Ever since Will Smith punched an alien in the face in “Independence Day,” he has been the king of the 4th of July-weekend box office. Did “Hancock” measure up? The Scene-Stealers Army won lots of free tix to the screening and they sound off here. Eric has some hilarious “Go America!” videos in this Thursday’s Hollywood Clip Joint, and if you live in the KC area, don’t forget to enter our contest to win free advance tix to “The Dark Knight.” Happy Birthday, USA!

Top 10 Tuesday is put on hold as we present Part 3 of 3 of Eric’s full-length interview with Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne following the exclusive, festival-only screenings of the new Flaming Lips movie, “Christmas on Mars.” Eric caught up with Wayne before The Lips took the stage Friday June 6, 2008 at the Wakarusa Music Festival in Lawrence, KS. This is the part where you can hear about “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” on Broadway! View Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

It seems like the summer has just been one big buildup to the main event, right? Well, guess what? That event is here and it is called “The Dark Knight.” Christopher Nolan’s follwup to “Batman Begins” is almost here and we have just 10 admit-two passes to see the movie before anyone else does at the Olathe Studio 30 on July 16 at 10:30pm. 10 winners who successfully complete the Scene-Stealers Dark Knight Scavenger Hunt will be picked at random to receive the tickets. To see the actual BatPod from the movie in KC on Thursday, click here for more info.

Here’s J.D. and Eric this morning on the Dick Dale Morning Show on 96.5 the buzz, reviewing “Wanted” and “Wall-E.” It looks like a pretty good weekend for movies. If you live in KC, of course, you could always go see DGRE at The Brick Saturday night! (Plug, plug.) The print reviews for both movies are to the left, and you can click here for the archived mp3s.

..the trashiest, silliest, most ridiculously fun piece of nerdboy wish fulfillment since “Transformers”—“Wanted”!!! (Cue the explosions and the opening riff of KISS’ “Deuce.”) A seriously smart bit of counterprogramming is happening in theaters this weekend, but there’s no reason that one can’t enjoy both Pixar’s sci-fi robot love story “Wall-E” and the hyper-fun R-rated action flick “Wanted,” starring James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie. I did. Here’s my “Wanted” review. J.D.’s look at “Wall-E” is right here.

Every Thursday, Eric shuffles through the week’s movie news to find the most intruiging stories (no, nothing about Anne Hathaway’s ex or Jessica and Tony Romo– this is movie news for fans of movies, not Gossip Central) and he hand picks ‘em for you, the loyal reader. If you’ve been waiting for Quentin Tarantino to stop talking about it and finally finish writing his long-awaited WWII epic, it’s your lucky day. Find out about this and the latest from Roman Polanski, Ricky Gervais, and the “Watchmen” camp in today’s Hollywood Clip Joint.

Part 2 of 3: Eric has the first full-length interview with Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne following the exclusive, festival-only screenings of the new Flaming Lips movie, “Christmas on Mars.” Eric caught up with Wayne before The Lips took the stage Friday June 6, 2008 at the Wakarusa Music Festival in Lawrence, KS. Wayne Coyne talks about what inspired him to make the movie - seven years in the making - and his drive to finish a movie his mother might have dreamt up while dozing on the couch one night. View Part 1 here.

Following J.D.’s popular redux of his Top 10 Movie Soundtracks list, Eric responds this week with his own personal list of fabulous movie soundtracks and a ton of  links to the songs, videos, and clips from the movies so you can check them all out for yourselves. There’s more than a little cheating going on to fit more than 10 soundtracks in there, but that’s what happens when you turn a music junkie loose with a bunch of great tunes. Enjoy Eric’s Top 10 Movie Soundtracks.

Well the big comedy showdown between Mike Myers and Steve Carell is over, and “Get Smart “ came out way on top, taking in almost 3 times as much as “The Love Guru” at the box office. We weren’t able to see either film. We’ve been getting tons of great feedback from you all (the Scene-Stealers Army), and just because we didn’t see a movie doesn’t mean that you’re not curious as to what other sitegoers thought of it! Here’s your chance. Tell us what you thought about “The Love Guru” and “Get Smart” now.