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Announcement

Farpoint Media/Podango Partnership

Big news for us.  It might not ever mean anything to you guys, but this new partnership should prove to make our lives easier in bringing you Fanboy Smackdown.

Farpoint Media/Podango Partnership

We, at FarPoint Media (www.farpointmedia.net), a leader in creating, producing and distributing quality audio entertainment, are happy to announce that Podango (www.podango.com) has become our partner with a multi-station deal that will allow this new media broadcast platform to host all of our FarPoint Media podcasts and future vidcasts.

Podango is a new media broadcast platform that will enable FarPoint Media and our advertisers to better reach our target audience for all of our podcasts, vidcasts and their accompanying Website’s.

“Podango offers us a complete and reliable hosting solution with full WordPress integration, robust ad insertion capabilities and a variety of easy-to-use management tools,” stated Michael R. Mennenga, founder and CEO of FarPoint Media.  “[The Podango platform] lets us concentrate on creating and delivering the best audio content for our growing legion of online fans.”

Lee Gibbons, CEO of Podango, said, “FarPoint Media is leading the industry in creating and producing highly popular, award-winning and diverse new media content.  We’re thrilled to welcome the family of FarPoint Media audio shows to Podango and look forward to collaborating in reaching even wider audiences.”

“The ease and reliability with which this format will afford us will lessen the burden faced with less than adequate service,” said Samuel K. Sloan, FarPoint Media Executive News Director.  “I am looking forward to working closely with Podango and its rich platform.”

FarPoint Media is happy to be able to be working with Podango to continue bringing you all the best in entertainment, news and information the Internet can provide.

About Podango
Podango is a new media broadcast platform that enables podcasters and advertisers to build audiences and connect with hard-to-reach, niche market segments.  Running such hit shows as The Apple Phone Show, Podango hosts over 1,000 video and audio programs—including a third of the top twenty-five shows—on a wide variety of interests and topics.

The company’s innovative Web broadcast platform features diverse shows distributed through a sophisticated set of syndication tools.  Broadcasters producing their own channels of episodic video and audio content also share advertising revenue.  In today’s increasingly fragmented marketplace, Podango provides advertisers with the highly targeted audiences and robust content opportunities critical to the success of business and consumer brands.

About FarPoint Media
With 73 shows currently on the air or in development , FarPoint Media is a leading producer and distributor of quality radio and podcast entertainment, with its eye to the future of vidcasting.  The company offers a variety of content with channels designed for diverse programming choices.

We have sci-fi media and genre-related literature shows featuring news and interviews with actors, producers and writers creating your favorite TV programs and books, and we have discussion shows fans can immerse themselves in.

FarPoint Media has quality audio dramas to fire your imagination, specialized sports news and information shows that take you beyond the box scores, comedy and variety programming that will have you laughing out loud, and shows with experienced advice that can help improve your tech skills, sharpen your writing skills or make you more environmentally conscious and knowledgeable.

The three jewels in the FarPoint Media crown are the “Dragonpage Cover to Cover” (C2C), “Wingin’It-3D” (WI-3D) and “Slice of SciFi” (SoSF) programs.

C2C is the show that started it all.  Each program hosts an award-winning author of fantasy, fiction and science fiction, covering the latest offerings from the writer being interviewed and the novel under discussion.

WI-3D is just want the name implies, an irreverent time where friends, celebrities and personalities get together in the studio in a no-holds-bar romp where the discussion can end up on just about anything.

SoSF is an hour-long show of news, entertainment and guest interviews centering on the world of science fiction, horror, fantasy and other genre-related topics.  Very structured, SoSF works off of a tightly written script and has featured interview with actors such as Samuel K. Jackson and Amanda Tapping, producers/writers and directors like Peter Mohan, N. John Smith and Martin Wood.  Also featured are young up-and-coming filmmakers like Mark Lund and Shane Felux, as well as, award winning authors like Peter S. Beagle, Tanya Huff and Jim Butcher.  SoSF has made the unique crossover from a stand-alone podcast to where it can now also be heard on XM-Satellite Radio.

FarPoint Media is podcast entertainment at its best.  No matter what your interests are, we have a show that will be sure to entertain and inform you.  See what the fastest-growing network has to offer you.  It is a world of wonder that awaits you.  For more information visit: www.farpointmedia.net.

Categories
Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: Resident Evil: Extinction

It’s been some time since Resident Evil: Apocalypse and now the T-Virus has spread globally, not just laying waste to humanity, but to the environment as well, leaving much of the planet a dusty, desert wasteland. Small pockets of humanity continue to survive, but always on the move. The Umbrella Corporation is attempting a cure with clone after clone being made of Alice, the woman that holds the key to survival with her paranormal abilities. Alice, is on the run on her own, having abandoned her comrades after their escape in Apocalypse because she is the one being tracked, not them. Carlos has hooked up with a caravan of survivors being led by Claire Redfield. And as things stand, paths are about to cross again, in a battle for survival as the Umbrella Corporation tightens their pursuit of the original Alice.

And in a nutshell, that’s the premise to Resident Evil: Extinction the third in the Resident Evil series of films and I’ve got to say, if you’ve seen the first two movies, this is some pretty cool entertainment. Very much well done work from director Russell Mulcahy (best known for his work on the first Highlander film) delivering a science fiction/horror adventure that plays out like a cross between The Road Warrior and Romero’s Dead films.

This is fun to watch right from the start, playing with all sorts of little facets from the first film and working in facets of the second, it’s a natural progression of events, very well-paced and well-acted (and keep in mind when I’m saying this, this isn’t trying to be any sort of Oscar-winner here)

Milla Jovavich is back as Alice, and as always, she’s just terrific, she looks fantastic and she pulls off the action quite well, with some of the moves happening so fast, one wonders if she’s the one at work in them, but it sure looks like her. Other cast members include Oded Fehr, returning as Carlos and Heroes’ Ali Larter as Claire Redfield, and all sorts of other good folks around, none of them household names by any means, but all of them convicted to their parts (unfortunately I cannot remember the name of the actor who plays the lead scientist for the Umbrella Corporation and our villain of the piece, but he is quite good).

If you like these films, and I most certainly do (though I have to admit, it took me a couple of viewings of Apocalypse to appreciate it more than I did on the first viewing), then really, you’re probably already planning to see Resident Evil: Extinction and more than likely, you’re going to have a great time with it, I know I did and I definitely look forward to owning this one down the road. Very much recommended, and especially to fans of the series…

Categories
Text Reviews Theatrical Review

Theatrical Review: Eastern Promises

In London, a young Russian girl goes into a pharmacy looking for help. She’s clearly disturbed and pregnant and soon falls unconscious, due to a disturbance in her pregnancy. Once taken to a hospital, she falls under the care of a midwife named Anna, and unfortunately the mother dies, but her daughter lives. Anna discovers a diary from the young woman and she’s wants to find out more about this young girl, to see if she has any other family or else her newborn baby might become lost within London’s system. Anna’s investigation leads her to the Russian mob operating in London, where she intrigues the owner of a Russian restaurant with her predicament and catches the eye of a driver named Nikolai…

And that’s the starting premise of David Cronenberg’s newest movie, which is unfortunately a godawful title for this film, sounding more like some sort of subtle flavored tea or a new scented douche as opposed to even remotely conveying much of anything that this film is about. Now that’s not saying it’s a bad movie, it’s not that by any means and in fact out of all of Cronenberg’s films, this one might be his most straightforward and mainstream piece yet.

This all plays out well, but a little too much by the book, and Cronenberg’s style has always been one of detachment (i.e. it’s a little hard to feel too much sympathy for a lot of his characters because they tend to have an almost clinical removal from conventional emotions) and while this does play out well, considering how mainstream this is, maybe Cronenberg should’ve tried for a little more emotional connection than usual.

An attachment does come, but it’s almost too little and too late (happening after the most violent scene in the movie, a vicious fight in a bath house that is probably the most violent thing I’ve seen in a movie all year). It still doesn’t mean that this isn’t a good movie, it is… but it could’ve been quite a bit better had Cronenberg changed up his style a bit. Another change that would’ve worked would’ve been to have upped the pace as well, this is a cautious and deliberate piece which is par for the course for Cronenberg, and it could’ve used a little more of him just taking a chance here or there.

He’s got a tremendous cast at work here, but unfortunately for them, these are all parts that aren’t any real challenge to them, they’ve all played these “types” before. The cast includes Viggo Mortenson as Nikolai (who looks to me more and more like a young Kirk Douglas all the time), Naomi Watts as Anna, Vincent Cassel as Kirill the slightly unbalanced son of the mob boss played by Armin Muehler-Stahl. Again, all are very solid in their roles, without any huge surprises (although to give credit, there is something that happens with one of them that I did not see coming, but it’s not as jolting as it could be).

It’s well made, well crafted, extremely well-acted and yet it misses some sort of punch or “oomph” or something that could’ve raised it up even more. Cronenberg does a fine job with Eastern Promises but it’s almost too safe for him, and it’s a shame, because he can deliver films with a punch, it’s just that most of those have always been in the horror genre. I still recommend this, but for a more patient viewer, if you’re demanding something new every other minute, then this probably won’t be your thing.