Fantastic Four Trailer

So it appears we've moved from all trailers being a copy of Inception's trailer ( BRAAAAAMMMMM ), to trailers being a copy of Interstellar's.   I'm okay with that.   How do I feel about Fantastic Four?   That's a bit tougher.  For a first teaser it looks pretty good.  My only fear is that it seems to take a very Nolan-esque route in it's storytelling; going much grittier, more serious, more dour.   For a franchise like Fantastic Four, oh I'm sorry "Fant4stic", I'm not sure if that is going to fly.   Josh Trank's Chronicle was a pretty cool found-footage take on the superhero genre, and the dude has some serious filmmaking chops, but nothing I've heard about this project makes me the least bit excited for it.   At least in this one Thing is made out of rocks and doesn't look like a goofy clay mask like he did last time.    Holding my judgement on this until the full trailer.

INSPIRATION OF THE DAY - JAN 28, 2015

Every day I like to take the time to highlight an image from the 500px Popular page that I found interesting, impressive, or inspiring.    Today's image is "Monocurve" by Ted Gore.   This is by far one of the most interesting landscapes I've come across in some time.   Great use of leading lines, and a great eye for interesting composition.   Enjoy!

Teslas are the future, whether you like it or not.

I'm not usually much of a fan of obviously marketing-based viral videos.  Generally videos that TRY to be "viral" succeed in only being annoying.  I will however, make an exception for this.  

Showing off the acceleration of the newest iteration of the Tesla Model S, this video shows the reactions of people being rocketed from 0-60 in the Tesla's new "insane" acceleration mode.  This, I would assume is something akin to launch control on your average supercar.   It's a fun video to watch, and it makes me want to take a ride in a Tesla (as the Tesla marketers would want).  But, I have a slightly deeper takeaway from all of this.   It's now clear that the future of the automotive industry is going to eventually be electric;  gas prices be damned.

It's not very long ago that the words electric car were synonymous with thoughts of slow, stripped down, lame vehicles that made a Toyota Prius seem like an exciting drive.  Now, we are facing a world where if you want real performance you are going to WANT to go electric.  Simply because electric motors driven at the wheel will be able to provide way more power and torque than any gas engine ever will.  You won't want to get an electric car to save the earth, you will want to get an electric car because you will smoke anything else on the road off the line.   Once you get the gearheads interested,  it's only a matter of time.

FCC: Blocking wifi in hotels prohibited

Hey look!  Something that proves the FCC can do the right thing once in a while after all!

Today the Federal Communications Commission ruled against Marriott who had started blocking the wifi signals of personal hotspot devices in it's hotels so that customers would be forced to purchase access from the hotel itself.   This isn't the FCC's first step in this fight though, as they fined Marriott $600,000 in October for the same offense.   This is just their way of putting a little force behind their words.   From the FCC's ruling:

The Enforcement Bureau has seen a disturbing trend in which hotels and other commercial establishments block wireless consumers from using their own personal Wi-Fi hot spots on the commercial establishment’s premises,” the FCC wrote. “As a result, the Bureau is protecting consumers by aggressively investigating and acting against such unlawful intentional interference.
”Such action is illegal and violations could lead to the assessment of substantial monetary penalties.”

Apple Posts 4th quarter earnings

Here's the shock of the year.   Apple made a few more metric tons of money.  From Apple PR:

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2015 first quarter ended December 27, 2014. The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $74.6 billion and record quarterly net profit of $18 billion, or $3.06 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $57.6 billion and net profit of $13.1 billion, or $2.07 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.

Ghostbusters 3 cast revealed

The Hollywood Reporter today reported on Director Paul Feig's twitter post naming the official  cast of the upcoming "Ghostbusters" reboot.

The all-new, all-female Ghostsbusters are here. Melissa McCarthy, who was already in talks for one of the leads, has signed on for the Paul Feig-directed reboot, and Sony is now negotiating with Kristen Wiig as well as Saturday Night Live players Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.”

Honestly I'm not sure how to feel about the casting.   On one hand, the people here that I'm familiar with are hilarious.  And from my discussions with others today, I have it on good authority the others are as well.    Also,  Bridesmaids was a super successful movie,  and quite funny in its own right, despite the fact that it was just basically the female Hangover.    

On the other hand,  Paul Feig's biggest hit Bridesmaids, is just that;  An all-female ripoff of an established property.   The casting to me seems less to do with the requirements of the story and more to draw headlines.   Unfortunately, whenever I see PR trumping story in the world of movies,  more often than not the product we get is lackluster at best.   Also, I wouldn't call Feig's second McCarthy collaboration "The Heat" much of a success.

I'm hoping for the best here, but I have a bad feeling about this one.