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Since I took some time off this week, I decided to catch a matinee this afternoon. Being a huge Johnny Depp fan, I was looking forward to seeing Public Enemies, which opened today. Public Enemies is easily the best movie I've seen this year. In a summer filled with explosions and yelling, it was refreshing to enjoy a movie that was subtle and authentic, with little or no apparent special effects. Johnny Depp is practically guaranteed an Oscar nomination for his understated approach to portraying Public Enemy #1 John Dillinger. Only Depp can evoke charisma and garner sympathy as a murderous, bank-robbing folk hero like Dillinger. Depp's subdued performance only made the film's moments of gunfire and car chases that much more thrilling. This movie will rank among Bonnie & Clyde and The Untouchables as one of the greatest gangster films ever made.

1930's-era cars were featured prominently in this movie, especially the Ford V8 (which was also a favorite of Clyde Barrow of Bonnie & Clyde fame.) It would be great if a die-cast car company, like M2, would give us a line of classic gangster-era cars, complete with bullet holes.

I popped into a Toys R Us this afternoon intending to pick up Hasbro's TRU exclusive 12" Joker figure (which is spectacular, by the way.) But while browsing the die-cast aisle, I almost had a heart attack when I spotted the 1:87 scale 1966 TV Batmobile! There was only one amongst the other scattered 1:87 Hot Wheels cars, but somehow, whoever had rifled through them earlier must've missed this. The reason my adrenaline was pumping is because this car has been routinely selling for $20 or more on eBay. I've put in bids and have been consistently outbid, so to find this car at retail for $3.99 was startling. Examining it up close, it's amazing how much detail Mattel put into this tiny creation. Check out the pics above. What a great find!

7/2 UPDATE: I've gotten a couple of e-mails regarding the Joker figure I mentioned above. For those of you who haven't seen it, here's a pic (left.) Like I said, it's spectacular. Personally, I feel it's the best likeness of Heath Ledger's character from The Dark Knight that I've seen. Apparently, the version that includes a knife ships one per case.

Rodney from Movie Car Mania has announced he has selected items from his personal collection to put up for sale on his website. Many rare and hard-to-find items are available to the TV and movie car collector. Click on the image above to see what Rodney has pulled from his vault! He'll be adding more items over the next few days.

1959 Cadillac, low mileage, previous owners: GHOSTBUSTERS! Currently up for sale on eBay is the Ecto-1 from the original Ghostbusters (1984.) The seller explains that it's not the vehicle featured in the movie, but a duplicate created by Columbia for promotional purposes. Not only did the owner fully restore the exterior, but also added some gizmos to the interior. Since the URL is too long to link to, just copy and paste this item # when you visit eBay: 110401442804

As I was out and about on this beautiful summer Saturday, I stopped into a Toys R Us and spotted the pegs full of the new eye-changing Cars. I half-heartedly looked through them without spotting either of the chase cars. I wandered around the store a bit, but was drawn back to the die-cast car aisle. I looked through the pegs again and this time I spotted Saluting Sarge. It was nice to see ol' Sarge back on the pegs after such a long absence following the lead paint panic. I kept searching and found the Chase Package Ferrari. I really hope this is the LAST chase package car Mattel throws at us. This may get my vote as the lamest release in the Cars line so far, closely followed by Chase Package Chuki.

It's a sad day in the entertainment world. Both Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett have passed away on the same day. I wanted to take a moment to share my memories of Farrah.

Of course, we were all introduced to Farrah when Charlie's Angels premiered on television in 1976. I was 10 years old and my family gathered around the TV set to see the girls in action. All three women were beautiful, but there was something about Farrah as Jill Munroe that made her stand out. That same year, Farrah reached the level of icon when that famous poster found its way onto the bedroom walls of practically every teenage boy in America, including mine. That smile was like a ray of sunshine. That golden mane of hair ... wow. At the time, she ranked among the most beautiful women in the world.

In 1981, she appeared in what would become one of my all-time favorite movies, Cannonball Run. I'll never forget that moment when Burt spots her across the bar. In my opinion, she had never looked lovelier. She was so soft-spoken and so sweet in that role and stunningly beautiful. I choose to remember Farrah at her peak, when she set the standard for beauty and sweetness. Let's remember Farrah by enjoying this trailer for Cannonball Run I found on YouTube:

I stopped into my local K-Mart just to see if anything was left over from the Cars Collector Event. There were still a few cars still hanging on the pegs, but to my surprise, the newest gift sets were on display, as well. I snatched up the Chick Fans Gift Pack (above, left) and the Spare-O-Mint Gift Pack (above, right.)

Okay, so two years have passed since the first live-action Transformers movie. Since then the Autobots, lead by Optimus Prime, have been working side-by-side with the US military defending the world against the Decepticons which have scattered across the continents of the world. As this sequel gets underway, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) is heading off to college. Sam's girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox) returns as quite possibly the most achingly-beautiful actress to grace the silver screen in quite a long time. Then, as the ... um...story unfolds... there are...um... explosions... and yelling... and ...um... well actually, most of the time, I had absolutely no idea what was happening on the screen. If you thought the movie's trailers were disorienting, well, stretch that out into two and a half excruciating hours of the movie's runtime. Transformers 2 is a long, loud, confusing, mess of a movie. At times, it moved from scene to scene so jarringly, it made me wonder if the projectionist in the theater had misplaced some of the reels, or had mistakenly played them out of order. This movie is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the movie industry today. Instead of having a bunch of computer geeks sitting around a computer muttering, "Wouldn't it be cool is we did THIS?" One person needs needs to fire up his computer, launch Microsoft Word, and bang out a freakin' STORY! I needed subtitles to explain what was going on, and even that probably wouldn't have helped.

The few cool elements that existed in the film were sadly wasted. When will the creators realize that the story needs to revolve around their coolest character: Optimus Prime? He was almost a secondary character in the first film, and SORELY underutilized in this film. Just as we get a tantalizing glimpse of Optimus kicking some robot BUTT, he ...um...well, let's just say he's written out of the movie for the next hour or so.

I was hoping this sequel would've taken the best elements of the first film, Optimus & Bumblebee, and given us a story that revolved around their relationship with Sam. Instead, we get more yelling, more explosions and farting robots. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is an awful movie.

Hitting several stores this afternoon, I discovered a lone Mega Size Frank at a local WalMart store. With the discovery of Frank, I'm getting closer to getting caught up. Still waiting for the newest Pit Race-Off cars to hit my area, and I haven't seen Saluting Sarge yet.

M2 Machines continues to put out high-quality die-cast cars. I stumbled onto this beautiful black 1949 Mercury, identical to the car James Dean's character drove in Rebel Without a Cause. I'll file this one under the unofficial category.

The second Cars Collector Event at K-Mart was a huge success. It was another well-organized, fun, friendly event. At 11am, 20 people (about half of them were little kids) waited for their numbered ticket to be called. I brought my buddy Marv with me to double my chances, but as luck would have it, neither one of us had our number called. 12 cases were handed out and those who had their numbers called rifled through the boxes first, each pulling out 5 cars. After 5 minutes, those of us who didn't have our numbers called were allowed to pick through what was left. After searching several cases, I managed to find everything I was looking for. Pictured above, from left to right, are Retread, Mood Springs, Lil' Torquey, Easy Idle and Clutch Aid. With the release of these 5 race cars, that brings the total to 32 of the 36 cars that made up the Speedway of the South set (that have been released individually in some form, including gift sets, launchers and mail-ins.) Click HERE to see pics of every race car released so far. Please let me know if I'm missing any.

As an added bonus, the cases also included Mini, Vitoline Pitty, and Mario Andretti with the CORRECT red rims (FINALLY!) It was a good day and it was great to see so many kids getting first crack at new Cars stuff. A pat on the back goes out to the staff at my local K-Mart.

Over the past week or so I've been having my own little Cheech & Chong film festival. I hadn't seen their movies in years so I decided to pick them up on DVD and enjoy them all over again. I had forgotten how funny they were. All of them had classic, laugh-out-loud moments, but the first film, Up in Smoke, was the best of the bunch. After watching the film, I searched eBay to see if there were any die-cast versions of Cheech's 1964 Chevy Impala. The best version I could find comes from Racing Champions (above right) in 1:64 scale. With some minor paint modifications, I think I'll attempt a custom version of "The Love Machine." Click HERE for more reference photos of the 1964 Impala from Up in Smoke.

On Saturday, June 20th at 11am K-Mart will be hosting its second Cars Collectors Event. Pictured above are the cars they will be offering at the event, all with synthetic rubber tires. Last time I took part in this event, we were all limited to 5 cars. Since some of those pictured above are re-releases, I'm going to focus on the cars I don't have. No Stall has been released several times. Tow Cap was released in a 2-Pack with Gasprin. Bumper Save has been released with a transporter. And Shifty Drug was released in Pit Race-Off packaging. That leaves Clutch Aid, Lil' Torquey, Easy Idle, Retread and Mood Springs as cars I don't have yet. For those of you who haven't taken part in a K-Days event, you'll get a numbered ticket when you arrive. At 11am, they'll start calling out numbers and if your number is called, you'll be handed an unopened case. You can then open the case and pull out 5 cars before passing the case over to someone else. At least that's how they do it at my local K-Mart. Hope to see you there!

Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino was released on DVD this week. The bonus features are slim, but include interviews with the cast and crew who talk about the bond between men and cars. To my surprise, the shorts include footage shot at the Woodward Dream Cruise, which takes place here in the Metro Detroit area every summer. Since the movie was filmed here, it was a nice touch to include footage from this local event. In celebration of the DVD release, here is a piece I put together about the vehicles from Gran Torino:

Stopping into a WalMart, I spotted the newest wave of Cars characters, this time with lenticular eyes. I only picked up the three you see above, but I also saw Doc Hudson, Sheriff, Filmore, Chick Hicks and The King. As you wiggle the car around, its eyes appear to open and close. Hardly worth picking up all the main characters again.

Nate Truman's Star Car Central and Jason aka Hollywood Star Car Detective are on the hunt for new Original/Replica Hollywood Cars.

"We are a Hollywood based TV and Movie car group of owners/builders of famous vehicles that we drive in the CA and LA Area. No hiding behind velvet ropes. We are all about street legal dream machines! Check out our current line up. Visit the many links to learn more about the originals and replicas and join us at our next star car event! Most importantly, if you own or know where any star car that DRIVES is hiding, let us know! It´s gotta be on the STREET to compete!" Visit http://starcarcentral.com/ for more information.

Have you seen this new 2009 Honda Odyssey Van commercial? There's a cameo by a certain van we all know and love. Click play above to view.

6/7 UPDATE: Apparently, these are actual clips from TV shows and movies. Bruce sent me an e-mail telling me the white van in the clip above is from Cheech & Chong's Next Movie.

Last night I got an e-mail from Jack Condon of Sherman Oaks, CA, who holds the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of memorabilia from the Charlie's Angels TV series. Among his collectibles is a one-of-a-kind Chevy Van. You may recognize the van pictured above, although it never actually appeared in the series. According to Jack, the van was commissioned by Revell Models to resemble their popular model kit. Later, Corgi reproduced the van in die-cast form. The van appeared on several custom car magazine covers and traveled the car show circuit. 30 years later it is now in the private collection of Jack Condon and he has some great photos of the van, inside and out, on his website. Impressively, Jack has met every one of the actresses who have appeared on the TV series. Thanks for the e-mail Jack. Check out his WEBSITE.

Patrick Mallette of Ellicott City, MD sent me an e-mail saying he found Mattel's 1:87 (HO) scale Batmobile at Toys R Us. I searched eBay, and sure enough, a few are starting to show up. The detail on this tiny car is amazing. The above pic was found on eBay. Here in Michigan, I spent the day searching several different stores looking for the Batmobile with no luck. Thanks for the info Patrick.

I finally got around to seeing Terminator Salvation on this Memorial Day. The fourth movie in the series faces the mind-boggling task of being both a sequel AND a prequel. For those of us who have enjoyed the previous three efforts, this is the movie we've all been looking forward to which finally depicts the war between humans and Skynet. It's a prequel because the events in the movie predate the moment when the first T-800 went back in time in an attempt to terminate Sarah Connor in the 1984 film. The movie is a sequel because the events in T2 and T3 lead up to Skynet becoming self-aware and declaring war on humans. However, whenever the topic of time travel is attempted in movies, a few holes are bound to develop. In this latest entry, Skynet seems to be aware of failed attempts to terminate Sarah and John Connor in the past, yet, as I said earlier, this movie predates the actual attempt at sending a terminator back in time. So, knowing the attempts fail, will Skynet even bother to send the T-800 back in time? If that's the case, did the events in the first three movies even take place? Head ... hurts ... getting sleepy.

Putting all that confusion aside, Terminator Salvation is an entertaining war movie, yet it's not quite the epic story I was hoping for. If I were to compare the earlier Terminator movies to Alien, I was hoping this movie would be Aliens. But we never really get to see armies of T-800s doing battle with the resistance. Instead we get inferior T-600s or T-700s (or whatever.) We do get the very cool Hunter Killer ships and a new entry to the terminator lineage, terminator cycles. The T-800 does eventually show up later in the film, but being only a prototype, we get the same old one-on-one battle we've already seen in the previous movies.

In the role normally occupied by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sam Worthington stars as Marcus Wright. I don't think I'm spoiling much when I say that Marcus Wright is a terminator that's more human than machine. Although that particular storyline is engaging, it wasn't entirely necessary. I would've preferred if the movie just focused on John Connor (Christian Bale) and his efforts to lead the resistance against the machines. This could've been a great war movie like The Dirty Dozen or The Longest Day, or even Aliens. Instead, it's a mildly entertaining popcorn flick that is sure to get lost in the onslaught of summer movies. At least there are some great action sequences and a few surprises that will be sure to put a smile on your face.

For those of you who missed out on RC2's awesome red '58 Belvedere from a few years ago, you have another chance to add Christine to your collection. Thanks to a tip from Kevin Clark, I learned that M2 Machines will be releasing a red '58 Plymouth Belvedere as part of its Auto-Thentics line.

Speaking of M2 Machines, I've been noticing their spectacular cars hanging on the pegs of various stores lately. One particular casting that caught my eye is the 1955 Pontiac Star Chief. Why is it special? Well, that's the make and model the Ricardos drove to California on I Love Lucy. However, the car seen on I Love Lucy was a convertible, so I contacted M2 Machines to see if they plan on releasing this casting as a convertible. Here is their response:

"We have already picked all the castings for the next 2 years and 1955 Pontiac Star Chief is not included as a convertible. The M2 team has talked about it and it may happen in the future."

How cool would it be to release it in a "gray-scale" color scheme as seen below? Who knows, maybe in a couple of years. For now, maybe it's worth tackling as a custom project. Hmmmm.

Today, I had the absolute pleasure of meeting John Schneider and Catherine Bach at the Motor City Comic Con. Unlike Dukes Fest, I didn't have to compete with 10,000 other fans for their attention. I pretty much had them all to myself. I met John first and not only was he kind enough to sign my online-exclusive General Lee (right) but he also gave me an on-camera interview. Catherine arrived later and posed for the above photo. I just felt incredibly lucky to be able to spend time chatting with these two icons. To view the EXCLUSIVE Hollywood Die-Cast interview, just click play below! The Motor City Comic Con continues through the weekend.

Thanks to a tip from fellow collector Fernando da Nobrega Ubarana, I visited Toys R Us and found Johnny Lightning's '72 Ford Torino Sport. This is the very same make and model that appears in the Clint Eastwood film Gran Torino. The similarities are uncanny. The car in the film has a yellow stripe that fades to green as it runs along the car, otherwise, the cars are almost identical. For now, I'll classify this under "unofficial" movie car.

I popped in to a nearby WalMart at lunchtime to discover the pegs overflowing with Cars characters from the newest case that's shipping. I nabbed Todd the Pizza Planet truck and Patti (Mario's Assistant.) Having Todd in-hand and examining it up close, it instantly becomes one of my personal favorites. I've read that the Pizza Planet truck has appeared in every Pixar film, so keeps your eyes peeled if you plan to see the newest film Up. The above pics have been added to the Cars Gallery.

I'm so pleased to announce the latest sponsor to join the Hollywood Die-Cast family! Please help me welcome the Volo Auto Museum, located about 50 miles north of Chicago in Volo, Illinois. In it's 48th year, the museum has over 300 classic cars on display, including cars from film and television, such as cars from the George Barris collection. Click HERE for a sneak peek at some of the Hollywood cars on display. I've been meaning to visit the museum for some time now and I hope to make it there on my next road trip. I'll be sure to bring back plenty of pics and video to share with you. In the meantime, there will be a permanent link to the museum's website in the right column of every page. Check it out!

I can't recall the last time I've seen a movie where the cast seemed to be having so much fun. Because of that, I found myself sitting in the theater having a great time, too. Star Trek reinvigorates this long-running franchise. Watching the origin story of these much-beloved characters had me wondering why someone hadn't tried this angle years ago. Chris Pine puts his stamp on the James T. Kirk character. Although he doesn't physically resemble William Shatner, it was fun to see him evoke a few Shatnerisms throughout the film, especially during a battle simulation scene early in the movie. I loved how they played up the womanizing aspect of his character, checking out every woman who passed him by and showing him in bed with an incredibly sexy green woman. However, surprisingly, this isn't Captain Kirk's movie. This is Spock's movie. And I have to say, Zachary Quinto turns in an absolutely brilliant performance as Spock. His resemblance to a young Leonard Nimoy is uncanny, but Quinto's take on Spock showed tremendous depth in a character that is known for concealing displays of emotion. Zachary Quinto is the star of this movie. The rest of the cast was enjoyable, too. The character of Uhura (Zoe Saldana) is given more personality than the Uhura from the TV series. It was fun to see Sulu (John Cho) get a chance to kick some butt on screen. Karl Urban nailed the role of Dr. McCoy. And Simon Pegg, who shows up later in the film, just seemed to be having an absolute blast in his role as Scotty. There was a surprising amount of humor in this film and I found myself laughing out loud many times.

I also can't seem to recall the last time I actually got goosebumps while watching a movie. But the first time we get a look at the Enterprise docked in space, I felt the hair on my arms stand up. I got the same feeling when the Enterprise rises from a gas cloud and is framed with Saturn in the background. It was just one of those beautiful moments that reminds me why I love movies so much. And finally, when the Star Trek theme began playing over the closing credits, well, those goosebumps came back. I don't want to give away too much about the film, but it was interesting how the storyline created an alternate reality, effectively allowing this group of characters to boldly go forward and experience adventures that won't necessarily mess up the existing Star Trek legend. I, for one, am eagerly anticipating their next adventure.

It's been more than two months since I saw the first reports of Elvis sightings. Since then, I've hit Target, Toys R Us, K-Mart, WalMart and any other store I came across on a regular basis only to come up empty every single time. I've also had friends and family searching with no luck. After months of frustration, I finally caved and went the eBay route. Arriving on my doorstep today is the Mega Size Elvis RV from Cars. I gotta tell you, this ranks among my favorite pieces from this entire line. I know the character only had a brief moment on screen, but I'm such a huge Elvis fan, I HAD to add this guy to my collection. In my searches, I also recently found Jerry Recycled Batteries semi truck (above, right.) Now I can relax and focus on finding characters from the newest case that's shipping, which includes Patti (Mario's Assistant), Todd (The Pizza Planet Truck) and as part of the Mega Size line: FRANK! Let the hunt continue!

Mattel's die-cast Star Trek line has started showing up at retail stores like Toys R Us and Target. I've seen three different ships so far, but because of their high cost, I decided to only pick up my favorite: USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The back of the box shows five ships, including USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A, USS Enterprise NCC-1701 (from the new Star Trek movie), USS Reliant and Klingon Bird of Prey.

When I saw Hugh Jackman in the first X-Men movie, I thought, "Wow. This guy has screen presence. He's going to be a big star." As I sat there watching him in the fourth X-Men movie, I thought, "Wow. He hasn't aged a bit." The man STILL has great screen presence and he fully takes advantage of that gift in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. First let me say Wolverine in no The Dark Knight. But having said that, Hugh Jackman is as great in the role of Wolverine as Christian Bale is as Batman or Tobey McGuire is as Spider-Man. While it doesn't transcend the typical summer comic book movies we've grown used to seeing, it's as entertaining as the better movies from the comic book genre. Its biggest flaw, the same flaw its previous three movies have suffered, is the overwhelming gallery of characters that make up the X-Men universe. Although I'm sure hardcore fans were happy to see Gambit make it into an X-Men movie, he really served no purpose other than to appease the fans. Wolverine could've been a great movie if it was stripped of all the clutter. The writing was a bit predictable, as I found myself mouthing lines moments before the characters spoke them on the screen, but I enjoyed the story of betrayal and revenge. So while Wolverine isn't great movie, it was entertaining and a worthy entry into the X-Men franchise.

I wouldn't even be posting my review on this website if there wasn't some sort of vehicle chase in the film, and that there was. Wolverine escapes serious damage on a motorcycle and is pursued by numerous military vehicles in an extended action sequence (above.) For me, the chase scene was one of the high points in the film and it kicked the movie into high gear, so to speak. So grab some popcorn and soda and check out X-Men Origins: Wolverine to get your summer movie experience underway. Coming up: Transformers 2 and Terminator 4.