By Lauren

Earlier this week the man, the myth, the comedy legend, Mel Brooks was honored by adding his hand and footprints to the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the landmark Chinese Theater. In true Mel fashion, he wore an extra prosthetic finger for the impression.

At 88 years old, this brilliant, hilarious, EGOT winning genius has ‘still got it.’

The ceremony was timed in tribute to the 40th anniversary of the release of Young Frankenstein - which, in my opinion, is one of the funniest movies EVER. 

Mel Brooks is one of my heroes.  His comedy is fearless - history, race, sex, religion, Nazis - Mel will mock you all.

To this day my husband & I will sit down and watch one of his films if we need a guaranteed laugh. If I catch one on TV, I will always stop and watch it, even if it is only the last few minutes. 24/7 Comedy still plays clips from his stand-up with Carl Reiner (2000 year old man) which is still damned hilarious.

Do yourselves a favor and laugh this weekend. Watch a Mel Brooks movie. Seriously. 

In a year where we have lost some comedy legends, let's celebrate one who is still with us and still giving the world an extra 'finger' whenever possible.

To learn more about Mel Brooks and hear some great stories from the man himself and his fantastic co-stars and collaborators, do yourself a favor and watch the PBS American Masters special about Mel . You can find it here.

by Annie

At least it was the version recorded off of TV so the language wasn't so bad, for instance during the scene where Eyeball is giving Ace a tattoo in our copy he says, "Quit moving you're gonna make me mess up the snake part," instead of "F*ck up the snake part." See, so that makes watching teens smoke cigarettes, swig booze, and give each other tattoos not so shocking because hey, at least they took out the F word. 

If you've never seen Stand by Me you need to, it is a great movie with so many quotable lines that I really had a difficult time holding myself back from just regurgitating every amusing line I could think of into this article. For Example, “You four-eyed pile of shit! A pile of shit has a thousand eyes!” 

Based on a story by Stephen King, the plot is centered around four 12 year old boys who embark on a trek on foot through the wilds of Oregon to find the dead body of a missing hiker. They lie to their parents, steal a gun, smoke cigarettes, jump in front of trains, cuss, relentlessly tease each other, almost get stabbed, almost shoot someone... holy crap why did my parents let me watch this!

Not only is there all of the above awesomeness but there is a young pre-Star Trek Wil Wheaton who is so real and believable as Gordie LaChance the smart, talented writer-to-be who is living in constant emotional turmoil because of the death of his older brother.  

But wait there's more, there's chubby awkward, nobody-saw-it-coming-that-he-was-going-to-be-hot-one-day Jerry O’Connell as Verne, the kid who just wanted to find that damn jar of pennies he buried under the porch. 

There is also River Phoenix as Chris Chambers who perfectly plays the bright, good kid constantly being stereotyped as a thug because of his miscreant older brother Ace. 

Also because this is a 1980s movie there is the obligatory Corey, in this movie Corey Feldman plays Teddy the comic relief who also has just enough crazy to train dodge ("Train dodge, dig it, just like the beach at Normandy" sorry I can't help myself I just know so many Stand by Me quotes) and taunt an attack dog with cries of "sick balls Chopper!" 

I learned some things from Stand by Me. Like that a plan can seem like harmless fun and then you realize, "we're going to see a dead kid, maybe it shouldn't be a party.' 'Yah! Like what if he's all cut up and blood and shit all over the place! I might get nightmares.'" Also, that revenge can be sought through mass vomiting, "it was a total and complete barf-o-rama."  And that if you get hard up for something to write about you can always spin a tale of boyhood adventure which may contain leeches affixed to private parts. But mostly that friendships may be temporary and friends may go their separate ways but the magical memories of finding a dead kid in the woods will last forever.

by Heather
Summer time binge watching is so much fun with so many great shows available for your viewing pleasure. 

This week we are discussing LOST.  Lost seems to be about a group of 48 survivors of a plane crash that must learn how to “live together or die alone”.  It becomes evident very quickly that there is much more going on the island than it appears.  I remembered watching this the first time around and yelling at the TV on a regular basis due to the cliffhangers.

by Lauren

There really is too much to say - Marvel knocked it out of the park with this one and though it may get overshadowed by the colossus of Guardians, I would say with confidence this is the best of the Avengers character films by far. I can't wait to own it and watch it again and again.

****See this week's major new movies, books and games after the jump!****

by Jen

DragonCon is the largest fan-run con in the country, and it truly has something for every fan to get excited about.  It’s not just the celebrity panels, although those are fantastic in their own right – who doesn’t want to listen to celebs like John Barrowman (2012 and 2013), Karl Urban (2014), and Wil Wheaton (2011) talk about what it was like to work on some of our favorite shows and movies?  But if standing in line for an hour (or more) to see a celebrity isn’t your deal, there is plenty of other fun to be had!  With more than thirty programming tracks, you can find panels on everything from costuming to gaming, from paranormal to science and technology, from animation to filk, and everything in between! 

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by Lauren

So, it was a loooooong summer - with not a heck of a lot on the TV to fill up the emptiness until the Fall shows return. Solution? Find a TV series that was on so long and has movies and spin-off series to binge watch the whole summer through.

TEN seasons of Stargate: SG1,  2 made for TV movies, plus five Seasons of Stargate: Atlantis (and SGU, if you want to count that) makes for over 364 hours of kick-ass sci-fi binge watching!

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Includes the new stories about Mercy and her friends:
“Silver”
“Roses in Winter”
“Redemption”
“Hollow”
…and reader favorites
“Fairy Gifts”
“Gray”
“Alpha and Omega”
“Seeing Eye”
“The Star of David”
“In Red, with Pearls”

****See this week's major new movies, books and games after the jump!****

Holy CON, Batman!

While GG, Inc. was busy partaking of all the fun of Dragon Con this weekend, we may have kind of forgotten to write stuff down! (We are still working out the kinks of our fledgling news site - we appreciate your patience.)

We are collecting our thoughts, downloading our photos and catching up on sleep today so we can put together a coherent sentence - but rest assured post-con coverage will roll out this week!

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