Category — Entertainment

In 1996 electric cars began to appear on roads all over California. They were quiet and fast produced no exhaust and ran without gasoline. Ten years later these futuristic cars were almost entirely gone. What happened?

In 1996, General Motors (G.M.) launched the first modern-day commercially available electric car, the EV1. Many of the people who leased the car, including a number of celebrities, said the car drove like a dream. The car required no fuel and could be plugged in for recharging at home and at a number of so-called battery parks.

In the 1990, California regulators even launched a zero-emissions vehicle program to clean up the state’s smoggy skies.

However after producing slightly over 1,000 EV1s, G.M. scraped the project citing the reason as insufficient demand. Other major car makers also stopped the production.

There is suggestion that G.M., although has invested some $1 billion in EV1, fearing that EV1 would cannibalize its existing business, actually intentionally sabotaged their own marketing efforts in EV1 and killed the project.

In this lively and informative documentary film “Who Killed the Electric Car?”, writer/director Chris Paine showed how this unique vehicle came into being and why G.M. ended up reclaiming its own once-prized creation less than a decade later. In this documentary the hard science and complex politics, such a sCalifornia’s zero-emission Vehicle mandate have been translated into lay person’s terms.

Was it the companies, the oil industry, bad ad campaigns, consumer wariness, and a lack of commitment from the U.S. government who killed the electric cars?

But the movie ends on a hopeful note. We may never see the EV1 again, but vehicles using electric drive systems, either as full EVs (which are coming from several start-up companies) or plug-in hybrids, must inevitably roam the roads. The upward trend in gasoline prices, the effects of global warming, the inherent efficiency of electric drive trains, the continued improvement of battery technology, and the upcoming reevaluation of the ZEV Mandate guarantee it.

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Ghostbusters was a successful movie adventure that hit the big screen in 1984 and spawned a sequel in 1989.

Ghostbusters the video game is built from scratch with a whole new technology. Dan Aykryoyd, one of the talents behind the original film script, terms Ghostbusters the video game as the third movie, and hence the name Ghostbusters 3. Aykryod and Ramis are writing it, and all of the talents from the first 2 Ghostbusters films (Ernie Hudson, Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Bill Murray) are returning to provide their voices.

Once again, the video game takes place in the year of 1991 and is NOT a remake of the first two films. Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote a new story for the video game, so it is essentially a sequel to the first two movies. You’ll realize you’re wrong once you play the video game.

Sierra Entertainment is the publisher of this video game. The demo of the game was shown at a spring media event held in San Francisco in mid-April, but revealed just a little of the actual story. The demo showed the player taking on the role of a new member of the Ghostbusters team. Some of the old favorite monsters will be in the game, including the boss from the first movie, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man. The player was equipped with a variety of unique weapons and gadgets to hunt, fight and capture a wide range of supernatural villains in a funny and frightening battle to save New York City from its latest paranormal plague.

The game has an amazing look. The dynamic shadows and lighting and the environmental effects were superb. In one of the demos of the engine and technology, cars were ‘glued’ to the ceiling of the library using new elements of the proton pack. The goo gave way to the cars’ weight, impacting the environment in a realistic manner. Books and splinters from crushed tables were sent flying all over the places. On balance, the realisticness produced shows that the engineering and technology is quite remarkable.

The development teams have demonstrated intense passion and commitment in this project. It’s expected that Ghostbusters fans will be impressed with the game’s ability to deliver a very authentic Ghostbusters experience, as well as its capacity to expand the Ghostbusters universe that they currently know.

Ghostbusters, in development for NDS/PS2/Wii (Red Fly Studios), and PS3/X360/PC (Terminal Reality), is currently scheduled for release in fall 2008.

So, what do you think: is Ghostbusters 3 a video game, or a movie in video game form?

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In 1975, there was the low-budget cult classic Death Race 2000. Shot in about 17 days, the story was about scoring points for running down pedestrians. Despite all its cheapness, it was a massive hit. Now in 2008, we have the remake (but not a sequel): Death Race 3000. But it’s now officially just called Death Race, directed by the upcoming Paul W.S. Anderson, featuring British tough guy Jason Statham.

(picture by draven99)

Like The Running Man or The Condemned, Death Race has the same premise, ie what you can imagine to be the most depraved thing has become a spectator sport in the future. In this remake, it’s a fatal cross country car race with Jason Statham battling against Tyrese, while in the original it’s Sly Stallone against David Carradine.

The new Death Race takes place in prisons, and on closed-circuit television. It’s set in the post-industrial wasteland of the future, with the world hungry for the most brutal sporting event. Given a prison full of criminals, the jail administrators create a grisly, lucrative pastime. The lawless jailers, adrenalized prisoners, a global audience hungry for televised violence, plus a spectacular arena, come together to form the Death Race.

That’s right, it’s not like the original Death Race 2000 in which people were run over for points. This remake is decking cars out with guns and armor to fight each other to get the ultimate prize: freedom from imprisonment.

Jason Statham plays a three-time speedway champion Jensen Ames. Wanting to turn his life around from being an ex-con, he was framed for a gruesome murder he didn’t commit. The warden (Joan Allen) gives Ames an easy choice: take part in the race to satisfy the audience as the mythical driver Frankenstein (a crowd favorite who seems impossible to kill), or rot away in a cell. Yearning to be back with his daughter, Ames is forced to participate in the Death Race to gamble for his prize of freedom.

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