The actor, most notable for his role as Uncle Phil on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, has died at the age of 68.

According to Avery’s manager Toni Benson, Avery passed away from complications of open-heart surgery, CNN reports.

Avery had appeared in many other television shows since his time on the now classic Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, including CSI, That ’70s Show, The Closer, as well as appearances playing a judge on L.A. Law.

Avery most recently landed a role in Zach Braff’s new film Wish I Was Here, which is slated to premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

I have never seen…

A new independent Star Trek film project is currently in production. StarringVoyager‘s John Savage as Captain Rudy Ransom, Gary Lockwood reprising his TOS role as Gary Mitchell, and Blanca Blanco as Lt. Cmdr. T’Lexa, Star Trek Equinox: The Night of Time, is written by Camren T. Burton and John Savage.

The filmmakers plan to present the film to CBS in the next year, as a pilot for a potential television series.

This actually kind of sounds like a bad idea. The IMDB synopsis reads:

Fifteen years after the destruction of the USS Equinox (approximate star date 2393) Captain Rudy Ransom, who…

For all the hand-wringing about the decline of the movie industry, 2013 was actually a pretty good year for movies. In fact, by one measure, it was actually the best year for movies. Ever. In cinema history.

The gross domestic box office take for last year was the highest ever, beating a record set just one year earlier.

Variety reports that as of this past Sunday, the total gross tally for 2013 was $10.836 billion. By now, it’s likely that that figure has crossed the $11 billion mark — making 2013 the first year to do so. The previous record, set in 2012, was $10.837 billion.

Yep, film…

With the LEGO movie coming up, I thought maybe I could slip this in here as related. Just go with me on this, okay?

LEGO usually does such a good job with their ads, and this is one of the better ones even. So many ads these days either sell with sex, or with stupidity, or crazy gimmicks, or flashy lack of substance. Not LEGO. Now, I admit that I may be partial, prejudiced. I loved my LEGOs (yes, I know LEGO says you aren’t supposed to make that word plural, but I’m going to anyway) when I was growing up. LEGOs are awesome. My kids have LEGOs but they are not into them as much as me, and…

The movies of 2013 were great and we’re all anxiously anticipating 2015, but let’s not overlook 2014. While the upcoming calendar isn’t packed as full of blockbusters that make film fans salivate, 2014 has some pretty awesome looking movies from several of the best filmmakers in the world. It has its share of massive franchise films too and while maybe they’re not Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Terminator or Batman fighting Superman, I’ll take Christopher Nolan, Paul Thomas Anderson, Cameron Crowe, Wes Anderson, the Wachowksis and David Fincher any day.

Below, read my top ten anticipated films…

Stephen Colbert was called, “The Biggest Tolkien geek I’ve ever met” by Peter Jackson apparently (according to Colbert), and Colbert has indeed had a self professed life-long obsession with the good folks of Middle Earth. So naturally, Peter Jackson gave him a role in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

What’s that? You didn’t see him in the film, you say? Ahh my young padawan… er… hobbit (wrong franchise), that’s because you were not looking closely enough. In fact, apparently Colbert’s whole family appears in the film, though we’ve only spotted Stephen himself for sure.

Don’t believe me?…

Top ten film lists are hard. I started this article with the intent of making a top ten list. I failed. Every single film on this list deserves to be in my top ten. But, there are twenty. What to do? Hey, maybe I just won’t be boxed into the mold of a top ten (or maybe I don’t have the discipline to trim my list, whatever). Maybe I’ll write a top twenty list instead. So that’s what I’m doing.

One item of disclosure however. I have not seen all the films that there were to see this year. Some of the films I didn’t get to see were films I wanted of almost felt I needed to. Some were not. But I…

Vin Diesel dropped the word on his glorious Facebook page over the weekend that the gasoline fueled sequel will now land on April 15, 2015. Yes, that’s right, yet another sequel has been added to the stuffed box of blockbusters for 2015, though nothing else is currently scheduled on that weekend. Here’s Diesel’s comments about the release date maneuver: 

There was a unique sense of completion, of pride we shared… in the film we were now completing… the magic captured… and, in just how far we’ve come… 

Fast and Furious 7 will be released…

April 10th 2015!

P.s. He’d want you to know… Read The Rest