Forget Star Trek, Wolverine and Transformers, the biggest summer movie has already come out. And it has an octopus that makes a submarine look like a Q-Tip.

In the spirit of Godzilla vs. Monster Zero and Gamera, The Asylum Home Entertainment has released Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus onto the world. And the world appreciates it.

Former teenage pop star-turned-Broadway star Deborah 'Debbie' Gibson stars in this monster movie as a scientist who originally wants to save the two giant creatures and Lorenzo Lamas as a (I think) military (or government?) guy who wants to kill them both. After the two enormous beings destroy a dozen or so military and non-military sea vessels and installations in between Japan and California, everyone wants to trap and kill the two.

Gibson plays 'Emma MacNeil' who 'borrows' an underwater sea vessel to investigate whale migrations in frigid waters, then she accidentally crashes it into a giant ice block and breaks it - unknowingly releasing the two massive sea creatures.

She then gets fired for stealing the sub and then buddies up to her former college professor 'Lamar Sanders' (played by Sean Lawlor) after they discover a Megalodon is loose in the Pacific. (They don't say actually how big it is, but I would guess 200 to 300 feet long - judging from its size compared to other things in the movie)

A Japanese scientist who also knows Sanders - named "Seiji Shimada" (played by Vic Chao) then shares with Emma and Lamar his discovery of a giant octupus off the coast of Japan that completely destroyed an oil rig and then the race is on to find both creatures.

Obviously, you have to watch this tongue-in-cheek to enjoy it - which is not hard to do. This is pure low-budget entertainment at its best. Sure there are some cheesy visual effects (oddly, some of the effects are great, then some are not so much). If you can ignore any logic and watch it for what it is, it's a fantastic 90 minutes. Really fun. The best scenes - of course - are when the shark and the octopus fight each other, but it is fantastic to see the badass shark bite a huge chunk out of the Golden Gate bridge (best sequence in the movie) and jump out of the water and knock an airliner of the sky (second best scene).

Funniest bits. Guy in the plane sees the shark flying up from the water to the airplane window and he says 'holy (stuff)!' and Lamas' acting - particularly after the shark bites through the bridge. Also, the way Lamas looks. Dressed in black mostly, sports jacket, PONYTAIL. Not sure if he's military or secret government - he was kind of doing things that could be considered both. It would be been cooler if he had his hair from Renegade, but I digress.

Again, this is a cheesy B-movie that happens to have recognizable people in it. Watch it with a grain of salt, then you'll love it. If you want realism, watch Shark Week on Discovery.

But, for what it is...its' great fun.

There is also a "Making of" section and a blooper reel, where apparently the shark bites through the wrong bridge and they had to do another take.

You can buy it here or rent it at Blockbuster.

After a slight delay in getting a copy of Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, the review will be coming in the next day or two.

(Couldn't find the movie in order watch it...)

more to come..........

What's the big deal with did-he-win-fairly-or-not Kris Allen controversy? It was Kris Allen vs. Adam Lambert and Kris appeared to win....but maybe not? So what, Adam is going to have a career equal to if not exceeding Kris anyway, so it doesn't really make that big of a difference who 'won.'

Case in point:

non-winners Jennifer Hudson, Clay Aiken, Chris Daughtry and William Hung (in a way)
"winners": Taylor Hicks, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia

Sure, there are also winners Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson, but still.

American Idol should be this. Winner and winner only gets the contract. Everyone else gets nothing of the kind for like a year. Therefore, if you win...only you get the chicken dinner.

On DVD today is the movie event of the summer.

Watch the trailer here. Review coming later this week.

It's singer Debbie (now Deborah) Gibson and Lorenzo Lamas. It's a shark so large that it bites a Golden Gate-sized bridge in half (as well as a ship) against an octopus so big that one of its tentacles knocks a fighter plane out of the sky.

Brilliant.

An example.

MTM Enterprises was a giant in television production in the 1970s and 80's and one of the first drama series that they produced was The White Shadow starring Ken Howard.

The show was about a white NBA player - Howard - who had to retire due to injuries and was asked to coach a (fictional) high school in Los Angeles called Carver. The team was terrible and all of the students were problem kids - from the almost expelled pyromaniacs, to the criminals to the anti-establishment. But Howard's character of Ken Reeves, pulled these kids together and got them going in the right direction. Most of them.

The series was monumental in several ways. One is the it depicted high school life in Los Angeles with a raw intensity not seen up to this point. The real-life issues kids then (and still now) faced, including one of the players on the team being an innocent bystander at a robbery and getting shot.
Another reason why it was monumental is because of how it propelled MTM Enterprises to new heights. It started the production company on a path of greatness with the producers, directors and writers (as well as some of the actors) moving on to many other great shows. Other series the company producerd included St. Elsewhere and Hill Street Blues and those shows' producers spawned other shows Homincide: Life on the Street, Miami Vice, The Sopranos, LA Law, NYPD Blue Not the mention the comedy series they were also doing The Mary Tyler Moore Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, The Bob Newhart Show (and later, Newhart), with those produces moving on after that to do The Simpsons, Taxi and Cheers, among others. One of the main producers of the series was Bruce Paltrow, Gwyneth's dad.

The third big contribution from The White Shadow was that three of the actors who played high school basketball players became accomplished television writers and directors after the series was over. Timothy Van Patten went on the direct Sex and the City, The Sopranos, The Wire, Ed, Homicide: Life on the Street, and a Deadwood episode and was nominated for six Emmys for writing and directing. Kevin Hooks also became a director, working on St. Elsewhere, Doogie Howser, Homicide: Life on the Street, ER, Lost, 24 and a score of other television series. Thomas Carter is yet another director spawned from The White Shadow, with directing credits that include Hill Street Blues, Equal Justice and Damages and a large list of other credits like the films Coach Carter and the now Untitled Jackie Robinson Movie, due out in 2010 that Robert Redford is attached to.

The White Shadow was not just a basketball show, but it was a series about kids growing up and learning how to be responsible adults - with basketball at the foreground.

The series is available to watch on Hulu.com as well as on DVD. It originally aired from 1978-1981 and is fun to watch - albeit a little dated - but it would be a good companion piece to view while watching the last part of the NBA season.

Tonight's guest is Disney sensation Zac Efron and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I wonder how that will be, considering the squeaky clean image of Efron compared to the show's recent turn to raunchiness.

This season's batch of episodes have been particularly strong with consistently funny performances by castmembers Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Andy Samberg, Kristen Wiig who are excelling and Seth Meyers is great anchoring Weekend Update. Armisen, Samberg, Wiig and Meyers are exceptional this season so far and Hader - who has come out of nowhere - is just as great. Will Forte as the parody of MacGyver called 'McGruber' is also very funny. Hader and Wiig are in the new movie Adventureland and Samberg is in I Love You, Man, by the way.

Some of the recent guests have been hilarious too with The Rock, Tracy Morgan, John Malkovich, Seth Rogan (last week), Alec Baldwin - again - Neil Patrick Harris, Rosario Dawson and Hugh Laurie being brilliant.
To view any clips from those particular guests go here and find some video.

Some of the highlights are:
Bill Hader as Vinny Vedecci - the Italian talk show host who interviews American actors Seth Rogan and John Malkovich (separately) in half Italian and half English. Check out the appearance of Bobby Moynihan as Vinny's man-child-son in both sketches.

Tracey Morgan's revisiting of his Brian Fellow character in 'Brian Fellow's Safari Planet' is hysterical.

'La Policia Mexicana' with Hader and guest Rosario Dawson is hysterical. As is the 'Gitmo Fire Sale Ad' with Jason Sudekis as a fast-talking agent trying to sell off parts and pieces from Guantanamo Bay.
La Policia Mexicana is here and Gitmo Fire Sale is here.

The entire show with Neil Patrick Harris as the host was fantastic and the parody of the movie Frost/Nixon called 'Frost/Other People' was exceptional.

The Wiig character of 'Virgania Horsen' who does these weird and awkward commercials for her own businesses, with one being her delivering your mail wherever you want it to go - by horse - but you have to mail it to her first. Then she'll deliver it by hand for you. Go here for that one.

Some of the raunchier elements of the show come in the form of the digital shorts segments - which are usually co-written, directed and co-starring Samberg and SNL writers Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone - who are collectively known as 'The Lonely Island.' The comedy group were already formed and doing things when Samberg was hired as a performer for SNL and he brought in Schaffer and Taccone to write (they're the ones responsible for the McGruber segments, among others). The three of them have made a CD of music called 'Incredibad' and have shot videos for the songs - which are the digital shorts on SNL. The incredibly raunchy songs have found a cult following on youtube and iTunes. The songs 'D*ick in a Box,' 'J**Z in My Pants,' 'I'm the Boss,' 'We Like Sportz' and 'Space Olympics' have all been featured as videos on the show as has their first segment, which is the gangsta rap song/video by Natalie Portman, which appeared in the show first in 2006. That was them too - not many people know that. 'I'm the Boss' just aired for the first time last week. Oh, also 'Ras Trent' as also appeared in the show, where Samberg plays a dorky, blond college kid with dreadlocks who has converted to Rastafarianism.

Try to catch the videos on NBC.com. Some of the featured ones are fantastically funny. Oh, and check out Fred Armisen as Boy George during Weekend Update. Classic.

Guaranteed funny SNL that should happen very soon. JASON SEGEL. Someone make that happen please.

Their group, called Laustin, is playing tonight at The Falcon in Hollywood at 10pm. The address of the club is 7213 Sunset Blvd.
For more info, go here