Author: Maurice Mitchell
August 16, 1930 – March 24, 2010 Robert Martin Culp, 79, a prolific American actor, Emmy-award winning writer and director passed away this week. His death has an eerie connection to an anniversary. The quintessential tough-guy, Culp’s big break came in 1965 when he, along with Bill Cosby, starred in the secret agent show I, Spy. The show broke the color barrier on television and made them household names. Not only did he star in the show, but he wrote the pilot and directed several episodes. Mr. Culp also appeared in several episodes of The Outer Limits, the video game…
USBGeek has many really cool items, but they also have some dumb ones that could land you in jail. First, the “Bluetooth Retro Handset” which looks like an old telephone handset without the cord. When I was young, I lugged a car phone around and this seems like a great way to recreate the experience. What is the point of having a bluetooth headset if you have to hold it in your hands? I’m pretty sure these would get you locked up in California. Second, we have the “Handgun USB Drive” which looks exactly like a 3-inch handgun. I had a switchblade comb…
I promised myself I’d stop tinkering with the blog this month, but I couldn’t resist letting you all know that we’re adding a more robust commenting feature using Disqus. You’ll still be able to comment as a guest or use or several other popular login options. But, a Disqus account gives you the ability to do more. Here are five good reasons: Simplicity – Disqus lets you collect all the comments you have scattered over the blogosphere and keep an eye on responses and reactions to them. Rating – You can rate comments and start earning points for well done…
Fans everywhere were relieved to hear that Chris Evans has agreed to ruin not only The First Avenger: Captain America, but the entire Marvel franchise as well. The Internet was abuzz over fears that the comic company would give the role of Steve Rogers to an actor that would take the role seriously. Marvel was looking at a short list of actors to lead not only Cap film, but the entire Avengers franchise as well. Director Joe Johnston searched long and hard for an actor that would convincingly highlight the humor and slapstick comedy that is the hallmark of the “Star Spangled…
“Please help me move out of Aunt May’s house…” [Pic of the week from SciFiWire]Members of the International Church of Jediism keep getting in trouble for not removing their cloaks. Last week Chris Jarvis, 31, was kicked out of a job center for refusing to remove his hoodie. The handbook of the UK Jedi Church states: “Jedis must wear a hood up in any public place of a large audience.” Chris whined, “Muslims can walk around in whatever religious gear they like, so why can’t I?” First, I’d have more respect if he had the guts to wear an actual Jedi…
The Battlestar Galactica / Beastie Boys “Sabotage” mash-up video has exploded on the Internet since being uploaded, but only a privileged few have gotten to know the creator Katie King, otherwise known by her YouTube name as katamaran78. How did she find the clips she used? Did it really take her ten days to make the whole thing? Why would Admiral Adama pimp-slap Captain Kirk? Find out in our exclusive interview with Katie King: Welcome Katie. What was the motivation behind the Battlestar Galactica “Sabotage” mash-up video? I’m known amongst my friends in the BSG fandom for having really crazy, funny…
There’s a very impressive remake of the American rap rock group Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” video recut with clips from the science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica. The vid exploded on Youtube nine days ago and it’s already up to 197,900 views. When I first saw the Battlestar Galactica “Sabotage” video I wasn’t too impressed since people set music to video all over Youtube. That is until I found out that is an almost shot-for-shot remake of the 1994 video by katamaran78. I’ve added some screencaps of the more impressive shots and the video after the jump. The amount of time and care involved is mind-boggling and it’s…
Doctor Who, the British time-traveller, is returning to television on Saturday Apr. 17, and here’s a run down of what we know so far. Matt Smith, at 27, plays the eleventh regeneration of the Doctor, wearing suspenders (braces), a bow tie, tweed jacket and emo haircut covering his gargantuan forehead. He describes his take as “a little reckless. He’ll walk into a room and have a million things to do. And, as opposed to knowing exactly how to get out, he’ll take it up to the precipice: don’t know, don’t know, don’t know, and boom, there’s the idea. And it’s a bit mad and…
Who Says Star Wars Costumes Have to Be Expensive?[Pic of the Week from LA Times]Daylight Savings Time (DST) starts March 14th, and while Arizona kicked DST to the curb years ago, I know many people struggle under the old “Spring forward, fall back” rule. It started me thinking about space travel and DST. Can you imagine what would happen if astronauts had to adjust their clocks to keep up with Earth time? With their day length of 24 hr 39 min, Mars-dwellers wouldn’t have two much trouble, but what about Moon astronauts adjusting for a day 29 days long? Turns out they don’t…
To call the new trailer for Tron: Legacy good is like saying Adam Richman kind of likes food. It’s amazing. Here’s the Official Plot Synopsis: TRON: LEGACY is a 3D high-tech adventure set in a digital world that’s unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn (GARRETT HEDLUND), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (JEFF BRIDGES), looks into his father’s disappearance and finds himself pulled into the digital world of Tron where his father has been living for 25 years. Along with Kevin’s loyal confidant Qora (OLIVIA WILDE), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey of…
We’d like to welcome two new additions to the Blog Roll: Nerdlogue http://www.nerdlogue.blogspot.com/ Description: “A blog and podcast dedicated to discussing, reviewing, and giving a nerd take on all things nerdy. Opinions, reviews, news coverage, and everything related to technology, movies, etc…” Why: You know a blog is good when you find yourself wishing you’d written a post. He’s a geek. We’re nerds. Can’t we all just get along? Favorite Post: Internet Explorer 6: You Won’t Be Missed Truth On Cinema http://truthoncinema.com/ Description: “Truth On Cinema is a place to find honest and insightful opinions on movies and cinema. I’m not…
On this day, in 1967, the Star Trek: The Original Series episode “The Devil in the Dark” aired the third appearance of the now famous “Vulcan Mind Meld” as Mr. Spock uses his empathic technique to access the mind of the alien rock monster Horta. William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk, described this as “exciting, thought-provoking and intelligent, it contained all of the ingredients that made up our very best Star Treks.” The mind meld was originally created for the episode “Dagger of the Mind” as an alternative to hypnosis because, in part, they were afraid they’d accidentally hypnotize viewers…
Batman becomes a victim of the recession… [Pic of the week by moviemoron.com] This week’s news covers expensive comic books, Star Wars mascots and proves that James Cameron is an imbecile while Michael Bay is a wonderful human bean. I’d love to see the face of the guy who was famous for paying $1 million to buy Action Comics #1 (which marked the first appearance of Superman), only to have his fame snatched away three days later when someone else bought the first Batman comic for $1.08 million. Kind of like the guy who bought the Mark McGuire baseball only…
Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland (2010) comes out today, and when a movie adaptation comes out I try to read the original story so I can sniff self-righteously “the book was better.” I thought about reading the original novels and realized that I have no interest in them. Now, I admit I’m just a typical “ugly American,” but I don’t think I’m alone. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll are available to download for free from Project Gutenberg, but I doubt anyone is going to bother. Here are three reasons why:
“The world’s greatest detective has finally met his match” by being cast in the moronic, but fun, straight-to-DVD Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. When I saw the trailer for “The Asylum” knock-off, or “mockbuster,” of the block-buster movie Sherlock Holmes I couldn’t wait for another horrible film. Instead, I actually found myself enjoying it.
Here are the five most popular posts from last month here on Geek Twins in case you want to catch up. Top 21 Lists of Sexy Babes in Science-Fiction Not surprisingly, people like to see lists of sexy babes. James Cameron Calls Out the Raincoat Brigade for Avatar Oddly enough, most people find this post by looking for Neytiri’s powder-blue nipples. Sorry guys. You’ll have to wait for the unrated DVD for that. Top 10 Human Cloning Mistakes in Movies and Television This is an essay on the common goofs people make when portraying cloning. What the Green Lantern Movie…
A few weeks back an Orca, or “killer whale”, pulled a trainer into his tank at Sea World and killed her. There have been some truly tragic underwater attacks, but it made us think of some of the most memorable ocean attacks in movie history. Here we now present some of the most memorable water attacks in sci-fi movie history. 10. Jaws vs. Scuba Tank (Jaws, 1975) This attack set the standard for all other attacks. 99% of water to surface attacks are shot by cutting from the unsuspecting victim to the underwater creature. The final battle pit the massive shark against…
August 17, 1968 – February, 2010Joshua Andrew Koenig, the son of Walter Koenig, was found dead in a Vancouver park. The official cause of death was not released, but suicide, and Mr. Koenig’s father, who is best known for playing Pavel Chekov on Star Trek: The Original Series, said his son “took his own life.” The 41-year-old actor had been battling clinical depression and was missing for a week, prompting celebrities to use Twitter to try to find him. Andrew established himself as an actor in his own right with a recurring role on the 80s sitcom Growing Pains as Richard “Boner” Stabone.…
[Pic of the Week from CostumeCraze] One of your favorite posts is the hideous collection of Watchmen movie costumes, but now you can dress up in “sexy” Iron Man 2 armor from Costume Craze. It kind of loses the point of wearing armor if you strap on knee-high boots, since they just shoot you in the knee caps. Although, the company also has a “Whiplash” costume which looks OK on someone with a good body, but there’s always some big boy who decides to wear a costume three sizes too small and ruin things for the rest of us. On with the news… Despite the…
What season is this anyway? BBC America is debuting the time-travelling science-fiction show Doctor Who on Saturday Apr. 17 which is two weeks after it premieres in the U.K. The new show will include the 11th regeneration of the Time Lord, Matt Smith, a new companion, Karen Gillan, and a new head writer — Steven Moffat, who will take over for Russell T. Davies. Moffat has been with the series since 2005 and wrote some of my favorite episodes. Including Blink, which won him a “Bafta Craft Awards”, and The Girl in the Fireplace which won the show two “Hugo” awards. I’m excited about the…
There’s been a renewed interest in pulp novel heroes from the ’30s and ’40s, and now the studio that’s producing this year’s Green Hornet is planning a movie based on the wildly popular character Doc Savage, the so-called “Man of Bronze.” Created by Lester Dent in 1933, the star of books, radio, a campy 70’s movie and numerous comics, trained since birth to almost superhuman levels of human development. He was a world-class athlete, adventurer, doctor, lawyer and Indian chief traveling the world fighting evil. Sam Raimi, who’s working on a Shadow reboot, was attached to this project at one…
Dolph Lundgren, the German action star from the 80s and star of Masters of the Universe said, “I’m not really interested so much in guys flying from building to building, in funny looking suits. I think it’s more for little kids, and that’s obviously a very CG-driven film, where you can take anybody off the streets and make them a superhero, and that’s what the common man likes, because they can dream about being a superhero.” While he just has sour grapes because his action hero career took a nose dive, he does raise a good point. Most superhero movies do have…
The First Avenger: Captain America (2011) is the key for a whole slew of Marvel movies coming up, including The Avengers, so they’re focused on getting it right. I’m getting a little nervous, because it would be really easy for Joe Johnston to mess up Captain America, especially after the debacle of Wolfman (2010). There are lots of rumors going around about the flick, so we’ll list the highlights: Costume – As is usually the case, Captain America’s superhero costume gets a revision. Here’s how the director, Joe Johnston, describes it, “The costume is a flag, but the way we’re…
My brother and I LOVE the hilariously geeky Galaxy Quest (1999) movie about a bunch of actors from a cult television show (i.e. Star Trek) being kidnapped by aliens to live out their roles in space. To us, it’s the perfect homage to Star Trek and everything about it: from the quirkiness of the show, to the insanity of its fans and everything in between. Which is why it’s no cool that, over ten years later, a couple of replica toys are coming out. The N.S.E.A. Protector Spaceship model looks awesome and would have fit charmingly next to my Star…
[Pic of the week from OddballComics] Stan Lee must have read last week’s TWiG and got scared of becoming irrelevant because he’s teaming up with Archie comics to produce a comic book and television series called “Super Seven” with him playing a major role. The press release says, “It’s the story about seven aliens who find themselves stranded on planet Earth after their spaceship crashes, only to be befriended by none other than Lee himself. Taking them under his care, Lee becomes their leader and enables them to resume their lives as superheroes on earth.” How do aliens “resume their…
Here’s our joint review of GI Joe: Rise of Cobra. The following review takes place in real time… Warning: Contains spoilers if you care. Plot: A group of covert military specialists, code-named G.I. Joe, race to stop an evil weapons dealer, Destro, from unleashing a weapon that threatens to destroy the world. Monkey Migraine: Okay, I hated GI Joe: Rise of Cobra with a passion. Its the essence of what I’ll call a big-budget B-movie. They had a terrible script, a terrible director, and terrible actors, but threw money at it until it worked. Imagine this movie with everything the…
[Pic of the week from The Daily Weird] Sorry, the TWiG is late this week. My son had a high fever, and the dog ate my homework, and my brakes failed as I crashed into the US Open. The above picture is almost as cool as Graham Curson, 36, who married his wife Samantha, 26, while dressed as the Star Wars villain Darth Vader. Who is almost as cool as Ramona who had her father give her away as Darth Vader while she got married at a comic convention. And these are almost as cool as Darth Vader opening the…
The 82nd Academy Award nominations are out and we get a few juicy nominations. Avatar and District 9 have been nominated for best picture, of course, but here’s the shocker: We will now be required to say “the Oscar-Nominated Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” That’s right, the Michael Bay film is getting a nod for “Best Sound Editing”, which is kind of like getting an award for being the loudest kid in the room. Whether you loved or hated the flick, this just doesn’t sound right. This is right up there with “the Oscar-Nominated Norbit” which was nominated in 2008…
Eugene Wesley “Rod” Roddenberry Jr, the son of the late Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, is producing a reboot of an old 70s television pilot of his father’s, called The Questor Tapes, as a potential series. This goes so far back, I only have a flickering image in the back of my brain, but it’s burned in there none the less: the image of rows and rows of bodies going back as far as the eye can see. Intended as the pilot for a television series in 1974, the movie followed an android who goes searching for his creator, a…
[Pic of the Week by Gizmodo] Apple announced the release of the highly anticipated tablet computer, called “iPad”, and this was a red-letter day for Steve Jobs’ world conquering company in two other ways. This week, 25 years ago (January 24th 1984), the first Apple Macintosh 128K went on sale becoming the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and graphical user interface. For all you Apple Cultists out there, this week (January 30, 1982) Richard Skrenta wrote the first publicly released PC virus, called “Elk Cloner”, on an Apple computer. One day the company will just make…