Preacher’s Kid
DVD Edition
Directed by Stan Foster
Starring Andre Butler, Carlos Davis, Letoya Luckett, Tank, Tammy Townsend
Warner Home Video
Release Date: May 4, 2010

Preacher’s Kid is the story of Angie King, a small-town girl whose life revolves around church, taking care of her father, and serving God. Angie (played by Letoya Luckett) is a gifted singer who has dreams of joining a traveling gospel play. Her stern father (Baywatch‘s GregAllan Williams), the bishop of her church, forbids it. Angie joins the play anyway, but gets a lot more than what she bargained for, including a romance with co-star/R&B singer Devlin Mitchell (portrayed by Durrell “Tank” Babbs). Angie quickly comes to realize that all that glitters is not gold in the world of gospel stage plays. Angie is overwhelmed by the betrayal, sex, and other vices that are present on the tour bus and the hotel rooms. Angie begins to realize that many of the things she needed were at home. Can she make it back home? Will her father accept her back home? This is the dilemma that Angie faces over the course of the film.

Letoya Luckett delivers a very solid performance as Angie. The former Destiny’s Child singer, and R&B star in her own right, displays a maturity and poise that shows that she has come a long way since her days singing “No, No, No.” Durrell “Tank” Babbs also delivers a very competent performance as Devlin, the bad boy who steals Angie’s heart [...]

Irredeemable #13
Written by: Mark Waid
Artist: Diego Barreto
Covers by Paul Azaceta and Crisscross
BOOM! Studios
Price: $3.99
Releases date: May 5, 2010

What would the body count be if Superman lost his mind? Mark Waid and Diego Barreto’s Irredeemable takes us into a disturbing universe where the world’s most powerful superhero has gone rogue and the body count climbs into the millions.

Produced by BOOM! Studios and nominated for an Eisner Award, Irredeemable features the super team The Paradigm, led by the all-powerful Plutonian. As the Plutonian suddenly goes rogue and begins a mass slaughter, the rest of the Paradigm struggle to reel him in as civilization slowly collapses. In Irredeemable #13, we catch up with Bette Noir, one of the few remaining free members of the Paradigm as she catches up with her father in a refugee camp. There, she confesses to him that she had the opportunity to stop the Plutonian, but didn’t because it meant admitting infidelity to her husband. Even at the end of her tearful confession, her father refuses to forgive her for her incredibly selfish act [...]

Remember how much crazy viral attention was brought in as J.J. Abrams and company masterfully lured us along with his “dollar bill attached to a string” teases of 2008′s Cloverfield?

Whether you love that movie or not, there is absolutely no denying how much fun it was to take each piece of mysterious video, images, or websites and try to figure out just what was going on as we paused and squinted a thousand times. At one point, people even thought it was going to be a Voltron movie! C’mon now, that’s brilliantly deceptive marketing and EVERYONE wanted to see what all the hype was about when the time came.

Now, rumors are flooding out that a teaser trailer for Cloverfield 2 might just be revealed to you when you go and see Iron Man 2 this weekend. And if this is so, let the viral anarchy begin!

When the movie was released, many loved it as expected, but many hated it as well…which was also kind of expected. [...]

The 2010 One Book, One Twitter event begins today, Wednesday, May 5. What’s that, you ask? Allow me to explain…

Back in March, Jeff Howe, author and contributor at Wired magazine, wondered “What if everyone on Twitter read the same book at the same time and we formed one massive, international book club?” So, over at Wired and through his Twitter account @crowdsourcing, Howe proposed the “One Book, One Twitter” reading event and the voting began to choose a book for the world to read.

In the lead for quite a while was Ray Bradbury’s classic Fahrenheit 451, but then up came Neil Gaiman‘s best-selling novel American Gods for the win. So, starting today, pick up your copy and read along with the world, then tweet about it.

If you want to read and tweet along over the next 8 weeks, make sure you follow @1b1t2010 and to add the hashtag #1b1t to your related tweets. A discussion schedule has been set up, so you can basically read at your own pace, but comment according to a set schedule to eliminate spoilers for those not on the same page as you [...]

Matthew Vaughn went above and beyond the call of duty to get Kick-Ass made when studios wanted nothing to do with such controversial content. After proving how appealing it was to younger audiences, thew director’s passion and drive is paying off with a big new gig.

20th Century Fox has tapped Vaughn to direct X-Men: First Class, the project that originally had Bryan Singer attached to return to the world of mutants. The movie will be based on the Marvel comic book series of the same name, which takes place in the earlier years of Professor Xavier’s school for the gifted and when some of your favorite mutants were first coming to be.

When Singer was initially attached, he stated that this adaptation would mostly focus on the iconic rivalry of Professor X and Magneto, where it began, and how it perished. The idea was then described (and still seems to be the case, judging by the synopsis you can read below) as being about “…the formative years of Xavier and Magneto, and the formation of the school and where there relationship took a wrong turn.” [...]

Paramount Pictures has released two new posters for M. Night Shyamalan‘s new soon-to-be-released feature film, The Last Airbender.

The movie is an adaptation of the animated Nickelodeon kids-aimed series Avatar: The Last Airbender, which tells the story of a boy with special abilities who runs away when he is told he is the next Avatar. 100-years later he is found frozen in an iceberg, right when he is most needed to help his world and his people stop the evil Fire Lord Ozai from destroying his fellow nations in search of ultimate power.

Conjure up your own natural element of choice (I like water; you can have a balloon fight without all that messy latex) and continue on over to the other side to check out the new posters!

Just last week a brand new trailer for the movie was released (Read: Watch Now: New Trailer For M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘The Last Airbender’), so it’s clear that Paramount is making a strong push for box office success when the movie is released on July 2, 2010. [...]

Back in August of last year, Jim Henson‘s son, Brian, revealed that Fraggle Rock and a sequel to The Dark Crystal were very much alive and in developmental stages.

A sequel to 1982′s Dark Crystal had been talked about for as long as can be remembered, but with little successful movement to show for it. When we last heard about it in the link above, all that was shared was that the sequel would be called The Power of the Dark Crystal, and it would take place centuries after the first film. Story-wise, it would be about a girl named Thurma — who is made of fire and lives at the center of the planet — who is on a mission to obtain a shard of the crystal in hopes of re-igniting the dying sun.

Now comes word via a press release sent out today that not only is the movie still alive, but it has a new director(s) and a new writer on board to make it happen. Brothers Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig have been signed to direct the movie, and Craig Pearce has been tapped to rework the script based on an earlier draft. [...]

Hot off their work together in this week’s highly anticipated release of the summer movie season-starting Iron Man 2, director Jon Favreau and Sam Rockwell are set to continue working together immediately.

Rockwell has been cast in the DreamWorks adaptation of the graphic novel Cowboys & Aliens, which is set to become Favreau’s next project. The actor will play Doc, a bar owner who gets involved in the mysterious alien invasion of 19th century Arizona, right in the middle of an ongoing dispute between the cowboys and Apache Indians.

The film — which originally had Doc as a heavier gentleman — was written by Star Trek and Transformers scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, as well as Lost writer and producer Damon Lindelof. When the writers found out that Rockwell — who’s not a heavier gentleman — was interested in joining the project, the writing team made sure to make alterations wherever necessary so that he was able to play the role. [...]

May the Fourth Be With You, Star Wars fans!

Based on a pun stemming from the “May the Force be with you” salutation from the Star Wars franchise, today is celebrated by all Star Wars fans as the day where we can all be ultra-geeky and silly by telling people “May the Fourth Be With You!” … because, today is May 4th, you dig?

I know, silly pun, but hey, we’ll take any chance we get to celebrate Star Wars and impose upon the general public our love of the Star Wars universe.

If you’re on Twitter, make sure you tweet your greeting to the world today with the #StarWarsDay hashtag, which is currently trending!

For more Star Wars fun, head over to JibJab.com where you can upload an image of yourself (and your friends!) — using a computer, Facebook or a webcam — and insert yourself into Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, creating your own personalized movie that you can then share with others via email, Facebook, and Twitter [...]

Well it looks like Captain America will be fighting an agent from The Matrix!

The rumor has been circulating for awhile now but Marvel Studios confirmed today that Hugo Weaving will be playing Johann Schmidt aka the Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger. Chris Evans has already been cast as the Star Spangled Avenger with Hayley Atwell taking on the role of Peggy Carter. Joe Johnston is directing the film with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely handling writing duties.

Marvel says the film will focus on the early days of the Marvel Universe when Steve Rogers volunteers to participate in an experimental program that turns him into the Super Soldier known as Captain America [...]

Lynn Redgrave, renowned actress and performer of the stage and screens big and small, has died at the age of 67. The cause of death was breast cancer, which she admirably battled for many years before finally succumbing to the disease.

Redgrave was always looked at in comparison to her sister, Vanessa Redgrave, but her overall body of work shows that she can easily be talked about as one of the truly incredible and memorable performers of our time.

Aside from a great career performing in many popular Broadway stage productions, she appeared in many acclaimed films and received much praise and numerous awards and nominations for her work. Her two best roles came in 1966′s Georgy Girl and in 1998′s Gods and Monsters, both of which brought her Academy Award nominations and Golden Globe wins.

Aside from that, her 96-credit acting resume spanned many genres and included many TV movies and shows such as House Calls and Chicken Soup. Other films she was in include Kinsey, Peter Pan (2003), and The White Countess, but the thespian was never scared to have fun with her performances, either. [...]

There are some great deals on Star Trek Blu-ray editions this month, including the entire original television series box sets, as well as a few selections from the film series.

First up, Star Trek: The Original Series Blu-ray Editions:

– Star Trek: The Original Series – Season 1 [Blu-ray] for $64.49
(that’s 50% off the list price of $129.99)

– Star Trek: The Original Series – Season 2 [Blu-ray] for $65.49
(that’s 50% off the list price of $129.99)

– Star Trek: The Original Series – Season 3 [Blu-ray] for $49.99
(that’s 62% off the list price of $129.99)

If you want to get all three seasons, you can save over $7 by ordering the entire series Blu-ray box set:

– Star Trek: The Original Series – Seasons 1-3 [Blu-ray] for $172.49 (46% off the list price of $321.99)

Also, during the month of May, Best Buy is offering a few Star Trek movies on Blu-ray for only $9.99 each, while Amazon has these same items discounted as well.

– Star Trek II: Wrath Of Khan: Best Buy | Amazon

– Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home: Best Buy | Amazon

– Star Trek VI: Undiscovered Country: Best Buy | Amazon

– Star Trek VIII: First Contact: Best Buy | Amazon [...]

All this week, Amazon is running a special on box sets for network television series.

Today’s Gold Box spotlight item of the day is four CBS Network Favorites DVD box sets, all of which are 62% off the list price.

– Medium: Seasons 1-5 for $63.99 (down from $169.95)

– Numb3rs: Seasons 1-5 for $64.99 (down from $169.95)

– Criminal Minds – Seasons 1-3 for $45.99 (down from $119.95)

– NCIS: Seasons 1-6 for $89.99 (down from $239.88).

Note, this sale is for today only — Tuesday, May 4 — while supplies last [...]

Last Thursday it was confirmed that Bill Condon, director of Gods and Monsters and Dreamgirls, would be directing the final, possibly two-part chapter of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.

That project is still off on the horizon, but Condon wanted to get things moving in the right direction immediately. The director wrote out a nice letter to all of the mega-fans of the Twilight franchise on the official Facebook page basically introducing himself and assuring them that everything was in good hands, and that he would deliver the best possible closure to this all-important chapter.

Click on over to the other side to see what Mr. Condon had to say to you the fans of Twilight.

Greetings Twihards, Twifans, Twilight Moms, Team Edward, Team Jacob and Team Switzerland,

I just want to say hello to all of you and let you know that I’m stoked to be getting underway on the adventure of making BREAKING DAWN. As you’ve probably heard, I’ve been given a very warm welcome by Stephenie and Team Summit – who are super-focused, as you know, on getting these movies right. [...]

These videos have been around for a long time and were special features on the DVD release of the Jim Henson classic, The Muppet Movie. But it wasn’t until Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer posted it on his blog that I became aware of their existence.

The videos are basically just Henson, Frank Oz, and director Jim Frawley doing camera tests for the 1979 movie, and the result is almost 14 minutes of fantastic Muppet improvisational fun. Most of the time it’s Kermit the Frog and either Fozzie Bear or Miss Piggy, with a mention and appearance of some other Muppets.

These videos (especially the second one) are must-watch for any fan of the Muppets, so drop all your important adult business and click on over to the other side for some surely much-needed happy time!

For those of you who don’t know, The Muppet Movie was the first of many Muppet movies to come along over the years. It was about Kermit as he left his home in the swamps and set off on an adventure to try and reach Hollywood. [...]

Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Platform: Xbox 360
Developer: EA Digital Illusions CE
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: March 2, 2010

When it comes to console online first person shooters, most people fall into two camps. You have your diehard Call of Duty fans (Modern Warfare in particular) and you have your Battlefield fans (let’s ignore the Halo fanboys for the sake of argument).

Ever since the launch of the Xbox 360 I’ve been in the Call of Duty camp. Call of Duty 2 was a launch title and it ushered me into this current generation of consoles with an engaging experience that made me fall in love with the franchise. With the introduction of modern weapons in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare I fell even deeper in love. COD4 became the measuring stick of quality for all other first person shooters in this generation for me. When the first Battlefield: Bad Company was released I was eager to give it a shot but it ultimately fell short of my Call of Duty standards. So I was curious to see what changes would be made in the sequel and if those changes could get me to put down the Modern Warfare and enter the Battlefield.

The biggest change to the sequel is the implementation of destructible environments. No longer are you safe behind a wall or standing next to a barrier. Grenades, bullets and bombs will shred through the environments like paper rendering any type of cover system useless. This totally changes how you have to approach firefights in both multiplayer and single player campaigns [...]

The Flash #1
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Francis Manapul
Colorist: Brian Buccellato
Letterer: Nick J Napolitano
DC Comics
Price: $3.99
Released: April 14, 2010

One thing to get out of the way: Buy Flash #1. If only for the art, every comics fan should buy this issue. This is a feast for the eyes, and if you want to see some of the finest art being produced today, you have no excuse. I don’t care if you’ve never read The Flash before (I haven’t), and I don’t care if you’re a Marvel fan and not a DC kind of person. This is a comic for people who love superhero adventure, plain and simple. With that out of the way, we move onto the rest of the review.

Geoff Johns has a long history with The Flash. His run on the book was a big reason why he became a super-star writer and one of DC’s big creative executives these days, so it’s no surprise that he is leading the character back into the limelight. The last few years have been rough on the character, with one Flash being saddled with a couple of kids, one Flash being brutally killed, and yet a third Flash spending a year in creative limbo as we waited for the story of his resurrection to be told [...]

A title that certainly needs no introduction, the remake/reboot/re-imagining/re-envisioning of the horror classic A Nightmare on Elm Street is now here.

Just like with Friday the 13th back in February of 2009, Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes production company is bringing the dark lord of your very worst dreams, Freddy Krueger, back to cinemas to try and terrify a whole new generation of young fans.

Despite the obvious visual updates to the character and world, horror purists are still having trouble warming up to this new Nightmare on Elm Street. But what did YOU think? Was it superior to the older movies? Was is a terrible remake? Is it fun, despite its lacking qualities?

This time around, the idea is to try and add a level of realism to the story, first with the appearance of Freddy Krueger, which is a gruesomely accurate depiction of a burn victim. Instead of bringing back fan-favorite Robert Englund (I’m still waiting for Freddy vs. Jason 2!), producers cast another current fan-favorite in Jackie Earle Haley, who dusts off his best Rorschach voice for the part.

Also, in the beginning, Freddy doesn’t start as a pure killer. He begins as a simple, nobody of a man who’s accused of unthinkable acts against the children of Elm Street and finds himself running from an angry mob of parents. But the parents’ final act of vengeance actually unleashes an unspeakable evil as the dream demon emerges years later, ready to have his revenge within the subconscious of many unsuspecting victims.

Wake up as soon as possible and run to the other side to read our spoiler-filled thoughts on the movie, and then vent and praise your own views! It’s time for SPOILER-TALK! [...]

Very few people are excited about the prospect of a live-action/CGI hybrid movie based on the animated childhood favorite, The Smurfs. Even so, when it was announced that fan-favorite Hank Azaria would be playing the evil Gargamel, you couldn’t help but giggle a little at the thought.

Now comes the very first image of Mr. Azaria in full Gargamel makeup and attire by way of Splash News (via ComingSoon), and fans of the old cartoon and this casting choice will surely enjoy taking a peek at how the actor looks.

Brew your favorite potion, say the magic words, and slip over to the bottom of this post to see Hank Azaria as Gargamel in The Smurfs!

Azaria is pretty darn creepy looking, but in a goofy, cartoony kind of way. If nothing else is even remotely entertaining about this movie, the Gargamel performance will have some form of comedic value to it, and that alone may make it worth a peek when it eventually shows up on TV one night. [...]

Krod Mandoon & The Flaming Sword of Fire
DVD
Created by Peter A. Knight
Sean Maguire, Matt Lucas, John Rhys-Davies, Kevin Hart
Comedy Central
Release date: March 23, 2010

In a time when all you had to go on were your brains and your brawn, and warlocks and mythical creatures were around, we find the hero of our story Krod Mandoon. This somewhat insecure but courageous hero is thrown into many situations that would normally take great skill to escape. Fortunately for him and his band of somewhat bumbling misfits, pure dumb luck is on their side as well. Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire is a six-episode miniseries created by Peter A. Knight for BBC Two and Comedy Central.

I was not sure what to make of this show when I first saw the advertisement playing on Comedy Central last summer, but I knew one thing for sure, that it looked hilarious. To my surprise it did not disappoint. While having a bit of a slow start (which is to be expected of new shows sometimes) it gradually gets better as it goes. If you love corny and raunchy humor, then you will love this series [...]