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Robot roll call! This also-ran robotic fantasy from the 1950s is precisely the kind of movie one would expect from Republic, a two-fisted anti-Commie tract for juveniles. The studio comes up with an impressive robo-hero, but short-changes us when it come time for action thrills. Still, as pointed out in Richard Harland Smith’s new commentary, Tobor filled the the kiddie hunger for sci-fi matinees, at least until Robby the Robot came along.

Tobor the Great

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1954 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 77 min. / Street Date September 12, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Charles Drake, Karin Booth, Billy Chapin, Taylor Holmes, Steven Geray, Hal Baylor, Alan Reynolds, Peter Brocco, Robert Shayne, Lyle Talbot, William Schallert

Cinematography: John L. Russell

Production Design: Gabriel Scognamillo

Special Effects: Howard and Theodore Lydecker

Film Editor: Basil Wrangell

Original Music: Howard Jackson

Written by Philip MacDonald, Carl Dudley

Produced by Richard Goldstone

Directed by Lee Sholem...

Top 10 dogs on filmTop 10 dogs on filmAmanda Wood8/26/2016 10:00:00 Am

We humans have been sharing the silver screen with all manner of beasts for as long as movies have existed. But no animal quite manages to capture our hearts and our cameras as much as the good old-fashioned pet dog. Dogs have played major and minor characters in practically every genre, their loyalty and selflessness making them ideal sidekicks and heroes.

Today is National Dog Day, so here at Cineplex we're in full celebration mode. As you might have guessed, we're big on dogs here, so this is undoubtedly one of the most exciting days of the year for us. There are no shortage of amazing, adorable, and impressive dogs in movies, so we obviously had to mention some of our favourites to commemorate the day.

There are far too many movie dogs to include in this list, so...

Anne Hathaway: Oscar Host's Red Dress outshone Oscars' Red Carpet. Anne Hathaway Oscar host: Red dress one of countless outfits Blast from the Past: Pictured above is Oscar host Anne Hathaway sporting a blindingly bright white smile while on the 2011 Academy Awards' Red Carpet just outside the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. But wait. In the photo, Hathaway is wearing a blindingly bright red gown. Wasn't her dress of a metallic blue hue? Actually, no. It was beige (with patterns). Wait. Come to think of it, she actually wore a tux, not a dress. Or maybe it was all of the above. And more. How could that be? Well, the color, texture, format, and type of Anne Hathaway's outfits varied according to which 15 minutes of the Oscar telecast you watched on Sunday night, Feb. 27. Hathaway, a Best Actress nominee for Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married in early...

Michelle Williams has officially parted ways with the Brooklyn home she bought with the late Heath Ledger.

According to CityRealty's 6sqft blog, the 34-year-old  actress sold the townhouse for $8.8 million, after initially listing the Boerum Hill property for $7.5 million in September. She bought the house in 2005 with her then-boyfriend Ledger for $3.6 million.

Photos: Michelle Williams Stuns on Adorable New Louis Vuitton Ads

The four-story, ivy-covered home comes complete with a three-car garage, temperature-controlled wine cellar, radiant heat floors, and a landscaped roof deck with a waterfall.

Ledger passed away in 2008 due to an accidental overdose of prescription drugs. After his death, Williams continued to live in the Brooklyn home with their now 9-year-old daughter Matilda. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actress is now based out of Los Angeles.

News: Michelle Williams Is Finally Growing Her Hair Out

Et was actually with an adorable 14-year-old Williams when she made her big-screen debut in the 1994 retelling of [link...

Everyone — the lovers, the dreamers, and Oscar-winning songwriter Bret McKenzie — got dolled up to watch the world premiere of the Muppets Most Wanted alongside the titular stars last night in Hollywood.

“This is a bucket-list sort of item,” said Tina Fey, who plays a warden at the Siberian gulag where Kermit The Frog is wrongly imprisoned after his lookalike nemesis Constantine slaps a fake mole on his face in the Disney sequel hitting theaters March 21, when Entertainment Weekly caught up with her on the carpet at the El Capitan Theatre. “I met Lorne Michaels. I met John McEnroe. And now I have met the Muppets.

It seems like Gary Ross might have found that different project he wanted to pursue that caused him to turn down a directing gig on "Catching Fire."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, "The Hunger Games" director is in talks to trade in Panem for Neverland. He is reportedly negotiating to direct Disney's upcoming adaptation of Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's children's novel "Peter and the Starcatchers," which serves as a prequel of sorts to "Peter Pan."

Ross has never been a director to prefer helming children's stories over adult ones, so there must be something very special (or very profitable) drawing him towards "Peter and the Starcatchers." "The Hunger Games" must have been a good way to prep him for the story, though this Disney project likely won't be nearly as gritty and violent. Ross's previous two films, "Seabiscuit" and "Pleasantville," also aren't great examples of the tone required...

As Snow White and the Huntsman shows, there's a fourth age for women in film - the queen bitch, finds Tom Shone

"Picasso had his blue period, and this is my bitch period." So said Charlize Theron at the Wondercon convention earlier this year on her recent run of roles, first as a boyfriend-snatching hot mess in last year's Young Adult, and now the evil stepmom in Snow White and the Huntsman. Critics have agreed that Theron steals the show as the embittered Queen Ravenna, clinging by her extendable fingernails to a patriarchal kingdom in which women can only acquire power through their looks, until someone younger, fairer, and with a bigger vampire-franchise fan-base comes along. Any resemblance to actual feudal hierarchies, living or dead, is entirely accidental. Hollywood, as we all know, harbors a deep respect for the glories of the mature woman, utterly disdaining of the lollipopped Lolitas...

As the 2011 year comes to a close, I’d like to take a look back at the actors, actresses. musicians and others who have passed on this year. There is no doubt that these celebrities have left their mark on our society and in their respective fields and I’d like to say thank you to them for their contributions. Pete Postlethwaite- Actor (The Town, Clash of the Titans, Inception) Gerry Rafferty- Singer/Songwriter ('Stuck in the Middle With You,' 'Baker Street') Peter Yates- Director (Bullitt, Breaking Away) John Dye- Actor (Best of the Best, Touched by an Angel) Jack Lalanne- Fitness Guru (Juice Tiger) Dwaye McDuffie- Comic Book Writer/Co-Founder Milestone Media (Damage Control) Mike Starr- Musician (Alice in Chains) Nate Dogg- Musician (Collaborated with Warren G, Eminem, Snoop Dogg & Dr. Dre, among others) Michael Gough- Actor (Alfred in Batman,...

Dear Readers:

My first love will always be the movies… but I’m also very passionate about television — past and present, popular and obscure, highbrow and lowbrow, etc.

I minored in film studies at college, but I also took classes on television, its history, and its cultural impact, all of which I loved, and I’ve continued to independently study those subjects in the years since.

When I operated AndTheWinnerIs.blog.com, the previous incarnation of my current Web site, I wrote numerous long-form posts about television (analyzing the roots of America’s fascination with “24,” the implications of America’s obsession with “American Idol,” etc.).

For that blog, and/or my former Los Angeles Times blog, and/or my current blog, and/or a book project that I have been researching for several years, I have extensively interviewed loads of people who are largely — and, in some cases, exclusively — associated...

She first became known as Jen Lindley on the popular "Dawson's Creek," now Michelle Williams, 30, has a noteworthy acting resume, having starred in such films as "The Station Agent," "Brokeback Mountain" and "Shutter Island." The actress has often appeared in dramatic and serious indie films that have frequently been under the radar.

In 2005, Williams was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2005's "Brokeback," and five years later received another nod for "Blue Valentine,...

Hollywood isn’t just a man’s world but a dogs’ heaven too. Well, everybody knows that All Dogs Go to Heaven (Animated, 1989), especially those 20 famous film stars. Innumerable famous dogs move us to laughter and tears in their lovely acting. In a sense dogs bring a special taste to films and illogical howling, yapping and barking that we somehow always seem to perceive and recognize. Many movies with dogs starring in them showed us how they are clever, generous and faithful buddies Lets not fail to recognize their talented way of keeping us all entertained by remembering who are the 20 famous film Star Dogs. All in all, hard work, persistence and a passion for craft definitely deserves it.

1. Lassie

Lassie is almost certainly the biggest stage name for dogs in the history of film. She was originally a character in a short story turned novel written by Eric Knight.

Last Thursday, I had the pleasure of spending about 45-minutes on the telephone with Michelle Williams, who is not only one of America’s finest actresses — and, at 30, will probably remain one of them for decades to come — but who is also a deeply intelligent woman; a devoted single mother; and a real survivor. (She’s also not bad on the eyes!)

Williams became a star at the tender age of 17 on the hit TV show “Dawson’s Creek” (1998-2003) — I remember when it happened because I’m about the same age as her and often tuned in. She proved that she had the acting chops to match her looks in a number of early films, but especially “Brokeback Mountain” (2005), for which she received a best supporting actress Oscar nod. She attracted the interest of the tabloids when she first began dating her “Brokeback” co-star Heath Ledger, with whom she would eventually have a daughter,...

Nikki Finke is reporting that Matt Damon is going to star in a biopic of Robert F Kennedy for New Regency. Directed by Gary Ross, and written by Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Promises scribe Steven Knight. The film will be adapted from the Evan Thomas-penned biography His Life, published in 2000. Ross burst into Hollywood as the screenwriter and co-producer of Big. He also wrote Mr. Baseball, Dave and Lassie before making his feature directorial debut with Pleasentville. He has since wrote and directed Seabiscuit and the animated film The Tale of Despereaux. Here is the official description from Thomas' book: He was "Good Bobby," who, as his brother Ted eulogized him, "saw wrong and tried to right it . . . saw suffering and tried to heal it." And "Bad Bobby," the ruthless and manipulative bully of countless conspiracy theories. Thomas's unvarnished but sympathetic and fair-minded portrayal is packed with new...

Dee Wallace is a horror icon and Fango Favorite. Having appeared in such classic fright fare as Cujo, The Howling, and Wes Craven's The Hills Have Eyes, Wallace has become a familiar face who's appearance is welcomed by genre fans around the globe. With upcoming roles in Ti West's acclaimed The House Of The Devil and Rob Zombie's The Haunted World Of El Superbeasto, Fango contributor Lee Gambin has unearthed a retro interview with the actress to present here on Fangoria.com for the very first time.

Fangoria: How did you get started in show business?

Dee Wallace: I got started in acting very early. My mom directed all the religious plays at church, Dad built the scenery, and Grandma did the costumes! I modeled quite a bit and did commercials. I got started in the actual business, that is being paid for work, at 27 when I left Kansas City,...

W.C. Fields once said, "Never work with children or animals." Well, one of the world's most famous canines is returning to television and it looks like producers will get to avoid working with both real-life kids and dogs.

The character of Lassie the collie first appeared in a 1938 short story, written by Eric Knight. It was later expanded into a novel called Lassie Come-Home. An MGM film based on the book, starring Roddy McDowall and Elizabeth Taylor, hit theaters in 1943. That spawned additional Lassie stories in print, on radio and in movie theaters.

In 1954, the Lassie TV show debuted on CBS. Aside from the famous canine, the family show features the talents of Tommy Rettig, Jan Clayton, George Cleveland, Jon Provost, June Lockhart, Hugh Reilly, Robert Bray, Jack De Mave, Jed Allan, Ron Hayes, Larry Wilcox, Pamelyn Ferdin, Cloris Leachman, and Jon Shepodd. Lassie had a number of human friends...

News has surfaced that Gary Ross, writer of such films including Seabiscuit, The Tale of Despereaux, Dave and Lassie in the past and writer/director of some others (that we’ll discuss later), is being brought in to re-write the script of Spider-Man 4.

What does this mean for the movie?

On one side, Ross was likely chosen because of his growing relationship with Sony which includes his directing of a Lance Armstrong cycling film and his work on the in-development Tokyo Suckerpunch.

On the other side, Spider-Man 4’s script is getting yet another rewrite meaning there are major issues with it (probably due to what happened in Spider-Man 3). This leaves me wondering what direction the film will take after the last movie and how, or if, it will lead at all into the Venom spinoff movie we’ve heard a lot about.

If you were expecting to...

To paraphrase George Clooney, if you can get Gary Ross for your movie, get Gary Ross for your movie. Clooney was referring to Don Cheadle when he said that on the set of Out of Sight, but it's just as true about the writer of Big and the writer-director of Dave, Pleasantville, and Seabiscuit. Gary Ross knows what he's doing.

And now there's a legitimate reason to wait for what's next from Spider-Man 4, the film Ross was just hired by Sony to rewrite, according to Variety. Regular readers here know my big concern about the recent Transformers movie is that there's no story. A plot, sure, but the characters don't even interact, and only one has something close to a purpose. That's bad writing. It also afflicted Spider-Man 3.

Gary Ross doesn't, as a general rule, write bad scripts. I'll forgive Lassie and Mr. Baseball, which were commissioned jobs...

According to the Hollywood Reporter’s Risky Biz Blog, Gary Ross has signed on to pen the screenplay for the untitled Lance Armstrong biopic, a project that has been trying to get off the ground since 2006. The film is based on Armstrong’s first book, which he wrote with Sally Jenkins titled “It’s Not About the Bike,” which traces his story from his difficult Texas upbringing, his cancer diagnosis in 1996, his relationship to first wife Kristin, the birth of their child and his remarkable comeback from illness that saw him first win the Tour de France in 1999. Armstrong went on to win six more titles in cycling’s biggest race, before retiring upon the completion of the 2005 Tour de France. He recently came out of retirement to try and win a record eighth title. Ross’ writing credits include The Tale of Despereaux, Big, Dave, Mr. Baseball and Lassie. He...

Movie Jungle has new images up for Universal Pictures' "The Tale of Despereaux" animated adventure. The film opens on Christmas Day and features a wonderfully talented array of actors including Matthew Broderick, Emma Watson, Sigourney Weaver, Christopher Lloyd, Robbie Coltraine, Kevin Kline, William H. Macy, Richard Jenkins, Stanley Tucci, Frank Langella, Ciaran Hinds, Tony Hale, Frances Conroy, Bronson Pinchot, Tracey Ullman and Sam Fell. Directed by Sam Fell and Robert Stevenhave, the film is adapted for the screen by Gary Ross based on the 2004 Newberry Award-winning book by Kate Dicamillo. Ross was hte helmer of the remarkable "Seabiscuit" of 2003 as well as "Dave," "Lassie," "Big" and "Mr. Baseball."...

Movie Jungle has new images up for Universal Pictures' "The Tale of Despereaux" animated adventure. The film opens on Christmas Day and features a wonderfully talented array of actors including Matthew Broderick, Emma Watson, Sigourney Weaver, Christopher Lloyd, Robbie Coltraine, Kevin Kline, William H. Macy, Richard Jenkins, Stanley Tucci, Frank Langella, Ciaran Hinds, Tony Hale, Frances Conroy, Bronson Pinchot, Tracey Ullman and Sam Fell. Directed by Sam Fell and Robert Stevenhave, the film is adapted for the screen by Gary Ross based on the 2004 Newberry Award-winning book by Kate Dicamillo. Ross was hte helmer of the remarkable "Seabiscuit" of 2003 as well as "Dave," "Lassie," "Big" and "Mr. Baseball."...

Movie Jungle has new images up for Universal Pictures' "The Tale of Despereaux" animated adventure. The film opens on December 19th and features a wonderfully talented array of actors including Matthew Broderick, Emma Watson, Sigourney Weaver, Christopher Lloyd, Robbie Coltraine, Kevin Kline, William H. Macy, Richard Jenkins, Stanley Tucci, Frank Langella, Ciaran Hinds, Tony Hale, Frances Conroy, Bronson Pinchot, Tracey Ullman and Sam Fell. Directed by Sam Fell and Robert Stevenhave, the film is adapted for the screen by Gary Ross based on the 2004 Newberry Award-winning book by Kate Dicamillo. Ross was hte helmer of the remarkable "Seabiscuit" of 2003 as well as "Dave," "Lassie," "Big" and "Mr. Baseball." Once upon a time, in the faraway kingdom of Dor, there was magic in the air, raucous laughter aplenty and gallons of mouth-watering soup. But a terrible accident left the king broken-hearted, the princess filled with longing and the townsfolk despondent.

Movie Jungle has new images up for Universal Pictures' "The Tale of Despereaux" animated adventure. The film opens on Christmas Day and features a wonderfully talented array of actors including Matthew Broderick, Emma Watson, Sigourney Weaver, Christopher Lloyd, Robbie Coltraine, Kevin Kline, William H. Macy, Richard Jenkins, Stanley Tucci, Frank Langella, Ciaran Hinds, Tony Hale, Frances Conroy, Bronson Pinchot, Tracey Ullman and Sam Fell. Directed by Sam Fell and Robert Stevenhave, the film is adapted for the screen by Gary Ross based on the 2004 Newberry Award-winning book by Kate Dicamillo. Ross was hte helmer of the remarkable "Seabiscuit" of 2003 as well as "Dave," "Lassie," "Big" and "Mr. Baseball."...

 When I was younger, all the kids in the neighborhood would spend the day riding bikes and frolicking in the summer air. We'd play a little baseball and throw things at the abandoned house down the street. Of course when we played baseball it wasn't in a deserted lot, nor did it share a fence with a giant dog called "The Beast". Looking back, it would've been more entertaining if it had.

 

I was watching TV the other night with my roommate and we came across The Sandlot. After the "oh man, I love this movie" and "yeah smalls" commentary, the inevitable question was raised - what ever happened to the team? It has been 15 years since the Sandlot touched our lives, now it's time to reconnect. Boosh spent the afternoon doing investigative reporting (i.e. Google) to find out just what happened to your favorite starting lineup.

 

 

Scotty Smalls...