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 the 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.

Do you know what I had to do to get that happen? This is CHRISTMAS!!!!

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.

The Day the Earth Stood Still
Blu-ray Edition (1951)
Directed by Robert Wise
Starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Lock Martin, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray
Fox Home Entertainment
Release date: December 2, 2008

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.

Frost/Nixon
Directed by Ron Howard
Starring Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Sam Rockwell, Toby Jones, Matthew MacFadyen
Rated R
Release Date: December 5, 2008

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.