The third installment of The Mummy series is sure not to disappoint. Well, one thing is disappointing and I have to say it right from the beginning. What happened to the real Evelyn O’Connell? I really hate to start a review like this. I like to tell a bit about the movie and then give my feelings, but I couldn’t, and I am sure you won’t be able to. It’s not that Maria Bello (Thank You for Smoking, A History of Violence) is bad in her depiction of Evelyn, it’s just that, Rachel Weisz is our Evelyn. Maybe Weisz’s decision to do Definitely, Maybe or My Blueberry Nights blocked her from The Mummy project. If it did, I have one thing to say: she should have stuck with The Mummy series. No judgments on the other two movies, but, you get my drift.

In The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, a new kind of mummy is released, Emperor Han (Jet Li), by mistake of course, and it is up to Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Evelyn, along with their now-adult son Alex (Luke Ford) and Evelyn’s brother John (John Hannah) to save the world from complete enslavement.

The Mummy franchise has yet to disappoint me and Rob Cohen does not do so now. In the interest of not giving away everything in the movie, I am keeping my review short, but I will go in detail about this DVD edition’s many bonus features [...]

On my birthday back in November, I took in a screening of Bruce Campbell‘s new very-limited-run campy horror film My Name Is Bruce (see ‘My Name Is Bruce’ Screening Details’). Instead of opening wide, or even limited to NY and LA, Campbell and Dark Horse/Image decided to take the film on tour to various cities, with Campbell going along to each theater for a post-screening audience Q&A.

If you missed this movie when it came to your city, you’ll have to wait til February 10 for the release of the DVD and Blu-ray OR you can rent it for $5.99 and watch it right now only through Amazon’s Video On Demand service. I’m not sure how long it will be available, so I suggest you rent this right away.

Fans of Campbell will undoubtedly love the film, which stars the famous b-movie actor as a more vulgar version of himself. While filming another one of his b-movies, Campbell takes what he thinks is another acting job in the small mining town of Gold Lick, but he’s really been recruited there for a more dangerous purpose. Believing that the actor actually has the extraordinary qualities of the action heroes he plays in his movies, the people of Gold Lick expect Campbell to take down Guan-di, the Chinese protector of the dead (and bean curd) who’s been killing off the townspeople.

I really liked the film and plan to grab the blu-ray version in February, but this is definitely worth renting right now: My Name Is Bruce Video On Demand Rental

I am an old fashioned type of moviegoer. I like my gun battles hyper kinetic and unrealistic, and my main characters to be no nonsense do-gooders with shades of gray. I also like buddy-buddy action movies but that is neither here nor there. My point is, there is nothing wrong with a movie filled with mindless shoot-em-up gun battles, and unrealistic scenarios. If you are a fan of this type of movie, then perhaps The Man Who Came Back is right up your alley.

Set years after the end of the Civil War, Eric Braeden stars as local legend and war hero Resse Paxton. Paxton is accused of hanging a recently freed black by the racist mayor Billy Duke (James Patrick Stewert) and sentenced to jail. When the mayor and his cadre of ruthless thugs murder both his wife and son in front of his eyes, Paxton has no choice but to take revenge on those who are responsible as The Man Who Came Back.

Now before you folks start shooting your six shooters in the air with excitement, the film is not as a good as the premise. The movie, for the budget that it was shot under, is pretty decent but overall not so great [...]

If you’re looking for a fun game for adults, kids, or both, LittleBigPlanet for the Playstation 3 is a very safe bet. The new platform is certainly one of the most unique games of 2008 if not this entire gaming generation. How can you go wrong with a culturally diverse game starring little “sack people” in a world of marionettes narrated by Stephen Fry in the same humorous manner as he did the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?

There’s not much to the “story” of the single-player game. You are your own sackperson, exploring the imaginary parts of LittleBigPlanet as you learn the ways of the game. Along the way, you may notice a bizarre looking creature ease-dropping on your fun or even sneaking away with one of your friends, but there isn’t much more to say about him until the very end.

The gameplay is very standard platforming. You run, jump, grab, move blocks, blow stuff up, and jump on bad guys to make them disappear. Even so, the game finds new and creative ways to implement the simple controls needed to move your Sackboy or Sackgirl around the world. There are only a handful or so “devices” used by the game but hundreds of variations on how they can be used. The first few levels walk you through the basics, but the game includes video tutorials and demos to teach you about all the possibilities, and even those contain some humorous jabs. I half-expected a bowl of petunias to fill from the sky at one point. Overall I found the game’s atmosphere to be very clever and one of the few games I found entertaining to learn the game [...]

DreamWorks has released some brand new images from Michael Bay‘s uber-sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

Both Empire and USA Today have the exclusive images which show everything from stars Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox running away from something unseen and surely horrifying, LaBeouf hanging on for dear life while cars fly through the air, and a pretty large looking explosion.

Not much is known of the plot so far, but apparently the sequel will see the Autobots joining up with the U.S. military to fight the Decepticons, who have invaded Earth after Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) discovers a very deep secret about the origins of the Transformers [...]

Robot Chicken: Season 3
Release Date: October 7, 2008
Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Vol. 6
Release Date: December 16, 2008
Warner Home Entertainment

I love watching Adult Swim, the Cartoon Network’s brilliantly unhinged block of late night animation programming. It’s the greatest experiment in popular animation: the block functions practically like a laboratory where a multiplying group of mad scientists armed with art supplies, computer software, and a collective absurdist sense of humor are given free reign to let their deranged imaginations run riot. Sometimes this results in a messy explosion, but most of the time the results are wonders to behold. If that wasn’t enough the Adult Swim block has also served as a pet cemetery for resurrecting under-appreciated shows like Family Guy and Futurama and a prime hangout spot for shows that never had a chance in this life or the next, like The Oblongs and Clerks. Then there are shows like Sealab 2021 and Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law that took characters and concepts from the vintage Hanna-Barbera heyday of the 1960′s and 1970′s and completely turned them on their heads, which may seem like an act of blasphemy in the eyes of animation traditionalists but I dare you to question the genius of taking those boring and stolid superheroes and transforming them into mental patients and sexual deviants. That’s golden.

What’s more important is that they never fail to entertain you. The go-for-broke attitude that spread to everyone involved with the production of these shows after a while begins to get to you. If getting each episode produced is an extremely arduous task, it never seems that way because while you’re watching you’re laughing so hard or at least thinking to yourself several times during the show what the fuck was going on in their heads while they were putting this together, and you can’t imagine any member of the cast and crew getting through a writing or voiceover session without cracking up in laughter. It’s a joyous kind of lunacy that proves to be infectious time and again.

Now Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has issued the latest full season DVD sets for two of Adult Swim’s best shows [...]

Every movie made employs the use of some sort of gimmick. Some are smaller than others and they don’t always work but whether it is the cast, the special effects, or something else, every filmmaker uses some device that they hope will allow their movie to rise above their contemporaries. In The Curious Case of Benjamin Button the gimmick is the story. A baby is born with the appearance and all of the physical limitations of an old man who ages backwards through life. It’s really a fascinating premise that, beyond its initial intrigue, stirs a lot of questions. How would one operate under the construction of backwards aging? How would you let it shape your everyday life? On a deeper level, how would you deal with the inevitability of loss in your life that would be compounded by that very construction? It is in the film’s attempt to answer these questions that you will find its true appeal.

At first glance, this film seems like a fairly odd film choice for director David Fincher. The styles of his previous films were consistently dark and stylish, in story and design. So why would a director who made his name with films like Fight Club, Se7en, and Zodiac opt for a character-driven fairy tale? For starters, he is one of probably a handful of directors with the ability to handle the special effects needed to properly translate the required images to the screen while being able to balance them against the story. If the main device of the movie is the setup, then right behind it would be how the effects were handled. Technologically, the film is a masterpiece. Throughout the film we see Benjamin (Brad Pitt) at every point in his life, from grave to cradle [...]

Today’s Gold Box deal of the day at Amazon is Call of Duty: World at War for Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 for only $34.98 (down 42% from it’s original price of $59.99). This price is also being listed for the video game deal of the day so this is a one-day-only price and quantities are limited.

In other deals, there’s a Blu-ray Sale where select titles, including newer releases like Wall-E, Prince Caspian, Sleeping Beauty, and I Am Legend are reduced up to 50% (the aforementioned movies are all under $20 each).

Now this is one I’ve had my eye on since I got a Blu-ray player this Christmas: If you grab Amazon’s exclusive The Chronicles of Narnia Blu-ray Bundle you’ll get both The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and Prince Caspian for only $31.99 (that’s 55% off the regular price of $70.98). I think I’m ordering this right now.

Here’s a few other sales going on right now:

– Warner’s Ultimate Collector’s Editions: Reduced prices on box sets like Blade Runner Blu-ray ($66.99), Superman (all five movies, plus the Richard Donner cut of Superman II for $76.99), and I Am Legend Blu-ray ($38.49).

– Buy One Get One Free TV on DVD: On select titles through January 14, buy one DVD and get one free on titles like Seinfeld and The Shield. I snagged TJ Hooker Seasons 1 & 2 combo, The Tick, Square Pegs, and VIP.

– Great Deals on TV on DVD: Hit shows from the ’70s through today (for example, King of Queens, Hart to Hart, Mad About You)

– 50% Off TV on DVD: Half off select TV shows on DVD (for example, The Addams Family, Stargate SG-1, The Venture Bros.). Click on “All Titles” for more selections in movies. This sale is on til January 12, 2009.

– DVD Blowout Sale: This includes movies as well as TV shows at a major discount (for example, Curb Your Enthusiasm, 2001 – A Space Odyssey, Caddyshack, 300, and much much more. This offer is only valid while supplies last, so check it out now.

While most regular writers sat around and held up their picket signs during this year’s infamous writer’s strike, leave it to old fan favorite writer Joss Whedon to take action. Rather than strike, he joined forces with his brothers Zack and Jed, along with Jed’s fiancee Maurissa Tancharoen, to create a musical that would be small and inexpensive yet look professionally done. The result is the musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, a surprise hit (to anyone but Whedon fans) now available on DVD exclusively from Amazon.

Originally shown in three webisodes for free, the film stars Neil Patrick Harris as Billy. Billy is an aspiring evildoer known as Dr. Horrible and dreams of one day joining the rank of the Evil League of Evil. His only obstacle: The charismatic and cheesy Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion). Hammer foils his every evil plot and even takes the heart of Billy’s crush, Penny (Felicia Day). With nothing left to lose, Dr. Horrible is determined to take down Hammer for a spot on the League and proves even villains, like heroes, are born in the face of personal loss [...]

Fundamentally speaking, the appeal of Tom Cruise in the last few years doesn’t make any sense. Just as soon as he took Katie Holmes hostage and started parading her and her ‘too scared for escape’ look around the world, people seem to have become disinterested in anything he has to do professionally; or so they say. Sure he was great in Tropic Thunder, but I’m talking about the movies he has had to carry on his own. Everyone seems to talk a big game but with the exception of last year’s Lions for Lambs, you have to go all the way back to Magnolia, almost a decade ago, to find a film he starred in that didn’t gross at least $100M domestically. So much for disinterest. Maybe he just has mind control over all of us too.

Keep in mind, these aren’t secrets I am exposing for the first time, so why his pick for his latest project was a big budget WWII Hitler assassination movie is beyond comprehension. For a man so caught up on selling his image, it stands to reason that there would be better ways to spend his time. It ended up being much worse than it appeared on the surface. The release date for Valkyrie moved so many times nobody cared when it was really coming out and as soon as the trailers came out the backlash was already in full effect [...]

A few weeks ago, one of our contributors talked to us about doing a piece on the 1986 LucasFilm bomb Howard The Duck. ‘Wow, Howard The Duck,’ I thought, ‘I haven’t seen that movie in years.’ and I think it’s been out of print for a long time. So, I looked it up and see that a new Special Edition is available now for pre-order with a release date of March 10, 2009 (yeah, that’s going right on the Wish List).

Next thing I know, it’s on Hulu [synchronicity!]. (Watch it HERE.)

Now, I know the film was considered a bomb and an embarrassing blip in the LucasFilm Archives, but I remember enjoying it when it came out back in 1986. But, I was kid back then and at that time I devotedly followed anything with George Lucas‘ name on it, so I wondered how I’d feel about the movie now. So, on Christmas Eve night before I went to bed, I watched Howard The Duck, and you know what? I still liked it. Is it a good movie? Nope. But is it the worst movie? No way [...]

Judge Gary A. Rees, who had recently set a January 20, 2009 court date for the Warner Bros. vs Fox trial to see who has the rights to WB’s highly-anticipated Watchmen adaptation, has gone ahead and made a surprise ruling. I guess the judge must have gotten a Ding! from Southwest with can’t-miss airfare to Cabo, because he’s skipped the trial and made a decision in favor of Fox.

The official ruling came in the form of a five-page written order, but detailed reasons were not given. The only explanation given so far is simply that “Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the ‘Watchmen’ motion picture,” which is really bad for the movie and Warner Bros. A lot more information is expected to be released soon.

The judge’s reason behind the initially set January 20 court date was that there were just too many variables going on to make a decision without a trial, which makes this decision only that much more questionable [...]

Who received gift cards for Christmas and just can’t wait to spend ‘em? Me too! Which is why I’m getting in on this sale at Amazon to buy one get one free on select TV shows on DVD. Check it out here: Buy One Get One Free .

Visit the TV on DVD Sale page to check out the select offerings like seasons of Damages, Seinfeld, The Shield, and The Tick (damn, I gotta get The Tick!), as well as some real throwbacks like Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and The Partridge Family, and lots more.

There’s some other TV on DVD sales going on right now as well:

– Great Deals on TV on DVD: Hit shows from the ’70s through today (for example, King of Queens, Hart to Hart, Mad About You)

– 50% Off TV on DVD: Half off select TV shows on DVD (for example, The Addams Family, Stargate SG-1, The Venture Bros.)

– DVD Blowout Sale: This includes movies as well as TV shows at a major discount (for example, Curb Your Enthusiasm, 2001 – A Space Odyssey, Caddyshack, 300, and much much more — it’s insane) [...]

Now, I will admit right off the bat, that I love Joss Whedon’s work, and I realize that he is a creator that some people love, and other people hate, and it’s hard to find people in the middle. Me, I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the beginning, I love his comic book work, and I’m eagerly awaiting the start of his new show Dollhouse. So, yeah, my opinion may be a little biased, but I’m man enough to point out the good and bad points of his work. So, if you’re not a fan of Whedon’s work, what can I say to convince you that this movie is worth your time, and if you are a fan of his work, what can I say to convince you to buy this movie for what may be a THIRD time?

If you don’t know the plot of Serenity by now, you’ve clearly been living in a Sci-Fi deprived cave for the last 5 years, but I’ll re-cap for you anyway. The movie picks up from where the television series Firefly left off; we find the crew of the Firefly-class ship Serenity doing what they do best: taking any job they can to make ends meet. The crew, led by Captain Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), is generally on the run from the Alliance, mostly thanks to two passengers on the ship, Simon (Sean Maher) and River Tam (Summer Glau). River was a government test subject and has been turned into a powerful psychic and a one woman fighting force of extraordinary magnitude. Now the Alliance has sent an Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) to kill River because of all the secrets she may hold in her head. What follows is a story of loss and the power of beliefs, told in the way that only Joss Whedon can [...]

In an effort by both XBox 360 and Playstation 3 to make their system more than just a game console, various new types of games have tried to capture the multi-use nature of the systems. SingStar ABBA, the latest SingStar game, is a perfect example of this trend.

Based on the Singstar series which started over on the Playstation 2, the game is basically the vocal version of another popular game involving music, Dance Dance Revolution combined with karaoke. Players choose a song in the game and sing the lyrics that are highlighted as you would do in karaoke. Along the way, there are various vocal bars that appear on the screen that you must hit to rack up points. At the end of the song, they tally up the points and rate your performance.

For this version of the game, all the songs came from the super popular pop band from yesteryear ABBA. Yes, you too can sing their smash hit songs “Dancing Queen” to “Mamma Mia!”, and even “Knowing Me, Knowing You” in the privacy of your home (you know you want to) or with a friend [...]

As I gear up for a bumper-to-bumper 2-hour or so ride to my family’s house for Christmas, I’m reminded of how instead of sitting in holiday traffic, I should be at the movies seeing the eleventh Star Trek movie right about now.

See, Christmas Day was original release date scheduled for Paramount’s Star Trek (then dubbed Star Trek XI) from director JJ Abrams, which was recently moved to May 8, 2009 as the studio now views the highly anticipated film as a summer tentpole.

That’s real great and all, but I had been planning for months to see the movie on Christmas — actually at the Christmas Eve midnight showing to be exact. I had already prepared all familial quadrants for this event. As soon as I said that the new Star Trek movie was to be released on Christmas Day, nearly everyone knew what I was going to say next anyway, since my love of Trek is quite well know. So, Christmas Eve midnight showing (in lieu of church, sorry Grandma), then if the movie was totally awesome, another showing with the nieces and nephews some time on Christmas Day. It wasn’t easy, but I got everyone to except my decision [...]

Happy Holidays Readers of Doom,

Wow! This has been an amazing year for Geeks of Doom. Together, our team of selfless contributors has helped us publish over 1,750 articles this year — reviews, features, news items, and opinion pieces from every corner of the geeky spectrum.

Our team of contributors has grown exponentially. So many AWESOME people have decided to freely pitch-in and help make Geeks of Doom what it is. We’re nothing without our contributors and you all help create a fresh and interesting place for geeks like us to hang out and opine off a cliff. Thank you, guys and gals of DOOM! I mean it. THANK YOU!

We made a lot of great new friends in the film blogger community as well. Thank you all for your friendship and all the help along the way: David, Devindra, Adam, Peter, Alex, Kelvin, Vic, Neil, Mike, Wil (please forgive me if I left someone out. I’m still rockin’ a pretty big Francis Ford Coppola wine hangover). You each rule mightily in your own way. Thanks for being both friends and examples to us. Every day is a learning experience and you all make learning waaay more fun then school ever did…

While it may not have the walloping humor of Dr. Strangelove or the technicality of 2001, The Day the Earth Stood Still is every bit as interested about atomic bombs, violence, and our galaxies infinite amount of possibilities. The movie is one of science fiction’s only films, certainly one of its great ones, that conceals a Biblical meaning of such heightened velocity. 2001 dealt with every nuance that life itself had to offer to the universe, where as The Day The Earth Stood Still deals with the coming of a life form from a distant planet and what he has to offer us. Here is an almost accurate testimony that mirrors what the Biblical book of the future — the book of Revelation — has in store for the entire world.

Robert Wise directed the movie and had guts to go after every single nation on planet Earth as he did it. Making the movie during the height of the Cold War in 1951 and with all the paranoia surrounding McCarthyism, Wise goes the cold route by not siding with any country. He makes planet Earth look like the extraterrestrials, and singles the planet out as being deaf, dumb, and blind. It’s one of the rare science fiction films that sympathizes with the visitors from the other planet rather than with the humans [...]

In 1977, just a few years removed from the only resignation by a U.S. President in the history of our country, Richard Nixon agreed to be interviewed by a moderately successful British TV personality, David Frost. Over the course of 28 hours of interviews, Nixon eventually apologized for the scandals of his administration. Not before or since has Nixon publicly addressed the issues surrounding Watergate.

Take a second to let that sink in. It’s only been 30 years since the interviews but the way we get our news today has changed so drastically that a news event like this would be impossible to achieve in today’s news environment. The advent of the internet and the 24-hour cable news channel has completely changed the way we get our news. But in 1977, when network anchors ruled the news on the Big Three, a foreign journalist against the odds scored what is still today considered the most important political interview ever.

Frost/Nixon was adapted from the 2007 Broadway play of same name that focused on the interviews and the preparation leading up to them. The outcome of the interviews is what made them as successful as they have become, but any time you have a movie based on actual events, the conclusion ends up being irrelevant. Since that element is removed as the dramatic driving force, the filmmakers had to rely on good old fashion storytelling and performances to push the film [...]

When The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe came out, it was automatically in the shadow of the juggernaut Lord of the Rings franchise that had just torn through cinematic history. Because of this shadow, comparisons were made — whether admitted or not — and Narnia wasn’t as earth-shattering as some would have thought. And while it wasn’t the worst movie ever made, it was forgettable and this highly impacted its sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which had a sadly mediocre run, ultimately bringing it to its assumed fate.

Disney and Walden Media have officially confirmed that Disney will be parting ways with Walden Media on their collaboration the The Chronicles of Narnia franchise and that Disney will not be co-producing or financing the third project, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which was already in pre-production [...]