It's happened to us all. Fighting sleep late one night, we flip around the TV channels desperate for entertainment when we spot it: An old, black-and-white science fiction movie with paper plate UFOs and tin foil space suits. We pause, and think to ourselves, "Perfect." It's hard to say exactly why scifi B-movies hold a place in our hearts. It could be the kitsch factor -- paper plate UFOs certainly have their charm, as do rubber monster suits with visible zippers and rocket ships on strings with sparklers for exhaust. It could also be some nostalgia for a time when science fiction was lighter and less complicated. For whatever reason, these scifi B-movie have far outlasted their own production values -- and we're the richer for it.

Starting today, AMCtv.com is removing "random channel surfing" from the equation by proudly hosting 27 full-screen B-movie classics for free online. Mixed in among the hot-rod drag races and sing-along bikini beach parties are a few scifi gems -- movies like Creation of the Humanoids (1962), where the allegories fly fast and furious in a tale of civil war between the survivors of a nuclear holocaust and the blue-skinned androids they created for slave labor; and Terror Beneath the Sea (1966), in which only Sonny Chiba -- yes, that Sonny Chiba -- can stop rubber-suited underwater monsters from taking over the world and converting humanity into sexless fish-men.

Continue reading "Watch SciFi Camp Classics Like Dark Star Online for Free" »

Kevin Maher heads to New York Comic Con to interview Fanboys director Kyle Newman, actor Dan Fogler and co-writer Dan Pulick on the movie's opening weekend. Find out why Trekkers will like the movie, whether or not George Lucas has a sense of humor and what title executive producer Harvey Weinstein insisted people call him during the production.

Movies mentioned in this video:
• Fanboys

Want more? Click here to watch the SciFi Dept Video on the short list for this year's Webby Awards nominations.

Kevin Maher responds to popular demand with a second Hungry Actors episode... but this time it's a quiz! See how well you know the early careers of Ethan Hawke, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Hilary Swank.

Movies mentioned in this video include:

• The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
• Away From Her
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Chopper Chicks in Zombietown
• Explorers
• Mr. Woodcock
• My Boyfriend's Back
• The Next Karate Kid
• Sling Blade
• The Sweet Hereafter

Want more? Click here for additional SciFi Dept. videos.

We live in an age of homebrew science fiction television impossible to imagine thirty years ago. An age when affordable computers, cheap cameras and film editing programs easily allow almost any fan to make a respectable short film, and better. An age where online video sites like YouTube, Google Video, Vimeo and Daily Motion allow that same fan-turned-filmmaker to broadcast his creation to anyone who wants to tune in.

The Portal
In many ways, Steve Sutton -- a quiet, spectacled 43-year-old with a curiously monotone way of expressing himself, the very model of quiet desperation -- defines the entire spirit of that YouTube scifi amateur: An implausible amalgamation of genius, passion, incompetence... and zero budget. Since 2005, Sutton has been releasing regular episodes of his Portal series of webisodes, an inter-dimensional, space-hopping, time travel epic with dozens of characters and locales. If that sounds impressive, consider this: Sutton performs all of the characters, and films the entire series in front of his computer's webcam, with his bedroom as the soundstage and an old green blanket pinned to the ceiling doubling for a green screen. It's easy to laugh at the crudity of Steve's efforts, and in truth, that's why most people first watch the series, but ultimately, it's hard not to eventually become hypnotized by Sutton's laconic passion for his subject.

Continue reading "Mashed Up or Sweded - The Homemade SciFi Worth Watching Online " »

For those of you who miss the good old days when there was some sort of trailer mashup emailed to you every day... get ready for the non-stop barrage of Dark Knight mashups!

We've already seen a few:

• A rather brilliant mashup of the first Dark Knight trailer, with footage from the old Adam West television show.
• A version created entirely out of Legos.
• College Humor called out the similarity between the trailer, and Tim Burton's original movie, with side-by-side comparisons. (To be fair, and so there's no confusion, the footage that represents the Burton Batman is heavily edited with clips from the rest of the movie, but it's still interesting to watch.)

Now, with the Dark Knight's second trailer officially on the net, plucky young editors have taken the past week to cobble together a new batch.

Continue reading "Dark Knight Trailer Mashups Are the Next Big Internet Meme" »

Think it was neat seeing Jeff Goldblum dissolve stuff with his saliva? Wait until you see Isabella Rossellini, one of the most beautiful film stars of all time, take a crack at a gigantic plate of spaghetti.

In her entrancing new short film series, Green Porno, she costumes herself as a housefly, a spider and many other ugly bugs in order to demonstrate how they have sex. Enacting both male and female roles (where they apply), Rossellini proves herself to be a timeless sex symbol even when saddled with cumbersome gear like compound eyes, spinnerets, and mantis-claws. I hope Tobey Maguire is paying attention; she could surely teach shy Peter Parker a thing or two about how male spiders are supposed to conduct themselves in the boudoir.

To see how Isabella Rossellini Fulfills Her Girlhood Dream With Green Porno, click here.

It's been a quarter of a century now since the Rebels won the day, and the Ewoks still can't get any love. Such is the the gospel of Andrew Zilch, whose music video about the fuzzy little bolo-throwers -- still reviled by some as a cheap lure existing solely to pander to younger viewers -- is blowing up big. Whether crooning soulfully in a meadow or backed by a full gospel choir, Zilch's video Runaway Box-produced video urges us to give the cuddly primitives their due respect, and lists all their admirable qualities: "They're tiny warriors... They fought so bravely... Livin' like the Amish..." What more can we ask of em? Preach it, brother.

Cowboys and laser guns rarely mix outside of the playground (though Serenity and The Wild Wild West spring to mind). This is why we need High Tech Noon, which touches up the classic Western with space-age special effects, turning Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly into an Old West Luke and Leia as they battle the Miller gang with satellites, force fields, and other anachronistic contrivances.

Some of the effects are Star Trek-era cheesy, but others are remarkably sophisticated for a DIY project -- the sight of four outlaws materializing through a transdimensional portal will make you wish this short was a full-length remake.

Designing visual effects for movies and video games must be the coolest job ever, right? Think again. The comedy short Digital Grunt charts the adventures of one lowly worker-bee as the pressure mounts and his deadline approaches.

Rest assured that coffee will be guzzled, No Doz will be gobbled, and his family will wonder whether he's ever coming home from work again. Error messages (and nitpicky notes from the client, who manages to pinpoint the one bad pixel that needs work) are fired like fast-forward cannonballs to the tune of the "William Tell Overture."

Watching the sweat literally pour out of his hat may be hilarious (or unpleasantly familiar, if you can relate), but it does give me a little more appreciation for the work that's gone into every little explosion and creature effect I've seen lately -- I sure hope that guy is okay.

Fans of bland low-budget cartoons from the 1960's are are counting the days until Speed Racer hits the big screen. Outside of the peppy theme song, I never went for the show. It always felt flat and joyless, the kind of boring kids' entertainment that I associate with Tin Tin. I never bought into the idea that it's hip and cool, that's something soul-less baby-boomers keep telling themselves, aided by nostalgia merchants and media outlets like Time and Newsweek, who insist that it's gonna be a helluva ride.

Don't get me wrong, Speed Racer wasn't any worse that the stuff on The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, but I don't see anyone spending $200 million on a Secret Squirrel movie. (If only!)

So instead of watching the Wachowskis' movie, save yourself ten bucks and watch this delightful parody, Race Speedster, by Charged.