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Welcome to Kicking the Seat!

Ian Simmons launched Kicking the Seat in 2009, one week after seeing Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia. His wife proposed blogging as a healthier outlet for his anger than red-faced, twenty-minute tirades (Ian is no longer allowed to drive home from the movies).

The Kicking the Seat Podcast followed three years later and, despite its “undiscovered gem” status, Ian thoroughly enjoys hosting film critic discussions, creating themed shows, and interviewing such luminaries as Gaspar NoéRachel BrosnahanAmy Seimetz, and Richard Dreyfuss.

Ian is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association. He also has a family, a day job, and conflicted feelings about referring to himself in the third person.

The KtS Contest: THE LEGO MOVIE!

UPDATE: This contest has ended. Congratulations, Courtney Anderson, for suggesting a National Lampoon's Vacation LEGO set! In a perfect world, it would come with a destructible family truckster and soggy sandwich pieces!

The LEGO Movie is now available on home video! To celebrate, Kicking the Seat and Partnershub have teamed up to give one lucky reader the chance to win this brick-buster on Blu-ray!

The LEGO® Movie, the first-ever, full-length theatrical LEGO® adventure, directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller. This original 3D computer-animated story follows Emmet, an ordinary, rules-following, perfectly average LEGO minifigure who gets caught up in a mistaken-identity adventure in which the whole world hangs in the balance! He is drafted into a fellowship of strangers on an epic quest to stop an evil tyrant--a journey for which Emmet is hopelessly and hilariously under prepared.

Starring the voices of Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Morgan Freeman, and more, The LEGO Movie is sure to make a colorful addition to your movie library!

To Enter: In the "Comments" section below, tell me which movie you'd love to see made into an official LEGO playset. The author of my favorite answer will win the prize!

Entries must be received by 11:59pm on Monday, June 30th, 2014.

In the meantime, have fun with the The LEGO Movie Blog App, with which you can make six-second animated GIFs of scenes from the film, set the theme song, "Everything is Awesome". You can then share your creations on Facebook and Twitter!

Thanks, everyone, and good luck!

Eligibility: This post is sponsored by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and all prizes for the "The Lego Movie" Contest, and the "The LEGO Movie" Blog App, are provided courtesy of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Prize will be sent via FedEx or UPS. No P.O. boxes, please. Each household is only eligible to win one (1) "The LEGO Movie" Blu-Ray via blog reviews and giveaways. Only one (1) entrant per mailing address per giveaway. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you will not be eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification. Notification: Kicking the Seat will contact the contest winner within twelve hours of contest close. If no response is received within twenty-four hours, an alternate winner will be chosen. Contest is open to residents of the USA only.

The KtS Contest: THE PURGE: ANARCHY!

The KtS Contest: SNICKERS: Democracy is Delicious!