from browsing most of the newer movies seem to be $3.99 for HD and more for HDX. I didn’t see any HD movies for under $3.99. The movie rentals work similarly to renting movies through Xbox Live. You pay for a 24 hour window of time.

Watch movies the day they are released on DVD

The big selling point for VUDU is the ability to rent movies in HD quality the day they are released. Netflix which is going to be available through Xbox Live later this month streams movies as part of their monthly subscription.

The VUDU rep told me that they get movies the day they are released on DVD which is different from the other similar movie on demand services I’ve seen but unfortunately not every studio in Hollywood let’s their movies be immediately available for rental. He said the window was two weeks before the new DVDs become available to rent through VUDU which isn’t bad if you can wait. I don’t recall which studios he said made their movies available for rental on the day they were for sale, but it’s stupid that any studio does that. Hollywood being dumb again.

Iron Man, for example is available to buy ($19.99) but will not be available for rent until November 12.  It’s cool that VUDU shows you exactly when you will be able to rent movies, as well as provides coming soon dates of upcoming DVD releases.

Vudu menu is slick and simplistic

The VUDU UI is easy enough for a child to pick up and begin searching through movies. I was impressed with the design which consists of five top level options: Most Watched movies, New on VUDU, Explore Catalog, My VUDU and Info & Settings.

As the screenshot above shows, as you move to the right with the VUDU remote scrollwheel, the movie box art grows bigger and shows at the bottom the rating as well as range of prices for rental and to buy. If you don’t see any $5.99 or less price it means there is no rental available, it’s purchase only. Simple, but effective.

Most Watched - shows the top 100 movies other VUDU users have rented or purchased from the previous week
New on VUDU - here you can see what’s recently been added as well as when the movies will be available for rent
Explore Catalog - sort from thousands of titles (our list of ‘all’ showed over 7,000 titles) by genre and subgenre (like comedy-romance). You can also search by keyword on title and even actors in movies. VUDU also has TV shows available to buy at $1.99 per episode (upscaled in HD) which might give you the best picture over SD DVD set available to buy in stores
My VUDU - shows active rentals, movies you own, TV shows purchased as well as a wish list for titles you’d like to rent or buy someday and an archive/delete menu for moving content onto the VUDU servers
Info & Settings - adjust parental and other VUDU settings

There is an in-depth VUDU user guide (PDF) online detailing each feature available.

Is VUDU worth $299?

If you love to watch movies like we do and in the highest quality you can see them, we own over 600 DVDS (including some HD-DVD and Blu-ray) and we regularly rent movies through Xbox Live (paying $3+ for the privilege), the VUDU is worth checking out.  With the Best Buy $200 in free movie credits promotion, that brings the price of the VUDU + some movies/TV to watch down to a more reasonable $99. Something tells me they aren’t moving huge numbers of these because:

1. they are bit too pricey for something that requires spending more to watch movies and
2. they aren’t very well known and thus could be a here today gone tomorrow gadget. I remember Slingbox being something nobody had heard about once upon a time, but don’t think VUDU is as widely useful as the Slingbox.

Another downside is VUDU is yet another box around your TV and will fight for an HDMI slot among your gaming systems, cable/dish box, etc. If we keep the VUDU then we need an HDMI selector. I’m having to plug and unplug into the back of the TV too much already. Two HDMI slots and 4 HDMI devices doesn’t work.

I’m not sure we’re going to keep VUDU yet (30 day money back guarantee), but like the idea of being able to rent newer DVD movies without (hopefully) too much hassle. It takes way too long for new DVDs to reach the movie channels like Cinemax, HBO and Showtime. Xbox Live has them sooner, but there is still a noticeable delay. If Hollywood wasn’t lame, they’d make the movies available in VUDU on the day they are for sale for rent, just like they are in movie rental stores.

If the window of time that VUDU gets the newer movies is shorter than it takes to get to Xbox Live, it fills a niche for us versus getting the all you can watch subscription at say Hollywood Video. I also like not having to pay for a monthly subscription fee, but will probably be getting Netflix with Xbox later this month and comparing vs. VUDU. The quality of movies through Netflix vs. VUDU could be what separates the two.

If you watch a lot of new DVDs and don’t care as much about the picture quality then VUDU will be more expensive than one of those all you can watch plans from Blockbuster or Hollywood Video even when factoring in gas if you need to drive to/from to get the movies. Gas prices aren’t almost $5/gallon any more so this makes sense.

VUDU would be more attractive with an internet browser

Why can’t I check my email on this thing or watch vid clips from sites like YouTube? Or (gasp, competitor alert!) visit Hulu.com and watch TV shows for free. I think they didn’t put this option in for fear (?) that it would cut into people paying for the content versus going to legal, legitimate channels to get it and works against the overall value of VUDU.

Watching a movie or TV show in a pixelated browser window is not worth as much as seeing it in 1080p. Until the web offers that kind of deal for free (legally), VUDU shouldn’t be afraid of making a browser available. The Xbox 360 doesn’t have a browser either. So, it’s off to the PS3 or Wii if you want a browser.

The other possible issue here is bandwidth cap from your internet service provider. If you watch a lot of HDX movies at 10GB a piece and have a 250GB per month cap, you could run into additional charges from your ISP. Add all this up and VUDU could be ideal for heavy duty moviephiles who like the best quality they can get without having to leave their house to get it.

Grade: B-

I’ve seen YouTube used by many people for many different reasons. Can honestly say it was a first this morning (credit James) seeing someone like William Shatner — it’s Captain Kirk, man! — using it to tell the world why he is not going to be in the next Star Trek motion picture.

Or maybe this is Shatner lobbying to be in the movie if there’s still time? I’ve heard plenty of stories that Mr. Shatner wasn’t the easiest guy in Star Trek to get along with (and that he hasn’t always handled his success with upmost humility) as told by other Star Trek OS cast members like George Takei on the Howard Stern Show. It might seem by him saying he wasn’t interested in a cameo — that could easily be axed on the cutting room floor — that this is him being difficult again. Tough call. Be in the movie as cameo or not be in at all? I think if he was offered a cameo he should have taken it.

Shatner says in the video that he wasn’t even offered a cameo. Here’s what J.J Abrams had to say:

We tried desperately to put him in the movie, but he was making it very clear that he wanted the movie to focus on him significantly, which, frankly, he deserves. The truth is, the story that we were telling required a certain adherence to the Trek canon and consistency of storytelling. It’s funny — a lot of the people who were proclaiming that he must be in this movie were the same people saying it must adhere to canon.

Then again, Leonard Nimoy seems to have gotten along pretty well with Shatner over the years. Whatever really happened off screen, history dictates that when the camera was rolling Captain Kirk was a major player in the Star Trek OS universe. I didn’t think all of the Star Trek motion pictures (like Star Trek V) were shining Kirk moments, but there were some really good ones like Wraith of Khan. I enjoyed The Next Generation phase too but will admit the final film was underwhelming.

I think bringing in J.J Abrams to pump some life back into the franchise is a great thing. I really enjoyed his work with Serenity.

So until I see what the new Star Trek movie is like, I’m going to reserve judgement on how this works without Shatner. I will admit as long as Shatner is still alive that having a Star Trek movie that goes back to the roots and doesn’t include him seems … sad.

Let’s not forget that miracle worker engineer Scotty (James Doohan) is alread gone and crotchety doctor Bones (Deforest Kelley) died in 1999. Spock (Leonard Nemoy) and Kirk (Shatner) are getting up there in age. Congrats to Sulu (George Takei) who just got married to his long time partner Brad. Haven’t heard too much about Chekov (Walter Koenig) or Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) but I believe both of them are still doing well, health-wise. They served as best man and best lady at Takei’s wedding. Congratulations!

The cruel, sweeping scythe of time is going to take all these actors away from us eventually, leaving only our memories in tact from the films they worked in year’s past. Call me greedy, but I’d like to see these actors as many more times as (good) story and their health will allow. And I like the whole Alfred Hitchcock cameo thing. Why wouldn’t this work in future Star Trek films?