Movies

The Croods: Official game hitting iOS on March 14

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy51B9V8wNM

We have decided to stop telling you about Angry Birds content updates because of the excessive franchise milking, but this brand new game is worth mentioning. So Rovio teamed up with DreamWorks Animation on the official game for The Croods CG animated feature film.

The game is due for release on an Apple and Google app store near your on Thursday, March 14 and follows the Croods as they hunt and gather their way through "spectacular new landscapes as they tame fantastic and never-seen-before creatures," or so says the blurb. The above teaser highlights custom animation from DreamWorks and I've also included gameplay clip right below...

Angry Birds Toons premiering March 16

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5px1IbyAjw

Determined to milk the Angry Birds franchise for all its worth, Finnish developer Rovio is bringing the birds and the pesky pigs to the world of animation with Angry Birds Toons, an all-new animated series premiering on the weekend of March 16 and 17. The animated shorts take place on the Piggy Island and invite fans to get up close and personal with their favorite characters. Rovio says it will air a brand new episode featuring the latest adventures of the birds and pigs every week starting the weekend of March 16...

The official Die Hard game hits, in time for the movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv6Sj5ot3c8

In support of “A good day to die hard”, the upcoming new installment to the 25-year-old Die Hard movie franchise starring the now aged action hero Bruce Willis, Fox Digital Entertainment today released the official iOS game, a movie tie-in. Die Hard, the shooter, puts you in the shoes of Jack McClane, the son of New York City’s most famous cop, as you battle ruthless mobsters, elite commandos and shadowy politicians in Russia, with locations like Moscow’s mean streets and the radioactive wasteland of Chernobyl...

New app streams Pokemon episodes for free

If you're a fan of Pokemon TV, a Nintendo-owned Japanese media franchise, there's a new app in town which lets you stream up to fifty different Pokemom television movies and even related movies, free of charge, no strings attached. That ain't some unofficial hack: the Pokemon TV app comes straight from Pokemon, the company.

You can stream Pokemon TV shows to your iPhone or iPad from the 700+ episode strong library, access special features, watch trailers for upcoming Pokémon movie events and more...

HBO Go gains AirPlay streaming, Apple TV app due later this year

Good news, Apple TV users: later today, HBO will enable AirPlay streaming in its HBO Go iOS app. Speaking at The Wall Street Journal-sponsored D: Dive Into Media conference on Tuesday, HBO’s Eric Kessler said that “effective today, we will be enabling AirPlay” for HBO Go. Bloomberg last month reported that Apple and HBO are working on a content deal.

He also re-iterated that HBO Go will eventually land on the Apple TV later this yeare. Until the Apple TV app materializes, Time Warner Inc.'s HBO Go subscribers can use the existing iOS app to stream HBO shows from their iPhone or iPad to their Apple TV over AirPlay...

NPD: iTunes dominates digital movies as physical media dies a slow death

Research firm NPD today issued a report highlighting Apple's lead concerning electronic sell through (EST) of digital movies. Now, EST comprised just sixteen percent of the larger video on demand (VOD) revenue throughout the 2012 calendar year.

At the same time, iTunes dominated the EST market with a 45 percent share. Amazon was #2 with eighteen percent, followed by the $3 Walmart-owned Vudu (fifteen percent), #4 Xbox Video (fourteen percent) and Others taking up the remaining eight percent of the market.

Movies on Blu-ray and DVD discs? These accounted for a still respectable 61 percent of home video spending on movies, excluding Netflix and other movie-streaming subscriptions. However, that figure is notably down from 64 percent in 2011, despite average prices of Blu-ray movies falling seven percent to $19.97 per unit. Steve Jobs was right, Blu-ray indeed is "a bag of hurt"...

THX launches new app for calibrating your TV and home theater

THX, the company behind the high-fidelity audio/visual reproduction standard for movie theaters and consumer products, has released a new iOS application today called THX tune-up.

The app is built to help consumers calibrate, or 'get the most out of,' their HDTVs and home theater setups. And with the Super Bowl less than a week away, its timing couldn't be better...

First reviews of Kutcher’s ‘jOBS’ film hit the web

Ashton Kutcher's long-awaited jOBS, a biopic on the late Steve Jobs, debuted for the first time ever last night at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. And as you can imagine, the screening was chock-full of critics and tech bloggers.

The first reviews of the movie hit the web late last night, and the overall theme seems to be "good, not great." Both Kutcher and Gad (who plays Woz) received praise for their respective performances, but the film itself didn't seem to impress.

Here's a roundup of some of the top jOBS reviews from around the web...

Indie biopic ‘jOBS’ hits theaters April 19 (video)

As previously reported, 'jOBS' biopic will debut tomorrow as the closing-night film of the Sundance Film Festival in Part City and now word has reached us that the flick, which depicts Steve in his early years (1971-2000), will be premiering in theaters nationwide on Friday, April 19. The indie project stars Ashton Kutcher, who portrays Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs, and his fellow actor Josh Gad, who plays another Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak. An exclusive clip from the movie can be seen right after the break...

Keep track of what you want to watch, listen, and read with ‘Done Not Done’

Ever make a mental note to watch a movie, listen to an album, or read a book, and realize months later that you forgot what you wanted to do in the first place? This happens to the best of us, but it doesn't have to.

Done Not Done is an automated 'watch/read/listen' list for iOS. You can select movies, books, and albums you've seen or want to see (or hear), and Done Not Done will keep track of them for you. If you connect Done Not Done to Twitter or Facebook, you can even get ideas and recommendations from friends who are using the app...

jOBS star Ashton Kutcher to kick off MacWorld

Actor Ashton Kutcher who stars in jOBS, the upcoming indie biopic about Apple's late co-founder, will kick off MacWorld Expo, now known as iWorld. The conference runs January 31 - February 2 in San Francisco's Moscone West. Kutcher will take the main stage on January 31 at 9am to kick off the three-day conference and talk about the flick, which is scheduled to hit theaters in April after its debut at the legendary Sundance Film Festival later this month...

Netflix inks exclusive Warner Bros. TV deal

With just a few days into 2013 we're already seeing the latest skirmish between Netflix and pay-TV veterans. After a weekend deal where HBO gloated it was keeping Universal content out of the hands of the online streaming service, Netflix answered Monday by inking a U.S. deal for television episodes from Warner Bros. The deal gives Netflix exclusive online rights for such Warner Bros Television Group shows as Revolution, Fringe and Kevin Bacon's upcoming FBI potboiler The Following. Perhaps most intriguing was language offering Netflix exclusive online rights to "potential future shows"...