December 2005 Archives

Next to science fiction, comedy movies are probably my favorite.  This list includes 10 comedy films you might never have seen, but which you'll probably enjoy if you get the chance to see them:

1		Airplane! If you haven't seen this one, go rent it at your next opportunity.  It's silly, and some of the jokes are "groaners", but overall I think it's one of the funniest movies of all time.  It's a take-off on all the old airport disaster films of the 1960s and 1970s, though it's not really necessary to have seen those movies to enjoy it.  It's probably the start of Leslie Nielsen's rise to comedic stardom.  Most of this movie could be shown to the family, but there are sexual situations and some nudity which would make it inappropriate for many familes.
2		Army of Darkness Starring the amazing Bruce Campbell, this movie pokes fun at the horror genre. Campbell's character is a bit of a blowhard, who works in an "S-Mart" store.  He winds up being whisked back in time to save the world from an unspeakable evil, though he ignores this "destiny" and just wants to get back home.  It features some neat stop-motion animation like the old Ray Harryhausen stuff.  It has a good sense of humor and a decent amount of action.  If you aren't (very) easily scared, don't mind some inappropriate language (though there's not much of it), and violence, you could probably watch this with the (teenage) kids.
3		Big Trouble in Little China This movie stars Kurt Russell as a truck driver who winds up in the middle of a "good versus evil" battle in Chinatown.  Much like Campbell's character in Army of Darkness, Russell's character pretty much just wants to get his truck back (after it's stolen from him) and get on with his life.  He winds up playing a key part in a battle to keep an ancient Chinese evil spirit from gaining tremendous power in the world.  Although he talks like he won the battle single-handedly, usually Russell's character is the first one to become unconscious in the fight, waking up just in time to take credit for winning.  It features a young Kim Cattrall playing a lawyer who falls for Russell's character but can't quite get his attention.  This one is probably safe for the family, if you don't mind some violence, kissing, and a bit of innuendo.
4		Bubba Ho-Tep Another Bruce Campbell vehicle.  In this one, Campbell plays an elderly man in a nursing home in Texas who claims to be Elvis Presley.  (His story is that he switched places with an Elvis impersonator to get away from the publicity and crowds, but accidentally lost all his paperwork in a trailer fire he caused.)  Campbell's buddy is an aging African-American gentleman who thinks that he's JFK, who has been "dyed black" and left in the nursing home to rot.  This unlikely duo discovers than an ancient Egyptian mummy is feeding on the souls of the weak, elderly people in the nursing home to sustain itself.  They vow to stop it.  There aren't many laugh-out-loud funny moments in this one, but you'll find  yourself chuckling about it for days afterward.  This is definitely not a family friendly film and does get a bit frightening in parts.
5		Dirty Rotten Scoundrels This excellent movie stars Steve Martin and Michael Caine as very different con-men.  Each takes advantage of the rich women he meets.  Martin's character is unsophisticated, conning women out of a few dollars here or there, borrowing their cars, getting free meals, etc.  Caine's character cons very wealthy women out of vast amounts of money, claiming to need it to fund freedom fighters in his home country and the like.  The two meet on a train and soon Martin's character is begging Caine's character for lessons in how to conduct large-scale cons.  The ending is a bit of a surprise, which I won't spoil here.  This one is almost family friendly except for some "near sex scenes" in certain parts.
6		Elvira's Haunted Hills If you enjoy "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark" when she hosts horror films on television or appears in commercials, you'll appreciate her here.  This film pokes fun at the old Vincent Price style horror films of the late 1960s and 1970s, and does a fantastic job of it.  There are lots of cool little tributes to old horror movies, plenty of campy humor about Elvira's... uh... biggest assets, and lots of amusing gags throughout.  It's not a big laugh-out-loud movie either, but it's fun nevertheless.  This could probably be watched with the family, though there is some sexual content that might not be appropriate for kids.
7		Groundhog Day This one, starring Bill Murray and Andie McDowell, tells the story of a self-absorbed weatherman required to report on the events of Groundhog Day - much against his wishes and protests.  Unfortunately for him, he finds that he keeps living Groundhog Day over and over and over again.  At first, he rebels, doing silly and sometimes terrible things to people because he knows it'll all go back to normal in the morning.  Later, he stops thinking of himself and things begin to turn around for him.  Lots of great gags and laugh-out-loud moments here.  This one could probably be watched with your family.
8		Hudson Hawk Bruce Willis stars as The Hudson Hawk, a cat burglar who is released from prison and vows to go straight.  Unfortunately for him, various forces want him to go right back to his old occupation.  They make it clear that he's going to commit certain thefts "or else".  Before it's over, Hawk finds himself traveling the world stealing Leonardo DaVinci artifacts.  It features Sandra Bernhard in the role she was probably born to play, that of a not-so-bright, slightly incestuous, mega-rich psychopath.  My personal favorite part of this movie is all the singing Bruce Willis does while he's committing his burglaries...  Most of this could be watched with the family, but there are some off-color moments and inappropriate language in places that you might want to avoid if there are young children in your household.
9		Johnny Dangerously As I recall, this one got some horrible reviews when it first hit the theaters decades ago.  In my opinion, however, it's an underrated gem.  Joe Piscopo's lines about a gun that "shoots through schools" and "my mother hung me on a hook once.... ONCE!" are funny (especially how they're delivered), Michael Keaton's loving reminiscences of gang shootouts, and the car chase where they keep changing its appearance by pulling off different layers of shelf paper are a campy treat. It's all great stuff, jokes I've never seen used in a movie other than this one.  This one can probably be watched with the whole family, except perhaps for small children.
10		My Blue Heaven This Steve Martin and Rick Moranis film is another underrated gem.  Martin plays a former gangster who has gone "state's evidence" in an organized crime trial and entered the witness relocation program.  He finds himself in a very picturesque, low-crime suburban neighborhood where he's bored stiff.  Being unable to fathom how to make a living any other way, he returns to crime, aided by a number of fellow gangsters-turned-witnesses in the same neighborhood.  All this makes life tough for Moranis' character, who is the FBI agent assigned to the case.  This one you can probably watch with the whole family.
11		National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 If you ever enjoyed any of the Mel Gibson / Danny Glover "Lethal Weapon" films (or films like them), you'll appreciate this one.  William Shatner puts in an amusing performance near the end.
12		Top Secret! Val Kilmer takes the lead in this comedy send-up of World War II movies and Elvis Presley films.  It has some of the best gags I've seen, from the cow wearing boots to the ceramic guard falling from a tower, it's a riot. The song parodies are dead-on for the old Elvis Presley film songs.  The comedy is a mix of sight gags, puns, parodies, slapstick, and about every other trick you can name.  If you can't laugh out loud at least once while watching this film, check your pulse... you might be dead.  This one is mostly family-friendly but there are some sexual jokes that definitely are NOT suitable for anyone under 16 or so.
13		What About Bob? Starring Richard Dreyfus as a psychiatrist and Bill Murray as a severely neurotic patient, this movie is another gem.  Murray's "Bob" character very quickly begins driving Dreyfus' character insane, causing him to try to kill Bob in the end.  Dreyfus' character's family can't see any problem with Bob, aside from him being a little odd, and doesn't understand why Dreyfus hates him.  The performances by Murray and Dreyfus are excellent.  This is one you can probably watch with the whole family.
14		Womanwizard Strictly speaking, this isn't a movie that was ever in theaters.  It's really a stand-up comedy routine by British actor Robert Llewelyn of "Red Dwarf" fame.  In it, Llewelyn pitches an imaginary software product called "Womanwizard" which purports to help men improve relationships with their loved ones by giving them a simulated version of their real-life partner to try things out on.  The only way you can get this disc is to order it from the actor's web site (or perhaps get lucky and find one on eBay or something), but if it's like mine it will come hand-signed by Llewelyn himself.  This isn't a family friendly film, though.  It would probably be rated "R" if it went into a theater, though most of it is more PG or PG-13 aside from some occasional language.
15		Wrongfully Accused A Leslie Nielsen vehicle that has him in the role of a "wrongfully accused" fugitive trying to clear his name while staying one step ahead of the law.  I enjoy this movie quite a bit.  Nielsen plays his usual half-idiot, half-klutz character and delivers a pretty steady stream of laughs - some small, some not so small.  You'll get more out of this if you watch Harrison Ford's "The Fugitive" before you see it, but you'll still enjoy it if you haven't seen The Fugitive.

 

Following are 10 somewhat-obscure science fiction movies I recommend catching if you get the opportunity, along with my reasons why they're on the list:

1		12 Monkeys This movie is a little hard to follow because it does a lot of time-traveling between the past, present, and future.  Still, it's incredibly interesting the first time you watch it because you can't tell if Bruce Willis' character is really a time traveler, or if he's delusional, or dangerous, or what.
2		The Andromeda Strain This movie, filmed back in the 1970's, holds up well even today.  It tells the story of a deep space probe that brings back more than just information about a distant galaxy.  It brings back a microbe that threatens to destroy the Earth in very short order.  It's intense at times, even frightening, and shows you just how quickly something as small as a microbe could destroy the world.
3		Bicentennial Man Not widely praised by critics, this movie tells the story of an android who wants to become human.  Along the way, he ends up doing a great deal of good for mankind.  Starring Robin Williams, it manages to be both funny and touching.
4		The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension A sci-fi movie from back in the 1980's starring Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Goldblum, and a variety of others.  It starts on the supposition that Orson Welles' famous "War of the Worlds" broadcast really WAS about an alien invasion.  It's very campy, with a fair amount of tongue-in-cheek humor, and features John Lithgow doing an Italian accent.
5		A Clockwork Orange If you can't stand violent films that depict some of the most despicable crimes on the books, like rape and murder, stay away from this film.  You will definitely not be able to stomach it.  It tells the story of a bunch of futuristic street thugs who steal, rape, rob, and murder their way through life, until one of them is arrested.  This film's main purpose in my personal video library is one of catharsis.  If I really feel angry and want to hurt someone or something, this film is so much more violent destructive than my own worst fantasies that it shocks me back to normal.
6		Death Race 2000 Filmed in the 1970's, this film depicts a future in which the government's solution to population control is to sponsor a cross-country road race in which participants get points for running over pedestrians with their souped-up cars.  It's interesting because of its very campy and over-the-top nature, cheesy acting, and especially for the scene in which Sylvester Stallone gets his butt kicked.
7		Forbidden Planet This 1950's era sci-fi film tells the story of an alien race whose technology grew to such great levels that they'd built a machine that could create any desired object merely by reading the thought waves of the person using it.  Yet, somehow, their entire race was wiped out almost immediately afterward.  One of my favorite parts of this film is the robot "Robby" who makes an appearance in many sci-fi TV shows and movies in the years following this movie's completion.
8		The Ice Pirates Starring Robert Urich, this 1980's sci-fi comedy tells the story of a future in which water has become so rare that it's the ultimate valuable.  Shipped around the galaxy as ice, pirates like Urich's crew attempt to steal it to make a profit.  It features some of the most interesting and entertaining "robot action" I've seen outside of "Battlebots" and "Robot Wars".
9		Titan A.E. This animated feature is set in a future period "After Earth".  Aliens who feel threatened by humans attempt to exterminate them all.  The few who survive live in exile, like criminals.  It's got a good soundtrack, nice animation, and a decent (though not fantastic) story.
10		TRON This was something of a pioneering film for Disney when they did it.  It's set in cyberspace, where a programmer finds himself living inside the computer as a program, in a system controlled by an "evil" Master Control Program.  It stars Bruce Boxleitner of Babylon 5 fame, and features some very neat special effects for its time (though pretty poor by today's standards).

If you've ever installed Microsoft Windows on a PC, chances are you've seen it in your Device Manager:  the dreaded "Unknown Device" item.  What do you do to help Windows "know" what that device is?  For that matter, how can YOU know what it is?  Let's take a look.

The "Plug and Play" architecture used on most modern Windows PCs makes it possible for Windows to recognize potentially millions of different devices and automatically load the correct drivers to make them work.  Unfortunately, it's not a perfect system.  If Windows itself doesn't contain the correct driver for a device it has identified, and if there isn't a suitable driver somewhere on your system, that device will often show up in your Device Manager as an "Unknown Device".

The first thing you should try when confronted with such a device is to locate all the driver discs that you have for the hardware in your system.  Then, open the Device Manager, right-click on the "Unknown" device and select "Update Driver" from the context menu.  Point Windows at the various driver discs you have and see if one of them recognizes this particular hardware.  If you're lucky, you'll find the right driver, the device will be recognized, and you'll be finished.  But what if that doesn't work?  How are you supposed to know what this mystical device is if even Windows XP can't figure it out?

 

As you may be aware from elsewhere on this site, I've recently acquired a "free" Sony PSP from internetopiniongroup.com. During my holiday shopping, I had the opportunity to pick up a USB link cable and Datel Max Media PSP software for $12.88 at Target.

The cable worked perfectly, and the software was FAR better than I would have expected for the price. It allows you to transfer just about any digital movie format you like to your PSP memory card (AVI, MPG, ripped DVD "VOB" files), as well as most digital audio formats (e.g., MP3, WAV, etc.) and digital pictures (JPG, etc.). You can also backup and work with game save files.

So far, I've only worked with the digital video transfer. Using it, I was able to take an episode of Alton Brown's "Good Eats" show in a few minutes from MPG format to the PSP's MP4 format. I also transferred the entire movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" from a ripped DVD to the PSP memory card over a longer period of time. The video transfer supports both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, so wide-screen source material looks wide-screen and normal material looks normal (albeit with some black borders on the PSP display). At "high quality" mode, each 1GB VOB file became approximately a 56MB MP4 file for the PSP. That means you should be able to fit a typical 100-minute movie into about 256MB of PSP video data. With mono audio and a lower bitrate, you might get quite a bit more on there. Quite impressive.

I plan to do a more thorough review after I've spent some more time with it.

 

For Christmas this year, I received a $300 gift certificate to one of my favorite online stores, Newegg. I used the certificate to purchase some upgrades I've long wanted to do to my main PC. That PC used to contain an AMD Athlon XP 3000+ CPU, 1GB of DDR400 RAM, an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe motherboard, a GeForce FX 5700LE video card with 256MB RAM, and various other components, including a very nice Antec power supply (550W).

Using the gift certificates, I picked up a refurbished Asus A8N-SLI Premium motherboard, an Athlon 64 3200+ CPU, and an MSI GeForce 6600LE NX6600LE 256MB PCI-e video card that was SLI-capable (thinking ahead to running two of them). I had to drop another $100 of my own in to get all that, but it was well worth doing so, I thought.

Without further ado, let me provide a list of what I believe are the top 10 science-fiction series of all time, in order from the most important and relevant to the least:

1. Star Trek: The Original Series  If this series hadn't gone into syndication and gained such a large following, I think it's very unlikely that many of the other shows on this list would have ever made it to television. For its time, its effects were excellent. Its stories were penned by some of the biggest names in science fiction, like Harlan Ellison. Compared to other sci-fi series of its day, it was unique and original. Its musical score is easily recognized by many people who aren't sci-fi fans, and is the source of a great deal of parody and humor today. The performances by the main cast members (William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForrest Kelly, Walter Koenig, George Takei, and James Doohan) were so powerful and recognizable that these actors had a difficult time getting work for years after the series aired, being ?typecast? by their Star Trek Roles.

2. Babylon 5  What can I say about this series? It was extremely well-written by series creator J. Michael Straczynski. It had thought-provoking, intelligent story arcs that began in the first episode and continued on for some time. We saw characters rise, fall, and learn from their mistakes. Things weren't always neatly wrapped up at the end of the episode. The pioneering special effects were always in service of the story. The acting performances were, at their worst ?decent? and at their best ?incredible?. I've seen fellow fans of B5 crying, laughing, and sitting on the edge of their seat during certain episodes. This series showed the television world that audiences would come back to a show each week even if it didn't return to the familiar starting situation at the end of the story. I believe Babylon 5 helped make it possible for other ?ongoing arc? shows like Battlestar Galactica get off the ground.

3. Red Dwarf  This one is probably a very controversial choice, so I'll explain why it belongs on this list. Yes, it's more comedy than sci-fi. Yes, the effects are at times very cheesy. The acting, especially that of the minor characters, sometimes sucks. But this series and its 8 seasons on the air proved something to television networks, sci-fi fans, and the world. It proved that you could have a science-fiction comedy that worked. Amazingly, too, Red Dwarf managed to successfully ?reinvent? itself when it started to get stale. The first season is more of a sitcom than anything else. Later seasons were more like relationship comedies, action comedies, etc. It even got a bit more 'sci-fi? than comedy at times. But the bottom line is that the show is just plain hysterical, especially in that final season.

4. 20 Minutes Into The Future: The Max Headroom Show  This series aired during the height of America's love affair with Matt Frewer's ?Max Headroom? character. ABC aired it on Wednesday nights at 8pm initially, and it got some pretty amazing ratings for a sci-fi show at the time. Unfortunately, the network executives moved its schedule to Fridays at 8pm, which is usually the death of a sci-fi series (since, contrary to what most of society thinks, sci-fi fans have lives ? and those lives tend to include social activities on Friday and Saturday nights). The show made it through about a dozen episodes before it was killed. It was a very original series in that it looked at the role of television in our society. It talked about televangelist cults, media coverage of war and terrorism, software monopolies (before anyone was uttering ?Microsoft? in the same sentence with that word), and violence in entertainment. Its effects and sets were also very unique and original, having a ?retro-tech? feel to them like Terry Gilliam's ?Brazil?. The acting performances by Matt Frewer, Amanda Pays, Jeffrey Tambor, and others were believable and there was a certain chemistry between the cast that helped make the whole ?world? of the series come to life. Why this hasn't arrived on DVD yet, I'll never understand. You can buy the ?Jackass? series and even 'sanford and Son? but you can't get Max Headroom yet.

5. Doctor Who  Personally, I don't enjoy Doctor Who that much. When Tom Baker was The Doctor, I enjoyed it, mostly because of her performance. Some of the others I ?liked? but didn't especially ?enjoy? watching. The story lines are sometimes interesting and thought-provoking, but mostly seem to be action-oriented without much social commentary in my limited exposure. Still, I recognize its place in the Top 10 because it has endured since the early days of television and still draws in legions of fans. It has to be doing a lot of things right to have managed to stay on television as long as it has.

6. The Twilight Zone  While less science-fiction than drama, The Twilight Zone is on this list because it has become a cultural icon in its own right. People mimic its theme music to imply that something doesn't seem quite right in a situation. It's been parodied all over the place, and its actors include some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. The stories were often excellent, the actors' performances dead-on, and the writing among the best in televised science fiction.

7. Stargate SG:1  I saw the movie starring Kurt Russell and wondered how you could make much of a series out of it. In fact, I didn't start watching it until it had been on for 7 years on the Sci-Fi Channel. One of my best friends recommended I check it out, and I finally gave in. The actors put in some great performances. The writers managed to come up with some good story arcs and follow them through to completion. At times when an episode's plot wasn't perhaps as original as the writers would have liked, they made it work by treating the situation as a parody and let the characters actually recognize that fact (e.g., in the episode ?Window of Opportunity? Teal'c and O'Neill find themselves the only ones aware that the same day is repeating over and over. At one point, O'Neill confronts the ?villain? of the episode and asks him if he wanted to be ?king of Groundhog Day?, a nod to the movie starring Bill Murray and Andie McDowell in which Bill Murray's character re-lives Groundhog Day over and over).

8. Blake's 7   Before Babylon 5 came on the scene, telling a story that covered an entire galaxy over a series of many turbulent years, there was Blake's 7. This series told an ongoing story of the struggle of a group of convicted criminals, led by a political activist, who toppled a corrupt and evil galactic government. The core characters were played by actors who were generally able to play their parts extremely convincingly. Paul Darrow did an excellent job as Kerr Avon, a ruthless mastermind who always took care of number one, even if it meant killing a crewmate.

9. Battlestar Galactica (the current series)  While I enjoyed the original Battlestar Galactica when it aired, I was also only about 11-12 years old and was just happy to see anything sci-fi on television since I'd memorized pretty much all of the dialogue in Star Trek (the Original Series) by then. In retrospect, the series has some redeeming qualities, but it's just not that great when you watch it with a set of adult eyes. The new Galactica, however, is a different ballgame. It got off to a slow start, but has been picking up steam (and viewership) ever since. The effects are well-done and serve the story lines. The writing seems to be getting increasingly better. The acting is also improving at a good pace (though it was quite good from the start). I have to say that I personally prefer Dirk Benedict's "Starbuck" to Katee Sackhoff's, but I think Ms. Sackhoff is a fine actress and plays the part well.

10. Firefly  This is another one on the list that I can't say impresses me as much as it does its legions of fans. Don't get me wrong. I "like" Firefly. I just don't "love" it. It deserves a spot here for several reasons. One is the writing, which is consistently good and results in a series that doesn't take itself too seriously. Another is the acting, which brings the "written" characters to life in a convincing way. The special effects, where they are used, serve the story line rather than "become" it. Its plot isn't the most original, mirroring Blake's 7 in that the main cast consists of people who are essentially criminals who pit themselves against a corrupt and evil government, but it manages to do so in a way that is interesting. By combining elements of a classic western with sci-fi style twists, Firefly becomes something unique in its own right.

There's my list. Now, discuss amongst yourselves...

Morrissey fans haven't, in my experience, been very easy find.  Aside from the few people I've introduced to Morrissey's music, I've perhaps only met a couple.  Because "The Mozzer's" fans are so few and far-between, it's fun to encounter another one.  I'd never heard of Colin Meloy or The Decemberists prior to seeing this album, but he'll get some of my attention for no other reason than releasing this disc.  It's a pleasure "meeting" another fan.

Listening to this disc, you will not at all be confused as to whether it's Morrissey himself or a cover.  Meloy's vocals are quite a bit higher-pitched and perhaps even a bit strained compared to Morrissey's.  The instrumentals on the album consist solely of Meloy's acoustic guitar.  You won't find any of the trademark Morrissey sampling of obscure sounds, electric guitar riffs, etc.  Just a man, his guitar, and some songs by Morrissey.

Meloy chose some interesting tracks.  Most are B-sides and less commonly played songs, with the exceptions of "I'm a Poet" and "Everyday is Like Sunday".  In some ways, this serves him well.  Since the songs aren't "mainstream" Morrissey pieces, it's less likely you'll mind as much that it's not Morrissey singing them.  One of the more interesting things to me about this album is the fact that Meloy's vocals are much more distinct and easier to understand than Morrissey's (or at least they're not covered by a lot of instrumentals).  This is also a failing of the album, in that when Meloy goofs up a word here or there it becomes incredibly obvious (like when he sings "share some please tea with me" instead of "share some greased tea with me" in "Everyday is Like Sunday").

While I would give Meloy an "A" for effort, an "A" for coolness in choosing to cover Morrissey, and at least a "B-" for picking the right kind of songs to do acoustically, I've got to give him about a "C-" for his vocals.  Having not heard The Decemberists, I am curious now to see how well suited those same vocals are to Meloy's own music, since they really don't fit in with Morrisseys.  His performance almost sounds like it's causing him physical pain at times to reach the notes he tries (but doesn't quite manage) to reach.

Sadly, other than as a nostalgic tribute to Morrissey, this album just doesn't quite succeed.  I enjoyed listening to it the first time, if only to hear another artist's interpretation of Morrissey's work.  But as a work in itself, I'm just not that impressed.  On a 1-10 scale, with 10 being "excellent", "Colin Meloy Sings Morrissey" gets about a 5. 

If you read the "full" version of this article, you'll see that I applied for a free Sony PSP on the InternetOpinionGroup.com site and fulfilled the various obligations.  When the PSP didn't show up after the allotted time (8 weeks) I became quite upset, as you can imagine, having invested a good deal of time and trouble (not to mention cash) into getting it.  They didn't appear to be responding to any of my emails asking for a status or other information.  I contacted our State Attorney General but got no response that I'm aware of. Earlier this week I contacted the Better Business Bureau in the city where NetBlue (the company that owns the site) was located. Today I received the following response:

On December 08, 2005, the business provided the following information:
This is Netblue's response to complaint 242963, filed by Mr. Michael Salsbury, regarding our website, www.InternetOpinionGroup.com. Mr. Salsbury states that he is due a Sony PSP for completing 5 offers through our website.

Our records show that Mr. Salsbury has completed the required number of offers for the PSP and has created the corresponding gift redemption certificates. However, in order for gift requests to be processed, all certificates must be sent in together to the gift center. It appears that all 5 certificates were not submitted together to the gift center.

We would like to notify Mr. Salsbury that on October 20, 2005, in an effort to provide good customer service, the gift center re-created his gift redemption certificates and added them to the shipping list. At that time we notified Mr. Salsbury that his gift would be fulfilled 6-8 weeks after the gift center created his certificates.

We would like to notify Mr. Salsbury that his gift should be shipped within the next 2-4 weeks.

If Mr. Salsbury has additional questions or needs further assistance with his gift account he may contact us at support_tier1@internetopiniongroup.com.

We apologize for the inconvenience and trust this matter to be resolved.

Kathy King
Operations
Netblue, Inc.

Being a skeptical (but optimistic - odd combo, I know) person, I will withhold my final judgement until the device shows up at my doorstep.  The fact that they responded to the BBB the way they did shows some promise and a genuine attempt to rectify things.

As for the messages they claim to have sent on October 20, I never saw them.  However, I've got some fairly aggressive spam filtering in place on the address I used with them and I acknowledge that their messages could have been trapped within it, and that I may have missed those responses if the return address didn't match InternetOpinionGroup.com.

So, I'm cautiously waiting to see if the device shows up or if I will have to contact the BBB again to resolve this.

Update on 12/9/05 in the afternoon:  I received an email from Tech Depot, which is a subsidiary of Office Depot, saying that a PSP had been ordered for me and they were preparing it for shipment.  I consider this a good sign and will update this page as I learn more.

Update on 12/12/05 in the afternoon:  I received another email from Tech Depot indicating that the package has been shipped and should arrive on 12/13/2005.  I confirmed on the UPS web site that they have received the package and that it's en-route from Illinois, and UPS is estimating delivery tomorrow.

Update on 12/13/05 in the afternoon:  According to the tracking information on the UPS web site, my PSP has been delivered.  Of course, it's freezing outside today, so there's a small but significant chance that display has frozen and cracked.  I'm hoping that won't be the case... and that the step-kids thought to bring it inside when they got home from school.

If you want to see what all was involved in making it this far, visit my original article.

Being a night-owl, I was up late one evening when MTV2 ran an infomercial for this DVD set.  Remembering all the laughs I got from this series when it originally aired, I decided to buy the DVDs.  The best price I found at the time was on DeepDiscountDVD.com.  Now that it's been out for a little while, you can probably do better through Amazon.com's Marketplace (click the picture of the set at the left to visit their site and look at the pricing).

Today I sat through the entire 3-DVD set.  Many of the episodes I remember are here.  Some are not.  For instance, I thought "Frog Baseball" would be here.  It isn't.  That's the film that actually convinced MTV to do Beavis and Butt-head in the first place.  You'd have thought it would be on the first set.

Early on in "The Movies" it can be very difficult to produce a quality film, one that has some box-office staying power and generates some decent revenue for your studio.  One thing you can do to help your movies and your studio out is to improve the relationships between your actors and directors.  Stars who know each other better will deliver better performances than stars who don't, and can take a 1-star movie and make a 2-star movie out of it.  That can make a big difference come awards time.

 The game tells you that the more time stars spend together the better they'll get along and perform.  It doesn't give you a lot of information about just HOW to get them to become friendly.  I spent some time experimenting over the weekend and I've figure out how to take two stars (i.e., two actors, two directors, or an actor/director combination) and make the friends.

While it's very time-consuming, it's not too difficult to do.  Here's how:

• Locate one of the two stars on-screen in the game.  Make sure they're not located in a bar or restaurant.
• Drag the other star to where the first star is standing and place it over the first star.  An icon should appear, indicating that the two stars can now talk to each other.  When the icon glows green, let go of the mouse button.  The two stars will begin talking.
• When they finish talking, drop them back together again.  Repeat this until they say something about this being a boring place to talk.
• Put them together at the "non-VIP" section of the studio bar. Keep them together until they talk about how this isn't fun anymore. 
• Move them to the "VIP" section of the bar.  Keep them together until they complain again.
• Move them to the "non-VIP" section of the studio restaurant (not a snack truck!).  Keep them talking until they complain again.
• Move them to the "VIP" section of the restaurant.  By now they ought to be "good friends" but if you keep them talking they will become "Soulmates".

Now you're ready to make a movie with these two stars, and will get better performances from them.

I've been playing "The Movies" lately and have found it rather frustrating. 

The documentation tells you that stars want an entourage to make them happy, but it doesn't tell you how to give them one.  The game probably tells you how to do it in one of the endless numbers of pop-up help windows that appear (and which you tend to automatically dismiss), but I've not seen it. 

It took me some time to figure out, but I believe it works like this:

• Pick up an unemployed person from one of the lines around the studio lot.
• Drag the person near the star who needs an entourage.
• If the star "likes" this person, an icon will appear on/near the star implying they'll accept this person in their entourage.  If the star doesn't "like" them, try someone else if you can.
• Move your mouse so that the icon turns green and let go.  The person will become part of the star's entourage.

It's relatively easy after you've done it a few times, but it's very frustrating that it's not more well-documented or easier to do.