This week, Twitter stock launches, Snapchat turns down Facebook, a new 3D printer using sound and lasers, Russians bring malware into space, Netflix makes a super deal with Marvel, and as it turns out, This IS The End for DVD rentals…

Recently it was announced that Blockbuster would be closing their final 300 retail store locations and ending their rental-by-mail service to focus solely on digital offerings. The final nail in the coffin of the video store experience, sadly, for many of the younger generation who will never know what we know, unless one of the few rental stores you’ll likely still find sprinkled around happens to be in your area.

The plan was to have everything shut down by early 2014, but it appears that they might be in a hurry to get things done. The final movie has been rented out, and it’s a perfectly fitting final rental: This Is The End.

Continue below to see the tweeted image of the final rental, as well as a response from co-writer, co-director, and star Seth Rogen.

Many of us have very fond memories of our time inside video stores, spending a lengthy amount of time looking over various VHS or LaserDisc or DVD covers, reading the information on the back, and hanging on to one or two of them while continuing to browse just to make sure no one else swooped in and grabbed the last copy on you.

Then digital came along and has taken things over. That’s not necessarily a bad thing—being able to jump on Netflix, browse thousands of titles easily, and watch one or five or more whenever you desire with the simple push of a button is undeniably exciting—but there’s also something incredibly depressing about the death of video stores that we’ve known was inevitable for some time.

Now it’s all a little more official, with a “time of death” announcement from the longtime top dog among video stores, Blockbuster Video. The company has revealed a timetable for the closing of their last remaining retail stores and the end of their mail service. Continue reading for more, and to see a little video store nostalgia video.

When all is said and done Tron: Legacy is going to be the movie of the year for me, regardless of whether or not it lives up to its boundless potential or the exciting previews that have been trickling out of the Mouse House’s mighty marketing division.

The original 1982 Tron is one of my personal favorite films of all time; I love just about everything about it, from the performances to the snappy writing to the musical score by Wendy Carlos (with awesome contributions from Journey) to the spectacular visual effects which gave the film a look that has and always be ahead of its time.

There’s a timeless, ethereal beauty to the computerized world of Tron that could never be dated in my mind and only grows as a cinematic work of art with each passing year as most video game-based and influenced films seem to embrace a grittier look deprived of any sense of wonder or imagination. It’s an absolutely perfect film to me so the idea of a sequel emerging nearly three decades after the release of the original both excites me and fills me with dread.

Be sure to click over to get a little taste of Daft Punk’s Tron: Legacy score!

It’s been a fair amount of time since gore-master Eli Roth‘s Hostel 2. He last did an acting gig in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, but Roth looks to be preparing to get back into the fold with a pair of movies in-hand that he’s hoping to complete together.

Eli’s master plan is to finish up the script for his big science fiction blockbuster, which will look to be the biggest budget movie he’s done so far. Once that script is finished, he’ll shop it around along with Thanksgiving — the movie based on the trailer that he made specifically for Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse — for around $85 Million. His hope is to use about $80 Million for the big movie, and then add three weeks to the end of filming and do Thanksgiving for around $5 Million. Pretty ingenious little plan if it all works out, if I do say.