Author: Nigel G Mitchell
We loved Inception, a thoughtful and also exciting look at the world of dreams and reality. That’s why we found Between the Lines: Inception so fascinating. It’s an in-depth look at the history of surrealist cinema and the different references to classic films embedded in Inception. We have to admit, we’re not die-hard film buffs, so a lot of this was new to us. Watch this short film to explore the influences and inspiration behind this classic sci-fi adventure. What did you think of surrealism and Inception? [Via io9] If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell…
Richard Nixon was the President of the United States from 1969 to 1974. For some, he’s a bold president who worked to improve relations with China and oversaw the first successful moon landing. For others, Nixon is a symbol of corruption for his role in bugging political opponents, and covering up a break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at Watergate. He died from a stroke in 1994, but his legacy lives on. Here are five sci-fi movies where Nixon played a vital role. 1. X-Men: Days of Future Past In Days of Future Past, Wolverine travels back to 1973…
If your hand is damaged or deformed and you need a prosthetic hand, you have a serious problem. But children who need prosthetic hands have even more serious problems. Prosthetic hands can cost over $8,000, and might not be covered by insurance. On top of that, the children can outgrow the hand quickly, leading to additional expenses throughout their lives. That’s where the e-NABLE Organization has changed everything. It’s a group of volunteers around the world who use 3D printers and CAD design to make custom prosthetic hands for a fraction of the cost; often less than $50. They’ll even…
Stan Lee is a giant in the comic book industry, influential in the creation of such classic characters as Spiderman and Iron Man. However, it’s admittedly been a while since he created any characters which have truly caught on. Sketch comedy show Key & Peele imagines a pitch meeting where Stan Lee arrives to introduce characters that have an uncomfortably autobiographical theme. What did you think of the video? What other characters could Stan Lee create? Let us know in the comments! If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow…
Halloweencostumes.com is back with another great infographic. This one is about the fifty states and superheroes. They wrote: “We’ve generated a map of the favorite superheroes in the United States, state-by-state. Any guesses as to who takes the cape? While it may not be the jaw-dropping answer you were looking for, Batman leads the crusade, winning the top spot in all 50 states! Since we were digging anyway, though, we couldn’t help but notice that some of other classic heroes made the leaderboards in different parts of the country. Stats were compiled based on 2013 to 2014 data from Google…
By Kander (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons “Carrot is designed with you in mind. It’s a seamless experience, meticulously crafted, from beginning to end. It’s not just a vegetable, it’s what a vegetable should be.” If that sounds familiar, you’ve seen an ad for the latest and greatest technology. There’s a certain type of phrasing that’s often used, and even the simplest feature can be made to sound revolutionary. That’s why “Introducing Carrot” is so funny. It’s a perfect parody of ads for stuff like the iPhone 6. Carrot even has its own website. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m…
It’s a long tradition to base superheroes off of animals, and you’d think all the good ones are taken. Wolverine, Spiderman, and Black Cat all have great animal powers. But there are quite a few animals out there which have incredible powers, and haven’t been immortalized in comics. Here’s five who Marvel and DC should jump on. Honey Badger Man “Honey badger” by en:User:Jaganath – This file was transferred from English Wikipedia. The original file description page is (was) here.. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. Wolverine is named for a tough and scrappy animal, but the…
We love space trivia, and so do a lot of geeks online. In honor of Douglas Adams, Lets Talk About Space created forty-two infographics listing facts about space. Check it out. What do you think? Please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post. Click on the links to follow us for free by Email, RSS and follow us on Twitter @thegeektwins and like us on Facebook Follow @Thegeektwins
Source: A New Home/Lucasfilm The musical score of the Star Wars movies by John Williams is legendary in cinema. Many of the scenes owe a lot of their emotional impact to the background music. That’s why this edit by the Auralnauts is so hilarious. What would the classic throne room scene at the end of A New Hope be like without music? Well, it goes from stirring and cheerful to kind of uncomfortable. What did you think? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | …
This is what artist Science Bob had to say about this poster showing some of the most popular robots and cyborgs: “There’s something about robots that people connect to. I knew as soon as I left the theater after watching Star Wars that I would someday have my own R2-D2, (which I now do!) So I decided to ask the followers of my Facebook Page to tell me their favorite robot, and I got a huge response. Below are some of the favorites, and the approximate time that they made their first appearance. I included cyborgs (robotically modified humans) as…
[Credit: YouTube/Volkswagen] Volkswagen has done what J.J. Abrams couldn’t do, bring together William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and Star Trek. No, it’s not a reunion of them in character, but it’s the closest thing so far. In this commercial for the VW eGolf, Volkswagen makes a young Trek fan’s dream come true when he goes for a test drive with the Shat himself. Along the way, they encounter another futuristic VW car and another familiar face. A nice bonus is this short video where Shatner goes through the boy’s collection of Star Trek memorabilia and gives some commentary on the pieces.…
A keen eye on Reddit spotted this, the soldiers’ armor in Starship Troopers in two other shows. [Via IMGUR via Reddit] What do you think? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook
A time traveler meets with a journalist in a hotel room under the guise of sharing their story for an article, but what the journalist doesn’t know is that the time traveler has an ulterior motive for inviting him that will change his life forever. Produced and directed by James Cooper, and written by Peter Rowley, this simple short packs a lot of punch without any extravagant special effects or complicated plot like a lot of time travel stories I’ve seen. Interview With a Time Traveler from James Cooper on Vimeo. [Via Vimeo via shortoftheweek.com] What did you think of…
What does Godzilla’s name mean? What dinosaurs inspired Godzilla? Who are Godzilla’s greatest foes? Just in time for the release of Godzilla (2014) on Blu-Ray and DVD, artist Adolfo Arranz created this really cool graphic about the King of Kaiju. It was originally created for the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. The only thing I could find wrong is the claim that the new Godzilla is 300 meters tall. Empire’s semi official infographic says it’s a little over 100 meters. [Via charlesapple.com] What did you think of the infographic? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons…
Yesterday, we featured how Godzilla should have ended. Let’s pile on again with Screenjunkies Honest Trailer for Godzilla (2014). Relive the heavily obscured and sparing shots of Godzilla, heroic family abandonment, and lots of staring. And again, Bryan Cranston’s cameo was a ripoff. [Warning: Spoiler alert] What did you think of the Honest Trailer? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook
Godzilla was an awesome movie, way better than the first American version, but it wasn’t perfect. The ending could have been better. HISHE brings us an alternate ending to this epic monster movie, along with a few other gags about the journey. And yeah, Bryan Cranston was a ripoff. What did you think of Godzilla? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook
Professor X of the X-Men is a powerful and beloved figure, but he’s kind of a wimp. He’s intelligent, powerful, and wealthy, but he’s also kind of helpless in his wheelchair. Or at least, that’s what you’d think if you saw his movies and TV shows. Maybe it’s because it’s a good way to get the audience’s sympathy or maybe it’s because the writers don’t know what to do with him, but time and again, Professor X gets his butt handed to him. ScreenJunkies put together this supercut of the Professor’s worst moments. What do you think of Professor X?…
There’s a conspiracy theory that Yuri Gagarin was not the first Russian cosmonaut, but only the first to survive and return to Earth. Some believe the Soviet Union had several previous attempts that ended with the death of the cosmonaut, and were covered up. Today’s video “Kosmonauta” is a visualization of an actual sound clip alleged to be from a female cosmonaut in distress. The signal was picked up on a Soviet frequency in 1962 by the Judica-Cordiglia brothers and gave rise to the theory of the (lost) first female cosmonaut. This project was made by Mirjam Veske (Production Designer)…
X-Men: Days of Future Past is the seventh of the X-Men movie series and acts as a sequel to both 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand and 2011’s X-Men: First Class. With a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, XDoFP is the best-reviewed and the highest-grossing film in the series, having earned over $745 million worldwide. But you wouldn’t be alone if you had a problem keeping the time travel story lines straight. MTV created this handy infographic to explain the timelines. [Via MTV] What did you think of the infographic? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to…
When you think superheroes, you may not immediately think financial planning. But there are a lot of wealthy superheroes like Iron Man and Batman who have business savvy we can learn from. There are even things we can learn from poverty stricken superheroes like Spider-Man and the Hulk. Or not. This infographic from Gobankingrates.com takes us through nine superheroes with a light but still informative approach to finance. What financial lessons can you learn from superheroes? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook
CinemaSins’ “Movie Sins” series has been a hit with their dissections of a lot of bad movies, but I always enjoy when they tackle good movies. That’s why I loved their take on The Terminator, unquestionably one of the great time travel movies of all time. No movie is perfect. For example, why the Terminator run away from the cops? And why did they report the murder of the other Sarah Connors so quickly? And if the time machine only works on living tissue, and the Terminator is living tissue covering metal, then wouldn’t the Terminator end up as an…
This article first appeared on my personal blog, Nigel G. Mitchell, Author, Blogger, Geek. I was recently given the opportunity to interview Christopher Priest about his recent novel, The Adjacent. Priest is best known for his novel adapted into a hit movie by Chris Nolan, The Prestige. His new novel Adjacent is a journey through time and reality. Here’s the overview: Tibor Tarent, a freelance photographer, is recalled to Britain from Anatolia where his wife Melanie has been killed by insurgent militia. The Islamic Republic of Great Britain is a nation living in the aftermath of a bizarre and terrifying terrorist…
I love trivia, and the Terminator movie series, so finding this video from Cinefix was awesome. It has a collection of facts and trivia about the Terminator and the related sequels. Check it out to see a little more than seven things you probably didn’t know about this iconic sci-fi movie. Did you learn anything new about the Terminator? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook
One of the most viral activities of 2014 has been the ice bucket challenge. Wikipedia defines the Ice Bucket Challenge as “an activity involving dumping a bucket of ice water on someone’s head to promote awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and encourage donations to research. The challenge encourages nominated participants to be filmed having a bucket of ice water poured on their heads and then nominating others to do the same. A common stipulation is that nominated participants have 24 hours to comply or forfeit by way of a charitable financial donation.” Here are the ten geekiest…
(Credit: Cinefix) What would The Avengers be like as an old Nintendo game? Avengers is an awesome movie, and most movies get videogame adaptations these days, but Avengers was an exception. THQ had planned to make a first person combat game based on the movie, but ended up closing the studios assigned to it. Cinefix’s 8-Bit Cinema not only brings us a game based on the movie, but paid tribute to old Nintendo games I grew up on. I would totally play this game. What do you think of the Avengers retro game? If you enjoyed this, then please use…
The difference between a PG-13 and R rated movie can be small but significant. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is the organization that assigns movies, and they’re a notoriously fickle bunch. Studios often try to get a PG-13 rating for their movies, because that will allow the widest audience. When the MPAA gives the movie an R rating, the movie often has to cut scenes to get the rating they want. Here are ten movies who scored a PG-13, and what they did to get that rating. 1. Marvel’s The Avengers Marvel’s The Avengers (Credit: Disney/Marvel) The Avengers seems…
Cinemasins has a popular series of videos called “Everything Wrong With…” that lists goofs, errors, and annoyances in movies. Screen Junkies has a popular series of videos called “Honest Trailers” that lists goofs, errors, and annoyances in movies. Both cover similar ground, and even get confused with each other, so it’s only fitting they decided to switch places to cover The Amazing Spiderman 2. What did you think of Amazing Spider-Man 2? If you enjoyed this, then please use the buttons below to tell your friends about this post! Follow us! Email | RSS | Twitter | Facebook
Wax sculptures are a tradition going back centuries. A properly made wax figure can be eerily lifelike. But a bad one can be the stuff of nightmares. Here are some of the worst depicting science fiction movies and TV show throughout the world. First, we go to the German town of Leipzig, which hosted a Star Wars Expo, but apparently couldn’t afford accurate figures. But hey, no problem. They decided to make their own. And it turned out…interesting. Luke Skywalker if he had no elbows and knees R2D2 or a poorly decorated trash can Somehow, they managed to make Princess Leia’s…
One reason we love Doctor Who’s Karen Gillan is she’s such a trooper. For instance, she shaved her famous red hair off to play Nebula in Guardians of the Galaxy. Some people would have worn a bald cap, but not her. Not like she had a choice – she apparently had to formally agree to shave her head before she could even audition. But she took the whole process very lightly, as seen in this video of the process. Compare her reaction to Persis Khambatta breaking down in tears during her shaving to play Lt. Illia in Star Trek: The…
Back in the eighties, one of the biggest pop culture icons was Max Headroom. Performed by Matt Frewer in heavy latex, Max Headroom was a supposedly computer-generated talk show host with the improvisational mind of Robin Williams and the shape-changing zaniness of the Mask. He had his own talk show on Cinemax in 1986 called The Original Max Talking Headroom Show with a live studio audience and bewildered guests. We never got to see it in its original run, but found this clip of Max’s interview with William Shatner, who did an admirable job of trying to keep up. What…