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.

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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

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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

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Lexus Nuaero Concept Car

Behold: Lexus Nuaero Concept car.

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Atom Films - Refocused

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

Clip

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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