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Tap That! iOS Tips!

Posted by hfurnish on January 3, 2013
Posted in: Curious Intentions Media, Projects. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a Comment

Tap ThatWe at Curious Intentions are happy to introduce a new video series called Tap That – iOS tips in 60 seconds or less. Tap That is an ongoing video series designed to teach tips and tricks ranging from the most basic tools to utilizing iOS advance features. This page grants access to all available episodes hosted on YouTube. Contact us at TapThat[at]curiousintentions[dot]com if you have any tip suggestions or questions about the series.

Tap That is an example of instructional videos and tutorials that we offer as a part of our production packages. Contact us for more details. Five have been posted so far with one tip a week planned through the next several months.

James Bond Rises

Posted by hfurnish on November 23, 2012
Posted in: Film/Television, Reviews. Tagged: , , , . 6 comments

Directed By: Sam Mendes
Written By: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan
Produced By: Michael G Wilson & Barbara Broccoli
Starring: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomi Harris
Edited By: Stuart Baird
Music By: Thomas Newman

Distributed By: MGM & Columbia Pictures
Budget: $200 million
Runtime: 143 minutes

Rating: 8/10

Simply put, Skyfall is an excellent film that I would encourage everyone to see. Most people expect something great from a Sam Mendes directed Bond with an Oscar winning actor playing the villain, and he doesn’t disappoint. It’s emotional, it’s intense, it immensely entertaining. Skyfall has most everything I want out of a James Bond film in the post-9/11 world we live in, and I hope that future installments continue to lean more Casino Royale than Quantum of Solace.

–This review contains MILD spoilers–
Continue Reading

We Have Lift Off…Maybe

Posted by hfurnish on November 23, 2012
Posted in: Film/Television, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , . 2 comments

Directed By: Robert Zemeckis
Written By: John Gatins
Produced By: Laurie MacDonald, Walter Parkes, Jack Rapke, Steve Starkey
Starring: Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, Kelly Reilly, John Goodman, Bruce Greenwood
Edited By: Jeremiah O’Driscoll
Music By: Alan Silvestri

Distributed By: Paramount Pictures
Budget: $31 million
Runtime: 139 minutes

Rating: 6.5/10

It’s a Zemeckis movie. It’s a Denzel movie. That about sums it up. I usually would not see hard dramas like Flight while in theaters, and I didn’t, but the screenwriter, John Gatins, is a graduate of my college and recently brought a 35mm screener that I saw. It was a great experience, and the film is very enjoyable with two main hang ups: the use of Kelly Reilly’s Nicole character and the ending. Even with these quibbles, the film itself is well written, directed, and acted. It’s the definition of an intense realistic drama that in this case is, as are all of his films, driven by the screen presence Denzel Washington brings. Flight is a well made drama that I enjoyed seeing but probably will not see again of my own free will. Continue Reading

Seven Awesome Psychopaths

Posted by hfurnish on November 1, 2012
Posted in: Film/Television, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , . 1 comment

Written & Directed By: Martin McDonagh
Produced By: Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin
Starring: Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Christopher Walken, Tom Waits
Edited By: Lisa Gunning
Music By: Carter Burwell

Distributed By: CBS Films
Budget: $15 million
Runtime: 110 minutes

Rating: 9/10

I, along with most everyone I know, am a big fan of In Bruges. I didn’t see it in theater, but I instantly loved it when I rented it and subsequently bought. It’s one of those films where I marvel the whole way through at how beautiful and intelligent it is. I do not mean this so much in cinematography or editing, but in writing. Martin McDonagh is a writer who makes his scripts feel incredibly alive while at the same time so unlike everything else we watch/hear in modern cinema. This is odd considering the “realism” that films are supposed to bring, but McDonagh manages to entertain us with little more than two characters talking.

Seven Psychopaths allows his creativity to further hone and refine itself. Again, the script is amazing, the dialogue perfect, but Psychopaths also has a considerable amount of non-dialogue moments: flashbacks, action sequences, and much blood and murdering. Plenty more blood and murdering than In Bruges, but it’s all in a wonderfully meta way. Meta can be difficult, but Seven Psychopaths is meta in a good way and it makes for a vastly enjoyable film that entertains you throughout, even if what happens isn’t necessarily a surprise. Continue Reading

Ten Years of Superman

Posted by hfurnish on October 31, 2012
Posted in: Film/Television, Thoughts on Film. Tagged: , , , . Leave a Comment

Recently, I watched the series finale of Smallville, concluding its tenth season. Ten years is a long time for anything. Ten years of actors playing the same role, ten years of steady employment for the crew, ten years of storytelling and character development. Considering I only recently watched the finale that originally aired in 2011, it is, perhaps, obvious that I did not watch Smallville real time, but I also didn’t watch it all at once. My journey with Clark Kent and friends has existed through what must be six years of my life, and it’s impactful. Television shows, especially today, are just as strong, powerful, and entertaining, if not more so, than films, and it’s amazing when you look back and think about all the adventures you’ve watched when a long-running series like Smallville ends. Continue Reading

Star Wars and Mickey Mouse

Posted by hfurnish on October 31, 2012
Posted in: Film/Television, Movie & TV News. Tagged: , , , . Leave a Comment

You’ve probably heard the news by now in what is shaping up as a big week in the business world. No, I’m not talking about the massive shift in executive management at Apple. Instead I talk of Tuesday’s announce that The Walt Disney Company has purchased full ownership in Lucasfilm Ltd. and its subsidiaries (LucasArts, LucasBooks, Skywalker Sound, Industrial Light & Magic) for a whooping $4.05 billion – half in cash to Mr. George Lucas, the other half in 40 million shares of Disney stock for a Mr. George Lucas. Continue Reading

The Dark Knight Rises in Style, Part 2

Posted by hfurnish on August 4, 2012
Posted in: Film/Television, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , . 1 comment

This film was always going to be controversially, but I loved it from the amazing aerial prologue sequence to Bane breaking Batman and the all too fitting resolution not only to the film but the trilogy as a whole. I was not sure how to go about reviewing the film particularly when so many reviews exist already, both good and bad. Instead, I am just going to run down my favorite moments in the film while also giving responses to some of the complaints weighed against Nolan’s truly final Batman movie. /Film detailed 15 complaints about the film that Nolan-Fans responded to. I agree with most of their responses but would like to add to them in parts.

This list is long, and therefore broken into two parts. This is the second piece, with Part 1 located here.

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS. I WILL ASSUME YOU HAVE SEEN THE FILM! Continue Reading

The Dark Knight Rises in Style, Part 1

Posted by hfurnish on August 3, 2012
Posted in: Film/Television, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , . 1 comment

Directed By: Christopher Nolan
Written By: Christopher and Jonathan Nolan, Story By David S Goyer
Produced By: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Charles Roven
Starring: Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Tom Hardy, Morgan Freeman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cottilard
Edited By: Lee Smith
Music By: Hans Zimmer

Distributed By: Warner Bros. Pictures
Budget: $250 million
Runtime: 163 minutes

Rating: 9/10

After having the chance to view The Dark Knight Rises multiple times, all at an IMAX venue, I will definitively say that I loved the film and consider it my favorite in the trilogy. I know many people enjoy the film but say it is not as good as The Dark Knight, and I have read some critics’ reviews that place it third in the trilogy even when giving it a strong score. While it should first be pointed out what this says about Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy when a film people enjoy is still their least favorite in the series, I will stand by my claim of thoroughly enjoying Rises the most. It is long but, unlike some complaints, not drawn out or boring. It is entertaining, funny, huge, and epic. After using the E-word so much in recent months, I maintain that The Dark Knight Rises is truly a film of epic proportions.

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS. I WILL ASSUME YOU HAVE SEEN THE FILM! Continue Reading

The Dark Knight Falls

Posted by hfurnish on July 15, 2012
Posted in: Film/Television, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Directed By: Christopher Nolan
Written By: Christopher & Jonathan Nolan; Story By David S. Goyer & Christopher Nolan
Produced By: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Charles Roven
Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart
Edited By: Lee Smith
Music By: Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard

Distributed By: Warner Bros. Pictures
Budget: $185 million
Runtime: 152 minutes

Rating: 9/10

The Dark Knight holds very special memories and lessons for me that I did not fully grasp until two years after experiencing them. It is a monumental film of the 2000s decade explained best by David Koepp for Empire Magazine: “It really is like their [his two sons] generation’s Godfather.” The only thing missing from this remark is that The Dark Knight more closer to the Godfather Part II, bigger and better than Batman Begins in every way imaginable. It’s darker, grittier, more real, bigger explosions, longer, deeper, and the stakes are raised higher physically and emotionally than audiences thought a silly little superhero movie could do. Except The Dark Knight is more than a superhero film. Continue Reading

The Dark Knight Begins

Posted by hfurnish on July 9, 2012
Posted in: Film/Television, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a Comment

Directed By: Christopher Nolan
Written By: David S Goyer
Produced By: Emma Thomas, Larry J Franco, Charles Roven
Starring: Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Michael Caine, Katie Holmes, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman
Edited By: Lee Smith
Music By: Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard

Distributed By: Warner Bros. Pictures
Budget: $150 million
Runtime: 140 minutes

Rating: 8/10

There’s something about origin stories that makes people cringe. An origin film has to start with a non-hero and end with the hero recognizing his purpose in life. Batman Begins does this and so much more. The great thing about Christopher Nolan’s first foray into the superhero genre, especially when watching it now, on the eve of The Dark Knight Rises, is that it both establishes the character of Bruce Wayne, good and bad, while also establishing themes that will continue in both of its sequels. Batman Begins is a solid film on its own with a great cast, adventure, and stunning visuals, and it comes with just enough threads to make it an equally strong start to a trilogy. Continue Reading