TV on the net
Posted By STEVE TILLEY, SUN MEDIA
Posted 3 months ago
From celebrity shenanigans to thought-provoking bloggers to monkeys scratching their butts, the Internet is an always-on source of video entertainment. Enlightening, frightening or just plain silly, it's all there waiting for your click. Here's where our mouse is pointing this week:
THE PHENOMENON Avatar Trailer Two
Only a sucker bets against James Cameron. The director who gave us Aliens, Terminator and Titanic is not likely to produce a flop, especially when we're talking about his first feature film in more than a decade. So we shouldn't be surprised that the new trailer for Cameron's upcoming sci-fi adventure Avatar looks a heck of a lot more interesting than the somewhat limp teaser trailer released a couple months ago. In this new trailer for the film, which hits theatres Dec. 18, we see the full cast of characters (Michelle Rodriguez, hooray!), get a much clearer idea of what the story is about (big corporation mining a rare mineral from an alien world gets more than it bargained for) and see glimpses of several jaw-dropping action scenes. The only problem with the new trailer is it reveals a little too much. Don't watch it if you want to remain spoiler-free.
To watch go to:
http://tr. im/avatarnew
Send your favourite web highlights to steve.tilley@sunmedia.ca
Read more from Tilley at blog. canoe.ca/loadthis
THE PERSONALITY Giovanni Auditore, Master Assassin
All eyes in the video game world are on the Nov. 17 release of Assassin's Creed II, Ubisoft Montreal's follow-up to their 2007 blockbuster game about a white-robed killer trying to maintain the balance of power during the Third Crusade. Assassin's Creed II moves forward to 15th century Italy, during the height of the Renaissance, following a new assassin named Ezio Auditore. While the game revolves around Ezio's tale, Ubisoft and their recently acquired digital eff ects studio Hybride Technologies (of 300 and Sin City fame) have created Assassin's Creed Lineage, a short film prequel that looks at Ezio's father, Giovanni, and how the Auditore clan became involved with the centuries-old brotherhood of the Assassins. Part one is now online, with parts two and three to follow as the game's release date draws near. Cool bit of trivia: like 300, the entire thing was shot on green screen.
To watch go to:
http://tr. im/lineage1
THE DISCOVERY NFB iPhone App
This isn't a video in and of itself, but it's a way to access a slew of cool (and Canadian) videos if you're an iPhone or iPod Touch owner. While the National Film Board already makes many of its videos available online at NFB.ca, their newest innovation
is a free iPhone app that allows you to stream hundreds of videos directly to the device. It's a slick little application, allowing you to browse videos by genre, or to search for specific short films, documentaries, animation and so on. Naturally, the first two films I watched were The Big Snit (Scrabble, a saw fetish and nuclear war) and Hot Stuff (a surprisingly funny public safety video on the dangers of fire, from caveman times to "modern" man), but nearly every video available on the website can be viewed via this app, and soon all of them will be up for grabs.
To get it go to:
http://www.nfb.ca/gadgets/en
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The List
Darth Vader Conducts Symphony
* I'm not sure if this is part of a specific Star Wars concert, but it doesn't really matter - simply seeing Darth Vader stride onto the stage and assume control of the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra is pretty awesome.
To watch go to:
http://tr. im/vaderconducts
Young Vs. Old Streetfight
* This is bizarre and a bit uncomfortable to watch, but this older Ukrainian (we think) couple gets into a rather vicious dustup with a pair of young (possibly drunk) women. What started it? And why did it last so long?
To watch go to:
http://tr. im/streetfight
