MacGruber
Directed by: Jorma Taccone
Starring: Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillippe, Val Kilmer
Rated R
Released date: May 21, 2010

Okay, so movies based on Saturday Night Live sketches have a spotty history at best. For every Wayne’s World, there’s an It’s Pat!. So there’s usually a sense of trepidation when one of these movies comes out. Sure, a character may work in 7 minutes sketches, but does that mean the joke can sustain itself for 90 minutes? And more to the point does the new big screen version of MacGruber work over the course of this movie? Let’s find out.

MacGruber is a send up of the 80’s action show MacGyver, everyone’s favorite Canadian science action man. On the show, MacGruber (Will Forte), his assistant Vicki (Kristen Wiig), and the week’s guest star usually find themselves locked in a room with a bomb that MacGruber invariably fails to deactivate. In the film version, MacGruber is brought out of retirement to take down his arch nemesis, Dieter Von Kunth (Val Kilmer). Kunth has hijacked a nuclear weapon, and it’s up to MacGruber and his team to take him down [...]

It’s a sad, sad night for fans everywhere as the final episode of LOST, called “The End,” has just concluded, leaving us to ponder its existence, effect, lingering questions, and importance on popular culture for the rest of our days.

No, we still haven’t even gotten over the loss of Battlestar Galactica, so it’s clear this will be difficult to overcome. BSG even gave us a spinoff series (The Sawyer & Miles Bad Guy Chasin’ Hour? Hurley & Miles: Ghost Chasers? Anyone?), which while excellent, still doesn’t give us the characters we love and miss so much, and this will be the same for Lost and our beloved island-imprisoned survivors of Oceanic Flight 815.

Nevertheless, the show must go on. There will be time for mourning later, but for now, there are things to discuss, and that’s what we’re here for. Last year, an epic discussion and bounty of wonderful theories unfolded here at Geeks of Doom (Read: ‘Lost’ Season 5 Finale Discussion: Let Your Theories Fly! ). [...]

One of the most curious figures in history went by the name Grigori Rasputin. Since his legendary demise in 1916, he has portrayed many times by many different actors in movies and TV shows and theater productions, and now he’ll be portrayed on the big screen once again.

Alain Goldman and his Légende Films is developing a new film, currently called Rasputin — The Healer. Goldman has previously been behind Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise, La vie en rose, and Babylon A.D..

Rasputin will be both written and directed by Roselyn Bosch, who pulled double duties on The Roundup and Animal, and wrote and produced 1492.

The movie will take place in the final two years on Rasputin’s life when he was a famed healer and figure in St. Petersberg’s royal court, which were obviously the most interesting two years of his life.

Goldman, when speaking about Rasputin, says “He was promiscuous, religious, a healer. It’s also an incredible setting, the most powerful country of the time, Russia, on the verge of revolution, which the Tsar doesn’t see coming.” [...]

Star Wars: Death Troopers
Hardcover
By Joe Schreiber
LucasBooks
Release Date: October 13, 2009

Are you looking for a new adventure in the Star Wars Expanded Universe? Well if you are then you have to pick up Star Wars: Death Troopers. Obviously it is not the ordinary Star Wars story, but that is what makes it so great. All that and you get to add a zombie-like virus to the mix. Be warned though, this isn’t your grandmother’s zombie virus so you will be fairly interested in seeing what is different about these particular zombies.

The story centers around a prison barge called Purge that transports the galaxy’s worst criminals to their final destination. When the ship seems to have broken down, they find that their only refuge and only saving grace is a Star Destroyer that has been found to be empty and drifting in a rarely traveled region of space. Seem odd to you? Well it should because this is where the craziness is going to come to a head and you will see it all unfold from the eyes of a couple of fan favorites and some new characters as they fight to survive the whole ordeal [...]

Remember when it was outrageous to go to a movie theater because a $7-$10 admission ticket paired with an $8 tub of popcorn and a $6 soda for just one person was breaking banks nation wide? You haven’t seen anything yet.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that multiple movie theaters in New York City — where prices have consistently remained highest — is charging a nice round $20 fee to see Shrek Forever After in their 3D IMAX theaters. That’s right — if you plan on taking your family of four out for a night to see the kids’ beloved Shrek, Donkey, Fiona, and Puss in Boots, it will easily run you more than $100 if you add a snack or liquid refreshment.

If this catches on, it could mean that theaters everywhere could be charging as much as it costs us to BUY & OWN the movie on Blu-ray or DVD just to see the flick one time, one sunny afternoon. [...]

Yes, the SNL sketch-turned feature-length movie MacGruber was a spoof on the popular ’80s and ’90s TV series, MacGyver. And though it’s not doing the best at the box office right now, consensus seems to be that it is quite the hilarious movie. But did you know that an actual MacGyver movie was being developed as well?

New Line Cinema has hired Jason Richman to begin work on a script for the movie adaptation of the television series. The series, which starred Richard Dean Anderson, ran from 1985 to 1992 on ABC and followed a brilliant secret agent who was able to infiltrate and escape any place and situation, no matter how difficult or how little resources that he had available to him. Anderson also appeared in a couple of TV movies and in some of the MacGruber sketches.

Richman hasn’t done a ton yet, but among his writing credits are titles like Bad Company, Swing Vote, and Bangkok Dangerous. He also helped out on Rush Hour 3 and contributed to one of the drafts of Beverly Hills Cop 4, which has been constricted to development hell for a while now. [...]

One of the most entertaining things to see when it comes to your favorite movies and TV shows is the audition videos of the cast and maybe even the auditions of famous stars who didn’t get a particular role.

While we don’t have any of those here, we do have plenty of the audition tapes of most of your favorite stars from ABC’s Lost. With the curtain set to fall on the show in just about 24-hours now, what better way to make a weekend of it than by witnessing the very beginnings of these characters and the stars who would play (some of) them. The auditions were commonly used as funny special features on the Lost DVDs, but if you have not seen them yet, now you have your chance.

Be sure to click on over to the other side to check out ten of these audition tapes.

The funniest thing about these auditions, is that the actors didn’t know about all of the characters that would be used, or how important they would be. For that matter, the producers weren’t really sure where they were going, either. [...]

The Empire Strikes Back: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Special Edition)
Composer: John Williams
London Symphony Orchestra
1997 Release

WARNING! THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS MASSIVE SPOILERS!

It’s been thirty years since The Empire Strikes Back, the much-anticipated sequel to George Lucas’ 1977 mega-hit cultural touchstone Star Wars, opened in theaters around the world and the impact it made upon audiences and critics has not dulled a bit, and for good reason. The movie proved that the success of the first Star Wars film was no well-timed fluke and even a movie that essentially paid homage to space operas, samurai films, and westerns could evolve beyond its influences and become its own beast. Best of all it was better than Star Wars in every possible way: the script by Leigh Brackett (screenwriter of such classic films as The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo, and The Long Goodbye) and Lawrence Kasdan (who later went on to co-write Raiders of Lost Ark and enter his own directing career) opened up the universe Lucas had created and expanded the scope with an epic, serpentine tale that was more darker, richer, and emotional than the original and overflowing with memorable characters, and quotable dialogue; the direction by Irvin Kershner was professional and assured; and the cast, free of George Lucas’ stilted writing and relative inexperience with actors (despite the fact that he had directed the actor-heavy American Graffiti to great success), were able to give deeper and more nuanced performances under the direction of the deferential Kershner.

The increased scope of the sequel also allowed the opportunity for legendary composer John Williams to have the musical canvas on which to expand on the themes and motifs established in his Academy-Award winning score for Star Wars [...]

They don’t appear to be wasting any time on the Transformers 3 front. Geek Week has the scoop from a trusted inside source that Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, a current Victoria Secret’s model, is set to replace Megan Fox as the love interest of star Shia LaBeouf‘s Sam Witwicky.

The news broke just this past Wednesday that director Michael Bay had decided not to bring back Fox after some turmoil had been brewing between the two. Not long after those reports broke, Fox’s camp was claiming that it was she who had done the departing because of the relationship with Bay, so we may never really know. Personally, it’s hard to think that Megan Fox, despite her current level of fame, would pass up the pay day that was sure to fall into her lap for one more robo-alien turn.

Many fans were elated at the removal of Fox, who quite bluntly hasn’t been popular among movie going faithfuls since her arrival. Unfortunately, it’s not clear that this casting choice will sit much better. [...]

As many of you know, on April 20th a massive oil well in the Gulf of Mexico ruptured causing an explosion on BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling platform, leading to the devastating leakage of millions of gallons of oil on a daily basis. The initial explosion caused the death of eleven workers on the rig, and the oil spill has killed countless animals and other living creatures.

Since this catastrophe has unfolded, experts of all levels and areas have been working desperately to try and figure out a way to not only contain the relentless gushing of oil into the waters, but also a way to clean up the oil that pollutes the water already.

At first, the best idea that they could come up with was to throw a box over the leak and suck up all of the oil…which did not go very well. After that, it was thought that some sort of sponge or absorption device would be the best bet. Now, the LA Times is reporting that the very best option might just lie in the hands of none other than actor Kevin Costner. [...]

The great Gary Oldman has joined the cast of Kung Fu Panda: Kaboom of Doom. The movie is a sequel to DreamWorks’ animated hit, Kung Fu Panda, which brought in over $630 million worldwide when it was released in 2008.

Oldman will be voicing the role of the Peacock, who helps Po (Jack Black) to discover the location of some enemy bandits on his way to finding other pandas and learning about where he comes from. The Peacock, like most kung fu masters, has more to him than first appears.

Gary Oldman is probably best known to most these days for his role as Sirius Black in some of the Harry Potter films, and as Commissioner Jim Gordon in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. All others will have a much more deeply rooted appreciation for Oldman from his work in movies such as Dracula, Léon (The Professional), and The Fifth Element. [...]

If you’ve been on Google‘s home page today, you probably noticed it’s sassy Pac-Man ‘Doogle’. The search-engine giant usually creates special Doogles — a custom Google logo — for various holidays and observances.

Since tomorrow, May 22, marks the 30th anniversary of the release of the classic arcade game Pac-Man, Google converted their logo into a Pac-Man theme. What you might not realize is that it’s actually an interactive Pac-Man game!

Yes, you can imagine how the rest of my day went after I stumbled upon this discovery.

Linger too long on Google’s home page today, and you’ll see the game — which has Google logo right in the center of the board — begins automatically. You can either use the arrows on the bottom right corner of your keyboard or use your mouse to navigate through the game (although, I find the latter opinion to work much slower). To begin the game, you can also either click on the logo or click on the “Insert Coin” button below the game [...]

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the premiere of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the greatest movie sequel ever made. In honor of this most glorious occasion, we present to you 30 of the film’s most memorable quotations.

Now, we know what you’re going to say, “Hey, but you forgot this line…” — Trust us, we didn’t forget anything. This is neither a comprehensive list of dialogue from the film, nor a reprint of the screenplay. We were tasked with taking this film (a personal favorite for some of us) and picking only 30 quotes from a script ripe with awesome dialogue, and let’s face it, nearly every word from Yoda and Han Solo is a memorable quote. When the staff first compiled a list of their favorites, there was nearly double the amount of lines; we then had to go through as a [I am not a] committee and compromise. It was not easy, dear readers. A few voices got raised and a lot of time spend in debate, but in the end, we hope to give you a decent sample of memorable quotations from the film (and by film, we mean the original theatrical release, not any of the later re-releases/special editions).

As always, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section, along with any quotes you would have liked to see make this list. And please remember, this is ONLY from The Empire Strikes Back, so please don’t get pissed because you don’t see “That’s no moon, it’s a space station” on the list. It’s not there, because it’s NOT in this movie. [Just look at the complaints that are STILL coming in on our Star Wars Quotes list from three years ago about how we left out lines that weren't even in the first Star Wars movie!]

Now onto the 30 Most Memorable Quotes from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back [...]

The trades are reporting that James Franco has beat out numerous young Hollywood stars to grab the lead in 20th Century Fox’s Planet of the Apes prequel, Rise of the Apes.

The movie will be set in present-day San Francisco where scientists are deep into the God-playing realms of genetic engineering, which leads to the creation of a highly-intelligent species of ape who eventually rise up and rebel in an attempt to gain supremacy over humans. Franco will be playing a “driven scientist, who becomes a crucial figure in the war between humans and apes.”

Franco first broke out in Freaks and Geeks (which also introduced us to other future stars like Seth Rogen and Jason Segel), and has gone on to do a lot of different genres in his career. He’s appeared in the Spider-Man franchise, dramas like Deuces Wild, The Great Raid, Flyboys, and Milk, and maybe most-notably as the immensely-popular stoner Saul in 2008′s Pineapple Express. He’s even starred in 23-episodes of the long-running soap opera General Hospital; not many recognizable stars take jobs like that on. [...]

Many of you may have seen this already, but I’m slow and only just got around to it. If you’ve not seen it and are a fan of Lost, however, it’s not to be missed!

Last Tuesday on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the late night talk show host was discussing that night’s episode of Lost, titled “Across the Sea.” The episode gave us the backstory of long-time island dwellers Jacob and the Man in Black, who we were introduced to in the Season 5 finale. Many people actually disliked the episode, which is completely beyond me. The episode was nowhere near the best we’ve ever seen, but it was a unique time and place on the island that offered us many answers to big questions.

After talking about the episode, Kimmel talked about the game that we’ve seen the two figures playing on the island, and then introduced a clip of the new game that would help them pass the time away much easier: Connect Four Million! [...]

The Muppet Show Comic Book #5
Written by: Roger Langridge
Artist: Amy Mebberson
Colors: Eric Cobain
Letterer: Deron Bennett
Covers by Roger Langridge
BOOM! Studios
Price: $2.99
Releases date: May 5, 2010

In the latest issue of The Muppet Show Comic Book, Statler and Waldorf are still playing a game of cosmic chess involving the Muppets. They arranged for Skeeter to show up and get a job there, and now they’re introducing Miss Piggy’s nephews, Randy and Andy Pig. Statler and Waldorf’s main goal seems to be manipulating events in order to create chaos, and these two are the perfect candidates. Randy and Andy are not very bright, clumsy, and cause constant trouble for the other Muppets.

Will the Muppets be able to deal with Randy and Andy’s “help” for an entire week? Read it and find out [...]

We all know the story so well: The young scrappy boy who shares an intimate kiss with his sister before going to learn ‘magic’ from a muppet in a swamp, the space princess sexually assaulted by a drug smuggler in a broom closet, the back-stabbing Colt .45 pitchman, and of course the reunion with the estranged father who then maims his son.

But what of the unsung heroes of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, the little people who charge the blasters, reset the flyers, and get shot down by the AT-ATs?

Ladies and gentleman, here’s a peek at a day in the life of Lobot, Lando Calrissian’s faithful assistant on Cloud City [...]

ComingSoon recently had the chance to talk with Nicholas Stoller, writer and director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the upcoming comedy, Get Him To The Greek. Stoller chatted about some of his upcoming projects, including the new movie based on the popular Hasbro toy, Stretch Armstrong.

The movie, which will star The Twilight Saga‘s Taylor Lautner, is based on the toy of the same name, which is distinguishable by its squishy body that was able to stretch out to great lengths. The script was originally penned by Steve Oedekerk, but when Monsters vs. Aliens director Rob Letterman was hired to helm, he decided to bring in another writer, and Stoller asked him for the chance. The duo recently worked together on Letterman’s Gulliver’s Travels, which stars Jack Black and Stoller’s good friend Jason Segel.

The curious –and perhaps best — thing that’s going on with this project, is that Stoller is 100% aware of how cheesy this movie sounds, and how little expectations a lot of people have for it. [...]

Recently it was reported that because Summit Entertainment had not decided earlier that their final movie in the Twilight franchise, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, would be split into two movies and because their actors had become stars, talents like Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz were holding out in hopes of pulling in a much bigger payday (Read: Will ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn’ Re-Cast Cullen Kids Ashley Greene & Kellan Lutz?). It was also for this reason that the assumed-two-part film had not been made “official” yet, even though there was little doubt that all cast members would eventually rejoin the three main stars.

In a press release put out by Summit, the studio announced the return of the entire Cullen family, including Greene, Lutz, Peter Facinelli, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, and Elizabeth Reaser. The release pointed out that the actors have joined Billy Burke, who plays Charlie Swan. Three new posters were also released for the next film in the series, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, one of which can seen to the right. [...]

This week is a special week for us Star Wars fanatics out there, as it is the 30th anniversary of my personal favorite, The Empire Strikes Back. LucasArts is giving all you Xbox 360 owners a special treat by offering ten Avatar costumes and other Star Wars-themed accessories available for purchase tomorrow (May 20th) on Xbox Live.

There’s a nice selection to choose from, including: Imperial snowtrooper (male and female), Boba Fett (male and female), Lando costume with cape (male), Chewbacca (male and female), Rebel snowspeeder pilot (male and female), Han Solo Hoth outfit (male), Leia Hoth outfit (female), Bossk (male and female), C-3PO (male and female), AT-AT pilot (male and female), and props like a tauntaun pet, a ballcap with Yoda ears (male and female), and a lightsaber [...]