Ever wondered how you could use the Wiimote’s controls for a game like Star Wars, using the Force? Well someone has edited a video to show what it could be like playing such a game on the Nintendo Wii. Check it out!

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The upcoming racing game from Microsoft, Forza Motorsport 2, will return to the race track this coming May.

Originally schedule for a November 2006 release, the Xbox 360 game has been delayed to iron out all the bugs. Forza Motorsport 2 is in a direct competition to Sony’s Gran Turismo 5, in terms of offering a rich driving sensation.

Twelve race circuits will be featured in the game – of which various configurations will total 65 different courses. The tracks are: Mugello Autodromo Internazionale, Suzuka Circuit, Sebring International Raceway, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Tsukuba Circuit, Road Atlanta, Silverstone Circuit, Nürburgring Nordschleife, Maple Valley Raceway, Sunset Peninsula Infield, New York Circuit, and Test Track.

So will Forza leave GT5 on the starting grid?

The official BBC Top Gear website has provide a computer-generated reconstruction showing the full horror when Richard Hammond’s suffered a front-right tyre failure, whilst travelling around 300mph.

Note the deceleration and g-force from the Vampire’s telemetry.

The crash confirms that Richard is a very lucky guy. It’s great to hear that he has made a full recovery and is back presenting the Emmy Award-winning show that is Top Gear.

Though Jeremy Clarkson joked that he will safeguard the ‘Hamster’ on driving any exotic and fast cars featured on the show!

See the step-by-step reconstruction of the accident here and read Richard Hammond’s comment here

Hollywood stars Dame Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker both picked up their Screen Actors Guild awards, confirming themselves as Oscar frontrunners.

Mirren’s portrayal in Stephen Frears’ The Queen and Whitaker’s Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland (directed by Kevin Macdonald) were recognised as the best lead performances. These two victories followed both actors’ recent success at the Golden Globes.

Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson also won for supporting roles in Dreamgirls, while Little Miss Sunshine won “best ensemble”.

These results from the Screen Actors Guild are a good indication on which actor and movie will win the Academy Award, which will take place next month.

The lists of winners are:

ACTOR
WINNER: Forest Whitaker – The Last King of Scotland

Leonardo DiCaprio – Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling – Half Nelson
Peter O’Toole – Venus
Will Smith – The Pursuit of Happyness

ACTRESS
WINNER: Helen Mirren – The Queen

Penelope Cruz – Volver
Judi Dench – Notes on a Scandal
Meryl Streep – The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet – Little Children

SUPPORTING ACTOR
WINNER: Eddie Murphy – Dreamgirls

Alan Arkin – Little Miss Sunshine
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Departed
Jackie Earle Haley – Little Children
Djimon Hounsou – Blood Diamond

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
WINNER: Jennifer Hudson – Dreamgirls

Adriana Barraza – Babel
Cate Blanchett – Notes on a Scandal
Abigail Breslin – Little Miss Sunshine
Rinko Kikuchi – Babel

ENSEMBLE CAST
WINNER: Little Miss Sunshine (Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Greg Kinnear)

Babel
Bobby
The Departed
Dreamgirls

Series nine of the popular motoring show is back this weekend (Sunday at 8.00pm on BBC2) and if you want to know what’s in store for the next couple of weeks, then please click here for an in-depth season guide of top-quality motoring.

Highlights will include: Richard Hammond driving a Renault Formula One racing car, building a Top Gear Space Shuttle from a Reliant Robin, purchasing a decent American car for around $1,000 and a classic race between a new Alfa Romeo 159 against a man walking though mud.

This could be the best series to date and with over 80 programmes under the belts of Jeremy, Captain Slow and the Hamster, we can expect to see more thrills and spills from the Top Gear boys.

Nintendo Wii’s News Channel has now gone live, meaning you can read the latest headlines from around the world. Associated Press will provide all news content.

With the News Channel, users can access any news stories by clicking on a city/country in globe view, which is presented in a similar way to the Forecast Channel.

The headlines can be also displayed as a slideshow with the content updated and viewable via WiiConnect24.

Video and audio may be available in the near future to enhance the service further.

Donnie Darko
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi and Thriller
Director: Richard Kelly
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore, James Duval, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle and Maggie Gyllenhaal
Duration: 113 minutes / 133 minutes – Director’s Cut
Year: 2001

Richard Kelly’s psychological thriller tells a fascinating story on a bright but troubled young man, who suffers from a mental illness. After narrowly escaping death by a falling jet engine, Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) experiences repeated visions of a six-foot tall rabbit named Frank.

The grotesque giant rabbit warns Donnie that the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. He then encourages Donnie to commit seemingly random acts of vandalism, including flooding his school and burning down Jim Cunningham’s (Patrick Swayze) house.

Donnie is an emotionally troubled teenager, who is trapped in a world where teachers, parents and other adults want to simplify everything into two extremes – fear and love, right and wrong, Republicans and Democrats.

Kelly has skilfully directed this movie by allowing the viewer to experience the insane and hallucinate visions from Donnie’s point of view. The director also makes great use with the 1980s soundtrack, in particular the scene when he pans the camera to each of the characters – Magnolia-style – to Tears For Fear’s Mad World. This indeed is a strange and troubled world we live in.

Donnie Darko has been described as a high school movie directed by David Lynch (made famous by Twin Peaks) with themes on time travel, love, sacrifice and existentialism. The movie presents paradoxes never fully explained and a cryptic storyline open to multiple interpretations. A modern cult classic, with exceptional performance from Jake Gyllenhaal and a breathtaking cinematography, creating a dreamlike atmosphere that sets the mood of the film.

From the director of Eternal Sunshine Of A Spotless Mind, Human Nature and numerous stylish music videos, comes a surreal fantasy movie based on dreams.

The film tells the story of Stéphane (Gael García Bernal), a young man who’s vivid dreams and imagination often interferes with his ability to interact with reality.

Following the death of his father in Mexico, Stéphane Miroux returns home to Paris as a way to draw closer to his widowed mother Christine (Miou-Miou). He takes up a mundane job at a calendar-making firm and falls in love with his charming neighbour Stéphanie (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Reality and dream starts to merge into one another as he tries to seduce her.

Michel Gondry’s third theatrical feature film explores the fantasy world with surreal and bizarre visions. Working with Charlie Kaufman’s script, the movie takes a voyage into an imaginative and alternative universe.

See the trailer here or visit the official website here

LG Shine – Can Lightning strike twice?

Update: Support Forum now here!

LG Mobile has had great success with the LG Chocolate mobile phone, attracting many fans due to its sleek design and functionality. Now with the LG Shine debuting on Feb 7th 2007 in the UK they hope that they can achieve the same if not more success as the Chocolate, especially as it is the second in the line of LG’s Black Label series.

Thanks to a very positive contribution to modern news casting by LG Mobile, they have selected bloggers to preview the mobile phone ahead of its official release. We at eMagi are thankful and pleased to Gaylene Ravenscroft for allowing us to be contributing in such a movement and applaud LG Mobile’s efforts in embracing new trends instead of fighting against them.

The first thing you will notice about the packaging is that they have taken note of the fashion and fragrance industry. The Chocolate was presented attractively and the same applies for the Shine – Gone are the days where a simple box will suffice. Please note that the packaging is still in pre-production and so there could be changes.

Sporting clean lines and textures it draws your attention to the product, using quality cardboard with a reflective silver embellished finish. Upon opening the box I was expecting a magnetic flap akin to a decent fragrance box and was pleased to find exactly that. With the lid drawn the mobile phone is found on the right in full view with the cables and contents hidden by a thin piece of cardboard. Inside you will find the LG Shine, UK mains charger, 3.7v battery (800mAh), a USB cable, hands free kit with remote and headphones. No manual was within the package or CD as everything is still in the pre-release phase.

Update: A forum thread is now dedicated to the LG Shine here for further discussion!

(Read more…)

Oldboy
Genre: Drama, Mystery and Thriller
Director: Chan-Wook Park
Starring: Min-sik Choi, Kang Hye-jeong and Yu Ji-tae
Duration: 120 minutes
Year: 2003

This is South Korean’s modern answer to an Elizabethan revenge tragedy. Full of insanely grand passions, bloodthirsty violence and dark comedy, it’s a sadistic masterpiece from the director of Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.

The film won the Grand Jury prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival with high praise from none other than Quentin Tarantino (the Pulp Fiction director was heading the jury). Oldboy can be described as a psychological thriller, utilizing many elements of film noir to examine the nature of sin and morality.

Korea actor Choi Min-sik stars as Dae-su, a skirt-chasing businessman with a wife and daughter. During a night out drinking, the police arrests Dae-su for being drunk and disorderly. His close friend, Joo-Hwan, bails him out. While Joo-Hwan is in a phone booth talking to Dae-su’s daughter (who is celebrating her birthday), an anonymous person kidnaps Dae-sa.

For the next 15 years, Dae-su is locked up in shabby little hotel room. He is kept in this ‘private prison’ without any contact from the outside world with only a TV set to keep him company. Over time, Dae-su manages to fill in several notebooks as a way of keeping himself sane but is puzzled by the reason why a person would imprison him like this. Dae-su also forced himself to train by shadow boxing, punching at the walls of his prison until thick calluses form on his knuckles.

During this period, he learns via the television set that he is accused of his wife’s murder and that his young daughter has been sent away to a foster family. Just as abruptly as he was captured, Dae-su is set free and vows to get his revenge.

Embarking on his quest to discover the person responsible for his imprisonment, Dae-su teams up with female sushi chef Mi-Do (Kang Hye-jeong) – by impressing her in his ability to eat a live, wiggling octopus in one single go!

Later on, a man named Woo-jin (Yu Ji-tae) contacts Dae-su and claims to be the one who imprisoned him. He offers to play a game with Dae-su: Find out why all this has happened to him in the next five days or else Mi-Do dies. If Dae-su wins, then Woo-jin will kill himself.

Eventually Dae-su meets Woo-jin face-to-face, but this ends with a shocking and a bizarre twist of fate for the lead character.

Oldboy is a stylish but violent film from the creative genius of Chan-Wook Park. His vision in this revenge movie features many iconic scenes of blood and gore, in particular the perfectly-choreographed corridor fight sequence where Dae-su single-handedly takes on 20-odd guys that visually looks like a side-scrolling beat ‘em up video game.

Oldboy may not appeal to everyone’s taste, but it can be regarded as the best Korean film to date, with a fascinating story and beautiful cinematography. An Asian movie not to be missed!