As many of my readers know I am a big Michael J. Fox fan. Back to the Future is my absolute favorite movie of all time. Let me put it into perspective for you. I do not have a middle name. But once when I was a kid I begged my mom to legally change my name to include the middle name Martin, so that I could go by Marty. So am I big fan? You bet.

The following video is a hilarious clip I found where Fox and director Peter Jackson talk about one of the memorable bloopers that took place when they were filming The Frighteners. There are a couple of four letter words dropped so make sure the kids aren’t around.

Josh H.

I have turned into a real dork over the past several years. Now before I begin let me just say that I use the word “dork” in the most flattering, least offensive way possible. More specifically I have become a major Sci-Fi dork. It all started when my wife (she seems to be at the bottom of all this) got me to watch and become interested in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

I had always thought TNG was a pretty good show and I enjoyed the movies that came out while I was in high school. Still, in my mind, when I thought of Star Trek I thought of wormy little guys with acne
who went to conventions and greeted one another with the Vulcan “live long and prosper” hand gesture.

Recently Stephen at Undeception discussed intelligent design (and before that referred his readers to an Oklahoma bill related to creationism). This has gotten to think about the creation/evolution debate, which will probably never be definitively settled “this side of eternity”, as the saying goes. So being that this argument has been on my mind, my interest piqued when I heard the intro to a recent episode of the Focus on the Family radio program.

Did He say “Free”?

Online media content and access to it is all the rage these days. Nevermind music, because consumers are looking for bigger fish. Consumers want to download or stream and watch their favorite TV shows and even movies. For those on the go this desire has grown exponentially. Apple and others have scrambled for the past two and half years to settle content contracts with movie and television studios resulting in some great partnerships as well as some nasty breakups.

In the wake of NBC’s departure from iTunes came a new kind of service from the combined forces of NBC and News Corp.: Hulu. Launched March 12, 2008, Hulu is an ad-supported free content service which allows users to watch hundreds of television shows and movies on-demand on their PC or Mac. Much in the same way that some networks (e.g. NBC, CBS) are offering free video-on-demand (VOD) on their websites, Hulu streams content to your computer that you can watch as many times as you want and as long as you want.

I know that The Smoak House is not the place for the latest Hollywood gossip but I just heard the report that Heath Ledger was found dead in an apartment owned by Mary-Kate Olsen in New York. He was found today (Jan. 22) around 3:30pm EST and authorities state that the probably cause of death was a drug overdose since pills were found near his body.

I bring this up because, well first of all it is sad. Too many celebrities’ lives end this way. But also I am concerned about what will happen with the film The Dark Knight in which Ledger was to play the infamous Joker. A trailer for the film has been released indicating that filming is most likely nearing completion (in fact it may already be in post-production). I am a big fan of the Batman franchise and I have been particularly anticipating this newest movie which was to be Christopher Nolan’s second Batman film. It is my assumption that most of the filming is done but I suppose that if any additional scenes with Ledger were to be done in post-production that those would have to be foregone. But it seems that this year we will be seeing a posthumous performance by Ledger.

This is a sad story and I wish that more celebrities would stop and take notice of the destructive lives they lead. I wish they would see that it does not have to be this way.

Josh H.