This week ended with the launch of the seventh and final Harry Potter installation. But while the world was consumed with Pottermania, it's important to remember that there were more serious things going on in the world, too - two of them in -Ist cities. Sampaist was shocked when a passenger jet crashed into the center of Sao Paulo, killing at least 200 people. The airplane, an Airbus A320, skidded off the runway at the......

Photo by Lisa Brenner Taken on Galaxy Way in Century City......

Dear Mr. Bay, I have been waiting for a kick-ass Transformers movie to come out since I was a little kid. I love the Autobots. At one point, I even had plans to marry Optimus Prime, except that he died during one of the Transformers episodes before I had the chance to tell him of my love. When I turned five, I had a Transformers birthday cake. Sometimes I would pretend that my Malibu......

You've already gotten the honest mixed reviews of Transformers from Peggy and Robert, but here comes the biased review of a kid who spent his childhood getting smacked around by his mother after begging for these plastic little toy robots on a daily basis. You see, older generations were raised with good old-fashioned family values -- while my generation was taught about the forces of good and evil from a talking robot army sent......

The Michael Bay-directed, gigantic budget, summer blockbuster comes out today, but some may remember the 1986 animated feature Transformers: The Movie. Released the same year the current film's star Shia LaBeouf was born, the animated classic cast the vocal talents of Orson Welles, Leonard Nimoy, Eric Idle, Judd Nelson and Casey Kasem. The movie also featured the song "The Touch" by Stan Bush. Director Paul Thomas Anderson gave a tongue-in-cheek nod to the anthem......

Though Westwood is now a smoking ruin, I am happy to announce that Optimus Prime and his heroic Autobots have defeated Megatron and his dastardly Decepticons. For those of you now whining "spoiler!"--come on. Does anyone really not know how Transformers is going to end? Don't worry. They left plenty of room for sequels. I just want to take this time to personally thank the programmers of the LA Film Festival for finding a......