While Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull couldn't quite break the Memorial Day weekend record ($139.8M), it did come close by grossing a robust $126M ($151M) over the long holiday. As the only new film in wide release, it won the weekend by a wide margin. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian fell to $28.6M ($96.6M) in its second frame while mega-blockbuster Iron Man continued to do great business, finishing just......

Unbelievable Dinner Good Neighbor, the locally based comedy sketch troupe who brought the world "Pregnant Jamie Lynn Speaks Out" (embedded below) is at it again with this homage to a scene from Hook.......

Don't fucking push any levers! | Photo courtesy of Paramount By now you've probably read everything you want to read about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. All I'll add is a few interesting stats: the total domestic box office of all the films that Harrison Ford has appeared in is a staggering $3,094,851,491. That's just ahead of the films that George Lucas has produced ($2,977,630,768) and behind the movies that......

An old friend returns. | Photo courtesy of Paramount Let's get this out of the way right at the top--yes, it's very good and, yes, it is every bit an Indiana Jones movie. Is it another Raiders of the Lost Ark? Well, no, but nothing is and nothing ever will be again. However, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is fully the equal of Temple of Doom or The Last Crusade. If it's the last......

Strewn across local news stations and gaming websites alike, film titan Steven Spielberg is gaining relatively high momentum regarding the lending of his name to Boom Blox, the newest children’s release title from Los Angeles-based EA Games. LAist recently got a chance to play around with the cute little block-shaped animals in what’s called in modern tech parlance, the “casual entertainment” sector of the gamersphere. Stepping out of the hardcore gamer paradigm, its quite apparent......

Wouldn't have been the same with Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones, would it? | Photo courtesy of Paramount If you're as excited as I am about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (please don't ruin it, George Lucas!), then you've probably already started re-watching Indy's earlier adventures. If you don't have the existing DVD box-set then this new one is definitely worth grabbing. The movies are the same but there are......

"orange chair with cushion," by kpe II via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr A steady stream of Koreans moving into the northwest San Fernando Valley suburbs is giving the traditional K-Town in LA City a run for its money. Now you Valley-ists might not have to travel over the hill for karaoke bars. Japanese and Los Angeles police detectives solved a 26-year-old case of a Japanese business man who allegedly shot his wife......

Lakers 117, Timberwolves 92 - The Lakers sent a major sign to the rest of the NBA on their long road trip, finishing with a 7-2 record, acquiring Pau Gasol, and seeing Kobe pour in 29 points last night even with a dislocated finger. Against Minnesota, the Lakers got another solid performance from Gasol, who shot 9-of-11 for 19 points and blocked three shots. The team is off through the All Star game (Sunday) and......

It’s kinda quiet on the event front, a perfect day to reflect on Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy. But if you're into going out tonight: CLASSICAL Southwest Chamber Music continues its Musical Imagination and Color series with a concert featuring 20th century composers, including Stravinsky, Milhaud, Berg, and Bartók. Violinist Lorenz Gamma, clarinetist Jim Foschia and pianist Ming Tsu are on the bill tonight. 8 // Colburn School Of Performing Arts: Across The Street......

The media is certainly getting a little whacky. Today, the Chicago Tribune has an interview with Hizzoner, the former and now deceased Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago. deceased or not, here's what's up:He's bothered by news reports that Steven Spielberg is planning a movie of the disastrous 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention, starring the guy from "Borat" as leftist protester Abbie Hoffman. "Are they going to paint the administration in a favorable light?......

After playing Signor Adolfo Pirelli in the recent movie release of "Sweeney Todd", it looks as Sacha Baron Cohen (of Borat fame) might be becoming a choice pick for directors, or maybe just the soup du jour. Steven Spielberg is making an adaptation of the "Trial of the Chicago 7" and Cohen is to be cast as the "self-identified Jewish Road Warrior, communo-anarchist, social and political activist," Abbie Hoffman. The co-founder of the Youth International......

Who has been the most potent force in filmmaking over the last twenty years? Steven Spielberg? Tom Hanks? Tom Cruise? Joel Silver? How about John Lasseter? His Pixar films have enjoyed unparalleled critical and commercial success since the debut of Toy Story in 1995. Tonight at the Egyptian you can see the whole story of Pixar unfold when the American Cinematheque screens The Pixar Story. Featuring never-before-seen material from the Pixar library, archival animation......

You know you're in the Valley when real estate options are that old porn studio over there or the former sex toy manufacturing plant over there. Well, the LAPD went for the latter in a $37 million project to build a new station in Canoga Park on Schoenborn Street between Owensmouth and Canoga. The station is tentatively called Northwest Area Division. The reason for this new station in the West Valley is getting officers......

Transformers would have been perfect as a 20-minute demo reel for ILM. Instead, it's a long, dull live-action cartoon. And I still don't understand all the fuss about Shia LaBeouf. He's good. Not amazing. Good. No one saw A Mighty Heart at the theater, but it's worth a rental. Angelina Jolie the Actress has been replaced by Angelina the Star, but she doesn't get in the way of a gripping, horrifying story. No one......

It's just a rumor, so don't really hold it too close to heart, but it goes something like this: The LA River Plan's recreational and commuter bike trails are being held up because Spielberg does not want people rolling by his office window. I don't even know where his office is and I doubt that he is a Grinch that stole LA's river (I imagine him as a gregarious gentleman ready to sign a huge......

A review of the Fox Searchlight movie, Sunshine. The movie is directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, and stars Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Cliff Curtis, Michelle Yeoh, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rose Byrne, Benedict Wong, Troy Garity, and Mark Strong....

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......

From time to time, LAist will take a look at the many book-to-film projects underway in Hollywood. We'll explore the books we love and why we're over-the-moon excited or just plain worried about the film projects that bear their name. When it was announced a few weeks ago that Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson were teaming up to make a film out of Alice Sebold's outstanding The Lovely Bones, we wondered if they'd make it......

Wanna make a film in only 12 hours without whoring yourself out on some dingy casting couch or selling your firstborn in exchange for a paltry production budger? Of course you do. So sign up for the first ever Los Angeles Film Race, a crazy 12-hour film competition that takes place on Saturday, June 2. Here's how it works. At 11:59 AM on June 2, each filmmaking team (you choose your own teams well in......

Law & Order: Criminal Intent offers what will no doubt be a sensitive meditation on the perils of fame in a May episode that closely parallels the Anna Nicole Smith saga. Original Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kristy Swanson, in her puffy, post-pregnancy state (that's the kind of glow you can only get from stealing another woman's husband and having his baby) will play the ersatz Anna Nicole and… (wait for it)… David Cross will......

Oscar Shorts at the Academy To kick off Oscar Week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present "Shorts!" a program featuring the 10 Academy Award-nominated films in the Animated and Live Action Short Film categories. The program, hosted by director Taylor Hackford, will feature onstage discussions with the nominated filmmakers. Short Film (Animated) The Danish Poet, Torill Kove, director Lifted, Gary Rydstrom, director The Little Matchgirl, Roger Allers, director; Don Hahn, producer......

Carolyn Kellogg, previous editor of LAist, heads up Metroblogging Pittsburgh while she works on her MFA 19,215 dogs and cats were euthanized last year by the Department of Animal Services. It was a drop from the previous year, but General Manager Ed Boks is dreaming of a no-kill city Purple Line, Purple Line, Purple Line! Until the Purple Line takes us from 3rd St. Promenade to LACMA in 14 whole minutes, maybe this site will......

The DGA announced its best directing in feature film award nominees yesterday: Steven Spielberg for Munich - 10-time nominee, 3 wins: Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, The Color Purple Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain - 2-time nominee, 1 win: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Bennett Miller for Capote - first nomination Paul Haggis for Crash - first nomination George Clooney for Good Night, and Good Luck - first nomination Television award nominees will be announced......