“Lord of War” is a one of the most compelling movies that really makes u think,...

“Lord of War” begins with one of the most brilliant openings I have seen at the cinema in a great while: the camera pans over a city street where the discarded shell casings of seemingly thousands of spent bullets lie and calmly standing amongst them is Yuri Orlov (Nicolas Cage) the man who sold them. He turns to the camera, breaks the fourth wall, and ponders aloud. “There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?” We hear the famous opening notes of Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth” and the most thematically important credits sequences I have ever seen begins. We bear a first person witness to the creation of a bullet to when it is used; from when it is first pressed until it is lodged into the head of a poor, nameless young man in a random corner of the world. Death is a business, made in factories and shipped the world over.

And we are immediately swept into a bizarre and gruesome world, the creation of writer/director Andrew Niccol, a world that is almost a parody of our own, but at the same time, too real to be a total fantasy. We are forced to sympathize with shady characters and evil men and watch morally wrong events occur while the protagonists look on with mild interest or glee. Those who do care are not the subject of the film; those who do care have no power in this world. “Lord of War” is a disturbing drama, a roller coaster thriller and a pitch-dark satiric comedy: if “Dr. Strangelove” and “Scarface” had a child, this would be it.



The story follows the above-mentioned Orlov as he becomes an arms dealer. He starts the film nervously selling an Uzi to two thugs in a hotel room and is soon shipping tanks to African dictators. Along for the journey is his brother, the dysfunctional Vitaly (Jared Leto), who finds himself addicted to cocaine, and his wife, Ava (Bridget Moynahan), who either believes Uri when he says he’s in the shipping business or chooses to look away. Pursuing Uri is a righteous ATF agent named Valentine (but there will be more on him later).

Looking over Niccol’s resume, I have noticed a trend: each of his films seems to, in one way or another, deal with the dehumanization of mankind. His screenplay for “The Truman Show” dealt with a man unwillingly being the subject of his own television show. His film “Simone” was about the first completely digital actress. “Lord of War” continues the trend. Orlov is a fascinating character because he treats his merchandise as if it were anything else, at one point comparing arms dealing to selling a vacuum. He is selling death. He is profiting from the human race destroying itself. It is made clear that Orlov is forcing himself to wear blinders, the less you know, the less it hurts. Note the powerful scene where Orlov returns home after a trip and visits his young son’s room. Next to the son’s bed is a plastic pistol. Orlov picks up the toy, stares at it and carries it out of the room. On this level, “Lord of War” is a story of guilt and tragedy. People are going to kill one another no matter what. Orlov realizes this. If he can accept that fact, he can justify what he does every day.

The character of Valentine acts as the antithesis to Orlov. He’s a Hollywood archetype, the straight arrow cop hellbent on catching man. In any other film, Valentine would be the hero and Orlov the villain, but “Lord of War,” like the best of it’s kind, plays with the emotions of the audience. We know that Orlov is wrong. He needs to be stopped…but we can see the appeal, the romanticism behind selling weapons. Being a cop seems so boring; Valentine is always held back by the law, and not matter what he tries to accomplish, he is outsmarted simply because, in this world, evil prevails. Pessimistic? Oh yes. Would it be dishonest any other way? You betcha.’

Don’t think “Lord of War” is all heavy, though. Actually, it’s almost a comedy. The humor is never laid on thick, but is funny in an satiric “Catch 22” style that most comedies never have these days. A running narration by Orlov provides a surprisingly large number of laughs, and many sequences seem straight out the theatre of the absurd: Orlov rids himself of evidence by yelling out “Free guns!” to African villagers. He re-paints the name of his boat to evade capture by authority.

“Lord of War” is the most fulfilling experience I’ve had at the movies so far this year. I’m bringing this critique to a close, but I still feel like I have so much more to say. I’ve yet to mention the brilliant use of sound and editing, the brilliant script that makes use of time and place or the performance by Cage, which may very well be one of his best (and one of the best this year). This is one of the greatest films of the year.

***In a month, I have seen two films dealing with Africa and it’s troubles. The first was “The Constant Gardener,” which was sympathetic to the continent’s plight and blamed all of it’s problems on interference by outside nations. “Lord of War” takes a far more bizarre take, making it out to Africa’s fault for being in it’s warring state (and doing so quite humorously and/or graphically). This makes both films unlikely viewing companions. Do yourself a favor and watch them both. My view: both films are correct.

© Written by Jacob Hall


Personally,... Anyone who is in love with movies with different mettle, should not miss this one. Its fantastic !!

Chrome versus Firefox 3... Heavy battle !!

Google Chrome’s release makes a big dust in the internet world. Mozilla is feeling big pressure about that. However, Mozilla has not hit the panic button yet, because they released a number of benchmarks showing Firefox 3.1 will be faster than anything Google can muster with Chrome.

Google claims that V8, an open source Javascript engine, which is heart of Chrome, is faster than anything currently offered on the Web.

But in the upcoming release of Firefox 3.1, which should be available by the end of the year, Mozilla will employ TraceMonkey, a new engine that according to Brendan Eich who is one of the coders of TraceMonkey: ”it will easily eclipse even the fastest instance of Chrome”.

As proof, Mozilla offers to public tests with Firefox running on TraceMonkey and compared it to Google’s Chrome beta using its own benchmarking solution called SunSpider. According to Mozilla, “Chrome was 28% slower on Windows XP and 16% slower on Windows Vista.”

Mozilla also said that TraceMonkey is still a young engine. It has been in development only for 2 months and will only get better before it is rolled out later this year on the other hand Google Chrome’s V8 was in development for over 2 years. Mozilla also believes that the new engine will put Firefox at the top of all benchmark speed tests at the end of this year. So, once Firefox 3.1 hits the Web, we’ll soon find out if Chrome has what it takes to stay on top after TraceMonkey becomes Mozilla’s engine of choice.

Now here’s what second alpha of FireFox 3.1 has to offer

• Ability to drag and drop tabs in and out of the browser windows(Chrome also has this feature).
• It adds support for the HTML 5 Video tag .

• It has added support for Web Workers which is a system that lets multiple scripts run as background processes.

Here’s what Chrome has to offer

• Chrome offers an “Incognito” mode which removes all your traces which means removing your footprints from the sites you have visited.
• Simplicity of Chrome is its plus point, it doesn’t waste any screen space.
• The Omnibox lets you search terms or URLs into a single spot and figures out what you want.
• Chrome’s multiprocess architecture makes a bad Web page less likely to take down the whole browser.

So all in all its good for us, because the more they compete more the options we get to choose from.

BYPASS free registration requirement,.. read on (interesting...)

Do you really get annoyed when asked for FREE REGISTRATIONS by many websites without which you cannot proceed further? Everyone who uses internet regularly must have faced this and must be knowing how annoying this is. Registering means, you have to give your personal details, which can result in SPAM, Promotion emails, Identity Theft etc.
Now here’s a site which can solve this problem, BUGMENOT.
Here are 5 simple steps to use Bugmenot as described on its tutorial page :
STEP 1: Make a note of the website address your are trying to access. For example:
http://www.nytimes.com/cnet/CNET_2100-1024_3-5567274.html
Or even just:
www.nytimes.com

STEP 2: Visit Bugmenot
STEP 3: Enter the address from step 1 into the box and press the “Get Logins” button
STEP 4: You should now be presented with at least one username and password. Make a note of them.
STEP 5: Go back to the site you were originally trying to access in step 1 and proceed to login with the username and password you noted in the previous step.
Bugmenot is very helpful if you don’t want to get spammed or give your personal details and it also saves a lot of time.
Moreover, Bugmenot also provides an option for site owners to block their site from the Bugmenot database, if they match one or more of the follow criteria

1. A community site where users register to change content, but not to view it.
2. The site is pay-per-view.
3. There is a fraud risk associated with the site due to accounts containing private financial information .

A man's quest for revenge becomes a lucrative opportunity for others,.. Or Is it ??

[Recommended for ppl who enjoy complex movies like Denzel Washington's Deja-Vu and John Statham's Revolver]



Memento(2000) is a film made unique by his reverse montage and the cerebral exercise it provokes in the audience.


Guy Pearce interprets a man struck with amnesia who, in the opening scene, kills a man। From there, the film unwinds from back to front, retracing the steps that lead to such an act। But instead of simply playing the "flashback" card and ending with the beginning, the film advances backwards from scene to scene, obliging the viewer to use his own memory and logic in order to understand what's happening onscreen। The director nevertheless offers a discussion thread in order to avoid totally losing the audience.

Memento is cut into sequences which, when completed, return to the preceding sequence and so on. Two recurring characters played by Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix fame) and Joe Pantoliano come to further muddle the tracks and, by same token, the spirit of Pearce's character. He only has memory of his life up to the time his wife was attacked and killed and cannot create any new memories. Not having any memory of the day before, he thus bases his actions on Polaroids and tattoos on his body, which serve as his memory. But can he really trust his own notes and his subsequent interpretation of थेम ?

Just like Mike Figgis's Time Code, Memento is an innovative film, a successful exercise of style that disrupts the laws of narrative. With conventional treatment, the film would not have been of great interest, but in the hands of director Christopher Nolan becomes a satisfying cinematic feat. The full-length film even manages to offer some shocking and unexpected twists that call everything back into question. It is obvious that such a film is not addressed to everyone, considering its complexity. Incessant popcorn eaters and summer blockbuster aficionados must kindly disregard this film. Also appreciated is the real pleasure the director takes in the manipulation of his main character and the audience, injecting some touches of irony and self-derision taking advantage of the situation.

Thanks to the unpredictable nature of film, the actors are lucky to be able to act in different registers according to the evolution of the story. Pearce is excellent, skillfully passing between confusion and calculated coldness. He carries film on his shoulders while Carrie-Anne Moss is also convincing in the various layers of her role. Only Joe Pantoliano, though likeable, seems to spend too much time on a Joe Pesci impression.

Memento is without any doubt one of the most captivating films produced. A film that gnaws at you, amuses you, seduces you, and will give you one wish: to watch it and take another hard look।



Written and Directed by : "Christopher Nolan" famed for "The Dark Knight", "Batman Begins" and "The Prestige",... All classic screenplays. So don't miss this one.

If u watch and fully understand it at one go then either you're a genius or you suffer "Low Latent Inhibition" !!!

Engineering in India,... A bright future.

In a significant development, Indian engineering degrees will now be accredited in the United States and will be internationally recognised.

This follows India's induction into the prestigious Washington Accord, an international agreement between registering bodies of member countries accrediting academic engineering programmes, at the university level, leading to the practice of engineering at the full professional level.

Arguing the case successfully on behalf of India at the 8th biennial meeting of the International Engineering Meetings 2007 in Washington, DC last month was a delegation led by Prof Damodar Acharya, chairman of the Delhi-based All India Council for Technical Education, who, on July 1, assumed the directorship of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur; Ravi Mathur, joint secretary (technical), ministry of human resource development; and Prof Prasad Krishna, member secretary, National Board of Accreditation.

They were joined by Kamal Kant Dwivedi, counselor at the Indian Embassy and the government of India's point man for science and technology in Washington.

Comprehensive reviews of the Washington Accord are performed at intervals of not more than six years and in terms of the agreement, each registering body accepts the accrediting processes of the other member countries.

The founding signatories of the Accord in 1989 were: Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology, USA; Canadian Council of Professional Engineers; Engineering Council, EC, UK; Institution of Engineers of Ireland; Institution of Engineers, Australia; and Institution of Professional Engineers, New Zealand.

Currently, the Washington Accord member countries are: The US, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa, Hong Kong, Japan, with Germany, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan being provisional members.

This year India's National Board of Accreditation of the All India Council for Technical Education was elected a provisional member, along with Russia and Sri Lanka.

The Accord recognises substantial equivalence of programmes accredited by those organisations and recommends that the graduates of accredited programmes in any of the signatory countries be recognised by the other countries as having met the academic requirements for entry into the practice of engineering.

The NBA is the only authorised body in India entrusted with the task of undertaking accreditation of technical education programmes and all programmes on technical education, including those offered by university departments are accredited by the NBA.

The NBA, as criteria for such accreditation, evaluates the quality of these programmes offered by educational institutions from diploma to the post-graduate levels in technical education including engineering.

India's entry to the Washington Accord would necessarily facilitate mobility of engineering graduates and professionals at international levels and the graduates from NBA-accredited programmes would be automatically accepted for education and employment purposes in member countries.

A provisional member is given two years to bring its academic programmes, curricula and syllabus, examination and evaluation system to the international level and revise its accreditation system to make it fully outcome based, with credit system for flexibility and continuous evaluation for improved learning being the basis of such programmes.

This will include and increased focus on design, research and innovation that will be supported by signatory member countries with mentoring programmes and the like.

In this regard, the NBA will also participate in the accreditation activities of member countries, and at the end of the two-year period, India will be accorded full signatory status.

Thus, membership in the Washington Accord is considered recognition of the quality of engineering education offered by a member country and hence an avenue to bring it into the world-class category of other member nations.

Dwivedi told rediff.com: "All thanks go to Prof Acharya and his team of experts for making a superb and convincing presentation of the national profile of technical education in India and the process of quality assessment and accreditation by the NBA, which was catalytic to this landmark achievement."

"It is of major significance and a path-breaking development because now all of our engineering degrees will be internationally accredited," he said.

"Hitherto, when an Indian engineer came over to the US or went to any of the Washington Accord member countries, only a course-by-course accreditation is done and the assessment, etc on whether they are equivalent only follow after this protracted and stringent accreditation."

"But now," explained Dwivedi, "what will happen after India's membership to the Washington Accord is that automatically all of our degrees -- and not only those from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) -- because IIT has become such an internationally renowned brand -- but others like the 20 National Institutes of Technology and the 1,520 other engineering institutions, their degrees will also be recognised."

Thus, he said, the Indian engineering degree from all of these institutions -- and not just from the IITs -- will be held on par with US degree as well as other engineering degrees from the countries that are a party to the Washington Accord "and there would be reciprocity where these degrees are concerned."

"So unlike in the past, all of the protracted and stringent requirements and time-consuming course-by-course accreditation will be done away with," he added.

Dwivedi said, "The really great significance of this is what we call credit transfer and mobility."

"Like in the US, if you do two years at one institution, two other semesters somewhere else and graduate from a different university or college or institution, all of these credits will be accepted by all of the member countries that are a party to this accord."

He acknowledged that "in India, so far, this mobility was not there, but this accord brings into play the mobility and credit transfer."

(Local Daily : Post in July 2007)

A Very Quick Comparison of Popular Languages for Teaching Computer Programming

Java and C are the most commonly used languages in the Computer department, and for many subjects this is appropriate, but not (I believe) for absolute beginners. I believe Python is a much better choice for beginners, and to firm up my own position I performed the very brief, very unscientific test described below.

***

The Test

I wanted to look at what was involved in writing very simple programs in a (small) variety of languages. The languages I chose were BASIC, C, Java and Python. I used C and Java because these are in common use in the department (and in other teaching institutions. I chose Python because I love it, and think it an excellent choice for teaching, and I chose BASIC because, well, it was just too easy..... "Hello World" seemed a bit too trivial, so I decided on the relatively simple task of reading two numbers from the user, adding them together and printing out the result. My interest was

• How long did it take to write and debug the code
• How many things does a student need to understand in order to write this code

The times given to write the code are obviously not meant to be representative of the time required by a student, but I believe that they give a roughly accurate measure of comparison. I am reasonably skilled (1-5 years professional experience) in each language, so I don't think I was unreasonably biased.

---

BASIC

I learned to program, back in the late 70s, on a Level I TRS-80, and on a time sharing system that my high school had occasional access to. The program is trivial in good 'ol BASIC:

10 INPUT A
20 INPUT B
30 C=A+B
40 PRINT C

RUN

Time to write:

15 seconds. I admit I don't have a BASIC interpreter handy and did not test this, but I just know it works. (OK, I fired up the TRS-80 emulator and actually ran it - it works...)

Things to explain:

• Line numbers
• Variables
• INPUT
• PRINT
• RUN

Pros and Cons

BASIC is very easy for beginners to get started with, but it is an old, poorly designed language, lacking in almost every modern feature. Visual BASIC adds a lot to "good 'ol BASIC", but it is not appropriate (I believe) to teach a single-platform proprietary language. And it's still not really a good language....

---

C

#include 

int main(int argc, char*argv[]) 
{
    int a,b,c;

    scanf("%d",&a);
    scanf("%d",&b);

    c = a+b;
    printf("%d\n",c);
}

%> gcc -o add add.c
%> ./add

Time to write:

about three minutes, including debugging.

Things to explain:

• #include, functions (main), return types, argc, argv
• variables, types (int)
• scanf (and pretty soon it's limitations and how to work around them)
• printf, format strings
• pointers (already!!)
• compiling, braces and semicolons

Pros and Cons

C was designed by top hackers for their own use. It was designed for writing operating systems, compilers and other system tools, and in this role it has become almost totally dominant. It can provide excellent performance (assuming good choice of algorithm and good C skills) and allows low level hardware access, but these are not normally things required by the beginner. C's use of pointers are a source of frustration and confusion for beginners, but they are essential in even fairly trivial programs (like the one above, albeit in a trivial way).
Further, C's string handling is weak compared to many other modern languages (the scanf function used above is notoriously problematic).
C is a major and very important language, and all programmers should have significant exposure to it. It is however a terrible language to teach beginners. There is too much C that has to be explained, leaving less time for explaining programming.

---

Java

import java.io.*;
public class Addup
{
    static public void main(String args[])  {
        InputStreamReader stdin = new InputStreamReader(System.in);
        BufferedReader console = new BufferedReader(stdin);
        int i1 = 0,i2 = 0;
        String s1,s2;
        try {
            s1 = console.readLine();
            i1 = Integer.parseInt(s1);
            s2 = console.readLine();
            i2 = Integer.parseInt(s2);
        }
        catch(IOException ioex) {
            System.out.println("Input error");
            System.exit(1);
        }
        catch(NumberFormatException nfex) {
            System.out.println("\"" + nfex.getMessage() + "\" is not numeric");
            System.exit(1);
        }
        System.out.println(i1 + " + " + i2 + " = " + (i1+i2));
        System.exit(0);
    }
}
%> javac Addup.java
%> java Addup

Time to write:

19 minutes! Actually, I spent about 15 minutes, failed, then searched Google for an example. The code above is copied from a web page, which, tellingly I thought, starts with the words "It might be thought that a programme that reads in two user entered integers and prints out their sum would be a simple piece of code". Obviously, this code is not perfectly equivalent to the other programs presented here since it does proper error checking, however Java makes it difficult not to do error checking. You must catch the exceptions, and having caught them you might as well do something with them.
I'm actually kind of embarassed I had so much trouble with this - I've been working on a commercial Java package for two years, but because it's GUI based I rarely have to deal with reading from the console. Real Java programmers will probably look down on me with a mixture of pity and disgust. Such is life.

Things to explain

• import, classes, semicolons braces
• public, static, void, String, main args[]
• InputStreamReader, BufferedReader, System.in
• variables, types
• try, catch, exceptions, readLine, parseInt
• System.out.println, compiling, running

Pros and Cons

Java is a useful language for cross-platform GUI development, is a robust platform for OO development, and has an extensive and highly evolved set of class libraries. Perhaps most importantly, it's the most popular language around and there's lots of jobs for Java programmers. The extensive class library is however quite daunting. It appears there's a class for almost everything, and much of "programming in Java" seems to consist of "searching for the right class". Even after two years I find I cannot do much in Java without constant reference to the documentation.
Java enforces Object Orientation, exception checking and strict typing - these are all (arguably) good things - they make it easier for a group of programmers to robustly create large systems. But for small problems (such as those faced in introductory programming classes) these things become nothing more than a complicated, time-sucking burden.
The employment reason alone is sufficient to make Java a "must teach" lanaguage, but I believe we do our students a disservice if this is the best language we show them.

---

Python

import sys

a = sys.stdin.readline()
b = sys.stdin.readline()
c = int(a) + int(b)
print c

%> python add.py

Time to write:

about one minute, including testing and debugging.

Things to explain

• import
• variables
• sys.stdin
• readline (reads a string)
• int (converts a string to an integer)
• print

Pros and Cons

Python has an awful lot of good points:

• enforces good programming style (indentation is meaningful)
• OO available but not enforced
• Exceptions used but not enforced
• is not a toy or academic language - much real world work is done in Python
• allows concentration on algorithms and problem, not on language features and shortcoming.
• is cross platform and has a powerful set of libraries
• is safe - it has dynamic run time type checking and bounds checking on arrays
• has powerful built-in data types - dictionaries, lists, sequences, functions, sets (in 2.4)
• has powerful built-in control structures - simple looping over sequences, map, generators, list comprehensions, regular expressions...
• requires less lines of code for any given problem, and is more readable - thus greater productivity.

For teaching as a first language however it has some specific advantages. As can be seen from the examples above (ignoring BASIC), Python requires less time, less lines of code, and less concepts to be taught to reach a given goal. This allows more time to be spent on the important things. Further, some common student errors are completely byassed in Python:

• end of line is end of line (no forgotten semicolons)
• no type declarations
• true block structure always obvious (no missing braces error)
• dynamic memory allocation and garbage collection

Finally programming in Python is fun! Fun and frequent success breed confidence and interest in the student, who is then better placed to continue learning to program.

But Python is Just a Scripting Language

Python is often dismissed as "just a scripting language" (Perl and Ruby also suffer from this silly bigotry). This is simply incorrect. It is not "just a scripting language" - it is a full featured very high level language that is ideal for many applications, including simple scripting duties. The fact that you can write "quick and dirty" scripts in Python is an advantage, not a disadvantage, since scripting is actually an essential part of professional programming. If students don't know Python (or Perl, or Ruby, or....), they will waste a lot of time trying to solve script-like problems in Java.

But Python is Slooooooow

Python is an interpreted language, and this does add some overhead. Dynamic bounds checking, dynamic typing and other clever Python things slow it down even further. Python can be orders of magnitude slower than equivalent C code. However

• Many, many applications are not compute bound. To use a high performance language for them exemplifies the sin of early optimisation.
• Python interfaces well to C - enormous gains can be made by coding critical sections in C
• Time saved coding in Python, and the much greater simplicity of the code written, allows much more time for experimentation in more efficient algorithms - often much more fruitful than simply running a bad algorithm very quickly.

---

Conclusion

C and Java are important languages - for the concepts they embody, for the employment prospects, and for the classes of problems they solve. Students must be given a thorough grounding in these languages. They do not however form a sufficient arsenal for the professional programmer - a good "scripting language" is a must - nor are they good languages to teach students new to programming. They have a lot of overhead and other impediments that take a lot of the pleasure out, and make both the student's and the teacher's jobs more difficult than they ought to be. There are people who would argue that the impediments are part of the discipline of programming - students must learn to catch their exceptions, use pointers, declare all their types and so forth. Maybe, maybe not - but there's time for that later. Let's let students have the simple joy of small successes that we (well, "I" anyway) had when we were starting. 

---

Breaking in Windows XP,...

If you have an administrator account (Not Guest)

then the XP users’ passwords can be reset using command prompt.

Go to the task-bar and click on the Start button, then click on run and in the place given on dialog box type “command”, press enter.

Now In the Command prompt type “net user”
the screen will display the list of users available on machine

suppose there are three administrator users with the name of admin1, admin2 and admin3

then the password of any user can be changed by logging into the account of any one administrator

for example if we want to change the password of admin1

then we can change it from the following command

net user admin1 password

similarly for other desired users

The general syntax is for changing password is

net user

Limitations: The above method will only work if you are logged in as the administrator user.

1408 [Release : 2007] A gr8 Horror Flick... Scared the shit outta me.

Plot:A man who specializes in debunking paranormal occurrences checks into the fabled room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel. Soon after settling in, he confronts genuine terror.

 John Cusack plays Mike Enslin, a pretty empty paranormal investigator. The guy really doesn't believe in anything, a complex brought about by many failed paranormal experiences he's had. It seems everywhere this guy goes to investigate paranormal phenomena....he comes up empty with no real "experience" to speak of. That is until he comes across a newspaper article that tells of the Dolphin Hotel, and within it....a mysterious room numbered "1408". Enslin is intrigued by many things imbedded within the lore of the infamous room, but two things in particular stick out to him. A rash of mysterious suicides that have occured within it being one of them. Enslin doesn't have an easy time getting what he wants though, as when he calls to get a reservation for the room, he's turned down countless times by the person on the other end of the phone. Tony Shalhoub (Monk) makes an appearance in the movie as Enslin's publisher, and tells him of a tiny loophole which would enable him to get the room. Upon his arrival at the hotel, Enslin meets the hotel manager Mr. Olin (Samuel L. Jackson). Jackson's character is a suave, yet weird fellow. Sam plays this character really well, and I say that because early on you can never really get a read on Olin. Is he just weird with good intentions, or is he evil with even eviler intentions? The dialogue between Olin and Enslin in Olins' office is great stuff. Without giving too much away, it all basically centers on the room itself, it's tragic history, and the fact that no one has survived a stay within it past one hour. Enslin however won't be undone, and after the chat Olin finally decides to give him access to the room. This is where "1408" steps up it's game, and I must give credit to director Mikael Hafstrom and writers Larry Karazewski and Scott Alexander. The script is written specifically to slowly suck the audience into the room and what frightening horrors it holds. Hafstrom's directing adds a very eerie mood to the film and helps to make alot of it's "big scare" scenes have their best impact. And believe me, there are some trippy scenes in this movie. Most of them come out of nowhere and are very unexpected. That's really what makes the scares work, you don't see any of them coming. This is the first horror film I've seen in a long time where the scares are in all the unexpected places. "1408" excels mostly because 90% of the movie is spent inside the room, which as the film goes on...sort of takes on a life of it's own, and kind of becomes a character in the actual movie....instead of just a haunted place. Cusack's character spends most of the picture being tormented, haunted, scared shitless, etc. by this room which seems to really work him over more and more as the 1 hour time frame ticks down. Normally, a film which spends alot of time in one place would usually put one to sleep, this movie manages to do as much as possible to scare the crap out of you without ever leaving the room until late in the movie. There are also the usual weird things which one would expect to accompany a movie like this such as reality displacement, bleeding walls, alternate dimensions, things not happening in real time yet the audience thinking they are, etc. To top it all off, "1408" has a very likeable and intriguing subplot which involves Enslin and his estranged wife Lilly (Mary McCormack). I won't give this part of the movie away but I will say that this subplot connects all of the characters from Enslin to Olin, and even introduces a new character into the movie who fits snugly into the thick of the plot -- and adds further intrigue and mystery to the situation at hand. "1408" might be a bit slow for the younger audiences (those 15 and under). But for those 18-25 such as myself, it's the perfect blend of a solid story, adult horror, excellent performances, and real terror.

Positives: An excellent story, likeable characters (even Cusack as Enslin who becomes more and more likeable as the film goes on). Great scares, and some very trippy visuals.

Negatives: The overall jist of the movie can be taken in three different ways. After seeing this film, you'll probably see the situation from three different perspectives, and a certain character as either a good or bad man. Or maybe a little in between.