Friday (Movie Review)

One of the surprise comedies of 1995, Friday features the antics of two guys in Los Angeles who decide to spend a day hanging out on their porch and wasting away the day. With a well-selected cast, the characters in Friday are some of the most eccentric and outrageous persons that can be found in any movie. A lot can happen in the neighborhood on any given day, and best friends Craig and Smokey get to see it all. And along the way, they learn a few lessons about life...

When Craig Jones (Ice Cube) gets fired from his job, his dogcatcher father (John Witherspoon) pressures him to spend the day looking for a new job - "The word of the day, Craig is job - J-O-B. Job!" But Craig doesn't feel like looking for a job just yet, and when his best friend Smokey (Chris Tucker) pays a visit to the house, a day of doing nothing becomes an absolute certainty. With both his parents away at work, Craig and Smokey hang out on the front porch of the Jones house where they observe the strange behavior of the various eccentric characters who live in their neighborhood.

Encouraging Craig to try some weed for the first time, Smokey involves Craig in a personal dispute with local drug dealer Big Worm (Faizon Love) who accuses Smokey (one of his dealers) of smoking up his product. Smokey denies the allegation and agrees to pay Big Worm $200 later that night. Big Worm says if he doesn't get his money by then, he'll kill Smokey and Craig...

When Craig finds out what happened, he's furious. As he and Smokey attempt to figure out a way to get the $200, they get sidetracked by a number of different people. Among them are Deebo (Tom 'Tiny' Lister), the neighborhood bully who no one will challenge, Mrs. Parker (Kathleen Bradley), the exhibitionist neighbor who Craig and Smokey fantasize about, Felisha (Angela Means), a drug-addicted neighbor with no job, Ezal (Anthony Johnson), the neighborhood crack addict, and an assorted barrage of other characters and Janet Jackson look-alikes...

When Craig's current girlfriend gets angry because he talks to another woman, he pursues Debbie (Nia Long), a much more desirable girl in his mother's eyes. But as the end of the evening nears, Big Worm sends his minions after Craig and Smokey, and Craig ends up in a personal showdown with Deebo. Will Craig use a gun to get rid of Deebo, or will he fight it out like a man?

A hilarious comedy, Friday is a non-stop series of laughs. Chris Tucker's overpowering screen presence literally makes this film. Without him, Friday would be little more than a humdrum bore. In fact, if one were to read the script alone, it's extremely doubtful that any director or producer would bite. But when Tucker reads the lines, they take on a life of their own. Tucker is just plain funny - a hilarious comic who can draw an audience with his personality alone. Also of note - don't watch Friday on basic cable or any other medium that will water down the dialogue and edit it down to nothing. One can't experience the true film unless it's watched uncut. Otherwise, it's not funny at all, with or without Chris Tucker. Overall, this is a unique and different film. A comedy with its own personal identity. And for that reason, Friday is a must-see film. Try not to miss it...

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Creative Ways to Make Dad's Day

Looking for fun and creative ways to celebrate dad this Father's Day? Here are some suggestions he's sure to love.

1. Make it a movie day.

What kind of movies does your dad enjoy? Rent a projector and make your own movie fest filled with dad's favorites. Whether he prefers Dirty Harry or the Godfather series, the whole family is sure to love watching these classics projected larger than life onto the living room wall. Add some of dad's favorite snacks, and you've got the ultimate "good-news-dad-you-don't-have-to-shave-or-even-get-dressed-today" kind of celebration.

2. Fun for sports nuts.

Is your dad a huge sports fan? A rental projector is the ultimate way to celebrate dad's favorite spectator sport. Why not buy him a copy of the latest Sports Illustrated "Best of" or bloopers reel? Better yet, give dad a gift certificate for a future projector rental so he can watch the finals of his favorite sport in style.

3. Sweet memories for the sentimental type.

Perhaps your dad is more of the sentimental type? It doesn't take a huge amount of time or know-how to put together a spectacular highlights reel of favorite family memories. From those first days of birth to that road trip to the Grand Canyon to all those times you and your dad went fishing, there are plenty of memories that are sure to make your dad smile. Compile them all onto a DVD (or two), pop some popcorn, and start the show with a rental projector and a trip down memory lane.

4. For the grill junkie.

If your dad would rather be wearing a goofy apron and standing behind the grill surrounded in a giant pillar of smoke, then why not let him do what he loves most this Father's Day? You can spring for all the fixings and maybe throw in a new grill set and a manly apron and let dad get to work on those steaks. Make sure you remember to pick up some of dad's favorite beverage to set the mood properly.

5. Dad's choice.

Some dads are just too complex to be categorized as simply as others. If your dad is hard to read (or hard to please), why not make it dad's choice and ask him how he would most love to spend Father's Day? You could even offer some suggestions, like camping, fishing, hunting, relaxing, sleeping, grilling, watching movies, or none of the above. You never know, he just might surprise you.

However you choose to spend Father's Day this year, remember to choose activities your dad would love -- which may or may not be the same festivities you would choose. Have a happy Father's Day!

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How to Edit and Re-Author a DVD Using Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD

In this guide I will show you how to use Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD to re-edit a DVD movie and then burn it back without any video quality loss.

MPEG Video Wizard DVD is a frame accurate MPEG editor which comes with DVD authoring and full AC3 audio support. It can import the contents of an existing DVD as a new clip on the timeline and do some editing to the clip and then re-author and burn it to a new DVD.

First you need to transfer your DVD into your hard drive and insert a blank DVD disc into the DVD writer. If your DVD is encrypted, you will need to rip your DVD movie from the disc into your computer hard disk with a DVD ripper, since Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD is only designed to work with non-encrypted commercial DVDs and home-made DVDs.

Step 1. Add DVD movie

Run MPEG Video Wizard DVD, Click the "Tools" button on the Toolbar and select "DVD Reader Tool" from the drop down menu. In the DVD Reader window, click the "Input" button to load your DVD movie into DVD reader, then you will see all the titles and chapters in DVD Reader window. Notice that the first title has the longest time in duration and this is the main movie we will edit here. Now select the main movie and click "Add to Timeline" button to add it onto timeline.

Then title 1 will be added onto the video track of the timeline as a new video clip, keeping the original chapter structure. You can see the 3 chapter markers which are displayed as red-colored marks along the top edge of the timeline.

Step 2. Edit DVD movie

Now you can edit the DVD movie as you like. You can:

a. Add other videos or images onto timeline to combine them with the existing video and make a new DVD.

To do this, right click on the video track and select "Input" from the context menu to add new videos or images.

b. Remove unwanted scenes from DVD movie

Drag the edit line to navigate through the video on the timeline and preview it in the Output window. When you find the beginning of the unwanted scenes, click the "Split" button on the Timeline Toolbox. Then locate the end of the unwanted scenes in the same way and split again(You can zoom in and use mouse wheel / arrow keys to step through the video frame by frame to find exact spot). Then click on the unwanted segment - now a separate clip - and press Shift+Delete key combination to delete it. Repeat the steps to remove all other unwanted scenes.

c. Apply special effects to your DVD(filters and/or transitions)

To add a filter to a video clip, select the "Filter" page under the "Effect" page in the Project Manager, and select a filter you want to use, then drag the selected filter to the video track and drop it onto a video clip. Once a filter is added onto a video clip, there will be an additional filter label displayed near the lower right corner of the clip. To add a transition between two clips, select the "2D/3D" page under the "Effect" page in the Project Manager and select a transition you want to use, then drag it to the video track and drop it between the two clips.

d. Create and edit chapter markers

A chapter is an invisible mark in the video that helps you navigate through the film as you are watching it. Instead of fast-forwarding to a specific point you can jump at intervals, these intervals are chapter markers that you can determine here.

You can edit the existing chapter markers or add new chapter marker to the DVD movie. To add a new chapter marker to the DVD movie, drag the edit line to navigate through the movie and preview it in the Output window. When you find the frame with which you want to start a chapter, click the "set/clear marker" button or press "M" key on the keyboard to set a chapter marker. To remove a chapter marker, find the chapter marker you want to delete with the help of the "Next marker" and the "Previous marker" buttons, then click the "set/clear marker" button or press "M" key on the keyboard to delete the chapter marker.

e. Substitute audio; add narration or voice over, and more...

Step 3. Add DVD menus

Click the "DVD" button on the right timeline toolbox, the whole project will be loaded into the DVD editor window. In the DVD editor window, we will add menus to the DVD. If you don't need DVD menu, you can move to Step 5 now.

To create the menu, you can use one of the built-in menu templates, and then customize menu by changing background image/music/video, editing text and so on. Now right click on the "Menu" icon, and select "Template...", then a window opens with a list of available menu templates. Select one preferred template, then click "OK" to apply the template.

MPEG Video Wizard DVD provides the maximum flexibility for us to customize the menu, you can edit all the items on the menu page where you can change the background to a personal photo, add an opening video before the menu displays, reset the menu button style and so on. I am not going to get into details here, but you can fool around on your own with the advanced settings. Just remember most of settings can only be accessed by righting clicking on that item.

Step 4. Preview

When you're done with the menu, click "Preview" at the top buttons. The Preview window lets you do a final check on the menu design before starting an export job. If you don't like what you see, you can go back to the "DVD" window to make changes, and then come back to check it again.

Step 5. Output DVD folder

Now we are back to "DVD" window and select a Output size. Output size is either a single layer or a dual layer disc - this option is useful when you want to reduce the size of the DVD movie to fit a DVD Disc. Please note MPEG Video Wizard DVD will either re-encode your video/audio to reduce the file size or it will do a "stream copy" which means the quality stays the same. You cannot "increase" quality by choosing the 7.92 GB option for a single layer project.

Now click on the "Export" button. In the Export window select a Output folder where you want your output DVD folder to be present - the "Video_TS" folder will be created under the path you specify here. If you check the box "Start DVD burning after export" here, the burning process will automatically start when finishing the exporting process.

Step 6. Burn DVD folder to DVD disc

In case you didn't check the box "Start DVD burning after export" in last step, you can use the DVD Burning Tool included in MPEG Video Wizard DVD to burn the exported "Video_TS" folder to a DVD disc.

To open the DVD Burning tool, click the "Tools" button on the Toolbar and select "DVD Burning Tool" from the menu.

In the Burn window, change the folder path to where you outputted your DVD files (should be selected automatically for you), and then choose your DVD burner(You may also choose to output to an ISO file for later burning) and then click on the "Burn" button to start burning your DVD video to a DVD disc.

Done.

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Computer Keylogger

ASF Converter is a Windows Media Files converter with options to convert files from ASF to AVI/MPEG/Divx/Xvid/WMV and vice versa. It supports conversion from WMV to AVI/MPEG/VCD/DVD, ASF to AVI/MPEG/VCD/DVD, AVI to ASF/WMV, and MPEG to ASF/WMV. It also has the additional feature to do a batch convert (many files at a time).

ASF stands for Advanced Systems Format. It is a part of Windows Media Framework that contains audio and digital video formatting data. The code that is behind does not however reveal the encoding information. ASF was actually created to support playback and take back ups from digital media servers, HTTP servers and hard disks.

ASF contains Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV) for enabling the audio and video features respectively of a file. The files generally end with an.asf extension indicating that these files are in the ASF format.

To convert ASF files to MOV/MPEG/MP4 follow the steps given below:
1. Install ASF Video Converter. This can be done free by mounting the.dmg archive by copying it to your desktop or folder
2. Load the ASF videos that need to be converted to the application. This can be done by drag and drop or individual select
3. Since the input format is ASF by default, select the output option as Mov/MP4/FLV/AVI/WMV as applicable
4. Specify a location for the formatted files to be stored
5. Start conversion

The ASF converter offers a load of features during conversion with even a novice being able to do wonders with the formatted files. It has a high speed conversion mechanism. Its diversified settings help the user to choose the nature of output according to his fancy.

There is also a feature to extract audio files from ASF specific videos and save as MP4 or WMA files as required. One can also load JPG/BMP/PNG/GIF images and convert them into video file format. It supports dual core and multi core CPU processor for faster speed of conversion and recovery.

The option of conversion of a single file into multiple formats is allowed. Alternatively a large file can be split into smaller files for easy accessibility. This file size can be customized. Certain bits and pieces of the video can be converted using the clip option. A specific screen option allows the user to preview and take snapshots of particular screens.

There are around 6 interface languages which are English, German, Spanish, French, Chinese and Japanese.

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New Movies on DVD Include 2010 Oscar Winners and Nominated Movies

There are a lot of really great new movies on DVD available right now, and prominently among them are all of the big 2010 Oscar winners from the awards ceremony. The Oscars always generate a ton of buzz and hype, after all they are the biggest event for movies and also represent most of the biggest honors that actors, actresses and filmmakers can receive.

Well, the new movies on DVD selection prominently features some of the great 2010 Oscar winners, as well as the nominees who didn't end up winning as well. What better way to get your DVD out to the public than by taking advantage of all of this great, natural buzz and attention?

Perhaps the movie that received the most buzz of them all was Precious. Mo'Nique won the Best Supporting Actress for this film, and you're sure to despise her character, which means she did a great job! Precious is one of the most anticipated DVD new releases out there today and in recent weeks and months, and it's a really touching story that you and your family have to see.

The Best Actress award though went to Sandra Bullock for her part in The Blind Side. The Blind Side is another new DVD movie available for sale right now, and with Bullock's performance it can be counted amongst the big 2010 Oscar winners. It's another touching movie, and it's a film that everyone can enjoy as you watch a person overcome the biggest challenges and obstacles that life could throw at him.

Sometimes buzz doesn't translate to awards, and that's what happened to Up in the Air, unfortunately enough for George Clooney and the rest of the team as well. However, it's still one of the anticipated new movies on DVD and even though it's not one of the 2010 Oscar winners it is a great, fun movie that will make you laugh, make you think and ultimately keep you entertained throughout its duration.

As you can see, the DVD new releases of this week and the coming week are dominated by 2010 Oscar winners and nominees! There were some other notable movies as well, but at this time of the year it's all about a new DVD movie from the Oscars.

It's perfect timing for the film studios to capture some of the magic and keep it going, and it's great for movie fans as well. Now if you know you absolutely need to own one of these movies, you can pick up the new movies on DVD including the 2010 Oscar winners!

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You Are There: Ancient Greece

You Are There: Ancient Greece Review






I showed this to my 5 and 7 year old after we'd studied Ancient Greece for 5 weeks. They both liked it a lot as it brought to life stuff they'd read. There's not a lot out there like this. And we find it really helpful to watch something at the end of a unit to cement the kids' learning. The 5 year old needed a fair bit of explaining. But still was fascinated by a guy choosing death because of his beliefs. Really well worth it. Bit of a shame all the actors had American accents! But a great and thoughtful production, nice and simple from the 50's I think without today's ridiculous emphasis on special effects which would have ruined the simplicity of such a production if it were made today.
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You Are There: Ancient Greece Overview


Studio: Woodhaven Release Date: 10/26/2004 Run time: 50 minutes Rating: Nr



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Ann Rule Presents: The Stranger Beside Me - The Ted Bundy Story

Ann Rule Presents: The Stranger Beside Me - The Ted Bundy Story Review






This movie is based on the real life friendship between America's most famous serial killer and America's famous true crime writer. The movie states that this is her first book and that she did not know it was her coworker that was the serial killer that police were looking for. The story is told mostly from her side of the story and if you are expecting blood and guts then you will be disappointed. But if you are expecting a story that will have you thinking twice about the people you know then you have a winner here. Great acting and storytelling also will help keep you at the edge of your seat. I highly recommend this to all true crime fans!




Ann Rule Presents: The Stranger Beside Me - The Ted Bundy Story Overview


Former police office turned criminal reporter is assigned to unsolved murders and is shocked to learn the killer is a close friend.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: NR
Release Date: 6-DEC-2005
Media Type: DVD



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