More Recreation time

NBC made my day earlier this week with news that they they have renewed Parks & Recreation for another season. Also, part of the announcement was season renewals for The Office and Community. You can read more about the pickup here.

In other P & R news, Amy Poehler has been going around recently pitching the idea that Bill Murray should play the oft-mentioned, never-seen Mayor Gunderson. To me, this is a truly inspired idea and I hope that they somehow make it happen. Here's more on how she's trying to woo Murray here:

Crowne jewel

Wow, a summer movie for grown-ups that doesn't feature aliens, explosions, or robots? Given our society, this is will sadly probably tank at the box office, but I'm am completely sold after seeing this first trailer for Larry Crowne, the new film starring, written, and directed by Tom Hanks. Having a major focus of the film be about college speech class makes the film all the more relatable to me.

NMR: Stand-up fellas

Louis C.K.: Hilarious - I became familiar with Louis when he had that multi-episode arc last season on Parks and Recreation and then really began to appreciate his comedy when I watched his FX series, appropriately titled Louie, last summer. It's a very crass and curmudgeon-y style of humor, but his observations are sharp and funny. I particularly like how much he mocks the lazy, yet self-entitled culture that is sweeping our country today. His riff on how everything's amazing, yet nobody's happy is a routine I've praised on here before. But for as much as he ridicules others, he spends just as much time ragging on his own pathetic life. All of it is very funny stuff and this special is a must see for anyone who appreciates his humor. About the only downside is that Louis doesn't stray from his source material too much and with a runtime of an hour and twenty minutes approximately, it's a bit too much of the same thing. Edit it down to an hour and this is an amazing showcase. Still worth a rental if you're in need of a laugh. Rating: **** 1/2

Daniel Tosh: Happy Thoughts - I actually caught this on Comedy Central, but it's now available on DVD, so including it here works. Tosh, of course, has gained noteriety from his show Tosh.O on Comedy Central where he plays web videos and mocks the idiots in them. On that show, Tosh can be very funny, but given what's happening in the videos he's showing, it's sort of shooting fish in a barrel. His standup is a bit of a different story. Tosh is a likeable guy and has good timing, but I've found that a lot of the topics he typically covers in his routine are not areas that really speak to me. He has some good jokes, but he'll go off on tangents that also bore me. I guess this is my roundabout way of saying that just because you enjoy his weekly show doesn't mean you'll appreciate this. Given how subjective comedy is, it's hard for me to tell you whether or not you'll see this, everyone has their own tastes. For me, there was enough laughs to get me through the special, but I certainly had hoped for more. Rating: ***

Indianapolis deleted scenes

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Make it happen Cap'n

Looks like the health-stapo is out to take away another one of our beloved food mascots, but let's hope the Cap'n puts up a strong fight. Here's more details on the story from Time.com:

A flurry of reports (including our own) had noted the beloved Captain was retiring. But the Cap'n himself announced, on a newly-created Twitter account, that "I'm hearing the rumors. I would never retire. I love being a captain too much!"

As part of an initiative campaigning for healthier children's meals, it had appeared that PepsiCo. – the parent company of Quaker – had been quietly lowering the sails of the iconic breakfast cereal since 2007. Daily Finance reports that PepsiCo. “vowed to reduce added sugar per serving by 25% and saturated fat by 15% in its products over the next 10 years,” and efforts to reduce child obesity could have been the reason behind the popular breakfast item's coming end. The cereal's official website skirts around the issue of actual nutritional value, offering only, "Cap'n Crunch is a great-tasting cereal which supplies grains, an excellent source of seven essential vitamins, is low in fat, cholesterol-free, has 0 grams of trans fat, and contains 1 gram of fiber."

(More on TIME.com: Healthy and Holy? Nuns Dig Into McDonald's Over Childhood Obesity)

Cap'n Crunch was created in 1963 by flavorist Pamela Low, who created the ubiquitous yellow puffs from a brown sugar and butter concoction that her grandmother served over rice. Several successful variants were rolled out over the years, including Peanut Butter Crunch, Choco Crunch, and NewsFeed's personal favorite, the elusive and wild Crunch Berry.

Cap'n Horatio Magellan Crunch, though you may not be the healthiest cereal on the block, you're certainly a part of a balanced breakfast in our hearts. (via Daily Finance)

Lenten sacrifices

My favorite late-night hosts got into the 'holiday' spirit by offering up their takes on how we should remember Ash Wednesday.

First, Stephen Colbert explains what he plans on giving up for Lent.


Then, Conan, thanks to the aid of Pee Wee Herman, explains to use the origin story of Ash Wednesday.

NMR: The Next Three Days

Despite the star power of Russell Crowe, this film came and went from theaters last fall with little fanfare. Blame it on a rather dull and uninteresting film that couldn't be bailed out by decent acting. Written and directed by Paul Haggis, this movie took out all the interesting elements of a prison break movie. By having the plotting done by someone from the outside, none of the creativity or intelligence that comes with creating such a plan is displayed. Another major flaw is having the story jump three years after Crowe's wife (played by Elizabeth Banks) is arrested. The jump seemed to be a cop out because had we gone through watching her trial, we would have seen how flimsy of a case there was against her, which would have killed the story's credibility. It also doesn't help matters that Banks and Crowe are a mismatch and thus there's no motivation on the audience's part to really see them reconnect. The film picks up in the final act with some decent tension, but by that point it had pretty much frittered away any goodwill. As more of the best picture nominees start coming out for rental, there will be certainly bettter options than this if you're looking for a good film to watch on a Saturday night. You can skip this one unless you want to feel like you've been watching a movie for three days. Rating: **

Media Blitz deleted scenes

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NMR: Family Guy Presents - It's a Trap

So even though this has been out for months, Netflix finally decided to send me this final part in Family Guy's take on the Star Wars trilogy. It's interesting as this installment opens how forthright the writers are about not being enthused about doing one for Return of the Jedi and that this is a pure money grab. And while some fatigue is apparent on some of the jokes, I'm not sure how much different this one is from the previous two installments. I'll leave it up to you to decide whether that says more about the quality of this one or the first two. I still found a lot of the jokes to be funny and also unexpected, which given the number of Star Wars parodies there have been, isn't always easy. However, since I took the time recently to rewatch the original trilogy, I was also surprised at scenes from the film they omitted or observations about events that they chose not to make. On the plus side, there are a few surprise guests, as well as some integration of characters from some of Seth McFarland's other shows. In general, this is still very funny and should be seen by anyone who enjoyed Blue Harvest and Something Something Something Dark Side. However, you may want to avoid trying to get it through Netflix if you do want to watch it. It's likely you'll see it on TV sooner than you would get it in the mail if the delivery time it took for me to get is any indication. Rating: ****

Wolfpack attack

Here's your first look at The Hangover sequel due out this May (and yes I recognize the hypocrisy of posting this right after making a post complaining about the lack of originality in filmmaking these days, so sue me).

Patching the Silver Screen

With another dismal weekend at the box office (what messed up world do we live in when Gnomeo and Juliet is #1), it appears that Hollywood is in a funk with no signs of recovery. Many people grumble and complain about why they never go to the theater and most of their gripes are valid. In response, this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly offered a list of 10 things the film industry could do to recapture viewers. While some of these are new or revolutionary ideas, I really like the list because of the way it addresses so many of the problems while offering up rational (rational to everyone outside of Hollywood, sadly) ideas. Here then is the list:

1. For every jumbo-size, CGI-filled, action-adventure extravaganza a studio greenlights, it should commit to one modestly budgeted drama or comedy.
2. Don't remake good movies; remake bad ones
3. Stop killing us with your popcorn; offer healthier, higher-quality concessions
4. Treat 3-D like the good silverware: Only bring it out for truly special occasions
5. Embrace the on-demand button - more mid-budget grown-up dramas should be given a simultaneous theatrical and cable on-demand release
6. Admit you're jealous of TV and start hiring its best writers
7. Before a film gets a green light, someone involved with the project - the director, the star, the boom-mic operator - has to belive it will be a good movie
8. Can the commercials
9. No more than four screenwriters per script (unless the fifth is Aaron Sorkin)
10. Create seperate screenings for schmucks; if there are special screenings for parents with kids, perhaps there should also be seperate showings for adults who act like children.

Agree? Disagree? Have more that should be added to the list? Feel free to chime in below.

Ron and Tammy Part 2 deleted scenes

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NMR: Paranormal Activity 2

While still not a big horror fan in general, I found myself enjoying this one for what it was. I think it's a moderate improvement over the original, although some of that could be that I didn't watch this one on a weekday morning like the original, thus adding a more scary tone to the viewing experience. What also helped this one was an improved cast. While they weren't tremendous actors, they were much more likeable than the couple in the first, so I was more invested in their fate. One thing that I did find odd about the story is that it seems this family doesn't really take proper precautions despite mounting evidence that there is a ghost in their house. They get scared whenever anything freaky happens, but then the following day they go back to business as usual. That took me out of the realism of the film that they try to portray with their security camera style footage. Still, if you want some easy thrills without the vulgar gore that's found in films like the Saw franchise, this is worth a rental. Rating: ***

Finally!!

So The Rock returned to Monday Night RAW last night and produced the most entertaining 20 minutes of WWE television since....well, pretty much since The Rock was last in the WWE. Check out his awesome promo below.

I've made a huge mistake

Check out this hilarious article where Arrested Development creator, Mitch Hurwitz offers his suggestions on how to get your television show cancelled quickly.

Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz's guide to getting a sitcom cancelled

Class warfare

Here are a pair of trailers that couldn't pony up the money to air during the Super Bowl, but still hope to make a significant impact at the box office when they're released later this year.

Triumph of Will?

The Night Shift - Quick, Who's Funnier: Will Forte's Ted Turner, or Any Current SNL Character?

This was an interest op-ed piece from Time Magazine which speculated if Will Forte's leaving SNL has left a void on the variety show resulting in the show's decline in quality. While I certainly agree that the work Forte has been doing on Conan O'Brien's new show, posing as Ted Turner, has been outright hilarious (and if you haven't seen these appearances, videos of them are embedded in the article linked above), I'm not sure if he's leaving really has had an impact on SNL. At worse, SNL has maintained its level of mediocrity that it's had since more significant cast members like Will Ferrell and Tina Fey left. And in some ways, I think there's been a number of strong sketches this past year thanks to them highlighting guys like Jason Sudekis and Bill Hader. Now if only they could cut back on Kristin Wiig screen time the show might have a chance at being really good once again. I'm not sure what the rest of you think, but regardless, I think the article is worth a read.

Time Capsule delete scenes

Eventually I'll get caught up on these...

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What are Friends for?

Oh man, nothing brightens my day more than a new edition of Between Two Ferns. This time Zach invites Tila Tequila and...some other girl to the show. Jennifer something, I think.

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: Tila Tequila from Between Two Ferns

NMR: The American

I didn't want to believe the negative reviews that were attached to this assassin thriller starring George Clooney when the film came out last fall. The previews made it seem engaging and Clooney typically chooses interesting project. However, the critics were right in this case as this film is a major dud. It really felt like Clooney just wanted a working vacation in Italy and didn't care how good the film was. At its best, it's merely a routine thriller about an assassin who wants out. But it can barely maintain that as the plot is flimsy and without much suspense. The film introduces several characters who end up having no impact in moving the story forward. I don't blame Clooney for wanting to do a film from the, admittedly, beautiful locale, but don't force us to spend our money to watch a film that is nothing more than a gritty travel video. Definite recommendation to avoid. Rating: **