So a few weeks back I scored an invite to Your Truman Show from the ladies at Tech Snark. Truman show is a beta website currently (what web 2.0 site isn’t?) and requires an invitation to get into. I have some of these invitations should anyone want one, but after reading my review I seriously doubt that you will.

How can I best describe Your Truman Show? Think of going to YouTube but only being able to see the video responses from people commenting on post. Think about YouTube without any of the videos that make YouTube cool. You know, the videos showing kids being punched in the nuts, or someone making a smoke bomb or even the cute video of the bulldog skate boarding.

Your Truman Show is just that, a site where you upload videos of you talking about yourself and telling stories. The site’s inspiration comes from The Truman Show, a movie starring Jim Carrey that followed the life of a person who didn’t know he was being filmed and broadcast to the world. I wish I could say that this concept as a web site sounded interesting, but it really doesn’t.  It is taking the concept of Twitter or Pownce, social blogging about mundane daily details, and making it a high bandwidth, video blog with people who are recording themselves.

Take for example one of the top rated Truman Show videos – “The Philosophy of Sunglasses” by Chris. This video was 2 mins of a guy, wearing sunglasses and a puma shirt, talking about how he wore sunglasses to the gym. That’s it, just wearing sunglasses to the gym. He wonders if the people he notices that are staring at him are doing so because they think he is a movie star in disguise. No, I don’t think it is that Chris. I think it is a hell of a lot more likely they think you are weird.

And then there is this week’s Editor’s Pick, ostensibly the best of the best. This video stars Mooncricket. Mooncricket wants to be a filmmaker. The first thing he might want to learn how to do is place the camera on a tripod and stand in a place where it doesn’t cut off half of his face. Hopefully Steven Spielberg isn’t using Mooncricket’s video on Truman Show as a resume/portfolio sample. The review of the video, supplied by the site’s members gives Mooncricket a failing grade – that the video is long and boring. Makes one wonder why this was a Top Pick, hrmm.

From a community building standpoint Truman does do some things right. They give you tools to review other videos and those tools are pretty original. In addition to a numerical rating (1-5 stars) you can also use sliders attached to the video player to rate a video on its comedy or drama, or the videos tone as being calm or exciting. Feel like giving some feedback? Just write your own review.

I’m not sure why the world needed Your Truman Show. There are dozens of video blog sites out there already and Truman isn’t really breaking new ground. The technology is good but not great and right now, watching the content is painful. If you’re a video blogger and want to reach an audience I’m not sure why you wouldn’t just upload your video to YouTube, Vimeo or Viddler.

1408 is the best scary movie you will see this year (or possibly, ever). This movie will mess with your mind and own your dreams. Hairs that you didn’t even know you had will stand up on your neck.  Sounds good? Then read on!

Mike Enslin (John Cusak) is a writer who investigates the paranormal. He is what you’d call, a skeptic. After staying in haunted house after haunted house has nothing to show for his efforts – unless you count the obscure books he’s written about his experiences which now live in the bargain book bin at your local Barnes and Noble.

Just when Enslin is at his wits end and ready to abandon his career of spook hunting he gets a tip – Room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel is haunted. He sets off to New York City, a place which already holds many bad memories for him – where his ex-wife lives and where his young daughter died – with intentions of disproving the haunting.

But Mike encounters resistance from the hotel manager, Gerald Olin (Samuel Jackson). He simply won’t let Enslin stay in room 1408 and when pressed, reveals that the room has claimed dozens of lives over the years. “You won’t make it an hour in that room” he warns Enslin.

If the movie ended there, well, it wouldn’t be that great of a movie. Fortunately though, Enslin is stubborn and eventually convinces Olin to rent him the room for the night.

On first appearances Room 1408 is an ordinary hotel room – quite fancy at that. You’d never suspect it of being haunted, much less the scene of grisly murder, drowning and hangings. But then unexplained things start to happen. The radio turns itself on; there are changes to the pictures hanging on the wall – all little things that the skeptical Enslin brushes off.  When Mike starts to feel the temperature change and hears voices he is unnerved, but still unconvinced. It isn’t until he starts to see ghosts with his own very eyes that he realizes there is more to 1408 than it seems.

1408 is a scary movie but not in a grotesque way. That is to say it isn’t scary in the way SAW is, but more in the way of Stir of Echoes. This is actually one of the good movie adaptations from a Stephen King story (I know, it is a miracle). Definitely see this movie! It doesn’t take long to get going and it really delivers on freaking you out!

Larry Valentine (Kevin James) is a NYC firefighter who recently suffered the loss of his wife. Because he forgot (due to his grieving) to return some paperwork to the government, he’s unable to name his kids as his primary beneficiaries on his pension. And as a single dad with 2 kids this obviously is a problem because Larry’s job places him in danger every time he goes to work.

Larry and his buddy Chuck Levine (Adam Sandler), also a NYC firefighter, have had many brushes with death already. In fact, Larry has recently saved Chuck from a nasty spill in a burning building. That fact becomes a trump card when Larry hatches an idea to form a domestic partnership in order to qualify for a “life changing event” worthy of naming his children as beneficiaries.

I don’t know what is more farfetched though – the fact that Larry essentially persuades his friend Chuck to “play gay” so they can job the system -OR- that Chuck’s character is Mr. February in the annual fireman calendar and a sex symbol to lovesick models across the city. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Adam Sandler exercised some leverage in the script for the movie.

The movie is actually pretty good, in spite of Sandler’s performance. He is typical Sandler. If you have seen one movie, you’ve pretty much seen them all. Ironically, it is INPYCL’s co-stars which make the movie. Ving Rhames plays a mammoth fire fighter who turns out to be so inspired by Chuck and Larry’s affirmation of love for each other that he too comes out of the closet. Dan Aykroyd plays the Fire Department Chief, Captain Tucker, who is wise to Chuck and Larry’s plans. Jessica Biel stars as Alex, a lawyer and “girl friend” (not girlfriend) to Chuck, and offer some comic relief.  Steve Buscemi plays Clinton Fitzer, a government employee who is out to expose Chuck and Larry for the frauds they are.

What Sandler movie would be complete without a cameo from Rob Schneider, who plays the Asian priest who marries the couple up in Canada. “You can doooooo it!”

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is full of every gay joke and stereotype you can imagine. That doesn’t make it bad by any means, just a little predictable.

If you are a diehard Sandler fan, this movie might be worth seeing in the theater. On the other hand, if you see a Sandler film and think that they are all pretty much the same thing, wait for it on DVD. You’ll have a few laughs but this is by no means a “have to see it” kind of movie.