Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Geeks of Doom Invade Your Inbox

Posted by entertainment at 6:10 AM

Geeks of Doom Invade Your Inbox

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Book Review: Android Karenina

Posted: 08 Jun 2010 05:41 AM PDT

Android Karenina
By Leo Tolstoy & Ben H. Winters
Paperback Edition
Quirk Classics
Release date: June 8, 2010

This review of Android Karenina is part of the Quirk Classics Blogsplosion event, where you can enter for a chance to win one of 25 Quirk Books prize-packs. Visit Quirk Classics to enter and be sure to tell them that Geeks of Doom sent you!

Literary monster mash-ups are all the rage these days with most of the fun not only happening in England, but in the 19th century fictional world of Jane Austen thanks to titles like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. With the success of these books, it's no wonder that historical and popular fictional characters are getting in on the action with Queen Victoria hunting demons (Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter), the young ladies of Little Women facing werewolves (Little Women and Werewolves), and even President Abraham Lincoln is out there stalking vampires (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter).

There's no doubt vampires, werewolves, and other creatures of the night will be invading, stalking, and menacing Regency England many more times in the future, but if you want a little variety in your literary mash-ups, then look no further than Android Karenina, the newest selection in the Quirk Classics library.

In Android Karenina, author Ben H. Winters takes Leo Tolstoy's classic Anna Karenina, set in 19th century Russia, and converts it into a futuristic science fiction tale with robots, mechanical terrorists, and space travel, all made possible by the discovery of the "Miracle Metal" groznium.

Did you catch that? Robots... all types of robots from manservants to laborers to mechanical animals to massive attack cyborgs controlled by an anti-government terrorist organization known as UnConSciya (Union of Concerned Scientists) [...]

Students Turn Observatory Into R2-D2

Posted: 07 Jun 2010 06:55 PM PDT

An observatory at Carleton College was decorated to look like familiar Star Wars droid R2-D2 as a prank by a group of students.

The pranksters draped several white bedsheets with blue and black spraypaint around the building and stuck sheets of paper on the dome and entrance to mimic the droid's likeness. They even have the sound effects going on in the background while [I'm assuming] employees assess the situation and enter the facility.

For photos of the R2-D2-ized observatory, check out the college's Facebook page or watch a video of the prank below, which is awkwardly filmed sideways, but no less impressive [...]

Would You Watch ‘Taskmaster’ And ‘Preacher’ Movies?

Posted: 07 Jun 2010 03:30 PM PDT

Would you watch Taskmaster and Preacher movies?

The A-Team director Joe Carnahan certainly hopes so.

Carnahan recently spoke to Superhero Hype about the Taskmaster adaptation he was working on with The A-Team producer Alex Young.

Taskmaster is a Marvel Comics villain who first appeared in 1980 in Avengers #195, and is a character that Carnahan considers to be "below the radar."

"Originally I wanted to do 'Juggernaut' 'cause I had a really good take on that, and then 'Taskmaster' was something we talked about, and I haven't discussed it with [Young] for ages, but I would love to get back in. I love the idea of a guy with photographic reflexes, he can see something and repeat it, I thought that was such a cool idea."

"I think it might be one of those Marvel characters you really need to reimagine because he's got the whole skull and cape. It's a bit grandiose I think -- but it would certainly be a cool thing." [...]

Tom Cruise Resurrects ‘Tropic Thunder’ Suit Les Grossman For MTV Movie Awards

Posted: 07 Jun 2010 02:26 PM PDT

Aside from the trailers shown off at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, there was pretty much only one other thing that really stood out as memorable and hilarious. That, surprisingly, came in the return of Les Grossman, the vulgar, in-your-face movie-producing head honcho who made such a memorable mark in the Hollywood parody, Tropical Thunder.

Grossman (played brilliantly by the not-always-sane but still incredibly-talented Tom Cruise) opened the show up with a pre-recorded skit in which he takes on the producing duties of the MTV Movie Awards and goes on to offer advice (in his own loving way) to The Twilight Saga stars Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, and then to young Jaden Smith while poppa Will Smith stands by.

A little later on, stars of The Hangover Ken Jeong and Ed Helms opened up a musical number, which quickly gets Grossman's attention and forces him to keep the show going himself with a dance number with JLo!

Again, these were pretty much the only thing entertaining about the ceremony, but now you can skip wasting time with the whole show and just click over to the other side and watch the videos now! [...]

Digital Deal: ‘The Office’, ‘In Plain Sight’, ‘Precious’ & ‘Pirate Radio’

Posted: 07 Jun 2010 01:04 PM PDT

This week, Amazon is offering up some great movie and television deals through their Video On Demand service. Of note, TODAY only, you can buy the entire Season 5 of NBC's The Office for only $9.99 -- that's 26 episodes for ten bucks! And coming up on Wednesday, you can purchase the entire Season 1 of USA's In Plain Slight for only $2.99! That's all 12 hour-long episodes of the series.

Also available right are some Video On Demand Movies under $6 for purchase, with titles like The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings, The Karate Kid, The Godfather, The Matrix, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and tons more! [...]

Confirmed: Netflix On The iPhone Coming This Summer

Posted: 07 Jun 2010 12:00 PM PDT

Netflix's streaming media library is finally coming to the iPhone app store, according to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings who announced the news today at the Apple WWDC event.

The push to make Netflix available will happen this summer and coincide with the release of Apple's fourth generation iPhone device, which features a plethora of major hardware upgrades.

The iPhone 4 (as it's currently being called) will sport a larger 3.5 inch display, 960x640 resolution with 326 pixels per inch, 800:1 contrast ratio (4x better than the older model), IPS Technology for superb color, and wide viewing angle, stated Apple CEO Steve Jobs on the WWDC stage.

"It has 78 percent as many pixels as the iPad! Right in the palm of your hand!," Jobs said […]

MTV Movie Awards Trailers For ‘Harry Potter,’ ‘Twilight,’ ‘Scott Pilgrim’ & ‘Last Airbender’

Posted: 07 Jun 2010 10:17 AM PDT

In case you had not heard, the 2010 MTV Movie Awards aired last night. And in case you actually cared, they sucked as they have for the past five years or so... give or take and all that.

The problem with the awards is that they went from being cool to aiming at pre-teen kids as their audience far too much. Not only that, but then actually letting them vote, which leads to the most preposterous things you could possibly think of even nominating going on to take home the popcorn trophy and embarrassing true movie fans everywhere.

Even so, each year usually brings at least one or two things worth mentioning, and some exciting new trailers to check out. This year, the big world premiere trailers shown were for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, The Last Airbender, and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

If you're excited about that last trailer, then you probably actually loved this year's MTV Movie Awards, but because we try to love all of our readers as equally as possible, we wanted to show them all off.

Click on over to the other side to check out all the trailers for yourself [...]

Movie Review: Splice

Posted: 06 Jun 2010 10:03 AM PDT

Movie Review: Splice
Directed by Vincenzo Natali
Starring Sarah Polley, Adrian Brody, Delphine Chanaec
Release date: June 4, 2010

On May 21, 2010, it was announced that Craig Ventor, made famous by his work on the Human Genome Project, had successfully created artificial, self-replicating life in a laboratory setting.

For the makers of Splice, the timing couldn't have been better.

Canada, my own stomping ground, has a long and proud horror history that few people take notice of, and Splice is a smart edition to a genre that has been suffering from remake ennui. Warner Brothers, in conjunction with the good people at Dark Castle, have produced a smart, sexy modern day monster flick that pushes all the right buttons as the debate about biotechnology heats up.

Adrian Brody (The Pianist, King Kong) and Sarah Polley (Dawn of The Dead, Beowulf and Grendel) star as a pair of ultra-hip, cutting edge scientists in the employ of a global pharmaceutical company who have made a name for themselves designing artificial life forms. There first successful project was a pair named Fred and Ginger. The company hopes to profit on the enzymes that the pair create to cure livestock disease, but it's the dream of the researchers hope to take their research to the next phase. In defiance of their corporate masters, they create a human genetic hybrid and that's when the fit really hits the shan [...]

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