Rob Bricken

Oh, So That’s Who Daniel Craig Played in The Force Awakens

One of the least crazy rumors about The Force Awakens was that somehow, James Bond actor Daniel Craig had filmed a cameo. Now we know it’s true, and who he played, so more spoilers for The Force Awakens! Also Daniel Craig, guess. Ready? Hope so. Remember when Kylo Ren imprisons Rey, and leaves her in…

“War Hammer” Joins the Fray in This New Captain America: Civil War Art—Wait, Who?

A new promo piece for Marvel’s upcoming Captain America: Civil War is here. It features separate groups of the Avengers, led by Steve Rogers’ Cap and Tony Stark’s Iron Man, just civil warring the hell out of each other. But who’s that in the upper-right corner? You may think it’s War Machine, seeing as it…

Your Spoiler-Filled The Force Awakens Discussion Zone

Not everyone has been able to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens yet! If you have, however, chances are you desperately want to talk about it with others. So I’m declaring this comment section a Spoiler FILLED Zone—where we can all talk about TFA to our hearts’ content. Again, if you don’t want to be…

The 13 Craziest Goddamn Rumors About Star Wars: The Force Awakens

As one of the most anticipated movies of all time, it’s not surprising that The Force Awakens has inspired hundreds of rumors from fans, desperate to know what’s going to happen a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. As it turns out, there are at least a dozen or so of these…

io9 Round-Table: What Does Star Wars Mean to You?

You have heard a little something about a new Star Wars movie being released today. While The Force Awakens conquers theaters, we thought we’d examine how this scifi franchise has conquered the world—by discussing what Star Wars means to each of us. Please, add your thoughts and experiences in the comments! Rob Bricken: Let’s begin…

Kurt Russell May Be Star-Lord’s Dad in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

We don’t know who Star-Lord’s father is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe quite yet, but we may know who’s playing him—the current rumor is that director James Gunn wants Kurt Russell to play the mysterious sire of Peter Quill for the much-anticipated Marvel sequel. The Wrap says that meetings haven’t yet take place, so even…

The 12 Most Disturbing Hallmark Ornaments of All Time (Updated)

Back in 2013, I took on the unsavory, festive world of Hallmark ornaments. What I found, of course, rocked our nation to its core, but Hallmark’s onslaught of holiday WTF-ery did not end there. As such, I have updated our exposé of the company’s most unfortunate and upsetting ornaments. 1) Star Wars Holiday Darth Vader…

GI Joe Will Share a Cinematic Universe With a Bunch of Other Hasbro Toys, Including M.A.S.K.

Please add G.I. Joe to the list of live-action franchises that Hollywood is determined to turn into a cinematic universe, hoping to replicate the success (or at least the ticket sales) of Marvel’s movie output. The twist is that the plan is for this G.I. Joe-verse to include several other Hasbro action figure lines, including…

The First Spoiler-Free Impressions of The Force Awakens, Straight From the Premiere

The first group of non-Lucasfilm employees have finally been allowed to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens last night, and good news! The reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Here are what some of the celebrities, reporters, and lucky bastards who attended last night’s premiere had to say about Episode VII. Our own Germain Lussier had one…

The Last Man on the Moon, the new documentary about astronaut Eugene “Gene” Cernan, will gets a theatrical/digital/VOD release on February 26th. As you might have suspected, Cernan was, uh, the last man the U.S. managed to put on the moon, back in 1972 during the final Apollo lunar landing. Watch the trailer above. [Via…

10 TV Series Where Santa Claus Is Real

At a certain point, as we grow up, we all learn the hard truth that Santa Claus isn’t real. And then, as we grow up some more, we discover that’s a lie, and Santa is totally real. We know this because TV shows—many of them ostensibly for adults—have gone out of their way to show…

In This TMNT Fan Flick, the Ninja Turtles Actually Look Like Turtles

And I don’t just mean that they don’t have the creepy human eyes and unfathomably disturbing human lips or teeth of the Michael Bay-produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies. I mean their limbs and heads actually somewhat resemble an actual turtle’s. It’s shocking at first—especially the tiny noggins—but the more I watched it the more…

A NASA Engineer Explains How to Build a Death Star

Looking to build a moon-sized space station of your own one day? Then you’ll want to hear this helpful tip from NASA’s Brian Muirhead as he discusses giant technological terrors, the best way to fly through an asteroid field, and how NASA itself is (slowly) catching up to the tech of Star Wars. [Via Wired]…

How Piers Anthony Made Me Lose My Religion

For a fantasy-loving nerd who first entered high school in 1990, Piers Anthony was inevitable. He doesn’t get as much recognition now as Robert Jordan or Raymond Feist, but for a large portion of the late 20th century he was churning out a stunning variety of YA-targeted scifi and fantasy novels, including the pun-heavy Xanth…

On The Flash, Barry Is an Oblivious Christmas Turkey (Seriously)

How do you follow last week’s epic, ridiculous, wonderfully fun Flash/Arrow crossover? You don’t even try to match it. You just make a Christmas episode, throw in a couple of major emotional revelations for a few characters, bring back three great villains, and then add a metric ton of silliness. “Running to Stand Still,” as…

Drax Drunkenly Explains His Tattoos in This New Guardians of the Galaxy Deleted Scene

Tucked away in the recently released Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 2 Blu-ray megaset are a few never-before-seen deleted scenes, including this one, where a drunken Drax the Destroyer discusses the origins of his tattoos with a couple of DT hallucinations. Hmm? Those aren’t delusions spurred from Drax’s alcohol abuse, but instead are early CG versions…

The 14 Most Horrible Smurfs

If you found a group of tiny blue communists living in mushrooms in your backyard, you would call an exterminator. In Belgium, they made them stars–the Smurfs have been featured in comics, cartoons and movies for over 50 years. But not all Smurfs are as benign as this propaganda would have you believe. 1) Jokey…

This Supercut of All the Non-Leia Female Dialogue in the Original Star Wars Trilogy Will Astound You

But not in a good way. Look, I’m not trying to throw shade on the original trilogy. Obviously, despite being captured in A New Hope and Return of the Jedi, Princess Leia was never a mere damsel-in-distress: she was crucial in her own escape from the Death Star after those dum-dums Luke and Han forgot…

Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars Is Coming to TV, But You’ll Never Guess Where

This is unexpected. There’s finally going to be a live-action adaptation of Kim Stanley Robinson’s beloved Mars trilogy of novels. It’s going to be on Spike TV, best known for reality shows like Bar Rescue and Ink Masters (and infinite Cops reruns). But the surprises don’t end there. First off, Variety says the show will…

The New Flash/Arrow Crossover Is a Crisis of Infinite Fun

Oh, was last night’s Agents of SHIELD some kind of tour de force? Did it have you on the edge of your seat? Was it a game changer? I hope so, because as good as it was, there’s absolutely no damn way it was as fun as last night’s The Flash, the first part of…