[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Friday, April 2, 1999
3:10pm PST - Be sure to check our contest page this weekend for another mystery screen shot. Be the first to identify the movie that the clip comes from -- and the DVD is yours, baby. A new flick pic will be posted every weekend, TFN.

2:53pm PST - As The BIG Picture approaches our first anniversary of service to our valued readers (tomorrow is the BIG day), we'll be adding a new and exciting feature to our website that will enhance the depth of our committment to your movie-loving pursuits.

We're also pleased to offer an enhanced review search that we'll unveil tomorrow after some tweaking and data input. The new BIG Picture Review Index is courtesy of Steve Snodgrass at Pheran's DVD Review Index. As many of you already know, Steve has decided to hang it up after realizing what a grind it is to keep track of multiple reviews of the same titles from various websites, including ours. As a classy parting gift to webmasters that supported his unique and valuable site, he has gifted us with the CGI script that he compiled himself, that made his index work.

Rather than try and continue in the same fashion as Steve (after all, we're happy to learn from his experience), The BIG Picture will not provide links to outside reviews at this time, concentrating instead on our own, rapidly growing in-house review database. The new index will provide you with enhanced search features -- the same that were found on Steve's site, including title links to the Internet Movie Database. Our heartfelt thanks again to Steve Snodgrass for not only his generous gift -- but for helping us get his cool index to work on our site.

2:44pm PST - It's a good thing it's Good Friday. After the week we've had, we're ready for a little R&R around here! Jeff McNeal reviews the highly anticipated THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES in a decidedly mixed bag review. Is that a bad thing? Depends on your point of view! Are you a "glass half full" or "glass half empty" kind of character? The good news is, the glass is almost full -- well past the 3/4 mark, with this great Western film.

5:54pm PST - So shall it be written, so shall it be done... Moses, Moses, Moses! Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera... Oops. Wrong movie. Bob Banka takes a close look at Cecil B. DeMille's epic THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Has it been worth the wait?

3:20pm PST - Well, okay, the DVD Wishlist Forum is now modified to display your requested titles alphabetically (man, that was fast!). Have a good movie that you'd like to see on DVD? Add it to the list!

9:15am PST - The BIG Picture is in the process of upgrading our DVD Wishlist Forum to display your title requests in alphabetical order... Hopefully, our programmer will have the new code in place to achieve this by the end of the weekend. We'll keep you posted.

7:41am PST - Don't fear the reaper ... - An official "no way" from Viacom regarding potential Blockbuster investment in Divx? Congratulations to each and every one of you who contacted Blockbuster to make your feelings known about the speculative rumor."Circuit City Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Sharp has said he's optimistic his company will complete at least one Divx-
related transaction this year".

7:35am PST - The BIG Picture has officially decided to play no "April Fool's" Day pranks today. While it would sure be fun to say that we were closing down the site, tripling our ad rates, accepting hush money from Circuit City to stop poo-pooing Divx or claiming that Roger Ebert has e-mailed us asking if we'll join him on-air for movie reviews, we'd rather concentrate on doing what we do best. Watching movies, gathering news, writing reviews and staying up until well past 2am every morning to help quench your thirst for DVD and Home Theater related news and information.

7:24am PST - "If everyone would just give us a dollar... just one lousy dollar... I'd even take fifty cents from 'em" -- A direct quote from the wife of our publisher.... The official numbers are in. Last month, The BIG Picture welcomed over 13,000 new readers, who in addition to the rest of our unique daily visitors, racked up a whopping 2,211,454 page views for the month of March alone. Thanks for spreading the good word about our site. Now about that dollar...

3:35pm PST - Okay, for those of you that missed out on our earlier DVD giveaways of FRIDAY and PLEASANTVILLE, here's another shot for you to score a free DVD from your friends at The BIG Picture today... Check the contest page and follow the instructions. Good luck, eagle eye!!

2:56pm PST - Here's Jeff's review of the 1952 Film Noir thriller SUDDEN FEAR.

12:35pm PST -- Good golly Miss Molly... Thanks to you, a new milestone has been reached. For the first time, the BIG Picture has exceeded two million page views for a single month. We'll have the final tally tomorow. This handily exceeds our own projection of two million page views by Summer '99. Again -- thank you.

12:28pm PST - A hearty congratulations are in order to George Fievet of Palatine, Illinois for correctly identifying the PLEASANTVILLE screenshot on our contest page. That scores George a copy of the disc! More screenshots to appear for more free discs! Stay close...

10:54am PST - Because of the review load, we can't post 'em as quick as we'd like, but just to give you a quick heads up in the meantime... THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES looks and sounds outstanding. A four glober for image and a five glober for sound. We would have given it a five rating for image quality, but it takes a slight dip at the beginning of chapter 8 for some reason, appearing hazy, but picks up again nicely a bit further into the film. Overall the image quality is excellent and the DD 5.1 mix is awesome.

THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS also exhibits outstanding image quality, even though it's a full-frame transfer. Zooming in to fill our 16:9 screen did not diminish the image quality, which remained crisp and colorful throughout (see screen shot below). The sound is utilitarian at best -- a DD 1.0 mono mix, but overall, we were pleasantly surprised with the image quality and consider THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS to be a keeper. Another four-glober for image, 2 for sound.

9:57am PST - So many movies, so little time... Here's a review we meant to post a couple of days ago!! Bob takes a gander at A FISH CALLED WANDA. Did Kevin Kline steal the show in this movie, or what?

7:44am PST - Okay, our next DVD Screen Shot is posted on the contest page. Be the FIRST to identify it according to the instructions on that page and win the movie on DVD! Good luck!

7:03am PST - Man, you guys are good... As we sit here, dumbfounded that someone has already identified our Big Secret Screen Shot as coming from a scene in the movie FRIDAY, We're preparing our next mystery display / DVD giveaway! Congratulations to Michael Stover of Ohio for nailing it!

3:19pm PST - I love you Mommie Dearest... Here's a sneak peak at two DVD's we'll be reviewing soon, but not before posting Bob's reviews of THE PINK PANTHER ... SUDDEN FEAR, a 1952 Film Noir starring Joan Crawford and the chisled, angular Jack Palance (who prefers wire coat-hangars, thus Miss Crawford's reaction) and one of the absolute funniest Steve Martin movies ever... THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS. We're disappointed that THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS was relegated to the "Budget Gourmet" category (our term, not Warner Bros), versus CLEOPATRA JONES, which got the widescreen treatment -- but we're hopeful that zooming in to fill our 16:9 screen won't diminish the image quality too much . It's a no-brainer that most of us would prefer to see our movies the way the director intended us to...

9:37am PST -- The friendly skies just got friendlier... It was bound to happen sooner or later. Brian Shumacher sent us the link to this story about a startup company renting DVDs and what sounds like Panasonic's Palm Theater for airline travelers. "Would you like coffee, tea or Austin Powers, sir?"

9:14am PST -- Sony bows out of the Bond franchise. The Hollywood Reporter (in its charming, truncated way) announces that Sony and MGM are trading piles of cash in order to avoid further costly litigation. In the deal, MGM will now own exclusive rights to all James Bond films from here to eternity.

8:00am PST -- Look for the PalmPilot graphic on our main ratings index page. Click the graphic and download the .PDR file for your PalmPilot-compatible device and take The BIG Picture with you the next time you go DVD shopping! Special thanks to TBP reader Ken Hancock for compiling (and sharing!) the PP database.

Happy99.Worm
VirusName: Happy99.Worm
Aliases: Trojan.Happy99, I-Worm.Happy
Likelihood: Common
Region Reported: US, Europe
Characteristics: Trojan Horse, Worm
Description:
This is a worm program, NOT a virus. This program has reportedly been received through email spamming and USENET newsgroup posting. The file is usually named HAPPY99.EXE in the email or article attachment.
When being executed, the program also opens a window entitled "Happy New Year 1999 !!" showing a firework display to disguise its other actions. The program copies itself as SKA.EXE and extracts a DLL that it carries as SKA.DLL into WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. It also modifies WSOCK32.DLL in WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory and copies the original WSOCK32.DLL into WSOCK32.SKA.
WSOCK32.DLL handles internet-connectivity in Windows 95 and 98. The modification to WSOCK32.DLL allows the worm routine to be triggered when a connect or send activity is detected. When such online activity occurs, the modified code loads the worm's SKA.DLL. This SKA.DLL creates a new email or a new article with UUENCODED HAPPY99.EXE inserted into the email or article. It then sends this email or posts this article. If WSOCK32.DLL is in use when the worm tries to modify it (i.e. a user is online), the worm adds a registry entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce=SKA.EXE
The registry entry loads the worm the next time Windows start.
==================================================================

All you have to do is download this cleaner:

http://voyager.softseek.com/Utilities/Virus_Protection/Review_23313_index.html

The program will clean your system and tell you if you have sent
the virus out to anyone in return.

Clean your system before replying to anyone via email.

8:58am PST - One of our readers, Tom Grimes, was kind enough to provide this explanation about the happy99.exe "virus" we mentioned below...

"Just for your info, the Happy 99.exe file is a worm and not a virus, and the sender has no idea that he is sending it. What happens is, when it is in your system, the next time you email somebody, it attaches the
file to another email to the same recipient. This is how it spreads so rapidly. The good news is that it really doesn't cause any harm to a persons system. Its just a really stupid prank."

8:53am PST - "I know a lot of videophiles, people who are really into movies, who look down at Divx because we don't include a lot of the special features. ... But I can tell you, we don't find a market out there for widescreen." -- Josh Dare of Divx... That quote -- and some other interesting ones, are contained in this informative article about DVD and Divx in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Share your views of this article with others on The BIG Picture DVD Home Theater Forum!

8:47am PST - "It's up to the system manufacturers, and most of them would kill their own mother to save $20"... CNET reports how sub-$1,000 PC systems are stifling the growth of DVD.

8:41am PST - The DVD 2 Summit is happening in Dublin today. Check here for details about the summit itself and The R2 Project site for regular updates about the goings on there.

8:33am PST - Having recently been ensnared by the charms of CD-R, we thought you might find this informative article about recording your own CD's rather enlightening. A word to the wise -- we found out the hard way -- computer based CD recording provides much more versatility than standalone CD recorders now found in consumer electronics stores. For about the same (or less), you can install a CD-ROM and a CD-R unit in your PC and have a very versatile setup, capable of recording both audio and data with ease.

8:26am PST - Here's information on the "Melissa" e-mail virus that's due to hit today... Also, we've recently received unsolicited e-mail containing an executable file called happy99.exe. As a matter of routine policy, we never open unsolicited files sent via e-mail -- and it's a good thing, apparently. The sender of this potential virus claims no knowledge that it's being sent as a seperate attachment with all his e-mail! Sounds suspicious to us.

8:20am PST - Faster, baby, faster! Pioneer announces the first (and they want to make sure you know it's the only) 6x DVD-ROM drive with SCSI interface. The slot-loading design makes for safer disc handling and will street for about $150. Gee, is it already time to chuck the 4x Hitachi DVD drive we just bought? Maybe!

8:13am PST - Altec Lansing announces new speaker systems for PC gamers with DVD in mind.

8:01am PST - All the sweet green icing flowing down... Sure, it's title is reminicent of FRIED GREEN TOMATOES. But you think that this flick starring Drew Barrymore is a walk in the park? (well, MacArthur Park, maybe). All happiness and light? A romantic comedy perhaps? Bob Banka takes a piercing look at HOME FRIES that reveals the true nature of this movie.

7:46am PST - Good news travels light and compactly... The BIG Picture ratings guide goes mobile! One of our readers has taken it upon himself to convert every BIG Picture DVD rating into a data file that will allow Palm Pilot owners to take The BIG Picture with them while shopping for DVDs. We'll be posting the data file for downloading on our main review index page within the next 24 hours.

In a review that some might consider nearly as controversial as the subject matter itself, Jeff takes the first in-depth look at AMERICAN HISTORY X -- and learns firsthand why Edward Norton was nominated for an Oscar as Best Actor. Stay tuned for Bob's reviews of HOME FRIES and A FISH CALLED WANDA coming on Monday!