The Oscars 2008

In this long-awaited episode the Cowboys discuss the various winners of the 80th Academy Award statues given out last Sunday. Which ones did we expect? Which ones caught us by surprise and which ones made us jump for joy? If you haven’t seen most of them so far, this may help you decide which to rent on DVD. If you’re a member of the Academy, you may want to take notes for the next time P.T. Anderson’s name comes up under Best Director.

Next week: HD-DVD R.I.P and Blu-ray is victorious. We discuss why, how and what that means for the industry.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Jumper/There Will Be Blood

This week the Cowboys discuss new developments on the Rock Band and Guitar Hero front, in particular what this means for downloadable and hard copy content in the future.

Then Jumper is discussed. We could blame director Doug Liman for its multitude of faults, but there are a lot of names that need to be mentioned here as the kickings are handed out for this sci-fi ‘thriller’.

Finally a major Oscar contender and one of the most powerful films about industry released in years: the highly acclaimed There Will Be Blood, the fifth significant film from auteur Paul Thomas Anderson. Many, many hours could be spent picking this one apart, we try to fit it into twenty minutes.

Next week: Oscars.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The Kids Episode

This week we start with some breaking news about Paul’s new PlayStation 3 game… Rock Band! He’s purchased a US version purely to play the vocal aspect, in preparation for when it’s released in the UK on Xbox 360 in Q2 2008. Find out Paul’s first impressions here.

We follow with our usual segment, which has been renamed ‘This Week’, where we discuss what we’ve been into in the past seven days.

Our main feature is on movies we should be showing our kids. Whilst none of the Cowboys are parents yet, it’s never too early to start planning. Listen in to our comprehensive guide to what’s essential to a child’s growth – parents both literal and potential may also find some all time classics they otherwise might have missed.

And since it’s Valentine’s Day, we end on our three movie recommendations for a fantastic night in.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Cloverfield/Burnout Paradise/Juno

For our 41st episode, the Cowboys were fortunate enough to see Juno a week early. Also up for discussion is the new genre-defying monster feature from Lost and Alias producer J.J. Abrams: Cloverfield.

It’s rare that we get such across-the-board high scores from everyone for two movies in a row, but this is a must-hear episode as we detail the reasons you really do have to see these films.

They form a sandwich around Tony’s in-depth review of explosive racer Burnout Paradise, which has turned the established format of the series on it’s head. Find out if it paid off.

Also included is the first installment of ‘This Week In Gaming’, a new segment where we round up what we’ve been doing in the last week. In the past we’ve left a lot of stuff out because it didn’t fit in neatly for a review, but now we can discuss the demos, trailers and games we’ve been immersing ourselves in and, in many cases, give a closer account of them rather than waiting until they’re finished and doing a review much later. Time will tell if movies, TV or even music will work its way into this spot.

We finish on a miserable piece of delay-related news for European Rock Band fans. However, there is some light at the end of the tunnel… if you have a PlayStation 3 and are a dedicated vocalist like Paul.

————————————————————————————

Next week we will be discussing films that we should all be showing our children. There is clearly so much rubbish out there that it’s important to have some specific classics lined up to stop them turning into glassy-eyed, text-speaking dimwits. If you’d like a film mentioned, email us your suggestion at the usual address: digitalcowboys@googlemail.com

Podcast: Play in new window | Download