The first full trailer for Transformers: Dark of the Moon is finally online at Apple.com, and you can watch it there in high-res or embedded below. It starts off with a fiery crash on the surface of the moon, touches on the awesome astronaut footage you saw in the teaser trailer, and only gets more over the top from there. Yeah, you know you've gotta see this.
Michael Bay has been promising for months now that the third Transformers film would be more coherent and also more spectacular than the disastrous Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and so far we're liking what we're seeing-- robots wreaking havoc both on earth and on each other, some truly stunning footage of a city on fire, and what looks like actual dramatic stakes for our hero character Sam Witwicky. Yes, he's also once again shouting "Optimus!" up to the skies, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's love interest character still seems to only spend the movie gazing open-mouthed at something and crying, but let's not start quibbling yet. That building folding in on itself looks awesome-- on that I think we can all agree.
For more on Transformers: Dark of the Moon visit our Blend Film Database. The movie hits theaters on July 1, and you will not be able to avoid it between now and then.
For a full breakdown of the new trailer - split into 105 screencaps - head on over HERE.
Last year, the ride Star Tours in Disneyland and Walt Disney World shut down in preparation for a much-needed revamp. It was a bittersweet moment for geeks everywhere who had flocked to its hallowed halls in a chance to live some of the Star Wars magic. On one hand, the ride was nearly 25 years old and felt it. On the other, we knew we'd have to suffer through pod race footage.
Here's the brief plot, if you haven't been on the ride. You're part of a tour group going to Endor. Your pilot droid, Rex (voiced by Paul Reubens), is new, so when you zip out of hyperspace you end up in a battle between a star destroyer and some X-wings. After zipping through the trenches of the Death Star, a la A New Hope, you fly away and back to the home star port. Just watch the video so you know what I'm talking about:
But after review, there was just a lot... wrong with the original Star Tours. Things that just didn't make sense. Keep in mind, I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan, but I've watched the original trilogy about as much as an average guy my age. Here are 10 tough questions Star Tours can't -- or won't -- answer.
10) Who the Hell Wants to Take a Tour to Endor?
I know why Endor was chosen to be the Star Tours destination: it's one of the few places that's mentioned by name in the original trilogy (keep in mind, of course, that this ride opened in 1987, which means plans for the ride were probably in place right after Return of the Jedi came out -- and four years before Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire was published). But who the fuck would want to vacation on Endor? It's portrayed in Jedi as a backwoods waste of a planet with little in the ways of settlement. It's so off the radar that the natives speak a language that even the hyper-fluent C-3PO doesn't immediately recognize. The Empire decided to build the Death Star there because no one cares about Endor and no one visits. So why would a tour company make that a prime vacation destination?
9) Why Don't We Ever Get to Endor?
Straight up, we never got to Endor. It's like booking a flight from Philadelphia to Dallas, except you notice halfway that you're flying over Seattle and then you land back in Philadelphia. Star Tours is the worst tour company ever. Everyone should be demanding their money back immediately after landing.
8) Why Is the Droid Pilot an Idiot?
One of the big things that sticks out to me is that Rex, the pilot droid (above), messes things up by first going out the wrong door, then overshoots Endor, and then ends up lost in a combat zone. Shouldn't he have been programmed to do things correctly? I mean, he's a robot. When we program our robots on Earth to make cars in a factory, they do nothing but make cars. They don't suddenly start making donuts or filling the room with bees. Robots are programmed for certain tasks, and even with a little autonomy, Rex should be able to do his fucking job well enough that he doesn't potentially kill his passengers.
7) Why Doesn't Rex Know How to Leave the Building? Admittedly, this is mentioned above, but I think it deserves its own question. Star Tours would seem to be a pretty well-run operation, given the size of the massive hanger you exit from. So when one of your tour ships goes down a maintenance tunnel and ends up flying around, lost in the depths of your building, you don't laugh it off. If you're a professional, you recall the vehicle immediately, get everyone off it, and replace the fucking driver. Then send the driver to robot jail. If a Greyhound bus driver accidentally made a wrong turn and drove through the shops at Port Authority for five minutes, the driver would be in prison, no matter if no one got hurt or not.
6) Actually, Why Does Rex Have Passengers on His First Day on the Job?
Apparently, even robots have a learning curve. So the first day that Rex is piloting this ship he's... got passengers? That doesn't seem right. A responsible company would send him out on his own once or twice to see how he does, given the complexities of piloting a starship. Sure, there might be a few goofs on day one, but Rex's mistakes are less like, "Ooops! Left my wipers on!" and more like, "I have no idea what I'm doing here. You may all die in a fire shortly."
5) Who Tractor Beams an Unknown Ship in the Middle of a Battle? If you're an Imperial soldier on the Star Destroyer, and you're in the middle of a firefight with rebels, and a strange ship flies out of a comet, what would you do? Keep in mind, that there are a bunch of other ships currently shooting at you with lasers -- and you're supposed to protect the Death Star. If you thought the ship was friendly, you'd send out a hailing signal saying, "What the FUCK are you doing here?" Otherwise, you'd blast it just like you're blasting the X-Wings. In the middle of combat the last thing you'd want to do is pull the mystery ship closer.
4) Why Can the X-Wing Pilots Talk to Star Tours... But Not the Imperials? I'm going to skip over the big elephant in the room of when this takes place in Star Wars continuity, because I just can't figure it out (the way they go after the Death Star is purely New Hope, but the proximity to the Endor moon suggests it's somewhere around Jedi -- a failed attack perhaps? We don't see it blow up). I'll move on to something kind of minor: Why can the X-Wing pilotz communicate with Star Tours but the Imperials can't? These guys are rebels, the equivalent to guerilla fighters with good tech, but they can reach out to a tour ship within a few seconds of spying it. Is everyone working on the same frequency?
3) Whose Side Is Star Tours On?
We're supposed to be rooting for the Rebellion, of course, but as Star Tours is a licensed business (presumably licensed by the Empire), its professional loyalties should remain with the governing body. You show your passport to the government official, not the rebel in the jeep who's been running sorties on your bases. Obviously, the Death Star didn't blow up, so this was probably just a failed attack on it by some rebel fighters. But since Star Tours helped out in the attack (they shot lasers! from the space bus!), wouldn't this make them traitors? What you don't see after Rex lands is a squadron of Stormtroopers executing the entire staff of Star Tours for treason.
2) Whose Side Are You On? Tour groups bring in a diverse group of people, so the odds that some of the passengers on Star Tours are pro-Empire are very good. Having different political views is one thing; actively taking part in an attack on the largest government battleship in the universe is another. Remember, the Rebellion is in hiding. The whole beginning of Empire is them trying not be found out while they're on Hoth, otherwise they'll be massacred by AT-ATs. If anyone on the tour to Endor wasn't allied with the Rebellion, they'd be calling the authorities ASAP once they touched down. "Those rebels you've been searching for? Would you believe it, they're running a goddam tour company."
1) What Kind of Tour Company Murders People? At timestamp 3:38 in the video in the intro, a TIE Fighter is coming at your vehicle. Lasers shoot out the front of your tour ship. The TIE Fighter blows up. Congratulations, you're now accessory to murder. Thanks to your little trip to Endor, some family is without its father. Let me reiterate how fucking insane that is: you were on a guided tour and your tour guide, on his own volition, killed a sentient being. Not like he sideswiped it into a ditch or ran him over when he darted out in front of the bus, no, your tour guide consciously murdered someone in a place he wasn't supposed to be at in the first place. Holy shit, that would get your business shut down in a heartbeat.
The film is due to make bank on 3D/2D theaters come July 15, 2011.
Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think? Excited to see this movie?
The film begins as Harry, Ron, and Hermione go back to Hogwarts to find and destroy Voldemort's final horcruxes, but when Voldemort finds out about their mission, the biggest battle begins and life as they know it will never be the same again.
Any audiophile worth their weight in 180 gram vinyl will gladly tell you that nothing sounds quite as good as a record. Unfortunately, the format has a few major drawbacks, like a lack of portability and the fact that it really sucks at making phone calls. The iPhone, on the other hand, is light years ahead of those fronts -- well, one of out two ain't bad. This new concept from designer Olivier Meynard offers the best of both worlds, embedding a horizontal iPhone dock next to a wheel of steel, so you can play back your favorite LP through the built-in speakers and encode those tracks as MP3s, which are uploaded to your handset as it charges. Finally, a way to turn your long out of print prog rock albums into ringtones, as they were meant to be heard.
Kate Middleton and Prince William give their first public kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace following the Royal Wedding on Friday (April 29) in London, England.
The 29-year-old bride stepped out on the balcony in her Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen wedding gown and her Cartier “Halo” tiara.
William gave Kate a quick peck on the lips before going in for a longer kiss after a couple minutes of waving to the thousands of people outside the palace.
The newlyweds were joined by their families for their first public appearance as a married couple.
The hit U.S. reality TV show Jersey Shore has proved so popular that it is now in its fourth series and the binge-drinking, vulgar-mouthed, highly-sexed characters on the show are seemingly as popular as ever.
So it was only a matter of time before the concept was picked up over here and following success of The Only Way Is Essex and the imminent arrival of the Chelsea set to our screens, MTV have looked to the North for their latest reality TV offering.
Pert and a flirt: Holly is the youngest cast member of the latest reality TV show from MTV Geordie Shore
So who are the Geordie Shore cast members who have opted to live together in a bid to bed more randoms and drink their Stateside counterparts under the table?
Meet the youngest member of the crew fake tan addict Holly who introduces herself on camera by grabbing her ample chest and saying: ‘I’m pert, I’m flirt and I’ve got double F boobs.’
Not only does the 18-year-old have a pneumatic chest but her party tricks include downing a shot from her cleavage and according to MTV’s site she: ‘often rounds off the night by getting into a scrap.’
Wrinkle fear: Jay is scared of the ageing process and is rarely seen without his top off
Muscle lover: Charlotte- Letitia, who won't kiss anyone without a six pack and admits: 'Girls call me a slut, ex-boyfriends call me a psycho and my mum calls me an idiot'
And flex: Gary claims to be 'mint' in bed but will he impress the ladies on screen?
THE GEORDIE DICTIONARY
Spice boys – pretty boys
Tash on – snogging
Swilling – throwing a drink over someone
Soound as a poound – good/approved
Purely belter – really good
It’ll be proper mint! – it will be great
ahfancyhor or ahfancyhim – I fancy her / him
Alreet marra? - you alright mate?
Ah wes palatick – I enjoyed myself
And in keeping with the buff bodies seen on Jersey Shore the U.K’s answer to muscled men comes in the form of 25-year-old Jay who says his biggest fear is getting wrinkles, his mantra for life is ‘whoever’ and ‘wherever’.
Next we have 20-year-old Charlotte- Letitia, who won’t kiss anyone without a six pack and admits: ‘Girls call me a slut, ex-boyfriends call me a psycho and my mum calls me an idiot.’
Work-shy James, 20, admits that the hardest graft he has ever done is his hair, and his quest in life is to go out and pull as many girls as possible.
Joining them for the girls is 21-year old ‘tomboy’ Sophie and Vicky,23, who according to the website likes shopping and the gym, which are the only two of her activities which don’t involve alcohol.
And to bump up the testosterone in the house cheeky chap Gary, 23, who claims to be ‘mint’ in bed joins 26-year-old Greg who dresses to impress.
Party people: Work shy James and Vicky love nothing better than a night out on the Toon
Angels of the north: Ladies man Gary and tomboy Sophie are up for anything for a laugh
Plush pad: The eight-strong Geordie gang will live together in a house which boasts modern furniture and plenty of shag-pile rugs
And judging from some pictures inside their new pad don't look to shabby with sneak pics revealing ultra-modern furniture, shag pile rugs and plenty of shiny surfaces to allow the boys to check their refection at all times.
The antics from these ‘angels’ of the North will be shown on MTV from 24 May.
Have you ever had a close friend you felt you knew… until they did something unexpected and out of character? Did they act so strange that you could never see them the same way again? That’s how Tim feels about Nick in the smart comedy series Old Friends. Nick took Tim’s wife’s virginity in high school, and years later Tim cannot forget it… because Nick won’t let him. Although they’re still friends, it’s awkward.
This dynamic is the same in our relationship with celebrities. We fall in love with the characters they play, and then, a minute later, they’re being jailed for tax evasion. We feel betrayed because we thought for sure he/she was an upstanding taxpayer. Although we’ve become accustomed to seeing our favorite stars fall from grace, it’s always disappointing. However, if we’re lucky, there’s footage we can remix for posterity. Christian Bale, anyone?
Old Friends – Pilot
1. Kanye West
Outspoken doesn’t even begin to describe the talented music artist, writer, producer Kanye West. West began his career as a producer, gaining fame for his work with Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, and Ludacris among others. With the release of his debut album College Dropout in 2004, West earned his acclaim as a candid and freethinking lyrist. He began his decent off the deep end the next year during a live benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina when he surprised his fellow presenter, Mike Myers, the television crew, and the world, by deviating from the script declaring, “George Bush doesn’t like black people.” West later recanted his statement, blaming the heat of the moment and his personal frustrations. In 2006, when West failed to win Best Video at the MTV Europe Music Awards, he went up on stage to argue that his video Touch the Sky should have won. If that wasn’t enough, at the 2009 MTV VMAs, West again walked up on stage to protest an award, this time claiming Taylor Swift did not deserve to win the award for best video over Beyonce. He later apologized to Swift for interrupting her speech.
2. Michael Richards
Standup comedian Michael Richards has a long list of television and film credits, but he’s best known for his role as Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld. In 2006, back on stage with his stand-up act, Richards gained a different kind of notoriety. During his performance, hecklers in the audience were treated to an expletive-laden rant. Caught on a camera phone by an audience member, Richards shouted for the black heckler to shut up, calling him the N-word and recalling the days when he would have been lynched. Richards apologized after the event, saying that he was trying to defuse the heckling by being even more over the top. Mission Accomplished!
3. Tom Cruise
One of the highest paid actors in Hollywood, Tom Cruise’s star rose in the 1980s with his movies, Risky Business and Top Gun. His longstanding high-profile image was tarnished, however, in 2005, when Cruise appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and decided to show the audience his love for new girlfriend Katie Holmes. He hopped around the set and jumped on the couch declaring his love. That same year, the action star publicly criticized new mom Brooke Shields for advocating the use of anti-depressants for postpartum depression. Cruise, well known for his advocacy for the Church of Scientology, which openly disputes the validity of psychiatry and psychology, later privately apologized to Shields after publicly criticizing her personal choices. He then –
I’m going to let you finish, but Charlie Sheen sparked the greatest media hype of all time. (That never gets old, Kanye. Thanks!)
4. Charlie Sheen
Film and television star, Charlie Sheen, is known best for his roles in the movies, Major League and Hot Shots, and the TV series’ Spin City and Two and a Half Men. However, he is also best known for his laundry list of arrests, rumored domestic abuses, and court ordered trips to rehab.
Sheen has a long history of making controversial news starting with the 1990 incident when he accidently shot his then fiancée Kelly Preston in the arm. In 2011, Sheen decided to take a hiatus from Two and a Half Men to attend rehab. Following this decision, Sheen spoke out publicly against showrunner Chuck Lorre and his other bosses, calling them “trolls” amongst other insults. In response, CBS and Warner Bros cancelled the remaining four episodes of the season. His ranting gained momentum in the following weeks in news interviews and on Twitter, going so far as to challenge Lorre to a fight and declaring that he would only return to the show if his pay of $1.8 million per episode was doubled. His outrageous statements about having “Adonis DNA” and “tiger blood” earned him the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to reach a million followers on Twitter. (Sheen will earn one million dollars this year from his endorsements on Twitter.) In April, he announced a nationwide tour, which sold out in 18 minutes. Crazy? Maybe. Like a fox? Probably.
5. Mel Gibson
American born, Mel Gibson started his acting career in Australia before returning to America in the 1980s to star in films such as Air America and Lethal Weapon. After gaining a top position as one of Hollywood’s action stars, Gibson stepped into the roles of producer and director, behind such films as Apocalypto and Braveheart. Though a very successful movie star and director, Gibson is also well known for his statements that seem to indicate he’s racist and a homophobe. In 1991, Gibson shot off his mouth regarding homosexual men. At the time, he refused to recant his statement or apologize for his opinion. Gibson claims not to be homophobic and even hosted a seminar along with GLAAD for gay and lesbian filmmakers. He later blamed the incident on alcohol. When Gibson was stopped in 2006 for driving under the influence, he went into an anti-Semitic rant on a Jewish officer. In 2010, he was recorded on a phone conversation, with the mother of his child, suggesting that it would be her own fault if she was raped by a “pack of niggers.” Like the first time, Gibson blames the derogatory remarks on alcohol.
6. Anne Heche
Actress and director Anne Heche began her career on the daytime soap opera, Another World. She moved on to films with roles in The Juror and If These Walls Could Talk. In 2000, after ending a three-year relationship with Ellen DeGeneres, Heche shocked us all when she knocked on the door of a stranger’s house in Fresno, CA, disheveled, scantily dressed, and proceeded to make herself at home. When the police arrived, Heche claimed to be “Celestia,” the reincarnation of God, half-sister to Jesus. She said she had lost her spaceship. She was there to spread love and make the world a better place. In 2001, Heche released an autobiography where she spoke about her terrible childhood and how Celestia, a split personality, was created from that trauma.
7. Sean Penn
Two-time Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn began his career in the early 80s with the films Taps and The Fast Times at Ridgemont High. His marriage to Madonna in 1985 only added to his rising fame. However, as his marriage unraveled, he too seemed to lose it. Penn, a very vocal and passionate social and political activist, developed a tendency to share his political views at the most inappropriate times. In 2002, Penn started to lose credibility when he returned from a trip to Iraq claiming he personally looked for WMDs and did not find any. Later, during his 2006 acceptance speech for the Christopher Reeve First Amendment Award, the actor turned weapons inspector called for the impeachment of President George W. Bush. He went on to declare that leaving Bush in office was tantamount to leaving a semen stain on the American flag. Although Penn is respected as a humanitarian, he does admit to often ruining his good deeds with his rants. In his 2009 Academy Award acceptance speech he said, “I do know how hard I make it to appreciate me.”
Watch more episodes of the buddy comedy OLD FRIENDS
Caryn K. Hayes is an L.A. based writer-producer-director-production coordinator-quality control agent-bartender hailing from New Orleans. She has produced, written, directed, and coordinated numerous web series, documentary and corporate videos, short films and commercials. In 2007, Caryn wrote “The Ridge,” a spec teen drama, which won the 2007 TV Pilot Award from the Organization of Black Screenwriters, and in 2009 she repeated her win with the adult dramedy, “Dirty Thirties.” Caryn created “The World of Cory & Sid,” a comedic web series, which was nominated for Best Television or Web Series in 2009 by the Urban Mediamakers Film Festival. In between her various freelance gigs, she produces sketch comedy with BrevityTV.com, and is currently in post-production with “Breaking Point,” a soap opera web series, which won Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series at the L.A. Web Series Festival. Engaging and fun, Caryn can also mix over 250 drinks and is comfortable with high volume.
It’s about time you put that iPhone or iPod touch to work in the office. If you dock it into this Wow-Keys full-sized keyboard, either can serve as an input device for your Mac or PC. And if you don’t like typing on a touchscreen, you can use the keyboard as an input device for an iPhone or iPod touch.
Besides those tricks, the CompuExpert Wow-Keys act just like an ordinary dock, charging your device and syncing it with iTunes at the same time. When you want to use it as an input device for your Mac or PC, there’s an iOS app with 12 hotkeys that let you perform commonly used functions.
We like the fact that this keyboard is full-sized and versatile enough to serve as an input device for both computer and handset. Take a look at the gallery, and you’ll see a few ways to put that iPhone to work. It’s not going to put your iPhone output on-screen like the Motorola Atrix does, but this could add some convenience to your daily routine.
The keyboard begins shipping May 24 and costs $99.99.
See Milla Jovovich, Ray Stevenson, Matthew Macfadyen and Luke Evans ahead of the film’s fall release.
COLOGNE, Germany - Producer Constantin Film has released the first pictures of Paul W.S. Anderson's highly-anticipated 3-D reboot of The Three Musketeers. See his wife, Milla Jovovich, in costume as M'lady De Winter.
Musketeers stars Matthew Macfadyen, Ray Stevenson, Luke Evans and Logan Lerman as the titular swashbucklers Athos, Porthos, Athos, Aramis and D'Artagnan. Orlando Bloom plays the Duke of Buckingham, Christoph Waltz Musketeer nemesis Cardinal Richelieu and Mads Mikkelsen plays Rochefort.
Constantin will bow The Three Musketeers in Germany Sept. 1, ahead of the film's global roll out.
Move over Baby-That-Laughs-at-Ripped-Paper...there's a new joker in town!
Looking for new ways to entertain your pup and children at the same time? This Illinois mom had the right idea when she started blowing bubbles for her baby to enjoy. Baby was initially a bit *meh* about the whole bubble idea until their pup Bernie, a German Shepherd and Beagle mix, got into the act! Check out the resulting ridiculousness that ensued!
It is, in their own words, ‘something more than a photo but less than a video’.
Two artists have created a new way to to record your special moments - pictures with movement.
The ‘cinemagraphs’ look like still photos but actually feature a subtle area of movement designed to grab your eye and keep you looking. The effect is slightly eerie - but utterly captivating.
Hair-raising: Cinemagraphs may look like stills, but they feature a subtle area of movement designed to grab your eye. These animated photos are the work of Jamie Beck (pictured) and her fellow artist Kevin Burg
Turning a page: The cinemagraphs work by using GIFs, a type of picture format similar to a JPEG which has been around since the invention of home computers but has come into its own with broadband internet
In one shot of a crowded square, bodies are frozen in time, but one man quietly turns the pages of his newspaper.
Another photo of a restaurant terrace is brought to life by the reflection of a taxi going past in the window.
And a picture of photographer Jamie Beck, one of the two behind the project, leaps off the screen when her hair starts to blow in a breeze.
Miss Beck has worked with motion graphics artist Kevin Burg to make the cinemagraphs by using GIFs, a type of picture format similar to a JPEG which has been around since the invention of home computers.
Only now with broadband internet are they bringing it to life with a startling effect.
‘Our cinemagraphs are a way of adding motion to a still image,’ Miss Beck said.
Not as simple as they look: The more complex animated photos take the artists an entire day to pull together
In most cases she shoots the photos and Mr Burg adds on motion-graphics over several hours of painstaking editing.
The more complex ones take an entire day to pull together.
New York-based Miss Beck told The Atlantic magazine: ‘There's something magical about a still photograph - a captured moment in time - that can simultaneously exist outside the fraction of a second the shutter captures.
‘We feel there are many exciting applications for this type of moving image.
‘There's movement in everything and by capturing that plus the great things about a still photograph you get to experience what a video has to offer without the time commitment a video requires.’
She added that sharing websites such as Tumblr have been essential for helping them publish their work and getting them an audience.
Somehow, ritual drunk-conversation concerning team captains for the apocalypse has become a major part of the lives of 20-somethings. Having been matured in the Grandaddy-crowned masterpiece film (put “A.M. 180” on and forget that you have a job), 28 Days Later, we’re all a little too ready to deal with the 2012 of our dreams.
“The Safe House,” designed by KWK Promes, starts to get eerily close to something I could work with, if say 200 bludgeoned members of the undead army came over to eat their way into borrowing some sugar.
“The most essential item for our clients was acquiring the feeling of maximum security,” begins the designers’ website in the summary of the structure. Who wouldn’t feel safe in a concrete rectangle that folds in upon itself to become completely sealed? Even the windows are covered with a slab of concrete when the structure is on nap time.
The house, with its movable walls, has only one entrance, which is located on the second floor after crossing a drawbridge. Seems like the perfect opportunity to use a flamethrower and defend the life of your family, while stylishly nesting in a piece of architectural elitism.
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All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings. His work is amazing.
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