Because putting Pixar and The Twilight Zone in a blender together is always going to be full of win:

More information here.

Pixar rock. Pixar rock even harder when they do spoofs on Spielberg and other standards of the UFO/paranormal genre:

Check out Pixar's YouTube channel for more fun viewing and behind the scenes stuff. And don't miss Lifted, another Pixar film having fun with the alien abduction meme.

Best movie of the year for me. Hands down. Go watch it in a local cinema, or pick it up on DVD/BluRay (details beneath the trailer). Sam Rockwell in Duncan Jones' Moon:

It's one of those (unfortunately rare) movies that combine a brilliant storyline with a quality actor and tasteful directing/editing. And the soundtrack - part of which you can hear in the trailer - sets the vibe perfectly. All for a fraction of the cost of most 'blockbusters'.

Moon is now out on DVD and BluRay in the UK. The BluRay version is multi-region (despite what Amazon UK says), so US readers can purchase it if they can't wait for the January 12 release in the States:

• Amazon UK: BluRay or DVD (available now)
• Amazon US: BluRay or DVD (pre-order for Jan 12 release)

Two other things worth noting for those that have already seen the film and loved it: Props from the film are currently being auctioned on eBay (Gerty's already gone, but there's a few things still left). And if you thought Sam Rockwell's performance was first-rate (considering he is almost the only on-screen actor for the whole film), you can join the push to have him nominated for an Oscar.

The official trailer for The Men Who Stare at Goats (adapted from Jon Ronson's book of the same title) has been released. The movie stars George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey, and takes a farcical look at the training of American 'psychic warriors' based on the human potential movement, parapsychology research and various other 'New Age' topics:

The trailer portrays a few well-known incidents, including the 'goat-staring' of the title, as well as General 'Bert' Stubblebine's walking 'through' a wall. Would be good to get some comment from individuals who actually were a part of all this history, as I know a few are readers of The Daily Grail - might be eye-opening.

The movie will be released on November 6 - better quality trailers can be viewed at Apple.com.

Completely off-Grail-topic, apart from the fact it's one of our own doing good: Friday news admin Turner Young's 'webisode' project Action Auto now has it's own website, and three complete episodes available to watch. Action Auto is set in a car yard, following the adventures of some rather unethical salesmen in their desperate quest for sales.

Also: utilising the power of the Grail audience, if you think the web series is well made, give Turner and his cohorts a big leg-up by voting 'Funny' for the series on Will Ferrell's Funny or Die website. If you don't like it, how about just not clicking 'Die'...

** WARNING - videos are definitely NOT SAFE FOR WORK (NSFW), and if you have delicate sensibilities or are a stickler for political correctness, you will probably consider them 'vulgar' in some sense. If so, do not watch, and definitely do not watch and then come back here and complain about them. **

This is a beautiful and evocative montage - comprised of over 400 video clips it takes elevator passengers on a trip from hell to heaven. See how many movie clips you can spot, but don't let it distract you from the overall beauty of the piece.

Would love to see it in full HD on a big screen - for now, a bigger version can be found at Vimeo. Best to view it now, before a cast of 400 Hollywood lawyers send out their cease and desists...

This looks cool: Moon.

Little bit of a HAL 9000 vibe in there, but if you're going to copy a movie, that's not a bad one to borrow from...

OMG, teh video motherlode! Earlier this week, I linked to some videos of Professor Stephen Braude discussing life after death and the mysteries of consciousness. One of those was at the website of the PBS series Closer to Truth. I've just realised though that their website is also chock full of other high-quality video interviews about the topics of 'Cosmos, Consciousness and God', featuring eminent individuals of the calibre of Paul Davies, Huston Smith, Henry Stapp, Michael Shermer, Daniel Dennett, Ray Kurzweil, Marilyn Schlitz, Martin Rees, David Brin, and so on. There are also other resources available on the website (such as PDF articles related to the topics). As if that isn't enough, you can also watch all 28 episodes from Season 1 online as well.

So far I've particularly enjoyed seeing Henry Stapp discussing consciousness and quantum physics in a relaxed, social manner. I've read a lot of his writings online, but they're often academic and quite dry (purposefully) - so good to see him sitting on a couch just answering 'newbie' questions. Perhaps I'll settle myself down some by watching Michael Shermer on ESP.

I guess that's my download quota gone for the coming month...

Here's a new documentary which looks in the What the Bleep?! mode, covering a number of the topics we find so fascinating: Something Unknown (is doing we don't know what):

Is it possible that some people can read your mind, "Telepathy"? or look into the future, "Clairvoyancy"? Why is it that some people can cure themselves while in the last stages of a deadly cancer, "Healing"? . Does mind over matter really exist, and if so, how do we explain this "Telekinesis"?

In the US millions of people claim to ‘see’ distant objects or places "Remote Viewing". Are they fooling us, or do they really see something? Do we have quantum-brains? And where is the boundary between 'real' magical powers and fraud? Can these ‘miracles of the mind’ be explained?

These and more questions will be answered in the quirky feature documentary “Something Unknown is doing we don't know what ” 104’ min by Dutch filmmaker Renée Scheltema, who was inspired to explore the realms of psychic phenomena after a series of curious and unexplainable events happened around her all in a short period of time.

She travelled to the US to meet up with the top scientists, para-psychologists, psychologists, physicians, and doctors within the field of research, like Prof Charles Tart, Prof Gary Schwartz and Dr Dean Radin. Along the way she collects anecdotal stories from celebrities within the field, such as psychic detective Nancy Myer, author Arielle Ford, and astronaut Dr Edgar Mitchell.

Renée found that experiments of today reveal how science is verifying numerous kinds of connections : 'mind to mind'; 'mind to body' and 'mind to world', demonstrating that psychic abilities are part of our inherent nature.

Certainly looks good - the DVD is available at their website for $US19.95. You'll also find a trailer on the front page of the website (can't find it on any of the video sharing sites, so can't embed it here unfortunately).

This is really nicely done (larger version at YouTube):

(h/t to Boing Boing)