Now does it hold up because it’s part of a cherished childhood memory, or because it’s actually good music? I’m not sure, probably a bit of both. To experiment, I listened to another soundtrack I have on my media player, “Blade Runner” by Vangelis. Now, I love the movie “Blade Runner”. Love, love, love it. But do I love the soundtrack? Kinda. Maybe one has to be in a certain mood to listen to it, but it doesn’t have the same resonance that “Transformers: The Movie” does for me.

Maybe this means that, for a soundtrack to hold up, it’s up to our individual connections to the music? Does the music itself transcend these connections and become timeless? I’m sure these questions have different answers for each individual person, album, and so on, but for something as timely and possibly dated as “Transformers: The Movie”, I’m sure someone else would find it horrifically too 80′s while I just totally love it.

So what about you? What are some soundtracks that, for you, stand up to the test of time and repeat listens regardless of when they were recorded? I’d love to hear your answers in the comments. Thanks for reading.

In my own case, all of my calendar, email and contacts are through Google, so I can access them anywhere, and I really like that. I don’t really have a trust issue with Google for some reason — I think I’m way too small a fish for them to care about what info I have stores there as long as I click on their ads — but I can see where folks might.

So, let me ask y’all. When it comes to your data, whether it’s your calendar, your contacts or whatever else, would you trust it to the cloud or not, and why? I’m looking forward to discussing this with you. Thanks for reading!

Today, Best Buy announced that this Sunday, August 29th, they will be accepting trade-ins at 600 stores nationwide, also for store credit. Best Buy had been testing this program for a long time, eying similar programs at Gamestop and other vendors, to see how viable it was. Used games will be available for purchase “soon” thereafter.

According to one of these articles, nearly fifty percent of Gamestop’s $570.8 million most recent quarterly profit came from used game sales. As a former employer of Electronics Boutique (which is now wholly owned and has been absorbed by Gamestop), I can tell you personally that they take used game sales very, very seriously. The markup for a used game is enormous. For example, they might trade in a game from you at $1 and sell it back for $20…and people will buy that game at that price (I know I have in the past, and likely will in the future).

More competitors in this space will mean more and better choices for consumers, but what about the developers and publishers of these games? For a long time, they have griped that they’re missing out on making more money from their games since they aren’t included in the secondary market. I personally don’t see a solution for them, however, since purchased games are once again sold at the whim of the individual owner of the copy of the game, rather than the company who made it. Maybe game companies will also get into the used game business? I could see Activision or Blizzard, for example, taking trade-ins of their older titles for credit toward newer titles.

Whatever your take on the used game market, one can see that it’s only gaining steam as these major retailers jump on board the bandwagon. What do you think of all this? Will you buy used games from Target or Best Buy if the price is right, and would you trade in your games for store credit only? I’d love to hear what you think in the comments. Thanks for reading.

Well, it appears as if Microsoft has had a change of heart, because today they launched a teaser page for Microsoft Flight. There isn’t much on the site at the moment except a short news blurb, part of which is as follows:

“Today, we’re bringing powerful, inventive gaming experiences to the Windows-based PC. Over the years, our PC heritage captured the hearts and minds of millions of players. Reinventing these iconic franchises with social, shared experiences marks the beginning of our return to PC gaming in bold, new ways.”

Personally, I’m thrilled that Microsoft is returning to their roots of PC gaming, because for a while their focus more on console gaming with the Xbox had me worried. Bringing a much-beloved franchise like Flight Simulator back to life is a fantastic decision, and I can’t wait to see the end result.

Maybe I missed the memo on levels of “epicosity” or something, but I’m pretty sure the Maelstrom is a CLASS 10 epic zone. Though I guess it is missing sharks with laser beams patrolling the waters and Arthur Fonzarelli jumping across it with water skis. And dinosaurs.

Eventually Afrasiabi responded with the following:

What you’re seeing is Epicus Maximus, a shark being ridden by a dinosaur riding a rocket and manning a laser beam, which in turn is being ridden by an undead mage.

I totally love when geeks show off their sense of humor in creative ways like this. You can read all about this over on Wow.com.

First off, we have Bruce Greenwood (Captain Pike from the recent Star Trek movie) as Batman, who I think does a fantastic job in the role. It’s quite Conroyesque, if one can say such a thing, but with it’s own flair that makes it his own. Greenwood does a good job of bringing the intensity of the character to the screen, and — unlike other DC Animated films — I didn’t doubt for a second that I was hearing Batman when he spoke.

Jensen Ackles (of my favorite show, Supernatural) is The Red Hood, and he does a stupendous job. Ackles’ experience playing the intense and internally tortured Dean Winchester on Supernatural laid good groundwork for his work here as The Red Hood, as the character is fierce, tortured and amazingly intelligent. Even though I knew Ackles was in the movie, I didn’t even know it was his voice until several minutes in, so he does a good job making the role his own while NOT being Dean Winchester at the same time.

In one of the film’s few negatives, while Neil Patrick Harris does a fantastic job as the wise-cracking Nightwing, he’s only used for a fraction of the movie before he’s taken out. I understand the need for this, storywise, but it was still a little jarring to see him get taken out so quickly after his introduction, and felt this underutilized Harris’ contribution to the movie.

Making up for that, however, are John Di Maggio and Wade Williams, who play The Joker and Black Mask, respectfully. These two actors put their all into their roles, and it shows. Di Maggio doesn’t try to copy Mark Hamill’s performance as The Joker from the Animated Series, and it’s appreciated, as he adds his own nuance to the role. This Joker seems even more psychotic than Hammil’s, and it works in this PG-13 format (which I’ll talk about more in a moment). Williams also does a fantastic job as Black Mask, appropriately chewing up the screen in any scene he’s in. Other notables in the cast include Jason Isaacs, Gary Cole and Phil LaMarr. Overall, the voice acting here is fantastic, and I wasn’t taken out of the movie for a moment because of it.

Moving onto the story, this is the most brutal Batman animated story since Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker around a decade ago. Within the first few moments, for example, a teenager is beaten to near-death with a crowbar, and that’s not even the worst violence portrayed in the movie. This movie is unabashedly brutal, but since the story is so action-packed and graphically rich, it works. There are a lot of facets in this story, but in the end it comes down to revenge versus redemption, I think. Without giving any details away, many of the characters go through quite a bit of pummeling by the end, both physically and psychologically. It’s a very gritty story, moreso than many of the other DC Animated movies, and honestly shouldn’t be watched with small children.

I also have to praise the animation in this particular feature. There are a LOT of very physical fights that are almost acrobatic in nature, and the animation in this movie captures that better than any of the other animated features to date, in my opinion. There are several key moments where, if the animation were less fluid, the battle scenes would not have worked, but in this movie, they all work flawlessly.

Overall, with an exceptional combination of story, voice cast and animation, I think Batman: Under the Red Hood is one of the finest works that DC Animation has put out to date. It’s full of action, has a great story, fantastic voice acting and wonderful animation. If you have any interest at all in Batman, you owe it to yourself to pick this up. I’ve seen elsewhere where it’s been said to be better than the live action Batman Begins and The Dark Knight…and they well might be correct (despite the fact that animated Batman is nearly always better than live-action Batman).

I’m concerned that, with more and more of us talking online more often, will we lose the skill of actual conversation in the process? Status updates and blog posts aren’t a conversation, and IM and email are an odd form of conversation that would sound really, really weird if emulated in real life:

Me: Hey buddy…
5 second pause
My Friend: Hey, how are you?
10 second pause
Me: I’m great, how have you been? Haven’t talked to you in ages.
15 second pause
My Friend: I’ve been good. Busy with life and work and everything, but I can’t complain…

And so on. I’m worried that we’re losing verbal communication and conversation skills along the way, which especially becomes apparent when you talk to anyone under twenty these days.

I find that, in my own case, I’ve been using texting and email more than any other form of communication. This isn’t just my choice, though. I know a lot of people who prefer to only talk that way, and don’t like talking on the actual phone.

I can understand this. On IM or email, you can take a second to think about your response before you actually respond, or if you’re feeling particularly dickish, pretend you didn’t see the communique and don’t respond at all. Being on the phone, in “real-time”, puts one more on the spot. While this doesn’t bug me at all, I’ve noticed it seems to bug more and more people lately.

So I wanted to ask all of my (five) readers what they thought, and how they communicated with people these days. Do you also find yourself primarily using textual methods of communication these days, or do you still use vocal communication a lot? Which method of communication do you prefer, and which do your friends seem to prefer? I can’t wait to discuss this with you in the comments and elsewhere.

Other new exemptions apply to DVD’s and ebooks. Now you can legally use portions of a film on DVD if it’s being used for documentary or non-commercial purposes, so maybe we’ll see all those “Downfall” parodies come back to YouTube. Ebooks can now also be hacked to be allowed to be read with a voice synthesizer, where before many complained this would eat into their ebook sales (which is very doubtful).

There are other little tidbits, but those above are the most notable. How long will these exemptions last? That’s something we don’t know, but for now, people should enjoy their new exemptions as much as possible.

Cut to ten years ago, wherein we meet Dave, a typical ten year old kid living in New York City who is, again, typically just starting to like girls. The one girl in question is Becky, a pretty blond who actually seems to dig Dave. When Dave writes her a note, which gets blown away into an odd looking shop, he meets up with Balthazar, who gives him the ring to try out, as he’s done with children for a thousand years. The ring latches onto Dave, pegging him as the Prime Merlinian. Sadly, Horvath escapes his prison and, in the ensuing fight with Balthazar, they both get trapped for ten years.

Ten years later, the real fun begins when both Balthazar and Horvath finally escape their prison. Balthazar has to locate Dave once again and teach him to be a sorcerer. Without giving away the rest of the story — as much of what I’ve just said can be gleaned from the previews — I will say that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a fun, light, funny movie that’s full of action, heart and adventure.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a very fun film, with a lot of humor. Say what you want about Nicholas Cage, but he did a fantastic job as the old, sarcastic, lovelorn Balthazar. Alfred Molina, one could tell, had a fantastic time playing the pimped out Horvath. The real star of the show, however, is Jay Baruchel as David. I don’t recall seeing him in anything before, but he was fantastic in this role. His comic timing is great, and he and Cage really worked well off of each other.

If there was a downside, it’s that the “love story” portion of the film, well, both of them, really. I’ve nothing against Teresa Palmer (Adult Becky) or Monica Bellucci (except that her voice grates me a bit), but these portions of the film felt a bit forced. I mean, David and Becky don’t kiss until the last 2-3 minutes of the film. What’s up with THAT?

Overall, though, if you’re looking for a fun, light, funny and adventerous action film, you can do a lot worse than The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. It’s got great acting, a fun story that doesn’t weigh down the film or get in its way, a lot of humor and fantastic action. It won’t win any awards, sure, and I’m not sure it’ll do well enough for a proposed sequel (stay until the end of the credits), but it’ll definitely be something I buy, day one, on Blu-ray.