Off The Record...
Poison
Power To The People
The #1 bad boys of glam rock are back in action and ready to rock! This album is the first since guitarist CC DeVille rejoined the ranks and features both brand new studio cuts and a slew of live takes from their hugely successful 1999 reunion tour. The new songs are the first the band has written together since the mid-'90s and are a mixed bag at best. Poison introduces an intense, more contemporary sound, adding a nice touch to the patented Poison swagger. All in all, ya get what ya pay for here. If you want a double dose of '80s pop metal, you got it!

At The Movies...
X-Men
With X-Men, comic book fans have finally gotten what they've been yearning for, a big-screen adaptation of a Marvel property that's worth seeing. X-Men avoids becoming too comic book thanks to the thoughtful treatment of its theme of intolerance and alienation, and consistently strong performances from the entire cast. With young director Brian Singer at the helm and the film's talented creative team, the rest of the world will discover what comic book fans have known all along, that the X-Men is the greatest comic book team around. It's just that now they've finally got the movie to prove it.
 

On DVD...
Jaws
In honour of the 25th anniversary of Steven Spielberg's Jaws, Universal Pictures is releasing special DVD and VHS versions of the movie. The DVD contains a Making of Jaws featurette that contains interviews with Spielberg and stars Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider and Lorraine Gary as well as author Peter Benchley and the special-effects team that created and operated Bruce the shark. The release of Jaws in the summer of 1975 is credited with creating the whole notion of summer blockbuster films. An absolute classic and a must to view before you go swimming this summer thinking about that haunting theme music playing in your head as you swim to shore.

The Buzz...

Harry Potter provided some cash register magic for the nation's bookstores over the weekend, many of which tallied record-breaking sales thanks to the release of the fourth book in the children's series. The Lego Co. has reached a licensing deal for a line of building block toys based on Harry Potter, the boy wizard as well.

As Fox rides a wave of strong buzz into Friday's opening of the superhero saga X-Men, plans are underway to give live-action treatment to another Marvel Comics character, Daredevil. Fox acquired the rights from Marvel Enterprises and has signed Mark Steven Johnson the script with an eye toward directing the film.

The Eastman Kodak Co. will pay $75 million over 20 years to put its name on new theater that will be the permanent home of the Academy Awards show. 

Director Ridley Scott has finally answered one of the most intriguing unanswered questions surrounding the plot of his classic science fiction film Blade Runner. In a Channel 4 documentary, Scott confirmed that Harrison Ford's character, the hard-boiled cop Deckard, is in fact a genetically-engineered replicant.

A jury awarded ex-NHL player Tony Twist $24.5 million in his lawsuit against Todd McFarlane. Twist claimed McFarlane stole his name for a character in Spawn, Antonio Twistelli, also known as Tony Twist.

A fire caused an estimated $250,000 worth of damage to the Mar-T Diner in North Bend, Washington. The restaurant served as the location for the fictional Double-R Diner in the Twin Peaks TV series.

ABC announced that it has added Disney/Pixar's Buzz Lightyear of Star Command to its fall Saturday morning line-up. The ABC series will be something of a prequel to the Toy Story movies, showing the TV series that inspired the action figure which appears in the films.
 

One of the biggest music events of the summer is set to take place in Cadott, Wisconsin next weekend. Rock Fest makes its annual appearance with a stellar line up that includes George Thorogood, Poison, Sammy Hagar and Billy Idol’s first live appearance in years. Last years performance drew in excess of 90,000 for the 4-day show.

Artisan Entertainment has finished making the half-hour mock documentary The Burkittsville 7 to help promote Showtime's exclusive showing of The Blair Witch Project and to generate interest in the upcoming theatrical release of Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2.

Those teenyboppers who put 'N Sync and Britney Spears atop the charts must've spent all their allowance on CDs--the nation's thriving concert industry is being dominated by AARP-eligible rockers. Oldsters like Bruce Springsteen, Tina Turner and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are leading the pack in what could be another record-shattering year for concerts, according to midyear statistics released this week by the concert trade Pollstar.

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