Waiting For Superman
Written and Directed by Davis Guggenheim
Participant Media
Release date: September 24, 2010

If director Davis Guggenheim’s previous film, An Inconvenient Truth, was America’s wake-up call to the global warming crisis, then his latest effort, Waiting for Superman, is a cry for help to save America’s public school system.

The U.S. public school system is in trouble. Despite the signing of The No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 to improve public education as a whole, the results have been less than stellar. Overall test scores across the states are still at an all-time low, drop-out rates keeping increasing, and some schools still can’t provide basic supplies for their classrooms. So how did it get so wrong? And is it too late to fix this broken institution?

Despite the film’s sometimes grim and always serious tone, the information is presented to the audience in an informative and digestible format. Using cartoon animation, one on one interviews, and kitchy archival footage, the documentary is never boring even if it does feel like a product from the Michael Moore school of documentary filmmaking [...]

The Gold Box spotlight deal of the day over at Amazon today is the Thriller: The Complete Series for only $55.99 (that’s 63% off the list price of $149.98).

Note, this sale is only for today, Sunday October 17, 2010 until midnight PST, while supplies last.

This 14-disc box set contains all all 67 episodes of this horror series hosted by horror legend Boris Karloff, which aired on NBC from 1960 to 1962. The episodes are all uncut and remastered, and this set contains lots of bonus features, including new audio commentaries.

The series, which told tales of the macabre, had such guest stars as William Shatner, Leslie Nielson, Rip Torn, and Richard Chamberlain.

For those of you who love horror, Thriller is known as “as one of the most frightening programs ever broadcast on television” even today. Plus, Karloff — who is well known for his roles as iconic monsters Frankenstein and The Mummy, appears in five episodes of the series [...]

It feels like the two-part adaptation of The Hobbit has been given the greenlight about twelve times at this point, but each and every time sees an immediate step back to the “not quite yet” status.

Recently it sounded like an official greenlight was on the horizon with Peter Jackson locked in to direct after Guillermo del Toro had to step away, and it appears that these words were no lie. Many outlets are hearing and reporting that yes, The Hobbit has now been given the official OK, with Jackson still attached despite his ongoing feud with unions causing a bit of a hiccup.

Even with this announcement sounding like “the one” everyone has been waiting for, some still feared that there was reason to believe that this was STILL not official. Because of how often we’ve been teased and toyed with, we might have just ignored this news until there was something more solid, but thankfully a nice and neat press release has been sent out to the masses to calm worrying hearts. [...]

The good folks over at Motion Pictures Comics are at it again with another parody and this time its Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I must say that this is one of the funniest comic strips I have ever read and I love how they use the environment as one joke after another.

The series took a swipe at the Trek universe back in May 2009 with their parody of the latest Star Trek film [Read Geek Humor: 'Star Trek' Parody Comic Strip].

The team over at Motion Pictures Comics is one of a kind and I love their work. Every Star Trek fan should check this out and let us know what you think. It jokes about the movie, but pays tribute to it at the same time [...]

Lost: The Complete Collection
DVD | Blu-ray
Created by Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse, J.J. Abrams
Starring Matthew Fox, Terry O’ Quinn, Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Jorge Garcia
Release Date: August 24, 2010

It has been several months since the season finale of Lost, but fans are still buzzing about the finale. Some fans loved it and felt satisfied by the ending, while others felt cheated by it, as though they’ve wasted six years of their life. Me? I was just waiting for Lost: The Complete Series box set to come out. I had a feeling that the producers of the hit show would go the distance to give Lost the proper DVD sendoff it deserves, and boy did they ever.

For those unfamiliar with the show, the series follows a group of passengers from Oceanic Flight 815 after their plane crash lands them on a beautiful and mysterious island. Realizing that until someone finds and rescues them, the surviving members need to learn to live together or die alone. Along they way they meet up with polar bears (yes polar bears!), underground tunnels, smoke monsters, and the mysterious group of people who landed on the island before them, called The Others [...]

It’s no secret that I have a slightly unhealthy obsession with Batman, and that obsession certainly includes the Adam West, camp-fueled television series of the 1960s. So, when I saw that the ultra-rare Legends of the Super Heroes is getting released on DVD on October 19, I could hardly contain myself. This is the one artifact from the Adam West era that I have never seen, and guys… it’s totally the stuff of legend.

In this remastered format from the original tape that was believed to be destroyed, Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) team up with The Flash, Green Lantern, and more members of The Justice League to face off against The Riddler (Frank Gorshin, who is totally insane), Mordru, Weather Wizard, and more in a live-action onslaught of awesome. The DVD includes the episodes “The Challenge” and “The Roast,” but it also features never-before-seen deleted scenes that are most likely just as crazy as the entire premise for the DVD [...]

Anyone Can Play Guitar
Directed by Jon Spira
Starring Colin Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, Gaz Coombes, Nick Cope, Mark Cope
Canal Cat Films
Release date: October 9, 2010 (Limited UK)

In the last couple of years there have been a number of music documentaries which have breathed life into what was becoming a tired genre, unleashing new or once forgotten bands and music into the world. Last year’s Anvil!: The Story of Anvil and Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage, released earlier this year, were particularly impressive, highlighting a human story full of years of struggle and ultimate joy to the soundtrack of awesome music. Continuing this trend comes Anyone Can Play Guitar, which tells the story of the 30-year history of music in Oxford, England.

English cities have long been synonymous with great music: Liverpool gave rise to The Beatles; Manchester Oasis and the Stone Roses; the East Midlands area is widely considered the ‘home of metal’ thanks to the emergence of Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Judas Priest; London has produced many, many successful musicians and bands. Added to that list is Oxford, a city consistently punching above its weight when it comes to producing great indie rock music [...]

One of the most famous — if not THE most famous — voice actors on the planet, James Earl Jones, was a guest on the Live! With Regis and Kelly show recently.

The actor talks about how he got started in the business, and about his new gig playing the Morgan Freeman role in a stage adaptation of Driving Miss Daisy with Vanessa Redgrave, but also talks about his work as the iconic voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars trilogy.

Earl Jones touches on how they decided that the man in the suit, David Prowse, didn’t have quite the voice they were looking for, and how at first they were looking at Orson Welles for the job, but ultimately decided that he was just a bit too recognizable. Enter an offer to Earl Jones to do it, and it’s all history from there. He also talks about how chose not to be credited because he felt he didn’t need to be, and how he chose not to take the “points” that eventually made others involved in the movies millionaires thanks to residual payments. [...]

Rarely does anyone tune in for the actual award presentations during a ceremony such as Spike TV’s Scream Awards. With fans voting and Spike stupidly including the worthless Twilight Saga in the nominees, there’s always a very, very good chance that horribly undeserving winners will be announced.

That said, there’s usually a lot of fun special guests and world exclusive first peeks at big upcoming movies, which does make it worth a watch. This year, Spike has put together a couple of significant dedications and reunions that will make it even more must-see. We just saw the promo for Back to the Future, which will see the cast reuniting on stage for the 25th Anniversary celebration, and there will also be a nice dedication to ABC’s mega-hit show, LOST, which sadly ended not too long ago.

To promote this special salute to the series, a special Dharma Initiative video was created with our old friend Dr. Chang (or whatever of his other names you prefer), explaining how you can help. This includes sitting around your television, enjoying some Dharma chips and beverages, and maybe even a nice 40oz malt liquor. You can see the video by heading below now! [...]

Well boys and girls, another comic convention has come and gone. As we all take time to assess how much of your hard earned dollars you flushed down the toilet on cool art/comics/or toys, I thought it would be a good idea to jot down a couple of the things I liked about this year’s New York Comic Con and a few things I didn’t like.

Like: The set-up

Now I am not sure about you, but I actually quite dug the new convention set-up. The folks at Reed Expo really used their nearly two-year absence effectively, crafting a new layout for the convention floor. Using basically the whole Jacob Javits Center, the convention was actually separated into two areas. There was the all-things-comics portion of the convention on the end of the convention center (Artist Alley, comic book store booths, etc.) and the entertainment portion (video game company booths, comic book publisher booths, etc.) on the other, all connected by one man-made tunnel. The result? Happy fan boys and girls. Those who come only for the comics can stay on one side, and those who want to see everything less can stay on the other. Plus, people can actually get to places they wanted to go with little to no traffic…

The Gold Box spotlight deal of the day over at Amazon today is the Stargate SG-1 Complete Season DVDs for $13.99 each (that’s 65% off the list price of $39.98). You can choose any/all of the 10 individual season DVDs for this price.

Note, this sale is only for today, Friday October 15, 2010, while supplies last.

This is a great deal if you need to complete your collection or perhaps want to jump onto the popular scifi series, Stargate SG-1, which stars Richard Dean Anderson, Christopher Judge, and Sanctuary‘s Amanda Tapping.

Also, I noticed that the price on the Stargate SG-1 – The Complete Series Collection has been drastically reduced to $93.99 (down 53% from the list price of $199.98). The lowest I’ve ever seen this box set drop to was $131.99, so this is truly a steal at this point — 10 season DVDs, along with tons (seriously tons) of bonus features, this works out to around $9.40 per season if you buy the entire package. That’s crazy!!! [...]

ABC is now in the early stages of developing a new live-action television series based on the Marvel superhero, The Incredible Hulk.

The announcement comes as no surprise after ABC owner The Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel, leading to the birth of Marvel TV and hopes of bringing all of those superheros to your living room. And with years of successful feature film adaptations of all of these comic book heroes under their belt, why not try the series format.

Earlier this month is was announced that Warner Brothers TV was developing their own comic book television series based on Wonder Woman. Unlike most of the other superheroes, this came after years of failed attempts at adapting Wonder Woman into its own movie. The Hulk has seen two feature films make it to the big screen, with one from director Ang Lee starring Eric Bana being universally disliked and the other from director Louis Leterrier and starring Edward Norton thaw received a significant amount of praise. [...]

A trio of new stars are reportedly in negotiations to join Barry Sonnenfeld‘s Men in Black III, the third installment in the mega franchise that began in 1997.

According to sources, 30 Rock star and “single greatest actor of all time” Alec Baldwin, District 9 and The A-Team‘s Sharlto Copley, and Clash of the Titans and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time actress Gemma Arterton are all said to be in negotiations with Sony for roles in the new movie.

If all goes well, Baldwin will play the man who runs MiB back in 1969, the year that star Will Smith will be traveling back to in order to save a young K (Josh Brolin) from Yaz (Jemaine Clement), a nasty alien who’s been sent back in time Terminator style to take K out and ensure the destruction of Earth…if plot details we’ve heard are accurate, that is. [...]

Yesterday, Spike TV released a promo video for the Spike TV Scream Awards of Michael J. Fox back in his Back To The Future Marty McFly get-up getting ready to ride the time-traveling DeLorean. In honor of the film’s 25th anniversary, Fox and the cast of BTTF will reunite during the awards ceremony. But that isn’t the only reunion in town.

EW recently got Fox back together with his BTTF co-star Lea Thompson for a photoshoot with the film’s iconic time-traveling vehicle.

Watch the video here below, which includes Fox and Thompson talking about filming with the DeLoreon, as well as Fox’s famous awkward physical comedy in the movie, especially the scenes of Fox back in time as Marty meeting his then-teenaged hormone-fueled mom (Thompson).

The photoshoot is part of EW’s first-ever Reunions issue, which brings together the casts of 12 movies and television shows, like Lord Of The Rings, Pretty in Pink, and Alias. The issue hits stands tomorrow, October 15, 2010 [...]

Get ready to do the Time Warp again… and again… and again… this Halloween when Fox Movie Channel does a Rocky Horror Picture Show marathon where they’ll be showing the 1975 cult film continuously for 24 hours!!!

But before the October 31st marathon, Fox Movie Channel will air an exclusive extended version of the movie on Tuesday, October 26 immediately following the Halloween-themed episode of Glee called “The Rocky Horror Glee Show,” which begins at 8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT on FOX. In the episode, the gang performs tunes from the long-running horror-scifi musical, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year.

If you want to see the film again before the Glee episode, The Rocky Horror Picture Show 35th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray comes out on October 19, 2010. This is one of my favorite movies ever, so I highly recommend it and can’t wait to see how the Glee gang performs the awesome tunes from the film.

Check out the Glee episode details, along with some promo videos, here below [...]

Epic can barely describe the events that I witnessed as I was leaving the convention for the last day of 2010′s New York Comic Con last weekend.

My eyes and ears were treated to a magical experience that I was lucky enough to catch on video, and here it is below.

It’s of Boba Fett playing “The Song of Storms” from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the accordion [...]

Recorded October 13, 2010.

Our October Doom Of The Month will be Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead Volumes 1 & 2! If you want to read along with us, head on over to Instocktrades.com or DCBService.com to pick up volumes 1 and 2 for some super prices! Be sure to check back at the end of October for our special review episode.

Check out Episode 24 of Comics of Doom, the official comics podcast of Geeks of Doom. Click HERE to open the podcast player in a new window.

Podcast player is here below, along with an Episode Guide.

Listen now!

E-mail us at comicsofdoom [at] gmail.com
Follow us on Twitter – @ComicsOfDoom
Subscribe to the Podcast: RSS | iTunes | Zune [...]

You just have to love when things play out like this.

Earlier this month, it was reported that David O. Russell would be writing and directing the latest attempt to adapt Sony Computer Entertainment and Naughty Dog video game Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune into a movie. This was exciting news for fans of the game who see how much potential there is for a great movie franchise, but who could play Nathan Drake?

As is, Drake is already a well-rounded and likable character, and all that’s needed is an actor who would be best fitted to bring him to life. At the end of our initial story, I made it pretty clear that they should just cast Firefly and Castle star Nathan Fillion immediately. This was all wishful thinking and came with little expectations of Fillion becoming a possibility, but apparently I am not alone in seeing how ridiculously perfect the actor is for the part. [...]

Amazon is offering up Star Trek VII: Generations for purchase for only $3.99 through their Video On Demand service.

This digital deal is only for today, Thursday, October 14 until midnight PST, so grab it while you can. The digital version is regularly $9.99, and the 24-hour rental is $2.99.

Visit the Star Trek VII: Generations product page to purchase the film.

Released in 1994, Generations is the seventh film in the Star Trek franchise and was an effort to bring together the original members of the Enterprise crew, including James T. Kirk (William Shatner) with the full cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, captained by Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). While not brilliantly executed, the film but it does have a few elements worth watching for like the android Data getting an emotion chip, and the two captains meeting up to battle a new foe (Dr. Soran played by Malcolm McDowell). There’s also something that happens in this movie that has and still does anger fans.

Synopsis: Capt. Picard, with the help of supposedly dead Capt. Kirk, must stop a madman willing to murder on a planetary scale in order to enter a space matrix. [...]

The Gold Box spotlight deal of the day over at Amazon today is Torchwood Season 1 and 2 on DVDs and Blu-rays for 58% off.

Note, this deal is only for today, Thursday October 14, 2010 until midnight PST while supplies last.

Get the Complete Season 1 and 2 DVD and Season 2 Blu-ray for $33.99 each (that’s 58% off the list price of $79.98); Season 1 Blu-ray for $41.99 (that’s 58% off the list price of $99.98).

Each DVD/Blu-ray comes with a bonus features like episode commentaries, deleted scenes, featurettes, and more.

The BBC television series Torchwood is the Doctor Who spin-off that stars John Barrowman as Captain Jack.

- Torchwood – The Complete First Season – DVD – $33.99

- Torchwood – The Complete Second Season – DVD – $33.99

- Torchwood: The Complete First Season – Blu-ray – $41.99

- Torchwood: The Complete Second Season – Blu-ray – $38.99 [...]