Kevin Smith is an excellent entertainer. His movies have a limited audience, but his podcasts and speaking engagements have proven Smith can engage a crowd like few others can. Now that his directing career seems to be coming to a self-imposed end, it is nice to see him pursuing other outlets for his talents.

One of those outlets is a new show called Spoilers on Hulu, according to Wired:

The show, which will premiere June 4 on Hulu, will showcase Smith and 50 die-hard movie fans right after they’ve seen a big blockbuster movie on opening night, creating a monster gab-fest full of opinions, fights and — because it’s a Smith endeavor — plenty of gags and a bit of Jason Mewes (the Jay to Smith’s Silent Bob).

The concept of the show is rock solid. A psuedo-review show that is after a more general public opinion instead of the academic opinions you often find on televised review shows. The list of movies they already plan on covering is impressive, hopefully the show’s format works as well in practice as it does on paper.

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There is a new James Bond movie coming and, despite the mixed reception of Quantum of Solace, it will be heavily anticipated. So we have waited for the first teaser patiently, waiting for that first real morsel of the film to get excited about.

That time has come as the first teaser for the film has hit the interwebs. For those of you unfamiliar with the plot and circumstances of Skyfall, here is it’s synopsis:

Daniel Craig is back as James Bond 007 in Skyfall, the 23rd adventure in the longest-running film franchise of all time.  In Skyfall, Bond’s loyalty to M (Judi Dench) is tested as her past comes back to haunt her.  As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.

Not only does the film look stunning, but Skyfall also boasts one of the best casts ever for a Bond film. Aside from series regulars Craig and Dame Judi Dench, the film also features Ralph Finnes, Albert Finny and Javier Bardem. One thing is certain, this film wont lack for talent.

Check out the teaser after the jump.

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Before I recount the gory details of Battleship‘s disastrous opening weekend, it behooves me to let you know yet again that The Avengers won the weekend. I adore The Avengers, but it has made so much money so fast that we are just about out of things to say about it in the Box Office report.

It settled a measly 46.6% for another $55+ million at the domestic box office. The Avengers scored a few more speed records, such as fastest film to $450 Million domestic, in 10 less days than the next best film. Next weekend will be interesting though, its first (potentially) non-first place hold will give a decent indication of how big of a final total we can expect.

The good news for Battleship is that it isn’t a complete and utter disaster worldwide. With its international release weeks in the film has already made over $200 Million. Of course it made a paltry $25 Million here in the states and will be viewed as a the new John Carter (and THAT film’s reign as biggest cinematic black eye might end up short-lived).

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It’s safe to say there’s at least one show geeks and nerds in many lands can agree is pretty awesome. That show is, of course, Game of Thrones.

The shows visuals, casting and story have captivated audiences and made the show a success for HBO. Another major element of Game of Thrones that contributes to its success is the series’ musical score.

One fan, YouTube’s own MrSolidSnake745, has taken his love of the Game of Thrones score to even great heights and made his own hommage to the series’ main title theme.

The difference here is that he did it all with eight floppy disk drives. Putting aside the fact that even finding eight floppy drives is a pretty amazing feat these days, this video is still pretty impressive.

Check it out after the break.

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The CW has aded its shows to the mix today and has announced its full Fall schedule of programming. For the new season, the network is adding 5 new drama series which, in addition to its returning shows, will be “strategically” rolled out starting in early October.

The new shows, Arrow, Beauty And The Beast and Emily Owens, MD, will debut in the fall. The remaining dramas, Cult and The Carrie Diaries, will arrive midseason. In addition to its new shows, the network is also making some changes to its existing ones.

Supernatural is moving to Wednesday and will air following the new drama Arrow. America’s Next Top Model is moving to Friday to give Nikita a new lead-in. The rest of the changes can be found in the new schedule.

Click through for the full CW schedule, some videos and descriptions of the new series.

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In yet another display of near complete disregard for its customers, Verizon Wireless announced this week it plans to eliminate the $30/Month unlimited data plan any user subscribed to prior to the company’s transition to tiered data plans last July. Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said at the 40th J.P. Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom conference that once unlimited 3G data plan customers upgrade to 4G LTE, they will be forced to purchase the company’s shared data plan.

“Everyone will be on data share,” Shammo said. The carrier’s shared data plans are scheduled to launch in the coming months, and will allow users to share a single pool of data between multiple devices. “If I can add as many devices as I want, that is more efficient from a family perspective and a small business perspective,” the CFO said.

When asked how Verizon will migrate customers off their unlimited data plans, Shammo said that LTE will draw customers away from it. “A lot of our 3G base is on unlimited,” he said. “When they migrate off 3G they will have to go to data share. That is beneficial to us.”

Sure, beneficial to you, but how does that benefit customers again? Oh yeah, it doesn’t. It just means people should get ready to pay ever increasing costs for mobile data.

How do we feel about this?

Earlier this week we had some previews for upcoming Fall shows from our friends at NBC. Now, thanks to the miracle of modern technology, we can being you even more previews.

This time around its shows from CBS, including a modern day western (well the 60s at least) and a detective show featuring the great Sherlock Holmes. Of the shows previewed, we kinda like the Western called Vegas the best. It looks fun and, let’s face it, we love Vegas.

Plus, it features Dennis Quaid, Carrie-Anne Moss and Michael Chiklis, so that’s cool too. Sadly, it also stars Jason O’Mara, who is pretty much the kiss of death for new shows, so we don’t hold out much hope Vegas will survive.

But who knows, maybe the show will get lucky. We’ll have more previews as they come out. In the meantime, click through to check out the videos we’ve got so far.

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To say Minecraft: XBox 360 Edition is already a success is an understatement. The game literally became profitable within the first hour of sales and boasted 400,000 users in its first 24 hours, breaking all XBLA records including the one set by fellow Arcade Next member Trials Evolution with its quarter million first day sales. But does commercial success equal a great game? In the case of Minecraft: XBox 360 Edition, the two are one in the same.

Gameplay

For those who haven’t played Minecraft yet in either its PC or mobile incarnations yet, the game is an open world where players must mine resources around them in order to craft tools and build structures including buildings, mine cart pathways and increasingly complex machines. On the surface, Minecraft looks incredibly simple as players only need to hack away at or place objects in the world around them.

But there are tons of layers of depth. Players literally start in a world with nothing but their fists to punch out sections of a tree. Once they have some wood, they start constructing tools to make these tasks easier. They also can craft weapons and armor to help defend themselves from the world around them.

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Last night during the season premiere of America’s Got Talent, all five of the NBC viewers were treated to an extended ‘super’ preview of The Amazing Spider-Man. Basically it super-sized the most recent trailer with an extended scene, some dubstep-ish cues and a couple of choice new shots.

The movie is in an odd place for the general public. We are not that far removed from the Raimi series, and despite the vocal internet backlash to the third film, it was a success. So Sony has to win over a skeptical public on top of the already difficult task of competing with this summer’s other two comic book goliaths.

To Sony’s credit this extended trailer marks the most interesting and inciting glimpse at their reboot. It showcases one of the most important aspects of Peter Parker that was almost missed completely in the Raimi films, the personality of Spider-Man.

Spider-Man is a wise-cracking, naive, and most importantly noble hero. There is a duality to Peter that is much more subtle than in a character like Batman, but is no less important. If the Marc Webb reboot can tap into that, we can all be in for a very pleasant surprise this summer.

Check out the full trailer after the jump.

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Idris Elba will be returning as Heimdall in the Thor sequel. While that might seem like a bit of ‘well duh’ kind of news, it is nice to hear none the less. Considering the man is a very talented and very busy actor, whose role in Thor was pretty small, it would not have been terribly surprising if he didn’t have the time for another minor role right now.

However, Mr. Elba recently chatted with Collider who got the confirmation direct from the man himself:

Yes, I am.  I’m definitely going to do my man in a suit film… I’d just like to get to know him a bit more.  Who is Heimdall?  He guards the gate.  Okay.  Is there anything else?  I don’t know what is in the script because I haven’t read it yet.  But, the audience has responded to Asgard and wants to know more about who lives there and what it’s about.  I’m sure, if they do that, Heimdall will be featured more.

Not only is he coming back, but clearly Elba is eager to explore his character more. It would be really great if they allowed him that opportunity, especially the way the story is set up. Heimdall guards the Bifrost, the Bifrost has been destroyed.

That could make for some juicy stuff for Elba to sink his teeth into, and maybe a far more interesting way to incorporate another famous Asgardian who has a few obscure ties to Heimdall, Amora the Enchantress.

The war for dominance in the social media space will never really be won. Even with Facebook and Twitter dominating the scene at the moment, there’s always going to be other players looking to draw eyeballs and attention to their networks and platforms.

One such player in this war is search giant Google, whose Google+ social network debuted towards the end of last year. Sadly, even with some impressive user numbers, over 100 Million at last count, a new study suggests that “social activity and user engagement” on the service is far from good. In fact, it’s downright terrible.

Over at Fast Company, the findings of an RJ Metrics study that analyzed data from a sample of 40,000 public Google+ accounts in an effort to determine just how successful the social network is was revealed. The reports main conclusion? Google+ is a ghost town.

According to the report, the average post on Google+ gets fewer than one “+1,” the equivalent of a “like” on Facebook, and fewer than one reply. Links and other items shared publicly by Google+ users are re-shared just 0.17 times per post, on average. In addition, users averaged about one post every 12 days, usage per user declines each month after they make their first public post and about 30% of users who make a first public post never make another one.

As a daily user of Google+ (here’s my profile) I find this report interesting. On the surface it paints a pretty grim picture of Google+ and its user base. However, it only takes into account public post on the service, something I almost never make.

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It’s that time of year when thoughts turn to network schedules. This time around it’s ABC, which released its full Fall 2012 schedule this week.

The network is taking no prisoners this year and boldly launching 10 new series including 666 Park Avenue, The Family Tools, How To Live With Your Parents (For The Rest Of Your Life), Last Resort, Malibu Country, Mistresses, Nashville, The Neighbors, Red Widow and Zero Hour. Five of the new series will bow in the fall, the rest in midseason.

Hey, we’re just happy Castle and Happy Endings are coming back. As for the new shows, we will have to wait and see. No point getting invested now, especially these days when networks kill shows after only a few episodes.

Full schedule followed by descriptions of the shows follows (thanks to the folks at Deadline for putting this together:

MONDAY

8 PM “Dancing with the Stars”

10 PM “Castle”

In January

8 PM “The Bachelor”

10 PM “Castle”

TUESDAY

8 PM “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show”

9 PM “Happy Endings”

9:30 PM “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23”

10 PM “Private Practice”

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