On Saturday morning, it looked like Megamind was going head to head with Due Date.  Both films made around $12M on Friday evening, but Megamind built on its momentum and added another $20 M to its total on Saturday, bringing its full weekend total to $47.7M.  This came from a mixture of 2D and 3D venues.

That is still a bit lower than Despicable Me ($56.4M)  made on its opening weekend, though. Incidentally, Paramount has had a number one movie three of the last  four weekends (Paranormal Activity 2, Jackass 3D and now Megamind.)

That is  not to say that Due Date didn’t have a great weekend.  It’s total of $33.5 M was good enough to break the November record for best opening for an R-rated comedy. The Robert Downey Jr./Zach Galifianakis comedy didn’t so fare so well when it came to critics, but audiences seemed to enjoy the movie.

Tyler Perry continues to be box office gold for Lionsgate.  His latest movie For Colored Girls was not widely screened for critics, but it managed an impressive $20.1 M anyway.  This is the first time Perry has released a R-rated film.  The weekend total is a bit lower than what his films typically earn, but it is a good, solid number.

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Welcome to this week’s On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage this week. Let is know if we missed something interesting. Otherwise, on to the links!

• Joel McHale, proving to us once again that he’s the man, stopped by The Today Show to pimp Community and mock Kathy Lee and Hoda.

• Halloween may be over, but here are some awesome costumes you may have missed.

• People and their damned streaming. Internets everywhere have been clogged up by the massive use of Netflix over the past week.

• A laptop desk that you can attach to your steering wheel? Not since the first porn film played on a portable in-car DVD player has another device potentially caused so many accidents.

• Miss last Sunday’s pilot of AMC’s The Walking Dead? Well lucky for you, the episode is currently online in its entirety.

• Getting your list on, as usual, here are 10 of the best lessons taught to us by comics.

• A group of die hard Harry Potter fans gathered in the center of Grand Central to reenact one of their favorite scenes. New Yorkers were not phased.

• It looks like he may not have found another Alias after all, as J.J. Abrams’ Undercovers has officially gotten the boot from NBC.

The Christening introduces an interesting element in the characters of The Office that, given the number of times the gang has visited a church, has curiously not been explored much before: religion.

The plot revolves around Cice’s titular christening, and Jim and Pam (I refuse to refer to the couple as “Jam”) invite the office to the celebration. The context had me dreading that Michael was going to make a scene and embarrass himself in front of everyone else, but, like Niagra, the writers wisely choose to keep him under some restraint—save for a few misplaced Godfather impersonations.

But, as I wrote, the focus is on how each Sabre employee treats religion, which is handled with a lot of humor and, oddly, some profoundness. Angela, the most overtly “religious” character, uses the church, both literally and figuratively, as a free pass to criticize and admonish everyone around her while maintaining an unearned feeling of superiority.

Here she takes aim at Jim and Pam for whatever reason while cooing over Cice (to such an extent that when Cice goes missing,  Jim immediately accuses Angela of baby-napping, and his admission of that mistake is both blunt and very funny). Jim and Pam themselves don’t seem especially pious and treat the christening more as something that is simply done than anything holy.

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By Erin Tuttle

Due Date is a film that aspires towards being a feel good comedy about two men who go on a quest and through one another ultimately learn about who they are. Todd Phillips’ follow-up to the wildly successful film, The Hangover, however, ends up being no more than a lackluster retelling of better films with a smattering of decent jokes and a deficiency of chemistry between the leads throughout. Its protagonist is Peter Highman, (Robert Downey, Jr.) a businessman on a deadline. He is attempting to reach his wife in Los Angeles before the birth of their first child.

I assume that everything that we need to know about him can be summed up from the fact that he wears a Bluetooth. Obviously, he is one of those guys. Initially traveling home appears to be a simplistic task until he is introduced to Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakas), an aspiring actor with a heart of gold and a brain equally as dense.

Once these two make eye contact, it becomes apparent that Ethan is ultimately Peter’s nemesis and the promise of comedy is made. The promise is made, however, not necessarily kept.

Through a series of coincidental events both Peter and Ethan find themselves on the “No Fly” list and if this wasn’t challenging enough, Peter‘s wallet is not in his possession. Due to this fact, Peter reluctantly teams with Ethan to drive across the country and the premise of the film is in place.

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The group has existed in their own isolation for so long, it makes you wonder why they would often go so far out of their way to exclude Dee from any of the activities, since it’s not likely that they’d find anyone else to replace her. And seeing as how the most recent entrants seem to be Charlie and then Frank, the screening process is aimed at scraping the absolute dregs of humanity. God help them if they find anyone worse than Frank.

But they couldn’t have always been that bad, right? Earlier in life Dennis, Dee, and even Mac were perhaps semi-decent people, with a higher-class group of friends and shared equally semi-decent goals for the future. And that’s what The Gang Gets a New Member explores.

Opening a time capsule the four buried 10 years earlier, The Gang relives some of their glory days before they became misanthropic alcoholics, discovering some long-forgotten relics, which include a laserdisc of The Cider House Rules; a note from the younger Dee that includes a million-dollar check made out to her high-school drama teacher (made out, that is, under the assumption that her future self was by now a famous actress); and some photos of the old days when the fourth-and-a-half member (I assume Dee only counts for one-half a member), Schmitty (guest star Jason Sudeikis).

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Unless you’re pretty knowledgeable, when you think of powerful server hardware for your business or other enterprise level needs the first manufacturer that pops into your mind probably isn’t Apple. It’s more likely Dell, HP or even IBM that comes to mind.

To most consumers, Apple is the company that makes the iPhone, iPad and the Mac and not a line of server hardware designed for businesses. It seems Apple sees themselves that way too as the company has announced it will discontinue sales of their Xserver server hardware as of January 31, 2011.

The company made the announcement via a post on its Xserve splash page. Apple does indicate it will continue to support the Xserve but you just won’t be able to buy a new one after that date. Apple has also made a PDF “transition guide” for Xserve users (Or potential users) which explains the alternatives to Xserve for users wishing to deploy Apple hardware and OSX Server software.

With this announcement it begs the question what Apple has planned for its server software. For the moment, the Mac Pro and Mac Mini server support OSX Server and based on the “transition guide” it sems they will continue to do so, at least for now. Perhaps this means Apple is going to license its server software for use on other Intel based platforms?

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Megamind is the latest animated 3D offering from DreamWorks Animation studios. It  is cute and  clever, but it has the disadvantage of coming out after Despicable Me, another animated film that was released earlier this year. Ultimately, that leaves Megamind feeling a bit stale and not particularly original, but it should provide for a fine family night out at the movies.

Will Ferrell is well cast as the voice of Megamind, a villain who has gone toe to toe with his nemesis “Metro Man” (voiced by Brad Pitt) for decades. They have been vying for bragging rights over Metro City, the place they both call home.

A charming opening sequence shows a flashback of  the two characters as infants, when they were sent to earth (separately) from other planets. Metro Man is embraced as a gift from the gods by his surrogate parents, and is blessed with the chiseled good looks of a movie star.  He grows up  adored and admired by all who come in contact with him.

In stark contrast, Megamind grows up misunderstood and under-appreciated in a prison, saddled with a bulbous head and blue coloring.  His only friend is a minion (David Cross) who is sent to earth with him. Megamind was not always a villain; it is only after getting beat down time after time by his peers that he embraces his inner evil. It becomes his coping mechanism of sorts.

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Well this is an interesting turn of events. With Marc Webb’s upcoming Spider-Man prequel/reboot, things are getting a bit wacky with the casting. We’ve got The Social Network‘s Andrew Garfield taking on the lead, with Emma Stone as Mary Jane and Rhys Ifans as the unnamed villain.

Now the wackiness begins, as Heat Vision is reporting that Martin Sheen, yes the former president of the United States (Art least on TV), has been cast to play Peter Parker’s soon-to-be deceased Uncle Ben.

Kind of a bit part for the man who’s credits include films like Apocalypse Now, Wall Street, and The Departed. This could drastically change the credibility of the film from a “cute indie reboot” to potentially something much bigger.

And if that news isn’t enough to get your interest, Sally Field is currently in talks with Webb and the folks at Sony to play Peter Parker’s frail Aunt May. If Sheen and Field both make it into this movie, you can say goodbye to any of that Indie feel that was originally attached.

That’s right, Aunt May could just be portrayed by The Flying Nun herself. Commence humorous photoshopping now. Spider-Man is expected to start shooting next month, with a July 3rd release date.

*** Note – The following Rock Band 3 review does not formally review the Keyboard, the Pro Guitar peripherals or Pro Mode since they were not available to us at the time of the review. This has been reflected in the review score.***

Harmonix began taking the music genre by storm with their work on the initial Guitar Hero. After parting ways from Activision, they took the game to the next level by making drums and vocals the new standard.

They also came up with the idea of the Rock Band franchise as a platform rather than an annualized release like Guitar Hero has taken (Guitar Hero being on their sixth consecutive yearly release with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock) After two years since Rock Band 2, Harmonix looked to step up their game by adding an additional instrument in the keyboard to the band mix as well as a Pro mode to help players learn how to play guitar, drums and keyboard using music in the game.

They also took concepts from other spinoff titles such as Rock Band: Green Day like vocal harmonies and brought them to the fold as well.

Gameplay:

Not much has changed for Rock Band 3 for the standard band format. Two guitars and a drum set each have a cascading highway of notes down the screen as the vocals scroll across the top.

There is now of course the substitution of a new instrument in the keyboard which can even be used to play the guitar parts of older Rock Band music that hasn’t gotten the keyboard face lift.

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Who doesn’t love a good Farrelly brothers comedy? Let’s leave out a few small films like Heartbreak Kid, Fever Pitch, and Stuck On You. But outside of those, they’ve got some pretty great comedies under their belts. Now, they’re teaming up with Owen Wilson and SNL funnyman Jason Sudeikis for a brand new comedy called Hall Pass.

Basically, the film features Sudeikis and Wilson as two married men who can’t help but look at the sea of attractive women before them. Here’s the breakdown:

Rick (Owen Wilson) and Fred (Jason Sudeikis) are best friends who have a lot in common, including the fact that they have each been married for many years. But when the two men begin to show signs of restlessness at home, their wives (Jenna Fischer, Christina Applegate) take a bold approach to revitalizing their individual marriages: granting them a “hall pass,” one week of freedom to do whatever they want…no questions asked.

At first, it sounds like a dream come true for Rick and Fred. But it isn’t long before they discover that their expectations of the single life-and themselves-are completely, and hilariously, out of sync with reality.

Of course, the phrase “hilarity ensues” isn’t used here, but you can imagine that it’s necessary. Check out the full trailer after the jump and be sure to catch Hall Pass in theaters next February 25.

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In what may be one of the most profound videos ever put together, YouTube user Musicvideosthatsuck has compiled a video highlighting all of the times Mad Men character and serious power player Don Draper has uttered the word “What?” Now I’m not suggesting this video will change your life but it will give you a good idea as to the power of one word and also the skills of the actor who portrays Draper on the show: potential Superman Jon Hamm.

Even if you’re not really interested in writing, acting or much of anything else, you still have to appreciate the power of one word. In all the situations he gets into and all the people he deals with Draper wields the word “What” as a weapon, a punchline, an insult or in whatever way will make him come out on top in said situation.

As a person who appreciates good writing and good performances I can certainly appreciate this kind of thing. Made even easier, of course, when someone takes the time to put a video like this together for all to see and appreciate. Okay, enough from me, let’s get to the video — after the break of course. What?

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Yesterday, we brought you two clips from this week’s episode of Community, airing tomorrow night. In the episode, HIlary Duff and Matt Walsh (The Daily Show) guest star in Aerodynamics of Gender that include Greendale’s very own versions of The Secret Garden and Mean Girls.

This season has already seen some pretty impressive episodes, including an entire episode dedicated to Apollo 13, and yes–even a zombie episode. It hasn’t been announced whether or not NBC is picking up the show for another season, but if it’s ratings are any indicator, this may be the last we’ll see of our gang.

In the last clip we have for you today, Abed (Danny Pudi) uses his quirky ability to pick out personality weaknesses to take down the school’s very own group of girl bullies, lead by Hilary Duff.

Expect this episode to be more centric on the cast’s female stars, as they get their very own revenge on this group of Mean Girls.

Check out the clip after the jump, and be sure to catch Community tomorrow night at 8pm P/EST.

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