Screen

Often film sequels are slam dunks at the box office, a seamless continuation from where a previous hit left off. But as the new installment of the 15-year-old franchise "Men in Black" proves, getting to the big screen isn't always a cakewalk. One of the most troubled productions in recent Hollywood memory, Sony Pictures' latest movie in the Will Smith-Tommy Lee Jones sci-fi-comedy franchise encountered multiple script rewrites, a discontented star and a three-month production shutdown as writers and studio executives scrambled to fix a project that nearly fell apart . By the time it was over, the studio had run up a tab of nearly $250 million - making "Men in Black 3" one of the most expensive releases of the summer.

In a match made in what's surely somebody's idea of musical heaven, the Long Beach Opera will take a sidelong look toward the Grateful Dead with a Sunday screening of Jim Kohlberg's "The Music Never Stopped." The film, which was an entry in the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, acts as a sort of stage-setter for the company's production of Michael Nyman's "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat," an opera based on the work of Dr. Oliver Sacks by the same name.

The PSA test should be abandoned as a prostate cancer screening tool, a government advisory panel has concluded after determining that the side effects from needless biopsies and treatments hurt many more men than are potentially helped by early detection of cancers. At best, one life will be saved for every 1,000 men screened over a 10-year period, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. But 100 to 120 men will have suspicious results when there is no cancer, triggering biopsies that can carry complications such as pain, fever, bleeding, infection and hospitalization.

So, to paraphrase Dirty Harry, "Do you feel lucky, punk?" A couple of stories this week have put me in a philosophical state of mind, and when I start feeling that way, I think of Clint Eastwood’s Inspector Harry Callahan, one of my favorite philosophers. In fact, Harry’s famous movie line was the first thing that came to mind when I read The Times' story Monday on prostate cancer screening for men. The headlines summed it up: "PSA test for prostate cancer should be dropped, task force says."

If you think Bluetooth is a rare dental condition and an app is what you eat before the entree, you might not be a candidate for today's high-tech, whiz-bang smart phones. Instead, you might be happier with a mobile phone geared toward seniors. Those phones typically don't have Web-surfing capability, GPS maps and video games. Instead they have large buttons, oversized digital readouts and hearing-aid compatibility, along with a relatively simple calling plan. Although senior-friendly phones aren't new, their lower prices and variety are. A recent price skirmish among wireless companies means seniors can get an easy-to-use cellphone and cheap service to go with it, said Mac Haddow, senior fellow on public policy for the independent and nonprofit Alliance for Generational Equity.

You look fat in that. Of course I'll be late. Your baby reminds me of Gollum's uncle. This is what the 2013 Subaru BRZ might say if it could talk. The all-new, rear-wheel-drive sports car starts at $26,265, and boy is it honest - perhaps more so than any other car on the market today, save for its mechanical twin, the Scion FR-S. The two were jointly developed by Subaru and Scion's parent company, Toyota, with both assembled by Subaru in Japan. The question about the BRZ is, can you handle the honesty?

Elizabeth Taylor, the glamorous queen of American movie stardom, whose achievements as an actress were often overshadowed by her rapturous looks and real-life dramas, has died. She was 79. Hospitalized six weeks ago for congestive heart failure, Taylor died early Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles with her four children at her side, publicist Sally Morrison said. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this article said Mickey Rooney played Elizabeth Taylor's trainer in "Lassie Come Home.

                                        Andrew Bynum sat on the bench, and this time it had nothing to do with taking an ill-advised three-pointer. It had everything to do with not showing enough effort rebounding or playing defense. But after posting 10 points on five-of-15 shooting and eight rebounds in the Lakers' 114-106 double-overtime win Sunday over the Oklahoma City Thunder, Bynum sounded different than he has in recent weeks.

"Battleship"is not the first major motion picture to be based on a board game - who could forget 1985's benighted "Clue"? - but it is surely the most expensive. With every superhero more celebrated than Amazing-Man or the Chameleon already spoken for (ditto for hot toys like Transformers), Hollywood has fallen back on popular games as likely fodder for action epics. If "Scrabble: The Movie" or "Qwirkle or Death" appears on a future marquee, don't say you weren't warned. As its north-of-$200-million budget indicates, "Battleship" has been expanded considerably from its origins as a pre-World War I pencil and paper game to include a major alien invasion that puts the very fate of the human race at stake.

If Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle Fire turns out to be the blockbuster that many are predicting it will be, it won't be because of design or hardware features. If Fire ignites consumers, it will be because it sells for $199, wears the trusted Amazon Kindle brand name and serves as a direct and easy-to-use pipeline to Amazon's online store, a massive offering of e-books, music, movies, TV shows and apps matched only by Apple. But although Fire's content offering is top-notch, the hardware is as plain as you can get. The 7-inch screen on the Fire is bright and clear, and its 1024-by-600-pixel resolution provides ample room for reading books or watching TV shows and movies.

The sixth-generation iPhone is expected to have a larger screen, and several iOS developers say they would receive that change with a warm welcome. Rumors began earler this month saying the next iPhone, expected to arrive in October, could come with a 4-inch screen. Since its launch in 2007, Apple has never messed with the 3.5-inch size of its phone screen.

A Chinese conglomerate took a big leap forward into the U.S. market late Sunday by acquiring AMC Entertainment Inc., the nation's second-largest theater chain. It was the latest in a flurry of high-profile deals between the nations' entertainment industries. Dalian Wanda Group said in a statement it had reached an agreement to acquire AMC's 5,034 screens in 346 multiplexes in the U.S. and Canada. AMC, based in Kansas City, Mo., is owned by several investment firms, including JPMorgan Partners, Apollo Investment Fund and Bain Capital Investors.

ART English musician Will Sergeant is famous for being the guitarist in the darkly melodic Liverpool rock band, Echo & the Bunnymen. Now he's turned his attention to art, opening his first major United States exhibition, "My Own Worst Enemy," at the Substrate Fine Art Gallery. Abstract paintings, collages and screen prints open a window on this brash entertainer's inner vision. Substrate Fine Art Gallery, 709 N. Ridgewood Place, L.A. 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Fri. Free. (323) 833-6459; facebook.com./substratefineartgallery.

If you want a relationship, the advice goes, do what you like and you'll eventually bump into the love of your life. None of that was on my mind when I opened up the newspaper and read about a film series at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Goldwyn Theater on Wilshire Boulevard. The academy would be screening, every Monday night for 75 weeks, all of the best picture winners from "Wings" (1927) to "Chicago" (2002) for just $75. I sprinted to buy my series pass.

 My Monday night ritual: Get to the theater early.

MOVIES "This American Life" is a staple of your weekend NPR menu, and now you can move your "driveway moment" to an actual theater. Host Ira Glass joins David Sedaris, David Rakoff, Tig Notaro, the band OK Go and many others for this simulcast of live storytelling performances, music, animation and other exquisitely tasteful programming. 8 p.m. Thu. at various local theaters. See thisamericanlife.org for full schedule.

DENVER - For a year he's taken the high road, staying above the mess that had become his Lakers career, refusing to indulge in the finger-pointing and pity that collected around his feet like piling garbage. He was blamed for last year's playoff loss, yet he didn't blame back. He was traded, then the trade was nullified, yet a smile, however forced, remained. He never whined. He never moped. He began this postseason as a third option in an offense that he once helped dominate, but he still had not griped, refusing to reveal anything that would let us know exactly how he was feeling.

If you're a traveling touch-screen user, you may want to pack this stylish stylus. The Griffin Stylus/Pen/Laser Pointer ($49.99) is a rubber-tipped touch-screen stylus with a pen at the other end, and - here's the breakthrough - a cap that snaps over either end. As a bonus, a battery-powered push-button laser pointer is built into the cap, which also has a pocket clip. The ballpoint pen is refillable. Just what you need to interact with smaller screen elements while having ready access to writing and presentation tools.

Hollywood High School keeps its doors open 12 months a year to ease overcrowding. The year-round schedule allows the campus to run hundreds more students through its cramped classrooms. It also chips away at their education. Teachers skip pages of material, assign less homework and give fewer tests because their school year has been slashed by 17 days. Hundreds of pupils take the Stanford 9 exam shortly after returning from an eight-week vacation.

The superhero extravaganza "The Avengers"marks the first of many movies that will feature motorcycles racing onto the big screen this summer. Not only will Captain America helm a Harley-Davidsonin the big-budget Marvel movie, but one of the leads of "Men in Black" will time-travel to 1969 on board an "Easy Rider"-esque chopper. A circus bear will even throw a furry leg over a Ducati in the animated feature "Madagascar 3. " Motorcycles have long played a part in the movies, but as summer films become more explosive and adventure oriented, two wheels are playing a larger role.

With a quarter of a billion dollars already in its pocket from a week of ticket sales, the Marvel superhero mash-up"The Avengers"is poised to join Hollywood's most elite club - the brotherhood of billion-dollar box office movies. Unlike its cousins, though, "The Avengers" took a different path to the clubhouse. It opened first overseas, with splashy red-carpet premieres in Rome, Beijing, London and Moscow, where audiences have embraced the special-effects-driven action and adventure film.