Saturday Shenanigans: Recent Entertainment News

Hey there, welcome to another edition of Saturday Shenanigans, let’s get started:

As we all know, all good things must come to an end. While I’m not the worlds biggest Entourage fan, I’ve enjoyed watching the series, but it’s coming to an end after next season, which will be a shortened 8th season. More than likely, we’ll get a feature film a little further down the road.

Some of the hosts of the upcoming season of SNL are being announced, one I’m excited about seeing is Jane Lynch! She’s always fun to watch and she’s set to host the October 9th show.

Blockbuster is doing everything possible to stay semi-relevant. They’ve begun to offer video games in their rent-by-mail service. I never tried GameFly, but I might give this a go. If they had the convenient streaming option that Netflix offers via Xbox 360, I would switch in a heartbeat.

Click through the jump to get the rest of the stories from the week!

Is anybody else ready for this 3D fad to fade? Everything does not have to be 3D people. In very few instances does it really even make the event better! Regardless, it looks like we’re on our way to an NFL game in 3D. You can read all about it over on TVSquad.com.

Apparently there are some possible additions coming to The Office. The Ausiello Files broke news that NBC has reached out to Danny McBride (Eastbound and Down) and Rhys Darby (Flight Of The Conchords) to possibly join the cast, maybe even replace Michael Scott as the boss once Steve Carell moves on after this season. I love Danny McBride, but I’m not sure I can picture him in this cast, but Rhys Darby could be a very interesting addition. The Office wasn’t very good last year, so I’m glad they are looking for a way to mix it up a bit. I’d hate for the show to end, then I’d only be able to watch Jenna Fischer in movies!

While on the topic of NBC, they recently grabbed the show, Zombies Vs. Vampires. Here’s the quick description: “Zombies vs. Vampires is described as a ‘fun buddy cop procedural.’ It is set in a world where zombies are a part of society, controllable with medication. The show’s two leads (one secretly a vampire) are cops assigned to a squad specifically formed to deal with ‘zombie crime’.” Sounds like it could be interesting.

Is that Paul Rudd playing Jesus? Well, it is Paul Rudd, but he’s not playing Jesus. Instead he’s playing a bearded, hippy-looking dude rather than his usual clean-cut, witty straight man to the slapstick actors he’s appeared with. This image is from the set of My Idiot Brother. The movie also stars Zooey Deschanel and Elizabeth Banks… I love all of these actors, so I’ll probably be seeing this movie.

It seems like every month or so we get word of a cable company butting heads with a production company. The latest is Disney (parent company to such widely-viewed channels as ABC, the Disney Channel and ESPN) vs. Time Warner Cable, the nation’s second-largest service provider. Like other programmers in those earlier squabbles, Disney is negotiating for increased carriage fees, the per-subscriber amounts that the service provider pays to carry each channel. If no agreement is reached by Sept. 2, Time Warner Cable’s 14.6 million subscribers in 28 states may be deprived of several channels’ worth of popular shows, including ‘Modern Family,’ ‘Hannah Montana’ and ‘SportsCenter.’ Of course, if a deal is reached, then the resulting increase will be passed on to consumers via their cable bills. Check out TVSquad for more details.

Why must people always be stupid and take all the fun out of everything? The Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood has targeted the Marvel Heroes action figures that McDonalds is giving away in Happy Meals — particularly The Thing and The Human Torch. What’s wrong with two of The Fantastic Four’s main members? “One action figure, The Thing, menacingly roars ‘It’s clobberin’ time!’ each time a child presses a button on its back. Another, The Human Torch, is a man on fire.” Cinematical.com has the rest of the story.

We reviewed Batman: Arkham Asylum this week, and tons of great stuff is starting to come out about the sequel, titled Batman: Arkham City…

– After taking power, Mayor Sharp declares Blackgate and Arkham unfit, and buys off a portion of the slums of Gotham. Walling off the area and calling it “Arkham City”.
– Sharp then contracts a mercenary group called Tyger into defending the walls. The prisoners are only given one rule: “Don’t try to escape”, with the penalty for doing so being death. Beyond that, they can do whatever they want within.
– Hugo Strange heads the new Arkham, though it seems like this fact is cloaked in mystery to the outside world. Those who look into him disappear.
– A year passes. Two-Face is admitted into Arkham City and he realizes he has to make a move to assert himself in the new prison lest he be eaten alive. He captures Catwoman, figuring a public execution should do the trick.
– The Rocksteady team is aiming for a highly detailed city, on the level of what they did in the first game with Arkham itself.
– Gadgets can now be used during fights – the GameInformer article mentions Batman putting explosive el on the back of one of his opponents during a brawl.
– You can now pull off multiple counterattacks at the same time.
– Many of the super villains have formed gangs, and taken control of different portions of the city.
– The team wants to push the “forensics” angle of the first game more, incorporating puzzles in them that will become more complex as the game goes on.
– Most of the key gadgets that were unlocked late in the first game are available by default.
– Interrogations replace the Riddler maps of the first game.
– Batman can now taunt his enemies via a button press.
– Certain characters have optional sidestories within Arkham city (the article mentions Zsasz), that you can dig into.
– Harley has a new costume. From the article: “Instead of a nurse outfit, Harley now wears red and black pants, and a matching midriff-baring top. Her face paint has been scaled back to a much more subtle degree, and she now has a Joker tatoo on one of her hips peeking out over her waistband.”
– Batman’s been given a new gadget called the “broadcast analyzer”. The article mentions several broadcasts Bats can listen in on, like the GCPD dispatch and Gotham FM. The main usage here has Batman tuning in to listen to a message left for him by the Joker.
– Oracle is missing, so Alfred is the one in Bruce’s ear (at least at the beginning of the game)
– Rocksteady wouldn’t detail their multiplayer plans.

And now for this week’s New in Theaters, we’ve got a couple really good ones this time:

Movie: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Stars: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin (Full Cast)
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1 hr. 53 min.
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%
The Plot: Layabout musician Scott Pilgrim (Cera) falls for the new girl in town, Ramona Flowers (Winstead), but in order to win her heart, he must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends.
Will I See It?: I’ve heard nothing but fantastic things about this movie based on the very successful graphic novel series. I may not make it to theaters to see this one, but I will definitely pick it up when it hits DVD.

Movie: The Expendables
Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li (Full Cast)
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hr. 43 min.
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 45%
The Plot: The fearless Barney Ross (Stallone) leads a team of mercenaries on a mission to South America, where their objective — to overthrow a ruthless dictator — is more dangerous than the men realize.
Will I See It?: Yes, my wife got a 2 free movie passes from work at the beginning of the summer, we used one of them on Toy Story 3, the other will be used on this one. It should be a good time!

There’s a 3rd wide release, Eat Pray Love, but it looks terrible and these two movies don’t deserve to be brought down by it. So that brings us to our trailer of the week, this week I’ve got Megamind for you. Fresh off of a good opening week for The Other Guys, Will Ferrell has an animated film next on tap, and it looks pretty good! What do you guys think?