At Home Theater Shack we cover all aspects of the home theater system including electronics equipment, design, construction and acoustics. If you are looking to achieve the ideal viewing and listening environment... then you have come to the right place. Anything related to home theater, audio, video and high definition is discussed in our home theater forum. The Shack is home to the free room eq software, REW (Room EQ Wizard) as well as the most popular home theater forum for DIY Subwoofers, DIY Screens and discussion of subwoofer equalization devices and subwoofer measurements. We have the friendliest staff you will find in a home theatre forum and lay claim to being the most respected Home Theater Forum on the net!
Title: Paranormal Activity Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat Directed by: Oren Peli Written by: Oren Peli Studio: Paramount Rated: R for language Runtime: 86 min 99 min (extended version) Release date: Dec 29 2009
Synopsis
Micah and Katie have recently moved in together but soon realize they are not the only presence in the home. To reassure themselves that either a paranormal/ghostly being has indeed taken up residence with them or that they are being paranoid, Micah buys a video camera to document their days and sets up the camera at nighttime to document them while they sleep.
The following days Micah checks the footage for suspicious occurrences and analyzes the audio to check for any deviation from normal household sounds.
The movie is actually shot documentary style in that everything the audience sees is what Micah has recorded by himself or footage shown while the camera is stationary and pointed at the couple while they sleep.
The combination of handheld shot footage and the nighttime stationary footage are edited and blended together in a very professional manner, making for an easy viewing experience.
Rating
I think the rating for this movie in America was too excessive, especially when the only real warning was the inclusion of foul language, and it wasn’t even over the top or extreme. Yes, the f-word was used more times than allotted for in a PG-14 movie, but to force a young person to bring a parent or guardian with them just because of a language warning is being too much of a nanny and not in tune with the times.
I think the more liberal rating of 13+ and 14A in Canada is a lot more appropriate and realistic.
Video
The method by which the movie was shot could have easily led to shaky cam syndrome, but Micah was very adept at holding the camera steady and only making fast swerving motions when something unexpected happened, and even during those times the footage was more than tolerable.
It was evident through the terminology Micah used when referencing his equipment and the software he used to backup the footage that he was more than a novice when it came to audio/visual equipment. This was...
Title: When in Rome
Starring: Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel, Anjelica Huston, Will Arnet, Jon Heder, Dax Shepard, Danny DeVito
Directed by: Mark Steven Johnson
Written by: David Diamond & David Weissman
Studio: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures & Touchstone Pictures
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour 31 minutes
Release Date: January 29, 2010
Movie
Beth (Bell) is a hard working young woman with everything in her work going for her. Also the big sister, she has a hard time coping with your little sister deciding to get married with a guy she met just two weeks prior. The pressure of work starts to come down on Beth as she has a big event to prepare for, but yet, still wanting to make it to her little sister's wedding, which happens to be in Rome.
Beth's friends show their excitement as she is going to the city of love, hoping she will find herself a man. But Beth's stipulations on finding a guy is; if she can care more for a guy than her work, then she will know she found the one. And by how much she cares about her work, it would take a pretty special guy to hold that number one spot.
At the wedding, Beth meets Nick (Duhamel) who just so happened to show up late to the wedding because he was dealing with a work related matter. Skeptical to fall in love, she decides to take that step of faith. After a great night with Nick, it quickly crumbles down as she catches him kissing a woman. Angry, she takes a little swim in the "Fountain of Love." Cursing it, she takes five coins from the pool, not knowing that if you take those coins, you take the hearts of those people as well.
In her struggle to fall in love with Nick throughout the rest of the movie, she has an even harder time trying to keep four men from following her. Somehow knowing her name, and thinking that they are in love with her, then men follow her everywhere. Beth tries everything to avoid these men, yet has a hard time shaking them. The men (Arnet, Heder, DeVito, Shepard) seem to always know where she is going to be and when, and they do everything to win her heart.
Beth finally finds out that the coins she took belong to these men, and then becomes concerned that Nick is under the same spell of the stolen coin. To...
Title: Zombieland
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin
Directed by: Ruben Fleischer
Written by: Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick
Studio: Sony Pictures Releasing
Rated: R Runtime: 1 hour 22 minutes
Release Date: October 2, 2009
Movie
To start out, I love zombie movies. Especially when they are done right, and when I saw previews for Zombieland, to be honest I was concerned about what kind of zombie movie it could actually be. I knew it was a comedy, and a zombie movie, so I was a bit skeptical. But, it had Woody Harrelson in it, so I had to give it a shot. Unlike other zombie movies where it's a military experiment or some kind of disease is spread manually, the zombies in Zombieland originated from a diseased hamburger. And through a chain of very unfortunate events, zombies ruled the planet. Save for four individuals who are just trying to get by. And because they don't know how long each other has, they do not share their names for the sake of growing close to one another. So the city of their destination becomes their name throughout the movie.
Tallahassee (Harrelson) is your typical country, Dale Earnhardt lovin', zombie hunting kind of guy who is on the search of just one thing... a Twinkie. While most people would want to just survive, Tallahassee hasn't a care in the world anymore, all he wants is a Twinkie, "because believe it or not, Twinkies do have an expiration date." (Tallahassee) After an odd meeting of each other Columbus (Eisenberg) and Tallahassee start to make their way east. Columbus, being a shy, locked up, Mt. Dew and World of Warcraft kind of character, has a very hard time coping with Tallahassee, but he knows with him, he will be safe. Columbus opens the movie by narrating his list of rules for surviving Zombieland. These rules really define his character, and makes it that more comical in situations.
Still searching for Twinkies, the guys don't make it far before they lose their truck, then find a Hummer loaded with weapons, meet up with a girl and her younger sister, and now heading toward Los Angeles to a theme park. To rest from their long travel, they decide to sleep in luxury at a celebrity's home in Beverly Hills. Columbus almost get his first kiss by Wichita (Stone),...
Title: Michael Jackson’s This Is It
Starring: Michael Jackson
Directed by: Kenny Ortega
Written by:
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Rated: PG
Runtime: 111 Minutes
Release Date: 1/26/2010 Movie
Being a songwriter and musician myself, I have a lot of respect for Michael Jackson but I am not exactly what you would call a fan. I liked some of the songs off of “Thriller”, along with millions of other people in the world, but that was in 1982. I had just turned 11 and was on the verge of discovering Heavy Metal. Needless to say, I never really paid much attention to him after that until the accusations of his relationships with children started making the news in the 90’s. And like the most other people, any interest I had in him quickly disappeared and was replaced with disgust.
When I read that Michael was doing a farewell concert series in London I remember thinking “He must finally be out of money from all of those lawsuits”. When I read about his death I remember thinking how much of a shame it was that he had to go out in such a way. There was so much controversy that surrounded the latter half of his life and his death that there was going to be a ton of emotions tied to this on a global scale. When I read that his estate was making “This Is It” I immediately thought “Wow, even in death people can’t stop exploiting this man for their personal gain.” I had absolutely no desire to see this movie much less to do a review of it.
“This is it” is a documentary about Michael Jackson’s farewell concert series that was set to kick off in London in July 2009. The movie was edited together from over 100 hours of footage that was shot over the course of three months in 2009. One of the things that stood out to me was how the filmmakers mirrored the overall theme of the planned show. The concerts were to pay homage to Michael’s career and highlight the brightest moments. The movie keeps that vision intact by showing the viewers the brightest and most inspiring moments from the rehearsals. Interviews and commentaries from those involved in the production felt candid and sincere and the overall feel of the movie was genuine. Michael’s involvement with the production really shows how committed he was to the vision of the show and more importantly to his fans. In the end the movie presents Michael in a very positive...
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes
Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow
Written by: Mark Boal
Rated: R
Runtime: 131 mins
Blu-ray Release Date: January 12, 2010
It’s expected that The Hurt Locker, a film about a bomb squad during the current Iraq war, will have anything but a painful time at the 82nd Academy Awards this March. Already the film’s director, Kathryn Bigelow, shocked analysts when she won the Directors Guild of America award for best director, an honor never previously bestowed upon a woman. It was a big win for Bigelow, whose ex-husband James Cameron was expected to win for his decade-long struggle to bring Avatar, a veritable technical treat in 3D, to theatres. That film is now the highest-grossing movie in history, while to date The Hurt Locker has only grossed $1 million more than it cost to produce. However, in Slumdog Millionaire fashion, that may change very soon.
War is a drug. That is the theme of The Hurt Locker, which follows three very different men and thus three very different soldiers in the final month-and-a-half of their rotation in war-torn Iraq. Sergeant First Class William James (Jeremy Renner) is the team leader of an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit with the U.S. Army’s Bravo Company, joining Sergeant J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty), whose previous team leader, SSG Matt Thompson (Guy Pearce), was killed during a disarmament procedure. In focusing on EOD, Bigelow and company have drawn attention to what is probably the most dangerous profession in the Iraq war today (and by extension, the world). Imagine flying a fighter plane in the First World War or driving a Sherman tank in 1944. How each of these three men – James, Sanborn, and Eldridge – react to the events that the army puts them in says a lot about their characters, their job, and the war as a whole. The Hurt Locker is rife with deep meaning about the conflict, and rarely does a scene go by without provoking prolonged contemplation. I’ve always felt you can peg a film ‘great’ if its viewers feel they’re almost missing subsequent scenes while deconstructing imagery from the last.
The film, which follows James’ EOD squad through Baghdad, is, surprisingly, not...
Title: Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball Starring: Vinnie Jones, Tom Berenger Directed by: P.J. Pesce Written by: Olatunde Osunsanmi Studio: Universal Studios Rated: R for bloody violence and language Runtime: 86 min. (88 unrated version) Release date: January 19 2010
Synopsis
Walter Weed, an unassuming FBI agent with medium level security clearance is informed by his colleagues that a bounty has been placed on his head. By sweeping the airwaves and other forms of transmission, communications specialists within the bureau have determined that this bounty is of a high profile nature and is accompanied by a specific expiration time. The agents assigned to the case must now get to the root of the bounty and formulate a strategy regarding keeping Walter Weed safe and alive. According to the agents, but for reasons yet unveiled, this high profile bounty will undoubtedly spur a frenzy of eager assassins all gunning for the lucrative payday.
Rating
Close range kill shots, large caliber weapons, explosions a plenty and lots of blood splatter adorn this deservingly R rated movie. The violence and depiction of spraying blood is your basic Hollywood type; prone to exaggeration and vivid. There’s nothing interesting about the way people meet their maker or in which they do the killing; just another day in a movie filled with lavish and unrealistic shootouts.
Video
Nearly all of the action took place indoors, and most of that was within small enclosed spaces with little or just ambient lighting. This caused the entire movie to be on the darker side. There was a great mix of color, but the lighting on the sets was too bleak and didn’t allow for some details to penetrate.
The explosions were average and the director incorporated an even mix of camera angles, but the camera tricks were just stale. Close camera placement to enhance how disorientated characters were after being involved in lots of gunfire or being in close proximity to an explosion had a real...
Starring: Keira Knightly, Matthew Macfadyen, Rosamund Pike, Simon Woods, Jena Malone, Donald Sutherland, Brenda Blethyn, Simon Woods Director: Joe Wright Studio: Universal Studios Runtime: Rating: PG Blu-ray Release Date: January 26, 2010
Movie
Let me clear the air here, first. I normally don’t like these kind of movies and truth be told, even the ‘Pride and Prejudice’ starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle bored me out of my mind. Maybe it was the lengthy runtime of 300 minutes of that version, but even still I just had a hard time getting into any portion of that version. That is not the case for this version of Jane Austen’s story at all. In fact, I actually like this movie. I like it enough that I bought this film now three times, different formats, mind you. First was when it was released on DVD, my wife initially made the purchase, but when we watched it I enjoyed it. Next it was on the now defunct HD-DVD format. Finally, this retold classic tale of Ms. Austen’s has now finally made it to blu-ray and it has now made it into my collection for a third time.
This retelling visualization of Jane Austen’s ever-popular novel really captures my attention from the very beginning of the film all the way to the credits. As the film opens with Elizabeth Bennet (Knightly) returning home she overhears her extremely eager mother (Blethyn) speaking to father (Sutherland) saying that there is a wealthy man by the name of Mr. Bingley (Woods) that is renting out a nearby estate. The only interest of Mrs. Bennet’s is to find suitable marriage material for her five daughters and Mr. Bingley seems to fit that role.
When the Bennets attend a public ball, Mrs. Bennet forcibly introduces her daughters and immediately Jane Bennet (Pike) seemingly hits it off with Mr. Bingley. As the two go off to dance, Elizabeth is left with Mr. Darcy (Macfadyen) who is at the ball escorting Mr. Bingley and his sister Caroline Bingley. Making polite conversation Elizabeth speaks to Mr. Darcy who then ultimately brushes her off. Later she overhears him make a rude comment about her. Taken back by this she is left with a bad experience and impression of Mr. Darcy. And there begins the feud between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet.
Title: Avatar
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, Giovanni Ribisi, Stephen Lang, Joel Moore
Directed by: James Cameron
Written by: James Cameron
Studio:Fox
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 162 min
Release Date: December 18, 2009
Movie
Avatar is arguably the most hyped, and now most successful movie ever created. The brainchild of James Cameron, Avatar was nearly 5 years in the making though the script was written as early as 1994. The film begins soaring above a rainforest – Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is dreaming while in cryostatic suspension on his way to Pandora, a moon of another planet approximately 4 light years from earth. Pandora is covered almost entirely by rainforest and is populated by a ten foot tall humanoid species called the Na’vi. Through a series of flashbacks we learn that Jake is a paraplegic, injured during his military service. Jake’s identical twin brother, a scientist, was selected for an expedition to Pandora to “drive” an avatar, a genetically engineered hybrid of Na’vi and human DNA. When Jake’s brother is murdered, representatives of the corporation sponsoring the expedition contact Jake – his genetic similarity to his brother will allow him to take his place as an avatar driver.
After a shuttle takes him to the surface of Pandora, Jake dons his oxygen mask. Humans are unable to breath Pandora's atmosphere but are unaffected by the weather otherwise. The officer in charge of military affairs on Pandora, Colonel Quaritch, is warning new arrivals that life on Pandora is harsh, that those who do not “cultivate a strong mental attitude” will not survive.
Jake is then introduced to Norm Spellman, also a scientist and avatar driver, Norm takes Jake to the science lab where he sees his avatar for the first time. Approximately 10 feet tall, the avatar is blue skinned with flecks of silver on his skin and has a long tail. Jake is surprised to find out the avatar looks like he and his brother, Norm explains this is a result of the human DNA he and his avatar share.
We are then introduced to Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) who greets Norm cordially and then proceeds to lash out at Jake – making it plain she does not want him on Pandora. The following morning Jake is taken to enter his...
We would like to welcome Visual Apex as a new sponsor at Home Theater Shack.
Visual Apex is built on customer satisfaction, specializing in Home Theater Projectors, Plasma TVs, Projection Screens, Home Theater Speakers, Mounts, Replacement Bulbs, and much more for home theater and gaming. Save more cash with their home theater packages and weekly specials!
Quote:
Visual presentation - the art and equipment, is in a state of constant change. We're positioned at the apex of this evolution.
Our customers embody the spectrum of presenting professionals including those in the business, government, education and home theater sectors. Buying in volume and selling direct, we offer competitive prices and immediate delivery. Then, we give them more.
Visual Apex is the culmination of thirty years shared experience listening, advising, questioning critiquing, and actually using the digital presentation systems we represent. Call us first, exploit this knowledge, trust our insight and celebrate your decision.
Visual Apex will be sponsoring our Home Theater Projectors forum.
My personal Panasonic PT-AE4000 is coming from Visual Apex. Please consider them for your next projector and/or other products they offer. They have extremely competitive prices... in most cases they will be the lowest you will find. If they are not... give them a call and give them a chance. You will not find better customer service anywhere! 4.91/5.00 at Pricegrabber - 5/5 at Epinions - 9.77/10.00 at ResellerRatings - 5/5 at Yahoo Shopping - 4.75/5.00 at Projector Central ... combined for over 2870 reviews from these merchants alone.
As always, we are committed to bringing you the absolute best of sponsors.
Starring: Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Radha Mitchell
Directed by: Jonathan Mostow
Written by: Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato
Studio: Touchstone Pictures
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 89 minutes
Release Date: 1/26/2010
Movie
In the near future, 98% of the worlds population have physically cut themselves off from society. Though they still interact on a daily basis, they do so through the use of remote controlled avatars known as Surrogates. These surrogates are a safe way for people to interact in the world without leaving their homes and have actually caused the crime rate and murder rate to drop significantly. But that is all about to change…
Based on the graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele, “Surrogates” is a sci-fi action movie starring Bruce Willis as Tom Greer, a detective working on a case in which two people have died while still being connected to their Surrogates. With the help of his partner Peters (Radha Mitchell), Greer quickly tracks the murderer to a robot/surrogate free zone where his surrogate is terminated. Greer, now in his older, bald and weaker human body must figure out who is really behind this conspiracy before the killer strikes again, this time on a much grander scale.
Surrogates is a popcorn movie and should be viewed as such. I think Jonathan Mostow did a very good job of telling the story and getting the message across and it seems about on par with some of his earlier films such as U571, Breakdown and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. The action is thoughtful and drives the story forward and Bruce Willis is, well, Bruce Willis. The one caveat I want to inject is around Ving Rhames performance as “The Prophet”. I have always thought that Ving Rhames is an extremely underrated actor and his performance in this movie only gives validity to my statement. The action in Surrogates is plentiful and standard fair for a Bruce Willis action movie. The rest of the cast deliver convincing performances with Ving Rhames being the standout. Though the story is predictable, it is evenly paced throughout.
Title: The Invention of Lying Starring: Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K.
Directed by: Ricky Gervais & Matthew Robinson
Written by: Ricky Gervais & Matthew Robinson
Studio: Warner Bros.
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hour 40 min
Release Date: 1/19/2010
Movie
Imagine a world where there has never been a single lie told. Where every thought, or word out of someone's mouth was the absolute truth, no holding back. That world is presented in Ricky Gervais' movie, The Invention of Lying. This concept for a movie was genius, and very original. Never before have I seen a movie with this kind of storyline. The movie opens up the best possible way it could have. Mark Bellison (Gervais) and Anna McDoogles (Garner) are going out on a date with each other. Upon arrival to McDoogles apartment, Bellison's short, chubbier figure is immediately criticized by McDoogles. Throughout the date, the honesty really starts to have the better of the audience as it is very easy to relate to what each character is saying, but we (the audience) only think those comments, never would we be as open and honest as the characters in the movies are. The date ends with Bellison questioning if there would be a second date to follow. But McDoogles is drunk, and lets Bellison know by telling him she will have to wait till the morning after the alcohol has passed through to decide what she thinks of him.
We then follow Bellison to his career at Lecture Films. Because there is no deceit or fiction, or lies, the movie industry revolves around a reader telling the audience of events in times past. These films are more dull then the ones you are forced to watch in grade school, but without lies, there is no such thing as entertaining movie. But to these people, these movies are entertaining. After a series of unfortunate events for Bellison, he finds himself in some need of money for rent. When he goes to the bank, where he only has a small amount, he tells the first lie. Yes, the first lie to ever be told throughout mankind. Quite possibly the funniest part of this movie, the bank's system is down, and because there is no such thing as a lie, not even a thought of it, the teller says to Bellison while she can't look up his account or close it, that he can...
Title: Pandorum
Starring: Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid
Directed by: Christian Alvart
Written by: Travis Milloy
Rated: R
Runtime: 90 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: 1/19/2010
Movie
For me, Pandorum was a boring and mind-numbing movie to have to endure. I know that sounds harsh but I don't feel it is an exaggeration. I try very hard to base all movies on one very simple premise. A story can be simple or complex but in all cases it must be coherent and have a point when it is done.
Pandorum opens with two crew members waking from hyper-sleep in a liquid filled chamber covered in a disgusting secondary skin with large tubes running through their bodies and a breathing apparatus attached to their faces in a scene that could have been taken out of “The Matrix”. Both crew members are suffering severe memory loss due to an extended hyper-sleep. They wake to find the ship in lockdown after losing power and must now start putting the pieces together of their fragmented memories to discover what happened to the ship and her 60,000 member crew while on their way to Tanis, (Earth 2).
Bower (Ben Foster), almost immediately recognizes that the ships reactor is at the root of their troubles and heads out to reset it with the help of Payton, (Dennis Quaid) guiding him remotely through the maze of ducts and pathways to the ships core. Once outside, Bower finds himself in a race against time and monsters, reminiscent of those in “The Descent”, to the core of the ship to reset the reactor while Payton battles to retain his sanity as “Pandorum”, (space dementia) starts setting in.
The first two thirds of the movie drag on with action being random and uneven. The final third of the movie picks up a bit but only hampers the overall flow of the movie. The amount of stuff that is being thrown at the viewer at one time begins to feel meaningless as all of the plot lines suddenly start to converge on this one act of the film. The end result left me feeling like I had just wasted my evening.
This could have been a really good movie but it isn’t. The performances were good; Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid were solid in their portrayals of their characters and the premise for the story was good however; there was a general lack of cohesion throughout the entire movie. I rarely find myself looking at the clock while...
Title: High Life Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Joe Anderson Directed by: Gary Yates Written by: Gary Yates, Lee MacDougall (screenplay) Studio: Union Pictures Rated: R for drug use, pervasive language and some violence Runtime: 78 min. Release date: January 15 2010 (limited)
Synopsis
Timothy Olyphant plays a junkie predominantly hooked on morphine who along with three other addict buddies conceives a plan to rob an ATM during an unscheduled repair.
The movie is shot in Winnipeg, Manitoba, (my home town) and takes place in 1983, around the time when ATMs were slowly becoming common sites outside banks.
Capitalizing on the nuance of the ATM and the associated rather lax security measures and lack of identification verification, the four dopes decide that stealing the money tray from within the ATM during an unscheduled repair will yield the highest rate of success.
So the guys have a sit down and meticulously go through the steps involved in their supposed perfect crime.
It’s always funny to watch this cliché, but amusing scenario where a hapless crew imagine the stickup and try to plan everything out, but you know they rarely have a contingency plan, and if Plan B is the resulting solution to a problem, it’s usually a spur of the moment deal that’s not well thought out.
To not give too much away the perfect crime is usually far from that, and if that crime does go haywire, the consequences are no doubt comical, surprising and definitely a pleasure to watch; as in the case in High Life.
Rating
The movie is rated R in America, but that harsh rating is mainly due to the presence of detailed scenes involving drug use. It seems that violence and blood are more acceptable and when shown in moderation the rating reflects that, but as soon as needles enter the picture and more importantly scenes involving junkies cooking the “gear” and shooting up, the rating gets more restrictive. In my opinion the movie has an even mix of gunfire, profanity and scenes of drug use, but none are that explicit and are a pretty common scene amongst these types of movies. On account of that I think the movie should have been rated PG-14. The MPAA should be more lenient, especially since today’s generation of teenagers are privy to watching numerous television shows on HBO and Showtime that depict the scenes mentioned above, but on a more graphic level.
Starring: Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, Fred Tatasciore, Alan Oppenheimer Director: Shane Acker Studio: Universal Runtime: 80 Minutes Rating: PG-13 Blu-ray Release Date: December 29, 2009
Movie
In a time of war where humans fight against machines that then became self-aware, humanity battle for their very own survival. A hopeful scientist (Oppenheimer) gives life to nine little figurines that he created as a last hope for the humanity. After the apocalyptic ending to the human race all that is left in the world is the machines that were created by the humans and these nine little figures. As we begin, 9 (Wood), awakens and finds himself alone in the room where his maker had died and as he steps out into the ravaged world he is found by another one of his kind, 2 (Landau). After briefly befriending one another a vicious mechanical beast attacks both of them and 2 is taken away while 9 narrowly escapes.
As 9 wanders alone some more he comes to a building that several other figurines like him, 1 (Plummer), 5 (Reilly), 6 (Glover) and 8 (Tatasciore) take refuge in. 9 explains to them of what happened to 2 and is intent on getting him back. Acting as the unsaid leader, 1 insists that there is no hope for getting 2 back and that he is lost forever however, 9 doesn’t entirely believe 1 because it seems as though he knows more than he is leading on. In fact, of the four new figures 9 has encountered only one of them actually believes him, 5, who was seemingly a lot closer to 2, the figure who was taken, than the rest of them. Convinced that there still is hope for 2 they both set off to find him.
In their quest to find 2 they run into a rogue figurine, 7 (Connelly), who seems entirely against following their current leader, 1, and is somewhat hesitant of their intentions to find 2. 5, 7, and 9’s journey leads to a factory where the mechanical beasts are produced. While their original objective to find 2 partially succeeded as they found that, in fact, he was lost forever, they uncovered more to their past along the way. As they return back to the others and tell of what they found 9 reaffirms that 1 knows much more. The figurines that are now left must join together to find out who they are and just...
Title: Moon
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey
Directed by: Duncan Jones
Written by: Dunan Jones
Studio:Sony Pictures Classics
Rated: R
Runtime: 97 min
Release Date: July 17, 2009 (UK)
Movie
Director Duncan Jones' debut film, Moon is a science fiction work that is set in our near future. The film opens to a commercial: Earth has finally found a source of clean energy, 70% of our power now comes from fusion reactors fueled by Helium 3. Lunar Industries extracts this Helium 3 from moon rocks and ships it back to earth to power our planet.
Sam Bell is an astronaut nearing the end of his 3-year contract working for Lunar Industries on their mining outpost. The maintenance of massive harvesters that slowly traverse the lunar surface gathering Helium 3 is Sam's responsibility. Whenever a harvester has gathered enough Helium 3 to fill a canister Sam must take a rover and collect this canister before shipping it back to earth from the base.
His only companion is a companion computer named GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey) who functions as Sam's doctor, and in many ways his only friend. We learn very early in the film that the lunar satellite allowing real-time communication with earth is no longer functional. Sam is desperate to be back on Earth with his wife and daughter and is beginning to suffer from headaches, cold sweats and lapses in concentration. When Sam hallucinates during one of his trips collecting Helium he accidentally collides with a harvester and awakens in the infimary next to GERTY. GERTY tells Sam that he was in an accident and Sam must rest for several hours before he can even stand. When Sam is back on his feet he is unable to venture outside - GERTY has sealed the airlock. Suspicious about the sealed door, Sam fakes a gas leak to convince GERTY to let him outside. During Sam's time outside he makes a discovery that forces him to reevaluate Lunar Industries, his time working on the moon, and his own identity.
Rating
Moon is rated R for profanity, mild nudity and moderate violence and gore (injuries).
Home theater design and acoustics for home theater systems are some of the most discussed topics in home theater forums today. With the development of high definition DVD, HD-DVD players and Blu-ray players, and the various other home audio components, it's important to focus on the right home theater design and acoustics for home theater systems. DIY projects have become very popular... and at the Shack you'll find some of the most comprehensive DIY Subwoofer LLT and IB projects and extensive DIY Screen information. Be sure to check out our forums for the latest discussions.
