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"I see everything."
The field of robotics took another giant leap forward recently, with the creation of Rex, a "bionic man" with fully functional artificial human organs and lifelike features, bringing science reality ever closer to the science fiction depicted in movies. As incredible as it sounds, humanoid robots, or androids (just "droids" if you're George Lucas), like Rex have been appearing on screen since well before Czech writer Karel Capek gave the English language a name for them in his 1920 sci-fi play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), with the human simulacrum Hadaly a featured character in the 1896 French movie L'Eve Futur (The Future Eve). Hundreds of movies have included androids — and their part man, part machine, cyborg cousins — since Hadaly, but which ones were the best? Help us rank the movies with the coolest, the baddest, the sexiest, the deadliest, the most terrifying androids and cyborgs.
Rate the Top 10 Best Android & Cyborg Movies >>
Posted 03.06.13 by BrentJS -
Which promising movies fell shortest of expectations?
When we first heard the news that J.J. Abrams had been hired by Disney to continue the adventures of Luke Skywalker and company as the director of Star Wars: Episode VII, we were almost beside ourselves with enthusiasm. After all, as the director of Star Trek (2009), Abrams proved that he could revitalize a classic sci-fi franchise while remaining true to its core concepts and respectful of its legacy. Added to that the fact that Abrams will be shooting from a script written by Academy Award-winner Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) and Episode VII is bound to be the greatest Star Wars movie since Return of the Jedi, right? We'll see. We're keeping our fingers crossed, but gearing down from "enthusiastic" to "hopefully optimistic."
Studios don't set out to make bad movies, yet they churn them out each and every year. Sure, most bad movies are doomed from the get-go, be they saddled with a bad script, a director who lacks vision, a cast made up of eye candy instead of actors, or some combination thereof, but even movies that seem to have everything going for them can still turn out to be dreadful. A movie about cowboys fighting aliens starring Indiana Jones and James Bond directed by the man who brought us Iron Man? Sounds awesome! Too bad Cowboys and Aliens turned out to be just another one of those movies that should have been great, but ultimately left us feeling unsatisfied and disappointed.
You've griped about them to your friends, now tell us which movies you found to be the biggest disappointments, the ones that simply failed to live up to expectations.
Rate the Top 10 Most Disappointing Movies >>
Posted 01.25.13 by BrentJS -
Which Director is Strongest With the Force?
Like many Star Wars fans, it took us a while to process the news that the creator and caretaker of the greatest sci-fi epic of all time, George Lucas, had sold Lucasfilm Ltd. to Disney. And, as if that news wasn't momentous enough, Disney concurrently announced that plans were already underway for an all-new Star Wars movie, a sequel to the original trilogy that would likely be the first movie in a new trilogy.
Minds thoroughly blown, we started to think about the future of the franchise. Jar Jar Binks and Hayden Christensen's horrible acting had really hurt the prequel trilogy and Lucas' constant meddling with the original trilogy tested our faith in ol' grey beard even further. With Lucas out of the picture, could the franchise regain its former glory?
In the days following the announcement, it was revealed that Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) had been hired to write the screenplay for Star Wars: Episode VII, while rumors continue to swirl that Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class) is in the running to direct. Do you think that Vaughn is the right man for the job or would you like to see J.J. Abrams (Star Trek), Jon Favreau (Cowboys & Aliens) or someone else direct? Who do you think has the vision to chart the course of the future of the Star Wars franchise?
Rate the Top 10 Best Directors To Helm Star Wars: Episode VII >>
Posted 11.13.12 by BrentJS -
It's only been a little over a week since George Lucas handed over the keys to his Star Wars franchise to Disney and already potential director names are being floated around the web. X-Men: First Class and Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn is rumored to be up for the sequel, while other reports claim that Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed) could get the job since Lucas has already spoken to the director about it several months ago, and, even though the decision will not be made by Lucas, Star Wars mania dictates that any director that has met with Lucas in the next or past year is a potential candidate.
However, if certain extreme fans get their way, The Incredibles and Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol director Brad Bird should get the job. While the nation has already made their choice in the Presidential election, a new, fan-made video has arrived that makes a case for the next important race: getting Bird into the director's chair for 2015's Star Wars: Episode VII. They make a convincing argument.
watch the video >> Posted 11.08.12 by Ryan -
Last week, Disney and moviemaker George Lucas announced that the company had purchased Lucas' profitable LucasFilm Ltd. production company for $4.05 billion, While that affords Lucas a modest retirement from making movies (actually, he plans to donate most of the money to educational charities), Lucas also revealed that he had decided to hand over his Star Wars franchise to "a new generation of filmmakers," collectively blowing the minds of millions of Star Wars fans everywhere.
While creating Star Wars has given Lucas unparalleled respect amongst writers, directors, animators and movie audiences alike, it's been Lucas' "recreations" of those same movies, as well as work creating the prequel trilogy (that's Episodes I-III for you kids that watched them sequentially), that has made him the target of those same peoples' derision. Now that Disney holds the keys to Lucas' magic kingdom, we offer 10 things to expect from the new Star Wars trilogy.
read our 10 expectations then add your own >> Posted 11.04.12 by Ryan -
When they are not too distracting, celebrity cameo appearances in movies are a nice treat for the audience, a bonus of sorts that gives viewers a little something extra to talk about after the credits roll. Directors will often reserve small roles for their favorite collaborators — or themselves — and athlete cameos are relatively commonplace whenever sports are involved.
Cameo appearances by actors playing characters from other movies are far rarer, however, and far more likely to enhance the moviegoing experience for those who recognize the character. Rather than destroying the "suspension of disbelief" that moviegoers are expected to achieve in order to enjoy a fantastical situation or story, a character cameo, when done properly, can actually broaden the fictional universe playing out on screen, making it seem more inter-connected with other fictional universes, more "real." And, sometimes, character cameos are not meant to broaden anything at all, except for the viewer's smile. Click on the link below to check out our list of the best character cameos in movies.
The best character cameos in movies >> Posted 10.03.12 by BrentJS -
Even the most brilliant actors will occasionally make bad movies. Scripts change, budgets shrink, directors quit or get canned. For the most part, audiences realize that movies are a collaborative medium and that a bad movie isn't necessarily the fault of the lead actor. Audiences are far less understanding when a bad movie has an ensemble cast, however: How could so many talented people be so wrong? We recently asked you to rate the Top 10 Great Ensembles in Good Movies; now, we want you to be brutally honest and help us rate the Top 10 Great Ensembles in Bad Movies.
Rate the Top 10 Great Ensembles in Bad Movies >>
Posted 10.02.12 by BrentJS -
On Friday, The Hunger Games hits theaters. The movie takes place in a dystopian future where children are forced to battle each other to the death. You'd think that kind of movie would not easily lend itself to product tie-ins... But leave it to marketers to find a way.
Among the movie's product tie-ins is h20 water — you know, the preferred drink for when you're being chased to death by your peers for sport. The movie also offers Capitol Colours nail polish, modeled after the eccentric fashions of the Capitol citizens, you know, the same people who disfigure their bodies for fashion and cheer on child tributes as they slaughter each other for Capitol entertainment.
Hunger Games certainly isn't the first movie to come out with some questionable product tie-ins. Evidence the worst movie product tie-in merchandise we could find. Sadly, we own some of this horrible stuff.
Worst Movie Product Tie-Ins >>
Posted 03.21.12 by Chris -
| Title | Weekend | Total | Analysis |
| The Vow | $41.7M | $41.7M | Surprisingly, the romantic drama had the best opening of 2012 so far. Unsurprisingly, 72% of the audience was female. |
| Safe House | $39.3M | $39.3M | Denzel Washington's second best debut after American Gangster. |
| Journey 2: The Mysterious Island | $27.6M | $27.6M | Swapping Dwayne Johnson for Brendan Fraser proved to be a good move; sequel outperformed the original. (which opened at $21M) |
| Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (3-D) | $23M | $23M | Despite coming in fourth, the re-release helped push Phantom Menace past E.T. and Shrek 2 to become the 5th highest-grossing movie of all time. |
| Chronicle | $12.3M | $40.1M | After debuting at #1, dropped just 44 percent, an impressive hold for a "found footage" flick. |
Posted 02.12.12 by reelz -
George Lucas is bringing his Star Wars saga back to big screen again, starting today with Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace 3D. While the plan is to re-release the entire franchise in 3-D, the Blu-ray versions released last year allowed Lucas to frustrate fans with more alterations, particularly to Return of the Jedi (now Ewoks blink and Darth Vader yells "Nooo!" before tossing the Emperor to his doom) and Phantom Menace, which will see the puppet version of Yoda replaced with a CGI one instead. During a recent interview with THR, Lucas explained why he decided to add a digital Yoda.
We tried to do Yoda in CGI in Episode I, but we just couldn’t get it done in time. We couldn’t get the technology to work, so we had to use the puppet, but the puppet really wasn’t as good as the CGI. So when we did the reissue, we had to put the CGI back in, which was what it was meant to be.
lucas discusses han vs. greedo >> Posted 02.10.12 by Ryan