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It is with much trepidation that I send this blog to you via Morse Code from Mystery Island. I'm terribly concerned that scientific genius Dr. Strange is running amok with his Projector Beam Ray. Strange is intent on world domination, and if his awesome
The Ames Window is an optical illusion, in which a strangely-shaped window (with a stick running through it) is rotated slowly. Because we assume it to be a normally-shaped window, our brains perceive the window and the stick interacting in strange ways,
Discover Magazine's Cosmic Variance blog brings us Rules for Time Travelers, a set of eleven rules that help to explain (or contradict) various time-travel scenarios in pop culture. And believe me, time travel is the new romantic comedy -- with Star Trek
Ever wonder what all those strange credits are when they roll by at the end of a film? From Gaffer to Boom Operator, here's some production roles to know
Just when you think the Oscars are oh-so-predictable, along comes a surprise win (or loss).
In 1931, Harry Beck drew a diagram of the London Underground (aka the Tube), making visual sense of an extremely complex system. Today Beck's map is displayed in the Museum of Modern Art, and is considered a classic work of design. Beck's work is the te
You hear tales of ghosts, witches, vampires, monsters, and other assorted scary icons. But none can be more terrifying than bunny rabbits! 1. Gargoyle
The Criterion Collection is known for excellence. The Criterion folks assemble "important classic and contemporary films" and releases them on DVD (formerly Laserdisc), often restoring the film from original negatives, working with directors, and includi
The latest Star Wars movie, Clone Wars, opens this Friday. We've done our homework on the new movie, and it actually looks pretty good. As the seventh movie in the epic series, we turned up seven reasons why Clone Wars will be worth seeing. 1. No Mor
Today Roger Ebert posted a column discussing the end of his (and Richard Roeper's) involvement with the Ebert and Roeper movie review program. Ebert and Roeper was formerly known as Siskel and Ebert, until Gene Siskel's untimely death in 1999. Furthermo
The Telegraph has posted a series of letters and telegrams from Stanley Kubrick's archive. They are at turns bizarre, amusing, and revealing -- often showing his frank interactions with actors and studio representatives. Here's a sample of the correspon
We like our wizards to fit a certain mold. They seem to have the same characteristics in many of our classic adventure tales. A wizard trains or mentors the young protagonist (to whom he is not related), has knowledge unavailable to the general public whi
The Columbia Journalism Review has posted an excellent long-form interview with documentary filmmaker Errol Morris, entitled Recovering Reality: Errol Morris on Abu Ghraib. The interview covers Morris's new project (undertaken with Philip Gourevitch) Sta
It's a simple shape, a sphere with a concave dish set in the surface. In 1977, the shape was forever linked to the movie Star Wars and is known as the Death Star. In the movie, it was a space station as large as a natural moon that housed the "ultimate we
From His Girl Friday to All the President's Men, Hollywood has had an odd fascination with journalists. They're portrayed as glorified detectives that seek out the truth for innocent people or unravel political scandals. But what of the fact checkers? Fac
Have you ever wondered which is bigger -- Battlestar Galactica, or Battlestar Pegasus? And how do those compare to Deep Space 9? How do those compare to the crazy alien craft in Independence Day (officially named City Destroyers, apparently)? Well, all
by Adam Horowitz I've been reading Peter Biskind's scrumptious chronicle of 1970s Hollywood, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, and one thing I've learned is that even in that wonderfully liberated climate - with the old studio system collapsing and hippie vision
Halloween is upon us... and there's no better time to take a look at one of the most famous horror stories in literary history: Frankenstein! In this two-part article, we'll discover some truths (and dispel some myths) about Dr. Frankenstein and The Mons
Designer/programmer Eva Schindling has posted Cinematic Particles, an online applet that creates art based on the dialogue in popular movies. Cinematic Particles creates smoky, abstract images based on a mathematical analysis of the movie's dialogue. Th
Six feature films, three spinoff films, five television series, plus video games, books, and merchandise, plus a big chunk of the internet, all devoted to the Star Wars universe. There will always be movies with fans, but those who identify with Star Wars
One of my all-time favorite documentaries is Errol Morris's 1997 film Fast, Cheap and Out of Control. As a punctuation nerd, I disagree with the lack of a serial comma in its title, but we'll let that slide. Anyway. This film is about humanity, the nat
By now I'm sure you've all heard of that new J.J. Abrams movie. You know, the one with the monsters. It comes out on January 18. And"¦it's a J.J. Abrams movie. Truth is, that's just about all we know. Even without any details, the movie, known colloquiall
The caveman movie National Lampoon's Homo Erectus will hit theaters in September. The sitcom based on the GEICO Caveman ads will premiere in October. But cavemen are nothing new to pop culture. A man (or woman) who resembles us but does not understand or
David Rakoff has just finished his three-week blog over at Nextbook.org after seeing 28 Woody Allen films in 21 days at the Film Forum in SOHO. Sorry I didn't send you over sooner because the posts are poignant and, for the most part, fun reading"¦ a trip