Movies

For the last seven years, I've had the chance to explore much of the United States (and Europe) as part of my annual CNET Road Trip project.

In the U.S., these trips have taken me through the Northeast, the Rocky Mountain region, the Southeast, the Southwest, and the Pacific Northwest, and in each of those regions I've gone in search of stories, photos, and videos about some of the best geek-oriented destinations I can find.

Yet, despite those many long journeys along America's roadways, I've never explored CNET's own backdoor -- California. So this … Read more

Are we alone? That question has plagued scientists and space enthusiasts for generations. The release of Ridley Scott's "Prometheus," which opens nationwide today, may reignite questions about life beyond the boundaries of our galaxy.

The film marks the legendary director's return to the science fiction genre. Scott directed the 1979 film "Alien," which pit protagonist Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, against one of the most iconic extraterrestrial antagonists of all time, the titular alien.

In Scott's new film, the crew of Prometheus embarks on a mission to search for alien life, but is instead greeted with unexpected horrors. A series of mysteries unfold throughout the film, which is set in the future, with all of the advanced technology to be expected from the imagination of the legendary filmmaker.… Read more

Karita Brun is her own designer, makeup artist, model, and photographer. The self-taught artist proudly sports her geeky sensibilities by interpreting characters as diverse at the Hulk and Darth Vader through eye shadow and liner.

"Many comic/movie characters have easily recognizable color or patterns which are easy to transform to makeup," Brun tells Crave. "I just take some key features of a character and start working from there."

Brun has delved into the "Star Wars" universe for both R2-D2 and Darth Vader eyes. Darth presented a special challenge. "My first idea was to do the makeup in the shape of his mask, but as it turned out, it didn't work, it wasn't instantly recognizable," she says. That's when she hit on the idea of adding the lightsaber and cape. The Dark Side has never looked lovelier.… Read more

The original release of "Star Wars" was a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (the 1970s), and ever since, George Lucas has been constructing his huge empire at Lucasfilm.

But now, in "an effort to move forward with his retirement plans," Lucas has hand-picked longtime Hollywood producer Kathleen Kennedy to become the co-chair of Lucasfilm, according to a press release today. Lucas will stay on as co-chair and CEO.

"I've spent my life building Lucasfilm and as I shift my focus into other directions I wanted to make sure it was … Read more

If you've worked an office job for any length of time, you've probably found yourself envying "the creatives" -- the people in the design department, say, who always seem to be having more fun than anyone else, with their crazy cubicle setups and unusual work routines.

Matthew Panzarino over at The Next Web has posted a great little story about one of the most extreme -- and awesome -- examples of this that I can imagine.

Panzarino's piece concerns a secret room at Pixar. Judging from what the author says, I should've known about the hideaway before. But I didn't, and you may not have either, so here we go.

It seems that when Pixar moved into its then-new building in Emeryville, Calif., animator Andrew Gordon (who worked on "Monsters Inc.," "Little Nemo," "The Incredibles," and so on) felt a bit of pressure to outdo his co-workers' cubicle craziness. (You can imagine, at a place like Pixar -- which is packed with "creatives" -- just how inventive people get with their work setups.)

Luckily, he discovered a small access hatch in the wall of his office, and -- creative, curious, and mischievous person that he must be -- he wasted no time in doing what many of us probably wouldn't have. He opened it. Then he got on his hands and knees and crawled into it. Then, lo and behold, he discovered a secret "room."… Read more

It's end-of-term time, which means brainy college students throughout the land are busily quaffing coffee and eschewing sleep to get their final projects sewn up.

That means too, of course, that many of these compelling projects are being put on display for the first time.

We got an e-mail from Golan Levin, a professor of new-media arts at Carnegie Mellon University, about student work in his advanced class this spring: "Special Topics in Interactive Art and Computational Design." Levin has put together a Web page of videos, and the projects display an admirable diversity of interests and approaches (and in some cases a mischievous sense of humor).

They range from Kinect-powered 3D soundscapes to virtual houseflies to sexy long-distance physical-stimulation devices (digital foreplay, anyone?).… Read more

In response to charges that Comcast favors content streaming via its Xfinity app on the Xbox over that of its competitors, the cable giant denied giving preferential treatment to its app and said its traffic policies are in compliance with the FCC's Open Internet rules.

Comcast announced in March that it will stream Xfinity on-demand content to Microsoft game consoles. The fact that Comcast content streamed directly to the Xbox console will not be counted against subscribers' total bandwidth usage caps prompted accusations that the cable provider is giving its Xfinity app an unfair advantage over the apps of … Read more

This could be the start of a beautiful relationship.

Facebook users tomorrow will be able to watch "Casablanca" for free, directly on the hit social network. According to a release from Warner Bros., the screening is timed to the release of the 70th anniversary "Casablanca" three-disc Blu-ray and DVD set.

The movie, often referred to as the best film of all time, will be shown starting at both 7 p.m. ET and 7 p.m. PT on the Casablanca Facebook page, although viewers must begin watching by 9 p.m. PT, and can only watch … Read more

One could safely say Dutch computer modder Sander van der Velden adores the behemoth AT-AT vehicle from "The Empire Strikes Back." The self-confessed sci-fi addict recently stuffed a water-cooled computer inside a large Hasbro toy version of Star Wars' most infamous four-legged Rebel annihilator.

The AT-AT computer measures 2 feet tall (plus several more inches for the dock), and contains some spicy hardware, including a Zotac Z68-ITX (Mini-ITX) motherboard running an Intel Core i7 2600k processor, SSD, and built-in Wi-Fi. The water-cooling system (radiator and XSPC pump) uses water blocks to cool the CPU, GPU, and other components.

The designers at Hasbro probably didn't expect someone to take the largest action figure AT-AT ever made and fit a bunch of computer parts into it. … Read more