This Valentine’s Day supercut is the perfect way to make the object of your affection go all gushy inside, in case you want to send it to someone you love. It worked for me! This was edited as a labor of love by Matthew Belinkie, who tells about how he selected and organized the clips at his website. Link -via mental_floss

Let your geekiness show in the valentines you send! Express your love for your sweetie plus your love for your favorite video game, online community, scientific discipline, movie, or TV show. There are lots to select from, but you won’t find them in your local greeting card store -no, these out-of-the ordinary valentines are found on the internet. Shown here are some valentines based on the TV series Breaking Bad, by Beth at Butt Horn. See the rest of the collection at mental_floss. Link

It happens every time some new technology threatens to put people out of work: a public campaign to save jobs. One example was in the 1920s and ’30s, when synchronized sound was added to movies, which meant that theaters no longer had to pay live musicians to accompany the films. The Music Defense League sprang into action, with a $500,000 advertising budget to rally the public against soundtracks recorded by just “300 musicians in Hollywood.” Read about the battle against canned music in theaters at Paleofuture. Link

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This might just be one of the strangest scenes in The Shining, but The New York Times Correction on the matter might just be even weirder. Here goes:

Correction: January 29, 2012
An earlier version of this article incorrectly described imagery from “The Shining.” The gentleman seen with the weird guy in the bear suit is wearing a tuxedo, but not a top hat.

It’s darn good they changed that. I mean how would the readers possibly lived without knowing the bear was not, in fact, wearing a top hat?

Link Via io9

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Are you tired of catching flack from hardcore Harry Potter fans about how you’ve never sat through all eight of the movies?

Do you want to check out all the films without committing more than a minute of your time to the task?

Is watching a recap of Harry going from apprentice wizard to defeater of Voldemort the only way you can start your day?

Well then this snack sized video should satisfy any/all of these requirements as quickly as possible.

–via The Mary Sue

He’s so cuddly you might just be tempted to let your kids play with him, until they actually see the movie and suddenly start refusing to go to bed and having nightmares every day.

Link Via CraftZine

A cat makes a great listener, and therefore makes a great sidekick for pop culture characters. How well do you know feline sidekicks from movies, and TV? The challenge at today’s Lunchtime Quiz at mental_floss is to match 10 kitty sidekicks with the main character he/she goes with. I only got half of them correct. You will do better! Link

Hill Valley of the future is such a wonderful place to live, or at least it is when created by Lego artist Alex Jones. He has even more cool movie sets on his Flickr page for the viewing enjoyment of any Lego enthusiast.

Link Via Geekologie

Got some time? Here’s at least a day’s worth of time travel flicks.

Holly wood loves time travel -they’re always punting people forward in time or backward in time, or just plopping them into a feedback loop where they relive the same day over and over again. Even though time travel is scientifically impossible (sorry to disappoint), it doesn’t keep people from making or going to movies about it.

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Army of Darkness: Technically the third part of director Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series, but it’s not like you need a road map for this plot, which features a one-handed discount store salesman (the impossibly lantern-jawed Bruce Campbell) hurled back into the Middle Ages to fight zombies and skeletons and a creepy, man-eating flying book. It’s kind of dumb, but all horror freaks love it (and you know how high their standards are). It’s pretty funny, in a stupid comic-book way. Besides, any movie in which a minimum wage-earner from the future can condescendingly call a castle full of medieval types a bunch of “monkeys” can’t be all that bad.

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Back to the Future: Michael J. Fox goes back to the 1950s and is called “Calvin” because that’s the name sewn into his underwear (Calvin Klein underwear -can’t believe we need to explain this). The film’s still funny in it’s own right (especially with freaky Crispin Glover as Fox’s loser dad), but now it’s like two time travel movies in on. First you get the 1950s, which Fox goes back to, then you get the 1980s, which is the “present”‘ for this film. It’s enough to give you a shiver (look for the Huey Lewis cameo). There were two more Back to the Future films, but unless you’ve got a thing for Michael J., you needn’t bother.

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Groundhog Day: Bill Murray goes back in time -exactly one day, over and over again. In the process he turns from obnoxious twit to the perfect man (or at least the perfect man for Andie McDowell, and who wouldn’t want to be that kind of man?). It’s a fine, fine film, and in addition to being funny, it’s actually sweet and a little serious, and it proved that Murray was a little better of an actor than anyone ever gave him credit for before. But let’s not kid ourselves: If you had to live Groundhog Day over and over again, you’d become a little zen yourself to keep from going utterly freakin’ insane.

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Planet of the Apes: Charleton Heston lands on what he thinks is an alien planet and finds it populated by talking apes who think he’s a savage (mind you, this was before he became the NRA’s alpha male). Ol’ Charlie is awesome in this -he grunts, he snarls, he chews scenery like a silverback confronted with a particularly choice bunch of bananas (“Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!”). They remade this one, but the newer version is -how do the French say? Ah, yes -un lame-o stinkeroo. Stick with Charlie, baby.

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Sleeper: This is the movie people are thinking of when they say they liked Woody Allen’s movies when he was funny. Freakily enough, many of the wacky things Allen posited about the future in this movie have already come true, like robotic pets and TV with millions of channels. We still don’t have an orgasmatron, alas. Something yet to look forward to.

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Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek: First Contact: The crews of the various Star Trek series travel in time so much and with so much blatant disregard for the Prime Directive that it’s entirely possible that Jean-Luc Picard is in your shower stall right this very instant. For all that, the two best Star Trek movies rely on time travel as plot points: In Star Trek IV, the original crew saves the universe by saving the whales, and that means going back to 1980s San Francisco to find some. This features some nice moments with Spock being taken for a hippie burnout, and Kirk being taken for a fatuous windbag (oh -right). First Contact has Picard’s crew going back in time (but still to our future) to keep the evil Borg from assimilating humanity. There are some good action scenes and a disturbingly sexy Borg Queen (Alice Krige) who wants to assimilate (heh heh heh) Data, the friendly android. Speaking of going where no man has gone before!

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The Terminator Series: The film series that turned Arnold Schwarzenegger’s inability to act human into a good thing. In the first film (The Terminator), Ah-nold is a killing robot sent from the future to ventilate hapless waitress Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton); in the second one (T2) Arnie helps the now-buff-but-a-bit-insane Sarah battle an advanced shape-shifting Terminator model. The first one was made for roughly the same amount of money it took to cater the second film, but both are superior examples of the action genre, with smart scripting and well-designed mayhem.

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Time Bandits: Thieving dwarves steal a map from God and blitz through history causing havoc.This one plays like a Monty Python time travel film (right down to the distinctly nasty-yet-funny ending: “Mom! Dad! Don’t touch that! It’s evil!”) and there’s a good reason for that: It’s directed by Python’s Terry Gilliam and features several of his Monty mates, as well as Sean Connery as Agamemnon (presumably before he left for Troy, since when he got back, he was murdered by his wife. Hey, it’s ancient Greece.) Kind of freaky, but a real visual feast, and a lot smarter than most.

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The Time Machine: Well, duh. How can you not include this one? Or these two, actually, since you have your choice: the classic 1960 George Pal version, with Rod Taylor as H. G. Wells, traveling far into the future to find humans divided between the twee, pale Eloi and the brutish, cannibalistic Morlocks, or the 2002 version that features Guy Pearce and a lot of really expensive-looking special effects. (Fun fact: The 2002 version is directed by Simon Wells, H. G. Wells’ distant relative.) Neither version quite picks up that the novel The Time Machine was a socialist allegory about British class divisions, but, hey, like any of that’s gonna play at the drive-ins.

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12 Monkeys: Hey, look, Terry Gilliam’s back again, and this time he’s sending Bruce Willis hurtling through history, from a depressing stink hole of a future to stop a group of bioterrorists from unleashing a plague that wipes out most of humanity. Willis is damn fine as a disoriented, slightly nutty time traveler who can’t quite remember if he’s sane or not, and check out Brad Pitt, who plays a cross-eyed scuzzball and ended up picking up an Oscar nomination for it. Overall, really depressing, but in a good way, not unlike Gilliam’s Brazil or Blade Runner (with which this movie shares a screenwriter).

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The article above was reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Plunges Into the Universe.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!

If you’ve seen the films, then you might not know it, but when the cameras weren’t rolling, Godzilla was actually quite a well-mannered gentleman adored by the women on the set. Just look at this lucky lady being accompanied by this studly ladies man

Link Via The Mary Sue

This classic epic about the Russian Revolution from Davide Lean is winter on steroids — frozen lakes, fur coats, and a palace encrusted in ice. This movie also features Obi-Wan Kenobi and one of cinema’s finest mustaches. You really can’t argue with that.

Plus Omar Sharif was really easy on the eyes. Link

Of course, the problem here is that skin and again can be made to rhyme, so what will happen if you don’t put the dishes in the dishwasher…certainly you won’t get the hose again. Then again, do you really want to risk finding out what Buffalo Bill will do to you if you defy him?

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Alex Gross takes classic Victorian pictures and then repaints them into portraits of pop culture personalities like Aquaman, Bride of Frankenstein and Godzilla. His work will be exhibited at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in LA next month, so if you’re in town, stop by and support a great geek artist.

Link Via io9

You love movies; you love cats. Put them together, and you have seven delightful movie posters! See the rest at Next Movie. Link -via Buzzfeed

Last year, we showed you a gallery of Alternate Universe Movie Posters by Sean Hartter. Peter Stults took this idea and ran with it, giving us another collection of awesome modern movies starring actors from a different generation. Once again, it was difficult to select one poster to put here; you need to go see the rest. Link -via Metafilter

To be fair, Ewoks already look a lot like cute little puppies and Darth doesn’t look quite right without his helmet. That being said, Princess Leia looks spot on.

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If you’ve played the game at all, then you certainly relate to this great parody, particularly the NPC dialogue.

Via Geeks Are Sexy

The line from Apocalyse Now has been used and reused and adapted in so many other movies that YouTube member dondrapersayswhat made them into a supercut. Contains NSFW language. -via The Daily What

Everyone is still buzzing about the news that the Arrested Development movie is finally in the works  after years of discussion, but in the aftermath of that bomb, it was easy to miss the news about another cult classic show becoming a movie as well. While not as many people are familiar with Party Down, it’s a great show that’s certain to result in a hilarious movie.

Are you guys familiar with the show, and if so, are you excited about the movie?

Link Via Geekosystem

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No, it’s not real, just a fan take on the idea. Personally, I would love to see this become a reality.

While there’s always a good chance the movie publication won’t get completed, something tells me a petition with less than 300 signatures won’t have much to do with it.

Link Via The Mary Sue

Following the 1980s Film Alphabet, artist Stephen Wildish has created a new alphabet poster for the movies of the 1960s. I’ve only studied this a few minutes, so there are a couple I haven’t deciphered yet. It’s not that I don’t recall the movies, it’s more that I just can’t remember the titles. Link -via Laughing Squid

Movie producers and directors have vision. Art directors and designers have ideas. And then there are people who are charged with getting these things done behind the scenes, on time and under budget. Special effects master Stan Winston is one who figures out how to make the ideas work, such as Edward cutting shrubs with his scissor hands, the seamlessly realistic creatures running through Jurassic Park, and the battle between Ripley and the Alien Queen. Read about how he works his magic at Unreality magazine. Link

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With the start of a new calendar year, movie studios have started rolling out teasers and previews for their upcoming features, to ensure that ticket sales are high.

Personally, I don’t really care about the latest Hollywood blockbusters, and I prefer my features, and actors, to be animated. That’s why this list of animated features being released in 2012 had me so excited, and most of them look like great fun!

But you don’t have to take my word for it, peruse the titles for yourself at the link below, and sound off about which ones you’re looking forward to watching on the big screen.

Link

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This eye opening, and beautifully edited, video shows a shot-by-shot comparison of Raiders of the Lost Ark and 31 other films made between 1919 and 1973.

To say that there are a few similarities would be an understatement, so obviously this is due to Spielberg doing his homework, right? *wink*

If you’ve seen this before, good for you! Enjoy it again, why don’t you?

–via Super Punch

I’m not usually good at this sort of thing, but I looked at the 1980s Film Alphabet and could name all the movies! Yes, even Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is under “I”, for the character, I guess. This is a creation of artist Stephen Wildish. Link -via Laughing Squid

Hey, wanna take a look inside the prop house at Universal Studios? You won’t believe all the stuff they have stuffed away to use in movies! Unreality magazine has a gallery of photos from the warehouse. Some of it is real, some is made just for the movies, but if they do their job right, you’ll never know which is which! Link

That’s why we here at Neatorama wanted to share a little bit of history and trivia about the world-famous character. Even if you are already a fan of Tintin though, read on because there might just be a few tidbits you didn’t know about.

The History of A Hero

Image Via Dylan Parker [Flickr]

Tintin was created by Belgian artist Georges Rémi, who wrote under the pen name Herge. He was largely based on one of the author’s earlier characters, a chubby boy scout named Totor. While he was thinner and better dressed than Totor, Tintin maintained the earlier character’s high ideals and kindness, as well as his knack for getting into sticky situations.

The first Tintin strip was printed in the Belgian right wing newspaper, Le XXe Siècle (The 20th Century), on January 10, 1929. Going along with the paper’s right wing beliefs, the character’s first adventure, titled Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, featured him fighting against socialist leaders in the Soviet Union. After the comic proved to be a success, Herge went on to send Tintin on adventures throughout the world, both in real and imaginary locales.

While Herge started out with a right wing mindset, his opinion quickly changed as Hitler’s legions began to ramp up their occupation of other European countries. By 1939, Tintin began to fight off authority figures from the far right, even battling Musstler, the leader of the imaginary fascist state Borduria, in King Ottokar’s Sceptre. If you couldn’t tell by the name and the time period, Musstler was Herge’s take on a combination of Hitler and Mussolini.

Later that very year, Belgium was invaded by the Nazis, who quickly closed down the majority of the newspapers in the country. They did leave open the leading paper, Le Soir, under the condition that it be put under German management. After Le XXe Siècle, was closed, Herge was briefly unemployed, but soon was hired to work as an illustrator for Le Soir. Soon enough he started printing new Tintin stories in the paper’s children section, but under the repressive political atmosphere, he was forced to strip the comic of its political affiliations. In an effort to get around these limitations, Herge changed Tintin’s occupation from that of a reporter to an explorer, which allowed him a much more politically-neutral world in which to operate.

By 1949, Herge’s character was so popular that he was offered the opportunity to publish his own magazine exclusively dedicated to Tintin. He immediately left Le Soir and go to working on Le journal de Tintin. The character became a massive success and was adored in countries throughout the world, eventually having his adventures translated into more than 50 languages.

As for Herge, he continued working on new stories for the character all the way up until his death in 1983.

The Enigmatic Tintin

Image Via CoffeeGeek [Flickr]

At first glance, Tintin seems like a pretty straightforward guy. In fact, fans of the series often praise how uncomplicated the character is, as it makes him entirely relatable even when confronted by an array of bizarre and eccentric characters in fantastical cities. But when you look a little deeper, you soon realize that Tintin’s lack of complexities make him quite enigmatic.

For example, how old is Tintin? No one really knows. He’s old enough to not be concerned with school or family, to go to a pub and drink, to hold down a job and to live alone, but everyone still calls him a young boy. In 1979, Herges said that when he first started the comic, he thought of Tintin as being about 14 or 15, but by that point, he considered the character to be 17.

But shouldn’t even a 17 year old have some kind of family connections? Tintin’s family is never mentioned in the series, but he is also never called an orphan. In fact, it seems that he seems to have no actual back story before the series starts. Whereas other characters reveal tales from their past, Tintin never does, nor does he ever run into someone that he knew before the storyline started.

It seems particularly strange that he never mentions his family given the fact that they must have given him quite an impressive education. After all, Tintin knows multiple languages, can drive cars, ride horses, fly airplanes, climb massive mountains, do yoga and more. These aren’t just skills you pick up while sitting back in Belgium or even after a few reporting assignments.

Additionally, Tintin must earn money to be able to live on his own without family assistance, but while Tintin is supposed to be a reporter in the early parts of the series, he never is seen actually writing or turning in a story. He never goes into the office, nor does he ever meet any coworkers or even get in touch with his employer.

Even his name is a mystery. Is it a first name or a last name? No one knows. Maybe it’s a nickname or maybe he’s like Madonna and that’s his only name. Some speculate that it’s a pseudonym he uses for his journalism career, but that it doesn’t do a reporter much good to go by a pseudonym if that’s the only name he goes by.

With Friends Like These…

Image Via sinanyuzakli [Flickr]

Of course, with all the vagueness in Tintin’s life, his friends are complex and help provide the character development and back story that the main character is lacking. While there are tons of recurring characters in the stories, two of the most popular are the two that also happen to be featured in the upcoming film (no surprise there). Those two characters are, of course, Snowy (known as Milou in the original and French versions) and Captain Haddock.

Snowy is Tintin’s longest-lasting friend, the only character who stays with him throughout the series. Originally Snowy is there to provide a cynical contrast to Tintin’s constant positivity, his thoughts portrayed in speech bubbles that cannot be understood by the humans around him, but once Captain Haddock steps in, Snowy is relieved of this duty and he becomes much more light-hearted. Unfortunately, while the pup is incredibly loyal, he also has some serious weaknesses. Like all dogs, he can easily be distracted by a bone, but more problematic are his clumsiness and his affinity for Scotch. Additionally, he is terrified of spiders, which makes him less than heroic in certain situations.

As for Captain Haddock, he is also a bit clumsy and quite enamored with Scotch. While he starts out as an alcoholic, he eventually becomes a rather respectable and heroic character. Haddock is quite sarcastic, providing a good balance to Tintin’s optimism. Up until the last story, his first name remains unknown, but at long last, it is revealed to be Archibald.

The Many Roadblocks of the Movie

Image Via Georges Biard [Wikipedia]

You know the movie was successfully created, but at many points, the thing almost fell through. In fact, Spielberg was planning to work on the movie from all the way back in 1983. The director was a huge fan of Tintin after discovering the series after someone compared Raiders of the Lost Ark to a Tintin story. At the same time, Herge was quite a fan of Spielberg and the two were quite excited to work together, Herge even noting that he thought Spielberg was “the only person who could ever do Tintin justice.” Unfortunately, the same week the two planned to meet in 1983, the illustrator passed away. Herge’s widow still agreed to give the rights to the movie to Spielberg because she knew how much her husband was looking forward to working with him.

Spielberg hired one of the screenwriters from E.T. to write a film version of Tintin, but he was disappointed with what she came up with. Unfortunately, he was too busy to work on it any more at the time, since he was starting production on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Eventually, the rights returned to the Herge Foundation and Roman Polanski started trying to work with the group to secure the rights to the film. The foundation felt he would be unable to provide the creative integrity Spielberg promised though, so they declined to issue him the rights. Eventually, in 2001, Spielberg got back in touch with the foundation.

When the rights were secured, Spielberg had intended to make a live-action adaptation of the film, but he wanted Peter Jackson’s company, Weta Digital to create a computer-generated Snowy. If you love or hate the motion capture that was used in the film, you should know that you have Jackson to thank, as he was the one who suggested live actors would not do justice to the style of the comic books.

Unfortunately, only a month before the duo was slated to start principal photography for the film, Universal backed down on financing the film, citing the low box office tallies of other motion capture movies like Beowulf. After some frantic searching, the team finally secured a contract with Sony, who has agreed to make two Tintin films with Jackson and Spielberg.

Yes, that’s right, there will almost certainly be a sequel to the first film, although no one is sure which Tintin stories the next one will be based on. The second film is expected to be released in late 2014 or mid-2015.

Image Via Gregory Bellemont [Flickr]

In fact, if all goes well, Jackson and Spielberg actually want to make another sequel after that, but we’ll just have to see how well the film does before we get too excited. If the box office grosses from the countries it has already been released in are any indication, we will very likely get to see a third film.

The movie was already released throughout most of the rest of the world and as of December 11, it already made $233 million. In fact, it’s already the highest grossing animated film ever released in India.

What do you guys think? Are you excited for the new film or could you care less? Also, were you already a Tintin fan or is the movie your first real exposure to the adventurer?

Sources: Wikipedia #1, #2, #3

Of course you want to visit Pandora! We all do! But since it’s a fictional planet, maybe the next best thing would be to visit the location where Avatar was filmed. You can do that, because it was in the Keahua Arboretum in Hawaii. The arboretum is chock-full of lush and exotic plant life, just like Pandora -without the Na’vi or the man-eating monsters. Find out eleven more locations where your favorite sci-fi movies were shot at TravelSupermarket. Link -Thanks, Danny!

Sure Schindler was great guy who saved thousands of lives, but that doesn’t mean he had it easy after the war ended. Partially because of his affiliation with the Nazis, he was persecuted throughout the rest of his life and essentially survived only due to the good will of those he saved.

And that’s not the only movie based on a true story that didn’t bother to tell you the depressing things that happened after the credits rolled. Read the rest over at Cracked.

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Illustrator Olaf Cuadras Ferré has some skills when it comes to redesigning movie posters. While they all look pretty cute, I think this one is my personal favorite, if only for the hole in the head on the last person.

Link Via Laughing Squid

Sure, you may not realize it when they’re in battle, but AT-AT’s are actually the ultimate party mobile. That’s why having one as your liquor cabinet makes so much sense.

Link Via BuzzFeed

Most people are probably too distracted by one of the finest opening shots in film to actually contemplate how it was achieved.

After all, it’s an impressive special effect for 1979. How did they go about making it look like a huge section of forest had been burned to the ground?

Surprise! They did it by actually burning a huge section of forest to the ground.

That’s pretty much it. Around 1,200 gallons of gasoline were poured over the splendid palm trees and then set alight. Tires were also burned to generate more smoke for the shot, while canisters were dropped onto the area to look like falling napalm. Acres of the forest were destroyed in a matter of seconds. Fitting, for a shot that was supposed to visually demonstrate the mindless, indiscriminate destruction of war.

But that’s just the beginning. Read stories of four other disturbing movie shoots at Cracked. Link

At least, not without a lot of nail painting skills. Apparently her other hand features the armies of Gondor, but since they didn’t come out well with her camera, she left out those pictures.

Link Via Geeks Are Sexy

The magic of movies is the fact that we can suspend our disbelief and actually imagine we are wherever the movie takes place, whether in the past or a completely imaginary realm. That’s why these great behind the scenes pictures of famous films are so fun to look at. Enjoy more over at BuzzFeed.

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Before Stanley Kubrick was able to make a living as a movie director, he worked as a photojournalist for Look magazine. He took nearly 10,000 photos and 25 of these have now been made available as limited-edition prints.

Link – Flavorwire via Kottke

Kickstarter might be great for starting new projects, but I certainly support the idea of Kickstopper. Personally, I’d be happy to donate my support to stopping the new Akira movie.

Link Via The Mary Sue

From the Rosetta Stone to a Charlie Chaplin film, not all amazing discoveries were actually intentional. Cracked has a great list of shocking discoveries that were complete accidents.

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Great comics and Star Wars teaming up to fight cancer? That’s certainly something we can all get behind. For more information on how you can help, be sure to check out the Stand Up To Cancer website.

Via The Mary Sue

If there’s anything cooler than a hidden door, it’s a hidden door that features Han Solo in carbonite on the inside. For more awesome tributes to the rebel hero, be sure to check out this great Oddee article.

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This is 1988, back when the exigencies of anticommunism rendered Afghan holy warriors the “good guys.” One of them even refers to the U.S. as “the free world,” bless his heart. Rambo’s Afghan guide recites a graveyard-of-empires aphorism about how invaders would pray, “May God deliver us from the venom of the cobra, the teeth of the tiger, and the vengeance of the Afghans.” Rambo translates: “You guys don’t take any shit.” Watching Rambo III in 2011 is awwwwwwwkward.

And not just because of Rambo’s muj-ness. The camp invasion is crazy. Watch the Soviet helicopters overrun their own base while Rambo turns one of the Russkies’ anti-aircraft guns against Ivan. Why do the Soviets have anti-aircraft guns when they’re not facing an airborne threat? Because it’s badass, that’s why! Later in the film, Rambo magically becomes an expert in flying Russian Mi-24 attack helicopters. Must be his faith in Allah.

Videos clips are included; some scenes may be NSFW. Link -via Metafilter

It was almost a year ago that we introduced you to the remixed movie concepts of Sean Hartter. Since then, he’s expanded the collection to 120 movie posters! It was hard to decide which poster I like best, but I would stand in line to see either of these two films. Maybe you’d prefer Ving Rhames in Mad Max or maybe The Halloween Chainsaw Massacre or Tim Curry as The Joker. Some posters are slightly NSFW. Link

This is one movie parody trailer that is not for children. -via Buzzfeed

Game of Thrones

This fantasy epic is filled with so many delicious food and drink ideas that there is already more than one blog out there dedicated to creating the tasty treats in real life. Inn At The Crossroads is the best known of these blogs and the site even has a cookbook coming out soon.

For those looking to spice up their Thanksgiving with some kingly delights, may I recommend the Rack of Lamb in a Crust of Garlic and Herbs served with a cup of Salladhor Saans Hot Wine. If you’d like something a little more exotic for your main course though, the Grilled Snake, served with a spicy mustard sauce, looks rather delightful.

Dune

If you’re familiar with Dune, then you know that it is all about the spices. That being said, the two best recipes from this story are both beverages. Whether you prefer Spice Beer or Spice Coffee, I’m sure either one would make a great contribution to your Thanksgiving menu. Grumpy Frenchman suggests adding cinnamon to your beer for Spice Beer, but he also warns that that makes the foam go crazy, so pour accordingly. Meanwhile, GeekChill has a fantastic recipe for Spice Coffee that blends Chai tea, coffee and cinnamon –yum!

Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit

Middle Earth is awash with great food and drink, but because most of Tolkien’s stories take place on the road, we tend to hear about the ones that are good for travel…which are not necessarily the most delicious treats around. That being said, while the hobbits seem to tire of Lembas bread, it is certainly the most delicious travel-friendly bread around and The Geeky Chef has a great recipe to make your own.

As for The Hobbit, the many mentions of seed cake seem to indicate that it is certainly one of Bilbo’s favorite foods and Historical Foods has an excellent recipe based on the time period for which Tolkien based the setting for his classic tales. That means, this seed cake is about as close to what Bilbo would eat as possible.

Harry Potter

Between the butterbeer, chocolate frogs and cauldron cakes, wizards and witches have quite a selection of tasty treats for any time of year. Of course, if there are any geek recipes that would actually go great with an otherwise traditional Thanksgiving feast, they would most certainly be Pumpkin Juice or Pumpkin Pasties. HarryPotterRecipes.Net has an absolutely delightful recipe for making your own Pumpkin Juice, sweetened with pineapple juice and spiced with a touch of nutmeg and allspice.

For your Pumpkin Pasties fix, stop by The Geeky Chef and try out this delicious recipe that imagines them as a sort of pumpkin-filled pastry…like pumpkin pie turnovers.

Star Wars

These films contain very few references to food. Even when the characters eat or drink, they never really seem to bring attention to what, exactly, they are putting in their mouths. That being said, Wookiee-Ookies are specifically mentioned in the Star Wars Holiday Special. Although they are best known for being a Christmas treat, they can undoubtedly still be served for Thanksgiving, just like eggnog.

You can find the recipe for these treats over on the website dedicated exclusively to the special, inventively called The Star Wars Holiday Special, and culled from The Star Wars Cookbook.

Firefly

Like Star Wars, while the characters on Firefly do eat and drink on screen, they rarely explain what it is they are actually eating. We know they get most of their vitamins through nutrient bars that can provide a month’s worth of nutrition to someone although they still need to drink water and ingest  calories, but aside from that, few foods are actually mentioned. A few exceptions are Mudder’s Milk, which is enjoyed in large quantities on Higgin’s Moon in the episode “Jaynestown,” and Ice Planets, which River Tam has difficulty eating in the episode “The Message.”

You can find a non-alcoholic version of Mudder’s Milk on the Firefly Wikia and learn how to make your own Ice Planet (essentially ice cream on a string) over on Tasty Planner.

Star Trek

Of course, geek Thanksgivings don’t have to ignore the turkey entirely. After all, in the Star Trek episode “Charlie X,” Captain Kirk is upset because he wants to celebrate Thanksgiving properly with a turkey, but there were none on board. Instead, the crew was going to have to eat meatloaf.

Strangely, while the meatloaf was cooking in the ovens, it suddenly transformed into turkey. It turns out that this was caused by Charles Evans, a young boy the crew recently brought on board, who has incredible powers. On the downside, he later uses those powers against everyone on board and tries to take over the ship, but hey, at least they got a nice Thanksgiving meal out of the ordeal. (For the record, yes, I know that is Picard and the Next Generation crew in the image, it was just the most holiday appropriate shot available.)

While you can always serve turkey as your main course and just reference this episode, you can also try blending the storyline in a little more and serve turkey meatloaf that has been cooked in a turkey-shaped baking pan.

What are your guy’s plans for Thanksgiving dinner? Are you planning to go traditional or do you guys like to mix things up a little more? Do any of you want to actually incorporate something from this article into your meal?

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m excited as heck for the release of the new Muppet Movie and these cake pops seem like a perfect way to get in the spirit for the new film. If you want to make your own, Bakerella has the instructions.

Link via Laughing Squid

(YouTube Link)

This production of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is not a fan film, nor is this a parody trailer meant strictly for the interwebs. This is a big budget motion picture, directed by Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Audition) and based on the Nintendo DS game series by Capcom.

Maybe the Japanese can make a decent movie adaptation of a video game series, since Hollywood never seems to get it right.

–via ComicsAlliance

I didn’t know it, but there have been more than 50 movies that featured the character of Cleopatra! Unreality magazine looked up some of the best-looking actresses in their portrayals of the Egyptian queen, and presented them in a gallery for your enjoyment. Pictured here is Claudette Colbert in the 1934 film Cleopatra. Link

Did you know that there was a serious film produced about Karen Carpenter that used Barbie dolls instead of actors? That the first pressing of the Thriller LP was much longer than the finished product? That Quentin Tarantino’s first film was ruined by a fire at the film-processing lab? There are plenty of pop culture recordings that you might never get a chance to experience -or by luck, you just might. Read about a lot of lost art at Wired. Link -via Dark Roasted Blend

By the way, the Carpenter biopic is available online.

Image via American Film Market

Dear Hollywood, stop making nitwitted remakes and hop on this obvious winner. When are you starting production? Tomorrow? Good.

Well, if only making movies is that easy (on the other hand, any process that greenlighted Gigli can't possibly be that rigorous, right?).

While we wait for Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies to hit the Big Screen, feast your eyes on these 19 Insane Posters for Movies That May Never Exist, over at Wired's Underwire blog:

Extending the B-movie legacy of insane posters and catchy titles, legendary showman Roger Corman and other independent producers unleash a fresh barrage of eye-popping genre hype this week at the American Film Market. Great movie posters play a key role at the annual movie marketing event in Santa Monica, California, because sci-fi filmmakers often rely on these “sell sheets” to attract production money and distribution deals even before their movies go into production.

Link

See also NeatoShop's Zombie Shop for more Zombie goodness.

You may have heard that Michael Bay’s newest film will contain his 1000th explosion ever. If you’ve ever wondered just how his explosion per movie breakdown looks, then you’ll certainly appreciate this infographic detailing all of his 992 explosions so far (the whole thing can be found at the link).

Link Via Film Drunk