Toy Story 3 just surpassed $920 Million in worldwide box office grosses and has now passed Shrek 2 to become the highest grossing animated film of all time. Congratulations to the very talented folks at Disney and Pixar for this great accomplishment. The award season is just around the corner and Toy Story 3 is sure to pick up more accolades as the year goes on. Continue reading

HBO has announced that two favorites at the Village will return on September 26. Eastbound & Down starring Danny McBride and Bored to Death starring Jason Schwartzman will both return Sunday nights. Bored to Death will air at 9 central and Eastbound will follow. This is great news as both shows are fantastic and they are both entering their second season. Bored to Death is about a writer that moonlights as an unlicensed private detective and Eastbound & Down is about a washed up baseball player that returns to his hometown and is attempting a comeback. Continue reading

When you hear girls talking about being on Team Jacob or Team Edward and Cougars everywhere begin talking about Taylor Lautner’s abs it can only mean that it’s time for another film in …drumrole…the Twilight Saga. It’s hard to believe that it was only two years ago that we were all blessed with the unique experience of Twilight. In case you are late to the party let me get you up to speed on this giant helping of crap that is the equivalent of a Judy Blume book with sparkling vampires and teenage werewolves that don’t like to wear shirts. In Twilight we meet Bella, a depressed teenager (wow, it’s already so original) she meets a very pale guy called Edward. Ahhhhhh. Well first she hates him then he saves her life and then she loves him with every fiber of her being. Ahhhhhhh. Continue reading

In 2001, when Shrek came out it was one of the most original and funniest animated films to arrive in years. While Shrek 2 and Shrek The Third were not nearly as good or funny, they both made tons of money at the box office and now we get Shrek Forever After. Sadly the Shrek franchise ends with much less of a bang than it arrived with. What made Shrek so cool was that even though it was an animated film, the movie became entrenched into Pop Culture and it felt like everyone went to see this movie. Now as the series concludes it feels all the imagination and inventiveness that was here in 2001 has been replaced with a by the numbers kids movie that fails to inspire. Continue reading

Fifteen years ago, Pixar and Disney came together to make the very first full length computer animated film. Toy Story was an instant classic and since then Pixar and Disney have been the benchmark when it comes to animation. Toy Story 2 came out in 1999 and was just as impressive as the original and some would say it may have been better. So needless to say the hype and expectations on Toy Story 3 have been through the roof. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that not only did Disney and Pixar live up to the hype, they far surpassed it and in the process have created one of the funniest, most touching and best movies of this or any year. Continue reading

Saturday Night Live has given us many films based on characters created on the show. Some have led to fantastic films (Wayne’s World, Blues Brothers) while others have been a complete disaster (It’s Pat, Stuart saves his Family). Now SNL has brought to the big screen the character, MacGruber and thankfully this film delivers true comedy magic. Last year we were all treated to the comedy masterpiece, The Hangover and in that film we saw a great comedy with flawless timing and delivery of every joke and hilarious moment. MacGruber isn’t on this level, but the film does take advantage of the talent of Will Forte (SNL) and Kristen Wiig (SNL). Along with a funny and talented cast, MacGruber actually has some hilarious action scenes that work very well in the movie. Continue reading

It’s been an interesting year on American Idol and the finale was full of surprises, great performances and another winner that should have lost. Yeah that’s right Lee Dewyze is your new American Idol and I’m not mad about it because now I can watch another Idol runner up have a bigger career than the winner. I like Lee, but he was not in the same league as Crystal last night and America should have given Crystal the title. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of career Lee ends up having, hopefully he will shake his jitters and do very well. Crystal on the other hand should have no such problem. Her unique style and sound should transfer into immediate success, but we’ll have to wait and see. Continue reading

It’s Lee vs. Crystal and it’s time to find out who will reign as this year’s American Idol. This is going to be Simon’s last season and while it may be hard to imagine the show without him, we can take comfort in the fact that he will be producing his own show called “X-Factor”. As for the final two tonight, one was swallowed up and consumed by the moment and the other seized it and became a star. Let’s see how it all went down… Continue reading

The Finale is set. It’s going to be Lee Dewyze vs. Crystal Bowersox for the crown of American Idol. Tonight we said goodbye to Casey James. Casey was very good all season and even though I felt he got a little weak as the competition wore on, he still did an amazing job this year. As for tonight’s show, we had performances by some guy named Travis Garland. No idea who he is and I wasn’t impressed. Then we got the male Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber. I guess twelve year old girl were very happy with tonight’s show, but if you wanted good music you were out of luck. Continue reading

Well if tonight proved anything it was that this is the weakest season American Idol has ever had. Only one performance really stood out as a star making performance. I’m not exactly sure when it happened, but at some point lee has surpassed Crystal and is now in the driver’s seat to win this season. Crystal’s night was ok and she seems to be slipping just a little, but that might be enough for Lee to sneak in. Oh yeah and Casey was there too. Sorry if I forgot to mention him, but I’m pretty sure America will forget to vote for him as well. Now let’s take a look at tonight’s performances… Continue reading

Sunday night on CBS we saw the dramatic conclusion of Survivor Heroes Vs. Villains. The final three were narrowed down to Russell, Parvarti, and Sandra. Personally, I was pulling for Russell. He played another brilliant strategic game, but he burned too many bridges on the jury and didn’t receive a single vote for the million dollars. Parvarti dominated most of the challenges this season and she was forced to align with Russell early in the season and did a great job surviving all the way to the end. In the end the jury awarded the million dollars to Sandra and in doing so she became the first two time winner of Survivor. Continue reading

Well America you screwed up the final three yet again. In an upset Casey, somehow avoided elimination this week and Michael Lynch is heading home. Before we get to Michael, let’s talk about tonight’s show which was actually pretty good. Former American Idol champion, Fantasia opened the show up and later we were treated to a performance from one of the most successful selling artists to come from American Idol, Chris Daughtry. The final performance of the night came from rock legends Bon Jovi. All the performances were pretty good and it’s amazing to still see Bon Jovi rocking it out. Continue reading

It was another strange night on American Idol as the contestants performed songs from movies. Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx returned to mentor this week after doing a great job last season. He seemed to do a good job this week, but the contestants struggled a bit. Along with each performance we got two duets to help the audience make their choice on who will make the final three. Song choice was certainly an issue this week and it’ll be interesting to see who makes it through next week. So without any further a due, let’s get to the performances. Continue reading

It is elimination time on American Idol. Tonight’s show was much more entertaining than last week’s country music show. Tonight we had another crazy and mesmerizing performance from Lady Gaga. Harry Connick Jr. performed a song from his new CD and we also got some interesting looks at the behind the scenes work on Idol.This week it’s a bottom two instead of three. To my surprise Casey managed to avoid elimination. Continue reading

It’s down to the Top 5 on American Idol and for this we get Frank Sinatra week. Ok, I can appreciate that some 40 years ago Frank Sinatra was the biggest thing, but we are in 2010 and I just don’t find most of his songs relevant to current music. Was he great? Absolutely, but I was very worried for the contestant this week. The mentor this week was Harry Connick Jr. and he did an amazing job guiding the contestants through one of the toughest nights this season. Sinatra’s music is very difficult to perform, but Harry Connick Jr. was fantastic and we actually had a couple performances really stand out. Without further a due, let’s get to it… Continue reading

This year animation film fans will get a return of Toy Story and Shrek. While these may be the most anticipated animated films this year the best film may have already came out. Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon is a classic film that has something for everyone and with stirring 3D and exciting action sequences the movie is sure to have audiences hooked. How to Train Your Dragon does a sensational job of telling a great story with a very clever script. The real stars of the movie are the Dragons and they are all designed with great detail and each Dragon has his own special abilities, which makes for some great moments throughout the film. Continue reading

Thank God for the invention of the DVR, without it I would have had to endure an hour long elimination episode of American Idol that was full of country music performances. In case you didn’t know, I’m not a fan of country music. The finalists were split into three groups of two. I’m not genius, but how do you get a bottom three from groups of two? So, Siobahn is asked to walk from one end to the other and stand with Michael and Casey to form the bottom three. Continue reading

It’s Shania Twain week? Really? Ok, I thought tonight was going to be horrible, but I have to say it was pretty good. To my surprise the guys did very well with Shania’s catalog of country/pop songs that have driven me crazy for years. Yes, I find her songs annoying at times and yes, I find myself singing these songs as they always get stuck in my head. Thankfully, no one performed “I feel like a woman”. So let’s have a look at how the Top 6 did this week. Continue reading

Tonight was Idol gives Back. So we had a long night of charity and performances from everyone from the Black Eyed Peas, Annie Lennox, Elton John and Alicia Keys. If you are one of the many people who depend on DVR services for your results, then you may be out of luck because tonight Idol ran almost a half hour late. Never fear, The Village is here to keep you up to date on the latest Idol info. Continue reading

It’s time for inspirational songs on American Idol and this week the contestants get the wisdom of the beautiful, sexy and amazingly brilliant singer, Alicia Keys. To my surprise, I didn’t think Alicia was a good mentor this week. I’m a big fan of her music and I couldn’t think of anyone better to advise this often times lost group on Idol this year, but her advice didn’t seem to help and most of the performance were very mediocre. There was one performance that was way out in front of the rest and if there was any doubt about who was going to win this year, it was answered tonight. Continue reading

HBO announced today that Curb Your Enthusiasm will return sometime in 2011 for an 8th season. Curb Your Enthusiasm is one of HBO’s longest running shows and it’ll be great to see larry David and Co. for another season. Check back with the village and we’ll get more updates on exactly when the show will return next year. Continue reading

Coach has come to the conclusion that voting off Boston Rob will send the Villains tribe into chaos. Ironically, this may be exactly what Russell is hoping for. His battle with Rob ended last week with a brilliant blindside and now it’s time to see who will step up and take control of this tribe, which now has no leader. Meanwhile, the Heroes have found another hidden immunity idol, courtesy of JT. One has to wonder if Amanda had not found him looking for it if he would have told his tribe mates that he found it. Continue reading

The judge’s decision to save Michael last week means that this week we get a double elimination. The road has ended for Andrew Garcia and Katie Stevens. Andrew was no big surprise as he has been up and down all season. In Hollywood week Andrew emerged as one of the early favorites after his version of the Paula Abdul classic, Straight Up was declared as brilliant. Once the show went live Andrew struggled and the judges never really helped him by constantly going back to his performance of Straight Up. I can’t remember the last time I would blame the judges for the fact that one of the performers was so confused and unsure of himself due to bad advice from the panel. Continue reading

It is Elvis week on American Idol and this week, two performers will be eliminated. Elvis is one of the greatest singers the world has ever known and in the past, Idol week’s featuring Elvis have been pretty memorable. The mentor for the Idol contestants this week is last season’s runner up Adam Lambert. Some have said, “How can Adam Lambert be a mentor when he is just starting his career?” Well, his career may just be getting started, but he just went through this competition and I think he was a fantastic choice. Not to mention that America screwed up last season by not awarding Lambert with the title of American Idol. The results were very good and Lambert did a good job, unfortunately some were a little off and could be in trouble, so let’s take a look at what went down.. Continue reading

Let’s start with all the other stuff that went on tonight. Jason Derulo performed. I’ll admit, I really don’t know who the hell that is. We also got a performance from American Idol runner-up, David Archuletta. That kid has always bothered me. Thank God, David Cook beat him. The big performance was from Pop superstar, Rihanna. She has never looked better and after her fiasco with Chris Brown it’s nice to see her doing so well and his career is in the crapper. Continue reading