Doug TenNapel introduces a new world to his fans with the first book of the NNEWTS series, ESCAPE FROM THE LIZZARKS. At its most basic level, NNEWTS pits peaceful amphibians against aggressive reptiles. Both sides employ different magics, with the Nnewts relying on their magician and the Lizzarks relying on their Wizzark (and yes, TenNapel knows how that sounds, and even pokes fun at the idea himself within the story).

When the Lizzarks invade Nnewtown, they kill ruthlessly. The only apparent escapee is young Herk, who has been cursed with tiny back legs which prevent him from walking out of the water. His flight leads him to a lost kingdom, a confrontation with an evil deity, and a lost colony of Nnewts, with hints of mystical connections Herk never knew he had.

There have been several disaster movies that rely on "signs and wonders" as a plot device, but few as hokey as ZODIAC: SIGNS OF THE APOCALYPSE.

An archeological dig uncovers an ancient stone machine harboring a stone of unmeasurable energy. The machine is geared to the twelve signs of the zodiac, the orbit of the eight planets -- and the eliptical orbit of the mysterious planet Nebiru. Professor Neil Martin (Joel Gretsch) is brought in to help understand the device, and he brings along his shy teenaged son, Colin (Reilly Dolman). Martin unlocks the device, landing the stone inside in the hands of Kathryn Keen (Emily Holmes) and her government bosses, starting with Agent Woodward (Aaron Douglas). They also end up rescuing Sophie (Andrea Brooks), who was the assistant on the last mission to the dig, who got buried in a cave-in.

Anything can happen in the woods.. but not enough.

Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods is a fantasy film for those who love a humorous musical with witty lyrics and powerful themes that will stick with you after the movie is over. Director Rob Marshall (who also directed the Academy Award winning Chicago)  does a good job bringing a fairytale landscape with larger than life characters to the big screen.  Despite the pacing and disjointed storylines during the second half of the film, the outstanding vocal performances make this a movie I’d like to see again.   This magical story intertwines multiple Grimm fairy tales with a story of The Baker (James Corden) and The Baker’s Wife (Emily Blunt) who are trying to lift a spell cast by The Witch (Meryl Streep).

The Jack Kerowax, composed of musicians from several Dallas-Fort Worth bands, drops its self-titled debut with ten tracks recorded, mixed, and mastered solely on analog equipment.

The group arose out of friendships, collaborations and rehearsals in northeastern Texas. Singer-songwriter Johnny Beauford looked for musicians to play on his new record, but the solo project turned into a full-fledged band.

“Our influences range from classic country to Lou Reed”, says frontman Johnny Beauford. “Lyrically, this record is full of condensed short stories. Most of the stuff I write has some pretty dark undertones, and the music in response, usually seems to have some equally dark overtones. However, there are good times — and despite popular opinion, it is possible to be inspired by joy as easily as depression or anger.”

This contest has ended.

At one point in my life, I got to go behind the scenes of a small market network affiliate for a morning show. It was eye-opening, to say the least.

Watching the pilot episode for BREAKING GREENVILLE brought back those memories. The truTV reality series takes you inside the inner workings of two competing stations in the Mississippi delta region -- ABC affiliate WABG and CBS affiliate WXVT (you can check them out yourself at www.yourdeltanews.com) -- which manages to draw comedy out of the mundane. And, having witnessed those workings firsthand, it has a certain verisimilitude.

NEW YORK, NY – With just days until Christmas, children and adults across the globe are hoping to get all the presents on their wish lists. Once again, one man is deemed with delivering all these present the world over. Will Santa Claus once again get the job done? Is this the year that Santa doesn’t show up? Will Santa’s sleigh breakdown during his journey? Will he deem you naughty and put coal in your stocking? Once again beating everyone down the chimney the most reliable and accurate odds/information source on the web MyTopSportsbooks.com posted odds on all things related to Santa Claus!

MyTopSportsbooks.com spokesman Geoff Johnson stated, “Now that everyone has a camera on their phone the race is on to be the person to video Santa Claus joyfully yelling, “Ho, Ho, Ho!”

Analysts at MyTopSportsbooks.com posted the following odds regarding Santa Claus and Christmas:

If you're someone who likes their numbers in a nice, linear fashion, Doctor Who will give you headaches. The show in enjoying its fifty-first year. The latest season was "Series Eight."  Peter Capaldi plays the thirteenth regeneration of The Doctor, and yet is still referred to as the Twelfth Doctor. At least there's only one Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) -- unless you count that time she entered the center of the TARDIS and had her essence spread across time and space.

From the folks who brought us the thoughtful comedy MOMS' NIGHT OUT and the inspirational GOD'S NOT DEAD comes a dramatic character-driven film, DO YOU BELIEVE?

It's billed as "The World's First Reality Musical." And at first blush, I immediately said, "No it's not." Not if I count GREASE: YOU'RE THE ONE THAT I WANT! (that gave us the spectacular Laura Osnes). And I'm pretty sure AMERICAN IDOL could lay some sort of claim to that title.

But after I gave BRANSON FAMOUS a watch, I get it. And, yes, it truly is the first reality musical.

This follow-up movie to 2010’s much acclaimed THE TRIP reunites Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, this time on a culinary tour of Italy at the request of Director Michael Winterbottom. One might call it a tour-de-farce.

Christmas is a time for peace on earth and good will towards men. Whether it holds a deep religious meaning for you or you hope to receive this year’s hottest gadget in a gaudy box under your tree, Christmas is a time to gather with family and friends, eat, drink and make merry. It’s also the time when an entire genre of television shows and movies are watched—from “Miracle on 34^th Street” and “It’s A Wonderful Life” to How the Grinch Stole Christmas  and Merry Christmas Charlie Brown to “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” and “Elf,” millions of people watch their favorite Christmas programs faithfully every year. For many, that includes “A Christmas Story,” the 1983 tale of a 1940 mid-American holiday season widely regarded as a classic.

As I write this, Christmas isn't quite the day after tomorrow... but CHRISTMAS ICETASTROPHE is.

The small town of Lennox, which is celebrating Christmas with artificial snow and a farewell to the small business of its downtown district in the wake of a buyout by mogul Ben Crooge (Mike Dopud), is ready for anything except a meteor strike. But this is no ordinary shooting star. It splits in two as it enters the atmosphere, and the part that lands on nearby Mount Dickens is cold. Really cold. So cold that it causes ice crystals to start spiking up through the ground, lacking only the cold voice of Jor-El to tell us how life used to be on Krypton. With each rumble of the ground comes a new wave of a flash freeze, turning several poor denizens to ice sculptures that sometimes break into pieces when you look at them.

So a couple weeks ago I was fooling around on YouTube, and I made the rookie mistake of actually reading some of the comments on a video. (I know, I know. Sigh).

Anyway, in the comments of a particular video, I noticed a user with the name of “Lucky” advertising his channel and asking people to come check out his videos. I was feeling particularly snarky, so I went to take a look, preparing myself to blast the user with both petulant barrels for wasting my time.

I’m glad I went. Over the next several days, I listened to every video on the channel. Sometimes twice, often more. My regular Pandora stations were completely neglected, and my iTunes account got a reprieve.

I had to try and learn more about Lucky, but didn’t really learn a whole lot. I learned his first name, I learned he has a Facebook account, and I learned he records all of his own stuff on a laptop in a closet. That’s it.

It's a day for building relationships. President Obama has just opened the door to normalizing relations with Cuba, and Live Nation and Hollywood Casino have come together in a multi-year agreement allowing Hollywood Casino to be the new name-in-title sponsor of the (now former) Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, which as of today is the Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre.

On hand for the live announcement were Dave Gerardi, President of Live Nation Midwest, and Todd George, Hollywood Casino General Manager.

Peter Jackson is a talented director, but he’s got to know when to say when. After seeing to “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” I’ve now spent almost a full 24 hour day (including the extended cuts of the original Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the two previous Hobbit films) in his vision of J. R. R. Tolkien’s  Middle Earth. For the most part, it’s been enjoyable. The Hobbit, just off the top of my head, is probably less than a fifth as long as the Lord of the Rings epic, and yet it takes nearly as long to tell cinematically. If you’re a regular reader of mine you can probably predict where I’m going with this: Less is more.

Joshua Mills has been in the recording business for fifteen years now, but only this year released his first Christmas album. Focused on a theme of miracles -- and the desire to bring miracles back to Christmas -- affected not only the album title, CHRISTMAS MIRACLE, but several of the tracks, which are a blend of original songs and traditional standards.

With Christmas fast approaching, we spoke with Mills about his album as well as the unique production methods involved in making it happen.

How daunting is it to set out to do brand new music for a seasonal niche that's packed with some pretty long-standing standards?

Title: Cinderella: Age of Darkness (2 of 3)
Publisher: Zenescope
Creative Team: Joe Brusha and Pat Shand (story), Pat Shand (writer), Ryan Best (artist), Thiago Dal Bello (colorist), Micah Myers (letterer), Nicole Glade (editor)

Picking up where he left off on this twisted version of Cinderella, Zenescope scribe Pat Shand continues his story. Cindy is off on her quest to assassinate Hades, the last surviving God, while the Dark Queen has plans of her own. How Cindy plans to find Hades, while the aforementioned god is mounting his own attack is anybody’s guess.

Well, unless you read the book that is…

The Story

Jeanine (Kate Winslet) has "the box." Now what does she plan on doing with it, and what does it have to do with the Divergents? Tris (Shailene Woodley) and her allies are about to find out, because Jeanine needs the right Divergent to open the box.

This trailer for the Summit Entertainment film from Director Robert Schwentke has a lot of action shots in it: people making split-second timed jumps, things exploding, glass shattering. There's even some intriguing plot bits here, and a huge vista of dystopic scenery. But is that going to be enough to see a resurgence (see what I did there?) in viewer interest, after DIVERGENT's less-than-stellar reviews? We'd love to know what you think. Use the Disqus comment section below and help us gauge whether INSURGENT is going to be better, worse or the same as DIVERGENT after you check out the trailer below.

This contest has ended. The selected winners are:

Kenneth H. of Elkins, WV (signed copy)

David S. of Denver, CO (standard copy)

Now here's something we don't get every day: a signed DVD!

We have available two copies of Nick Kroll's KROLL SHOW: Seasons One and Two. One of them is signed, the other not. Our first randomly selected entry will received the signed copy, and the runner-up will get the unsigned one.