“Coming soon to a theatre not too far, far away from you …”
The People vs George Lucas is a documentary slated for 2010 that “delves into the impassioned feelings and opinions expressed by fans and foes of legendary screen icon George Lucas, and the many debates surrounding his legacy.” It looks pretty interesting …
Personally, while I hate Jar Jar Binks, I can’t hate George Lucas. The dude created not only an endless universe of characters and stories that have pervaded movies, TV, books, comic books, video games, and toys, but also a sci-fi lexicon that forever changed the way the world thought about science fiction. The Force is strong with him … even if he doesn’t always tap into it as well as he should.
In a week when we’ve lost both Patrick "The Prisoner" McGoohan and Ricardo "Khan" Montalban , I think we could all use a good laugh. And this video just made me laugh so much that I literally cried. Thanks to Freakgirl for sending this to me, and thanks to the Internets for existing!!!
Have you always suspected that your midi-chlorian level is high? That with the proper training, you could lift a large vehicle out of a muddy swamp? That some days, it almost feels as if you really COULD lift your boss off his feet and choke him with nothing more than the power of your mind? Well, young padawan, the time has come to stop being a poseur and find out for sure.
For the low price of just $90-100 (hey the fate of the galaxy might be at stake here!), you’ll soon be able to purchase The Force Trainer. For real. Kind of. With the help of a wireless headset, this toy apparently reads your EEG waves, and based on how focused your brain is, moves a “training sphere” (which looks suspiciously like a ping pong ball) up a tube, accompanied by some sound effects. It’s not much … but you know you want to try it!
What intrigues me about this more than anything else is wondering how long it will take for Nintendo to adapt this kind of technology to the Wii.
The year was 1978. George Lucas got really high one night and decided to make a Star Wars Holiday Special. Which was so bad that it only ever aired once. I missed it the first time around, but it’s one of those things you hear people talking about all the time in sci-fi circles. Now, thanks to the internet, it’s out there for the world to see, complete with 1978 commercials. Enjoy!
This weekend, I got the new Star Wars: The Force Unleashed game for the Wii for my birthday. Gotta say, this is a pretty cool game that for me lives up to the summer’s worth of hype that led up to it.
The basic story premise is this: Between the third and forth Star Wars movies — Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope — Darth Vader finds a child who is strong in the Force, makes him a secret apprentice, and trains him as an adult to be a powerful spy/assassin. This character, Starkiller, is able to wield the Force with an intensity that we’ve never seen before in the movies, and you basically spend the game kicking the crap out of everything that moves. Very simple. Very satisfying. Like how it felt to play the first 3D “Doom” game … but moreso.
Fedora? Check. Bull whip? Check. Five o’clock shadow? Check. Trumpet fanfare? Check. Gratuitous fist fights and chase scenes? Check. Crazy Rube Goldberg traps? Check. Preposterous pseudo-mythological plot line, characters with assorted accents, angry natives, and at least one scene involving a snake and/or snakes? Check, check, check, and check! Nazis with guns? Well … no. But there are plenty of Commies with guns to take their place, so the formula remains intact.
(Cue John Williams music.) Well, it’s finally here. Not sure if you heard about it yet, but after an almost 20 year hiatus, the fourth Indiana Jones movie — Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — releases today.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t psyched to see this flick, and even if it’s not as great as my expectations, I can’t imagine I won’t completely enjoy it. After all, even Temple of Doom, with all its kiddie sidekick director’s wife flaws, managed to suck me in this past weekend.
One thing I have grown tired of, however, is the Indiana Jones theme song, which thanks to a pervasive cross-marketing campaign, just seems to be EVERYWHERE on TV lately. So to entertain myself, I decided to borrow a page from Gizmodo.com, and write up some lyrics. This way, I can at least have some words in my head as I hear the song over and over this summer. Enjoy!
Would you like a free book? Of course you would. I do.
Well, between now and May 13th, to celebrate the pending release of Invincible, the final chapter in the Star Wars: Legacy of the Force series, Random House and Del Rey are letting the general public download a FREE audio or digital version of Betrayal, the first book in the series.
Spanning 9 volumes, the Legacy of the Force series deals with events that occur in the Star Wars universe starting roughly 40 years after the original trilogy of movies (Episodes 4-6). Luke, Han, and Leia are back, but much older now, and they all have kids. And one of this new generation has not quite lived up to the standards established by his/her parents. Yes, you guessed it — somebody gets seduced by the Dark Side. And yes there’s a war. And yes … there is a Big Bad Sith Villain behind that war, a student of Darth Vader, who needs to be taken down.
I haven’t read the series myself, but it sounds like great fun, and each of the books have received excellent reviews. So I’ve already downloaded the audio version, and I’ll be adding it to my iPod this weekend. Remember, the offer ends May 13th, so if you’re going to download it, do it soon. Here’s the link again …
Have you always suspected that your midi-chlorian level is high? That with the proper training, you could lift a large vehicle out of a muddy swamp? That some days, it almost feels as if you really COULD lift your boss off his feet and choke him with nothing more than the power of your mind? Well, young padawan, the time has come to stop being a poseur and find out for sure.
This weekend, I got the new 
(Cue John Williams music.) Well, it’s finally here. Not sure if you heard about it yet, but after an almost 20 year hiatus, the fourth Indiana Jones movie — 
Would you like a free book? Of course you would. I do.