Movies which will inspire you to get a better personality and to be a better man

By Mike Hammer for our content partner: Men's Life Today, India

Looking for a get-smart shortcut? The right mix of flicks will serve as a veritable Cinema U: You can really learn something by watching them. Here’s our brain-boosting lineup.

Where can you find a better blueprint for life than the movies? These days we look to cinematic fiction for answers to life’s most perplexing questions, such as, Where else can an over-the-hill fat dude like Jack Nicholson be paid zillions to parody himself again?

Ah, but we digress. Educationally speaking, the movies don’t just lecture you like a burned-out, tenured professor: They put you in the action. Plus the movies can out-multimedia just about any lecture class. Watch enough of the right flicks, and you may just qualify for a degree in business, politics, sociology -- even grifting. And think how far all that will go when time comes to make career choices, sound witty at social mixers and impress a worthy lady.

Yes, Cinema U is officially in session. These flicks are packed with smart bombs that’ll serve you well for the rest of your life. Watch and learn:

Shanghai

Check It out:
John Cusack is a U.S. intelligence operative desperately trying to find his missing American buddy in Shanghai just days before the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. As he frantically tries to find his friend, the search is complicated by local gangsters, Japanese invaders, a Chinese chick (Gon Li) who runs sweet and sour on him, and the realization that he’s not sure he can trust his own government.

The Smart Bomb
Cusack’s undercover navigation of pre-war Shanghai reveals a fascinating, culturally rich -- but also slightly seamy -- melting-pot community we never knew existed. The film shows that pre-World War II Shanghai was an international community of refugees, artists, spies, and best of all, breathtakingly beautiful Gon Lis.

Also …
Creativity cannot be stifled. Shanghai’s international community was the birthplace of China’s thriving film industry, which was squashed by the Japanese occupation during the war. The industry clandestinely slipped out of what became Red China and off to Hong Kong to give birth to the careers of our favorite imports: Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

Whiteout

Check It out:
Based on the wildly popular 1998 graphic novel, Whiteout is the story of the world’s hottest United States marshal (Kate Beckinsale), who is, um, hot on the trail of the first and only serial killer in the world’s coldest place, Antarctica. The problem? Winter is only three days away (so forget about seeing Kate slip into a bikini at the polar ice cap). Also, with winter come six months of darkness … in which she would be stuck with the Abominable Snowciopath.

The Smart Bomb
Geography meets criminal justice studies meets ice-onography. The story offers the eye-opening and groin-freezing scenario in which we see how U.S. marshals are the only law enforcement agency charged with protecting the world’s largest and least inviting continent. When Carrie Stetko (Beckinsale) is sent to the most isolated, barren and scariest landmass on earth to shut down a serial killer terrorizing a U.S. research base, she has to do it in temperatures that drop to 120 F below 0, winds that will rip your skin off at up to 200 mph and a serious absence of backup when the bodies begin to pile up -- all of which leads us to wonder who her high school career counselor was.

Also …
In the original graphic novel, Stetko was a little overweight and got a bit of help from a female U.N. investigator … with whom (it was implied) she melts a little ice. In the film, though, the investigator is a dude (actor Garbiel Macht). Maybe we should go back to using comics as reference books.

The Informant

Check It out:
Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) was bored working at an Illinois food processing company. So, more to make himself feel important than to actually help anybody, Whitacre goes undercover for the FBI to uncover his company’s massive price-fixing scandal -- while he’s in the midst of stealing $9 million bucks himself. True story.

The Smart Bomb
Aside from focusing on Whitacre’s clueless efforts to be a hero, this story offers riveting detail about how the food industry holds not only your tummy hostage but also your wallet. In real life, Whitacre wore a wire for three years and helped record video footage of high-level meetings, where execs conspired with each other to set food additive prices well above market value so they could stuff their pockets as you stuff your face.

Also …
Elaborate FBI stings follow white-collar crime everywhere -- even in boring industries. That’s right: Somebody’s making dough by charging too much for, um, dough. So if you’re jacking up the sugar packets at your local 7-Eleven, watch your back, Jack. And if you’re going to be an informant, you may want to avoid being a thief while working for the man. Whitacre’s prison term was three times longer than that of the guys he helped nab.

Capitalism: A Love Story

Check It out:
Michael Moore, that hefty dude with the baseball cap and suspicious nature, celebrates the 20th anniversary of his breakout film Roger & Me -- about the suspicious collapse of the auto industry -- with a new film about the suspicious collapse of the overall economy. The new flick takes a comical look at the corporate and political high jinks that culminated in what Moore has described as “the biggest robbery in the history of this country”: the massive transfer of U.S. taxpayer money to private financial institutions to bail out fat guys with billion-dollar bonuses.

The Smart Bomb
Forget smart bomb -- this one’s an all-out genius bomb: A study of economics, politics, business and thievery all in one! Were this one to translate to college credits, you could cash it in for a quadruple major.

As in his previous documentaries, Moore blindsides his targets when they least expect it. Here, he corners top corporate and banking executives as they fly to their private islands on personal jets that they bankrolled with bonuses they set aside for themselves -- despite managing funds that bankrupted investors. Then Moore gets them to not explain how they can live with themselves on our money.

Also …
Moore details how these guys siphoned funds, pensions, savings and more while the people who trusted them with their life savings went broke. So if you’re up to no good, you may want to stay on Moore’s good side.

More Than a Game

Check It out: 
This documentary follows five poor kids from Akron, Ohio, through their high school hoop careers. Not unusual, except when you consider that one, LeBron James, has gone on to become the world’s best player and that they wind up playing for the national championship.

The Smart Bomb
The kids are shown dealing with the pressures of poverty, publicity that comes with competing in the national media spotlight and the heat from that spotlight intensified 100 times because James has been earmarked by the media -- and NBA scouts -- as the best high school player in the cosmos. But despite everybody wanting to get their hands on James, nobody is able to pull these five guys apart. Even when James is banned from a game for allegedly accepting the gift of a car (a no-no he was later cleared of), the kids rely on the bond they formed in Akron to keep them together and help them achieve their individual goals -- as a team.

Also …
Be true and loyal to your friends, and teamwork will always win out. (Of course, it’s easy to win games with LeBron James on your team.)

Mike Hammer is a writer and former editor of Maxim, Stuff and Shock. He can glean profound lessons just by watching a bubble gum commercial.

Take control of your fat belly -- Use these tips to get a trim stomach

By Ethan Boldt for our content partner: Men's Life Today, India

You've tried it all: cutting down the carbs, eating endless amounts of chicken breast, exercising like mad. So why are those infernal love handles -- not to mention that below-the-belly-button roll of fat -- still there?

In part, we (as in the fitness media) are to blame. There are hundreds of different ways to put muscle on the body, and these workouts are what fitness and muscle magazines love to feature; it sure beats snore-inducing cardio with another shot of someone running on the beach. But unless you want to look like a bodybuilder (and even those guys do plenty of cardio come cutting time), it’s time to step up the cardio. “You’ve got to train like an athlete to look like an athlete,” says Tom Seabourne, Ph.D., a professor of exercise science at Northeast Texas Community College.

In other words, 30 minutes of slow cardio a few times a week is not enough -- unless you’re happy with your current level of fat stores. If you want to access that fat, says Seabourne, you’ve got to do the right kind of cardio (intervals twice a week), the right kind of weight training (focusing on each muscle group twice a week), and long slow distance (LSD) cardio two to three times a week -- all while eating enough to support your metabolism.

Each form of exercise is essential if you really want to chisel your body down. You need LSD cardio because after your body burns through the glycogen in your muscles, it burns your fat stores next. And while interval training doesn’t burn as much fat during exercise, it burns more calories afterward -- just like strength training does.

Seabourne points out that some guys over-train on LSD cardio while eating too little and neglecting intervals or weights -- therefore slowing their metabolisms and holding on to that stubborn fat. Other guys do a lot of weights and short bouts of cardio, then eat tons of food in order to build muscle -- so their fat stores remain steady or even increase.

The following program was designed by Seabourne to give you the best of both worlds (i.e., recruit more than enough muscle while forcing those stubborn fat stores to surrender, at last).

Follow this program six weeks on and one week off, depending on your body’s ability to avoid over-training mode (in which gains come to a screeching halt while muscle soreness and overall fatigue increase). For some, three weeks may be all you can handle without a break. For others, 12 weeks works.

Weights
You probably have this covered, but here’s a guideline: Lose the bodybuilding program with all the isolation lifts and the absurd amount of exercise sets per body part (e.g., 15 sets of chest). Instead, go with upper-body on Monday and Thursday, then lower-body on Tuesday and Friday -- but only with about 20-30 minutes for each weight-training workout. Aim for two to three sets of two exercises for the major body parts (chest, shoulders, back, quadriceps and core) and two to three sets of one exercise for the smaller body parts (triceps, biceps, hamstrings and calves).

Interval Cardio
Complete two 20- to 30-minute bouts of cardio per week. Always start with a warm-up and end with a cooldown. Examples include:

• On a heavy bag: Three minutes of effort + one-minute recoveries
• On a stationary cycle: 10 cycles of 15-second sprints + 45-second recoveries
• On a treadmill or outside on a grass field: 10 cycles of 10-second sprints + 50-second recoveries

LSD Cardio
Because of the length of each session (60 to 90 minutes), Seabourne’s preference for LSD is nonimpact. “For some, impact LSD, like jogging, can cause unhelpful muscle breakdown -- whereas cycling will not,” he explains.

An LSD cycling, elliptical or stair-climbing program can begin with an hour. Add two minutes a week until you’re moving for 90 minutes. Any more than 90 minutes and you'll need a snack to replenish glycogen stores.

Ethan Boldt writes for Men's Health, Self, and Maximum Fitness. A former certified personal trainer, he co-authored 5-Factor Fitness with celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak.

The best SmartPhone applications for the money minded

From the Editors of our content partner: Everyday Connected

With your smartphone, you can spend money on just about anything these days. But instead of letting your device drain your bank account, why not turn it into a money-management tool? There are tons of great apps out there for managing and maximizing your hard-earned money -- and many of these apps are free.

Here are some of the best money-management apps to help you handle your cash:

	Money App No. 1: Mint Helps you … Manage all your accounts The app version of Mint.com offers a free solution for managing your accounts, creating budgets, and setting and meeting financial goals. Sync Mint with your bank, credit card, loan and retirement accounts, and it can download, categorize and monitor all your transactions. For example, if you’re looking to spend no more than $200 each month on eating out, Mint will tell you how much you have left to spend in that category or -- whoops! -- how badly you’ve already blown your budget. It’s free and it’s safe: Mint promises to “always transmit personal and financial information securely.” Just be sure to set the app to request your passcode each time you launch it -- this is not the sort of app you’d want easily accessible on your stolen phone. Available on: iOS and Android devices
	Money App No. 2: TripLog/1040 Helps you … Save tax money One of the easiest ways to lower your taxes each year is to deduct your year’s worth of mileage. But in an audit, the IRS asks for an expense log. TripLog/1040 makes it easy to track it all: For only $4.99, you can track mileage in four categories (business, charity, medical and other) for three different cars. Start tracking now to avoid a mad dash on April 15 next year. Available on: iOS devices. For Android devices, check out Cashbook
	Money App No. 3: Pay Off Debt Helps you … The name says it all! If you’re paying down debt like many people these days, you can save time and money by prioritizing your payment schedule. Pay Off Debt, a $2.99 app, sets priorities based on your balances and their interest rates, and it even shows how long it would take you to pay down debt if you weren’t following its “snowball” repayment method. Best of all, it shows your magical debt-free date, helping you stay motivated and on track. Available on: iOS devices. For Android devices, try Debt Payoff Planner
	Money App No. 4: Bloomberg Mobile Helps you … Monitor investments If you’re invested in stocks or mutual funds, financial news giant Bloomberg has you covered. Its free apps, available for just about every platform out there, offer news, stock quotes, trends and analysis. You can also follow a custom list of stocks, so as long you’re not faint of heart, you can monitor every spike and dive that your dollars take. Available on: All major mobile platforms
	Money App No. 5: Simple Loan Calculator Helps you … Estimate payments This free app serves a simple, but important, function: It estimates your monthly payment when you enter an amount to borrow, the years you’ll take to pay it off and the interest rate. Or, enter what you can afford to pay monthly, and the app will tell you how much you can borrow. It also offers a repayment schedule. Available on: iOS devices. For Android devices, try Loan Calculator

Best Tech Gadgets to Impress Or Gift Your Girlfriend/ Valentine

By Tim Jarvis for our content partner: Style + Tech for Men

You scraped by last year, but if you do the chocolates and roses thing one more time, you know you’re going to get “the look.” So surprise her this year with a cutting-edge piece of technology. Once she gets over her shock, she’ll be psyched you bought her a present that is lasting and useful -- and that won’t end up going straight to her hips or dying a slow, smelly death on her dresser. “Many people still think of high-tech gifts as cold and unromantic,” says gadget guru Eric Schlissel, owner and CEO of GeekTek.com, an IT services and tech support company based in Los Angeles. “But technology is opening up a whole new gateway to romance.”

Wine Her, Dine Her and Catch a Movie -- At Home Light some candles. Open the wine. Then order your favorite takeout and cuddle up to a double feature, courtesy of a Roku XD set-top digital media receiver, starting at just $59.95. According to Schlissel, the Roku XD rivals the Apple TV box, which sells for $99.00. It’s easy to set up, and it offers a comprehensive content list ranging from Netflix and Hulu Plus, to Pandora and Amazon Video on Demand. With her favorite flicks just a button-push away, this hot little gadget is sure to put some spark into your evening. And if she’s really moved, she just might let you watch a hockey game next -- via the NHL GameCenter LIVE that’s also included.

Kindle Her Affection If your girl is the book-reading kind, then an e-reader makes a perfect Valentine’s Day gift -- especially when it’s preloaded with the latest steamy romance novel, hot off the digital presses. But you can do even better than that. Schlissel points out that Project Gutenberg has more than 33,000 classic titles that can be downloaded onto most portable devices for free. So once you’ve preloaded her new Kindle -- $139.00 from Amazon.com -- with a couple of best sellers, score extra points by adding romantic classics like The Phantom of the Opera and Pride and Prejudice.

Mix up Your Mutual Love of Music “If music be the food of love, play on,” wrote William Shakespeare in Twelfth Night -- and we think he was on to something. To feed her affection, load up a candy-colored iPod with her favorite songs. For a retro twist on the same theme, check out the Mixtape Memory Stick for $15.99. The USB Mixtape Memory Stick is designed to look like an old C90 cassette. It stores up to 90 minutes of music and you can handwrite your track list on the liner. “It’s an unusual and clever way to send your significant other a romantic message,” says Schlissel.

Stimulate Her App-etite If your relationship is a little too new for serious gifting, try sending her a box of personalized virtual Sweethearts candies. “The iPhone app is free and allows users to send up to five custom Sweethearts candy messages via Twitter or email,” says Schlissel. Romantic creativity not included. Available at the App Store, iTunes.apple.com.

A Decent Proposal If, on the other hand, you’re ready to pop the question, there’s no better time than Valentine’s Day to do it. And there’s no cooler way to do it than with a multimedia ring box. The Euricase Ring Box, $98.95, operates on a single rechargeable lithium battery. The unit includes an illuminated ring bed, a 2-inch LCD screen with a built-in speaker, and a generous amount of onboard memory that allows you to store up to 500 photos or 60 minutes of video. Just keep it clean, Romeo, and she just might say yes.

Be sure to present your Valentine’s Day gift over a romantic dinner for two (using these tips from aphrodisiac-food authority Amy Reily, on The Style Glossy) -- and don’t forget to prepare yourself for the big night: Scent-sibility for Success The Skinny on Getting Gleaming Man-skin

Tim Jarvis Tim Jarvis is a freelance health, technology and entertainment writer who contributes to O, The Oprah Magazine and the men’s grooming and lifestyle site Men’s Life Today. He is also currently working on a book about the mysteries of quantum mechanics.

The best tech accessories/ gadgets for your car

By Tim Jarvis for our content partner: Style + Tech For Men

Today’s cars come packed with technology that can do anything from analyzing your braking system to adjusting the cabin temperature. But even the most modern cars-about-town can stand a little personalization. STM shopped around for the latest must-have car accessories to make your driving experience truly auto-erotic … in a PG kinda way.

Fingerprint Immobilizer

Did your brother borrow your car for a road-trip reunion with his college roommates? Or did your girlfriend steal your sedan for an all-day salon treatment? It’s time to put your ride into lockdown with the Fingerprint Car Security System, manufactured by Poly-Supreme Technology Co. Ltd. This ain’t your father’s average immobilizer/car alarm. It comes with an advanced anti-carjacking feature, voice-input control and a fingerprint-recognition system that ensures only authorized drivers can crank the engine. It’s easy to add or delete drivers’ prints from the database, so if your brother ponies up enough scratch to make the ride worth your while, simply add his mitts to the list.

Price: $689.00

Multimedia Car Receiver

A car radio that is equipped with Internet apps AND actually listens to you has just pulled into the parking lot. The voice-activated Parrot Asteroid Car Receiver pumps out music that’s sourced from your iPhone, iPod, USB drive or SD card … and it makes phone calls for you. It automatically synchronizes your mobile phonebook and directly dials using those numbers or voice activation. We can’t even get our mom to do all that stuff when she’s in our car.

Price: Will be available in the U.S. later this year.

Instant Engine Self-diagnosis

Is your car mechanic as credible as a Lindsay Lohan deposition? If you really want to know how sick your ride is, it’s time for you to pick up the CarMD. The TV-remote-sized gizmo downloads data directly from your auto’s on-board computers. And when it’s done, you simply connect it to your PC and the included software generates an easy-to-read report that lets you know exactly what’s going on with your wheels and generates an estimated a repair bill.

Price: $119.85

Talk to Your Apps

Can’t stop working when you’re travelling? This voice-interactive text messaging system allows you receive, send and browse text messages while you drive, without reaching for your phone. It reads written messages and appointments aloud, translates your spoken messages into text and even lets you chat to your Facebook account and update your status while you’re on the road. “Single … and looking!”

Price: $149.00 for in-car device; $9.99 per month. Currently works with BlackBerry phones. Android will be available later this year.

Remote Car Locator/Starter

It’s a cold day, and you’re wandering through a mall parking lot the size of the Pacific Ocean with no clue where you left the car. You’re an idiot -- but now there’s hope for the clueless. You can hunt down your ride, and even warm it up before you reach it, by starting the engine from almost anywhere with the Viper SmartStart. The device is incorporated into your car’s security system and is powered by an app on your smartphone that will even pop the trunk to let out your little brother when you think he’s finally learned his lesson. If he tries to get out on his own, it can send you an alert that security -- and the trunk -- has been breached. Stupid kid!

Price: Complete systems are $399.00; $49.99 per year. You can add SmartStart to existing Viper systems for $299.00. Compatible with iPhone, BlackBerry and Android platforms.

Tim Jarvis Tim Jarvis is a freelance health, technology and entertainment writer who contributes to O, The Oprah Magazine and the men’s grooming and lifestyle site Men’s Life Today. He is also currently working on a book about the mysteries of quantum mechanics.

A look at the best E- Readers

By Simon Munk for our content partner: Style + Tech For Men

Books have taken a backseat to e-readers in the digital era. But with a bewildering range of gadgets -- from the Apple iPad to the upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook -- how do you know which one offers the best story for consumers? Our head-to-head e-book bash-up will give you a great read on the situation.

Apple iPad

from $499 | Apple.com

If you're looking for something more than just an e-reader, then read no further. Wait, we have more to tell you! It fares brilliantly on its reading assignments … if you don't mind a little screen-glare. Any LED screen is going to fare badly compared to e-ink on that score. But the iPad is capable of so much more than its e-reader rivals. First, it’s agnostic to any bookstore. It takes in apps from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and its own iBooks resource. Second, along with being able to surf the Web, it serves up games, comics and thousands of apps. Third, in terms of raw power and storage, it's got more on those scores than any competitor. The price is another weak point, but since it’s the most fully-featured e-reader, it's still tough to beat.

Verdict: Best all-around tablet that beats most e-readers.

Rating: FIVE BOOKMARKS

Amazon Kindle

from $139 | Amazon.com

Absolutely the best e-reader on the bookshelf -- that is, if you're not looking for any bells and whistles. The Kindle boasts an exceptional 6-inch e-ink screen, as well as a reduced size and weight that bring it close to a digital paperback in portability. According to Amazon, its storage capacity has also doubled to 3,500 books. Plus, the Kindle now comes in Wi-Fi, or Wi-Fi and 3G flavors -- so you can instantly buy, download and read books just about anywhere. There's also a new experimental Web browser, but the Kindle is really best for e-reading. Its page interface is easier and more pleasurable to read than any competitor’s, and the access to the Amazon store makes your reading list almost endless.

Verdict: Just looking to read? Look no further.

Rating: FIVE BOOKMARKS

NOOKcolor

$249 | BarnesAndNoble.com

The first mainstream color e-reader makes your mandatory reading list just in time for the holidays. Barnes & Noble's NOOKcolor features Wi-Fi, an eight-hour reading battery and a 7-inch color screen that can display not just books, but also magazines, the Web and videos. It'll even display some Android apps. It’s more than a standard e-reader, but also a bit less than a fully-featured tablet computer. Screen-wise, it suffers the same problems as the iPad: glare and a lack of smoothness in its text display. On top of that, it struggles to reconfigure larger magazines and newspaper pages (as well as many websites that haven’t formatted for mobile viewing) to its smaller, more pocket-friendly screen. Ultimately, the NOOKcolor is good for reading books and some other things -- but until B&N sorts out a proper app store to support it, it's not as much of a multimedia marvel as some of its competitors.

Verdict: Halfway between e-reader and tablet, but not quite either.

Rating: FOUR BOOKMARKS

Blackberry PlayBook$TBA | Us.Blackberry.com

Due out this spring, the PlayBook will be BlackBerry's effort to produce fresher fruit than the iPad. It's more powerful than the iPad on paper -- with a 1 GHz dual-core processor, 1 GB memory and full Web support for Flash and HTML5. But it's got a smaller, 7-inch screen and entirely new operating system software … so no existing BlackBerry apps will run on it. Even more troubling, Blackberry doesn't have a great reputation for multimedia and user-friendly features, so it's a bit of a leap for them to move from hardcore email and smartphones to mainstream consumer tablets. How good is it as an e-reader? We'll have wait and see.

Verdict: The dark horse in the e-reader race, the PlayBook will have to amaze in order to gain top tablet honors.

Rating: THREE BOOKMARKS

Photo Credits: iPad, Kindle, NOOKColor, Blackberry PlayBook - Getty Images

iPad Image Courtesy of Apple Inc.

Simon Munk Simon Munk is an award-winning journalist that specializes in consumer technology, video games and outdoor-product coverage for men. He's written for Stuff and Blender magazines and was launch editor in chief of Stuff Gamer.