Transformers

The new Transformers ride has been generating positive early reviews from theme park enthusiasts and hard-core fans of the shape-shifting robots during a soft-opening preview at Universal Studios Singapore. > Photos: Transformers ride at Universal Studios Set to officially debut on Saturday, the five-minute Transformers motion-simulator dark ride , with high-definition 3-D images and special effects, will feature an original story line starring the heroic Autobots and villainous Decepticons -- anthropomorphic robots capable of changing into cars, trucks and planes.

At his confirmation hearings for the position of chief justice of the United States, John G. Roberts Jr. parried skeptics with a reassuring metaphor: "Judges are like umpires," he memorably testified. "Umpires don't make the rules, they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical to make sure everybody plays by the rules. But it is a limited role. " Senators were charmed by that modesty and impressed by Roberts' undeniable brilliance, but his chief justiceship has hardly been a model of restraint.

Recruits on the new Transformers ride opening at Universal Studios Hollywood in spring 2012 will join the heroic Autobots in an intergalactic battle against the villainous Decepticons. The five-minute Transformers motion simulator dark ride with high-definition 3-D images, special effects and animatronics will feature an original storyline starring the shape-shifting robots capable of changing into cars, trucks and planes. > Photos: Transformers ride at Universal Studios Hollywood Hyperbolic Universal officials are already calling the new Transformers attraction "the greatest ride in theme park history.

For decades we've been watching TV. Now a new generation of televisions is beginning to watch us. Technological advances are giving the old clunky "boob tube" an I.Q. injection. Some of the new breed of smart TVs comes equipped with facial recognition technology of the kind used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, to "see" the images flickering on the screen and suggest new shows based on what you've been watching. Building on advances pioneered by the video game industry, some of the new TVs change channels with the sweep of the hand.

Shia LaBeouf was working hard to discover to his character for "The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman" - but it turns out he couldn't quite get there without taking an acid trip along the way. LaBeouf first sought advice from costar Evan Rachel Wood, someone he said he's always looked up to as an actor. "I remember sending Evan tapes," he said in an interview with MTV News at Sundance. "I remember trying to conjure this [character] and sending tapes and Evan being like, 'Yeah, that's good, but that's not, but this is, but that ain't.'" PHOTOS: Celebrties by The Times (Not that she's any kind of drug expert, she chimed in.)

'Transformers 3' injury A Chicago bank teller was critically injured working as an extra on a street scene in "Transformers 3. " Gabriela Cedillo, 24, was driving her own car in Hammond, Ind., when a flying object came crashing through her windshield and hit her Wednesday evening, according to the Indiana State Police. The movie crew was filming a stunt using numerous vehicles and drivers, police said. Cedillo was airlifted to Loyola University Hospital in Maywood with a serious head injury, police said.

Detroit's not the only one reeling from the collapse of General Motors. There are a few executives bummed out on the Paramount Pictures lot as well. Eleven weeks before the release of its expensive summer sequel "Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen," the studio can't count on its key promotional partner to support a marketing blitz that helps drive mass awareness of Hollywood's big popcorn movies.

What looks like a giant, smoldering gap in the side of Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles is not the result of the latest disaster to befall the City of Angels. Instead, it is the latest over-the-top campaign stunt for a new attraction set to open May 25 at Universal Studios Hollywood. A giant laminate stuck to the side of the sports venue makes it look as if an 80-foot tall, 20-ton metal alien creature from the movie  "Transformers"  busted a hole through the building.

Workday be damned. "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" blew away the existing record for a weekday movie opening by selling an estimated $60.6 million worth of tickets Wednesday in the U.S. and Canada. The Paramount Pictures movie, made for about $200 million, also pulled in an impressive $58.5 million at the box office in other countries. Nearly $40 million of that amount came Wednesday, when the film opened in most major territories.

NEW YORK - Miss Agatha Trunchbull, headmistress of Crunchem Hall school, hates pigtails. They're good only to serve as handles by which she can toss a rebellious child into the air - a feat this one-time Olympic hammer-throwing champion shows off early in "Matilda," the new Broadway musical. Her motto - " Bambinatum est maggitum" (" Children are maggots") - is no joke. Even so, Miss Trunchbull, as severe as her chignon and as charming as Hannibal Lecter, is one of the funniest comic creations ever to grace a Broadway stage.

Leave it to Michael Bay to spend $26 million making a low-budget comedy. If that sounds like a robust price tag for "Pain & Gain," his new true-crime-inspired tale about three Miami gym rats who kidnap and extort a wealthy sandwich shop owner, consider that Bay is the director of such pricey special-effects-laden blockbusters as "Armageddon" and the "Transformers" films. But while "Pain & Gain" should earn a healthy return on the investment - it's expected to debut at No. 1 at the box office this weekend, to the tune of $23 million - the film is faring poorly with movie critics, most of whom find it shiny on the surface but hollow underneath.

When Michael Bay goes small, "Pain & Gain" happens. Humans handle the bone-crunching. The gore becomes gorier. The dialogue increases substantially too. Metal things may not transform, but they still make a world of hurt delivered by "Pain & Gain's" iron-pumping bodybuilders. The suddenly budget-conscious Bay shot the movie in and around his Miami mansion, so maybe that reference to "Mickey D's fries" wasn't a joke. And yet he still can't wrap up the action in less than two hours.

Paramount Pictures may stand to gain a great deal from its forthcoming "Pain & Gain," but for Marc Schiller, it's only generating pain.  Schiller, an accountant who resides in Boca Raton, Fla., was a victim of the Sun Gym gang, whose exploits are documented in the upcoming movie. The film, starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson, centers on bodybuilders who went on a crime rampage involving kidnapping, extortion and murder in South Florida in the 1990s. In 1994, Schiller was abducted and tortured by the gang.

Paramount Pictures will cast Chinese roles for its upcoming “Transformers 4” through a reality television show in the world's most populous nation, the studio announced Thursday. The sequel, set for release next summer and directed by Michael Bay, previously was announced as a coproduction between the American studio and China Movie Channel and Jiaflix Enterprises. Known as “'Transformers 4' Chinese Actors Talent Search Reality Show,” the competition will select four actors for the film: two professionals and two amateurs.    The competition is scheduled to start this June and will be judged by Jiaflix producer Sid Ganis, the former president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences; Lorenzo DiBonaventura, the producer of the “Transformers” sequel; casting director Denise Chamian; and Paramount marketing and distribution executive Megan Colligan.

The firm that helped reboot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and adapt Hasbro's Transformers toy line for big (and small) screens is charged with a new task: helping Mexican wrestling characters successfully cross the border into the United States. Partners FactoryMade Ventures and Lucha Libre AAA wrestling have retained Starlight Runner Entertainment, a company that specializes in helping ensure that characters and stories remain consistent as they traverse different types of media, to help reimagine the popular sport for American and international audiences.

TEHRAN - The reform movement that took to the streets to protest alleged vote-rigging in Iran's last presidential election has been crushed. The supreme leader has made it clear that such behavior will not be tolerated this time. But that doesn't mean the maneuvering to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in an election set for June 14 has been without intrigue. Ahmadinejad, who was reelected in the disputed 2009 balloting, is barred by law from seeking a third term and is publicly promoting a trusted aide to replace him. It is far from clear, however, whether the president's preferred successor will even be allowed to run. For much of the outside world, the incumbent remains the defiant face of the Iranian theocracy.

Museum leaders are generally reluctant to see themselves engaged in competition, but the Museum of Modern Art in New York just lost a big one - and will lose its reputation as the city's only great destination for the Cubism of Picasso and Braque as well. Collector and former cosmetics executive Leonard Lauder confirmed Tuesday that he was giving his collection of 78 Cubist sculptures, paintings and drawings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art instead of MoMA, the modern art citadel on 53 rd Street.