Sorry, doc. Extra running time couldn't save this movie with the critics. The complaint of "an endless stream of characters" was a characteristic of the series and couldn't be remedied in any 3-hour way.

Also, there was no way they ever intended to make all three movies. While the first book was engaging and suspenseful the third book was the very definition of Frank Zappa's catch-phrase: "no commercial potential."

Wait a minute, Ben. First Knight is "painfully boring" yet it's a "mystery" as to why we can't watch Philip Bosco smear poop on the wall in The Savages?

OK, here's the rule in it's simplest form:

NO indie needs to be seen in hi-def. EVER.

Feel free to repeat this to yourself if your resolve ever weakens.

OK, technically my next HDTV will be an LCD for the bedroom to replace the 32"Olevia I have there now (it doesn't play well with the Harmony 880). But I then hope that in the future I'll be replacing my new-ish Samsung 6187 with a 60" or so OLED, price permitting.

Same here in the L.A. area.

Yeah, I've had this look since I had to switch out my old SA 8300HD in January. It's just the latest, "greatest" software. It looks like it's supposed to be simpler, for the masses. I get that. But, while it's prettier in the same way XP is prettier that Win98 (the new look is like XP, too!), there is less detailed functionality in it. I've given up, in general, waiting for TWC to add channels so May 10 I'll be a Uverse subscriber. And for less money, including internet access.

I don't know. I was noticing yesterday that WalMart and Target still have all BD discs at $30. I don't think that will wow the populace. Even Audioholics weighs in,
http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/format-war-blu-ray-up-hd-dvd-down

The article ends with "So much for the supposed competition to come from within the BDA cartel."

Hmm... This is interesting. When I gave my son Brawl on Wednesday there was an update to download that, I believe, corrected the loading problem mentioned in an early article (I'm connected wirelessly.). I don't see a headline about this but everyone with Brawl may want to hook up and download this as soon as is practical.

Just thought I'd mention it if it's not common knowledge.

For the few who made serious comments, pack it up and go home. It would appear this was never meant to be a serious thread. Obviously, most of these people has never seen an AppleTV in action. They have made their conclusion by reading reviews (read: being told what they would like). These are the type of sheep who also make their voting "decisions" based on bumper stickers. And for all the hammering Apple is taking here, I don't see much difference between their rules and other services' rules. This makes me think it's the studios making some of the (stupid) economic decisions here.

A quick note to those who made the suggestion about a longer waiting period. I must have had a different experience than you. My first-day rental was used to compare to an actual HD disc. After I was suitably impressed (mysteriously choosing to believe my own eyes rather than somebody else's) I paused the movie and forgot about it. Late the next day I came back and, even though the 24-hour period had expired, I got a message stating that "Your 24 hour viewing period has expired. Push Play to continue watching or Stop to delete the movie" or very similar words. I didn't think I'd actually have to memorize them. So I pushed Play and watched all the way to the end, an arduous experiment that many reviewers failed to complete. Now it looks like many reviewers have sort of missed this little ditty, making their reviews from promotional material rather than doing the work themselves. This is the sort of shoddy reporting that makes me skeptical about reviews in general. Anyway, this little bonus seems to set Apple apart from other services, if that incredibly poor research thing is to be believed.

"the industry has been so heavily focused on assessing realism and technical achievements that they've largely forgotten how to evaluate how fun a game is"

Too true. I've been using this argument on my PS-loving friends for months now. They're so hung up on the 1080 number they've forgotten the reason for playing. I certainly don't feel visually slighted playing Wii on my 61" TV. Maybe that component connector makes a bigger difference than I thought. ;)

Wow! This ain't the crappy "HD"VOD from my cable company. The HD movie I rented looks really damn good, first on my 32"LCD where the top rez setting was 720p (I didn't expect more) and then on my 61"DLP where the setting jumped up to 1080p and looks absolutely beautiful. Not a huge HD library yet but with every studio on board that'll change soon, I'm sure.

Well done, Apple!!