A feature idea for Plex or Xbox or any media center. Physical media are becoming more and more obsolete. Yet many of us still have them sitting on shelves next to the TV, and may keep them forever for whatever reason. While they take up space, there’s something about being able to pick up and hold and look at something tangible when trying to pick a movie to watch (or browsing music). However, many of us have or would like to have all our media stored digitally on the local system or a NAS or the “cloud”. There’s no doubt that it’s more convenient to be able to play movies and music from a purely abstract/digital interface, without having to find and load a disc and switch all the gear to the proper playback settings.

So, as a shortcut, using a camera device like the Kinect, or perhaps a smartphone camera or a remote with a camera/scanner, you could simply snap a shot of the DVD case (or barcode), and the media center app (Plex, or Logitech Harmony-ish system) would identify the movie, put the system into the proper playback mode, and start playing it from the storage device. Imagine holding a DVD box up to your TV screen (with a Kinect-type device) as if to say “I want to watch this”, and it just happened.

I guess it sounds a bit like a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist. Maybe it’s kind of a round-about way to do it, especially if you already have your DVD collection ripped and stored on your computer. But flipping through pages of thumbnails on a screen à la iTunes or Netflix can be overwhelming. Sometimes it’s easier to just grab something off a shelf.

For that matter, this idea could easily be extended to playback things you *don’t* have in your collection. Tying in to streaming/rental services, on your smartphone you could click a “watch now” button on Amazon.com or IMDB or Get Glue, and start watching right away on your TV. You could “scan” a TV commercial for a movie or TV show and start watching it right away. Or scan a poster and have it ready to watch when you get home.

In fact, thinking about it now, i’m sure someone must already have done something like this.

1. Slumdog Millionaire
2. Taken
3. Sin Nombre
4. Star Trek (IMAX)
5. UP (3D)
6. Funny People
7. District 9
8. 9
9. Fantastic Mr. Fox
10. Avatar (IMAX 3D)

Slumdog won Best Picture. Liam Neeson was surprisingly entertaining as a middle-aged Jason Bourne in Taken. Sin Nombre was a gritty train ride. Star Trek was probably the most incredible sci-fi flick to date. Up was the first movie i’ve ever seen in 3D (with glasses). Pixar packs so much story and emotion into into their little montages, without using any words. Funny People had jokes. Girls didn’t like District 9. 9 was an amazing vision with an slightly less-than-satisfying conclusion. Mr. Fox was a quirky tale saved by an appropriately quirky soundtrack. And… Avatar. I didn’t like it; the chrome finish wasn’t enough to cover up a rusty script.

This movie is pretty much all musical montage. Noticing a trend in war movies: the leader that makes bad calls right off the top then the lower-ranking soldier steps up and shines. I guess war is war. It’s also hard not to compare everything to the yardstick of war on film, Band of Brothers. There’s almost too many familiar faces in We Were Soldiers that bring with them the baggage of previous rolls — a problem that Band of Brothers didn’t have to deal much with (aside from Ross).

So, i’m having trouble believing the radioman on the ground was talking directly to the air support pilots. …And that’s a degloving. Crucial.

The dynamic range on this soundtrack is hard to keep up with. Lots of quiet whispering right next to huge explosions and gunfire. Thumb staying on the volume button.

…Aaaand a slo-mo battle scene. I’m becoming too picky about my war flick cinematography. Oh yeah, this doesn’t look like Vietnamese jungles, more like the hills of California, but i’ve never been to Vietnam.

So how about that AK-47? Greatest gun of all time? If you’re a bad guy.

Roll credits. Some memorable scenes — can’t get over the closeness of the combat. Modern war seems like such a remote affair — scopes and satellites and unmanned vehicles. Bayonets and fists and grenades: the side of war i’d hope to never experience if i were a soldier.

One of the most intense and realistic depictions of modern war — certainly in the Middle East in the past 10 years. Hurt Locker managed to keep me entertained on the edge of my seat without a lot of the typical Hollywood war film fluff. These aren’t American cowboys running around in the desert shooting everything that moves. They’re real, young men doing their jobs. There are rules. And consequences. That’s the part they know. But they happen to be working and living in a foreign land with foreign people and they don’t know who is friendly or not. It was such a tangible portrayal of the anxiety and emotions and confusion that precipitate in these circumstances.

Seeing the trailer i had wondered what kind of story there could be about a bomb squad in Iraq. Are they just defusing bombs and running away from explosions in slow motion the whole time? Well… kinda. My favorite scene had our heroes ambushed while out on patrol leading to the best and most accurate (in my amateur opinion) sniper scene in film. Movie snipers are always so glamorous and faultless, when it’s really laying in the dirt and discipline and trial and error.

But the real conflict is between these three EOD troops, trying to understand and get along with each other, while getting the job done and staying alive so they can get home.

Evangeline Lily is in this movie like Shia LeBeouf is in I, Robot. And i wouldn’t have recognized the actor playing “Doc” Cambridge if i hadn’t recently finished season one of Dexter. There were a few other faces i recognized, like Guy Pierce from Memento, and David Morse from The Rock and Dancer in the Dark. Sanborn was Papa Doc in 8 Mile.

A few spectacular high-speed shots of explosions, a well-photographed sniper battle, and snappy editing break up the drab monotony of the day-to-day in Iraq. Just wish i could have seen and heard it in a newer theater — Shirlington AMC is a tad aged, with a small screen and floor seats that make you look up at the screen.

Update:
The Hurt Locker is out on DVD, Blu-ray, and on-demand this Tuesday, January 12th.

I’m curious to see how successful these rental 2.0 options are compared to traditional theatrical distribution. You can’t beat the at-your-leisure convenience of on-demand video services (as well as pausing and restarting during the rental period). And with ticket prices inflating past $10 in most places, it’s drastically cheaper to watch at home with more than one person. But as nice (or comfortable) as your home theater and as large as your TV (or computer) screen may be, there’s something to be said for that going-to-the-movies experience of a theater. Still i think the very option to watch new films when and where i want is amazing.

If all movies were released for home viewing (on demand, rental, disc) before (or at the same time) as theaters, how would you rather watch?

Here’s a preview of the high-energy fight scenes you can expect from Tony Jaa:

Official Ong Bak 2 website:
http://ongbaktwo.com/
Ong bak 2 (2008) on IMDb:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0785035/

Watch Ong Bak 2 on Xbox Live.
Watch Ong Bak 2 on Amazon Video On Demand.

The thing that gets me though is how much it was just like girls today. It reminded me of Mean Girls. There truly are no new stories.

There’s a name for you ladies, but it isn’t used in high society—outside of a kennel.