Okay, everybody, it's been a little late coming, but the past week and a half has been crazy.

If you aren't aware by now, The Screen Rider is maintained by college students, and this current week has been our Spring Break, hence the lack of news updates and posts. The previous week our updates were few and far between, simply because of the debacle of exams and such that are thrust upon us just before we attempt to enjoy our vacation.

While personally, my vacation hasn't been filled with the most relaxing of times, that's neither here nor there. We will resume regular posting this weekend, including catching up on some old news, staying up to date on the current stuff and getting up to speed on new releases in theaters, on DVD and Blu-Ray, and new episodes of our favorite shows. We've got some exciting features coming up, and new installments we're going to try out on you guys.

Thanks for being patient from all of us here at The Screen Rider!

You know, there's so many crazy schemes by super villains to bring out the end of the world, or take down their arch nemesis that no one ever stops to think of the financial burden of being one of the most evil geniuses in the world. Lex Luthor feels this pain, and apparently so does his wallet. In this Funny or Die exclusive, Jon Hamm (from AMC's Mad Men) steps into the role of Superman's arch nemesis to ask the government for a corporate bailout. It's really great to see Hamm doing stuff like this as well as his still going character arc on 30 Rock. While I can't help but think how funny this would've been with Gene Hackman or even Kevin Spacey, it's really great seeing Hamm get worked up while wearing an offputting bald cap.

Disney and Pixar have finally given us a trailer that provides us with an idea of the adventures to be had by Carl Fredricksen and Russell in this summer's Up. While the previous trailers have done a lot of set up of our two main characters and the house carrying-balloon vessel, this one introduces us to many of the dangers and sights to be seen, as well as a villain and a very entertaining dog.

In their adventures, Carl and Russell encounter exotic birds, some villainous old man in a huge blimp and finally...Dug the Doug. Dug is the first talking animal to interact with humans in any of Pixar's films thus far. Remy from Ratatouille only squeaked and gestured, the bugs from A Bug's Life never talked to people, and the monsters from Monsters, Inc. don't count simply because they are invented creatures. However, Dug doesn't talk in the way other Disney animals talk. His master invented some sort of collar that turns his thoughts into auditory communication. Dug is going to be a really fun addition to the crew, and once again Pixar is blowing all other animated features out of the water with their original stories, carefully crafted characters and remarkable animation.

The really disturbing thing about Dug the Dog though is the potential world people would live in if their dogs were able to communicate like humans. There would be weird sex happening for sure and I really hope Disney/Pixar tackles this sensitive issue. Wow, that's awkward. What do you guys think of Dug the Dog?

Last week, nearly everyone who caught Watchmen (which I have a review of coming up soon), was treated to a new trailer for J.J. Abrams franchise reboot of Star Trek. If the movie is anywhere near as good as the trailers are making it out to be, Star Trek will no longer be liked by the lonely and obsessed Tribble-loving fanboy and fangirl Trekkies. If this film hits as hard as it looks like it's going to, Star Trek will be mainstream cool.

Nearly everything Abrams has touched (Lost, Mission:Impossible 3, Cloverfield) has turned to solid gold success. There's no doubt in my mind that he's the next Spielberg. He's handling Star Trek with the love of a geek, but he's not isolating it from those who aren't familiar with the series. The cast is young, and even though he looks a bit too young, the more I see of Chris Pine as James T. Kirk, the more bad ass he seems. Zacahry Quinto (Heroes' only interesting character Sylar) already had my support for Spock, but I still want to see some more of Simon Pegg as Scotty. Within this trailer we get some great new action shots, and new footage of Eric Bana as alien villain Nero, and even House M.D.'s Jennifer Morrison as Kirk's mother.

I'm definitely pumped for Star Trek, but it's going to take some getting used to that Star Trek might be cool enough to get you laid by a girl who isn't dressed up as some sort of Vulcan dominatrix...or for that matter, any girl...period. Do you want to see Star Trek?

If Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is going to be half as good as the trailers have been letting on, then I may actually be able to forgive Warner Bros. for delaying it from last November to this July.

The trailer (released last week) lets us in on more of the story (though there are few who haven't read the Harry Potter series, there's no telling how story elements may change in the adaptations). The guiding light through this film is the past. And unless a memory from Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore reveals, the future may be doomed. This memory revolves around the mysterious boy Tom Riddle, who became the much feared Lord Voldemort. There are some really great visuals here, and the tone of this trailer loses any humor from the previous previews.

It's been great seeing this series devlopment from simple magic and whimsy to dark, ominous fantasy. Hearing Harry yell, "Fight back, you coward!" is a great moment, especially if you know who he's yelling at. The coolest addition to this film, and an element not found to be extremely prominent in the book is the scene in London, where Death Eaters are attacking Muggles. J.K. Rowling approved this modification to the story by screenwriter Steve Kloves to make the danger to Muggles, and the revelation of the wizarding world seem more immediate and threatening. It certainly will add a level of realism to the series, which up to this point has pretty much existed in its own world, with little reference to the non-magical world surrounding it. I can't wait to see it realized on screen. What do you guys think of the trailer?

Dakota Fanning has always shown talent way ahead of her years. She's only just turned 15 years old, and she's already worked with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Sean Penn, Denzel Washington and Tom Cruise, had a controversial film at Sundance last year, voiced the titular character of Coraline, and even did a little stint on Family Guy.

Now comes word from Variety that the teen star is in negotiations to play lead singer Cherie Currie in The Runaways, a biopic about the all-girl rock band from the 70's of the same name. Twilight star Kristen Stewart is already in line to play Joan Jett and this will be the second film Fanning and Stewart work on together after they complete the Twilight sequel, New Moon. The real life Currie joined the band around the same age fanning is now, and found herself engulfed in the rock star life, succumbing to drugs and alcohol.

Now that's she's getting older, she's taking even more dark, gritty and dramatic roles and after her role in I Am Sam at age 7, I'm just not sure she ever had a childhood. I'm constantly reminded of the sketch Amy Poehler starred in on Saturday Night Live, The Dakota Fanning Show where she had varying guests on and was constantly baffling and worrying them with her intellectually advanced observations on society, art and the like. Hopefully she doesn't go the Macaulay Culkin route and start fighting bears. Macaulay Culkin did that right?

Just like Captain Planet used to say, "The power is yours!" Film news blog /Film says that Fox Searchlight has asked their readers to take part in deciding which poster will be distributed to market their film 500 Days of Summer (which we premiered the newest trailer for yesterday). But it's not like you have to log into a special website or anything, so as far as I'm concerned Fox Searchlight also asked me, readers of The Screen Rider and everyone else on the Internet to vote for which poster they'd like to see make the cut. My personal favorites are the two with all the little Polaroid pictures of Zooey Deschanel, mainly because I could look at that many pictures of her and never get bored, but also because it looks like there could actually be 500 pictures of her as her character Summer in those posters. If you want to vote, just head on over to Fox Searchlight's voting page, and make your decision. If you're Republican, I'm sorry but there isn't any vote you can make that will ruin the fibers of humanity, but better luck next year! POLITICS WHOA!!

20th Century Fox released what is apparently the final trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine in what might possible be the worst decision to market a big blockbuster such as this. The trailer debuted late last night over at USA Today with some new character pictures to accompany it. The video is pitifully small when embedded, and the full screen just makes the video look even worse. Luckily our friends over at Trailer Addict were able to snag it as well for us to enjoy in a bigger format.

While it's not perfect, this is the best trailer yet. Count me slightly anxious for this to be released but proceeding with caution. More footage of Gambit is always a plus, and a look at what appears to be a young Scott Summers (aka Cyclops) just discovering his optic blast capabilities. I'm still a huge critic of the Michael Bay level of explosions though. It borders on parody.

And I have a very weird bone to pick with some of the sound effects/design in this trailer (which I really hope are't the final effects to be used in the film). This is a strange nitpick, but it's only because I saw the movie I'm going to reference so many times as a kid that this just entered my mind. The sounds that are used when Gambit hits his staff into the ground and various other structures with kinetic energy is EXACTLY the same sound that the huge water splashes made when the sprinkler turns on in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. If you want to compare them, the clip for the sprinkler scene can be found here (the action starts at about 1:12 into the clip).

There's also just a lot of shots and action just taken directly from other films. The cut of Wolverine dragging his claws along that Hummer, causing it to flip over is just like the scene in The Matrix Reloaded when Morpheus slices his sword into the Twins Escalade (go to 4:31 in the clip). And the later shot of Wolverine landing on top of the helicopter is very reminiscent of an equally ridiculous scene in Live Free or Die Hard with John McClane jumping onto a jet. Granted this is a comic book movie, but this is a bit overkill in my estimate. It just feels like they're trying to hard.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine hits theaters on May 1st, and I pray that people don't think Wolverine is gay after Hugh Jackman's Oscar hosting last month. We already have a gay mutant and his name is Perez Hilton. What do you guys think of the new trailer?

Alright, new segment time! Also *spoiler alert* don't read if you haven't seen the latest episode of Lost. If you can't tell by the title this one is going to be skewed at those television shows that always seem to leave you wanting more, or in most cases going WTF! So I've decided to start off with Lost because it's the best show on television that leaves me with that feeling. I'm also thinking of doing Heroes. But let's move on.

So time travel huh? Really? Well if my numerous viewings of Back to the Future (Parts I, II, and III) have taught me anything (how did Locke hit 88 mph anyway?) it's that time travel is a fickle mistress. Look at Part 2, alternate time line anyone? That's right if you travel in time you could come back to the 1980s and live in a casino. I don't know about you but Marty looked a gift horse in the mouth on that one. But let's not talk about my so called addictions but focus on the WTF of Lost.

So we finally caught back up with the gang that John left behind (Sawyer, Juliette, and the two weird guys that were introduced last season, and what's up with the talking to dead people thing? I think someone at Lost saw The Sixth Sense and decided "What the hell? We've already got a smoke monster and other shady dealings might as well.") So back to Lost, we catch up only to find out that surprise, it's been three years for them as well now. So the dead/undead guy is the only one that didn't lose three years, that's probably why he had to die, some kinda cosmic balance thing. No three years then you're going back in a coffin... at least he had nice shoes. So Sawyer sweet talked his way into the Dharma Initiative, which I'm actually looking forward to seeing more of (enigmatic bastards!) and surprise, surprise bedroom eyes landed the other hot chick on the island and fellow time traveler, the lovely Juliette. But the question is posed "Is three years really long enough to not love someone?" I'm going to go out on a limb here and say he and Miss I-lost-a-three-year-old-boy-and-no-one-has-seemed-to-notice-yet are doing the horizontal tango in the next three episodes. Also Ben gets eaten by a polar bear. Calling it!

Go ahead make your own predictions, it doesn't matter anyway. Come the end of Lost it's all going to be a dream of Locke's, and Kate will still be alive just in the shower... oh wait that was Dallas...

If you have any suggestions of shows to add post them.

If you weren't excited about Public Enemies, you damn well better be now. The first trailer for this Johnny Depp/Christian Bale face-off just hit the net, and it's really quite remarkable that a period, action thriller can feel just like a summer blockbuster should.

The film looks fast paced, Untouchables-esque, and superbly fun. However, my only complaint is that Michael Mann's shooting style takes me out of the time period a bit. It makes what's happening on the screen feel modern for some reason. Not only are his handheld, intimate camera angles a bit too contemporary, but the HD digital video look also heightens this feeling. But fortunately it doesn't play against the quality look of the movie itself.

This is going to be a breath of fresh air in the summer blockbuster bonanza with fighting robots and superheroes, and the trailer embedded below gets me extremely excited. I gotta say though, this trailer has a bone to pick with my current and home state of Indiana. I mean was it really necessary for Johnny Depp's John Dillinger to say, ""I have absolutely nothing I want to do in Indiana." Go ahead and rub it in Edward Scissorhands!