As far as new movies this week, there isn’t much going on. Two new releases, ‘Fired Up’ and ‘Madea Goes to Jail’, open up this Friday. Fired Up is a comedy about two jocks who wind up on the cheer leading squad. From the previews, this looks to be another mindless teen romp. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes those types of movies end up actually being pretty funny. The jury is still out on this one though. It looks like it is produced by the same movie factory that cranks out all of those straight to video ‘American Pie’ sequels. Seeing as how there isn’t too much competition this week, it might actually do pretty good at the box office.

Madea Goes to Jail is another film in the long line of Tyler Perry films featuring the title character. Perry’s films are a bit of an anomaly. Alot of his ideas are lifted straight from other movies and actors, however his films still manage to be pretty entertaining. I have watched most of them with low expectations and have usually wound up pretty impressed afterwards. Despite all his ‘borrowing’, his movies have a sincere and genuine quality to them that seems to translate well. I only hope that Madea Goes to Jail sticks to the tried and true Perry formula and doesn’t venture too far into slapstick comedy territory.  Fans of Perry’s work will no doubt be all over this one.

VIDEOS

Quite a few high profile new video releases out this week, including: Quarantine, Body of Lies, High School Musical 3, and Changeling.  I have reviews up for Quarantine, Body of Lies, and Changeling. For more info on these films, definitely check out the reviews.  I will take a second just to shamelessly promote “Changeling”. If you haven’t already watched this movie, you should give it a rent.

High School Musical 3: Senior Year is the latest in the unstoppable marketing juggernaut that is the HSM series.  Having watched the first movie and half of the second movie, I can offer a fair guess as to what this one will be about. Most likely something to do with high school AND music, but I could be wrong. I have not watched this movie, but a very reliable 8 year old source tells me that it is “Ok, but there is way too much singing compared to the other ones.” That precious bit of intel may be one of the best reviews of that movie yet.  Fans and kids will want to check this one out. 

GAMING

Things are finally heating up in the world of gaming. This week, Grand Theft Auto IV: the Lost and Damned downloadable content was released. I should have a review up soon once I plow through the rest of the missions. So far the dlc is amazing and well worth the $20. It is by far the best downloadable bang for your buck as the dlc easily contains as much content as most complete games.  Also out this week is Street fighter IV, yet I still have not gotten my copy at this time. It should be in today or tomorrow so expect a full blown review on that one as well.

The only other new release coming out this week is 50 Cent:Blood on the Sand.  I played the first 50 cent game and it wasn’t anything special. I’ve been somewhat following development of the latest game and from what I’ve seen so far, it actually looks promising. The gameplay looks like it was ripped straight from the pages of Gears of War, which is an awesome thing in my opinion. The characters take cover, blindfire, and move just like they do in Gears. Even the character models have Fitty looking like Cole Train wearing a hat and bullet proof vest.  For people itching for Gears of War style 3ps action, this game may just prove to be pretty decent…if you can get past the characters yelling out “G-G-G-G-UNIT!!” every few minutes or so.

MMA

UFC 95 goes down this weekend, and its free on Spike.  The main event features Diego “The Nightmare” Sanchez (now at a chiseled 155) going toe to toe with Joe “Daddy” Stevenson. This looks to be a solid event as both fighters are very similar. Both have strong wrestling backgrounds, both are former welterweight competitors, and both are the winners of the TUF seasons they were featured on. It will be interesting to see how Sanchez fares at the lighter weight class. He’s already publicly stated that he is gunning for Kenny Florian and BJ Penn, but he still has a huge obstacle in front of him in the form of Stevenson.

PREDICTION: Sanchez via submission, Rd. 3

The other matchup that is gaining alot of publicity is between King of Pancrase Nate “The Great” Marquardt and Wilson Gouveia. Marquardt is a real gamer and it should be an excellent fight against an opponent as well rounded as Gouveia. Out of all of Anderson Silva’s UFC opponents, I felt that the one that had the best chance of defeating him was Marquardt. If he can put away Gouveia, he will no doubt be on the fast track to another rematch with Silva.

Wilson Gouveia is no slouch by any means. He is often touted as the most talented fighter at American Top Team. This is no small compliment as the gym boasts the talents of Thiago Alves, Thiago Silva, and Din Thomas to name a few. Also, Gouveia is dropping down to middleweight from Light heavy. This should be a huge factor as he had pretty good power for a LHW and his hands will seem even heavier at middleweight.  Add in the fact that Gouveia is good standing and his jiu jitsu is top notch, I see him beating Marquardt in this fight.

PREDICTION: Gouveia via decision.

The rest of the card is a bit bleh.  The fights may prove to be pretty good, but most of the bouts feature little known fighters.  Josh Koshcheck will be returning to face Brazilian newcomer Paulo Thiago.  I’m glad to see Kos back in the mix, but I only wish it was against a better known opponent. Not taking anything away from Thiago, he could show up and just be a beast. But to take a quote from Koscheck on MMAWEEKLY.COM , “I don’t even know what the guy looks like to be honest with you. I don’t even know what he is good at. I don’t even know what color he is. I have no clue on anything about him. I just know that his name is Paulo Thiago.”  This quote pretty much sums up the rest of the card.

A HUGE MMA rumor that has been going around recently has to do with the card for UFC 99. This card is rumored to have a mega headline matchup with Rich “Ace” Franklin taking on Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva at a catch weight of 195. This is huge as Silva is one of my favorite fighters of all time and Henderson is no slouch by any means. An even bigger rumor has to do with the fact that this is reported to be a co-main event. The other main event will most likely be a matchup between TUF season 9 coaches Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson. However, the other possible co main event is BJ “The Prodigy” Penn vs. Kenny “Kenflo” Florian. As if Franklin-Silva wasn’t enough they had to go over the top by adding a possible Penn-Florian match up.  I’ll keep everyone posted as to how this develops.

There’s the week in entertainment so until next week- that’s a wrap!