The IT Crowd
The Complete Third Season
Written and directed by Graham Linehan
Starring Chris O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson, Matt Berry
MPI Home Video
Release date: September 15, 2009

For the uninitiated, The IT Crowd is a British-made sitcom and the story so far goes something like this: Jen (Katherine Parkinson) is hired as the new head of department in the IT basement. Her new ‘team’ is Roy (Chris O’Dowd) and Moss (Richard Ayoade), Reynholm Industries’ computer support nerds. Roy and Moss are very comfortable in their geeky treasure trove office. They don’t need a head of department and their frustrations spill out onto their computer-illiterate colleagues. Roy and Moss are intimidated by women and ‘real men’, learning to interact with both by researching on the internet.

The IT Crowd Season 3, like the two seasons before, is written and directed by Graham Linehan, responsible for many excellent comedy series like Father Ted, Black Books, and Big Train. The IT Crowd follows the familiar brand of surreal humour with some outrageous characters.

Richmond – who had an improved role in Season 2 – disappears altogether from Season 3. I think this was a good idea. Richmond always seemed to have potential but no one really knew what to do with him [...]

Very early this morning, we posted the Black Friday DVD & TV deals over at Amazon today, which includes “lightning” deals all day today (meaning, drastically reduced prices for a limited time only selling out very quickly, so jump on these sales while you can.

There’s also lightning deals on Video Games, which include Assassin’s Creed for Xbox 360 and Fallout 3 for Xbox 360 and PS3. Check the page for upcoming deals and times for when they’ll be available.

Some all-day sales in video games include Video Game Gold Box deal of the day, a Sony PlayStation 3, a 120 GB “Black Friday Bundle” with Infamous and Killzone 2 (Includes a $10 Amazon.com Promotional Credit on Black Friday) for only $299.99.

Here are some more video games sales happening today only (all qualify for $10 off if you pay with a Discover Card):

Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360) – $39.99

Guitar Hero Metallica (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii) – $25

Ghostbusters: The Video Game – Slimer Edition (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii) – $29.75 [...]

Many people instantaneously went from loving Shrek to hating Shrek when Shrek the Third was released in 2007. And since we’ve already said “Shrek” more than anyone in the history of mankind has ever said in such a short amount of words, why stop now! Although said third film was pretty unanimously disliked compared to the original and wonderful first two Shrek films, DreamWorks has moved forward with the planned fourth film in the mega franchise — a movie that we now know will officially be called Shrek Forever After. The studio has given USA Today released a couple of new images from the film, as well as many new details as to what we can expect. Click the image to go large and click the link to go see another image.

One smart move that’s being made is that DreamWorks hasn’t been talking a lot about this project and releasing a ton of images. Instead of risking fans becoming turned off by two straight years of news and images and rumors, it appears that they’re trying to ease us into the return of the giant green ogre. They’re doing this by dropping this first batch of images and updates right before the first trailer is debuted in only a few weeks when Avatar is released. The movie itself will be released on May 21, 2010. [...]

It’s finally here people, the most insane shopping day of the year — BLACK FRIDAY!

And as you know, Amazon has been having a weeklong countdown to Black Friday Sale with huge DVD/Blu-ray and Video Game sales.

Well, the sale continues day with more drastically reduced prices in the Lightning Deals appearing throughout the day. All the items up for grabs are limited time only and limited supply, which means if you see it and want it, buy it immediately before either the sale ends or all items are claimed.

Below is a list of today’s Lightning Deals, which begin at midnight PST/3am EST and end 12am PST/3am EST. [...]

All week, Amazon has been doing a countdown to Black Friday Sale sale. The Lightning Deals for today are now up, but the site has also posted some awesome DVDs and Blu-ray titles at amazing prices! Here’s just a small sample of some of the titles on sale right now! (Look at the Star Trek deals!!!)

DVD

– Star Trek – $9
– Hellboy II: The Golden Army – $7.99

Happy Thanksgiving, folks! If you can, take some time out today to check Amazon’s Lightning Deals throughout the day, because there’s a great selection of items drastically reduced in price (DVDs for as low as $2!). All the items up for grabs are limited time only and limited supply, which means if you see it and want it, buy it immediately before either the sale ends or all items are claimed.

Below is a list of today’s Lightning Deals, which begin at 4am PST/7am EST and end 12am PST/3am EST.

Of note, the Gold Box deal of the day is the Stargate Atlantis: The Complete Series Collection DVD box set for only $88.99 (that’s 66% off the list price of $259.98). This 26-disc set contains all five seasons of the scifi television series, plus bonus features. The sale begins at midnight PST/3am EST and ends after 24 hours (while supplies last).

Amazon’s week-long countdown to Black Friday Sale continues with a huge DVD/Blu-ray Sale, running all this week [...]

Everyone knows about the hilarious folks over at How It Should Have Ended, where they take the endings of popular movies and make a cartoon of what it should have been, right? They always point out the absurdities in those movies we love, which makes their endings oh so enjoyable.

They’ve done alternate endings for Superman Returns, The Matrix, and Tranformers. Now, they’ve released one for the ultra-popular teen vampire flick Twilight, which you can watch here below.

I think even the most sensitive Twihards will just have to laugh at what HISHE came up with. Oh, and there’s a post end-title cameo from another well-known vampire, so check it out [...]

As you can tell, there’s tons of sales going on this week, as a countdown to Black Friday.

This week, Amazon has a lot of DVD box sets on sale, one of which is for one of my favorite TV shows ever, Get Smart. For only $99.99 (that’s 50% off the list price of $199.95), you can get Get Smart – The Complete Series Gift Set.

This 5-volume collection contains all 138 original episodes of the 1960s TV spy comedy, which starred Don Adams as the bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart and Barbara Feldon as his partner Agent 99. The episodes have been digitally restored and remastered and there’s over nine hours of rare footage and bonus features in this 25-DVD box set. For a detailed rundown of all of this DVD set’s bonus features, see the review of this boxed set.

Also on sale this week:

– Seinfeld – The Complete Series for $119.99 (that’s 52% off the list price of $250.95). This 32-disc DVD set contains all nine seasons of the 1990′s sitcom, along with tons of bonus features. Also, for a limited time, are the Seinfeld individual season DVDs for $14.99 (that’s more than half off the usual price).

Check out more box set deals, as well as complete series DVDs, in the Movies and TV Black Friday Sale [...]

Rock legend Ronnie James Dio has been diagnosed with the early stages of stomach cancer, according to a statement posted on his official site by his wife Wendy Dio.

It was announced last week that the singer, who’s fronted classic hard rock bands, Rainbow and Black Sabbath, as well as his solo band Dio, had canceled his European tour after he was hospitalized.

According to the singer’s wife, who is also his longtime manager, Dio will be starting treatment immediately at the Mayo Clinic.

See below for the official statement regarding Dio’s health [...]

A couple of years ago, George Lucas himself gave the OK to Seth MacFarlane and Seth Green to spoof his classic Star Wars saga with their respective shows Family Guy and Robot Chicken. So far, we’ve seen a hilarious Family Guy spoof of A New Hope called Blue Harvest and two Robot Chicken specials. It has taken quite a while to get around to Family Guy‘s take on The Empire Strikes Back, but thankfully it will finally be released on DVD and Blu-ray December 22, 2009 and there is now a new trailer to watch via Apple.

The movie is called Something, Something, Something, Dark Side, which is quite fittingly a reference to a previous Family Guy joke. It will follow the basic premise of the movie, as they did the first time around, adding crude and silly humor wherever it will be allowed.

Click on over to to the dark side (baddum-cha!) to watch the trailer and read the brief synopsis for the movie. From this peek, it definitely looks like this could be just as funny as Blue Harvest was, and your time shan’t be wasted. [...]

I love watching The Muppets do anything, so it was awesome to see them perform Queen‘s popular tune “Bohemian Rhapsody” in a video recently released by Muppets Studio, which you can watch here below. What a perfect song choice for Jim Henson’s creations to tackle; actually, I’m surprised this hasn’t been done before.

The video was posted in conjunction with the release of Queen’s new 20-song greatest hits collection, Absolute Greatest.

I’m not a big fan of hits compilations for the most part (if I like an artist, I prefer to buy their studio albums, not just the hits), but according to the product page, the import version comes with a second disc featuring track by track commentary by guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. Now that’s something I’m interested in. (Apparently, the U.S. release only has the one disc.)

If you dig Queen, then check out our review of the SingStar Queen karaoke video game. Also, as part of today’s lead-up to Black Friday, the Queen’s The Crown Jewels is on sale today for $48.47 (that’s 64% off the list price of $135.98). The 8-disc box set contains eight Queen albums from the self-titled debut through 1980′s The Game [...]

SingStar: Queen
Rated T for Teens
Playstation 3
Available Now

It is about time the SingStar franchise rocked out. Sure, this reviewer is not afraid to express his affection toward ABBA but a man needs some good old fashioned, tub-thumping music. So, when I heard SingStar was going devote a whole game to the awesome rock band Queen, I was floored. SingStar: Queen is a no-brainer to me. Queen songs are very popular. Even if you are not familiar with the band itself (and shame on you if you aren’t), the songs are easily recognizable. From “We are the Champions” and “We Will Rock You” to “Bohemian Rhapsody”, Queen songs have been played in sports arenas, bars, and everything in between.

The game is pretty straight forward and can be played by any casual gamer. Players choose from a list of 25 Queen songs and, like with Guitar Hero, players just need to fill up the color bars that appear on the screen by singing the correct lyrics and pitch.

The best part about this game? The wide variety of songs present in the game for any Queen fan. There are classics like “We Will Rock You” and “Under Pressure”, along with songs that are not as popular like “Fat Bottom Girls”. My personal favorite song, “Don’t Stop Me Now”, is also present in the game. Whether you are a fan of the band or not, you have to admit that each song is pretty catchy to sing to and entertaining on all levels [...]

The Gold Box deal of the day over at Amazon today is the LG BD270 Blu-ray Disc Player for only $99.99 (that’s 50% off the list price of $199.95). This is an outstanding bargain! Grab it for today only while supplies last (and I can’t imagine they will).

This Blu-ray player has full HD 1080p output and plays DVD and Blu-ray Discs. It also features an HDMI with Cinema mode and 7.1 channels with Dolby Digital Plus, TrueHD, and dts-HD.

The Video Game deal of the day is Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures for Nintendo Wii for the one-day-only price of $14.98 (that’s 25% off the list price of $19.99).

The MP3 album deal of the day is Radiohead‘s The Bends for only $2.99 [...]

We’re mid-way through Amazon’s weeklong Black Friday Sale, where each day this week, items are drastically reduced in price. All the items up for grabs are limited time only and limited supply, which means if you see it and want it, buy it immediately before either the sale ends or all items are claimed, especially the items in the Lightning Deals, which have an even smaller sale window.

Below is a list of today’s Lightning Deals, which begin at 4am PST/7am EST and end 12am PST/3am EST.

Once such deal to look out for is the Watchmen (Nite Owl Ship Gift Set) [Blu-ray] for $49.99 coming up at 10am PST/1pm EST, lasting for four hours or sooner if sale items run out.

Also, check out the DVD/Blu-ray Sale, running this week [...]

On Tuesday, December 1, ABC will air Disney’s Prep & Landing, the first television special produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios.

The animated half-special will then be streamed online for viewing at Disney.com starting December 2, when the site will also exclusively debut an original short video Tiny’s Adventure and offer up digital toys and downloadable artwork.

Check out the trailer for Prep & Landing here below, along with a behind-the-scenes video, which features the special’s voice actors, Dave Foley, Sarah Chalke, and Derek Richardson, as well as executive producer John Lasseter (Toy Story, A Bug’s Life).

The animated special is about an elite unit of Santa’s Elves known as Prep & Landing. In Mission: Impossible-like fashion, Santa’s special helpers use high-tech gadgetry to prepare homes for Santa’s arrival on Christmas Eve. Disney.com is currently running the North Pole web cam and is also hosting the Kringle Academy online game, where players can train to someday become part of the Prep & Landing team [...]