SCREEN (DVD) Predator: Collector's Edition If the Alien vs. Predator face-off in theaters leaves you gunning for blood (or longing for Arnie), go back to the beast's beginnings. This DVD set alternates footage from the 1987 original's impossible location shoot with current interviews of the cast and crew, and offers an overdue tribute to creature-actor Kevin Peter Hall. And while the f/x tutorials may seem primitive and the outtakes redundant, the beefed-up sound amplifies the fact that 15 years hasn't tarnished this kick-ass classic. – Brenna Britton
SCREEN (THEATERS) Code 46 You won't be taken aback by Michael Winterbottom's near-future dystopia – it's obvious the director has seen Blade Runner a few times. What will impress you is the persuasiveness of the film's backdrop. The movie, about an investigator (Tim Robbins) who falls for the documents-forger he's after, was shot in present-day Shanghai, Jaipur, and Dubai. There's no CG here. It's uncanny how jarringly futuristic reality can be given the right aerial footage and handheld camera work. – Kenneth M. Chanko
SCREEN (THEATERS) Tom Dowd and the Language of Music Tom Dowd entered the music business as a geek – the onetime Manhattan Project physicist pioneered stereo and multitrack recording. By his death in 2002, he'd become one of the most successful producers ever to sit behind a mixing board. In this bear hug of a biopic, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, and the Allman Brothers pay homage to the golden-eared tinkerer. Dowd returns the favor with a remix of "Layla" straight from the master tapes. – Noah Shachtman
SCREEN (THEATERS) The Yes Men This documentary follows two pranksters who use basic materials (cheap suits, mock business cards, and a Web site) to pose as World Trade Organization reps. Infiltrating economic conferences to give over-the-top speeches, they expose absurdities of global trade. The Yes Men may be thin on context – it's more about performance than politics – but its subjects are plenty entertaining. Their best trick: Injecting wit and audacity (can you say 3-foot seeing-eye phallus?) into a tired protest movement. – Jason Silverman
GAMES (PS2) Athens 2004 Born without athletic prowess? You can still compete with the elite in Athens, thanks to this official Olympic sim. Enter realistic stadiums and go for the gold in more than 25 events – from archery to track and field. But winning a medal won't be easy. You'll have to demonstrate the timing of a pro cyberathlete, and you'll work up a sweat, blisters, and muscle cramps from the frenzied mashing of your joystick (or DDR Dance Pad). Whew! Even being a virtual jock is too much exercise. – Brian Lam
GAMES (GAME BOY ADVANCE) Astro Boy: Omega Factor Anime's original boy wonder is making a comeback. But skip the PS2 game and Saturday-morning TV show; this GBA title's where the real action is. Developed by cult fave Treasure (Gunstar Heroes), it's a vibrant, colorful tribute to the lost art of the beat-'em-up. Punch, kick, and blast your way through hordes of robotic baddies, then face down gargantuan screen-filling bosses. Fans of Astro Boy creator Osamu Tezuka will spot references to his other offspring, like Kimba the White Lion. – Brandon Sheffield
GAMES (GAMECUBE) Pikmin 2 In this sequel by Nintendo genius Shigeru Miyamoto, you control a pair of tiny aliens who explore the wild, untamed front lawns of Earth. You shepherd an army of up to 100 Pikmin (adorable sentient vegetables), using them to battle enemies and collect rare and valuable Earth treasures (real-life, licensed products like Duracell batteries). Two new species of Pikmin add another layer of depth to a devilishly addictive game that requires high-level strategizing and quick reflexes. – Chris Kohler
GAMES (PS2, XBOX, CUBE) Madden NFL 2005 This year's Madden has been tweaked both on and off the field. You can now tackle with extreme prejudice, hopefully causing fumbles and casualties. Playmaker commands are now available on D, so you can change your tactics on the fly to counter the offense's dirty tricks. Fantasy footballers should get a jolt out of the expanded Franchise mode – now bad player negotiation can actually result in errors and interceptions. Special bonus: even more footage of cheerleaders! – Steven Kent
MUSIC The Roots The Tipping Point Like the Malcolm Gladwell book that inspired its title, this album is crammed with little ideas that together make a big statement. It kick-starts with a virtual duet weaving Sly Stone's classic "Everybody Is a Star" into a dreamy hip hop ode. The disc plods occasionally, but mostly crackles with catchy hooks, especially on the upbeat "Web." Frontman Black Thought's rhymes always flow, even when he's boasting, "I'm a big bounty hunter like Boba Fett." – Geeta Dayal
MUSIC Scissor Sisters Scissor Sisters This band seems to inhabit a bizarro world where irony doesn't exist. Its impassioned pop music draws on a decidedly unhip stew of influences: Elton John, the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, and other AM radio schlock. The Sisters' signature song is a disco cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" with Bee Gees-style falsetto. Call it a novelty act, but the irresistible glam piano boogie of songs like "Laura" show a band with more than one trick up its collective sleeve. It's so cheesy, yet so right. – G.D.
MUSIC Mouse on Mars Radical Connector Experimental sound pioneers Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma celebrate a decade of revolutionary electronic music with their bounciest album yet. The sublimely sleazy track "Wipe That Sound" goofs on party jam clich�s. "Mine Is in Yours" pairs animated synth loops with computer blips that recall the best in dance floor poptronica while remaining firmly rooted in the avant garde. Here's proof that laptop techno doesn't have to be all pastiness and pretension. – Eric Steuer
MUSIC Northern State All City This all-female, Brooklyn-based rap trio has book smarts to match its street sass, name-dropping Sylvia Plath and Dorothy Parker as it tears up the club. The Roots' ?uestlove, Cypress Hill's DJ Muggs, and legendary turntable whiz Pete Rock produce several tracks. And as All City gleefully bounds from retro block party to jiggy nightclub, lyrics like "You're lighting up backstage, but you won't see me / Because I'm working this room like a Kennedy" keep the joint hopping. – Adrienne Day
PRINT A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness: From Imposter Poodles to Purple Numbers V. S. Ramachandran Neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran is a storyteller obsessed with unusual brain disorders. Here he touches upon many of his favorite subjects: the "sensations" felt in phantom limbs, the "colored hearing" of those with synaesthesia. More ambitiously, he mounts a convincing argument for the neurological origins of metaphor, the appeal of cubist art, and the meaning of free will. It'll get your synapses firing. – Jennifer Kahn
PRINT Monument to Now: The Dakis Joannou Collection Edited by Jeffrey Deitch Sport, like art, is an act of continuous creation. So it shouldn't really surprise anyone that one of the most important art books (and shows) of the past 20 years was put together on behalf of the Athens 2004 Olympic organizing committee. In 448 pages, Monument presents a who's who of 20th-century artists, from Matthew Barney to Takashi Murakami, balancing the ego of today's art world with the real insight the works reflect. – Aaron Clark
PRINT Iron Council China Mi�ville Mi�ville's previous novels (also set in the mystical megalopolis of New Corbuzon), earned him a reputation as a grotesquerie-spouting gasbag with a penchant for neologisms and obscure adjectives. But Council is a masterwork. The pretentiousness is gone, replaced with a story that pops with creativity. There's a rebel town built entirely on a train, bad guys possessed by dismembered flying hands, and fog that turns to stone. Imagery like that makes this long read worth the effort. – Adam Rogers
PRINT Tokyo Doesn't Love Us Anymore Ray Loriga Equal parts Jack Kerouac and Philip K. Dick, Ray Loriga takes readers on a road trip with a nameless salesman who peddles memory-erasing drugs. Wandering the world in anomie, the protagonist commits the cardinal sin of sampling the product he's pushing. What follows is a consequence-free romp punctuated by meaningless conversations and joyless sex. Sound grim? It is. But the novel is also a darkly hilarious meditation on identity in an age when personality is a commodity. – E.S.
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