The 4-disc, 10-part set features 130 stories of life on our planet, an incredible 54 of which had never been filmed before. Rich, vivid, and often times riveting, the amazing full HD visuals are accompanied by a spot-one score by George Fenton.

Oh, and be sure to pick up the BBC version narrated by the great David Attenborough, unless you actually want to listen to 10-plus hours of Oprah.

Directed by Matteo Garrone using a documentary style, it skips the forced glamour and glorification of normal mobster movies for something that’s much more moving: the truth.

There’s the question of whether or not it’s really possible to build a particle accelerator in your own home with sufficient power to create a new element.

The short answer: why yes, you can build your own particle accelerator. It’s already been done by physicist Michio Kaku, who built a 2.3-million-electron-volt accelerator (called a betatron) in his parents’ garage for his high school science fair project because he “wanted to play about with antimatter.”

The long answer is a bit more complicated, as Satogata’s analysis makes clear. The basic building blocks are a beam tube with a large vacuum, charged particles, magnets to bend the beam, and radio frequency oscillators, or RF cavities, to accelerate the particles. Based solely on what’s depicted on screen, Tony Stark seems to be missing RF cavities (although they could be off-screen), and his magnets don’t appear to be large enough for maximum steerage.

There’s also the question of where he’s getting the juice to run his homemade accelerator: on the order of 10 to 15 megawatts, enough to run over 10,000 homes. “For Stark to run his accelerator, he’s gotta make a deal with his power company or he’s gotta have some sort of serious power plant in his backyard.” I humbly suggest that if Stark can build a tiny fusion reactor to operate his suit, finding the energy to run an accelerator isn’t his biggest problem.

Okay, so while there’s a real-world basis for this pivotal scene in Iron Man 2, it’s not yet something within the reach of our most brilliant scientists. But our most brilliant scientists aren’t Tony Stark — that’s why he’s a superhero; he can achieve what mere mortals cannot. Emory University’s Sid Perkowitz, author of Hollywood Science, explains:

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Containing a mix of lost skits and unedited clips that were too extreme to air.

The Lost Tapes is a must have for any Jackass fan, and also packs all of the show openers, credit montages, extra bonus footage, and more.

Find it at your local video store or HMV.

LOS ANGELES – An elite squad of guinea pigs has worked its own brand of magic at the box office, taking the No. 1 spot from boy wizard Harry Potter.

The 3-D “G-Force” was the top movie at the box office this weekend, opening with $32.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Walt Disney release from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, with its mixture of live action and computer-generated animation, is a “Mission: Impossible”-style adventure. It features voiceover work from Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Tracy Morgan and Penelope Cruz as resourceful rodents.

Last week’s No. 1 film, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” came in a close second with an estimated $30 million. That’s a whopping 61-per cent drop from its huge opening last weekend of $79.5 million.

The sixth installment in the Harry Potter franchise has now made $222 million total, which is $14 million ahead of where part five, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” was after 12 days in theaters in 2007. And this week, “Half-Blood Prince” will start showing on 166 IMAX screens, which the last “Harry Potter” movie did from the start.

“G-Force” triumphed in a crowded summer marketplace with its combination of 3-D effects and the Disney and Bruckheimer brands, said Mark Zoradi, president of Disney’s motion-picture group.

“You never go into a situation where you’re competing against two important movies – the second weekend of ‘Harry Potter’ and the opening weekend of ‘The Ugly Truth’ – you never go in cocky,” Zoradi said.

“This summer is all about packaging and escapism,” Dergarabedian said of the strong showing for “G-Force.” “People were scratching their heads and dragging their kids to go see this thing. They were watching the trailers with absolute shock going, ‘Is that really happening?’ But as a kid you’re like, ‘I gotta go see it.’ This is a testament to the fact that Jerry Bruckheimer, like (‘Transformers’ director) Michael Bay, knows exactly what summer movie audiences want.”

“The chemistry between Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler is a blast. It’s really a lot of fun, everything we’d hoped it would be,” Bruer said. “From sneak previews to word-of-mouth screenings we had on the movie, we knew people liked the movie.”

“If I have a choice of deciding between what the audience’s opinion is going to be versus the critics’, I’ll definitely go with the audience’s every day, and they spoke loud and clear,” Bruer said.

Expanding in its second week of limited release, the Fox Searchlight romantic comedy “500 Days of Summer” made $1.63 million. Going from 27 screens to 85, it’s grossed just over $3 million. The critical hit stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel in an out-of-order tale of boy-meets-girl.

On the other end of the cinematic spectrum, the dominant movie of the summer, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” is now the 10th-highest grossing film of all time with just over $379 million. The Paramount sequel made $8 million this weekend, pushing it past 2003′s “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” which made just over $377 million.

Dergarabedian said movies like “Transformers,” “Harry Potter” and the R-rated, surprise-hit comedy “The Hangover,” which has now made over $247 million, have kept this summer’s revenues right in line with 2008, when “The Dark Knight” was all the rage.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. “G-Force,” $32.2 million.
2. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” $30 million.
3. “The Ugly Truth,” $27 million.
4. “Orphan,” $12.8 million.
5. “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs,” $8.2 million.
6. “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” $8 million.
7. “The Hangover,” $6.5 million.
8. “The Proposal,” $6.4 million.
9. “Public Enemies,” $4.2 million.
10. “Bruno,” $2.7 million.