Conventionally, a movie review reader would presume that the reviewer had watched the entire film. Don and Mike do a bit where they review movies that they have not seen. This time I’m going to break the mold a bit and give a short review of this “blockbuster” mid-stream.

I just paused the movie because frankly it’s garbage and I have to decide whether I would like to light any more of my time ablaze. I have things to do that are probably more important than watching this movie, or even writing these words. Yes, cleaning the bathroom is actually sounding more appealing than finishing this movie.

Lets talk CGI. King Kong has no shortage of it. The textures, colors, lighting, detail – all amazing. Combine that with physics that is more similar to Super Mario World than the real world and green-screen quality that makes the local weather man look like he is actually flying over the continental United States and you’ve got a recipe for pure popcorn entertainment. You’ve outdone yourselves this time Hollywood. Seriously, the graphics professionals are obviously dedicated and likely well-educated individuals who have completely disregarded the idea of newtonian physics.

The scene that turned me is when the crew of the USS Lameplot are running away from the charging brontosaurus’. First the bronto’s are running faster, then slower, then the same speed as the people. All the while both the strides and pace of the people and the dinosaurs stays the same – ahh Hollywood magic. I am a particular fan of the obvious white studio light that brings out the bluer skintones of the actors as they run from the rendered dinosaurs clearly given a tropical colored lighting. Don’t mind the lack of shadows – a lot of people don’t know this, but Jack Black actually does not have a shadow. Come on guys, at least they could have hired the professionals from Who Framed Roger Rabit to add some realism.

To abrubtly end this rant as my attention span winds down – KING KONG is poop!

Anyway, so Blockbuster seems to be kicking ass. I got the 40 Year-Old Virgin, March of the Penguins, and Cinderella Man right away – those all had a very long wait from Netflix. The web page isn’t quite as slick, but when you get right down to it the differences are subtle (no RSS feed from Blockbuster). I think the two in-store movie rentals a month and the couple-a-dollar savings is making me feel less like a Netflix traitor.

A couple weeks ago Apple released new iMac G5s, and along with it a new piece of software called Front Row. Although mac enthusiasts have been clamoring for media center software for some time, the announcement did not excite many. Nobody wants to shell out $1,299 – $1,699 just to be able to watch downloaded TV, listen to iTunes music, and view their iPhoto galleries on a G5 screen. This simplified interface needs to be available on your TV.

Predictably, the software was pulled off of the iMac and made to run on machines it was for which it was not intended. To my delightment, this hacked version became available on bittorrent last night. Without the remote control which is included with the iMac G5, the functionality of Front Row was somewhat limited. I had to use the escape and arrow keys to move around the menus, but it was still nice to see the interface and play around with the movie trailers.

After mostly moving over to Stacey’s place, I had been without dual monitors until I hooked up my G5 to her TV. We had been kicking off movies with the ol’ double click until tonight.

Tonight, I found over on the Salling Clicker forum a nice little script that lets me use my cell phone to control Front Row… exactly what I was looking for. Even though I had pretty similar interface with my XBox, this is a really nice touch.