LOST: The Flash Forward

While J.J. Abrams put a cliffhanger into the end of every season of this series, the one that got fans talking the most may have been the flash forward. In a switch from the usual series flashbacks, the last minutes of this season ender ended with a cliffhanger showing Jack and Kate at an airport and not on the island of misfit smoke monsters. Confusion abounded. What the heck was going on? Was this some sort of alternate reality? Fans had to wait for the next season to find out this was a flash forward showing the beginning of the end.

Simpsons: Who Shot Mr. Burns?

In an homage to one of the most talked-about ever cliffhanger Who Shot Jr? on the show Dallas’ Who Shot J.R. cliffhanger, the Simpsons had a mysterious someone shooting Mr. Burns. Was it Homer? Crusty the Clown? Many suspects were touted, but no one guessed the ending. After stealing candy from baby Maggie, a gun falls out of Mr. Burns’ pocket and goes off, shooting himself in a richly deserved result.

The West Wing: Shots Fired

In the last moments of the first season, shots are fired on the members of the Presidential party as they head toward the motorcade. This cliffhanger ends with the questions, who was hit, who did it? After haitus we found out that the president was hit, but not seriously, while Josh Lyman suffered life-threatening injuries. The killer? White supremacists who didn’t like the the fact that the President’s white daughter was dating his aide, who was black.

Castle: Beckett Sniped

The TV cliffhanger is still alive and well in current television series as well. While speaking at the funeral of her captain, Kate Beckett suffers from a seemingly fatal gunshot wound to the chest from a sniper round. Castle falls to the ground, professes his undying love and the scene goes to black. Next season, Kate’s healthy and denying she heard anything, Castle’s back to pining away and we’re left still waiting for those two to get together. Cheat!

24: Jack Kidnapped by the Chinese

Much like LOST, 24 was a series you could always count on for a good cliffhanger. At the end of season 5, Jack Bauer is kidnapped by the Chinese and taken aboard a cargo ship, in retaliation for his involvement in the death of the Chinese Counsel. Like all the best tv cliffhangers, we weren’t sure just what was happening and whether he’d be left alive. When the series returns, it’s two years later and the only reason Jack’s back is in exchange for some information on foreign nationals. No matter how hard he tries, Jack Bauer just can’t get the respect he deserves.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Picard Kidnapped by the Borg

During all-out fighting between the Federation and their nemesis, the Borg, Will Riker gets a communication on his ship’s communication system. He is shocked to discover Jean Luc Picard, his captain, has been captured and transformed into Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile, indeed! We didn’t need an entire summer off to find out he’d be back, better than ever. Come on, it’s Jean Luc freaking Picard!

Dallas: Who Shot J.R.?

This is the original gossip-causing cliffhanger that started tv series history. J.R. Ewing may have been an evil SOB, but his supposed death sure got people talking. Everyone had reason to kill him, it seemed. Next season showed him back and more evil than ever, and a minor character the actual shooter. Disappointment all around, much money was lost on bets. But a classic season-ending ploy was born, and that’s the important thing. This may be one of the best tv cliffhangers ever!

9/11 Terrorists vs. Mark Wahlberg - Wahlberg wins!

Wait.. Mark Wahlberg? Mr. Marky Mark? Would it be Boogie Nights Mark Wahlberg, old Dirk Diggler with his “special weapon” of choice that would defeat them? Would it be the guy from The Happening who had trouble fighting trees and the wind? Could the same guy that fought against apes in Tim Burton’s Planet of The Apes fight them off and make sure that nobody died that day? Would he have made sure that 9/11 would be a day we celebrated rather than mourned on?

Would it be a shirtless Mark Wahlberg who fought them? Would it be a nude Mark Wahlberg that won the war against terror? Would it be actor mark Wahlberg that fought them or rapper “Marky Mark” Mark Wahlberg that beat them?

He claims that he was supposed to be on the flight that day from Boston to L.A., but wasn’t because he rescheduled to do something else. But if he had taken the flight that awful day, he’s pretty sure he could have fought off the hijackers and made sure that the plane landed safely.

In Mark Wahlberg’s interview in Men’s Journal he said:
If I was on that plane with my kids, it wouldn’t have went down like it did. There would have been a lot of blood in that first-class cabin and then me saying, ‘OK, we’re going to land somewhere safely, don’t worry.

So, apparently Mark Wahlberg can fight off terrorists and make sure that the worst attack on American soil would have never ended in disaster like it did, but Wahlberg can’t make a good movie to save his life?

You should realize that a lot of popular American programming — from “All in the Family” and “Sanford and Son” to Simon Cowell’s current talent showcase’s — actually began as shows on British tv. While the BBC is a government owned network, it requires responsiveness to the public. Producers of British TV shows consequently concern themselves less with what corporations want to sell than with what audiences want to watch.

If you’re not from the U.K. there may seem so many options that you cannot decide which British TV shows you should watch. Well, we’re here to help you out. Here’s a list of some great British tv shows well worth your time.

No surprises here. Doctor Who competes with Star Trek as the most influential television program in history, regardless of national origin, even among viewers who have never seen it. More than four decades ago British children already played Doctor Who, with bad guys wearing upturned laundry baskets on their heads, holding plungers in one hand, broomsticks in the other, while robotically moaning, “I am Dalek! Exterminate! Exterminate!” No public figure emerging from the U.K. in the last half-century, from Tony Blair to Simon Pegg, has escaped the time and space travelling Doctor’s influence.

The cool thing about Doctor Who is that when the character dies, he is reborn again as a new Doctor Who, different from the old Doctor, but still the same. At present, the Doctor is in his 11th incarnation and played by Matt Smith, but 10 other actors have played the Doctor just as well in the past. It’s a show that’s ran almost 50 years, and shows no signs of ending anytime soon.

A spin-off of Doctor Who, Torchwood is a completely different beast than it’s parent show is. More serious and macabre than the often whimsical parent series, it follows the Torchwood Institute. This secret group commissioned by Queen Victoria now monitors a rift in the space time continuum that passes through the middle of Cardiff, Wales. In this city that seems culturally comparable to the U.S.A.’s Seattle or San Francisco, Torchwood agents keep a lid on threats that drift through from other worlds. John Barrowman leads the cast as Captain Jack Harkness, an agent reluctantly cursed with the inability to die – a trait not shared by his friends and co-workers in Torchwood, who frequently die in their missions.

Airing in the 1970s, I, Claudius represented the most ambitious BBC production to its date. The world met Derek Jacoby aging from adolescent to ancient in the title role of Rome’s most versatile emperor. As graphic for its time as HBO’s Rome was more recently, it also made a reputation for John Hurt, and included some of England’s most esteemed actors in its cast. This had some of the best writing, casting, design, make-up and acting ever put into a TV production.

Before she became James Bond’s M, or for that matter either Queen Victoria or Queen Elizabeth I, Judy Dench began her 10 year stint as Jean Pargeter in this low-key, high value comedy.This cute tale of love postponed for years until a chance encounter when older tickles laughs from viewers with jokes about generations and ironies of changing times and relationships.

What happens when two 1970s party girls make it all the way to 1990s success without any reason to change? A lot of Absolutely Fabulous laughs, especially when a hip teenage daughter serves as the household adult. This is rude and crude sex, drugs, and rock and roll humor, with a male exploitive twist that appeals to audiences of any gender.

A true modern adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s hero, this Sherlock has modern technology at his disposal, but still prefers his own brain. Dr. Watson is a veteran of current Middle East conflicts suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. Together these modern characterizations fit the roles established a century ago perfectly. The stories intrigue, the suspense can be agonizing, and while the audience expects some surprises, one more surprise always waits when least expected.

Before she was “The Queen”, Helen Mirren addressed issues of sexism in public service. While women in the workforce is commonplace now, 25 years ago in a typically male-dominated job such as being a cop was a much different thing… it was almost a “taboo” issue. Mirren’s detective Jane Tennison focuses her time on killers. The themes are as gritty as the streets from which the stories crawl. Prime Suspect is as relevant today as it was 25 years ago, and just a damn greta police procedural. The internal conflicts in her department are often more frightening than the crimes themselves. Almost 20 years go on as the series progresses, she loses as many cases as she solves, believe it or not it’s better than most. The jobtakes a heavy toll on her personally, she drinks and gets into one bad relationship after another, and we get to see her blemishes and all.

If you can imagine a mix of Cheers, The Waltons, and Dallas in a small Irish town, you get an idea how diverse Ballykissangel can be. Its plots range from a priest questioning his call to the amusements of potato moonshine, all amid a framework of community as family. Nobody’s choices ever affect themselves alone, and unintended consequences often emerge as simultaneously comedic and tragic. This series, which brought the world Colin Farrell, is most appreciated when watched from the beginning to the end, but any episode is enjoyable on its own.

Making this a set of series instead of one long series was a cunning plan. It hilariously follows the life of accursed descendants of a medieval royal family through four crucial periods in England’s history, each composing a separate season, with room for one Victorian Christmas special. While primarily a vehicle for Rowan Atkinson, the ensemble cast includes early work from Hugh Laurie (House), Stephen Frye (V for Vendetta), and Brian Blessed (Henry V). The incomparable Miranda Richardson, most often seen in dramatic roles, shines as a ditzy and comic Queen Elizabeth I. Knowledge of British history and literature enhances the entertainment, but is not required to bend viewers over with laughter.

The IT Crowd

When a woman who knows nothing of technology gets assigned to lead IT workers who despise management, the laughs abound. Despite the British accent, modern cyberanxiety provides a common dialect for humor based around a “Dilbert” style view on corporate life: People get promoted into management because it is where they can do the least damage, but IT is where troublemakers can often do the most.

With the Superbowl coming up, it seemed like a great time to focus on football movies. The Superbowl is an American institution, much more than just a football game. It’s meals and parties and the best commercials on television. But the game is at the heart of it all. Just to get you in the mood for the Superbowl, here are the top ten best football movies ever made.

10. Necessary Roughness

This classic is among the greatest football movies of all times, for many reasons. A Texas school is forced to use actual academic students instead of seasoned athletes during its football season. Quantum Leap’s Scott Bakula and Sinbad are surprisingly funny. Of course nobody notices that when supermodel Kathy Ireland comes on the screen.

9. The Longest Yard

Burt Reynolds is surprisingly good in this football film about a former pro quarterback, now imprisoned, forced to put together a team made up of inmates. The idea is for the guards to squash the inmates. Burt of course had other ideas. Full of B-movie stars from the 70’s, this flick is just the ticket for a boring Saturday afternoon, as most football movies are.

8. The Blind Side

Sandra Bullock is a southern mom who informally adopts a homeless boy. This is the true story of Michael Oher, who became an All-American football player and NFL first-round draft pick. Far from the hopeless boy most people assume him to be, Oher transforms into a star on the team and in life, as well. Not only one of the great football movies, but also one of the great “feel good” movies of all time as we see this young man struggle against his own personal demons and win.

7. The Program

James Caan is a football coach trying to make a team out of a diverse group of young men from different societies. House’s Omar Epps shines in one of his earliest performances. The film did a great job of capturing the emotional rollercoaster that coaches and players experience over the span of a year while they’re playing university football. It’s also unfortunately famous for the scene where the players lay in the street while traffic whizzed by, producers actually removed that scene before the actual release after several teenagers imitated it and were hurt or killed.

6. The Express

This drama is based on the football career of Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heismann Trophy. Rob Brown, who celebrated his 16th birthday right before filming this movie, is amazingly good as Davis. Despite the bittersweet ending (Davis was diagnosed with leukemia and died at 23) this film is a true American football classic.

5. Remember the Titans

Denzel Washington plays a newly-appointed football coach trying to lead a racially integrated football team for the first time. Far from the tearjerker you might think it’s meant to be, this film is a moving portayal of the power of right and how much good one man can do when faced with knowing what’s right and having to do it.

4. Rudy

Rudy was always told he was too small to play football. Even so, his lifelong dream was to play for Notre Dame. Through sheer will and determination, Rudy fights through and manages to make the final play on the last game of his senior year, listening to the entire audience roaring his name. Heartwarming and brilliant, this is one of those football movies for the entire family.

3. Friday Night Lights

In Texas, high school football is bigger than some professional sports. Friday Night Lights follows one high school team, the Permian High Panthers, throughout the entire season. The truth of high school football in Texas, with its politics, conniving, personal problems and triumphs, shines through this movie from start to finish.This was one of the few football movies, that actually became a long running television show: Friday Night Lights on NBC.

2. We are Marshall

One evening in 1974, Marshall University’s football team and coaching staff boarded a plane to return after a game. The plane crashed and none of the 75 people on board survived. This is the story of the 1970 Marshall Plane Crash, of the people of Marshall, their strength and determination to create a new team to celebrate the memory of the old, and the spirit that teamwork instills in everyone.

1. Brian’s Song

Any list of greatest football movies without Brian’s Song in first place, is not worth wasting your time on, it’s that great. It’s based on the real life story of the relationship that developed between two player for the Chicago Bears, Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers. It’s a movie about friendship, love and true courage. These men were not only rivals, but roommates as well. Eventually they became close friends because of their competitive natures, as well as the fact that their personalities complimented each other. When Piccolo is stricken with terminal cancer, Sayers helps him out through the rest of his short life. Locate tissues beforehand. This is the one movie where men are universally allowed to be seen crying in public, it’s a rule, we’re allowed – on the other hand crying during Field of Dreams is still kind of girly, no matter what anybody tells you. Whenever this movie airs on TV, you can be sure to sport both fathers and sons crying together.

The past year started with many people in a lurch, both in the United States and then that of Europe. Debt and unemployment hindered many, while the political landscape looked as though promises were said, but not kept. Among all of this turmoil, came big news in technology and gaming.

Mobile gaming was at the head of the list, with smartphones and tablets being geared up as the next gaming device, but old pros will still turn to their desktops or consoles and 2011 was just the tip of the iceberg. New video games in 2011 saw additions to franchises, such as the anticipated releases of Starcraft 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and the Gears of War 3. 2011 also saw the rise of the MMO, or massive multiplayer online game, as big dog Blizzard released the awaited World of Warcraft: Cataclysm at the end of 2010, as well as announcing the next expansion, while gaming favorite BioWare once again teamed up with Lucas Arts to conclude their long awaited Knights of the Old Republic series with that of their first MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

The next year of 2012 will see even more highly anticipated new release video games and here, we’ll give you the top ten list of the upcoming video games next year, with video games of 2012. Looks like we have much to look forward the the upcoming video games of 2012.


1. Mass Effect 3 – Along with concluding their KOTOR storyline with TOR, BioWare was hard at work putting together what may end the conflicts of Commander Sheppard and the Normandy crew. Announced during the summer of 2011, BioWare’s third game in the series will again build on what players have done in the previous installments and adds another uniqueness, by having a multiplayer option.

Kris & Kim in better times... or is it better now?

When Kim and Kris first announced that they were getting married, people were treating it as if it were a bigger event than curing cancer. It became an event that everybody was looking forward to. The internet exploded with news of their upcoming nuptials, from bachelorette parties to wedding fashions to interviews with her ex-boyfriends about their thoughts about Kim getting hitched. People were counting down the days till the wedding. E! was preparing a huge television special on the wedding.
Then Kim and Kris finally tied the knot and they were happily ever after.

72 days passed. 1728 hours went by. 103,680 seconds came and went.

TMZ.com announced that Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries were getting divorced. Ryan Seacrest confirmed it via Twitter, so we knew it was real.

Some people questioned whether or not the relationship was real or not. When you find out that Kim and Kris made $17.9 million off the event of wedding, it’s very easy to think that they may have just done it for the money. Will they return this money? Doubtful. Will they return the bread-maker I sent them? I haven’t even paid for it yet! Again.. doubtful, but I can always hope.

If you break it down, they made $248,611.11 per day (or $124,305.56 each) for being married. That works out to $ 5179.40 per hour each. It beats working at McDonalds, that’s for sure.

I demand my bread-maker back!

My grandma the bread-maker.. please Kim send her back!

It’s been an INCREDIBLY busy year for CBS show Two and a Half Men in terms of HOOKUPS and BREAKUPS.

Series star Charlie Sheen started off the year freshly divorced. He also walked into the new year with a catalog of bad and questionable behavior that ended up with him in rehab. When a delay of the series season because of his absence ended up extending into a situation where CBS was considering ditching the rest of the season completely. Charlie didn’t react to this news so well, and made some off-color comments about the producer of the show and found out – that it’s not a good idea to bad mouth the boss. Pretty soon, Charlie ended up unemployed – which was actually great for him because he needed the time to completely lose his mind. Chuck Lorre was so annoyed at Charlie, that he killed off the Charlie Harper character that Sheen played to make sure it’d be impossible for him to ever come back.

During his time off, Charlie drank a bunch of tiger’s blood and waved machetes, declared himself a winner, hooked up with 2 “goddesses”, broke up with 1 goddess and then the other, had his kids taken away, had access to his kids given back, went on an embarrassing tour to promote the mess that his life had become, did a celebrity roast that roasted himself that was either the coolest most ironic thing ever – or just plain nuts and maybe hooked up back with his ex-wife again – or not. He also got offered a TV show by FX – a TV version of Adam Sandler’s comedy Anger Management in Jack Nicholson’s role.

Enough about Charlie. Chuck Lorre and CBS moved on from Charlie, they decided to hire 70’s Show and bad romantic comedy mainstay Ashton Kutchner as Charlie’s replacement. Ashton was the perfect choice, he was well liked by both the public and the press, had a successful track record on both TV and movies, was not a party guy or womanizer and was in (by Hollywood standards) a long-running marriage with starlet Demi Moore. He seemed the perfect guy to replace Charlie, all the glitz and glamour without any of the nonsense that they had put up with having Charlie in the role (though you must realize the irony of this, because CBS essentially based the role on Charlie’s real life bad behavior – and then he gets fired just for that). Perfect guy right?

Then the rumours started. Rumours about Ashton Kutchner having an alleged affair and partying like crazy. It was as if Ashton Kutchner had been possessed by Charlie Sheen.. or maybe they had both been victims of the Two and a Half Men curse! In November, Demi Moore announced plans to divorce Ashton Kutchner – and the curse was proven true.

3) HOOKUP: That gay couple on GLEE

Kurt Hummell (played by Chris Colfer) met Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss) and the two of them realizied they were soulmates and fell in love, the first time for both of them. Just recently, the 2 GLEE lovers lost their virginity to each other. Ironically, two kids falling in love was slammed by parents groups as being “too gay” for a show that featured warmed-over show tunes and had special episodes dedicated to Lady Gaga and Madonna.



And whatever happened to Ms. Paris Hilton?

At one point, you could have a page just focusing on Paris Hilton’s HOOKUPS and BREAKUPS. She was like a great bank, a lot of quick deposits and no penalty for early withdraw. You couldn’t pass a week without some scandal brewing or video being released. For 2011, it’s like they put her in deep freeze or something. Nothing’s happened. Even her old partner-in-crime Nicole Ritchie has settled down, she’s gotten married, become a mom and even dotes out sage advice to young girls to not dress slutty on Halloween because it’s demeaning. It’s like Bizarro World or something.

Hopefully as 2012 arrives, we end up with many more celebrity hookups than celebrity breakups. It’s hard enough to be in a celebrity marriage, you definitely don’t want to be in a celebrity divorce.

Every year, the movie studios look book to see what the box office flops of the year were. While there were plenty of movies that did well both financially and critically such as Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2, there were many more box office flops that came out through the year.

Here’s a list of some of those box office bombs that flooded theatres throughout 2011:


Mars Needs Moms
Budget: $150 Million
Worldwide Gross: $39 Million
Based on a popular children’s book by Berkley Breathed, the same guy who created Bloom County, this animated adventure about a a young boy who goes to Mars to rescue his kidnapped mom was a box office bomb. What happened? Some point to the fact that the characters in the movie bore little resemblance to their counterparts who had first appeared in the illustrated kid’s book. Others point to the fact that they used that motion-capture technology used in movies such as The Polar Express to animate the movie that audiences tend to be creeped out by rather than delighted.

Conan the Barbarian
Budget: $90 Million
Worldwide Gross: $48.8 Million
The original Conan The Barbarian movies not only made Austrian bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger an international superstar, but were incredibly successful at the box office as well. They also made the Sword & Sorcery genre very popular, not only in movies, but on TV, role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons and novels. With that success, the studios decided it was finally time to reboot the film franchise and recast genre-actor Jason Momoa in the role that made Arnie a household name. Unfortunately, the film was just awful. Casting an unknown in the part of Conan didn’t work a second time. Most damning was the fact that shows like Spartacus on the Starz network were just infinitely better than the Conan remake. In the end, the movie was in and out of theatres faster than Conan could strip off a wench’s dress.

Anonymous
Budget: $30 Million
Worldwide Gross: $14.8 Million
While a movie focusing on whether or not the works of Shakespeare were really written by him might excite a couple of English majors, apparently no one else in the world cares. Add to this that it’s a historical drama which typically do not do well at the box office AND directed by Roland Emerich who hasn’t had a movie that’s done well in theatres since Independence Day, and you end up with one of the box office bombs of the year that made less than half of what it cost, and it wasn’t a very expensive movie to begin with. In the end, the title was incredibly prophetic, as audiences stayed away from this movie that they knew nothing about to the point of where it really was Anonymous.

The Big Year
Budget: $41 Million
Worldwide Gross: $7.4 Million
A movie starring an aging and no longer funny Steve Martin, a no longer a draw Jack Black and the never a draw Owen Wilson as a group of bird-watchers… do we need to go on? It’s a wonder it made as much as it did. Being that each of these guys did well doing films on their own, it’s a wonder that any of them would agree to appear in what became on of the biggest box office flops of the year.

Dylan Dog: Dead of Night
Budget: $20 Million
Worldwide Gross: $4.6 Million
Let’s see, former soap opera actor has so far starred in 2 movies, Superman Returns and Scott Pilgrim, that have 2 things in common: both are based on comic books and both were box office flops. Knowing this, why would anybody cast him in yet another comic book property, except this time being an obscure character that while popular in Italy, is not known at all elsewhere. This movie about a supernatural detective established Brandon Routh as the last possible person in the world that you should approach to do a movie about a comic book character with, in fact he probably should not be allowed to read comic books ever – just to be safe.

Henry’s Crime
Budget: $12 Million
Worldwide Gross: $204,940.00
This crime/revenge thriller starred Keannu Reeves, who apparently has had better days since the shine he had from the success of doing the Matrix movies wore off. James Caan was apparently in it too. It’s not that it’s a particularly bad film, it’s just that it’s not a particularly good film either.

Passion Play
Budget: $15 Million
Worldwide Gross: $3369.00
This pretentious piece of fluff starred Mickey Rourke as a boxer who’s had better days, who falls in love with a stripper played by Megan Fox – who just happens to have real red angel wings attached to her back. It made less than $4000!!! I guess news of Mickey Rourke making a comeback was a bit premature. It made so little money that I’m almost embarrassed to be writing about it.

Trespass
Budget: $35 Million
Worldwide Gross: $4.86 Million
Both Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman have been in successful movies, but in many box office bombs as well. Having both of them together in this movie, along with director Joel Schumacher – the guy who killed the Batman franchise for almost a decade – helped guarantee that this movie didn’t even play in theatres outside of a brief run in Europe, after which it went straight to DVD.

The Thing
Budget: $38 Million
Worldwide Gross: $27.4 Million
This remake of a remake, didn’t fare too well at the theatres. What was it missing? John Carpenter as director and Kurt Russell as the star. It didn’t help that they slavishly ripped off Carpenter’s movie but just didn’t do it as good.

Green Lantern
Budget: $200 Million
Worldwide Gross: $219.9 Million
They expected the Green Lantern character to become a movie franchise much the same way that Superman, Batman and Spider-Man became. Stores were full of Green Lantern t-shirts, posters and toys just ready for the crowds to pour in and scoop them up. People expected this movie to be the biggest movie of the year, but instead it barely made the money spent on it (and didn’t cover at all what was spent on promoting the film). Complaints about the film ranged from the over-reliance on CGI, the miscasting of Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern, packing too much of the Green Lantern mythology in the film, too many plot holes and mediocre writing. Even fans of the comic book character, weren’t too happy about what they saw in theatres. In the end, it was one of the biggest box office flops of the year and it’s doubtful that the studio will make another Green Lantern film anytime soon.

The Descendants (with George Clooney), Midnight in Paris (directed by Woody Allen), Hugo (directed by Martin Scorcese), Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (which I saw the original Swedish version and LOVED, so if it’s half as good, which it likely should be with director David Fincher’s involvement, then it should be a brilliant film).

It’s not great art, but it never pretends to be. The grindhouse and exploitation movies are back with this Nicolas Cage film about a bad guy that must escape the depths of Hell in order to seek revenge on those that have hurt his family and kidnapped his granddaughter. It’s a revenge flick from Hell and completely over-the-top and out-of-control as it should be. And if you’re lucky enough to see it in 3D as I was, you get to delight in the fact that they used to 3D to have fun rather than have pretty snowflake scenes like every other dumb 3D movie. It’s violent, trashy and full of unnecessary sex scenes – but it’s an amazing joyride from start to finish that you’re not going to even try leaving your seat during.

Billy Beane was a general manager of the Oakland A’s baseball team. He had a problem, there was absolutely no way that Oakland could compete with the bigger market teams such as the New York Yankees. It was a problem many smaller market teams such as Oakland faced, that with a by comparison much smaller amount of cash to put together a team, that there was no way that they could compete as equals. Billy Beane decided to go against the traditional logic of putting together teams and picked his players on statistics such as how often they get to base, how often they score, how many winning games are they in. He chooses these otherwise bargain players that are called “flawed” by recruiters, but suit his established profile, and turns the Oakland A’s into a team that become winner based more on heart than budget. Michael Lewis wrote a book about what Billy Beane did against conventional logic to produce a team that did better than anybody expected. Like the Oakland A’s, this was an unlikely film to be made, let alone do well. Brad Pitt got involved and starred as Billy Beane, helped along by a great supporting cast including Jonah Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Didn’t hurt that Aaron Sorkin of The West Wing and The Social Network fame was one of the writers behind this movie. An unlikely act, that proved that what matters is heart, went from being an unlikely act by a desperate manager to becoming one of the best movies of the year, and possibly the best sports movie since Bull Durham.

You could be forgiven for thinking that this movie wouldn’t be that good, if you just saw the trailers. It looked like your typical fight film that you’d expect to be made by the WWE as a vehicle for one of their up-and-coming stars. Some people have also made comparisons to multi-award winning The Fighter starring Marky Mark Wahlberg, the irony being that film was not as good as the praise that it got, while Warrior was a much better film but barely made a dent at the box-office. Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton star as two brothers who end up having to fight in a winner-take-all mixed martial arts match. One has been forced to return to the ring to make sure his family doesn’t lose their house. The other is an ex-marine with a God-given ability to fight, who has to prove to the world as much as to himself that he’s worth something. Both their struggles to survive intertwine, as they end up fighting each other for the top spot, for the money that will change everything for them if they win it.

It’s quite frankly the best film about boxing since the original Rocky, before it became a parody of itself. You’ll cheer as if you were at a real match, the crowd I saw the film with did. And Tom Hardy puts in a performance that’s just brutal and will wear you down. An incredible film that you haven’t seen, but have to see.

Matthew McConaughey plays Mickey Holler, a Los Angeles based criminal defense attorney who operates out of the back of his Lincoln Sedan. Of course he’s jaded and burnt out, like every other lawyer film you’ve seen in the past 40 years, but then — like always — he encounters a case that changes everything. Yes, it’s completely predictable, but many critics say it’s very entertaining and a return to form that showcases the promise that many critics say that McConaughey had at the beginning of his career with such films as A Time To Kill, before he went the easy route of romantic comedies. Doesn’t hurt that he has a fantastic supporting cast in actors such as Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillipe and the great William H. Macey. And the soundtrack, a mix of old school R&B and modern hip-hop is stunning!

Not only is this film a great vehicle for McConaughey, but it could also be the start of a franchise.

If you’re not a Harry Potter fan, you’re probably rolling your eyes as I do every time a Twilight movie opens up. If you are a fan, you were there opening weekend for the final movie in the Harry Potter saga, and loved it as we all did. Arguably, this final movie in the franchise might be the best one in the series. It’s an epic battle between good and evil that’s been promised since the first movie (and novel) came out. Like any way, people live, people die in the battle between Harry Potter and Voldemort (aka He Who Must Not Be Named). Unlike other movie sagas, this one ends with a bang rather than a whimper (*cough* Star Wars – George Lucas you owe us all an apology!). The finale adds to what we’ve seen before rather than just depend on it,things are revealed which can’t help but make you re-examine the story in a completely different light. Unlikely heroes emerge from places we never expected. We walk away from a story that started being about how we’re bound by our fate to learning how life is really about making your own path – that you should challenge anything that bars your path to happiness.

Basing a movie on Captain America, a character that wasn’t very well known outside the comics community didn’t seem to many as something that would do well at the box office. Casting the relatively unknown Chris Evans in the role of Captain America, seemed to many to be a mistake. And making it a period drama set during World War 2, at a time that historical dramas typically don’t explode at the box-office almost seemed like suicide. Guess what, turns out we were all wrong. What we ended up with was a great popcorn flick, equal parts superhero film and Indiana Jones about a 98-pound weakling that wanted to fight, just because he didn’t like bullies.

The original Planet of the Apes movies were incredible. They not only served as a great allegory for the times that they were created during, but they were damn fun science fiction films that were both social commentary and great popcorn fare for millions. In 2001, Tim Burton’s PLANET OF THE APES was done in order to reboot the franchise, unfortunately – the results of this remake were less than great and the franchise just stayed in hiding for the next couple of years. After the whole Tim Burton experience, we were all justifiably scared that we’d get another crap sequel/prequel like we did last time. Thankfully we ended up with something that was not only better than Tim Burton’s doomed remake, but a worthy successor to the original films. It acts not only as a prequel to the original movies but a do-over of it, rebooting it and making it fresh again. While Burton’s remake seemed to openly scowl at the original movies, this one openly embraces the originals with an incredible amount of easter eggs that Ape fans will be blown away by.

Rebooting the X-Men franchise and setting it during the Cuba Missile Crisis seemed to be a crazy idea. Strangely, it worked! It’s a re-imagining of the characters from the ground up, following a pre-Professor X Charles Xavier and his friend a pre-Magneto Erik Lehnsherr, as they start to gather the forces that becomes the X-Men. The movie stars James McAvoy as Professor X and Michael Fassbender as the young Magneto. At this point they’re friends, but that won’t last forever. The movie starts off with Fassbender playing a young Magneto as a Nazi-hunting spy that made many wish that they’d do an entire movie just based around that. Move over Daniel Craig, we have the new James Bond right here. It’s a lot of fun and as a special gift includes a cameo appearance by someone we never expected to see in this film. A great popcorn movie!

Every best movies list should include a documentary. Thankfully, this year had a great documentary in Page One: Inside the New York Times, which explored a year within The New York Times.

Newspapers were once the place where we went for our news and information. In this day and age of new media, such as twitter, blogging and facebook, we can easily get our information elsewhere for essentially free — and instantaneous. It’s a time where newspapers are in a state of decline due to other media encroaching on their domain and falling ad revenues. Let’s not forget we’re probably in the worst recession we’ve ever had. This film explores life at the New York Times in these ever changing times and it’s fight for survival in an age where a kid with a cellphone can report as easily as any hardcore journalist. And while this is all happening, things get so bad that the paper has to make massive layoffs. is The New York Times dying because it can’t keep up with the times, or are we just changing what we consider to be news? It’s an essential documentary for you to watch.

Why do good tv shows constantly musical episodes. You’d think they would have stopped doing that after Cop Rock, an 80’s cop show that would frequently break into song and dance numbers – like the time some junkie mother sold her baby so she’d have enough cash to score while singing show tunes that would embarrass Randy Newman. We’ll not even start on Glee which has been a train wreck from the beginning. So what do they do on Grey’s Anatomy for their special musical episode? Why not have a very pregnant Callie dying from a car crash. Her baby-to-be is too young to be born, and doomed to die. What better time for Callie to pop up from the gurney and start a song and dance number? Really?

Don’t get us wrong. Harry Connick Jr. rocks when he plays a bad guy, a la Copycat. Put him in a love situation with Debra Messing and expect us to believe they’re in a relationship? She had more romantic sparks with Eric McCormack, and his character was gay.

Ok, we all know American Idol is just a popularity contest. But at least in the first few seasons the producers let us fool ourselves into believing we were voting for the best singer. Sanjaya ripped that curtain right open, openly pandering for votes by rocking a ponytail fauxhawk and any other hair style that would get people talking and voting.

The first season was truly ground-breaking television. Fast action, camera work following the hours in one day, Keifer Sutherland as Jack Bauer kicking ass weekly. By season two, the writers already seemed like they were running out of ideas. Jack’s daughter Kim, who was already known for stupidly getting into tragic troubles and risking her life, stumbled through the woods and got her leg stuck in a cougar trap. The cougar, of course, appeared soon after. Unfortunately for all 24 fans, Kim was rescued and went on to wreak havoc for many seasons to come. It was so wacky that now whenever a subplot comes out of nowhere like this, that people refer to it as being trapped by mountain lions.

This show was a mega-hit. You couldn’t wait to watch it every week, and everyone was talking about it at work the next morning. Backstories, smoke monsters, polar bears, WAAALT, the whole scene was fascinating from beginning to end. And then the Others got involved, Ben Linus turned the donkey wheel, the entire island sideslipped in time… Ok, we’re done. You can only keep track of so much weird stuff each week. Crazy explanation overload.

Gil Grissom always was a little freaky with his thing for bugs and secret lech for Sarah. The episode where the victim and murderer were both Furries attending a Furry convention was over the top, though. Grissom was oh-so-accepting and cool, acting like this was an everyday occurrence and everyone else didn’t dare do more than look sideways at each other. Come on, Nick. You know you want to call them freaky!

After a traumatic experience that leaves Bones weeping on Booth in a touching moment that made us all go, “Awwww…”, Bones popped up in the next episode and announced to Booth that she was pregnant and, in case he didn’t guess, he’s the father. Sure, we’ve all rooted for Booth and Bones to get together for years now. But come on! At least let us see some romance, some foreplay, something!

Two teams, one survivor. Not a problem. That year Survivor split up the teams based on race, just to see which one is smarter, better at sports and more conniving? Yeah… that’s offensive. This show may have jumped the shark many times, but this one ruled them all.

Everyone wanted to know who shot J.R., but by the 9th season, Dallas was getting a little stale. The producers decided to have a dead Bobbie Ewing walk out of the shower one morning, telling his wife that the entire horrible last season was just a dream and never happened. Oh, if only it were so for those of us who watched it.

Happy Days. Where the fifties were cool and catchphrases like “Heyyy…” were even cooler. Of all the tv shows that jumped the shark, this one is the classic original. This lighthearted comedy decided to brighten up a season that was getting staler by the minute by staging Fonzie in an Evel Knievel-like jump with his motorcycle over a tank filled with sharks. The show went downhill from there and an internet meme was born. Thus the expression jump the shark was born.

An interesting aspect of famous car chases in film is how they mimic chase scenes from Westerns, as police movies rose in the 1970s to fill the same social role as Westerns had before. Great chase scenes fill James Bond movies and Disney movies, but having one of the best car chase scenes may not place a film among the top 10 car chase movies. This list should still show significant films in common with the best scenes.

The quality of movie car chases directly relates to how much actors and directors like them. The best car chase movies often feature much crossover between casts and directors from other car chase movies. It may be no coincidence that Thunder Road writer and star Robert Mitchum was the favorite actor of later Ronin director John Frankenheimer.

Technically a car race movie more than a car chase movie, this zany comedy tours a catalog of stars coast to coast. The little known truth about this movie is that its writer had previously organized , the actual event forming the movie’s plot. Find out more about that what’s become of that race when you reach Vanishing Point below.

Great chase scenes caught younger audiences. More seasoned audiences found extra entertainment imagining Gleason saying “Sumbitch” as Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners. Burt Reynolds and Sally Fields set a new standard for Dukes of Hazard style highway hospitality in this film that rejuvenated Jackie Gleason’s late career. And, speaking of Dukes of Hazard, an older car chase movie influenced the TV show …

A story written by star Robert Mitchum himself set the plot for this high-octane tale of southern moonshine runners in the 1950s. Despite devices that snag rear bumpers off suspect vehicles to get their license plates, the revenuers aren’t half the threat of organized crime trying to consolidate the business from honest hillbilly entrepeneurs. This drive-in classic kept audiences paying to see it on big screens for 40 years. Its influence goes on, since a poster for it inspired the Bruce Springsteen song Thunder Road. That should not be confused with Robert Mitchum’s own recording, “The Ballad of Thunder Road”, which made it to number 69 on the pop charts.

A cult and mainstream trend setter Vanishing Point does not have car chase scenes. It is one long car chase scene, from Denver through Nevada, but it never quite gets where it’s going. Barry Newman stars as the speed loving driver – in more ways than one – trying to outrun the pain of his past, in every way possible. Fans have taken their support to extremes, even entering a white Dodge Challenger in the rally the actual Cannonball Run has become. The corporate execs driving it even used the names “Kowalski” and “Super Soul”. Not bad for a flick that started its life as a mere grindhouse movie.

It’s muscle car madness with a Ford Mustang GT versus a Dodge Charger, cars named for horses in a landmark movie mutation of Westerns into police dramas. Longstanding rumors that Steve McQueen did his own stunt driving for this movie attest to the film editor’s talent. While McQueen’s well-known driving skill allowed for behind the wheel close-ups that other actors could not have achieved, stunt drivers did handle the dangerous hills and curves racing through San Francisco. One car chase in this movie runs a full nine minutes on its own..

Bringing more of the Wild West to modern city streets, Roy Scheider and an elite team of cops assure that all their organized crime busts draw prison sentences of seven years and up. This film’s iconic movie car chase was filmed live in actual blocked off streets. Reputedly a shot of a parked car’s door getting torn off was not in the script – someone opening a door did not get the memo. One stunt driver stayed in his vehicle right through the final crash, when he wedged his sports car under the back end of a tractor trailer, clipping off the roof. It makes the list of Top 10 Car Chase Movies because the car chase was the main reason anybody watched it.

What’s more Old West than chasing after a train? Bring that into a modern setting, and you have Popeye Doyle chasing an elevated train through New York streets in one of the greatest chase scenes ever. An undercranked bumper-mounted camera enhances scenes with street level point of view. In a sequence filmed without proper permits several accidents with other stunt drivers occurred, and stayed in the film. In maximum car chase movie irony, Jackie Gleason (Smokey & The Bandit) was actually director William Friedkin’s choice over Gene Hackman to play Popeye Doyle , and Roy Scheider was also in this cast.

John Frankenheimer’s earlier The French Connection II lacks the indulgent chase of its original, but the director more than compensates in “Ronin” two decades later. BMW, Audi, Mercedes Benz – no vehicle is too good to double as battlewagon, and it takes anti-tank weapons to take some of them out. Eliminate chase scenes, scenes leading up to chase scenes, and scenes transitioning to other chase scenes, and this film becomes an avant garde short subject with no plot.

Who needs car chases when you can play with trucks? Long-haulin’ semis race up I-95, with Patrick Swayze driving for his life and family, fuel the collision cluttered plot. This shows that the key to safe travel is knowing your vehicle, and having a bigger rig than anything that tries to stop you.

While this franchise has hit Fast Five, and counting, the original’s climactic car chase scene stands out as one of the most amazing actual stunts pulled off in film. A sports car chasing a hijacked truck pulls up, swerves underneath it, and emerges on the other side – all of this while the vehicles actually continue moving, without digital modification. Do not try this at home.

Or so they thought.

The average Christmas tv special is boring and cliche, but few of them these days reach the absolute rankness of the 70’s and 80’s television tie-in shows. You may have thought you buried them in your memory, but here they are once again to torment you: the Top Ten Worst Holiday Specials.

Young Jake Spankenheimer (possibly the worst cartoon character name in history) has to help his parents save the family store on Christmas Eve. As if that weren’t festive enough, his grandmother gets lost in the cold and Jake sets out to find her. Poor Granny is found to be the victim of an unusual hit-and-run accident, showing that Jolly Old Elf to be the escaping felon we always suspected him to be.

9. Marie Osmond’s Merry Christmas

Guest Kirk Cameron just MOONWALKS by...

Marie Osmond holds the most obnoxiously white-bread holiday celebration in history. Kirk Cameron picks up snow bunnies while snowmobiling, and Marie is almost buried under her huge hair and shoulder pads. A true stereotype of the 1980’s.

Normally, Pee-Wee Herman’s bizarre ways make us laugh, but he went a little bit too much one year with his Christmas special. It may be the gayest Christmas special ever (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Joan Rivers? Grace Jones? Freakin’ Charo, for cripes’ sake? And Grace Jones wearing a breastplate singing Little Drummer Boy while doing a jig with Pee-Wee, is the focus of every acid trip had since the 1980’s.

Alvin learns the true meaning of Christmas. Unfortunately, he also learns the true meaning of death because of a little boy dying of — wait for it — cholera! Nothing says festive holiday tradition like infectious gastroenteritis and an agonizing demise. Worst tv tradition ever.

One of the most depressing holiday tv specials of all time. The Brady Bunch kids are all grown up with job stress and relationship problems. Mike to the rescue! Just to keep everyone’s minds off their problems, he gets himself trapped in a deadly building collapse. That Mike Brady, what a thoughful dad.

Truly one of the worst Christmas specials ever recorded. The Tanners decide to spend the holidays in a cabin in the woods. ALF gets mistaken for a stuffed animal and is gifted to a dying girl named Tiffany. There is a suicidal cab driver, absolutely no laughs and terror for young viewers who think ALF will be lost forever. Oh, and Tiffany dies. Jingle all the way!

Some holiday tv specials tug your heartstrings in a tender way. This travesty rips your heart out with its bare hands and takes a terrifying bite out of the middle. Nestor is a donkey with unusually long ears. The other donkeys make fun of him, putting Nestor through endless tortuous bullying. If Facebook were around then, Nestor may not have lasted. Attempting to comfort him, Nestor’s mother shields him from a storm with her body and dies. If there’s a holiday message here, you’ll miss it while comforting your terrorized children for the rest of the night.

Admit it, you knew this one would be at the top of the list, Star Wars fans rejoice! This classic of awfulness is the holiday car wreck you can’t look away from. There’s Art Carney with Wookie porn. Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, obviously high on something, slurring the words to some song. Luke Skywalker on the video-phone, looking like he’s still recovering from his accident. Wookies talk in Wookie language for minutes at a time. Bea Arthur shows up for no apparent reason. But there is the first official sighting of Boba Fett, sort of. It’s horrible. Your head will hurt when you watch it. You have to find a copy online and see it for yourself. You’ll never forgive yourself if you don’t.

Before the band headed out on the first leg of their final world tour, one of the founding members of the band, K.K. Downing retired from the band. In a press release on the band’s website the band had this to say “It is with regret that Judas Priest announce that K.K. Downing has formally retired from the band, and will therefore not be joining them on their forthcoming Epitaph Tour.”

It was an announcement which shocked many of the priest faithful, but the band was lucky enough to quickly find a replacement for the lead guitarist in the person of British guitarist called Richie Faulkner.

The tour which was announced on December 7^th of 2010, thus far has taken the band all over the world where the band has played to sold out audiences. So far the band has played in the Czech Republic, Austria, Norway, Paris, Romania, Germany and of course the United states.

For the bands North American leg of the tour, they have Zakk Wild’s band Black Label Society and rock legends Thin Lizzy, and for their United Kingdom shows the band was being joined by Queensrÿche and Rival Sons. The set list for this tour reads like a roll call of some of their best metal music from their catalog from the past to the present. The set list includes the following songs:

• Heading Out to the Highway
• Victim of Changes
• Rapid Fire
• Metal Gods
• Prophecy
• Diamonds and Rust
• Blood Red Skies
• The Green Manalishi (with the two prong crown)

There was some miscommunication between the band and some of the press early on about the tour and the band breaking up after this final world tour. The band on their website stated that “when we issued the press release to announce the farewell tour-we stated that it was the last major world tour for Judas Priest-nothing has changed-we didn’t say it was the end of the band”

And in another statement on the bands website there was an announcement that the band would be recording new material for release sometime in the future….you can almost see their fan’s hands in the air, pumping in the air to the news of new material coming from the gods of metal music.

Are you one of those one-in-a thousand viewers who thought “Death Proof” from Quentin Tarantino and “Planet Terror” from Robert Rodriguez were, like, the most dynamic and innovative movies ever to hit the screen in a double feature? Then you likely do not remember the era of exploitation films to which “Grindhouse” pays homage. Right down to the scratches and lint on the screen image, it updates an era of violent and titillating b-films with a first-rate cast, flashier special effects, and a budget to match Rose McGowan’s machine gun prosthesis.

Here are 10 of the best grindhouse movies that inspired the sort of films Tarantino continues making. They all offer boobs, blood, or brawn, and some even have all three! They all kept drive-ins operating for years after the theatres stopped showing them.

Cornel Wilde could not count on Hollywood influence peddlers to stay true to the concept, so he directed and starred in this stereotype reinforcing tale of savage survival in the face of cannibalism. A team is captured by natives, all but Wilde are killed by his captives. Those that didn’t survive are entrapped in clay that serves as their baking vessels. Their next function – lunch for the hungry natives. Wilde is given a head start to escape, before the group of warriors sets off to chase him for the rest of the film. Alleged intellectual significance allowed an excuse to actually distribute this exploitation of race and violence.

Fast cars and fast … well, if these women seem fast to you, better watch out. It only means they want something, and whatever it is you will get hurt. Sensuality and seduction are just means to an end for the masochistic leader of these big-bosomed beauties, in Russ Meyer’s style defining opus.

Pop a pill, drive faster. Pop a lot of pills, drive faster still. Pop all the pills and warp into some alternate reality where pain dies, loss vanishes, the cops still trounce the militant blacks, and … Bulldozer! Well, that ended suddenly. A first rate soundtrack, socially relevant dialogue, remarkable cinematography of long vanished open road landscapes have kept this crossover cult classic alive into a third generation.

If the van’s a-rockin’ … and that’s all that the adolescents who snuck into this movie talked about the next day in the school lunch line. As far as most audiences were concerned, this movie had one purpose – well, technically two purposes, since it had both T and A.

Before gaining fame as a film critic, Roger Ebert wrote the screenplay to this sleazy stinker that would not even qualify for his own thumb-up. When you want to capitalize on the audience of a masterpiece, why take the time to write a real sequel, when you can change the names, and just use the same plot over again. Director Russ Meyers makes sure that big busted bimbos compensate for any lack of originality.

When a director wants an excuse to show rape, dismemberment, and torture, the Spanish Inquisition makes a great scapegoat. Whether in a less discussed scene of a woman stretched on the rack carried, legs dragging, into court, or the better known scene of a woman’s tongue getting yanked out, this has enough putrid scenes to satisfy any demented mind. Call that tongue scene sensationalism, but Shakespeare did it first in “”Titus Andronicus”.

If there is ever a movie you will either never want to watch again, or insist on watching repeatedly, this is it. Which one you choose to do, after seeing the painfully realistic gang rape scenes, or the gory and ironic remorseless revenge sequences – well, that says more about you than the movie. This movie will mess you up for life!

Some filmmakers will find any excuse to show a little skin, and tease with suggested sexuality – after all, that is the point of grindhouse films. “Last House” does not disappoint in that regard, spitting bitingly vindictive payback into underground film legend. It’s final sequence of improvised weaponry might have been inspired by “The Anarchist Cookbook.” The remake of this move has more flash, but the original commanded drive-in audiences for years.

This straight-to-grindhouse documentary tries to sound like a serious contribution to the public record – but we all know what’s really involved. In an age of Hollywood simulations and special effects that make simulated violence seem more than real, nothing appeals like a harsh dose of reality. No stunt double were needed to splice together these scenes of people actually dying on film. Audiences must love it. The original spun into sequels and a whole franchise.

The Spaghetti western began as a parody of classic American Western movies, but they evolved into a respected movie genre. The Spaghetti western movies were, as you might figure, filmed in Italy and based on stories of the American west. These are not your average John Wayne western. They can be laughably bad (think Lee Van Cleef in a mullet in God’s Gun) or unbelievably good (the Dollars trilogy), but they have an unmistakable flavor all their own.

The spaghetti western genre spanned the years from 1959 to the early 1970’s. In a little more than two decades, Italy produced many classic films that fill our DVD racks today.

John Phillip Law survived the slaughter of his family at a young age. Lee Van Cleef was framed and sent to prison by the same murderous gang. Both of them set out to extract justice from the gang, with a classic Mexican standoff.

A strange man dragging a coffin rides into a town controlled by rival gangs made up of Mexican bandits and KKK-type racists. The stranger plays one gang off the other in the ultimate showdown after being dragged into the conflict. They’re going to be sorry when they find out the coffin holds a gattling gun. Reportedly, an updated version of Django called Django Unchained is in the works by cult film director Quentin Tarantino. If anybody can update the genre of the spaghetti western, it’s certainly Quentin Tarantino.

At the beginning of the film, our hero catches a gambler cheating at dice. He makes the cheater eat the dice, then remarks, “When you get them back, I suggest you don’t use them again.” Best tough hombre movie opener ever.

This one’s unusual because the hero is a Navajo Indian. Navajo Joe (Burt Reynolds) hunts down the gang that killed his woman and discovers a plot to rob a train. Hired by the local town, he takes on the gang in the final gunfight in his ancestral burial grounds.

Lee Van Cleef is an aging gunslinger who shoots down the local sheriff to bolster his reputation. He now has to face the sheriff’s best friend: his own protege. Each man knows the other’s every move in the classic final showdown of the old guard facing new young guns.

Trinity’s a slob and a slacker and his brother Bambino is big and dumb as an ox. Together they, of course, help a defenseless group of people battle an evil landowner and his cronies. Violent and humorous, this film solidified the amusing spaghetti western as a legitimate offshoot.

A mysterious Man With No Name rides into a town being torn apart by two gangs. He expertly plays one off the other until none are left to pay. This Sergio Leone classic rocketed Clint Eastwood into the movie-going public’s eye. The Man With No Name is essentially the cornerstone of the spaghetti western, an anti-hero,a quiet stranger seeking justice.

This second example of the Clint Eastwood western genre picture brings back The Man With No Name in a battle with western star Lee Van Cleef. That squint, that cigar, that serape! This is Eastwood at his strong and silent best, joining forces with his enemy to capture an evil homicidal bandit.

Another Leone classic and a standout in the spaghetti western, this film features an all-star cast including Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, Jason Robards and dozens more. Leone was obviously trying to do more than his usual understated movie-making with this film. It’s huge and sweeping, looking more like a Hollywood blockbuster than a relatively low-budget Italian production. The plot is the usual revenge story, but the music, the close-ups, the sweeping vistas and the roundabout way of telling the tale all add up to what was obviously Leone’s idea of an experimental picture.

Three men set out to find a treasure in gold buried in a cemetary. Each one knows one clue to the site, and they spend the entire journey trying to double-cross each other. The film ends in an epic three-way gunfight, proving their alliance to be just a lie. Simply Clint Eastwood at his classic stoic best, this film is a western to last for decades to come.

We all need Holiday gift ideas. Christmas is coming real soon. Gift ideas are a must when the holidays are so close. Here’s some ideas to make your holiday shopping a little bit easier.

Whether it be Christmas gift ideas you need, ideas for birthday gifts, a hint at what to get that special someone for one of those special days of Chanukah – what we need are great ideas for gift giving. that would in fact be the greatest gift of all. And if we could get it on sale, even better!

When looking for holiday gift ideas, movies always seem like a great idea. No matter who you are, you’ve enjoyed a movie, documentary, tv show, or cartoon – so the chances of finding a gift for almost anybody is great! There’s also a wide-range of options available in terms of price, for the most part they’re fairly affordable, especially TV on DVD Boxsets which tend to be the best bargain for the buck – and hours of entertainment.

NBC’s LIFE tv show ran only 2 seasons on NBC. Despite LIFE being a critically acclaimed show, it ended after only 2 short seasons, having never really been given a chance because the writer’s strike that hit the networks during it’s first year run never allowed it the momentum needed to pick up viewers. Damian Lewis of HBO’s Band of Brothers stars as Charlie Crews, a cop released from prison after serving 12 years for a crime he didn’t commit – of brutally killing a friend and his family. Serving hard-time in prison is bad enough, serving time when everybody knows that you were a cop is worse. He spends his days getting beaten and tortured on a regular basis. Enduring physical and mental pain was a common everyday thing. That can’t help but change a man, not necessarily for the better. He does what he can to survive physically. To survive mentally, he changes, he loses himself in zen philosophy that somehow gets him past the misery of his life.

After 12 years, his innocence is proven and he’s freed. His lawyer sues and he gets a substantial settlement of $50 million for being put away wrongly. He also gets his job as a police detective re-instated. While he was in prison, he lost everything – his job, his friends and loved ones, who he was. He’s back, but he’ll never be the same again. He’s a different kind of cop now.

The show has been off TV for a few years now, but it’s great and will surely impress anybody who likes a good cop show or something different. It’s not your standard “good guys vs. bad guys” stuff that we usually see. If there’s any show that can be compared to it, it may be The Mentalist in that the main character is a lot deeper and darker than they seem to be on the outside. Because of his imprisonment, Charlie now thinks like an inmate, yet he’s a cop. He’s vowed to find out who really killed his friends and framed him, it drives him. It’s a show that you won’t be able to stop watching.

The Lincoln Lawyer stars Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller, a slick defense lawyer who tends to defend low-life clients while working out of the back of his car – a chauffeur driven Continental Lincoln. He thinks he’s hit the lotto when he’s hired to defend a rich playboy (played by Ryan Phillipe) accused of rape and attempted murder, but things quickly go from bad to worse when he becomes entrapped in a deadly scheme that won’t go away. It’s a great legal thriller in the same vein of Primal Fear, …And Justice For All and A Time To a Kill. Great writing, fantastic cast that includes Marisa Tomei, William H. Macey, Michael Peña, John Leguizamo, and Bryan Cranston on top of Matthew McConaughey and Ryan Phillipe. Matthew McConaughey more than fulfills the great promise that he showed in A Time To A Kill, and it’s a movie that could easily become a franchise of films. And the soundtrack, mostly R&B and hip-hop, is so good that you’ll run out to look for it after seeing the film particularly a remix of Marlene Shaw’s California Soul.

Since 1946, 4400 people have disappeared at different times in a white beam of light – and nobody really knows how or why. In 2004, they all return at the same time, in another beam of white light. Not only have they all not aged since each was taken, but some of them have manifested weird powers such as telekinesis and esp. The government decides to deal with them through a division of the Department of National Security. Not only do these 4400 people have to deal with an untrusting government, but also with the world they left behind which is as alien to some of them as any they may have been taken to. And how does a world react to 4400 people brought back to the world – some 60 years later but the same age they left.. along with strange powers and the thought that aliens may have done it.

That’s the story of the 4400. It lasted 4 seasons, and this great gift set carries them all, you get the complete story.

I just don’t trust anybody that doesn’t love at least one James Bond film, in fact they shouldn’t be trusted. There’s very few people who don’t know who 007 is, he’s the spy with the license to kill, he likes his martinis shaken.. not stirred. Regardless of who’s playing him – whether it be Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen or Daniel Craig – you can’t help but be impressed by this suave and dangerous man, who’ll satisfy 3 women while at the same time saving the world. No doubt you’ll have worn out all of your videotapes and dvd’s watching them over and over, now’s the time to build up your blu-ray collection now that they’re out and inexpensive to buy.

Not just a classic cartoon show, but also a classic television show as well. The Flintstones was the first cartoon created to be shown during prime-time hours and meant as much for adults as it was their kids. It was a natural follow up to Jackie Gleason’s The Honeymooners show. Despite the relatively crude animation by today’s standards, it still stands up today owing much to it’s superior writing and voice acting. Without The Flintstones, it’s doubtful that current popular shows such as The Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park would be around today. Ironically, the FOX network will be reviving the Flinstones with Family Guy’s Seth McFarlane at the helm. It’s a great time to get into this classic series, you won’t be dissapointed and will be amazed at how well it stands up.

The Star Trek Fan Collectives were put together by fans voting on what they considered the best episodes in the history of the Star Trek tv franchise. Whether you’re a fan of Star Trek:TOS, Star Trek:TNG, Star Trek:Deep Space Nine, Star Trek:Voyager or Star Trek:Enterprise – all the series are represented in this “best of” series of Star Trek episodes. Each set contains 4 discs packed up to 15 of the best episodes related to the theme of that particular set – whether it be on alternate worlds, time travel, Klingons or Q. Whether you’re looking for someone who is a Trek nut, someone who just enjoys the show occasionally or just someone who likes good tv – these make a great gift for anybody on your list.

One of our most popular movies in stock, these go out as soon as they come into stock. Food, Inc is a fantastic documentary that exposes the United States food industry, it gives you a peek behind the curtains of the food that we put on our tables every day. Fact is sometimes stranger than fiction, because you wouldn’t believe what goes on behind the scenes. As well, how what’s going on affects EVERYTHING around it is beyond the scope of anything you could consider. It’s both an expose and warning, as well as a blueprint for what we should do next. If you eat, it’s essential viewing. It’s a film you have to watch.

If you have someone in your life that is into comics or animation, this will make a great gift for them. HBO did an adult-oriented series about Todd McFarlane’s Spawn – a cult-favorite comic book about a soldier who dies in battle and ends up in Hell, only to make a deal with a demon to return to life so he could be with his wife again, but as a soldier of his army whose duty it is to send souls to Hell just in time for the battle between Heaven and Hell. He’s returned 5 years later as Spawn, a demonic hero with strange powers. Of course there’s a catch, just like there is in any deals with demons, he’s returned 5 years later and his wife has moved on – and married his best friend. Excellent animation & voice casting make this a great series to watch, as always HBO never disappoints. You can get the complete series for less than you’d normally spend on a single DVD, it’s a great buy!

If you’re a fan of the BBC series Planet Earth, you’ll certainly love the documentary series The Blue Planet – Seas of Life that came out before it from the same producers. This great documentary series explores the earth from the view of the world’s oceans. It explores everything from the insane variety of life in the depths of the ocean to how everything is inter-connected through this eco-system. Water covers 70% of the planet and we’re sadly ignorant of how connected everything really is. And the cinematography is stunning and a real reason to get HDTV.

The Exorcist is arguably one of the scariest movies ever made. Film critic Roger Ebert calls it “The scariest movie ever made!”. This is an amazing collection that includes all of The Exorcist movies, including 2 versions of the 4th Exorcist movie The Exorcist: The Beginning and The Exorcist:Dominion. The studio didn’t like the version that the director did initially, so they fired him and got someone else to “direct” it. The difference in the final movies once put together, is a testament to what editing can do to change a film – and makes a worthwhile addition to this set. Additionally, there’s a TONNE of extras that come with this set. All in all, it’s a great collection of films that take a different look at what evil is, and the collection of all the films can be bought for less than what you’d spend on a standard DVD. A must for any film buffs collection.

Deciding what are the greatest Star Trek episodes is tough because the show has been on TV since 1966 and been followed by successor shows such as Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise. Did we mention that there was a Star Trek animated series as well?

That’s not even including the 6 Star Trek movies with the original cast, the 4 Star Trek:The Next Generation movies, the 2009 reboot or the countless comics, books, games and other spin-offs.

For purposes of argument we’re just going to The argument rages on. TOS vs. TNG. Kirk vs. Picard. Did Enterprise kill off the franchise or keep it on life support until J.J. Abrams would get a chance to bring it gloriously back to life? No matter where you stand on Star Trek (and you know you have an opinion), you’ll find some of the greatest writing and acting in history in the best Star Trek episodes. From Jonathon Archer to James Tiberius Kirk, here are the top 10 Star Trek tv episodes of all time.

Later incarnations of the Star Trek franchise wouldn’t be the same without the Borg, and Star Trek:Enterprise is no exception. A team of scientists find frozen Borg in the Arctic. Perhaps the Borg from Star Trek: First Contact? The Borg go merrily about their business assimilating everything in their path until they meet up with Archer & Co. Enterprise destroys the Borg ship, but not before it sends out a distress signal which should be intercepted in just about 200 years. Dun, dun, dun….

Just about any episode with Ferengi is a good episode, and this one from Star Trek:Voyager is no exception. Two Ferengi are stranded in the Delta Quadrant and, in true Ferengi form, they take over a planet and set themselves up as gods. Comedy hijinks ensue. There is also a plot device about Voyager almost getting back home, then being thwarted. Not important. The Ferengi are what count here.

With a step away from the normal affairs, this episode of Star Trek Deep Space Nine is a hidden gem. A transporter accident sends the crew into Julian’s James Bond-like holosuite program. Captain Sisko is transformed into the evil Hippocrates Noah, and the sight of Worf in a tuxedo is worth the price of admission.

The DS-9 crew interacting with the original series crew? More tribbles? Spock and Kirk ride again? What more does a Trekkie need to make him squee? Classic line: When asked about the difference between old-school Klingons and modern “bumpy” Klingons, Worf simply looked pained and exclaimed “It is a long story.”

Deep Space 9’s two-hour finale has a lot of questions to answer, and it does a fine job with most of them. Starfleet’s almost destroyed, Worf becomes a Federation ambassador, but at least Sisko is left alive to his questionable fate.

Star Trek The Next Generation never was afraid to tackle difficult issues, if only in allegory. At question here: is Data a person or property? Picard serves as Data’s attorney in the Supreme Court-like case, and Riker is forced to represent the opposing side.

Picard has been captured by renegade Romulans and is being tortured for secrets to the Federation. This episode shows Patrick Stewart’s classical acting training in full force. Picard’s final strident declaration of “There. Are. Four. Lights!” brings a chill even now, years later.

Amok Time cracks open the facade that is Vulcan logic and shows them for the wild party animals they truly can be. Once every seven years Vulcans go through a time known as Pon Farr. Vulcans undergoing Pon Farr must mate or die… literally. The sight of a 60’s era Spock as a horndog has got to be seen to be believed.

Simply Gene Roddenberry at his absolute best. Captain Kirk and company go through a time portal in search of an injured Doctor McCoy. They end up in 1930’s earth. Kirk falls for a lovely lady (surprise!) and ends up having to allow her to die in order to prevent the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany.

Out of order because it’s simply the best episode produced in the entire Star Trek franchise. This Star Trek:TNG episode begins with Picard being struck by an energy beam while on the deck of the Enterprise. He awakens in a different world where everyone seems to know him as Kamin, the iron-weaver. Throughout the episode, Picard/Kamin lives his life, slowly accepting the fact that he’s a simple man instead of a starship captain. As Kamin is on his deathbed, he is transported back into Picard on the Enterprise. Known as “the episode with the flute”, Inner Light is Patrick Stewart at his absolute best.

Being a Wonder Woman villain is almost in and of itself away to be considered a lame super villain. At the super villain bar, the other bad guys taunt you about only being able to fight girls and snicker at you for hours. Imagine that on TOP of that you’re also a giant egg, with a Fu Manchu-like mustache and speaks like a racist Chinese stereotype. Did I forget to mention that he’s a Chinese communist agent? No one suspects a giant racist egg of being a Chinese communist agent!

Remember kids, eggs are NOT always good for you, no matter what the American Egg Board or Egg Farmers of Canada say.

He may be one of Spider-Man’s toughest foes, having super-tough skin that makes him essentially invulnerable to damage or being hurt in the least, possessing super strength, heightened speed and just the fact that he can charge at you like a rampaging rhino and take out almost anything short of a tank. Even though he’s that tough, what makes him a horrible super villain – is that his powers result from him having a super strong polymer bonded to his skin. In other words, they essentially glued the suit to him. Sure, it’s a super strong suit, but it’s glued to him like a second skin. Anyone see any zippers on that suit? I sure don’t! Could explain why he’s always in such a nasty mood. Definitely explains that constipated look he has constantly. And of course- the big horn on his head. You think other villains ever get tired of asking him whether he’s HORNY or not? And on top of all this, despite all his powers – the man inside the suit has been described as slow-witted (and that’s being kind, but explains why he let them glue a suit to him).

Phillip Reardon was a Vietnam war veteran who was lucky enough to come home unhurt. His first job back was as a night watchman. Unfortunately, his luck didn’t last and he ended up getting blinded after being in a warehouse that thieves exploded. So he survives his tour of duty, but then loses his eyesight working a lousy low-paying job when he comes back. Seemingly his luck comes back when a gifted surgeon restores his sight, unfortunately the gifted surgeon is a bit of a quack because he decides to re-attach Phil’s optic nerves to the ends of his fingertips.

So Phil can see again, but only through his fingertips. Sure it essentially gives him 360 degree vision, but that’s not exactly much of a power is it? Instead of suing the surgeon for the quack that he is, Phil decides to treat his new sight as a gift, a gift he uses to become a super villain, a blind man with the power to see through his fingertips. And in case you didn’t know that he was blind, he wears those huge “I’m blind, really blind” sunglasses that Ray Charles used to wear all the time.

Of the few times he committed his villainous deeds, it was against Batman. Batman didn’t even try, he’d usually just toss the guy a ball which would effectively blind the Ten-Eyed Man when he caught it using his finger eyes, making him powerless. Batman – you’re a mean bastard!

Ruby Thursday was a scientist who developed a high tech organic computer that could assume whatever shape she willed it to. Does she sell it to Apple or Microsoft and make a killing off of it, making iPods, Zunes & iPads obsolete? With the Microsoft Zune, it went obsolete with no help at all thank you very much! Instead of that, she decides to cut off her head and replace it with this crazy computer which ends up resembling a huge ruby when placed upon the top of her neck. What next? She decides to become a super villain and joins a team of other weird super villains who all have head-based powers called…. The Headmen (yes, really!), who fight second-tier superhero team The Defenders.

Besides cutting her head off, her other claim to fame is that her name seems to be derived from a famous Rolling Stone’s song Ruby Tuesday – which is essentially a song about a woman who finds it empowering to just sleep around. Make up your own jokes!

Maybe one of the toughest super villains that the Justice League of America have ever fought! Starro is almost invulnerable, can fly, has the powers to control it’s enemies mentally and is almost impossible to kill. Despite how powerful a villain Starro is… he’s a giant starfish.

No matter how powerful he is, it’s pretty hard to be scared of a starfish, no matter how big it is.

Naruto Uzumaki is a fictional anime and manga character created by Masashi Kishimoto.

Mashasi and his famous creation Naruto

His first appearance was in a one shot manga comic called Akamaru Jump back in August of 1997.

Japan’s manga magazine Shonen Jump was the first time that he appeared in print. It was Shonen Jumps’ 43 issue.

Eventually Naruto was adapted into an anime series by Studio Pierrot and Aniplex. The series debuted in Japan on the terrestrial TV Tokyo network and also later on Animax which is Japan’s satellite TV network. The series originally aired on October 3, 2002 in Japan, and had a run of 220 episodes. The series was so popular that another series called Naruto Shippuden and this sequel started showing in Japan in February of 2007.

Naruto is so popular that he has appeared in seven movies altogether based on his popular manga and anime series. Some of the movies include Legend of the Stone of Gelel, Naruto Shippuden the Movie: Bonds, and Guardians of the Crescent Moon Kingdom.

The story behind the anime series Naruto is all about Naruto constantly seeking acknowledgment and respect for his efforts as he progresses to become a full fledged ninja. Ultimately Naruto’s ultimate goal is to become the Hokage or the head ninja of his village.

When Naruto was born, his father who was the fourth Hokage of the village, made the decision to bond the dangerous Nine-Tailed Demon Fox within the body of his newborn son. Ultimately this act would destroy him and left Naruto an orphan without a family.

The villagers of Konoha, where he lives see him as a threat and strongly distrust him because of the demon that resides within him.

As Naruto grew older and began to train to become an ultimate ninja, he becomes distressed as he learns of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox that resides within him. Naruto’s creator wanted his character to be the ideal ninja hero, so Naruto’s creator Kishimoto endowed his creation with what he felt were the kinds of traits that make Naruto his ideal hero. Some of those traits include a mischievous side and a straightforward attitude when it comes to his approach toward thinking and solving problems.

Naruto wears a uniform that is based around clothing that his creator actually wore as a child as a basic template for his ultimate costume design. His uniform incorporates swirl patterns that tie him to the Spirals, and rather than outfit his creation with traditional ninja boots, Kishimoto drew Naruto with sandals as part of his costume…because apparently he enjoys drawing toes! And the headband that he wears actually replaces a set of goggles that he originally wore, because they just take too much time to draw according to Kishimoto.

Naruto actually ranks among the top five most popular anime characters according to Weekly Shonen Jump…until 2006 that is, when it was reported that Naruto had lost some ranking to anime characters Deidara, Kakashi and Sasuke as those results were reported in the magazine’s sixth poll.

Naruto and his animated series of the same name have become so popular that it has become part of mainstream American anime, and the characters have been immortalized in resin statues, party wear, costumes, and has even crossed over to board games and a collectible card game or CCG for short.

Not bad at all for what is essentially a cartoon character has become as popular as any other American animated creation of the last century here is the United States.

Either way, some of these shows are amongst the best shows on tv right now. Some you may have heard of but never given a try, others you may not have heard of at all. Let’s see what tv shows that we should be watching!

It’s won quite a few awards and always has good ratings, but it’s still a show that a lot of people haven’t tuned into yet. You’ve all heard about that by now cliche story of the politician getting caught cheating on his loving wife and her loyally standing by no matter what happens. We’ve seen that with Bill & Hillary, we saw it happen with the Eliot Spitzer sex scandal. Usually this scandal is the end of the story. The Good Wife uses the “politician cheating scandal” to start off their story. State’s Attorney Peter Florrick (played by Chris Noth of Law & Order fame) gets caught up in a very public sex and corruption scandal. His wife Alicia, played by Juliana Marguilies of ER fame, is the “good wife” that stays by his side despite this betrayal. To help her family survive this, Alicia must return to work after so many years of staying home taking care of her kids and husband. She returns to her career as a lawyer, essentially starting from the bottom again. The Good Wife follows her journey, showing her juggling her life between family, job and the ongoing scandal involving her husband. She works at a law firm ran by her old college boyfriend Will Gardner (played by Josh Charles) and Diane Lockhart (played by Christine Baranski). The firm’s in-house investigator Kalinda Sharma, played by Archie Panjabi who won an Emmy award for the role, is great at her job, even though sometimes she has to use not so ethical means to do so.

There’s something for everybody in this show. While it’s a great lawyer show, it also stands up very well as a family drama, as well as being very political and scandal filled. And while it’s not a chick show, there are enough romantic entanglements to make people who enjoy that kind of stuff very happy.

All in all, it’s a great show that you should be watching!

The creators of the Walking With… documentary series created a show using CGI and animatronics that recreated extinct animals (such as dinosaurs) and presented them as if they were in a wildlife documentary. Using the same format, they decided why not create a regular series that could incorporate the “creatures” that they created, something along the lines of what Spielberg did with Jurassic Park in movies.

They created Primeval, a British science fiction show built around the central concept that temporal anomalies have opened up around Britain, acting as portals to the past and the future allowing creatures from other times to come and invade our present. Pretty soon there’s extinct predators hunting down modern day citizens in England. A scientific team is organized to investigate these anomalies and stop these creatures from threatening the lives of Britain’s citizens.

What starts off as a ridiculous rip-off of Jurassic Park soon becomes much more. With the existence of these time anomalies, it was only a matter of time before people on our end went through to the past. You know how in science fiction films there’s always that rule about going into the past and how you have to be really careful or things will change wildly. Let’s just say, that people should heed these warnings, as a step out of place changes everything and the show evolves into something completely different after that. Some members of the team disappear completely, others become completely different people in this revised time line. It’s at this point that the show evolves beyond simple Jurassic Park rip-off and becomes much more. Apparently, a Canadian spin-off is in the works coming out soon called Primeval: New World.

Idris Elba, who stunned us with his portrayal of druglord and businessman wannabe “Stringer” Bell on HBO’s The Wire, stars as Detective Chief Inspector John Luther in BBC’s Luther. He’s a police officer who works for the Serious Crimes Unit, and is a man who’s a genius at what he does, getting into the minds of the criminal bastards that hurt and kill people. This obsession, this fixation on darkness and violence helps makes him a very good cop, but not necessarily a very good man. If you’re a fan of Vincent D’Onofrio’s portrayal of Detective Robert Goren on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, you’ll dig Idris Elba in Luther. Don’t be shocked when you hear him speaking with an English accent, he’s actually a British actor that faked a Baltimore accent for his role on The Wire and you’re hearing how he really sounds.

While many people have watched ABC’s Wife Swap show, the British version which inspired this classic trash tv, hasn’t been seen much on this side of the pond. While both shows share the same premise, two families from different social classes and lifestyles “swap” mothers/wives for 2 weeks, each experiencing how the other family lives and dealing with these new settings they’re put in – there’s a world of difference in the show that results from this “intrusion”.

In the US version of the show, the whole “celebrity status” of appearing on a tv reality show seems to take over most contestants, as shame goes completely out the window as they do their best to play for the camera for their 15 minutes of fame. In this reality show culture most people don’t care how ridiculous they look, as long as they’re famous. In the British version, people on the show almost seem annoyed to be on the show, as if they were forced to put up with this nonsense for reasons beyond their own. More than a few episodes of the show have ended up with one of the families so angered by the show, that they’ve almost come into fist fights breaking out between the new couples.

The fact that the class system in Britain is a lot different than the US, with their essentially being only working class and upper class – with a HUGE divide between the two – means that the show tends to focus on families either with both parents working two or more jobs each or on some form of unemployment. Most of the families also tend to be 2nd or 3 relationships for both partners, with a mix of kids from different spouses, leading to a chaotic atmosphere even before the swap of the wives is done. While the US version is almost a circus, British Wife Swap is almost like a documentary about wild and untamed animals, it’s definitely a tv show you should be watching.

Based on the popular Israeli tv show Be Tipul, the HBO show In Treatment focuses on psychologist Paul Weston (played by Gabriel Byrne) as he goes through his weekly sessions with his patients. Each episode of the show focuses on one patient’s session with Paul and generally occurs in real time. The show typically airs as a five-night-a-week series with each episode lasting 20-30 minutes, each show showcasing a different session with a different patient, the 5th show of the week actually focusing on Paul’s own session with his clinical supervisor and psychotherapist. Each week after that would showcase follow-up sessions to the ones shown the week before. Over 8 or 9 weeks, you’d see the progress each person went through in sessions with Paul, some end up on the path to getting better, others sometimes end up either moving on from therapy for whatever reasons or getting worse. While the show has been critically acclaimed, the ratings haven’t been spectacular – possibly due to American audiences not being used to the show’s unusual format. Rumors are that upcoming seasons will follow a more traditional tv format, which is a shame. It’s definitely a show worth watching.

What tv shows do you think we should be watching? What do you recommend?

They’re my favorite movies. Not all of them are the best movies ever, but I love them nonetheless. I’ve watched all of these movies dozens of times, sometimes I watch the whole movie, sometimes only the last 5 minutes, depends when I come across them.

Today’s movie I always watch – WATCHMEN.

Later on, Zack Snyder, of 300 and Dawn of the Dead (the remake) fame got attached to the project and technology had advanced to the point of where anything seen in the book could be replicated on the big screen. They cast a mostly unknown cast, the “bigger names” being Billy Crudup (of ALMOST FAMOUS fame) as Doctor Manhattan and Jackie Earl Hailey (who was mostly known for his role in the original Bad News Bears films when he was a kid) as Rorschach.

The movie was almost a scene by scene replication of the Award-winning comic book series. The series which was very dense and complex translated into a 3 hour theatrical cut, which theater owners HATE because it limits the amount of screenings they can show per day (therefore less in ticket revenues). Another problem was that it was a superhero film, which is normally seen by the general public as something aimed at children – and this was a film that had an R-rating in most regions due to the high level of violence and even sexual scenes in the movie – so they eliminated the audience most likely to want to see something like this.

It just didn’t work for most audiences. The major problem is that movies are not books are not comic books are not tv shows are not broadway plays are not…

What really works in one medium does not necessarily work in another. Think of your favorite book that they made into a movie, so rarely do they really work. When they do, often liberal changes are made to the characters and/or their motivations. Sometimes characters and situations change completely, sometimes they’re eliminated or changed beyond belief. Again, what works in one medium does not always work in another. For instance, things like pacing of a book vs. a movie makes things different. The addition of sound, image and motion makes it a much different experience. The fact that the reader/viewer have much different levels of control over how the material is interpreted plays a huge part as well.

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen was a book that was as much a criticism and analysis of the comic book super hero genre as it was a straight-ahead comic book story. One needed to be familiar with the tenets of the genre to really get what the book itself was trying to say, which was hard enough reading it as a comic book, seeing it as a movie and probably not being a straight ahead comic junkie, it’d be a very difficult task to get past. Audiences for the most part were indifferent to it. For a film that had a budget of $135 million, it only ended up with $ 185 at the box office (and that was worldwide). Also working against it, it didn’t have the big merchandising explosion with t-shirts and toys that they hoped for. In the end it was a disappointment for the studios.

That being said, I loved the Watchmen movie. I’m a comic book fiend and count Watchmen as one of my favorite books of all time. Visually, it captures the look of the book almost scene by scene, and the loyalty to the story is almost immaculate. It was as if they filmed how I always saw the book in my head. Sure, they changed a bit of the ending just so it’d seem more probable – but in my humble opinion the movie ending makes more sense and more in tune with the intentions of the original story. Being a fan of the genre, I know the shorthand to really understand what was going on from start to finish, and my experience was all the better because of that. And Jackie Earl Hailey as Rorschach, was creepy and strange and brilliant, just as it should have been. How he didn’t win an Academy Award for that I don’t know. The whole cast, just perfect. And the violence, they played it almost like a beautiful ballet, which just made it more entrancing to watch.

I could watch this film over and over and over.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Who watches the Watchmen?

I do, over and over and over.

Sherlock Holmes is coming back to movie theaters this December 2011 as director Guy Ritchie brings his version of Sherlock in Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows (also known as Sherlock Holmes 2) co-starring Robert Downey Jr. as the indomitable detective Sherlock Holmes, and Jude Law as his dogged assistant Dr. Watson.

Of course, Robert Downey Jr. is not the first actor to portray Sherlock Holmes in movies or tv, there’s a long list of great actors that have portrayed Sherlock Holmes, usually adapted from the famous books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Here’s our top ten list of the greatest versions of Sherlock Holmes to grace movie theaters and tv sets.

George C. Scott is Justin Playfair, a millionaire who believes he is really Sherlock Holmes.. After meeting Dr. Mildred Watson (Joanne Woodward) in a mental institution, Playfair ropes the reluctant psychiatrist into his increasingly complicated adventures. The little-known film has a following that praises its whimsy and charm.

Roger Moore’s elegant, restrained Holmes battles the evil Moriarty in New York City; the final scene reveals that Holmes and actress Irene Adler (Charlotte Rampling) were once lovers, adding a twist of passion to the usually reserved Holmes’s backstory.

While one of the lesser-known members of the Sherlock pantheon, Lee nevertheless starred in the television film “Incident at Victoria Falls,” and the follow-up “Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady,” featuring Morgan Fairchild as…you guessed it…Irene Adler. Patrick Macnee starred as his sidekick Watson.

While technically not an “official” Sherlock Holmes film portrayal, Disney’s 1986 film features a mouse detective who is heavily styled after Sherlock Holmes: named for Basil Rathbone, Basil of Baker Street sports the iconic deerstalker cap and cape, paying homage to Holmes’s legacy while gently spoofing it.

The suave and debonair Everett may seem like an unconventional choice for the hard-minded, analytical Holmes, but critics and fans alike responded favorably to Everett’s portrayal. The made-for-television case involved the murder of several debutantes, combining modern thrills with traditional Victorian styling.

Often forgotten when discussing the Sherlockian film canon, the Shakespearean-trained Williamson was an enormous critical success in his sole outing as the detective of Baker Street. “The Seven Percent Solution” filled in many gaps in Holmes’s backstory and worked in several real-life figures, including Alan Arkin as Sigmund Freud.

The hollow-faced Brett played Sherlock Holmes in a series of the detective’s thirteen most famous cases and returned to television in 1988 for an adaptation of one of Doyle’s most famous Holmes tales, “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” Scrupuloulsy faithful to the original short story, “The Hound of the Baskervilles” is surpassed only by Rathbone’s 1939 version.

In this modern television series produced by the BBC, Watson is a world-weary veteran of the Afghanistan War, and Holmes is a socially inept but brilliant detective. The improably-named Benedict Cumberpatch is both minutely observant and heedlessly reckless, bringing to mind a whippet hot on the scent of crime.

Robert Downey Jr.s nervy, frenetic performance gave the time-worn tales of Sherlock Holmes a jolt when “Sherlock Holmes” was released in 2009. In Downey Jr.’s hands, Holmes is less of a refined, dispassionate observer of human nature and more of a beer-drinking, boxing, unpredictable genius of crime-solving.

He was the most prolific of Holme’s portrayers, and for many Sherlockians Basil Rathbone is the bar by which all other incarnations of the great detective are judged. Much of what pop culture associates with Holmes was immortalized by Rathbone’s interpretation, including the classic uniform of the deerstalker cap and tweed cape.

The Adventures of Tintin: Secrets of the Unicorn will be released into theaters just in time for the Christmas holidays. It’s one of those motion capture films that delighted audiences (and creeped out me) when they did Polar Express a few years ago, but this time as a 3D movie. Both Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson are involved in directing and producing what is hoped to be a trilogy of films based on the popular series of comic books created by Belgian artist Hergé (Georges Remi).

Spielberg’s involvement in the franchise is no real surprise, he’s said in several interviews that one of the inspirations for the Indiana Jones series of films, and more than once he’s described The Adventures of Tintin series of books as Indiana Jones for kids.

So who is Tintin and what’s the story behind this character who’s series is one of the most popular European comics of all time, as well as an upcoming movie franchise certain to delight millions more.

Georges Rémi aka Hergé

Compilations of the adventures into albums each year soon brought an international following. Tintin survived not only the paper’s 1940 demise with Nazi occupation of Belgium, but World War II and the decades following it as only a fictional character can. He brought his author more acclaim, controversy, and ultimately influence than most reporters receive in their lives.

Tintin’s Early Controversy

Even Tintin’s first “dispatches” proved so popular that when Tintin and Snowy returned from “The Land of the Soviets” Le Vingtième Siècle staged a grand reception for his arrival at Brussels, with an actor representing Tintin. This tradition continued as Hergé led Tintin readers to the Congo the following year and to America the year after that. Visiting America during the Great Depression, Tintin showed Belgian readers the failures of Capitalism as unflinchingly as visiting the Soviet Union had shown the pitfalls of Communism.

That intermediate trip to the Congo proved even more controversial with time. While reflecting common European perceptions of the day, Tintin in the Congo perpetuated racial stereotypes of Africans. That slow developing controversy, similar to those regarding Little Black Sambo, and Disney’s Song of the South, was a mere nuisance compared to one that nearly cost Hergé his life. It should be noted that the controversy regarding Tintin in the Congo continues to this day.

World War II Occupation

Throughout the 1930’s Tintin had visited Egypt, China, South America, and Germany. Then Hergé needed to find a new publisher. This one supported the Nazis, so Tintin lost his focus on social issues, focusing more on adventure. After Belgiums’ liberation by the Allies, Hergé was arrested as a suspected collaborator, and restricted from publishing at all.

Ironically the toned-down stories published during World War II became some of the most enduring and popular for movies. This includes the new Tintin movie that brings Peter Jackson and  Steven Spielberg together for <a href=” http://www.us.movie.tintin.com/”>The Adventures of Tintin </a>. These stories introduced new and enduring characters that lend the stories lasting charm.


Tintin’s Supporting Cast

Captain Haddock

This grisly old salt commands a ship when Tintin meets him. In later episodes he seems retired from the sea, joining Tintin on adventures far from any oceans. As the series progresses, Captain Haddock grows from a heavy drinking buddy to a respectable mentor.

Professor Calculus

Only deafness frustrates this genius. He has three Ph.D.s and a wealth of experience. He knows something about everything, but can’t hear what people want him to do with it, providing amusing plot twists.

Thomson and Thompson

These nearly identical Scotland Yard detectives may just offer comic relief, but likely some critics consider their role as social commentary. Despite erring often they seem to show up in ever more responsible positions of authority. They can’t even get their words straight, often spoonerizing sentences. They symbolize authority as needed, sometimes helpful, and deserving of respect when well-meaning, even if completely clueless.

Tintin’s Triumphant Return

When Hergé was freed to publish again, Tintin no longer also became unrestricted by the limitations of a newspaper. Now Tintin had his own magazine, and the adventures became longer and more artistically detailed. By 1953 Tintin set out for the Moon, and in 1954 he reached it.

By the 1960s Hergé became even more experimental, demonstrating that stories could be compelling without villains, and even without much happening at all. By the 1970s, and Tintin’s final adventures, he investigated psychic phenomena, extraterrestrials, and a Latin American coup de etat. A final adventure in the 1980s intended to look at occult sects, but turned into an artistic study. Hergé died of Leukemia in 1983, at the age of 76, before completing it.

Final Acclaim for Hergé

Hergé’s final years brought international acclaim. Tintin had filled movie and home screens, in both animation and live action. In addition to perennial international book sales, his syndicated adventures drew audiences to children’s publications around the globe. On the 50^th anniversary of Tintin’s first adventure Walt Disney studios presented Hergé with a Mickey statuette, and in 1982 the Belgian Society of Astronomy named a star after him.

More important, in 1978, 32 years after he almost lost his life for suspected Nazi collaboration, he received an officer rank with Belgium’s Order of the Crown. Nearly thirty years after his passing the legacies of Tintin and Hergé endure, continuing to influence ever larger audiences. The Hergé Museum in Brussels is dedicated to his work, and many Belgians consider Tintin and Hergé the embodiment of their ideals.

In 2011, we will be treated to the release of Stephen Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s The Adventures of Tintin: Secrets of the Unicorn. Early peeks have shown it to be adventure packed and lot of fun. Hopefully it turns a whole new generation of fans onto the adventures of Tintin.

Telling scary stories in the dark, lit by a shifting glow, works the same around a campfire or with horror movies in a theatre. The same stories repeat, changing a bit each time. Classic horror movies like Frankenstein, Dracula, and Werewolf stories all earn their own lists. The urban legends shaping modern scary movies have now been told so often that the best need something special to stand out. Since top 10 horror movies are too few for this prolific genre, how about a dirty dozen?

“Have you checked the children?” still sends shivers up your spine, however long ago you saw, When a Stranger Calls. Suspense drives this sweetheart of terror. It so marked horror cinema that Scream parodied it as a film cliche, unique as it was.

A spinning head, a shaking bed, and more projectile vomiting than you could shake a crucifix at, The Exorcist delivered such a 1970s departure from traditional horror movies that audiences invented reasons why it scared them. Rumors of satanic symbols sandwiched between frames proved untrue. William Friedkin’s quality direction and music from Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” conjured this movie’s only secrets of spellbinding terror.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the movies, Halloween brought gory insanity to the screen. Its contemporary, Friday the 13^th, may have produced a broader franchise, but unsteady cameras kept the audience on edge. The unsettling musical score with Jamie Lee Curtis leave Halloween the standout slasher flick.

Live as long as you stay awake. A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master introduced some social significance to the often maligned A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. In the late 1980s millions of American teens felt survival guilt as teen suicide increased. The heroine begins as a nobody. Blaming herself for friends’ deaths when Freddie Krueger invades her dreams, as each friend dies she removes their snapshots from her mirror. Ultimately she sees herself clearly for the first time, having made the best in each of her friends a part of herself.

Saw set a whole new standard for heavy horror themes. Learning the value of life and death when deciding it like God costs an arm or a leg. Intriguing puzzles in a no-win situation, where the best decision means cutting your losses, seems right in tune with modern U.S. politics.

Motel Hell shows the lighter side of cannibalistic abductor themes begun in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. From yanking planted victims out of the ground with a tractor, to chainsaw wielding Rory Calhoun staggering around in a hog’s head, only preservatives could be worse.

Stupefied zombies staggering like a crowd of shoppers leave a mall the last refuge of civilization in Dawn of the Dead. If there’s a movie that outdoes the original in the Night of the Living Dead franchise, this is it. Packed with symbols of consumerism and conspicuous consumption, the remake uses classic Johnny Cash song “When the Man Comes Around” for greater apocalyptic intensity.

Modern medicine updates H.P. Lovecraft in The Re-Animator. When blood and guts get boring, make them come alive! Intestines attack like tentacles. If you’ve ever read Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, this is the only movie that makes you feel the same way that book did, like you need to take a bath and never go near it again.

“There’s a face behind my face.” What to say when a movie almost begins with a character peeling his face away? Any scary movie can give you nightmares. Nightbreed spawns unthinkable images that sneak into even pleasant dreams. Once you visit Midian you’ll wish you never left home. Of course it’s scary, it was written and directed by horror icon Clive Barker, who based it on his novella Cabal.

Dee Snyder of “Twisted Sister” is scary enough in reality. Once you’re roped into Strangeland he makes pain your religion and piercing a sacrament in this baptism of blood. You don’t want to look at some scenes, but you’re too scared to close your eyes.

From Dusk Till Dawn doesn’t even look like a horror movie for most of the film, though the shoot-em-up scenes, and Quentin Tarantino’s delusions may make it seem so. Once you get past Cheech Marin of Cheech & Chong fame at the Mexican roadhouse, and the doors lock behind you, there’s no escape without a squirt gun full of holy water.

What if your reflection had a life of its own? What if it decided to yank off its jaw, yours had to follow? Mirrors splits perception at the seams. By the time it’s over, this grotesque trip through the looking glass turns reality inside out.

When a movie based on the life of William Shakespeare has both movie and Shakespeare fans excited to see it, no doubt that Hollywood is already thinking about making more of Shakespeare’s plays to the big screen.

Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) now turns his skills toward bringing Elizabethan England to life in his movie about the life of William Shakespeare Anonymous. He considers a pivotal period when many people had to keep their beliefs to themselves, and death threatened with every wrong word spoken. Whether or not the film’s premise is correct, the work that changed thinking then still changes thinking now. Consider these Shakespeare movies you may not have recognized.

Big Business

Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin

Bette Midler, Lily Tomlin, and the immortal Bard are up to Big Business (1988). Two sets of twins enter the world in the same hospital on the same night. The nurses mix up one sister in each pair. The mismatched sets meet many years later in a luxury hotel full of laughs with neither rhyme nor reason. Dual roles from each actress make this modernization of A Comedy of Errors sparkle.

Forbidden Planet

Forbidden Planet

A shipwreck, a monster, a hermetic sorcerer, his daughter, and a grotesque creature make strange bedfellows in The Tempest. That past is prologue in Forbidden Planet (1956). The ship is a spaceship and the island is a brave new world. Leslie Nielsen shows what he was known for long before The Naked Gun – the romantic leading man stuff that dreams are made on. This film also brought the 6 foot 11 inch Robby the Robot to the screen.

King Lear gets a whole new wrangling with Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Patrick Stewart as King of Texas (2002). John Lear, the Texas rancher in border war days is every inch a king. Just like the play, with encroaching senility this fortune’s fool casts out his only daughter who loves him enough to tell him the truth, and the choice costs him his kingdom.

“To be, or not to be, ‘ey?” Strange Brew (1983) turns Hamlet’s Elsinore castle into a brewery. It holds a mirror up to human nature and sees beer passing as trippingly on the tongue as some of the jokes. There’s a method in the madness of Bob and Doug McKenzie’s antics. With roles modeled on Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern, they know something is rotten in the state of the Brewmaster. The moral of the story is, to thine own self be tuke.

Brush up your Shakespeare, because its time to look at a group of movies based on The Taming of the Shrew

The story of turning an intolerant, intolerable, and insufferable, self-assertive woman out of everyone’s league into a submissive and doting wife becomes a musical in Kiss Me, Kate(1948). Gangsters replace showmen with music that’s too darn hot even among Shakespeare movies.

When previews for 10 Things I Hate About You hit the screen, Shakespeare aficionados recognized it immediately. An austere and strict father tells his younger daughter she can have a boyfriend when the older daughter, who doesn’t date, has a boyfriend. The younger girls’ admirer hires the school tough guy to date the older daughter, Kat. This story fits the play in so smoothly that non-Shakespeare freaks made it through the whole film without recognizing its source. Of course, Julia Stiles’ chemistry with the late Heath Ledger made a great distraction. Trivia note: That castle where they went to school is really Stadium High School in Tacoma, Wash.,USA.

When Moonlighting, the popular 1980s TV series, took on Shakespeare, instead of updating the setting , it backdated the characters. Bruce Willis rides in on a horse like a biker. This same all-time favorite Shakespeare play about love/hate relationships made a perfect model for a series built on self-parody. In an episode called “Atomic Shakespeare” a student tries reading Taming of the Shrew while Moonlighting is on, and a compressed version of the play follows.

Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein marvelously modernized Romeo & Juliet in West Side Story (1961). Fight scenes become meticulously choreographed dance numbers as the Jets and Sharks fight for New York City turf. Great as the movie is, fans who cannot make it to Broadway anxiously await a remake. The Broadway revival matches the times, with the parts by Latino characters now sung in Spanish.

The only thing better than movies based on Shakespeare plays is one loosely based on all Shakespeare plays. That would be Shakespeare in Love. With writers including Tom Stoppard, among the foremost scholars of Shakespeare’s works, the story structure mimics the tiers of seating in the Globe Theatre. With separate layers of humor informed by the film industry, Elizabethan history, and of course the Bard’s works themselves anyone can enjoy it, but those more familiar with the life of William Shakespeare enjoy it more. Arguably the most successful of all Shakespeare movies, audiences will soon decide if Roland Emmerich’s darker more cynical interpretation in Anonymous deserves more acclaim than a painfully romantic dramedy

Some people find redheads sexy, others think that blondes are the hottest women ever. Me, I love brunettes.

Who are the sexiest brunettes ever? Here’s a list of the hottest brunettes around today!

Mila Kunis

Mila Kunis

While she was popular for her role as “Jackie” on That 70’s Show, her real breakout role that started her being taken seriously as a major star was her role in Black Swan with Natalie Portman. All of a sudden we realized that little “Jackie” was no longer a little girl, that she had grown up into a beautiful young woman. She has become not only one of the hottest brunettes around, but also one of the most beautiful women ever.

The eternal struggle of mankind is whether or not Wilma or Betty is the sexier woman on The Flinstones. Sure Wilma is pretty hot, but if you’re a betting man, you’d have to pick hot brunette Betty Rubble (originally “Elizabeth Jean McBricker” before she married Barney Rubble). Not only does this sexy brunette know how to fill a lioncloth, but she has that giggle that will make you swoon. It’s no wonder that Barnie spends all his time not wearing any pants.

Barney - can you wear some pants PLEASE!

Megan Fox

Megan Fox

Megan Fox became a big star with her role in The first two TRANSFORMERS movies. Let’s be honest, it wasn’t because of her acting -- Meryll Streep can go to sleep at night not worrying that Megan will win any awards that she would have. Foxy brunette Megan Fox is easy on the eyes and that’s what makes her so popular. She’s definitely one of the hottest brunettes ever!

Irini Shayk

Beautiful Irini Shayk

Beautiful supermodel Irini Shayk is known for being on the cover of 2011’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

She’s definitely one of the hottest brunettes ever! No doubt, if she was completely bald, she’d be one of the sexiest bald chicks ever!

Bettie Page

Bettie Page

Yet another hot brunette Betty! The beautiful Betty Page, the QUEEN OF PINUPS! She was an American model in the 1950’s who became famous for her fetish modeling and pin-up photos -- that were shocking back then but almost tame by modern day standards. She was also an early Playboy Playmate (Miss January 1955). She experienced a resurgence of popularity in the 1980’s, partially because comic book artist Dave Stevens based a character in his popular Rocketeer book (which the Rocketeer movie was based on) on her.

She was sexy. She had that smile, so enticing that it’d bring grown men to their knees. And she was a sexy brunette that brought others to shame by comparison.

Jessica Alba

Jessica Alba

She was great as the star of short-lived James Cameron tv hit Dark Angel, but since then most of her roles have seemingly relied on her looks rather than her acting ability. She’s been in Maxim’s Hot 100, voted number one on AskMen.com’s list of “99 most desirable women” in 2006 and voted by FHM as “Sexiest Woman in the World” in 2007.

She’s so beautiful, we forgive her for playing a blonde Sue Storm in the Fantastic Four movie.

Salma Hayek was so hot in that scene as a vampire stripper in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez robbery/vampire mash-upFROM DUSK TILL DAWN, that even years after the film came out strip bars patrons still request their ladies to recreate her famous table dance from the film.

Olivia Wilde

Olivia Wilde

She’s in everything, from roles on the O.C. and the Black Donnelly’s to roles in Tron” Legacy and Cowboy’s & Aliens. In 2009 Maxim magazine ranked her #1 in Maxim’s Hot 100 List.

She’s probably best known for her role as the beautiful “Thirteen” on Fox’s HOUSE tv series. All we know that when it comes to tv doctors, she’s the only one that makes our body temperature rise.

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie

You can’t discuss beautiful women, let alone beautiful brunettes, without Angelina being a part of that list. It’s just a fact of life.

Anne Hathaway

Anne Hathaway

There’s something so “old Hollywood”, classy and sexy about her that you rarely see nowadays. And those legs that go on forever -- wowww!

Expect to see her further wow fans in her next role as Selina Kyle/Catwoman in the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises.

Far too many times in recent years we have handed over our hard earned dollars for a theater ticket to see a remake of an old favorite, and felt like walking out halfway through. Seriously, there are some movies that should just be left alone. Even though some old classics seem to scream out to be brought up to date, the finished product turns out to be a complete waste of time and money.

Planet Of The Apes

Even Marky Mark can't believe he's in the remake!

Planet of the Apes is the Classic Science Fiction movie from 1968 where Charlton Heston heads a band of renegades to fight against the apes that now control Earth seemed ideal for a remake. Put Tim Burton in the director’s chair, and we all awaited this with bated breath. Disappointment doesn’t cover it; this movie was a disaster with a capital D. Stodgy, slow and incredibly boring, the saving grace was the make-up, and even that got boring. We won’t even get how creepy and “pretty” his female “apes” were. Hey, once you’ve seen one ape you’ve seen them all. Burton went onto great success with other movies, shame he has this stinker on his resume.

The Italian Job

Yet another bad remake starring Marky Mark!

Another horrible movie from Marky Mark, what a surprise!

Take a brilliant British film from the 1960’s, move the action to Los Angeles, add some big stars and what do you end up with? One of the worst remakes ever made. Seriously, this movie is horrible. If it hadn’t been a remake it would have been okay at best but considering that it is meant to be a modern take on a much loved favorite makes it even worse. Mark Wahlberg must have thought that it couldn’t get any worse than Planet of the Apes, and boy was he wrong.

Arthur

Russell Brand in remake, Dudley Moore from original

Back in the 80’s, we all loved Dudley Moore as the adorable drunk Arthur. What on earth possessed them to remake it with the far from unlovable Russell Brand is a real mystery. Mr Katy Perry does his best, and although he was very successful in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Brand should have had the sense to know that he had no chance at all of filling the, albeit small, shoes of Mr Moore. This movie just doesn’t cope with the transition to today’s world. Everything was done to excess in the 80’s, and we just got on with it. Now with political correctness biting our asses at every turn, this movie just doesn’t translate to a contemporary audience.

Really? Replace David Niven with Steve Coogan, and cast Jackie Chan as Passepartout is like some kind of really bad joke, or drunken wager. It sort of sticks to the original story of the Jules Verne classic, where a British aristocrat, a French artist and a Chinese thief accept a wager to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days. They are told to collect specific items from certain countries to prove they have been there and win the bet. Sounds great, but is a disaster. If you are going to remake a film that is no well known, you need a script and cast that can carry such a movie. This dire effort has neither.

Until this movie appeared Gus Van Sant was a highly respected director, then he has a brainstorm and decided to remake the black and white Hitchcock classic Psycho. To make it even worse, he cast Vince Vaughan as Norman Bates. Now there is nothing wrong with Vince Vaughan as an actor per se, but there is no way he can fill Anthony Perkins shoes as the creepy and sinister Bates. A bad idea that ended up as an awful movie.

The 70’s movie The Invasion of The Bodysnatchers thrilled audiences so much most had no idea it was a remake of the 1956 classic starring Kevin McCarthy, and spawned two worthy remakes of it’s own. Then in 2007 somebody decided it was time for yet ANOTHER remake and this is the pile of alien gunge we got, and Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig must be SO proud to have this stinker on their resumes. Boring, lacklustre and not in the slightest bit chilling, this should have gone straight to DVD and not wasted everybody time and money.

Another stinker that many don’t even realize was a remake. Guy Richie directed his then wife Madonna in this dire tale of the socialite who is stranded on a desert island with a communist sailor. Madonna has battled for years to be taken seriously as an actress, but this pile of garbage practically wipes out all that hard work.

Bruce Lee in Fists of Fury

In “Fists of Fury” Bruce Lee sets the standard for all any Kung Fu movies to gain Western popularity. Here we have the reluctant warrior. At no time do his fingers leave his hands, and at no time do his lips match his words. Doing the dubbing in kung fu movies right was never a priority. Capable of defense, discipline holds back his wrath while keeping a pacifist promise to his parents, until threats to loved ones demand action. Then antagonists discover what gives the film its title.

The Way of the Dragon

“The Way of the Dragon” moves the plot to Italy. Mobsters shake down the family of Tang Lung (Lee) intimidating them to sell their restaurant. It introduces a U.S. Air Force veteran Lee had previously met at a competition. In the climactic showdown Tang Lung faces off with American fighter Colt (Chuck Norris) in Rome’s coliseum.

Enter the Dragon

Bruce Lee’s masterpiece, and unexpectedly last film, “Enter the Dragon” may be his best. Outnumbered, outsourced, and from out-of-town, he and two military buddies penetrate an opium ring through a fighting tournament. Notable also as an early expression of Vietnam veteran’s issues, even if not in the U.S. Lee died before the film opened.

Among Bruce Lee movies ”Fist of Unicorn” (a.k.a. “Bruce Lee & I”) is one Lee did not intend to make. Having been best friends of Unicorn Chan since childhood, he agreed to train fighters in the film. The producers only agreed to make the movie with Lee in it. Surreptitiously filming Lee during the training they spliced shots of Lee among shots of his double. This film includes an uncredited extra, Jackie Chan.

Lee’s family believed the TV Series Kung Fu his idea, and that David Carradine undercut him for the role. “Circle of Iron” absolutely was Lee’s idea. Carradine and a stellar cast made this film as a tribute to its creator. Carradine took on Lee’s multiple roles in this Kung Fu odyssey of self-discovery that even has him fighting himself.

Jackie Chan is Drunken Master

“To study my style it’ll help you to have a drink first,” is the training advice from the title character of “Drunken Master”. These fighting positions are not based on animals, but on various postures and procedures of drunkenness, like “Drunk Holding a Jug in His Arms”, or the “Drunken Woman Flaunting Her Body.” Only Jackie Chan could be up to this task. Here his talent for acrobatics and slapstick shine.

“The Big Brawl” put Jackie Chan in his first American film. Long before the Ultimate Fighting craze hit the country, Chan played a Korean in a small city ready to take on all opponents to win the big prize. The promise of fighting may have drawn audiences, only to find Chan’s stunts and comedy more entertaining.

Here Hollywood offers up a science fiction martial arts film. “Silent Rage” brought Chuck Norris to the screen as a Texas sheriff forced to kill a fugitive early in the movie. Unbeknownst to the sheriff three doctors have developed a formula to restore life, and now they have a test subject. The resurrected and immortal psycho goes on a killing spree, bringing the most out of Chuck Norris’s fighting.

Chuck Norris is Lone Wolf McQuade

Shades of “Walker, Texas Ranger,” here’s Chuck Norris as “Lone Wolf McQuade”, best described as Walker on anabolic steroids without a censor. From the opening scene when he takes on a herd of hoodlums himself, this is clearly one tough dude. The villain in this movie is none other than that alleged Bruce Lee glory stealer, David Carradine — but the real star is that SUV powerful enough to escape even being buried in sand.

“Rumble in the Bronx” brings Kung Fu movies into the 1990s, and situates him as the true heir apparent to the Bruce Lee legacy. It may have been among the last of the really great Kung Fu movies to tease the American market for one simple reason. As stars of what began as fringe films hit the mainstream, major studios had insurance companies protecting actors as investments, restricting stunt work.

Two honorable mentions here: Artificial effects kept the amazing “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” off this list. More important, a whole caboodle of films about near eternal vendettas between the Wu-Tang Clan and the Shaolin seemed to spurn any interest in the American market at all. For film in general they represent a more purist approach. The depth of their Hong Kong Dub only emphasizes their spite for Western culture. If the ancient ones knew the Wu-Tang Clan hip-hop music they inspired, they might kick triple drunken master flips in their graves.

Mothra VS. Godzilla

Japan’s history of natural crises test this people’s mystic bond to their sacred soil Volcanoes, earthquakes, and tidal waves only set the stage for creative cataclysms. The day after Trinity targeted Japan as the first (and hopefully only) nation in history to suffer two nuclear attacks. Perhaps imagining worse things accounts for Japan’s attachment to Godzilla. movies. Prefiguring the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, Godzilla finds enemies and allies equally fearful to join him flattening Japanese cities – but the people survive and go on.

Shortly after Toho studios first sent Godzilla stomping across the screen, the greatest American cinematic monster challenged him. King Kong helps humans defeat giant octopus, then, like a typical American, overstays his welcome, drinking and partying himself to sleep. He rests oblivious to Godzilla’s rampage. Since “King Kong vs Godzilla” continues as the most popular Godzilla movie ever, that makes King Kong the most popular Godzilla monster.

King Kong VS. Godzilla

Mothra whispers of the Japanese affinity with Mt. Fuji. Not a mutant, her mystical connection with Mother Earth makes Mothra more a planetary defender than a malicious menace, only injuring humans incidentally. When Mothra must rescue the tiny singing geishas who conjure her help, the lepidopteral leviathan can’t help it that buildings fall under the wind beneath her massive wings.

Mothra - Monster or Hero Of The People?

Godzilla movie monsters must be scarier than audience reality. Just any pteranadon, would not scare those so acculturated to fearsome reality as the Japanese. Rodan mutated grew some horns, and eventually breathed fire. Thanks to Mothra’s diplomatic telepathy, Rodan saved the day when a three-headed alien invader nearly defeated the combined forces of Mothra and Godzilla.

Rodan decides to city stomp for an afternoon.

Cerberus, the three-headed hound guarding hell’s Grecian gates might as well be a three-headed chihuahua next to King Ghidorah, the tri-cranial crimson dragon from space. This beastly burden bursts onto the big screen specifically for Godzilla movies. Prior foes had lives and films of their own before encountering the giant walking lizard. Hatching from a meteorite, this creature challenges even the greatest mutated monsters man could unintentionally create, or that even nature had to offer.

Few things make people sympathize with anything like paternal care for offspring. So, “Son of Godzilla” introduces Minilla (Mini Godzilla?) – thematically demonstrating that though the harm of human hubris transcends generations, an angry single parent conquers almost all.

Son of Godzilla, Minilla or just Junior

One of the first monsters Minilla faces is Kamacuras, or rather a swarm of this monumental praying mantis. By now humans have herded giant monsters onto monster island, a kind of United Nations, where they face each other, form alliances, designate mutual enemies, and eventually escape because some Japanese city just has to go. This adventure also brings a giant mutated spider named Kumonga, to add one more somewhat distinctive monster to this Godzilla monsters top 10 list.

Kumonga (above) and Kamacuras (below)

Environmentalism of the 1970s dredged up a new menace. Spawned by spores from space, Hedorah took its form from the deadly detritus of mankind. Also called “The Smog Monster”, this glorified golem of slime, sewage, and sludge grew in film from the same social fears that started Earth Day, The Sierra Club, and Greenpeace.

Hedorah

What could be worse than any of these monsters, or even a mini-Godzilla? How about a gazillion baby Godzillas? Any Godzilla monsters list must include the two entries from special effects wizard Roland Emmerich’s reinvention . The new monster itself counts for one entry.

This time the West gets a taste of its own medicine. French nuclear tests in the Pacific mutate a Komodo dragon, who sets out on his own Manhattan project. Audiences did not find the clumsy and slow behemoth of early films. This streamlined and agile Godzilla no longer drags his tail. Jurassic Park raptor-like baby Godzillas rampage through Madison Square Garden, trying to escape like Guns n’ Roses fans trapped in a Vanilla Ice concert.

Here’s ten things scarier than the vampires of the Twilight Saga :

Scarier than the vampires of twilight, scarier than the thought of Paris Hilton doing MORE pornographic videos -- is the thought of Paris Hilton releasing another album. When you make Jennifer Lopez seem like a musical genius, something is definitely wrong.

Scarier, is the thought that someone besides her family, actually paid money for this.

We’re living in an age of uber-Political Correctness and what’s one of the best rated shows on tv? Answer -- Jersey Shore, a reality show focused on a bunch of drunken, self-obsessed and over-tanned louts doing their best to appear as stereotypical “gino” as they can. If they’re not getting drunk and having sex with each other, they’re doing it at some local dive where they pick up some local and kick them out after they’re done with them, and all on national television. Not only have these misguided losers become national celebrities while having no talent to speak of, they’ve also each become VERY RICH national celebrities while having no talent to speak of. At least we can sleep at night knowing that approximately 20 minutes after they stop broadcasting the show, that they’ll have partied away all their money and probably working in telemarketing.

While it’d be very easy to be scared by the film career of Nicolas Cage (as well as an easy cheap shot) or even of the Tribble that he calls a hairpiece resting upon his ever-receding hairline -- there’s something even scarier about Nicolas cage -- the fact that he may be a vampire, one certainly scarier than any Twilight vampire.

What, you say, Nicolas cage is a vampire? It seems that way. Recently an antique dealer found a picture of a man closely resembling Nicolas Cage, the kicker being that this picture is of a man in 1870. Is Nicolas Cage an immortal vampire living his life over the centuries, re-inventing himself every few decades as someone else? Will people have to watch Nicolas cage movies till the end of time?

And if he’s a vampire, how come he’s not one of those twilight vampires that are pretty and sparkle

Coulrophobia is the “fear of clowns”, and apparently it’s more common than you think. Just google the word CLOWN under images, and almost half the clowns will be images of the clown from the Stephen King movie “IT” -- focusing on killer clown Pennywise. The most scary Batman villain is arguably THE JOKER, a murderer with the appearance of a mad clown. Mass murderer John Wayne Gacy Jr. often appeared in costume as a clown.

There’s a whole lot of reasons to be scared of someone who disguises themselves and laughs uncontrollably for no reason.

Plus they’re not pretty and sparkle like Twilight vampires do.

It’s one thing when Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Lopez or Julia Roberts makes a bad chick flick that we’re forced to see on dates with our girlfriends so we appear “sensitive and caring”, but when a guy does it to us, and does it over and over -- he’s just evil! The one good thing about Charlie Sheen losing control over his life and leaving Two and a Half Men, is that Ashton Kutchner is now doing the show and may not have any more time to make more movies.

We can only hope!

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Ron Jeremy is the person credited that has made the “most appearances in adult films”. That’s all fine and dandy until you see a picture of Ron and see that he’s an older, balding, greasy-looking fat guy with a lot of body hair -- so much that he’s been nicknamed the “Hedge Hog”. It’s rumored that a lot of actresses in the adult film industry add the clause that “kinkier acts that some actresses would not perform are bestiality, s&m and sex with Ron Jeremy”.

Yet, he’s the most filmed guys in porn, go figure! That’s truly scary!

Words just can’t do it justice, if you knew Prashant -- it makes even less sense.

And even scarier, they use FABIO as their spokesman! Well, they used to.

The original Howard the Duck that was created by writer Steve Gerber and appeared in a best-selling series by Marvel Comics was a brilliant social satire using a “talking duck” trapped in a human dominated earth. Unfortunately, when they decided to do a movie based on the character, Disney recognized that the character appeared to look like Donald Duck quite more than a bit, so the filmmakers were forced to do a little make-over on the character.

What we got, was the creature of SATAN that is neither man nor duck. If you saw this thing on the street, you’d shoot Holy Water and try and kill it.

Worse, it hung around Lea Thompson!

Oh my God, the humanity!

The only show with the word “SEX” in the title, that you can’t get a guy to watch.

And as scary as the thought of Nicolas Cage being an immortal vampire may be, how old exactly is Samantha?

And is Carrie supposed to be the pretty one? What happened?

Certainly scarier than any sparkly Twilight vampire! Take that Stephanie Meyer!

For the rest of us, our video game lives didn’t begin at home or even at a friend’s house; they began at the local arcade. Arcade games were those precursors to the home game craze, when kids and adults went to arcade stores or even the local pizza joint to play Pac-Man (or Ms. Pac-Man), Donkey Kong, and Dig Dug. These classic arcade games might be lost due to the popularity of the online MMO or the new generation of home consoles, right?

Wrong! This is where PC gaming comes in; many of these games can easily be played on a gaming PC, but they can also be found through online arcade games plugins or websites. In case you forgot, here are the top 10 in arcade games.


1. Ms. Pac-Man: one of the most beloved arcade games, the Pac-Man series has not only spawned several spin offs, but it’s own cartoon show in the late 1980s. However, it was this sequel of Ms. Pac-Man, the heart warming story of how Pac met his beautiful wife while chomping down on some ghosts that has constantly been seen and considered the best of the whole series. For the 30th anniversary, Google allowed fans to remember why the game was awesome.

2. Donkey Kong: Though mainly about a large ape who kidnaps a beautiful girl, Donkey Kong not only introduced us to Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong, Jr (who would later become Cranky Kong and the DK we know from today), but it also brought about the hero of the series, Jumpman. We don’t call him Jumpman anymore, but Donkey Kong also helped to launch the career of a certain plumber in red named Mario. Let’s cross our fingers in hopes that Hollywood doesn’t screw this video game the way it did Mario and Luigi.

3Contra: Ask any gamer what they cut their teeth on as a fighting game and many will say Contra. The classic story of putting a soldier in the wild and let him shoot aliens and crazy soldiers is what many players went to the arcade for (or the reason they bought an Atari)

4. Street Fighter: There seems to be a minor war between lovers of Mortal Kombat and lovers of Street Fighter. You can probably tell who played which game more, but before MK was in arcades, it was Street Fighter, where fighting was done in the street like normal. And it of course gave us one of the best ham moments of Raul Julia’s career.

5. House of the Dead: While movie fans can thank George Romero for bringing about the zombie movie, arcade gamers can thank this game for bringing about a love of shooting zombies with a zap gun.

6. Space Invaders: The classic theme of aliens coming to town has been immortalized in a number of games, but can they really beat the one that started it all? Space Invaders seems fairly simple enough until the aliens get faster and closer, and you only have one building to save humanity.

7. Cruisin’ USA: Driving games are better with friends and Cruisin’ USA let you race against yours friends all around the US, starting in California and going to the nation’s capitol. It was a great way to test your driving, as well as learning how to manage your road rage against the cheating computer racers.

8. Galaga: Where Space Invaders let you take your time and shoot down alien ships, Galaga had them dive bombing you as a real alien attack would. Still one of the popular shooting games, Galaga sometimes edges out SI in terms of excitment.

9. Paperboy: With most of us getting our news online, we might not remember the days when delivering the paper was a matter of life and death. Well, with Paperboy (or Papergirl) you could! Dodge oncoming traffic, dogs chasing you, trashcans, and other things to ensure your neighbors get their papers. Wonder what his life insurance policy was?

10. Pong: No arcade games list or best video games list would ever be complete without the mention of the game that kinda started the fascination. A simple game of table tennis helped to launch not only arcades, but video gaming in the long run. They have been many sequels, but this is the original.

Just who is Jack Kirby?

It’s incredible that most of the public, they have no idea at all.

Just in 2011 so far (as of September 2011), creations of Jack Kirby have accounted for $766 million dollars at the box-office, and that’s just domestic grosses, not including dvd/blu-ray sales, international sales or merchandising. These films include Thor, Captain America: First Avenger and X-Men: First Class – all of which are based on characters that Jack Kirby was involved in creating.

So who is Jack Kirby?

Jack Kirby is one of the most proficient and talented comic book artists, writers and editors to grace the comics industry. Not only has he been an unbeatable force and trend-setter in the super hero genre, but he has also worked in the western genre, science fiction & fantasy and anything else he could find the time to draw – but him and partner Joe Simon are credited with starting the popular romance comics in the fifties, Over at Marvel comics, he could arguably be said to be one of the creators of the modern age of comics, having been involved in co-creating characters such as the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, the Avengers, Captain America, Thor and many, many more. His style of art is lively, thick and bombastic and pretty much the style that the “pop-art movement” of art “borrowed” (actually a better term may be “stolen” in my humble opinion). He became an ICON in an industry that had never had any icons before, and is quite rightly nicknamed the “KING” because of that.

Jack Kirby, born Jacob Katzenberg, on August 28, 1917 to Austrian Jewish immigrants in a rough part of New York City. Young Jacob was known as quite the scrapper in his day, really one of the “dead end kids” of his day. He was essentially self taught as an artist, started his career as an “in-betweener” cartoonist at the famous Fleischer studios who did the Popeye cartoons of the day. He later quit, feeling that working in cartooning in those days was essentially the same as working in a sweatshop.

Early on he used several different pen names, including “Jack Kirby”, which is the one that stuck with him. By 1942, the year he married his wife Roz, he changed it legally to Jack Kirby. He liked the name because it reminded him of “James Cagney“, and he dismissed claims that he chose it to appear “less jewish” in order to get more work.

By 1941, Kirby along with his then partner Joe Simon, created the character of Captain America for Timely Comics (later to be Marvel Comics). This super heroic character was an instant success with the public and even inspired a set of movie serials at the time. The character did disappear for a few years, but later resurfaced in the early 60’s with the “silver age” of comics when Marvel debuted such titles such as The Fantastic Four, The Avengers and Spider-Man.

As mentioned earlier, in the 60’s he was involved in creating and working on such characters as the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, the Avengers, Captain America, the X-Men and too many others to start mentioning. Most of these characters later spun off into cartoons, tv shows and movies. If he didn’t work on creating the character, he probably drew it at one time or another. It can be said that he was co-creator of most of these characters along with his regular partner at the time Stan Lee (who was the writer) because of the way they did their books back then, what they called the “Marvel Method”. What the “Marvel Method” entailed was the “writer” (in this case Stan Lee) having a “brain-storming” session with the artist (ie- Jack Kirby). The writer would then compile these “back and forths” into a very brief synopsis, at which point the artist would draw. After the artwork was done, the “writer” would come back and dialogue word balloons and word captions. Arguably, not only did the artist contribute as much as the writer to doing the story, he probably did much more – which is probably one of the reasons Jack Kirby’s family have sued since his passing for a bigger chunk of copyrights and royalties from properties he was involved in creating.

In the early 70’s, Kirby worked at DC Comics for a while, where he was responsible for creating the Fourth World characters such as the New Gods, Mister Miracle, the Forever People, Omac and Kamandi. While most of these characters didn’t last too long, they are still used today, and quite a few were used in the last few seasons of Smallville.

It should be noted, that Kirby’s tenure at DC Comics was relatively short lived. It’s been said that some of the editors there did not appreciate having to work with a man who was known for having been one of the KINGS of Marvel Comics – their main competition. When Kirby included Superman or Jimmy Olsen in his Fourth World books, they went so far as to have his faces redrawn by other artists to more mimic the “house” style at the time. You be the judge of whether or not this was a fair practice.

Later on, Kirby worked in animation, creating such characters as Thundaar the Barbarian.

When he started his career, Jack Kirby penciled as many as 5-6 pages a day. By the late 60’s/70’s he was known to have done 15-16 pages a week – including plotting. Over the years he’d done thousands of pages of work – most of which were not only ground breaking, but influential to many artists and writers that followed. No doubt, Marvel comics would not have become the success story they became in the industry without his contributions. Even in the field of cinema, classic films such as Star Wars and the Matrix, have been said to be strongly influenced by Kirby’s work.

Jack Kirby passed away February 6, 1994 and left a legacy for a generation to behold.

Who is Jack Kirby?

Jack Kirby is the KING.

Here’s a list of some of the best anime out there.

Based on the famous manga Berserk, there were 25 episodes of this action/fantasy/adventure aired in 1997/98. It tells the tale of a powerful warrior known as Gatts, a lone swordsman who lives in a medieval world full of fantasy. He comes across a mysterious swordsman known as Griffin who challenges him to a battle, which Gatts subsequently loses. Griffin is the possessor of a strange and powerful pendant which he calls ‘the eye of god’. Through the ensuing episodes, deep and dark secrets are revealed and political intrigue go hand in hand with fantastical combat.

24 episodes were made of this drama/fantasy light novel and were distributed in the US by Bandai in 2003. Scrapped princess is the story of a princess who is thrown into a chasm at birth in an attempt to kill her so she is unable to satisfy her prophecy, which is to destroy the world when she reaches 16. This attempted murder was a closely guarded secret and was never spoken of again, except that the baby didn’t die was raised as the youngest child of the Kasull family with the name ‘Pacifica’. Her existence inevitably becomes common knowledge and her two older sisters Raquel and Shannon fight to protect her from constant assassination attempts

This show has frequently been voted the best anime of all time, despite there only being 4 episodes. Hiko Seijuro saves a young boy called Shinta and renames him Kenshin. He then trains the boy in the ways of Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu, a peerless sword fighting technique. With the civil war in Japan intensifying daily, young Kenshin feels that it is both his duty and his destiny to help save the ordinary people. His involvement and success turns him into the feared of all Hitokiri Battousai. Originally airing in 1999, this has become a worldwide hit that many other anime are now measured against.

52 episodes were made in total of this magical action, adventure, comedy. They first aired in the US in 1993/4 and became an instant success. The story is set in a world where people exist who have the special abilities to both manipulate objects and change them into others. They are known as alchemists and their gifts come with a very high price, they have to adhere to the basic law of alchemy which states that if they make a gain they must sacrifice something of the same value.

This futuristic anime series is set in the year 2071 AD, the old nation states have collapsed and the inhabitants have spread throughout the galaxy to various stars, taking with them their now much confused concepts of love, violence, freedom and justice. New rules are quickly established and a new band of bounty hunters come into being, referred to as cowboys. Spike and Jet start a bounty hunting partnership in their converted ship ‘The Bebop’. 26 episodes of this sci-fi fantasy were aired in 1998/99. Cowboy Bebop is known as much for it’s cool, funky jazz soundtrack as it is for it’s animation. A live action film is in the works and was initially supposed to star Keannu Reeves in the role of Spike, but he has since walked away from the project.

This fantasy musical drama is based on a manga of the same name. It tells the poignant tale of the 12 year old Mitsuki, whose life long dream of being a singer is threatened when a tumor develops in her throat. The biggest risk of the surgery is that her voice will be taken away forever. Two mythological gods of death appear and tell her she has only a year to live. To realise her dream, she begs one of the gods to transform her into a 16-year-old so she can take part in a singing contest. The ensuing story is of a young girl battling to realise her dreams before it is too late.

Viewers were treated to the 14 episodes of this action/horror in 2004. A race of two horned mutants known as the Diclonius has been created by humans. They have a sixth sense and enough power between them to completely eliminate the human race. They are so feared that they are kept in Labs and constant tests done upon them. Lucy, a Diclonius girl, kills her guards and escapes. Her life after her escape is the main body of the story.

Earlier than the others, and less urban, it heads the list because it is really too good to be a Blaxploition film. Co-writer of the screenplay Stirling Silliphant ( “In The Heat of the Night”) softens candid, gritty, and militant aspects of writer Jesse L. Ford’s original novel. it was acclaimed Director William Wyler’s (“Ben Hur”) final project. Heavier in theme and cross-market interest than general Blaxploition movies, this neglected classic prefigured the potential for the films that followed.

The movie that broke all the rules makes the list just for creating the market. Melvin Van Peebles showed that a film with appeal to a specifically Black market could make a big enough draw to be a general market hit, and receive critical acclaim. Made by true renegades and upstarts, it includes a soundtrack by previously unknown “Earth, Wind, and Fire.” This set a standard for quality soul music anchoring Blaxploitation movies.

Pam Grier, in the title role as a photographer, unexpectedly catches the attempted assassination of America’s richest Black man on film. This draws her into a complex plot involving a conspiracy called “Black Widow”, and murders of a U.S. senator and her own friend.

Youngblood Priest (Ron O’Neal) wants to get out of the dope dealing business before he has to kill someone, or someone kills him. Dealing out one last big score can do this, but a lackey talks in police interrogation. What happens then can surprise as much as much as this films Curtis Mayfield score satisfies.

Faster paced, John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) is a street-wise detective who holds his heart as close to his chest as his cards. Strutting to the beat of Isaac Hayes’ Academy Award winning theme song he takes out the bad guys so well that the movie inspired two sequels, a short TV series, and a glitzy Samuel L. Jackson as Shaft remake.

Breaking from many Blaxploitation stereotypes, Cleopatra Jones (Tamara Dobson) is America’s secret weapon to stop drug trafficking. Whether burning poppy fields in Turkey, or taking out bad cops, this federal agent ticks off the wrong people. She uses their attempts at vengeance to set things right.

Three years following his Oscar for music, Isaaac Hayes takes on a tough-guy role, and writes the whole soundtrack. Can a bounty hunter escape the hit man the wife of an angry victim hired to hunt him down? This film is also noteworthy for the first credited film appearance of Nichelle Nichols, best known then as Uhura from “Star Trek”, then just a discontinued series in syndication.

So what does a fine looking Black woman do when mobsters take her boyfriend out? She gets herself on their payroll as a high-class commodity, gets close to them, and kicks booty, head, arm – anything she can kick. Another outstanding contribution of Pam Grier in a genre defined by its times as much as its style.

African Prince Manuwalde (William Marshall) was bitten by Dracula himself centuries before, then locked in a coffin. Investors bring the coffin to L.A. to decorate a room, and unwittingly release the undead prince, who begins seducing the reincarnation of his former princess. Blacula represents the sort of movie that got Blaxploitation films their name, adapting a general genre specifically for the African American culture of the day. “Scream, Blacula, Scream” followed the next year, and director William Crain went on to do “Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde” in 1976.

So, with the success of “The Godfather”, Blaxploitaion had a chance to move street crime to big time. Enter the story of Tommy Gibbs (Fred Williamson), who turns against the law as a child when a dirty cop breaks his leg. This leads him up the ladder of crime until he has enough power to start a gang war and try taking the streets for himself. A soundtrack featuring music by James Brown also makes this one standout.

From Earth, Wind, and Fire, to Isaac Hayes, music made these movies. The idea of an ensemble musical comedy seems a natural, and the disco craze invited one. Funk band Rose Royce offered up a soundtrack, and guest appearances from Richard Pryor and the Pointer Sisters beefed up the movie. As this film opened to more cross-cultural influence, including George Carlin and an early appearance by Danny DeVito, it may also mark the end of the true Blaxpolitation era.

A Clockwork Orange

Clockwork Orange torture scene

When people think of controversial movies, “A Clockwork Orange” is one of the first movies to come to mind. The 1971 film was directed by Stanley Kubrick, who went on to ban the film himself after criminals started copycat killings while dressed up as the main character, according to movie website RottenTomatoes.com. The movie received an X rating in the U.S., and the Kubrick’s ban in England was not lifted until after his death in 1999.

1971 saw yet another major controversial film hit the movie theater. “Strawdogs,” directed by Sam Peckinpah, is a tale about a newlywed couple facing quite the opposite of a neighborhood welcome wagon when they move to a remote town. The wife, played by Susan George, is raped twice and it’s implied that she welcomed the attacks. The horror movie was banned for 20 years in England. However, a remake starring Kate Bosworth, Alexander Skarsgard and James Marsden is set to premiere in 2011.

A story about anonymous sex is sure to rile up quite a few feathers, but 1973’s “Last Tango in Paris” succeeded in actual changes being brought against the director. Starring Marlon Brando and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, the film is about a pair of strangers meeting up to have sex. Even though the film got two Oscar nominations, it received an X rating and Bertolucci was tried in Italy for obscenity.

Kids

Kids by Larry Clark

Not all controversial movies were made in the ’70s. 1995’s “Kids” follows a group of teens, starring Rosario Dawson and Chloe Sevigny, hanging out on the streets of New York City and passing the time with sex, alcohol and drugs. Disney refused to distribute the film and a new company called Excalibur Films was created to release it.

Another gem from the ’90s, Oliver Stone directed this film. It was banned in Ireland because of its extreme violent imagery, and it was blamed for several murders. The 1994 movie is supposed to be a satire about the mass media’s fixation on serial killers, making the response to the film pretty ironic.

Based on a novel, director Martin Scorsese’s big screen adaptation was controversial before it was released. The main bone of contention was a dream sequence that shows Jesus having a sexual relationship with Mary Magdalene. A French movie theater showing the film was burned by Christian militants, leaving several people seriously injured.

With a subtitle like “The 120 Days of Sodom,” you know this 1975 film is headed for controversy. While the Marquis de Sade book is a political statement about Italian fascism, the film involves the sadistic rapes and murders of several teens. The film has been banned in several countries, and video stores owners in Ohio were arrested in 1994 for renting out the film.

One of the best-known pornography movies in the world, the 1972 film’s lead actor Harry Reems and the producers were prosecuted on federal obscenity charges. The movie was also banned for 30 years in Britain. Later, the female lead Linda Lovelace said she was forced by her abusive husband to participate in the film’s sex scenes, turning the controversial X-rated movie into a possible rape film.

Like Salo, this 1980 Italian film garnered quite a bit of negative attention. Starring Malcolm McDowell, the movie about the life of the crazed Roman emperor was described as a “moral holocaust” by Variety magazine. The film is full of explicit sex scenes and was given a very limited release because of the fear the actors and director could face obscenity charges.

Not all controversial films have to be recent. The 1915 movie “The Birth of Nation” is one of the first films to spark outcries across the nation. Its crude depiction of African-American slaves caused the newly formed NAACP to hold protests. Despite being used as a Ku Klux Klan recruitment tool, the movie was added to the National Film Registry in 1993.

Aladdin unquestionably has some of everything that makes an animated film superior: a handsome lad of stout heart and good character but no money, and a lovely, spirited Princess willing to break the rules for the sake of love must battle an evil villain. It’s the classic Middle Eastern folk tale One Thousand And One Nights as interpreted by Disney, and it works somehow. Throw in a fabulous genie and a self-effacing magic carpet, outstanding music and animation, plus some perfect-for-the-part voices such as Robin Williams as the Genie, and you have the basics for an utterly charming film.

The Lady and the Tramp has got to be the best interpretation ever of the classic tale of proper maiden and irresistible rogue, and it’s all thanks to being a Disney animated movie. In this version the naive and sheltered maiden is a cocker spaniel and the rogue is a mutt of indeterminate origin, and they are two of the most loveable characters that ever graced the animated scene. This film is one of Disney’s least ambitious in many ways, but the humor and heart shine through. Kids still love it, and most adults still find it hard to resist.

Disney and Pixar got together for WALL-E, for what may be the most endearing robotic romance/action tale yet. WALL-E, (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) has a lot more personality and integrity than many, well, humans. He may be just a trash compacter, but he’s going to save the planet Earth, with the help of a sleek little scout robot named, inevitably, Eve. This one offers food for thought along with non-stop entertainment.

As everyone knows social commentary with ogres works very well, indeed in Shrek, the story of a lonely outcast who thinks he’s too ugly to be loved. But when a villainous King drives his subjects into hiding in the very swamp where Shrek the ogre is hiding from ’society’, things start to change in a hurry. The main characters are so well drawn (pun intended) that they are totally captivating; no one who sees this film will ever think badly of ogres again, of course great voice work by the likes of Eddie Murphy, John Cleese, and Michael Myers only adds to this great series of movies.

Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki has made a number of wonderful films, and Princess Mononoke is an outstanding example. Set in the 14th century, it’s a tale of man and nature at odds, with ancient animal gods and spirits battling for survival against the destructive actions of greedy humans. The Princess is a young human raised by the Wolf God, who can communicate with the spirits of nature. This film is an ecology lesson presented as great entertainment, and it does the job with plenty to spare.

Back to ‘the old days’ of animation back when they used hand-draw animation, one of the lodestones of the genre is Disney’s Fantasia, starring Mickie Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. This film is almost as awesome today as it was in 1940, with the 2000 version replacing some parts but in no way detracting from the overall impact. Animation at its best in many way, the seven vignettes are set to soul-stirring and hair-raising classical music performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

For adults more than kids, Watership Down is a beautiful and tragic presentation based on the novel by Richard Adams. Themes of courage and betrayal, joy and loss and the perils of life in general as seen from a rabbit’s point of view, this film is shockingly realistic and definitely not for everyone. Some scenes of death and destruction are just too real – but the bunnies are entirely believable and the film has a lot of power to engage and disturb its audience.

It was a nice day, sunny and warm, until the local gang kidnapped/raped/murdered your girlfriend or boyfriend. Or perhaps the gang killed your master or your family. Whatever the reason, on that day, you swore that you wouldn’t rest until they all paid and you would avenge your fallen loved one.

You’re looking for revenge.

Revenge movies are popular in mainstream culture, with the idea of the hero going out in order to avenge their slain loved one. In hindsight, it’s an over used cliche – one filled with violence, torture, murder, sex, and guns – but it’s a popular one, something that perhaps society feels in regards to being wronged. Eye for eye, if you will. Of course, in society we have rules about vigilantes and taking the law into your own hands, but true life stories have seen parents avenge their child with the death of the murderer; spouses avenge the deaths of their husbands or wives, etc.

The revenge film is definitely a secret passion that is need, nay required, when you want something heavy on gory and less on story. Here’s ten of the best revenge movies (and series) that are a must to see or own.

1. Death Wish – Charles Bronson had been a mainstream actor for years before getting this leading part in this movie that was somewhat based on the novel of the same name. Released in 1974, the movie marked the beginning of a successful series that spanned twenty-two years, but was denounced by critics who thought it glorified vigilantism; however, it was the kind of movie that spoke with society at the time as the crime rate in the US began to rise. As a child of the 70s and 80s, this was a must see regardless of age.


Charles Bronson in DEATH WISH

2. Kill Bill series – The pinnacle of Quentin Tarantino’s film dynasty, Kill Bill volumes 1 and 2 brought back a sense of style to the revenge film. Uma Thurman goes on a revenge spree against former colleagues and lover for the brutal beating that should have killed her and her unborn baby. The story itself shouldn’t have been as big, but the visuals of the film – part anime, part stylized violence – is what makes it a classic.


uma Thurman in KILL BILL

3. The Godfather series – Sometimes, you need to make an offer that someone can’t refuse and sometimes, it’s not personal, it’s business. The Godfather is the penultimate mob movie, showing us the ins and outs of a traditional mob family that hails from the lands of Italy to that of the US. The Godfather movie and it’s sequels still remain classics and many of our popular culture comes from the trials of the Corleones.

4. The Crow – A plot similar to Death Wish and based on the independent comic book created by artist/writer James O’Barr The Crow was the revenge of the 1990s. The movie combined the idea of the revenge film with that of classic ghost stories of spirits taking down their killers. Sadly, this film was a double edge sword for its star Brandon Lee (son of martial artist and actor Bruce) – not only did it propel him to stardom, but an accident on the set caused his untimely demise.


The late Brandon Lee as THE CROW

5. The Big Boss/Fists of Fury – When speaking about Brandon, you can’t help but to mention his father Bruce Lee, who’s career was also tragically cut short. Many martial arts films carry the them of revenge (much like Kill Bill) and you can’t have a martial arts film collection or list that doesn’t include a Bruce Lee movie. Both The Big Boss and Fists of Fury are about Lee’s character taking revenge against the corruption that has come to claim his loved ones. Both are included here as The Big Boss is now known as Fists of Fury, while Fists of Fury is usually known as The Chinese Connection.

6. True Grit – In one of the few times that a remake is better than the original, this 2010 version is actually closer to the novel than the 60s film. This revenge film however, isn’t about an adult, but a child (pre-teen) taking revenge for the murder of her father. Being the mastermind means Mattie doesn’t necessarily need to get her hands dirty, but right from the start, revenge is the main plot.

7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series – Never let it be known that a kid’s movie or cartoon series can’t have an aspect of revenge. For TMNT fans, we’re well aware that the overall story is all about revenge. The entire mythos is based on a Japanese fued between Nagi/Oroku Saki and Hamato Yoshi; in the original comic, Nagi Saki kills Tang Shen, Yoshi kills Saki, and Oroku Saki kills Yoshi. This of course leads down to Master Splinter wanting revenge for the slaying of his master, which puts the turtles against Saki and the Foot.

8. Sleepy Hollow – This 1999 Tim Burton film probably isn’t one of the best of his films, but it is an interesting take on the Headless Horseman legend that was first published by Irving Washington as a short story called THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. However, in true Burton style, this thriller/mystery all gets down to one thing – revenge. Lady Van Tassel’s revenge on the town and its members of Sleepy Hollow is a twist and turn who dunit.

9. The Mexico Trilogy – The fabulous trilogy by Robert Rodriguez that takes revenge in the classic spaghetti western type style. The trilogy includes El Mariachi, Desperado, and Once Upon a Time in Mexico that follows El Mariachi as he gets revenge for those that wronged him.

10. Nightmare on Elm Street series – Traditionally, revenge movies have been about action, but horror movies can easily get into the act of revenge. While there are a ton of revenge films where an evil entity goes after people in the night, no one does it better than Freddy. The entire Nightmare on Elm Street series is about a child killer who haunts the dreams of the children of the parents who killed him; in their dreams. Never sleep again indeed.

Any John Hughes Film

The Breakfast Club

Any top ten high school movies list isn’t complete without mentioning John Hughes. His films, such as Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, are classic 1980s high school movies. His films often had The Brat Pack cast as main leads. Each movie represented what it was like in high school–prom, popularity and even your monthly cycle. John Hughes leaves behind his legacy with these great films.

In this 1980s high school movie, everyone can’t wait for school to be over except for those with summer jobs and no dates. Suddenly growing up is looking less appealing. This high school drama shows the ups and downs for what it’s really like to be a student as well as coming-of-age moments to transcend into adulthood.

Ever wanted to be someone you’re not? Well, when you’re a popular guy apparently it is easy to turn a totally geek into a total hottie. Zack makes the bet of all bets in this high school comedy-drama flick. Too bad for Laney she’s not in on the joke. The joke ends up being on Zack when his surprising feelings get in the way of what is supposed to be a scandalous project.

When it comes to high school movies, no one was more fashionable in the 1990s than Cher Horowitz. Wherever Cher goes, her friends follow. They can never stay out of trouble or keep Amber away from them. Instead of inner cities and suburbia, we get beaches and sunny days in an upscale, California high school. The content maybe corny, but there is some hidden depth with the characters themselves. Little known fact, this back to school classic is actually based on the 1815 novel EMMA by Jane Austen.

Sometimes, in high school, you have to learn to just get along. In a hilarious, but point-proven way, the movie depicts the neverending social cliques. Who can’t forget the jocks, the preps, the Goths, band geeks, etc…? Cady tries an experiment to take over Regina’s status as Plastics queen. While trying to claw her way to the top she finds herself getting by with no help from her true friends. Known for starring Lindsay Lohan in a role where she pretends to be a vapid party girl, back when that was all an act. It’s also considered one of the Top 10 chick flicks of all time.

Grease

Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta

The all-time classic high school movies musical from the 1970s will have you singing and jiving on your way back to school–from the cast’s catchy songs to the one-minute dramas everyone is facing. Let’s not also forget guys about how cool the T-Birds were and for girls who wished they could have been a Pink Lady. Aren’t double meanings fun! One thing’s for sure, even now, Grease is the word!

This purple haze of a feel good high school movie takes place in the 1970s. School’s out and some of the students can’t wait to light up. This is one of the best coming-of-age movies that deals with illegal substance and good times. It’s almost weird to think that at one point in time people were mellow.

Another classic high school movie hit! This time, it’s centered in the School of Performing Arts in New York City in the 1980s. Can you make it or break it? Students from all different majors go through the trials and tribulations as well as awkward situations in order to come out on top.

Carrie

Sissy Spacek as CARRIE

They always say, “Treat others as you want to be treated.” Unfortunately for Carrie, the favor wasn’t returned. Sometimes being a teenager in high school is tough, but being a telekinetic teenager… well, there’s no after school program for that. Her classmates felt they were above her she got the last laugh when prom came crashing down on them. It’s one of those back to school movies that will have you dying not to go. Based on the famous Stephen King novel of the same name.

When the bell rings at the end of a hot summer day, all you can think about is, “SCHOOL’S OUT!” unless you’re the unlucky few that didn’t pass a class or refused to go. Oh, and you’re the unlucky teacher that gets roped into teaching the course. This comedy will have you wishing you flunked algebra and finding out it’s possible to spend a whole summer in a bathroom and still earn the top score in class.

Written entirely in Spanish, El Mariachi was Rodriguez’s first attempt at making it as a filmmaker. Shot on a low budget that was partially funded by taking part in medical research studies, the film won Rodriguez the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award and redistribution by Columbia Pictures who cleaned it up, translated it into English, and then made it a cult favorite. Although it was a bit rough at the time, today it is considered to be one of the leaders of bringing attention back to independent films during the nineties.

Desperado

Salma Hayek & Antonio Banderas in DESPERADO

His follow up to the success of the sleep-indie film was Desperado which featured a much larger cast with Antonio Banderas as his star and then unknown Salma Hayek as his co-star. Not only did this film help to jumpstart Salma’s career as an A-list actress, but it also helped to boost Rodriguez’s profile enough that soon he became known as a quality film creator worth taking note of. It was followed up quickly with a sequel Once Upon a Time in Mexico, co-starring Johnny Depp.

From Dusk til Dawn

George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN

From Dusk til Dawn is notable for the fact that Robert Rodriguez collaborated with Quentin Tarantino in making this masterpiece. It starred both George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino, and it’s known for perhaps one of the sexiest dance scenes ever thanks to the lovely Salma Hayek appearing again in a film by Rodriguez. This vampire thriller which led to two more sequels helping to boost both Rodriguez’s bank account and career even more. It was a weird mix of robbery film and vampire film, and the mash-up proved a success. Widely known as Rodriguez’s first foray into the horror genre, From Dusk till Dawn proved that he could expand his offerings to the box office in a very meaningful manner.

Written by Kevin Williamson known for Scream and its sequels, The Faculty is a horror film produced and directed by Rodriguez that features the story of a high school that is attacked by alien parasites. Featuring plenty of then unknown but now popular actors including Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, and Salma Hayek, the film is quite a masterpiece in itself. Each character was given their own plot and just enough emotional attachment to make the horror scenes ring true with violence and shock.

Ironically, while Robert Rodriguez is known most for his contributions to noir films by those in Hollywood circles, when it comes to blockbuster hits it took heading in a difference direction to really make the public stand up and take note. The first Spy Kids came out in 2001 and became a huge hit that was quickly followed up by three sequels. Known for its clever humor for children and its semi-fast plot that kept adults entertained as well, Spy Kids continues to be one of his top grossing box office films.

Co-directed by Rodriguez, the adaptation of the popular comic books by Frank Miller quickly became a cult classic due to the fact that the comic art was used interchangeably with the art of the film. Creating images that were a mix between reality and animation, the film was quickly turned into a release that could stand alone on its own two feet. Acclaimed by most as the best comic book adaption yet to hit the studio, the action filled, violence packed film has become a favorite among both mainstream audiences and those who love comics.

Robert Rodriguez wrote and directed Planet Terror as part of his collaboration with Quentin Tarantino for their double feature Grindhouse. Both movies were a throwback to the B-movie exploitative movies that filled up ratty theaters and drive-ins in the early seventies. Planet Terror was an homage to the zombie film genre and was about a group of people trying to survive it, including a go-go dancer named Cherry Darlin’ who loses her leg in a zombie attack and then fights them off with a machine gun attached to her leg stump. The Grindhouse double feature didn’t do well upon initial release, so the studios broke them into separate films overseas and released them that way.

Released in 2010, Machete is unique because the idea for the film actually stemmed from a fake trailer that was created for use with the Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez Grindhouse series. Expanded to a full length film, the story stars Danny Trejo as its main character who worked on a great deal of Rodriguez’s former films. The film actually traces all the way back to Desperado when Danny and Rodriguez started tossing around ideas to do a feature based on a character that was envisioned to be the Mexican version of Jean Claude Damme.

The Muppets were created by master puppeteer Jim Henson, who is famous for working on tv shows and movies such as The Muppets Show and movies, Sesame Street, Saturday Night Live, Sam and Friends, The Dark Crystal, Labyrnth, Fraggle Rock, and Dinsosaurs. He is the founder of The Jim Henson Company.

Jim Henson is probably the most well known puppeteers in history. He was born September 24, 1936 and passed away suddenly May 16, 1990. At his funeral, no one in attendance wore black, a Dixieland band played “As The Saints Go Marching In”, actor/singer Harry Belafonte sang “Turn the World Around” while the congregation waved foam butterflies on puppeteer rods and Big Bird sang the song made famous by Kermit the Frog “Bein’ Green”. The funeral ended with Muppet performers, each with their Muppet creations, singing “in character” the song “Just in Person”. In death, like in life, he put on a show that exemplified the joy and passion he had given others his whole life.

Jim Henson died on the same day that Ratpack member Sammy Davis, Jr. died.

Jim Henson’s most famous creation is probably Kermit the Frog, star of both Sesame Street and The Muppet Show.

Kermit the Frog made his tv debut on show called Sam and Friends back in 1955 on WRC-TV in 5 minute sketches that aired twice a day.

Sam and Friends

At first, Kermit was made out of one of Jim Henson’s mother’s old coats with ping pong balls as his eyes.

Guess what, Kermit wasn’t even a frog at first, he was considered just a “thing”. If anything, he was considered some type of lizard. It wasn’t until New Year’s Eve 1965 that Johnny Carson referred to him as “Kermit the Frog” during a broadcast. Even then, he wasn’t officially considered a “frog” until 1971’s tv special The Frog Prince.

Kermit the Frog was almost dropped from Sesame Street in 1970 because he was considered “too commercial”. Thankfully, common sense prevailed.

Kermit the Frog, along with the rest of The Muppets, was sold to the Walt Disney Company in 2004. Through special permission, The Children’s Television Workshop still uses old clips of Kermit the Frog in their broadcasts of Sesame Street.

Even though Kermit married Miss Piggy in The Muppets Take Manhattan, Kermit later denied it ever really happened in interviews, saying that was just a movie and in real life they have a “professional” relationship. Miss Piggy claims otherwise.

Miss Piggy marries Kermit the Frog... real or just a movie.. you decide!

The first Muppet to reach national attention was not Kermit, but Rowllf the Dog on The Jimmy Dean Show from 1963-1965.

jimmy Dean & Rowlff

The first season of Saturday Night Live often featured Muppets. They didn’t come back for a second season because apparently the writers weren’t comfortable writing for them. One famous SNL and National Lampoon writer Michael O’Donaghue quipped ” I won’t write for felt” in response to being asked to write for them.

Scred and Gilda Radner on Saturday Night Live

Little known fact, all Muppets are LEFT handed. Puppeteers use their RIGHT hand to operate the head and mouth and their LEFT hand for “arm rod”.

The term “Muppet” was at one time said to be the combination of the words “marionette” and “puppet”. Jim Henson later admitted in an interview that he just said that before because it sounded cool, the real story behind the term “Muppet” -- it sounded cool.

When kids interact with Muppets, they tend to treat them as if they were real despite the fact that they see the puppeteers working them.

The reason we can all identify with Muppets? The reason may be simple. According to cartoonist Scott McCloud, we identify with simple cartoons because they’re universal and easier to see ourselves in. When an image is more realistic and complex, they’re more likely to be perceived as a different character. The same logic easily applies to Muppets, we love them because we see ourselves in them.

The famed Muppets song “The Rainbow Connection” was written for the Muppets Movie by singer Paul Williams and Kenny Ascher. It was nominated for an Academy Award in 1979, but didn’t win. It apparently was inspired by the song “When You Wish Upon a Star” from the animated Walt Disney classic Pinocchio. It was sung at both the beginning of the movie.. and at the end.. like “pots of gold” at the end of the rainbow connecting the movie together.

Amongst the huge number of Muppets out there are Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Scooter, the Swedish Chef, Fozzie Bear, Rizzo the rat, Rowlff the Dog, Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayehm and many more. That’s not even counting Sesame Street characters who are Muppets such as Ernie & Bert, Oscar the Grouch, Elmo, Zoe, Grover, Snuffie, Cookie Monster and the Count. Guess what? The cast of Fraggle Rock -- they’re all Muppets as well. Other Jim Henson Company creations such as those in Labyrnth, Farscape, The Dark Crystal and Dinosaurs are sadly NOT considered Muppets, though they are all cool nonetheless.

Muppets: The Green Album has just been released and features current hot groups such as Ok Go, weezer, Hayley Williams, The Fray, Alkaline Trio, My Morning Jacket, Amy Lee, Sonde Lerche, The Airborn Toxic Event, Brandon Saller, Andrew Bird, Matt Nathanson and Rachel Yamagata performing classic Muppets songs such as Rainbow Connection and Bein’ Green.

How I Met Your Mother star Jason Segel is not only co-starring in The Muppets Movie with the Muppets, , he also co-produced and co-wrote the film.

Both Kermit the Frog and his co-star Jason Segel have another thing in common, they’ve both done movies with absolutely no pants on. Jason Segel famously appeared with no pants on in FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, Kermit appeared with no pants in EVERYTHING he’s ever done!

On a personal note, I’ve always had a fondness for Sam the Eagle, because his bushy eyebrows and bald head always remind me of my grandfather. It makes me laugh every time I think about this. Grandpa, who delighted in telling us kids that a battle wound from WWII he had on his belly was the result of him being bitten by a big pig, probably would have laughed at this as well.

The new Conan the Barbarian movie opens August 19, 2011 and stars Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa. While most people think of Arnold Schwarzenegger who starred in 1982’s Conan the Barbarian movie, as well as follow-ups in Conan the Destroyer and a cameo in Red Sonja starring Brigitte Neilson, the character has been around much longer than that, in fact he’s been around since 1932.

In the overrun, over published and overindulged genre of fantasy fiction lies the jewels of Robert E. Howard.  His creations of the worlds of Red Sonja, female sword-wielding warrior, and Conan the Barbarian appeal to the innermost and basest human instincts of survival in the midst of brutality, love, sex, magic, struggles against death, and the never ending question of faith and the existence of God or gods.

1932  Poem Cimmeria was inspired and published while Howard traveled around Texas. Conan the Barbarian as a character and his homeland was first conceived.

1930’s  The original novelettes and short stories of Robert E. Howard spawned the multitude of multimedia surrounding his baker’s dozen of Conan stories.  Although during his lifetime Howard’s primary success did not come from his Conan stories which were often published in pulp fiction magazines like Weird Tales, they quickly became popular after his death and led to imitators by the score.

1950’s   Some of the earliest Conan the Barbarian comics were published first in Mexico and became such collectors’ items that other countries and comic book publishers took up the task.

Marvel comics in the 1970’s even got on the wagon and published their own set of Conan comics.

1984-85 A dozen incarnations of Conan the Barbarian RPG additions for Dungeons and Dragons game players hit the  market.

1984-2008  The release of EIGHT Conan video games for various platforms would probably have Howard scratching his skull and saying, “HUH?!?

2009 The first strategic Conan the Barbarian board game Age of Conan is released.

Conan the Barbarian movies, in live action, were made in the early 80’s.  In both films, Arnold Schwarzenegger, then little known as someone other than “Mr. Universe” and an extreme bodybuilder champion, played the title role of Conan with few speaking lines and a whole lot of action.  Within a year after that, the movie, Red Sonja,( a Howard female version of Conan) starring Brigitte Nielsen was made.  Arnold Schwarzenegger took the part of the sword-wielding love interest of Red Sonja, thus forever tying it in in the minds of moviegoers to his recent roles in the Conan the Barbarian movies.  Red Sonja also appears in some of the Conan the Barbarian comics, which led to spin offs of her own comics.  It is rumored that if Arnold Schwarzenegger had not run for the position of California Governor(and won) he would have done a third Conan movie as they were quite popular.

1992-1994  Conan becomes a TV show.  It only survives two seasons, as you can only have a barbarian do so much heroic stuff before it gets boring and predictable and starts to smell something like “Xena”.

A new Conan movie greets us in 2011.  It is every bit as brutal and action packed as the originals.  Unfortunately there is no Arnold Schwarzenegger in it.  Continuity of story breaks with the original 80’s movies and gives us Jason Momoa, a virtual unknown playing Conan the Barbarian.  While definitely not as hulky, bulky and believable he’s a little prettier to look at than Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Check out the following images and compare for yourself.

Arnold Schwarzenegger VS. Jason Momoa

The story is essentially the same.  Village of young Conan destroyed and genocide of his people makes him vengeful and he spends his life as a nomad and mercenary and thief for hire slaying, conquering and always seeking vengeance on those that killed his family.  It stays true to the Howard stories of the character, but just revamps the franchise and adds nothing nor picks up where the 80’s movies left off.  The only other thing the two sets of  movies have in common is that they both star a near unknown as Conan.



A mighty movie that smashed box office records and hurtled Will Smiths career into the stratosphere. The 1996 blockbuster tells the tale of a hostile invasion of Earth, and the intrepid band that come together to save the Earth. A stellar cast which, apart from Smith, consisted of such actors as Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman and Randy Quaid turn this action packed spectacular into a tense, funny and extremely poignant movie.

Written back in 1898 by HG Wells, this novel has had more effect on the entertainment industry that any other. When Orson Welles read his adaptation of the War of the Worlds over the radio to America in 1938, millions thought it was real and that Aliens had invaded the Earth. There have been several movies made of the novel, the most recent being the Tom Cruise version in 2005. Earth in invaded by these vast fighting machines that look like tripods in the aftermath of a violent electrical storm. Earthlings fight for survival as others try to work out how to destroy them. They start to drop like flies as the germs and bacteria on Earth that they have no immunity to infect them. This contemporary telling of a classic tale was a big hit in the theaters.

Will Smith returns to show his affinity with Aliens, this time as one of the infamous Men in Black, which monitors the Aliens living on Earth. The planet has been declared a neutral zone for Alien refugees and they live alongside the humans mostly harmoniously. The inspired casting of Smith alongside Tommy Lee Jones turned the original and its sequel into global successes. They are constantly on the watch for new and dangerous species trying to land illegally and these films are both action packed and at times very funny.

Although recently remade in 2008 with Keanu Reeves, the original from 1951 is generally considered to be one of the best sci-fi movies ever made. Michael Rennie is the alien Klaatu, who with his giant robot Gort lands on Earth just after the end of WWII to bring a vital message to mankind. He lives in a boarding house incognito until the time is right for him to deliver this message. He literally stops time and delivers the message to all the world leaders that unless the fighting stops and humans live in harmony, Earth will be destroyed, as it will be classed as a danger to other planets. The story of this classic is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago.

In this 1996 movie directed by Tim Burton, Martians that have both amazing weapons and a sadistic sense of humor invade Earth. A stellar cast help to make this movie a hugely enjoyable romp, and takes a completely different slant on an Alien invasion. These little monsters haven’t come to learn anything they just want to blow Earth and everyone on it to pieces because its fun! Some of the funniest scenes are when they are bowling using the famous statues on Easter Island as pins and taking pictures of themselves in front of the famous buildings they are in the process of blowing up. With Jack Nicholson as the President and Tom Jones on stage at Vegas, this is a movie that will always cheer you up.

The Blob is an independently made sci-fi/horror movie from 1958. It has Steve McQueen in his first starring role, as the young man who is parked in a car with his girlfriend when they see what they think is a falling star. It is in fact a meteorite which, when it crash-lands, releases the Blob. The sticky, living, Amoeba like creature consumes humans and grows with each snack.

This low budget thriller starring Donald Sutherland and Brooke tells the story of Aliens that capture sleeping humans will they sleep in Chrysalis type cocoons. The humans die and the chrysalis’ take over their form, enabling them to trap more humans. A true cult classic and much repeated on TV, this is the 1978 remake of the 1956 original that starred Kevin McCarthy.

But there is one actor who is known for one very special role, a role that to this day still has a phrase that is as bad ass today, as it was when he uttered the lines back in 1971, “Do I Feel Lucky? Well, Do Ya, Punk?” This was actor Clint Eastwood in the role that would call for four sequels, when he portrayed San Francisco police detective Harry Callahan in the movie Dirty Harry.

The facts about Clint Eastwood

Born Clinton “Clint” Eastwood, Jr. on May 31, 1930

Eastwood is the son of Clinton Eastwood and Margaret Ruth.

The elder Eastwood was a construction steel worker and also a migrant worker. His mother was employed as a factory worker.

At birth, Eastwood was nicked “Samson” by a few of the nurses at the hospital of birth because he weighed a hefty 11lbs 6 ounces.

Even at birth he was large.

Due to the nature of his father’s work, the Eastwood family traveled to wherever the work would take them, but eventually they would settle in Piedmont, California. A young Eastwood would attend Piedmont high, where like many others before him he played in sports such as swimming, basketball and football and did very well at them too.

Clint as DIRTY HARRY

Eastwood and the plane’s pilot escaped the sinking plane and swam an astounding 3 miles to safety.

1954 would be the year Eastwood debuted in the film Revenge of the creature. He played a minor role in this film.

Eastwood’s acting career began in earnest in 1958 when he was cast in the role of “Ram-Rod Rowdy Yates” in the CBS television western Rawhide. He would get paid $100 dollars per week at that time.

It’s said that Eastwood was criticized for his manner of acting because he “had a squint,” and the way that he would “sneer” his lines. These were traits that would serve Eastwood well later in his career.

In 1960, Eastwood took the role of a cowboy when offered to him in the movie A Fistful of Dollars and this was Eastwood’s first “Spaghetti Western” and was filmed in Spain by a then relatively unknown director named Sergio Leone. This was also the film where Eastwood first portrayed the anti-hero, “The Man with No Name.”

As I mentioned earlier about Clint Eastwood movies that we immediately associate with the Eastwood, the Dirty Harry series are probably the most well received…but there have been other memorable roles that come to mind.

Eastwood’s role as a tough as nails gunnery sergeant in the film “Heartbreak Ridge” opposite Marsha Mason and Mario Van Peebles had some funny moments in it including a scene where Eastwood’s character Thomas Highway tore the earring out of the ear of corporal “Stitch” Jones’s ear and a scene where gunny highway floors this oversized private named the “Swede” during an inspection of the barracks.

For a while later during his career, Eastwood floundered a bit, but he would mount a career comeback in two very unlikely films opposite actress Sondra Locke in the films Every Which way But Loose and the sequel Any Which Way You Can.

He had another unlikely comeback, when he did the western Unforgiven, a movie he produced, directed and starred in. the film won 4 Academy Awards, but he lost the Best Actor role to the very hammy Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman.

Eastwood also had great success with the film Million Dollar baby, which he both starred in and directed. He won an Academy for directing that movie. Weirdly, Hilary Swank was not the first choice for that role, Sandra Bullock was.

If Eastwood were to die today, then the film that he may be most remember for is the last film that he said he would star and directed called Gran Torino, where Clint played a grizzled old man named Walt Kowalski. A Korean war veteran, who is a man full of prejudices that he will not let go of, even as the neighborhood that he has lived in for many years has seen changes come to it.

The virtual rock band Gorillaz had a hit single with the song “Clint Eastwood”. Weirdly, there is no mention of him in the song at all except for the title.

It was recently revealed that Eastwood was offered the role of secret agent James Bond after Sean Connery left the role, how different would that have been?

Clint Eastwood is just one of those Actor’s actors. A man who has garnered many accolades and the well deserved respect of his peers for a lifetime of devotion to film and the honing of his craft and for entertaining millions of fans across the world.

Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity, the 2007 supernatural horror movie was written and directed by Oren Peli and was made for the paltry sum of $15,000. With no big stars on board, this movie was originally an independent feature that representatives from Paramount were impressed by at a screening and promptly acquired. After appearing at a couple of movie festivals, the movie finally had a limited release in September 2009 and went nationwide in October of the same year.

The success was unprecedented and it has gone on to take revenue of $193m a phenomenal profit margin of 645,800 %. This is the kind of success that every film maker dreams of, and makes this little movie the most profitable of all time.

A scene from the movie TARNATION

Written and directed by and starring Jonathan Caouette, this biographical documentary tells the story of the first 19 years Caouette’s life with his schizophrenic mother. This movie is a mix of photos, video footage and diaries, super 8 etc. all lovingly put together by Caouette. He laid out the princely sum of $218 dollars and though it reaped a relatively modest in revenue of $1.1m, compared to how much it was made for it made Caouette a profit of 24,838 %.

Mel Gibson in MAD MAX

This low budget Australian movie about the post-apocalyptic lawman of the same name achieved two things; it is the most profitable Australian movie of all time and made Mel Gibson a household name. It is also credited with bringing Australian new Wave movies to the attention of the rest of the world. This movie with its barren backdrop was made for the sum of $200,000, the revenue of $99.7m gave them a phenomenal profit margin of 22,615 %, and set the standard then the following two movies in the series failed to live up to.

Morgan Spurlock in SUPER SIZE ME

This 2004 documentary was the brainchild of the independent film maker Morgan Spurlock. He wrote, directed, produced and starred in this documentation of a 30 day period during which all he ate was food from McDonald’s restaurants. He ate there 3 times a day and over the 30 day period tried every single item on the menu. The change in his physical and psychological well being is plain to see as his weight increases due to his diet.

Spurlock made this movie for just $65,000, and the revenue when it hit the theaters was an astounding $11,529,530, a profit margin of 22,615 %. It took him 14 months to lose the 25lbs he gained during the experiment, and with all that money he now has in the bank he needn’t ever worry about abusing his body in the name of art ever again.

I am sooo scared... of shakey cameras.

This horror movie, shot on a hand held videocam, for a long time held the top spot in the list of most profitable movies. Produced from footage shot by amateurs that were then piece together, the movie tells the story of 3 young film students who take a hike into the black hills of Maryland on the trail of local legend known as the Blair Witch, and then disappear.

With a budget of $600,000, The Blair Witch Project was a worldwide smash hit and brought in $248m in revenue. This represented a profit of a staggering 20,592 % and has the small company that made it laughing all the way to the bank.

Night of the Living Dead

Budget; $114,000, revenue;$30m,profit; 13,057 %, result; global success for a little movie first released in 1968. The zombie movie, shot it black and white, became a cult hit across the globe and is still on the lists of top movies compiled by industry aficionados. Its cult status has become widespread over the years and it is estimated that the DVD is in the collection of over 80% of Americans.

ROCKY

We know the tune, we know the story and the unexpected success of the movie replicates that of our unlikely hero. The mediocre backstreet boxer who is given a shot at the world heavyweight boxing title tugged at the heartstrings of a global audience, and made a star of Sylvester Stallone. Made for $1m and with a revenue of $225m, the profit margin of 11,150 % makes it one of the most profitable movies in history, and the only ‘real’ Hollywood movie on this list.

With the upcoming Rise of the Planet of the Apes movie starring actor and Oscar host James Franco, a lot of people want to know what happened in the original Planet of the Apes movies. We’re going to focus on the original 5 movies, not the hated remake Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes did starring Marky Mark, star of M Night Shyamalan’s critical failure The Happening.

Scene from Planet of the Apes

A team of 4 astronauts Taylor (played by Charlton Heston), Landon, Dodge and Stewart (a lady astronaut, which was incredibly progressive in 1968 when the movie came out) have been traveling at near-light-speed through space since 1972. Over 2000 years pass in real time, while for the astronauts only 18 months pass because they’re in hibernation mode. All of a sudden, there’s engine problems and the ship crashes into a planet. Unfortunately for the women’s lib movement, the one female astronaut on the ship has been long dead due to an air leak in her stasis chamber. The remaining 3 astronauts emerge on this strange new planet, to find that apes rule the planet and that humans are nothing more than mute savages that the apes enslave, hunt down and kill.

While fleeing, Landon is killed and both Dodge and Taylor are hurt and taken prisoner by these apes and separated. Taylor is rendered mute due to his throat being injured. He’s imprisoned in a cage with a half-naked, buxom and mute slave girl named Nova (could be a lot worse right? I’ve had dates not that good!).

Statue of Liberty scene from PLANET OF THE APES

Taylor escapes, ends up in a museum where he comes across his old colleague Dodge stuffed and mounted. He’s recaptured by apes and utters “Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!” and then everybody knows the terror of an intelligent talking human amongst them.

They have a trial to discover Taylor’s origins since humans on their planet are mute and primitive, and Taylor’s mere existence is considered heresy. Things don’t go too well of course, they eventually threaten to lobotomize him if he keeps on talking about being from a planet where men dominate over apes (which is what happened to his old body Dodge). Zira and Cornelius eventually help him escape, and he ends up in the Forbidden Zone, which is an area that the apes are forbidden from entering. Cornelius tells Taylor that in his archeological diggings that he found evidence of a society where humans were intelligent and apes not so much. The proof of this is in the Forbidden Zone, which is why the apes of the city are forbidden from entering there,

Taylor and Nova ride away into the Forbidden zone, away from the apes that are pursuing them. All of a sudden, Taylor finds the truth when he finds the charred remains of the Statue of Liberty half-submerged in the shoreline. He comes to the realization that this “Planet of the Apes” that Taylor is stranded on, is nothing more than the remains of a post-Apocalyptic Earth that he left behind.

He goes down to his knees screaming “We really did it. You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you. God damn you all to Hell!”

Mutants

It starts where the original ended, Nova and Taylor riding their horses across the Forbidden Zone. They somehow get separated. Taylor ends up riding away and suddenly disappearing into the Zone.

Meanwhile, a second spaceship ends up crashed on earth. Turns out, after Taylor’s crew went missing, they decided to send a 2nd crew to find them. Their first encounter is with Nova, and again – I can think of worst first encounters than one with a half-naked, buxom and mute slave girl named Nova. And she has Taylor’s dog tags around their neck, so they know their search was not in vain. They make their way to Ape City where they finally realize that they’re on a planet of apes.

Eventually they end up hiding in the ruins of what they realize is the ruins of the subways of New York City, and they figure out that they’re actually in Earth’s future. They come across a society of mutated human beings, telepathic and scarred by the nuclear fallout that they’ve been exposed to. These mutants are actually worshiping an antique nuclear bomb.

The ape army finds out about what’s going on with intelligent humans being around and storm the mutants facility. Rather than get captured by these apes, the remaining humans decide to detonate their “divine” bomb.

Apes kill Nova, as is the other astronaut and Taylor is critically injured. Taylor begs with an ape for help, is refused, so he brings his hand down hard on the detonator button for the nuclear bomb.

All life is destroyed on planet Earth.

Taylor ends up dying along with everybody else. Ironically, he ends up being huge in the NRA.

Haircuts were crazy back in the 1970's!

Before Earth blows up, three chimpanzees escape! Cornelius and Zira, who we already know from the first 2 films – escape with another chimp named Milo (actually – Dr. Milo to you!). Somehow, three chimps from a pre-industrial civilization figured out how to repair Taylor’s broken spaceship and fly away from earth just before it explodes. For that matter, how did they know in Beyond the Planet of the Apes that Taylor’s crew was lost when they were on a multi-year voyage and only a year or so had passed.

Anyways, they blast off, earth explodes, the shock waves create a wormhole in time that the ship passes through and they end up splashing down on the Pacific Coast in 1973. From there, they’re transported and held in a secluded area of the LA Zoo, where not only is the fact that they speak discovered by everybody else, but Milo ends up being killed by a gorilla who’s just as violent and aggressive as his future counterparts are.

Milo, we hardly knew ye.

Eventually it comes out that these speaking apes are amongst us, and they become celebrities to an adoring public who love them. Zira comes out as being pregnant, and that coupled with the news that in there future apes dominate over men and humans are treated as slaves who are hunted, killed and experimented on (and not necessarily in that order!). Scared of this ape-dominated future, they’re ordered to be executed, and Zira’s baby terminated, rather than that possibly happening.

Cornelius and Zira somehow escape and hide in a circus led by Senor Armando (played by Fantasy Island’s Ricardo Montalban). Zira gives birth to a son they name Milo after their fallen friend. Eventually, Cornelius, Zira and the young baby are hunted down and killed and everybody feels safe again.

Phewwwwww.. now we can enjoy the rest of the 70’s!

Wait!!! It seems that an ape in the zoo named Heloise had a baby around the same time that Zira did.. and they switched that one around with Zira’s baby.

The movie ends with the baby chimp crying “Mama? Mama?”

Apes are much better pets than cats or dogs! Who knew?

A couple of years have passed, it’s 1983 and out of nowhere a disease ends up killing the world’s population of cats and dogs. A grieving populace decides that apes make a great substitute and end up domesticating them. This “domestication” includes training their “pets” to do household tasks, to the point of where they become slave labor for the human population.

Meanwhile Senor Armando and a grown-up Milo (now called “Caesar”) travel around as part of the circus. “Caesar” is eternally careful to not speak, less he be recognized as the son of the intelligent apes who were killed not long ago in fear of what might happen.

Eventually, “Caesar” gets caught speaking and Armando does everything in his power to cover the situation up. Of course, people eventually realize what’s up and Armando gets killed as a result. Upset by the loss of the only human that he cared for, “Caesar” loses faith in humanity and begins plotting a rebellion against the humans by the slave ape population. He trains them in combat and gathers weapons, and starts a revolution that will eventually lead to apes overtaking men.

The final battle for the Planet of the Apes

A decade has passed and we’re in the middle of a post-nuclear society. An older and wiser Caesar tries to cultivate a peace between the surviving humans/mutants and the apes.

The saga ends 600 years later as the great ape Lawgiver gives a speech to a group of young humans and apes co-existing in peace about the peace that Caesar fought for.

You cannot kick off a film noir list without including a few of the classics that helped inspire and launched the genre into its current status today. Among those featured is In A Lonely Place which stars Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart. The basic plot involves the possibly violent Humphrey sought after for murder until the seductive neighbor Grahame clears him; the only trouble is that after she vouches for him she begins to have second thoughts as the rest of the story takes shape.

Possibly the best modern film noir to ever be produced, this pop culture classic is full of its own pop culture classics and packed full of its own references to society. Director Quentin Tarantino is definitely the KING OF COOL! Dark, twisted, and full of dry humor Pulp Fiction has won itself a cult following that seems to grow stronger every year. With great performances by Uma Thurman and surprisingly John Travolta you cannot truly be considered a movie fan without viewing this film.

Bogie & the cast of THE MALTESE FALCON

Adding to the list of classic dark noir films is without a doubt The Maltese Falcon given the fact that it stars Humphrey Bogart, Gladys George, and Mary Astor in this story of a private detective that ends up on a case that places him at the hands of a seductive temptress known to lie, three criminals with a crazy streak, and the entire groups hapless quest to take home a statuette that is basically priceless. The journey is fun, but the dark humor is the real masterpiece.

A young Russell Crowe & Guy Pearce in L.A. Confidential

Although Russell Crowe was not a known name at the time of LA Confidential’s release, it is hard to deny that this film does not deserve a place on the list of best film noir releases. Not only did the film win plenty of Academy Award acclaim, but it also introduced Guy Pearce as a director to mainstream audiences and also shocked and thrilled many due to the brilliant performances by the stunning Kim Bassinger and much younger Kevin Spacey back in his heyday.

The most notable scene in Mulholland Drive is no doubt when Laura Elena Harring and Naomi Watts end up naked together in bed, but the rest of the film is also worth viewing. The rest of the film is the tail of suburban life and the hidden secrets behind each house. Shocking to say the very least, the drive offers plenty of shocks and thrills, along with of course the blazingly naked scenes that should stimulate every sense that the plot cannot.

Uma Thurman as THE BRIDE

It is hard to make a list of noir films without including Tarantino’s modern contribution to black noir culture in the form of the Kill Bill volumes. Originally created as one film, the five hour feature was split into two different features both of which quickly became block buster hits. Both volumes made such a large splash onto the scene that they were lauded as epic pieces of film history before they even made it onto DVD making Kill Bill possibly one of the most well known dark noir features of all time.

Sin City

Sin City is a glorified film about violence, death, and a little bit of romance in the fictitious comic book world created by Frank Miller. What makes Sin City stand out is the fact that the film is a mix of comic reality and reality itself as the characters turn into animated character pages and then back into the actors and actresses. Spicy and intermittently confusing but thrilling, it is a film to dedicate a few hours to.

Two Broke Girls – This is a show about two broke waitresses working in a diner in New York, starring Kat Dennings, Beth Behrs and Saturday Night Live alum Garret Morris. The video preview was funny, and I think this is going to be a show to watch.

Unforgettable – The premise for CBS’s new series Unforgettable, starring Poppy Montgomery, a former cast member of the CBS show Without A Trace. Montgomery plays Carrie Wells, a woman with a medical condition that alows her to remember everything. The show is set in Queens, New York, and you have to wonder if this is CBS’s replacement for Medium.



NBC

Whitney – This show stars Chelsea Handler from Chelsea Lately and Chris D’Elia in the starring roles. The trailer for the series is actually pretty funny, but it’s in a tough time slot for a Thursday evening..

Grimm – NBC may just have a runaway hit on their hands with Grimm. All the fairy tale stories that you were told as a child were based on some fact, and in this series reality comes face to face with fantasy. This series is produced by the folks responsible for Buffy and Angel, and the trailer was gripping to say the least. This is must-watch show.



ABC

Suburgotory – This is comedy about a teenage girl (Jane Levy) uprooted from her home after her dad, played by Jeremy Sisto of Law and Order fame, finds a box of condoms in her bedroom, and he moves them to a suburban town. The trailer look pretty good and the show should do well in ABC’s Wednesday night comedy lineup.

Revenge – This new show takes place in the Hamptons out on Long Island. The show follows Emily Thorne played by actress Emily Van Camp best known for her starring roles on the WB’s Everwood and on ABC’s Brothers and Sisters. Thorne (Van Camp) is looking for revenge against those who ruined her family and their reputation, and she’s taking down those responsible one by one.



FOX

Terra Nova – This new sci-fi series coming to fox from creators Craig Silverstein and Kelly Marcel. The series begins in 2149 and the Earth is dying due to the quality of the air. A family is transported back in time to the prehistoric age, and joins the colony of Terra Nova a place where the human race may have a chance to start over. Don’t see this series getting past one season.

The CW

Ringer –The CW’s new show Ringer ushers in the return to television of Sarah Michelle Gellar in a very challenging role, and that’s going to be a plus for anyone who watches this series. Gellar plays twin sisters, one very well off and the other not so. After one sister supposedly commits suicide, the other assumes her life. The show has lots of twists, and what seems to be a very thrilling and engaging plotline. This may be a hit for the CW.



FX

American Horror Story – FX is bringing horror to the small screen this fall with American Horror Story. The show feature an all-star cast including Dylan McDermott and Connie Britton and it’s all about a husband and wife who move their family to San Francisco after the wife suffers a miscarriage to try to hold the family together. Unfortunately that may be pretty hard to do, because the family has moved into a house that may be haunted.

Well this is just some of the TV shows 2011 season that are going to be premiering this fall on your television, so get ready to start setting that DVR recorder because there’s going to be a lot to watch this fall.

The setting of all GTA titles is always on a city filled with crimes meant to be a fictional replica of popular US cities like New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The protagonist always start small doing petty crimes until he climbs to the ladder of law breaking before having his very own underground crime empire.

The “open world” type of gameplay of the series allows the player to explore and carry out missions freely along with the options of how certain missions could be completed. Regular elements of the game includes racing, assassination, robbery, driving an NPC on designated locations, delivering packages from your boss and infiltration.

The GTA franchise began in 1997 with the original game Grand Theft Auto for platforms PS1, Windows and Game Boy Color. The game has a third person view where you are looking at your character from an elevated position.

Two years after the second title GTA 2 was released with updated graphics and a different gameplay set on an unnamed retro-futuristic city. It retains the third person perspective of the first GTA but with improved graphics. It also set the trend of including different gangs such as the different mafias, the Yakuzas, the infamous Zaibastsu Corporation and the unsuspecting monks of Hare Krishna.

In 2001, the release of GTA III was a breakthrough in the game’s franchise as it introduced a 3D engine and a mini map to solve the difficulty in navigating an open sand-box map. Different features of the game such as plot and voice acting was also improved. The title has sprouted popular titles notably GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas and began what was known as the GTA 3 era.

The strings of controversy followed after the release of GTA III as the new 3D environment has portrayed violence more visually. Complaints and protest from parents and other groups has then haunted the franchise. But undeterred, GTA continued its crime spree in the gaming world.

Vice City, the second 3D GTA title followed in 2002 which featured the protagonist out to seek revenge to those who did him wrong while building a criminal empire for himself. This started the similar element of betrayal and revenge on the following titles.

San Andreas is a more modern version of Vice City with almost the same feel. The game revolves around the reawakening of the cocaine trade in 1992. The game featured three fictional cities a first for the franchise. What made the title popular was a hidden sex mini game that sparked a controversy known as the hot coffee incident.

Other titles of the GTA 3 era are Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories and Advance.

In 2008 the release of GTA IV for PS3, Windows and Xbox 360 has established the franchise as one of the all time greats when it sold over 6 million copies worldwide and set a record of highest first week sales amounting to $ 500 million.

The plot of the title is centered on a war veteran from Eastern Europe who came to the United States to fulfill that “American Dream” only to be involved in the crime world ruled by gangs, mafia and organized syndicates. The game also reintroduced the multiplayer element.

The fourth era also introduced a standalone game called GTA: Episodes from the Liberty City. The title also came in with two downloadable content named The Ballad of Gay Tony and The Lost and the Damned for the Xbox 360 which features new protagonists. A separate game for the Nintendo DS was also released in 2009 entitled GTA: Chinatown Wars.

The GTA franchise has made a name for itself as the leading games for its genre with ten stand alone games and four expansion packs. For over the decade it has experienced ups and downs from controversies and protests to success sales and popular reviews and adoration from the fans of the game franchise. It has appeared on almost all gaming consoles like Dreamcast, PS1, PS2, PS3, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360 and Windows.

So what’s next for the GTA franchise? Its best if we could not tell. The element of surprise is after all the proven formula of the GTA series; aside from the violence, crime and newest installments of vehicles and weapons. And who could forget that all familiar be paid for your crime theme.

There’s no doubt that 2011 is the year of the comic book movies. So far this year we’ve had Green Hornet, Thor, X-Men: First Class and Green Lantern. Some heroes we’ve seen before on the big screen such as X-Men, others newcomers such as Green Lantern we knew almost nothing about.

The next big superhero film is Captain America: First Avenger starring Chris Evans as Marvel Comics superhero Captain America. Even though the character has been around in comics since the 40’s, there’s a lot of things you probably don’t know yet about him.