Free Republic

Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead is an interesting yarn featuring some tight writing and fine performances from an ensemble of very good thespians. It also sports a really good 4K HDR transfer that makes it even better. The Western drama stars Sharon Stone (who also co-produced), Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio. All are, or were, gunslingers who congregate in a nondescript one-horse town called Redemption for a gunfighting competition in which all comers shoot it out with whoever challenges them, the winner taking home a huge pot (well, chest) of money. Stone is a woman bent...

I was surprised that CBS seemed to have such a difficult time handling the rain during the game. It seemed to me that their 50 yd line primary camera was most affected, with water drops on the lens during much of the game, as well as a foggy picture for whatever reason. Other cameras had the same problems. Did they not know it was going to rain, or even that there was a chance of rain? Don't they have covers for the lenses of those high dollar cameras, or at least they could have had an intern (or maybe Katie...

The battle between two formats seeking to become the high-definition successor to the DVD officially gets under way when Toshiba's first HD DVD player hits the market April 18, at the same time as the first HD DVD movies arrive in stores. Sony's (SNE) rival Blu-ray Disc is expected to follow two months later. Then it will be up to consumers to pick a winner. The face-off of HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc promises to be the biggest format war since VHS beat Betamax in the videocassette market in the 1980s. Analysts say consumers' choice likely will come down to...