Quite a few new flicks coming out this week include Pink Panther 2, Push, He’s Just not That Into You, Fanboys, and Coraline.  Pink Panther 2 is the sequel to the original remake (pardon the oxymoron)  starring Steve Martin and Beyonce.  Fans of the original are sure to eat this movie up, while the rest of the world who doesn’t feel like sitting through 2 hours of Steve Martin’s attempts at slapstick and a french accent will not.   The original Peter Sellers’ films were charmingly goofy, and while I like Steve Martin, his version has been a bit too wacky for me. I believe Georges St Pierre said it best, “I’m not impressed with your performance.”

Push is a story of people with superpowers who team up to fight evil people with superpowers. The film stars Chris Evans (who many will recognize as Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four movies) and Dakota Fanning (who many will recognize as the little girl who plays a little girl in every movie).  It is interesting to see Evans appear in this movie when he already has a prominent role in an established franchise. It brings up the question as to whether he may be jeopardizing his role in F4 or if those movies will no longer even be made. One thing is for sure is that if he did risk his role to appear in this film, it must have some promise. In my opinion the film looks like a bit of an X-men knockoff, however some of the effects look promising. Also, I have been less than impressed with the handling of the Xmen on the big screen so perhaps this fresh take on a familiar premise may prove to be pretty good. As unoriginal as it may appear, the closet comic geek in me may wind up checking this out.

He’s Just Not That Into You is an ensemble cast romantic comedy. The ensemble cast however is pretty star studded featuring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Drew Barrymore, and Scarlett Johannson just to name a few. I honestly know very little of what this movie is about other than what was shown in the previews, but I can make an educated guess that it features laughing, loving, heartache, and reunions. Given the number of high profile actors attached to this project, it may actually wind up being a pretty good movie….but no guarantees.

Fanboys is an interesting film that may have slipped under most people’s radars. The story is about a group of Star Wars fans who travel to George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in an attempt to steal a pre-release copy of ‘The Phantom Menace.’  While the cast is made up of relative unknowns, there are cameos from Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, and Kristen Bell. Come to think of it, two of those three are fairly unknown to most people also! Needless to say, the buzz about the film is that it is hilarious and it has received some great reviews so far. Unfortunately, don’t anticipate a widespread release in most places so your best bet for catching this one may be to wait for the DVD.

Coraline is an animated film with a similar visual style to Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas. The movie also features an interesting plot, as it tells the story of a young girl named, you guessed it- Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning!!), who discovers a door in her house that leads to an alternate parallel reality. In this reality she discovers that it mirrors her own. Everything from the neighbors to her parents. the trouble is that her mother in the alternate reality decides to keep Coraline there, and Coraline must do everything in her power to escape back to her own reality.  The story alone is fairly intriguing and the animation looks to be excellent quality. Fans of animated movies should enjoy this film quite a bit.

VIDEOS

New on the video front this week are: Madagascar 2, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, The Secret Life of Bees, and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.  Reviews for both ‘Zack and Miri Make a Porno’ and ‘Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist’ should be up soon if not already, so look to those for more info.  Madagascar 2 is the sequel to the hilarious animated Dreamworks film, Madagascar. While I enjoyed the first film, the sequel lacked the freshness and the comedy of the first one. No doubt kids will enjoy this film as the animation quality is top notch and there are funny kiddie jokes throughout. Sadly, this film lacks the universal appeal of the original, and as a result many adults who watch this may become bored.

The Secret Life of Bees is a movie about a little girl (played by Dakota Fanning!!) who lives with her abusive father and her caregiver (played by Jennifer Hudson).  After a run in with some local racists, Fanning and Hudson flee to another South Carolina town which Fanning believes her mother used to live in. There the two are taken in by a group of sisters who make honey. The movie has received pretty good reviews, not to mention the talents of Hudson, fanning, and Queen Latifah who plays one of the honey plantation’s owners.

GAMING

This week is pretty uneventful as far as gaming goes. Worth noting is the release of the much anticipated demo for Killzone 2 for the Playstation 3.  Having just downloaded the demo last night and played through it twice, I have a few impressions. First of all, the graphics and visuals are amazing. Not the best ever by any means, but they are definitely pretty. As far as the gameplay, the controls are a bit sluggish at times, almost unresponsive. It is a bit hard to explain without a visual. Imagine trying to aim your gun and the image on screen lags a second behind your inputs. That is pretty much how it is. The demo is also extremely short and anyone with any FPS gaming experience can blaze through it in about 10 minutes. Again this is simply a demo, but for a game as hyped as this one that has been in development as long as this game has been, you’d think Sony would have put out something a bit more polished. However, I seriously hope that the final version has all of these problems corrected.

The other big event this week is the release of “Grand Theft Auto IV: Lost and the Damned” downloadable content for xbox360. This is the first of 2 exclusive xbox dlc for GTAcIV. Expectations are big for this one as it promises to be another campaign featuring a new protagonist, Johnny Klebitz, a member of the biker gang ‘the Lost’ who was briefly featured in the original game. The dlc features a number of new missions specifically for Johnny and introduces a few new game mechanics and weapons. This is almost a whole game set within the areas of Liberty City. I for one, am eagerly anticipating this not only for the new content but to see the possibilities of such an add on to a huge game such as GTAIV. If this is successful, it will definitely pave the way for more and better things to come via download.  While the release date is listed as Feb. 9th, there are rumors that say it will not actually be able to be down loaded until the 17th.  I guess we’ll just have to wait until the 9th to know for sure.

SPORTS

Nothing too major going on in sports this weekend except for maybe the pro bowl. In my personal opinion, the pro bowl is a bit of a waste of time. It is cool to reward the players that had a great season and the festivities in Hawaii look like a total blast. Other than that though, I think the players have way too much to lose. Football is probably one of the most physical games on the planet, and the risk of serious injury for a week of fun in the sun seems a bit too much. Then again if I was in the NFL and made it to the pro bowl, I would be the first one on the plane. Still, as much as I love football, I never watch this other than catching the highlights on Sports Center but I’m sure there are those hardcore fans out there who have been counting down to this event so I hope they enjoy it.

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