Adidas Commercial

Adidas Commercial - Link

Nike Site: Be The Legend

New Nike Campaign - Link

New Star Trek Trailer

Cadillac Records Trailer

Cadillac Records Theatrical Trailer

Gears of War 2 "Last Days"

Zack and Miri Make a Porno Review

Kevin Smith returns with Zack and Miri make a Porno.  The first half of the film spends too much time on what we see way in advance is a budding romance that is bound to happen between two long time friends/roommates aka Harry Met Sally.  The film gets trapped in a lot of unnecessary raunchy humor.  There are many laughs.  When the film's romantic turn finally comes it tries to teases us with a departure.  The film quickly wraps up and leaves you wanting more.  Just felt unfinished.  Still worth seeing. But if not definitely a Netflix cue.

Spikes

Lewis Hamilton Wins Formula 1 - First Black Man and Youngest at 23 yrs old

Lewis Hamilton becomes the first black driver to win a Formula One championship Sunday, and at age 23, he also became the series youngest champion ever.  Way to go Lewis.

Full Story

Spikes

Wassup 2008

Charles Stone III does it again.  Check out the Wassup 2008 Short film.  So funny.  Also great article in today's WSJ.  Way to go Charles.

Spikes

Gears of War 2 Trailer Rendezvous

Here is the new Gears Of War 2 Trailer.  Created by Anonymous Content.  They layer the famous poem from WW1 poet Alan Seeger.  Seeger died on the battle field from machine gun fire.  Are you familiar with his work?

Spikes

Coming to a Small Screen Near You!

There was a great article in the WSJ this weekend about the shift of films being available online.  Check it out.  Do you think this will hurt the film industry or help it?  And do you watch movies on line?  Which service do you like...?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122428678140546541.html

Spikes

Seven Pounds Trailer Review

Seven Pounds is the new film that Will Smith has coming out this Christmas.  The trailer was on the head of Max Payne.  The trailer while it might be a teaser has a fatal flaw.  It is implied that Will's character did something wrong and needs to help seven people for redemption.  Problem is they don't tell you of give you an idea of why he has to make these acts of kindness.  It make the trailer disjointed because it has no driving motive.  If they simply gave that little information the trailer would work, but currently it doesn't.

Check out the trailer and let me know if you agree.

Spikes

Max Payne Review

Saw Max Payne this weekend and the film does live up to the hype.  But it has some problems.  In the marketing of the film the winged Valkyrie are set up as being some Supernatural Villains that Max will have to battle.  They are not.  In my opinion not having the Valkyrie in the trailer could have helped in making the seeing of the movie even more wonderful.  Your mind spent a lot of time wondering where these winged characters would come in.  The marketing gave the film a Constantine feeling which is really off base.

The first 30 mins moves good but the second 30 drags and then the last 15 mins the movie takes off and pays.  The female lead comes in and out of her fake Russian accent and Payne (Walberg) in a couple of scenes where he a pistol and wins shoot out with an arm of automatic weapons.  But it still looks good and works.

Worth seeing but could use some editing.

Spikes

Is Steve Jobs Dying?

I may be the only person thinking this but Is Steve Jobs dying?  If you saw the latest Apple Keynote Address introducing the new Mac Book Pro, Steve has lost a lot of weight and just does not look good.  I shutter to think.  I have never purchased anything other than a Mac so I am a die hard Appler. But Steve has me a bit worried.  I hope I am wrong.  Let me know what you think.  A picture is worth a 1,000 words.

Spikes

Honda's New Concept Bike

Here is Honda's New Concept bike.  What do you think? Would you ride it?

Enzo BEST Kiteboarding Instructor

Everyone meet Enzo. He is my Kiteboarding Instructor. Has trained a
few world champs. Have I gone mad you ask, perhaps but I just fell in
love with this sport.

You just have to check out the BEST Site then ask if I am still crazy. Www.bestkiteboarding.com

Thanks Ian for the initial push.

Notorious Teaser Trailer

Urbanworld Fashion Show

The closing night fashion show was amazing.

Directors Guild Luncheon

Gina Prince Bythwood and Ava Duvernay at DGA Luncheon.

Queen Latifah Taping @Urbanworld

Saturday Taping of show with Queen Latifah for the promotion of her
Upcoming Film: Secret Life Of Bees

Urbanworld Jumps Off

12th Annual Fest Smash Hit. Me taking picture of photographers from
Red Carpet.

Recreating Big Bang

Scientist are about to recreate the birth of the universe (The Big Bang).  This is the world largest Atom smasher.  Some fear that this could create a black hole on earth and kill us all.  What do you think?  We if we wake up Thursday morning I guess we are all ok.

Full Article

Spikes

Urbanworld Begins

The curtain is about to rise on the 12th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival.  And we are very excited to have Steve Harvey return with the World Premiere (Still Trippin) following his success in the comedy smash hit Original Kings of Comedy which also premiered at UWFF.  The team is working hard and this is looking to be the best fest yet.  Featuring 85 films, the largest slate in UWFF history.  Stay tuned and for those coming we will see you there.  For registration and ticket sales visit www.urbanworld.org.

Spikes

Digital Cinema Rising

Digital Cinema continues it's march and rise under the Travis Reid (DCIP).  The digital footprint is well on it's way and will help Hollywood with it's much desired platforming of movie pricing.  Now 3D films and IMAX can get higher prices.  See full article on WSJ more.

Spikes

NOAA.gov

For the best weather updates go to the NOAA.gov site.  This site will make you smarter than the average weather man.  This is a site that is used by most pilots and captains.  It is so accurate that you can actually time bands of weather that are passing over your area.  The satellite radar are updated ever 3 minutes.  Helps to keep your family safe.  NOAA.gov.

Spikes

ESPN New Campaign

If you have not seen it ESPN has an amazing new street campaign. It is wild posting of real astroturf. Just fantastic marketing. What is amazing in NY is to watch people walk up to these and touch them.

Nice

Spikes

Babylon AD Review

Babylon AD is a Sci-Fi mystery flick set in the not too distant future. B.AD is a mix of Blade Runner and Minority Report. The movie moves well with many techno gadgets to salivate over. The director this week expressed his unhappiness with the studio taking over the film. In the last 15 mins the film falls apart and you can see that someone tried to do a quick patch job that just does not work.

Still worth a slow Saturday at the movies but it needed a better ending.

From a marketing point of view I felt that the gadgets could have given the film some additional legs. Iron Man, Minority Report, 007 and others use this approach. Not sure why the studio did'nt give their film this fighting edge. One of the sweet toys featured is a Can-Am Spyder Roadster Motorcycle.

Spikes

Queen Latifah going to Urbanworld

Queen Latifah will serve as the honorary chair of 2008 Urbanworld Film Festival, which runs from Sept. 10-14 in New York City. She stars in "The Secret Life of Bees," which will play as the closing night film, followed by a Q&A with writer/director Gina Prince-Bythewood, Latifah and Sophie Okonedo.

The fest, which focusses on mainstream cinema by and about people of color, will screen 85 films at the AMC Loews 34th Street Theaters.

Full Article

Volkswagen T6 Concept Car

Holographic Projection

In the spirit of Star Wars check out this Holographic Projection. Obi Won Kenobi your our only hope.

Clip

Spikes

Urbanworld Film Fest (Sept 10th -14th 2008)

So we are just weeks away from the Urbanworld Film Festival this year. September 10-14. The staff is working hard and have launched the new site. What is unique is that we added a filmmakers social networking section. Very proud of the work that Christine (Urbanworld), Adam and Lemont at Turbohorse. Great job team. This is going to be an exciting year.

www.urbanworld.org

Spikes

Lexus Nuaero Concept Car

Behold: Lexus Nuaero Concept car.

Spikes

Atom Films - Refocused

Comedy Central is refocusing the Atom Films Brand as an online indie comedy label. Here is video clip from Adweek.

Clip

Spikes

Tumi - Means Loyalty

I have to give a big plug to Tumi. If you did not know Tumi has a life time guarantee on it's luggage. And this summer I had a situation that I just knew they were going to throw me out of the store. On vacation out of the country my suitcase was lost and went on a bit of a journey. Finally a very nice baggage handler suggested I check at the other end of the baggage claim for my bag. There it was, but missing one of it's wheels.

Have you ever tried to look good dragging your bag through the airport with a missing wheel? Hard to do. Upon my return home I took my bag to the Tumi store on Madison Avenue. I was prepared to pay for the repair. The staff was amazing. The sales woman said we have a life time guarantee on our luggage. We will get it repaired right away. The next day I returned to the store and picked up my fully restored suitcase.

Tumi is the best. I have been buying Tumi for 20 years. They truly stand by their customers. Thanks to the staff at the Madison Ave location.

Spikes

Clone Wars Review

I was worried about Clone Wars having read some of the reviews. People are over reacting. I found it to be consistent with expectations and quite good. It seems like many people forgot that it is the pilot for a tv show. It is worth seeing. If your a Star Wars fan it is a good fix. Nothing can compete with the films.

I found one part of the film disturbing. Anakin gets a Jedi apprentice (Ahsoka Tano). They constantly refer to how young she is. At least 20 times. There is some serious sexual overtones and play on words. Not sure if it was intentional or not. It worked in Star Wars Original between Han Solo and Princess Leia because there was a lot of comic relief around them with Luke, C3PO, Wookie and R2. But Anakin and Ahsoka are like a bickering married couple carrying Baby Yoda around. Just found that part strange and grew tired of it.

Still great film and worth seeing. The animation is nice and the camera work is spectacular. Some of the one liners from the droids is priceless.

Spikes

Invisible Cloak

BBC

Researchers at the University of California in Berkeley have developed a material that can bend light around 3D objects making them "disappear". The materials do not occur naturally but have been created on a nano scale, measured in billionths of a metre. The team says the principles could one day be scaled up to make invisibility cloaks large enough to hide people.

Link: BBC Article

Spikes

Britain From Skies Above

Be Kanye

Kanye

Paul Newman

It has been a week that reminds us we are all mortal. One of the best class acts in Hollywood is Paul Newman. The way he lives on and off the screen. He is one of the few who truly uses his blessed life to give back and have fun while doing it.

Well looks like Paul is about to star in his greatest role. One that is thrust upon so many. Paul our prayers go out to you and your family.

This moment reminds me of a great Prayer

"Do not fear what may happen tomorrow. The same loving father who cares for you today will care for you tomorrow and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it, Be at peace then, and put aside all anxious thoughts and fearful imaginings. Trust in the Giver of all good gifts."

St. Francis de Sales

Thank you for being an example, touching my life and the life of so many.

Spikes

Bernie Mac- "We Will Miss You"

Bernie Mac, Steve Harvey and Cedric the Entertainer came to Urbanworld to premiere their film Original Kings of Comedy directed by Spike Lee (2000). We went through the usual intros with Spike calling up his stellar cast for shout outs. Then as they are walking off Bernie grabs the mic and if you never saw Bernie live you missed something special.

Bernie thanked the crowd for coming and then unloaded... I am glad y'all came and most of you probably snuck in here tonight and didn't pay. Cause ya cheap. On opening night you better go out and buy a damn ticket, cause I work too G** Da** hard for you MF's to be stealing from me. And don't let me see a bootleg copy of this movie.

Bernie had the place in stitches. Original Kings of Comedy went on to be an enormous success. It is still the second highest grossing film per production cost ratio in history. Grossing over 12x its production cost.

Bernie we are going to miss you. Neither Hollywood nor the Hood will ever be the same.

Spikes

Motorcycle meets Smart Car

I just got off the phone with a friend who mentioned a motorcycle tragedy which is always very sad to hear. My condolences go out to the family. It brought to mind a couple of concept bikes that are out there to aid in such crashes and to help increase the likely hood of survival.

The fist it the Monotracer www.monotracer.com. This bike comes out of Germany. This particular design is a 2 seater. What is unique is that it has side wheels that come down at a stop position and also act as a support for a skid.

The second design is the TECA Concept bike - The Kneeslider http://www.concept-teca.com. It is a shell for a standard single rider bike. Not sure how these hold up in a crash test and could not find any information for that but seems like they are headed in the right direction to further protect riders while maintaining freedo.

Happy Safe ;-) Riding

Stacy

Dark Knight Review

Dark Knight is amazing in so many ways. It smashes many ideas of one dimensional characters that we often see in comic fair. Batman is being attacked on two fronts. In love and war. We find that his love interest is tired of the save the world routine and is dating the District Attorney and the Criminal world have turned to a character like The Joker to get rid of The Batman. Even Gotham's towns folk are tired of the Batman as well because the body counts continues to rising in the battle between cops and robbers and they are the collateral damage. So Batman finds himself unliked, unloved and wanted.

The Joker is one of the finest villains you will ever see on screen. Heath Ledger will win the Oscar for this role. The Joker is a villain who rises above thuggery. He is on a higher mission. He calls himself an agent of Chaos. This is what makes him so dangerous. He has no vulnerable sides. He is the great disrupter to the status quo. He is in it for the sport of it. The Joker burns a mountain of money because it mean nothing to him. This film in many ways is a biblical battle between Gabriel and Lucifer. The agent of Order vs the agent of Chaos. Yen meets Yang. As the plot thickens the Joker puts life so clearly to Batman (to us)..."We need each other. You can't kill me and I can't kill you".

The Dark Knight is a defining film of our times. It does not give us answers, but asks us questions. The imperial idea of what is good and what is evil is not so simple any more. As a Nation we seem to have lost our way. By any means necessary is the new motto. Laws are only to enforce on those we see as criminals. We want to be right at any costs. The right God, The right Oil and the right brand of freedom. When a great nation doubts it self it needs someone to fight to define it's ideas. And the agents of chaos hiding in the mountains of far away lands need an empire to fight, an oppressor to destroy.

In one of the final scenes Batman has the Joker suspended upside down and as the Joker explains to Batman that he can't kill him because he needs him. The camera rotates 180 to give a Joker world view and we find even in all his killing he is an agent to serve the same universe. Batman realizes this is true. We are looking in the mirror at self. There is very little difference between these two Knights they are twin brothers. The quote by Lord John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton "Absolute power corrupts absolutely", comes to mind and the Joker is an equalizer very similar to the battle between the Architect and the Oracle in the Matrix. It's as if these films are trying to remind us of our humanity. In our digital age or differences can travel as fast as our similarities if we chose to focus on them. I am my brothers keeper.

Stacy Spikes

New Yorker Obama Cover

Wow, New Yorker you can't be serious. I am speechless. In so many ways you would think that we have come along way, but it looks like we have not. Sales must be really poor at the New Yorker for a stunt like this.

There is a great documentary film called "Soldiers With-Out Swords" on the history of the Black Press in America. The Black Press would emulate the mainstream press in their tactics to vilify people of color. To be balanced I wonder if we will see Mr and Mrs McCain dressed in White Sheets, with photo of Hitler on the wall as they click their boots in an Arian salute. Probably not!

New Yorker GROW UP! And members of the staff who are persons of color SPEAK UP! You have a responsibility to your families, your community and your country at large.

Spikes

http://stacyspikes.blogspot.com

Hellboy 2 Review

Hellboy picks up where it left off in this dysfunctional super hero family. Hellboy old plot is saved just in time by the departure in the Guillermo Del Toro directing and script. The film gets a little stale.Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth Director) gives the film great depth. We enter a world very similar to the Cantina bar in the Original Star Wars. These characters are refreshing. Hellboy is definitely worth seeing and will do great at video.

Spikes

http:www.stacyspikes.blogspot.com

Adidas Olympic Ad Campaign

Here are some images from the upcoming Adidas Olympics Ad Campaign. Using China Nationalism. What do you think?

Hancock Movie Review

Hancock (played by Will Smith) is a bold, daring movie taking a shot at our present super hero culture. It takes a complicated hero and tries to rehabilitate him to what should be his natural sober state. People want to love Hancock, but his drunken blunders just seems to make everything worst. Peter Berg does a great job in directing this cast with Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman. At the end of the day Hancock leaves you wanting more. The flaw is in the script. The film can't decide if it wants to be a Super Hero Flick or a Love Story. We all know that underneath all super hero films is a love story, but Hancock gets confused by it's brilliant opening and does a sloppy job ending the film.

Spoiler - Cover your eyes. The 2nd half of the film is similar to Cast Away when Tom Hanks character comes home after he was considered dead. We discover that Smith and Theron both have super powers and we're married prior. Smith lost his memory following an injury and Theron settled into a normal life with Bateman leaving Smith to fend for himself. That part is fine and a great twist, but at the end of the film our hero ends up with nothing. When Hanks character in Cast Away is standing at the crossroads and not sure which direction to go. Hope drives by with the wings on the back of the truck similar to the package that kept him alive all those years. We see that the hand of fate was there all along. Giving our hero a shot at love after all. That's is missing in Hancock. Smith ends up with a bird and making hearts on the moon. He does not get the girl or any girl.

Hancock is still worth seeing, even though it's not the great film it could have been.

Spikes

"Wanted" Review

If you liked Fight Club your going to love "Wanted". It's the perfect antidote to the cubically challenged. James McAvoy does a great job as a loser who is just being walked on by life. Wanted's Geek Gone Bad is a throw back to Michael Douglas in "Falling Down". McAvoy snaps into his new life after a wild chase filled night with Angelina. Once you get past the fact that most of the stunts are impossible and you are seeing an alternative world the movie is a blast.

The opening window jump scene is nice and definitly a Matrix knock off, but still well done and great to watch. Timur Bekmambetov brings such cost effective approach to filmmaking. It's unbelievable how successful he is on the budget given. He is on trajectory to becoming a great director.

Spikes

http://stacyspikes.blogspot.com

Wall-E Review

My wife and I took our 2 year old daughter to see Wall-E this weekend. She woke this morning saying "Daddy We See Wall-E today"? "Yes Honey, we will...". Wall-E is fantastic on so many levels. Pixar has made a poignant and important movie with a message for our times. It is a call to our kids to rise up and fix what we have so resourcefully broken.

The music soundtrack is just wonderful. Wall-E has discovered our ancient romantic past in old movies. He is ripe for love when his angel EVE comes from the heavens in a thundering ship. EVE is sent to find plant life on Earth.

The adventure of Wall-E is a protective layer for a true love story. Simple in it's innocence, you realize that love and sacrifice are the fundamental ingredients for survival. The love and fight for life displayed by Wall-E and Eve smashes our person video screen image of ourselves like the hammer in "1984". In an instant we are transported from the world of the ME back to the future of the WE.

This love story between 2 machines has the power to wake us from our 700 year sleep. They show us the way home and help us to believe again.

Pixar Team good job!

Spikes

Sign up for feeds http://stacyspikes.blogspot.com

Miracle at St Anna

The trailer for Spike Lee's new film Miracle at St Anna was on the head of The Incredible Hulk. The film looks spectacular. You can see that Spike has really become a master of his element. Despite all the silly back and forth with Clint Eastwood, it's probably a good thing that there have not been many WWII stores about the Black Soldiers. It leaves the door open for Spike to tell them.

I will be there to salute their memory and service to us and our counrty. Opens September 26th.

Here is a trailer link... Source Yahoo  http://Movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809947151/video/8293703

Stacy Spikes

Icon A5 Launch - Silicone Valley Takes Flight

Icon Aircraft headed up by former F-16 Pilot Kirk Hawkins and the designers from Burt Ruttan are launching the ICON A5. A 2 passenger Amphibious Light Sport Aircraft. With a flight range of 300 nm, cruising speed of 120 mph and price tag at about $140k. Oh and wings fold up so you can park it in your garage.

http://www.iconaircraft.com

Spikes