stars

The hilarious, new buddy movie "The Heat" stars Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy as Special Agent Sarah Ashburn and Det. Shannon Mullins, respectively -- two fiercely independent crime fighters who must first forge their own connection and learn to respect and trust each other's abilities if they are ever to connect the dots on a major case.

Download.com caught up with the film's director, Paul Feig -- best known for directing the Oscar-nominated "Bridesmaids," co-producing the TV series "Freaks and Geeks," and playing science teacher Mr. Eugene Pool on "Sabrina, … Read more

One of my favorite apps of 2012, Bad Robot Interactive's Action Movie FX, just got even better.

Available for iOS, the app lets you add Hollywood-style special effects to videos you've shot with your iPhone or iPad.

What kinds of effects? Suppose you're making a movie that involves blowing up a car (as all good movies should). Action Movie FX includes a missile-attack sequence that ends with a gorgeous fiery explosion. All you do is record at least 5 seconds of video (in this case, footage of your car), then wait for the app to render the … Read more

Watchmaker Vianney Halter has produced some pretty stylish timepieces, but his latest is a bit of a departure, both in style and concept. The sci-fi fan has built a domed tourbillon watch called Deep Space, modeled after the "Star Trek" space station Deep Space 9.

The tourbillon -- a watchmaking component designed to counter the effect of gravity on a watch's movement to keep more accurate time -- sits bang in the center of the dial, proudly on display, while the blue hour and minute hands (the shorter hand is for hours) curve around it like the spires of Deep Space 9. … Read more

CamStar feels like many other filter apps, at first glance, but with real-time filtration, dozens of options, and a split screen display feature, it is actually a very good technical tool. The core function of CamStar is to take filtered photos. The developers clearly focused heavily on this as there are few other tools for editing those photos. Share functions might be hidden and the overall interface looks unpolished, but the core app is well built through and through.

When you first open CamStar, you can take a photo with its basic old-time style filter. However, if you tap the … Read more

Who won E3 so far? Was it the Xbox One? Or, was it the PS4 that kicked its butt? Did Sony dominate, totally smack down Microsoft, and run away with Best in Show?

All I know, from a distance, is this: boy, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 look a lot alike.

The picture above is from a classic "Star Trek" episode featuring two different alien races that fought bitterly but were more alike than they dared to admit. Sound familiar?

The moment the PS4 was unveiled, in its boxy glory, you couldn't help but be reminded … Read more

To the delight of many gamers at E3 on Monday, EA DICE showed off Star Wars Battlefront -- a next-generation "Star Wars" video game that uses the Frostbite 3 graphics engine. DICE uses the same graphics engine in Battlefield 4.

As the 30-second trailer kicks off, you can clearly see a snowy tundra on the ice planet Hoth, presumably set during the battle seen in "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back," or perhaps a different time in the canon. … Read more

There's a whole world of fan-made "Star Wars" furniture out there. A lucky fluffball has anAT-AT cat condo. A fortunate child has an X-wing fighter bunk. A talented furniture maker created an X-wing coffee table. Now, a handy maker has built an AT-AT liquor cabinet that combines "Star Wars" love with steampunk aesthetics.

The Emperor's Cabinet was created by Colin Johnson, a Vancouver artist who crafted the piece from plywood, mahogany veneer, and glass. Artfully laid solid-brass trim lends a distinctly steampunk look to the cabinet. The side of the AT-AT opens up to reveal plenty of storage for bottles of Alderaanian brandy, Hedrett oil-rig whiskey, and Gralish liqueur.… Read more

You may have occasionally encountered a certain dead-eyed stare from a Transportation Security Administration operative.

He might not like your name, your shorts, or the odd bulge in your jaw. So he stops you and asks deep questions, such as: "What do you have in your pockets, sir?"

Peter Mayhew, the 7-foot-tall gentleman who played Chewbacca in "Star Wars," discovered the boys from TSA had a different preoccupation -- whether his lightsaber cane was a dangerous weapon.… Read more

Last month, NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft suffered a potentially mission-ending malfunction, prompting the eyes of many astronomers and space geeks to grow a little misty. The crippling blow came just as data from Kepler had begun to identify more distant Earth-like planets within the habitable zone.

What's not as widely known, however, is that Kepler data isn't used just to hunt for planets that could potentially support life, it's also been tapped by some intrepid explorers to search for stellar and planetary megastructures created by far-flung advanced societies. Since we've yet to send anything into … Read more