Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

The wrong kind of touchy-feely

Contagion is a germophobe’s worst nightmare. Director Steven Soderbergh and his usual team tackle a well-worn niche, ploughed by titles like Outbreak, to create a pandemic horror story that will leave most viewers running to stockpile Purell and hesitant to enter airports. Much of its success comes from a grounded depiction of how the world’s [...]

Drive-in? Try Fly-in.

GEAR PATROL SPONSORED POST As much as we love our home theaters, they don’t exactly pack well. So, in this second part of the My Life on the Go series we decided to test the ASUS U46E’s prowess at handling one of our favorite off-hour diversions — movies.

Boxed-In

When you get the money, then you get the $700 limited edition Scarface Blu-ray. Then, when you get the power and Blu-ray, then you get the women. That’s probably not the exact curriculum of the Tony Montana life coaching system, but we’re pretty sure he’d still splurge on this ridiculous version of Brian De Palma’s [...]

Excellence For the Rest of Us

Utter the Runco name around most men, and you’ll trigger a chain reaction that ends with their wallet hiding in a cave of happiness, shivering in anticipation of the pillaging to come. The company’s new Light Style 1 HD DLP Projector ($4,000) still packs a wallop of sticker shock, but it’s down right affordable compared [...]

It's All in the Pix

You all know the lines, scenes and what Shooter eats for breakfast, but for more than a decade, anyone hoping for a rage-fueled trip through the PGA circa 1996 has had to put up with standard def. The wait is over starting tomorrow. Yup, Adam Sandler’s instant-classic Happy Gilmore ($20) has finally received a 1080p [...]

A peerless racing movie

Le Mans is a movie that was driven by passion, instead of the bottom line. Steve McQueen desperately wanted the film made to showcase his talents as a actor and driver, and authentically at that. Subsequently, he dumped millions of his own cash into the film, which nearly bankrupted him. The way he saw it, [...]

Fine Lines

Get it straight people. HP’s new x2301 monitor isn’t thin, it’s Micro Thin. What exactly does Micro Thin mean? Well, we’ll skip today’s lesson on redundancy, and just presume it’s a new adjective for describing things measuring 9.8mm (0.39 thick) or less — because that’s how thin the x2301 is. It’s a pretty incredible spec [...]

Nolan's Breakthrough Film, Finally in True 1080p

Before Christopher Nolan was a mega-star director, he made Memento, based off a short story written by his brother, Jonathan Nolan. If you’ve never seen this cinematic mind-bender, you should, because it’s his finest work to date in our humble opinion. This film was released originally in 2002 on Blu-ray, but that copy was done [...]

Remember It's "Steeg" not "Stig"

While you’re waiting for David Fincher and co. to provide their own cinematic interpretations of Stieg Larsson’s break away “The Girl Who Played With..” series, we’d recommend checking out the original Swedish films. Those who have read the books will find that each of the films stays relatively close to their original novel story lines [...]

Take It For What It Is

We’ll be honest. The Expendables isn’t a good movie per se — and it certainly won’t be up for any golden statue nominations. If you approach the film as the ridiculous farce of a blockbuster action film that it is however, watch it and you’re bound to have a good time. We won’t divulge any [...]

The Perfect Film for the Tail End of Summer

Chances are if you missed this in theaters, you probably mistook it as a kids movie, or worse. Perhaps as a dumb comedy along the lines of “Soul Plane”. Though the title may ring bells of “Disneyland”, Adventureland is really a film for the nostalgic adults of our generation. Hilarious at sometimes and thought provoking [...]

Video Chat Gets the HD Treatment

Whatever your current experience is with Video chatting, I think we can all agree that streaming in HD is better; and that’s just from a personal standpoint of connecting with loved ones. We’re opting to ignore the roaring cheers from the amateur porn industry for purposes of this mention. Though many have claimed to create [...]

If Tarantino Loved It, Chances Are, You Will Too

Yes, though you may not have known it, the upcoming Quentin Tarantino film is actually a remake of this 1978 international smash. Originally characterized by the ad tag line, “Whatever The Dirty Dozen did, they do it dirtier!” and available tomorrow for the first time on Blu-ray, the film chronicles a gang of condemned criminals [...]

The Pinnacle of Blu-ray?

July 6th, for most men, will always be remembered as the second day of recovery following the summer’s worst hangover. However, this July 6th was a day most videophiles had marked on their calendar (re: nerds like me) for an entirely different reason. That’s because the long awaited Oppo Blu-ray BDP-83 finally hit the market. [...]

Kiss Choppy Streaming Goodbye

HD video is a blessing and a curse. As sports fans, gamers, and movie buffs, the instant we gazed upon those eye-searing lines of vertical resolution there was just no turning back to standard definition. The trouble is, witnessing Kobe’s facial expressions in glorious 1080p while defending Courtney Lee comes at the expense of added [...]