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Fright Night 3D Review Roundup

Rachel Cericola — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:10:52 GMT

Most people hear the word "remake" and immediately go off on a rant. Has Hollywood run out of ideas? That seemed to be consensus when people first heard about Touchstone's plans to remake the film " Fright Night ." I love cheesy '80s movies as much as the next person, but the film didn't seem crying out for a reinterpretation. Then gradually, it started to get more interesting. First came the casting. Colin Farrell filled the shoes of evil neighbor Jerry Dandrige, with Anton Yelchin cast as suspicious teen neighbor Charley Brewster. The rest of the roundup seemed equally intriguing, with Toni Collette, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Dave Franco, and Imogen Poots. Many people also cite "Doctor Who" star David Tennant as the main reason to see this film. Next, we got a series of photos and trailers, which made the film look, well… kind of cool and scary. While the original still holds a 93-percent rating (really?) on film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the remake snagged a respectable 74 percent. It would have been nice if the remake worked in a few extra cameos from the original (look for Chris Sarandon, people!), but it seems like "Fright Night 3D" is...

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Hands-On: SIM2 LUMIS 3D Solo Projector

Robert Archer — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:32:15 GMT

At this time in 2010, 3D was thriving due to an enormous amount of buzz generated by the support of high-performance video companies like SIM2. A year later, the buzz has cooled, but that doesn't mean the technology has faded into irrelevancy. In fact, it's just the opposite. 3D products are improving and becoming more affordable and more applicable to a wider array of home systems. Converging all of these trends is SIM2's LUMIS 3D Solo Projector . A year ago, this product would have been priced significantly higher than where its $50,000 price tag sits. What's nice about this three-chip DLP unit is that it is a state-of-the-art projector that uses active 3D technologies to allow installers to use traditional screen materials that play better with 2D content. Features The 3D Solo includes Texas Instruments' DLP 1080p DarkChip4, as well as other features such as two HDMI 1.4 inputs, SIM2's proprietary PureMotion image processing, 3D PureMotion triple-flash motion processing, Pure Movie and SIM2's AlphaPath light engine, which it says enables the projector to produce "superb color depth, exceptional brightness and [an] excellent contrast ratio." SIM2 also says the 3D Solo can be configured with a choice of lenses to...

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Glee: The 3D Concert Movie Review Roundup

Rachel Cericola — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:18:13 GMT

We've been pushing the new " Glee " film since it was first announced. After all, we didn't want all of you Gleeks out there to miss out on what was supposedly an exclusive 2-week theatrical engagement. However, though, it's looking like the film may not even last that long. "Glee: The 3D Concert Movie" turned out to be a massive bomb. Now, calling it "a bomb" may be a bit of an exaggeration. After all, the film didn't really cost all that much to make. The New Directions kids were already out of tour, so it was just a matter of setting up a few cameras and creating a marketing campaign. Well, it was probably a little more that that, but the budget was pretty low, especially when you consider the cash cow that the show has already been for Fox . Early buzz on the movie was excellent. In fact, just a few days before the film's release, "Glee" had a 100-percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes . That was too good to last, but the film still earned an extremely respectable 61 percent, which still certifies it as "fresh." However, all of those accolades didn't seem to matter;...

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 3D Review Roundup

Rachel Cericola — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:54:32 GMT

The biggest opening ever. That says a lot for a movie, as well as its fans. Before " Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 " even saw its opening weekend, the franchise's grand finale had already taken in $43.5 million for midnight shows nationwide. Fans are a funny thing. Of course, it helps when the movie is actually good. Good is an understatement, it seems. So far, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2" has an insanely impressive 96-percent rating on film review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes . That ranks the film as the sixth best reviewed movie so far for 2011. I have to wonder if those numbers would change, based on the number of reviews the film has received. At last look, "Harry Potter" had 237 reviews logged into the site, the most out of any film in the top 10. The international action flick "13 Assassins" was in second place with 92 reviews. That's quite a gap, and quite an achievement. However, was the 3D trip really necessary? Our own Grant Clauser didn't seem to think that the 3D added much to his midnight viewing . However, plenty of fans were begging...

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Transformers: Dark of the Moon 3D Review Roundup

Rachel Cericola — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:57:56 GMT

After months of teasing, casting swaps, and other rumors, " Transformers: Dark of the Moon " came crashing into the box office. Despite director Michael Bay promising that this would be a better experience than the last "Transformers" outing, the film only ranked 36 percent on film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes . If you want to get technical, that's still better than " Revenge of the Fallen ," which only got 20 percent. However, when it came down to brass tacks and box-office receipts, the film was a huge success. "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" opened at a record 2,789 3D locations. According to Box Office Mojo , a whopping 60 percent of that opening weekend take was due to 3D. To date, the film has made over $762 worldwide. So was it the 3D, the action, or the closure to the trilogy that brought viewers out in full force? Read on for what you can expect from "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." Here is what Paramount says: "Shia LaBeouf returns as Sam Witwicky in 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon.' When a mysterious event from Earth's past erupts into the present day it threatens to bring a war to Earth...

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is Bad for 3D TV

Grant Clauser — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:27:58 GMT

Potter's 3D magic will not help 3D TV sales. I was one of the crazy ones. At 10:45 PM last Thursday I drove my family to a local cinimaplex to stand in line with gaggles of wannabe Hogwarts students for the big opening of the last installment of the Harry Potter saga. Despite my arguments against it, we opted for the 3D showing (because my kids insisted). After watching the movie through the collectors' 3D glasses (shaped a little like Harry Potter's glasses), I left very disappointed in the experience and convinced that everything Avatar did for 3D was just dismantled by Harry Potter. First, let's get this out of the way—I am a Harry Potter fan. When I was an early teenager I was obsessed with Tolkien, Dungeons and Dragons and Conan the Barbarian (the Robert E. Howard books). I say this so you know I went into the experience willingly expecting magic. So, back to my point about 3D. Many analysts believe that the best thing to happen to the 3D TV market was James Cameron's Avatar. It raked in huge box office results and got people more excited over 3D than anything before or since. The new...

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3D TV Street Fight

Grant Clauser — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:32:44 GMT

LG and Samsung hit each other with sticks and stones. The market, and marketing, for 3D TVs is kind of fascinating to me. A month ago I was at an event sponsored by one TV manufacturer that was hell-bent on bashing another manufacture's technology (they even brought in samples of the competitors TVs and third-party experts to explain the deficiencies). The sponsor wanted to make sure all the editors in the room knew how to look at a 3D TV. The defendant in this "case" has been making glowing claims about how people prefer its technology over the other. It's all fair in TV marketing, and from my editor's perspective, kind of fun to watch. We've seen these little battles before. Not too long ago it was HD DVD vs. Blu-ray , and before that DVD-A vs. SACD, and a long list before that. The stakes are big, and the company who's technology resonates most with consumers gets to smoke better cigars at their board meetings and hopefully serves good sushi at their next press function (note: unagi and toro are my favorites). But it's the consumer, and the overall market (including the dealers and installers) that suffer in the...

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Cars 2 3D Review Roundup

Rachel Cericola — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:46:54 GMT

Talk about the little engine that could. Despite poor reviews, " Cars 2 " crossed the weekend's finish line in first place at the box office. In the end, it seems that the Pixar sequel revved up audiences just enough to take in $68 million. Of course, that number probably had very little to do with 3D and a lot to do with a billion-dollar franchise. Ask any Pixar fan and they will tell you that the original "Cars" is not the fan favorite. It's not even the third favorite. Still, the original film has 74 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and took in $60 million in its debut. Because of the sequel's track record with critics, a few were predicting that "Cars 2" would debut well below the original. Aah... the power of little plastic cars... Here is what Disney says: "Star racecar Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) and the incomparable tow truck Mater (voice of Larry the Cable Guy) take their friendship to exciting new places in Cars 2 when they head overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix to determine the world's fastest car. But the road to the championship is filled with plenty of...

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