Transformers (Blu-ray)

Story: 9
Action: 10
Acting: 7
FX: 10
Durability: 10
Special Features: 8
Blu-ray: 10

Transformers is one of my favorite recent movies and the price was right on Amazon. It was long awaited for many fans of the original back in the 80's, but 2007 was probably the right time for a live action movie. The technology was finally good enough to make believable giant robots that can transform into everyday vehicles. The transforms were well-calculate and physically possible. There were no morphs, disappearing parts or magical resizing. The models also interacted well with the human actors. They had weight and perfect lighting.

Based on picture quality, Transformers is probably the best Blu-ray title I have. It really benefits from the 1080p resolution because the 3-D models for the robots were created in such detail. The small alien characters engraved into some of the metal parts looked much clearer. I also noticed that when the Transformers spoke, there was a thin electrical wave inside their mouths... something I didn't see in the DVD version. The special fx were already mind-blowing on DVD and the Blu-ray takes it even further. Whenever friends ask me about Blu-ray, this is the movie I'm going to use to demonstrate the quality.

Rice Avenue

Location: 72-19 Roosevelt Ave., Jackson Heights, NY
Cuisine: Thai
Hours: 7 DAYS (11:30am-10:45pm)
Phone: (718) 803-9001
Website: www.riceavenuenyc.com
Prices: $31/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 9
Value: 7
Environment: 8

Frequency: Unique

We celebrated Clovy & Bryce's birthdays this month... they both made it this time! The weather was perfect... no storms or freezing weather. I was initially going to circle back and choose Perlas ng Silangan because of the good food and ability to handle large tables, but it was a good thing Marites reminded me about Lent. I'm usually diligent, but forget about it when I organize get-togethers. Us Lent observers would've been stuck with fried bangus while watching everyone eat barbeque meat on sticks and fried pork fat! Rice Avenue had the perfect menu for us. Aside from the usual Thai dishes, they had a wide selection of seafoods and vegetables. I was also surprised to find the place in our usual meeting area because I always thought SriPraPhai was the only Thai restaurant there. When I got there, I knew why I never noticed the place. It was tiny and the front didn't stand out a lot.


The inside looked very nice... completely unexpected if you just saw the outside of the place. It was clean and well decorated. SriPraPhai was also clean, but Rice Avenue had more Thai artwork and decor. The service was great. They did an excellent job with the large group. The table was setup before we got there. They let us in early and even waited patiently for the whole party to arrive before getting started.

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Stargate (Blu-ray)

Story: 9
Action: 10
Acting: 8
FX: 10
Durability: 10
Special Features: 8
Blu-ray: 7

Stargate has always been one of my favorite movies and I've owned the director's cut all the way back since 1995 on VHS! I never get tired of watching it. The special FX from this 1994 movie still hold up compared to today's. I picked up the Blu-ray version because I was just surfing through Amazon, checking out my favorite classics. Stargate was only $9.99 for the director's cut... cheaper than the DVD! So there was nothing to lose.

The translation to Blu-ray was pretty good. All of the effects looked great at the higher resolution. The details of Egyptian art were very clear in every scene. The wide shots of the Abydos villager really showed extra detail as well. Some of the dark scenes got a little grainy though. It's not perfect, but still worth getting on Blu-ray.

DVDeals 3/22 - 3/28

DVD Tuesday
I haven't done this in a while, but it's because there hasn't been a good new release all year so far! Also with the closing of Circuit City, the list of sales per week has been significantly shorter or empty. But this week is different. Quantum of Solace is coming out! There are no price wars though. Both Best Buy and Amazon have the same prices... $16.99 for the regular edition, $22.99 for 2-disc w/ digital copy & $25.99 for Blu-ray. Clone Wars: A Galaxy Divided is also coming out and is $12.99 everywhere. This is 4 episodes of season 1. I'd rather wait for the entire season though.

Best Buy Deals
- XXX Blu-ray for $14.99
- Top Gun Blu-ray for $14.99
- Bourne Identity for $5.99
- Bourne Supremacy for $5.99
- Italian Job for $5.99

Happy Vernal Equinox!

About Blu-ray

Since I bought the PS3, I've been shopping around for Blu-ray movie deals. The movies must be ones I'd watch repeatedly and ones that I think would benefit from the 1080p resolution.

I'm going add a new stat called "Blu-ray" when I review Blu-ray movies. It'll rate the overall clarity and worthiness of the movie being released in the high resolution format. Just being in Blu-ray format doesn't necessarily make things great. Some companies do a better job than others converting them to the proper format. Some Blu-ray movies don't look that much better than an upconverted DVD and others are so precise in detail. A 10 means the details are very noticeable. A 5 is average... borderline whether it was worth buying or not. A 1 means there's little difference from the DVD and it wasn't worth buying at all.

Playstation 3

A couple of weeks ago I caved in and bought a Playstation 3. I sort of wanted to get it since the beginning of last year when I read about Street Fighter IV, but was still hesitant because of the price and I didn't really think I'd have time for games. Street Fighter IV came out on February 17 and I ended up getting the PS3 a week later because Ben found a pretty good sale at Dell. I had no idea they even sold it there. It was a whopping $80 off the $400 price tag and too good a deal to resist.

My first impression was that the system felt a lot more like a computer than a gaming console. You can't just plug it in and start playing games. There's a lot to customize and accounts to setup. The great thing about it is you can do a lot without even buying a game. The Playstation network is a world of its own with media downloads and game demos. This system is perfect for someone like me who doesn't have time to play full games. The demos are just right and they're free. Sometimes I just like to pop in a game to mess around... not really with the goal of winning it. With PS2, I would just fight a few rounds in Capcom vs. SNK 2 or drive around in Gran Turismo 2.

The built-in Blu-ray was a big plus that made me choose this system over XBox 360. At first, I didn't want to jump aboard the bandwagon because I don't think the format will survive, but after we hooked up a 52" 1080p TV at my parents' house, I got addicted to the high resolution. I started watching all of my favorite movies over again on TNT.

Bryce's Birthday

I got to cap off the last day of the week with another gathering of friends. It was Bryce's Birthday again. Same time, same place and mostly the same people as last year @ Century Diner Buffet. I hadn't gone there since the last Birthday, but the place has remained exactly the same. All stats from my original review remain.


The shots I took this time came out better because we weren't crammed into the narrow party room this time. We had a nice open space that was still sectioned off all to ourselves.

Andrew, Joanne & Liam

It was another long day followed by another gathering of friends I was looking forward to. Andrew & Joanne who I haven't seen for a while invited me over for a nice home cooked dinner. I didn't get out of work as early as planned, but still somehow made it in time before baby Liam went to bed. Click on the slideshow below to see more detailed comments on each photo.


That's 2 fun days already at the beginning of the week. Tomorrow is Wednesday... the midpoint. Almost to the weekend!

The Holy Basil

Location: 149 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10003
Cuisine: Thai
Hours: MON-THU (5pm-11:30pm); FRI (5pm-12am); SAT (4pm-12am); SUN (4pm-11pm)
Phone: (212) 460-5557
Website: www.holybasilrestaurant.com
Prices: $25/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 8
Value: 7
Environment: 8

Frequency: Unique

We had the snow day last week, but other than that, it's going to be a long streak of 5-day weeks until Memorial Day in May! But luckily, I have a few things lined up this week to help me get through. This week is all about catching up with friends and it started tonight.

Mike, Patrick, Emily & I got together for a little reunion. We all grew up in Congers on Roman Terrace during the 80's & 90's. I've been in touch with Mike over the years and we've met up regularly, but he hasn't seen Emily since high school. I haven't seen Patrick since I was on break from college. But somehow, we all ended up in the city.

We went for Thai food in the lower East at The Holy Basil. It was an interesting location on the 2nd floor of what looked like an apartment building. They had a large main room with a bar and tables. There was also a loft like mezzanine area with a couple more tables and a separate windowed room overlooking 2nd Avenue. The place was clean and well-decorated with traditional Thai artwork. The place was full, but surprisingly quiet and easy to talk in.

I went with the crispy duck in red curry as I usually do when duck is on the menu. Overall, the taste was pretty good and they got the duck very crispy without burning it. It was a nice contrast to the creamy curry sauce. The dish was further enhanced by lychee fruit on top. It could've been a little spicier, but I won't take off points for that... still great. Portions were just right for that dish.

Click here for photos & more details

Snow Day

It's the beginning of March and we're just having our largest snow storm of the year! This is after a week of Spring-like temperatures too. Luckily, work was cancelled today because there's no way I could've made it in. Here are some photos of my parents house just before we started shoveling...


It's definitely much harder to shovel snow in the city. The area is a lot less, but it has to be pushed further and stacked up high because each house has very small boundaries. Back when we used to live in Rockland, things were much easier despite a long driveway. We would just zig zag, pushing the snow to the left side, then right and so on. It'd be wrapped up in 10-15 minutes.