The Entertainment Wrap Up - July 24, 2008 - Dark Knight Opens Big, Dr. Horrible, Lost Season One, and More

Here come the Batman box office numbers. The movie made $18.5 million on midnight showings just by itself which topped the record by Star Wars Episode 3 which made $16.9 million. The movie then set the record for biggest opening day ever making $66.4 million total on Friday which topped Spiderman 3's $59.8 million. However, the big news was that the movie had the biggest box office opening weekend ever with $158.4 million defeating Spiderman 3's $151.1 million. There was talk today that the movie is now up over $200 million making it the fastest movie to ever reach the $200 million mark. I have yet to see the movie but am really looking forward to seeing it. I have had no telling how many friends ask me this week if I've seen it and they are raving about it.

Overall movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. The Dark Knight - $158.4 million. 2. Mamma Mia - $27.7 million. 3. Hancock - $14 million. 4. Journey To The Center of the Earth - $12.3 million. 5. Hellboy II - $10.1 million. 6. WALL-E - $10 million. 7. Space Chimps - $7.1 million. 8. Wanted - $5 million. 9. Get Smart - $4.1 million. 10. Kung Fu Panda - $1.8 million.

I left off last week with Jessie being HOH on Big Brother 10 so how did his HOH reign go? Well, I guess it went well for what they had planned. He wanted to target Renny but his alliance talked to him about getting the personal plans of his out of the equation. Again, we had Jessie saying that Renny should have apologized BEFORE his HOH win. Does he just ignore what he doesn't want to hear? Again, she apologized immediately during the first conversation over the waking him up that night. The happenings in the house this week had the team of Ollie, Michelle, Angie, Jessie, Steven, and Dan winning the food competition. This got into some tempers being stirred. We had Libra getting caught in her lie. Her and April discussed about how it was unfair that they had two "old people" on their team. She did in fact say that the "old people" were the reason for the loss and she went nuts when she was questioned on it by Jerry and Renny. I always love it too when someone denies something that they said and then the show runs the flashback of the quote. Dan was finally able to get Jessie alone and work out a deal with him. The target for the week was Steven. Jessie did put up Steven and Dan for eviction. The veto competition was held and Keesha did think about winning it and taking Steven off the block. However, Michelle was the veto winner and did not use it. That led us to last night's eviction episode. No surprise as Steven was voted out on a unanimous vote. He did a speech before the live voting which wasn't so much as a plea to keep him but instead a bye bye speech. ha ha. It's funny how right before he did his speech, I was just thinking about how pointless it was to try and plea to stay every week when the decision has been made on who to vote out. Well, he knew it and went out with a speech. The HOH competition was held and came down between Keesha and Libra. Keesha won it and is the new HOH.

Other thoughts on the Big Brother week. Funny stuff with the aliens appearing in the mirrors and scaring houseguests. It was very reminiscent of the "ghosts" of evicted houseguests during Big Brother All Stars.


What You Missed On The Live Feeds: I've got some You Tube clips in here to check out if you want to but remember that they may have some strong language in them when you watch. The houseguests have been having fun with a slip and slide in the back yard. We also had the back yard turn into a dance show with them doing the electric slide. Not bad at all considering that they have no music to go with it. This week also saw the houseguests doing Big Brother Late Night which had them doing their own show in the living room including getting dressed up, Dan having the hosting duties, a David Letterman style Top 10 List, makeover segment, antique value segment, a therapy session with Libra being the therapist interviewing April and Ollie, and other things. This cast is definitely able to entertain themselves in the house and are also keeping the feeds entertaining as well.

It appears that Brenda Walsh will be returning to Beverly Hills 90210 this fall. Official word has come out from the show's executive producer that Shannen Doherty will be back and the story will be that Brenda will be directing the high school musical. She will be making multiple episode appearances with this story line.

I've finished season one of Lost and am officially loving the show. I have had so many friends suggesting this show to me over the last year or so and I've been looking for a good show to watch for summer viewing. It looks like I've found it. I pulled a long marathon over the weekend to finish up the season and didn't watch one bad episode. I'm going to go into some thoughts on the season so if you plan on watching the show and don't want spoilers, you'll want to avoid the rest of this paragraph. The writing is so good on this show. I love how the episodes bounce back and forth with past story and current story. It's a good way to figure out how everyone got on the plane and where they were in their previous lives. We seem to see the good and bad of every person. I got blindsided on the fact that Kate was the criminal being escorted by the marshall. I didn't expect that at all!! I loved following the story of them trying to figure out the previous distress signal that had been left and then finding the woman that left it. I was shocked over them killing off Boone. That is one thing that I've noticed about this show is that they aren't afraid to kill off characters. Hurley is hilarious!! I have laughed so much at his antics over the season. I was expecting some major things going on on the island during the season finale but it turned out the bad was going on out in the water with "the others" taking Walt. Well, the baby was taken by the french woman but I was expecting some major ugliness besides that. I knew that something wasn't going to be good for them being rescued on the boat. It couldn't cause the show would be over. We're rescued, show's over. ha ha. I kept waiting for the twist of who was pulling up in that boat and I got it. I can't even tell you how many times I've planned on watching one episode or two and then get left on a cliffhanger. Then, I have to watch another episode....and another....and then another. Really enjoying this show a lot.

The final day for Jay Leno on The Tonight Show has been announced by NBC. May 29, 2009 will be the last show for Leno as the host of The Tonight Show.

If you're a Joss Whedon fan, like myself, you've probably heard about or watched his latest project. Dr. Horrible is an online viewing venture from Whedon that was brought about due to the writers strike. Dr. Horrible has launched online in three separate episodes with each going about fifteen minutes in length. Dr. Horrible has all kinds of ties to previous Whedon shows but has a fresh one as well. Neil Patrick Harris stars as Dr. Horrible, who is a supervillian trying to get into the Evil League of Evil. Nathan Fillion (Firefly) stars as Captain Hammer who is the arch nemesis of Dr. Horrible. Felicia Day (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) stars as Penny, the girl that Dr. Horrible is in love with. Of course, I watched this over the past week and have really enjoyed it!! Lot of fun and laughs. The show is a musical and very Once More With Feeling like, which is of course the name of the Buffy musical episode if you aren't familiar with it. When I watched the preview scene for it, my first thought was, oh yes, this is what it would have been like if The Evil Trio had been in the Buffy musical episode. Imagine Andrew singing about his love for a girl and you have Dr. Horrible. Dr. Horrible does a video blog for the web where he talks about his plans. Harris does a great job in this role and seeing Fillion in a different role from Firefly is a lot of fun as well. Seeing Felicia Day's fun performance made me wish we had gotten more of her on Buffy. The basic story is Dr. Horrible trying to be accepted into the Evil League Of Evil while also having to deal with this major crush on Penny and the problems with Captain Hammer. If you're a Big Bang Theory fan, you'll see another very familiar face in this as well. I highly recommend checking out Dr. Horrible. Joss Whedon has another hit on his hands and I love that the hit is online and not on actual TV. Maybe the success of this will inspire others to give online shows a shot. Hopefully this will also inspire....a sequel!! For more info on Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, head over to www.drhorrible.com
Here is the trailer for it.

I can always find something to laugh about and make my blood pressure rise when it comes to The CW. I've always said that I was a huge WB fan. I wanted to like The CW. In fact, I was excited about the idea of combining WB and UPN. However, it has been clear all along that The CW is more UPN and hardly any WB. Dawn Ostroff was making the rounds last week talking about the network and future plans. She explained that the network is going after the young female audience. Nothing else. That is what was said. She also explained the decision of letting go of WWE's Friday Night Smackdown with saying that the fans that watched WWE didn't watch anything else on the network. Ok, are you trying to tell me that WWE fans don't watch Smallville or Supernatural? I don't buy that a bit considering I'm a male fan that watches WWE and watched several other shows on the network. I see a lot of crossover appeal between the fans of those shows. Speaking of Smallville, what is it going to take for one of the most popular shows on the network to get some mentions? If you listened to the CW promotion and interview segment, you'd think the only shows on the network are Gossip Girl, America's Next Top Model, and the upcoming Beverly Hills 90210. Gossip Girl is definitely the face of the network right now which is fine cause the show does have a lot of buzz about it. 90210 is obviously a huge leap for the network. However, there are OTHER shows on the network that are very popular. Smallville is one of the highest rated shows on the network and the buzz from the network about it is, well, pathetic. I haven't thought that Smallville has been treated very well since the move to The CW. The WB was able to target the same demographic that The CW wants (however both male and female) at a level that few have been able to achieve. It is possible to target the same age range and give males and females something that they like to watch. Ostroff also talked about how they feel that actual TV viewing and live ratings are going out cause of people watching shows online and on demand. Isn't this the same network that pulled all the streaming video forms of Gossip Girl last season to get people to watch it on TV instead of online to get the ratings from it? Now, they're talking like they are catering to the online viewers?? They are also talking about launching their 2009-10 season during the summer which is the time when hardly anyone watches TV. Do you really want to take a risk of launching shows in the time when viewership is at its worst? The more that I hear from The CW, the less seriously that I take them as a major network. Like I said, I wanted to like The CW. I really did.

Joss Whedon has said that he is redoing the first episode of Dollhouse. It appears that the original pilot will now become the second episode. He spoke on Whedonesque.com about the changes saying: "There were a few clarity issues for some viewers. There were also some slight issues with tone — I was in a dark, noir kind of place...and didn't bring the visceral pop the network had expected from the script. The network truly gets the premise...loves the cast, is excited about the show but they're also specific about how they want to bring people to the show and I not only respect that, I kinda have to slap my forehead that I didn't tailor my tone and structure to the network’s needs, since that's something I pride myself on."
Initial thoughts? Oh no. Fox is trying to take over again. Please don't let this end up the same as the demise of Firefly!! Maybe I'm just worrying too much. I am really looking forward to another Whedon show.

Sad to hear about the passing of Estelle Getty this week. My thoughts and prayers go out to her, her family, and friends.

Robot Chicken is set to do another Star Wars episode. Very happy about this!! The episode will apparently air on November 16th.

Ok, I lied about the Angel comic reviews this week. I have not had the time to read them like I thought I would. I'm sorry and I'll try again next week.

TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, July 29th. Baldwin Hills (Season One), Beverly Hills 90210 (Season Five), Freakazoid! (Season One), Girlfriends (Sesaon Four), The Hills (Season Three), Law & Order: SVU (7th Year), Tiny Toon Adventures (Season One - Volume One).

You Tube Video Of The Week: With Dr. Horrible, this brings back great memories of the other loved musical from Joss Whedon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKrZnPOqdYg

Wishing all of you a great week. Take care and God bless!!