Movies and Streaming Video

Dark Knight Rises Final Trailer

It has become a common tactic for a film studio to attach a trailer for a hotly anticipated release to help bolster interest in another release. It was already widely known that the final trailer for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ was planned to show with ‘The Avengers’. But now that ‘The Avengers’ is breaking records in its international release and seem assured a tremendous box office, Warner Brothers has released the final trailer to YouTube! And based on the trailer … this might be the best entry into the Dark Knight series yet! Why wait for the Avengers … check…


David Lynch’s “Crazy Clown Time” Music Video Breaks Out the (NSFW) Crazy!

I have always been a big fan of filmmaker David Lynch, from Eraserhead to Blue Velvet to Twin Peaks and beyond, his imaginative visual style and remarkable storytelling has always been compelling. Recently he released an album called Crazy Clown Time, and now we have a music video for the title track – directed by Lynch himself of course! It contains semi-blocked nudity and loads of bizarre imagery. Enjoy.


Amazon Instant Video Lands on the Playstation 3!

One of the best things about the Kindle Fire and Roku for me is the Amazon Instant Video service tied in with my Amazon Prime membership. I love all of the available movies and shows, and made frequent use of them. Now Amazon is extending the reach of the service – to the Playstation 3! Here are some details: Good news — Prime Instant Video is now available on PlayStation 3. Since launching a year ago, we’ve more than tripled our library, including titles such as Sons of Anarchy, Downton Abbey, Lost, Glee, 24, Deadliest Catch, SpongeBob SquarePants, Office Space,…


Great Music Videos from Before MTV

Image courtesy of ICanHasCheezburger Many folks think that the birth of the music video can be traced to the launch of MTV … but that really doesn’t make sense when you think about it. I mean, even knowing that MTV started as a small local station before transitioning to a major cable network … how would they have established themselves without existing material? The reality is that there have been music videos produced since the early days of sound-based video. With the advent of television and its popularity in 1950s, we started to see promotional videos attached to network shows…


Brookstone Pocket Projector for iPhone 4 Devices Review

The other day I wrote about one of the Brookstone iOS accessories Elana gave me for my birthday, the iConvert iPad scanner. Today we are going to look at an accessory that lets the iPhone or iPod touch become a home theater. The Brookstone Pocket Projector for iPhone 4 devices is pretty impressive. In fact, when Elana first saw it, she declared it to be “the coolest iPhone gadget ever!”. I don’t know about “THE coolest”, but it is pretty neat; let’s take a look. Here’s what Brookstone has to say about it: Easy to use—just dock your iPhone 4 device…


The Hunger Games, Hit or Hype?

image courtesy THG – The Hunger Games Blog at http://thg-thehungergames.blogspot.com/ It seems that everywhere you turn people are talking about the release of the feature film The Hunger Games this week. Here at Gear Diary, we are the same way and we have been burning up the wires talking about it too! Some have read the books, some not. Some think it’s all hype, some not. In the end, we decided to share with you our thoughts going into the release of this high-profile film! Read on…


The Hunger Games Film Review

This futuristic film exudes an intelligent quality, engaging drama, and compelling scenarios about a futuristic world in North America called Panem where teenage pairs are chosen from each of 12 districts to participate in a televised survival battle in the woodlands.


I’m the 3,500,001st Person to Watch this iPad Video

So maybe I’m the last person to see this video, but it’s still funny. Not so funny, is when your mother in law has to tell you about something having to do with the iPad. Regardless, if you have not seen this video you can be the 3,500,002nd person to watch it. It’s worth the 30 seconds.


The Who Launch Fan-Made Work as the OFFICIAL Video for ‘5:15’

Late last year in conjunction with the massive release of the wonderfully remastered Quadrophenia in a ‘Super Deluxe Edition’, the group asked fans to create a short film for the song ‘5:15’. The goal was to come up with a video that “does for the track what the Quadrophenia film did for the album.” Recently we heard that the winner was chosen, and now we have the video to match. The winner was created by Jeff Rodenberg, who won $2000 for his winning effort, as well as the chance to work with Universal Music Group’s marketing team to finalize the…


Katy Perry Plays Rapper in N*ggas In Paris

The thought of Katy Perry singing in general doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in me – she has about a 6 note range, requires all-too-obvious auto-tuning, and in live performances is a poster child for pre-recorded tracks. As for her rhythm … Well, she really can’t dance and certainly can’t sing and dance simultaneously. So again, not a lot of confidence there. Let us just say she is at her best walking around the stage singing along with a pre-recorded track in a way-too-short and way-too-tight dress. So how is it that I just watched her doing a cover of Jay…


Mercalli Easy Video Stabilizer Makes Fixing Movies Easy

  If you are like me, you enjoy taking occasional videos of sundry things, and if you are like me, you are hardly an expert. Far too often there is something going on at the drop of a hat that you would love to get on video, only to later discover on playback that the quality of the resulting video isn’t quite in the same league as David McLean’s Dr. Zhivago. No, the output looks more like a scene from “Battle: Los Angeles”, except you were just trying to film the kids on the swingset, not experiencing a ground-shaking alien…


Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter Trailers are Full of Undead Awesomeness!

I remember when my kids bought ‘Pride & Prejudice and Zombies’ by Seth Grahame-Smith in 2009, I assumed it would be just a silly little parody with no depth or sense of quality … boy was I ever wrong! The great story from Jane Austen was respectfully handled and transformed into story of love and manners – and zombie killing on the English countryside. There have been numerous others since then that have varied in quality … but the next one to really capture everyone’s imagination was another book by Seth Grahame-Smith, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. Now the book is…


Do Movies Like Dr. Seuss’ ‘The Lorax’ and ‘Wall-E’ Make a Difference?

My family went to see The Lorax in 3D yesterday. It took a little bit of convincing for Kev’s almost-13-year-old to get into the spirit of seeing a “kid’s cartoon”, as she was much more interested in seeing Eddie Murphy’s 1000 Words [not happening], but the 9-year-old was eager enough. Mentioning that the movie was done by the creators of Despicable Me (a DVD go-to favorite of theirs) got everyone in a good mood, and we were off! Many of you will remember the Dr. Seuss book of the same name that this movie was based upon, but just in case you missed it — here’s…



Walmart Will Offer to ‘Upgrade’ Your DVD to Ultraviolet Cloud Movies for $2 on April 16th

Have you ever thought: I wish I was able to get digital versions of my DVD movies? I mean, without using HandBrake and feeling like the movie industry is going to have you star in their next ‘You wouldn’t steal a car …’ promo? If you are concerned about the legality making a digital copy of a movie, you are not alone. Recent rulings seem to indicate a reversal in prior findings that came down to ‘it is legal to have a digital copy, but not to make one’. The new ruling says that being lawful owner of the disk…


Prepare for The Hunger Games With the Book Trailer for … The Hunger Pains!

If your family is like mine, everyone has read the Hunger Games trilogy and is anticipating the film release next week. Perhaps you have even re-read the first book more recently to refresh your memory (though you also likely skipped the last book to leave the memory of THAT rushed mess out of your mind), but were you aware that the Harvard Lampoon had just released a parody book? Released just a few weeks ago, my son got it for his birthday and both my boys have already torn through it and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you have checked out…


Get Your Geek On with the Unicorn City Trailer!

Every now and then you come upon a movie trailer that really gets at your inner geek … well, at MY inner geek anyway! This is one of those moments. I saw a blog post by Jay at Rampant Games about Unicorn City, and simply HAD to check it out!


Facebook Launches Timeline App Platform: Viddy launches Facebook App at SXSW!

Now that Facebook’s new Timeline feature has rolled out to the general public, companies are looking to find innovative ways to use it to provide services to users. Today at SXSW, Viddy in conjunction with Facebook’s launch of the Timeline App Platform is bringing their popular video app to Facebook. With Viddy for Facebook, users can share video content directly to Facebook, and Viddy videos can now appear on a person’s timeline, News Feed and ticker. As noted in the press release: “Watching videos with friends is inherently social,” said Justin Osofsky, Director of Platform Partnerships at Facebook. Viddy is…


A ‘Once in a Lifetime’ Duet Actually Worth Seeing

At the recent Grammy Awards the producers were constantly talking about artists they were throwing together for ‘once in a lifetime’ performances you ‘won’t want to miss’. But in reality the Coldplay / Rihanna medley was the perfect example of how lousy they were – she sang her song, they sang their song, and in between they sang a duet song about 10 feet apart with Rihanna never really acknowledging Chris Martin and the whole thing reminding you that just because two artists appear on a song together doesn’t mean they have ever met.


Which Muppet Would Survive in the Arena?

It seems like everyone in my social circle, from Gear Diary to Facebook to coworkers, are anxiously awaiting The Hunger Games. Know who else is excited for them? Surprisingly, The Muppets!


Game of Thrones on iTunes Introduces New Pricing Tiers for TV Shows?

Sean Bean of HBO’s hit “Game of Thrones”–today’s bone of contention! Last week, Carly put up a very interesting post that referred to a post by the folks at The AV Club.  The AV Club post talked a lot about piracy and concluded that “Be Patient” was the best solution for one’s desire to pirate content in the face of the current gallimaufry of release and pricing variations and unpredictability for electronic content, but the discussion it spawned between Carly and myself was on a more proactive, “What the heck can big media companies do while their normal channel market share…