Paramount Pictures has revealed the first official poster for the highly-anticipated mega-sequel, Iron Man 2 via Yahoo!. The poster is fairly basic, as most first posters tend to be. However, there is one fairly exciting addition to the poster that will have fans buzzing, and that of course, is War Machine. This, our first real glance at the popular character and creation of friend-turned-foe James Rhodes (Don Cheadle), simply shows War Machine standing back-to-back with Iron Man, gun ready and eyes glowing red. It is expected that Rhodes creates the suit in order to combat Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) creation when Stark refuses to offer his own suit as a military weapon.

Iron Man 2 also stars Gwyneth Paltrow who is returning as Pepper Potts, and Samuel L. Jackson back as Nick Fury. New members of the impressive cast include Mickey Rourke as Whiplash, Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer, and Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow. [...]

Sideshow Collectibles is renowned for their ability to make scale model replicas of popular entertainment creations and characters. These collectibles are of the highest of quality and make any collection induce jealousy in those who gaze upon it.

Their newest creation is no different; in fact, it’s one of their most impressive pieces to date. The company has created a 23 1/2″ high, 12″ wide 1:180 scale model of the title character of Joss Whedon‘s beloved sci-fi western show, Firefly: the ship itself, Serenity.

It’s nearly impossible to sum up the amount of detail and work that was put into this item, which is perfectly called Serenity — The Big Damn Replica, so you’ll have to refer to the list below for full details. The team that worked on it put in three whole years doing research and taking every possible measure and precaution to ensure its utmost flawlessness. The unfortunate aspect to this pile of awesome, is that most of us will never ever own one. You see, there will only be one thousand of them ever produced, and each one will cost you $2,699.99 with a $540 deposit required — OR, if you desperately need one, you can drop only $431 a month using their payment program. [...]

In one of the more strange and unexpected news bits we’ve heard in a long while, it would appear that author and horror mastermind Stephen King has an idea for a potential sequel to his classic The Shining. Many would argue the book to be King’s best work and no one can deny that it is at least one of them; many others would argue that the movie based on the book was the best adaptation of his many titles — though it received a lot of negative reviews initially and even King himself openly admitted to hating it before it moved on to become one of the top horror movies ever to be made.

King made the subtle announcement while in Toronto reading some of his new book Under the Dome to a crowd at the Canon Theater. The writer was in no way announcing that a sequel would indeed happen, but he decided to share the ideas that he was actually playing around with in his head, including that he had a basic title in mind already: Doctor Sleep. [...]

Kevin Smith 3-Movie Collection
Blu-ray Box Set (Clerks | Chasing Amy | Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back)
Directed by Kevin Smith
Starring Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Joey Lauren Adams, Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Release Date: November 17, 2009

Before I delve into the specifics about the movies and bonus content included in this Kevin Smith 3-Movie Collection, I’m going to let you know right off the bat whether you should purchase this Blu-ray collection. If you’re already a fan of writer/director Kevin Smith, then yes, by all means, acquire this Blu-ray set, because not only will you get restored and upgraded versions of three of his films — Clerks, Chasing Amy, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back — but you’ll have Smith’s presence all over this collection. That right there is reason enough to own this box set, as is the bonus material added for this Blu-ray release.

If you’re not already familiar with Smith’s films and you have no problem with intelligent comedy heavily laced with profanity, then you owe it to yourself to give these movies a try. If you already know that you don’t like Kevin Smith movies, then you apparently have no soul and are a lost cause.

The three movies included in this set are from the View Askewniverse, Smith’s fictional world with characters played by the same actors shared across all the films, tied together mainly by the two stoners, Jay and Silent Bob (play by Jason Mewes and Smith, respectively). Two big actors in this universe are Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, who first appear in Chasing Amy when they were still relative unknowns and return for dual roles in the bigger production Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back as their View Askew characters, as well as their A-list selves [...]

Another comic book being adapted into a movie that is showing off some of its brand new images is The Losers. The movie is based on the Vertigo comic of the same name that is created and written by Andy Diggler, with artwork done by Jock. These two new images from the movie are not the most exciting images you’ll ever see — you will not get goosebumps — but for you hardcore fans of the comic or some of the stars, this is your first chance to get a look at them dressed up (or down) in full character.

The Losers is directed by Sylvain White, who has previously directed I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, and Stomp the Yard. It stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen, Grey’s Anatomy) as Clay, Chris Evans (Fantastic Four, Sunshine) as Jensen, Zoë Saldana (Star Trek, Avatar) as Aisha, Jason Patric (The Lost Boys, Narc) as Max, Óscar Jaenada (Che: Part Two) as Cougar, Idris Elba (The Wire, American Gangster) as Rogue, and Columbus Short (Quarantine, Whiteout) as Pooch. [...]

After a weeklong countdown to Black Friday and then Black Friday itself, Amazon has launched today their Cyber Monday Sale with loads of sales on video games, electronics, and DVD/Blu-rays and much more happening all day.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Standard Edition for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, or Nintendo Wii is on sale now for only $19.78 (that’s 34% off the list price of $29.99). This video game features the voices of the original cast from the classic Ghostbusters films, including Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson, with Aykroyd and Ramis providing the script and storyline for the game.

There’s also Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for $29.99, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up for $29.98, Left 4 Dead 2 for $38.96, and much more.

There’s also several “Lightning Deals” going on all day. These deals will go up throughout the day and are limited-time and limited-quantity, so they WILL sell out quickly, therefore if you see something you want, grab it immediately. Some deals in certain categories are up now; others are upcoming (prices on the latter items have not been revealed yet).

- Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 for XBox 360, PS3 or Wii – $29.95

- The Beatles Abbey Road (Remastered) – [upcoming]

- The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun (Hardcover) by J.R.R. Tolkien – [upcoming]

We’ll add more listings throughout the day as we see them become available. For now, here are some of the main sale pages:

Movies & TV

Video Games

Computers

[...]

A new TV series is just about to debut on the Science channel called Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible. The show is hosted by quite possibly the smartest dude ever to live, Dr. Michio Kaku, and explores the science fiction creations that we know without a shadow of a doubt to be futuristic and fantastical impossibilities, and offers realistic ways to bring them into existence.

One of the episodes is set to cover a topic that will be near and dear to our very own geek hearts: lightsabers! The episode will take a look at the fictional super-weapon and then try and figure out a way to actually create one. Whether they accomplish such a thing is unknown and rather unlikely, but hell, we all just won’t be able to help but watch and see for ourselves.

Head on over to the other side to read the show’s synopsis and watch a short clip from the lightsaber episode, as well as a clip from their parallel universe episode. [...]

A brand new image from the adaptation of graphic novel Jonah Hex has been released online. We had seen a couple of images from behind the scenes, and we’ve seen the first not-so-well-designed one-sheet from the movie (seen at right — we don’t want Gone in 60 Seconds; we want gritty, dark old west graphic novel goodness), but this is the first large and clear look at star Josh Brolin as the deformed 19th century anti-hero in full Civil War gear.

The movie follows Hex, a veteran of the Confederate army whose face is terribly deformed. After the war, he concentrates his talents into a life of work as a bounty hunter. No exact details are known on what storyline the movie will take, but there is a synopsis below, though it does hint at things that have been denied like John Malkovich as Quentin Turnbull unleashing “Hell.” This could refer to a rumored storyline where Turnbull goes voodoo and forms an army of the dead which director Jimmy Hayward denied at Comic Con. [...]

Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada recently answered a pile of questions for Comic Book Resources, and among the topics, the Thor movie adaptation was naturally one of the prime topics covered. Quesada was asked how confident that he was in the the project and how he answers to those who remain skeptical of Thor’s ability to work as a movie and become the next mega-franchises.

While it’s obvious that Quesada wasn’t going to say anything negative about a property in which he holds massive stake in, it is still interesting enough to read what him and others like them are seeing from the film makers. He talks about how we the movie-goers — whether fans of Thor or not — will go in expecting one thing or another, and that none of us will get what we expect. He also goes on to talk about how unbelievably passionate director Kenneth Branagh is when he’s directing, and what he thinks while watching him work.

Click over and continue reading to check out the massive quote from Quesada. You can also head over to the link above to check out a bunch more questions and answers from the Marvel chief. [...]

Back in December, it was reported that the Walt Disney Company had decided to step away from the Chronicles of Narnia franchise that they had been co-producing with Walden Media (Read: Disney Breaks Up With ‘Narnia’ Franchise). This was partly surprising, but at the same time it really wasn’t. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe did very well, costing $180 Million and bringing back almost $750 Million worldwide, but The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian jumped up to a $220 Million budget and only made $420 Million worldwide. There were still more books in the series expected to become movies, but with such a severe drop-off, the risk became too great…for Disney at least.

Within the same month that Disney decided to drop the franchise, Fox decided they wanted to jump into the pool with Walden in order to make The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which was already in pre-production (Read: Fox Decides To Pick Up ‘Narnia’ Franchise Afterall). [...]

Ninja Assassin
Directed by James McTeigue
Written by Matthew Sand and J Michael Straczynski
Starring Rain, Naomie Harris, Sho Kosugi
Rated R

Release Date: November 25, 2009

When I chose to review Ninja Assassin, I knew it would entertain me on some level just by the name alone. I mean, how can you mess up something like Ninja Assassin? Other than Hot Librarian or Free Wi-Fi, no two words in the English language have ever been more of a perfect fit for one another. Good or bad, it has to be fun to watch, at least on a primal, blood-letting level.

Raizo (Rain) is one angry ninja and who can blame him? First, he is kidnapped at a young age by the mysterious Ozunu Clan and trained to be a silent, death-dealing assassin for hire. Then, just when he decides to forgo killing a person at the request of his master, his clan turns their back on him and leaves him for dead. With revenge on his mind and the aid of a government agent (Naomie Harris), Raizo seeks to destroy his Clan and the Master who he once called family.

The story, written by Matthew Sand and J Michael Straczynski, provides an interesting dose of Japanese-style violence with the standard “lone wolf experiences love and loss” flashbacks into Raizo’s past. The fleshed out back-story is necessary for viewers who feel unfulfilled without one but is not needed. If you are watching a movie named Ninja Assassin, story and plot is not high on your list. Like this reviewer, you want to know if the movie delivers with their action sequences, and deliver it does, with bloody gusto [...]

Earlier this month, I wrote about the great limited-time-only deal when you purchase Disney/Pixar’s Up, Monster’s Inc., and Cars on Blu-ray. Now, the deal is back up!

In the returning Pixar DVD/Blu-ray Sale, there are three ways to save:

– Order Up on DVD and buy any other Pixar DVD from the list and save $7.50 off your total purchase at checkout.

– Order the Up DVD/Blu-ray Combo Pack and buy any other Pixar Blu-ray disc from the list and save $15 off your total purchase at checkout. To receive the $15 discount, enter the promo code UPBLURAY at checkout.

– Buy the Up DVD/Blu-ray Combo Pack and both Monsters, Inc and Cars on Blu-ray from the list and save $26 off your total purchase at checkout. To receive the $26 discount, enter the promo code PIXARBLU at checkout [...]

The Best of Star Trek
The Original Series – Vol. 2
Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan
The Next Generation – Vol. 2
Starring Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Levar Burton, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn
Paramount Home Entertainment
Release Date: November 17, 2009

Earlier this year, Paramount Home Entertainment released Best Of Star Trek DVDs for Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Each DVD contained four episodes, apparently deemed as the “best” in their respective series. Considering how long each series ran (79 episodes in TOS; 178 in TNG), four episodes hardly seems sufficient, so it’s no surprise that the studio has followed up with Volume 2 Best Of collections for both series, released in conjunction with the release of JJ Abrams’ Star Trek on DVD and Blu-ray this month.

Both Volume 2 DVDs contain fully remastered episodes and enhanced special effects (the same ones included in the recent Blu-ray releases) and are economically priced at priced, making them them a great choice for any new viewers who want to jump onto either Star Trek show. Most die-hard fans of Trek would probably already own all the season DVDs, though your average fan might not want to or be able to invest in them, so these DVDs might be the way to go for them as well [...]

Amazon is currently offering some great deals on movie purchases and rentals through their Video On Demand service.

In their Digital Movie Sale you can purchase digital copies from $4.99 to $5.99 of titles like Terminator 2, The Da Vinci Code, and Borat, and much more. You can buy the movie, then watch it instantly through the VoD player and all your purchases will be stored in your Video Library for future viewing. You can also download it to your Windows PC to watch them offline (or if you have TiVo DVR, you can send it there to watch on your TV). Amazon lets you preview over 2 minutes of each selection.

If you’d rather try out some rentals On Demand, there’s also a deal on Digital Rentals, available now for $1.99 for a 24-hour viewing period on newer movies, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and other movies as low as 99 cents. (Some titles even offer 48-hour viewing period for the same low price.)

Check out a sample of some of offerings here below (note, some discounts are for this weekend only).

Weekend Rental Sale
[Rent new movies for $1.99 or less discounted this weekend only.]

X-Men Origins: Wolverine – $1.99

State of Play – $1.99

Aliens in the Attic – $1.99

Land of the Lost – $1.99

The Echo – $1.49

[...]

X-Men
Marvel DVD Comic Book Collection
Volume 1-4
Starring Norm Spencer, Cedric Smith, Cathal J. Dodd
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Release Date: April 28, 2009

When I found out that the X-Men cartoons from 1992 were being put out on DVD, my nine-year-old self jumped out of my body and threatened me with bodily harm if I did not pick up this DVD. Fearing for my life and the risk of being beat up by a nine-year-old, I relented.

For those who are unfamiliar with this cartoon, X-Men debuted on the Fox Kids Network in late 1992, and was part of the Fox Saturday Morning line-up alongside another little unknown cartoon called Batman: The Animated Series. The cartoon featured the popular Marvel mutants, led by their mentor, Dr. Charles Xavier and their battles with the mutants hell-bent on destroying the world. This incarnation of X-Men was composed of members from the past (Cyclops, Jean Grey) and present (Wolverine, Gambit) teams.

Now, there were many things that I loved about this cartoon. For one thing, it was one of the only cartoons back then where one of the main character was an Asian person. That’s right, the series featured newest X-Men recruit Jubilation Lee, aka Jubilee, quite prominently in the series. Being Asian myself, it was hard to find any person who was Asian on TV with such a prominent role and so seeing Jubilee front and center was certainly awesome [...]

The IT Crowd
The Complete Third Season
Written and directed by Graham Linehan
Starring Chris O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson, Matt Berry
MPI Home Video
Release date: September 15, 2009

For the uninitiated, The IT Crowd is a British-made sitcom and the story so far goes something like this: Jen (Katherine Parkinson) is hired as the new head of department in the IT basement. Her new ‘team’ is Roy (Chris O’Dowd) and Moss (Richard Ayoade), Reynholm Industries’ computer support nerds. Roy and Moss are very comfortable in their geeky treasure trove office. They don’t need a head of department and their frustrations spill out onto their computer-illiterate colleagues. Roy and Moss are intimidated by women and ‘real men’, learning to interact with both by researching on the internet.

The IT Crowd Season 3, like the two seasons before, is written and directed by Graham Linehan, responsible for many excellent comedy series like Father Ted, Black Books, and Big Train. The IT Crowd follows the familiar brand of surreal humour with some outrageous characters.

Richmond – who had an improved role in Season 2 – disappears altogether from Season 3. I think this was a good idea. Richmond always seemed to have potential but no one really knew what to do with him [...]

Very early this morning, we posted the Black Friday DVD & TV deals over at Amazon today, which includes “lightning” deals all day today (meaning, drastically reduced prices for a limited time only selling out very quickly, so jump on these sales while you can.

There’s also lightning deals on Video Games, which include Assassin’s Creed for Xbox 360 and Fallout 3 for Xbox 360 and PS3. Check the page for upcoming deals and times for when they’ll be available.

Some all-day sales in video games include Video Game Gold Box deal of the day, a Sony PlayStation 3, a 120 GB “Black Friday Bundle” with Infamous and Killzone 2 (Includes a $10 Amazon.com Promotional Credit on Black Friday) for only $299.99.

Here are some more video games sales happening today only (all qualify for $10 off if you pay with a Discover Card):

Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360) – $39.99

Guitar Hero Metallica (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii) – $25

Ghostbusters: The Video Game – Slimer Edition (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii) – $29.75 [...]

Many people instantaneously went from loving Shrek to hating Shrek when Shrek the Third was released in 2007. And since we’ve already said “Shrek” more than anyone in the history of mankind has ever said in such a short amount of words, why stop now! Although said third film was pretty unanimously disliked compared to the original and wonderful first two Shrek films, DreamWorks has moved forward with the planned fourth film in the mega franchise — a movie that we now know will officially be called Shrek Forever After. The studio has given USA Today released a couple of new images from the film, as well as many new details as to what we can expect. Click the image to go large and click the link to go see another image.

One smart move that’s being made is that DreamWorks hasn’t been talking a lot about this project and releasing a ton of images. Instead of risking fans becoming turned off by two straight years of news and images and rumors, it appears that they’re trying to ease us into the return of the giant green ogre. They’re doing this by dropping this first batch of images and updates right before the first trailer is debuted in only a few weeks when Avatar is released. The movie itself will be released on May 21, 2010. [...]

It’s finally here people, the most insane shopping day of the year — BLACK FRIDAY!

And as you know, Amazon has been having a weeklong countdown to Black Friday Sale with huge DVD/Blu-ray and Video Game sales.

Well, the sale continues day with more drastically reduced prices in the Lightning Deals appearing throughout the day. All the items up for grabs are limited time only and limited supply, which means if you see it and want it, buy it immediately before either the sale ends or all items are claimed.

Below is a list of today’s Lightning Deals, which begin at midnight PST/3am EST and end 12am PST/3am EST. [...]

All week, Amazon has been doing a countdown to Black Friday Sale sale. The Lightning Deals for today are now up, but the site has also posted some awesome DVDs and Blu-ray titles at amazing prices! Here’s just a small sample of some of the titles on sale right now! (Look at the Star Trek deals!!!)

DVD

– Star Trek – $9
– Hellboy II: The Golden Army – $7.99