Depending upon your feelings toward Russell Brand, you will be delighted or horrified by the most recent box office weekend totals. Despite the fact that four new films opened on Friday, last weekend’s holdover Hop managed to remain on top for a second week in a row.

Brand voices a rabbit who is the main character in the film. The film dropped about 42% from last weekend, which is a little high for a kiddie flick, but it has earned $68.2 Million in its first two weeks of release.

Coming in at number two was the Arthur remake, also starring Brand in the title role. The film only made about $12.6M. That total is quite low considering the fact that the film played on over 3,276 screens. That’s only a $3,276 per/screen average.

The moody assassin movie Hanna almost overtook Arthur with $12.3 million in ticket sales, while playing on a far fewer screens (2,600).  Another newcomer placed fourth. Soul Surfer played on about 2,300 screens, and made $11.1 M.  Even more impressive was the fact that the film got a coveted A+ from audiences polled by Cinemascore. That is extremely rare. Sony Pictures reports that over 80% of the audience was female, also rare.

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Something has been lost in translation in this ill-advised and disappointing remake of  Arthur (1984). The original featured the late comedic talent Dudley Moore, and was nominated for four Academy Awards. It’s a pretty safe assumption that this film won’t be picking up any trophies come awards season.

Russell Brand plays Arthur, a perpetually drunk playboy suffering from a chronic case of arrested development. He lives in a fabulous highrise building in New York, and surrounds himself with gadgets, toys, and booze.

His sole companion is his live-in nanny Hobson, played by Helen Mirren. Hobson has played the role of surrogate mom since Arthur’s birth. She accepts Arthur unconditionally, and serves as his confidante, nursemaid, and cook. Arthur also pals around with his driver Bitterman (Luis Guzman) on any given night.

The first night we see the two step out on the town, they are dressed as Batman and Robin, and Bitterman drives a Batmobile through the streets. Naturally, they get arrested, which seems to be a common occurrence for the two.

Mere moments later, Arthur has posted bail for everyone in the slammer, and all is good in the world. Arthur lives the life of unfettered hedonism, with no obvious consequences to any of his actions. It’s the life of Riley.

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A year and a half ago, we came home from San Diego Comic Con and were given the chance to review the XBox Live Arcade rerelease of one of our top games of the previous decade with Marvel vs. Capcom 2.  The game was an instant hit and was quickly brought over to the PlayStation 3 as well.

It’s not surprising that soon after, seeing the game’s tremendous success, that Capcom announced Marvel vs. Capcom 3. With a super stylized trailer, the hype hasn’t died down. Even last week at release, it was almost impossible for players to get a hold of the Special Edition of the game, a problem not usually seen in retail anymore.

As we have talked about with our previous hands-on experience, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 brings the series’ classic feel and action back with a shiny new coat of graphical paint and effects that players expect and demand.

Gameplay:

Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds doesn’t change the formula that brought Marvel vs. Capcom 2 so much success. The game relies on single round matches between two 3 on 3 teams. Players have three basic attacks of increasing strength, their special attack button, and two assist buttons. These assist buttons can be used to either call in teammates for a quick attack or to switch the character the player is in control of for the fight.

As players throw more attacks and successfully defend against their opponents, they increase their combo meter which builds at the bottom of the screen to unleash Hyper Combos. These hyper combos are special moves that can deal tremendous damage if successful.

This simple control scheme allows for all levels of players to enjoy the game. Expert players will learn advanced combos, juggling and snap backs to eliminate their opponents while newer players will be able to feel like they are setting off tremendous attacks even by just button mashing.

It is an interesting dynamic compared to other fighting games where experience will almost always prevail. While it may be frustrating for an “expert” to get beaten by a lucky combination from a “newbie”, it also makes the game more exciting that outcomes aren’t always so predetermined in multiplayer.

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Welcome to another edition of  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 during the week. Let is know if we missed something interesting.

Let’s get started!

• In case you were under a rock and missed the Super Bowl on Sunday, Apple has all of your favorite trailers from the telecast in glorious HD.

• Russell Brand is back in action, this time with a remake of the classic film Arthur. We can buy Luis Guzman as Robin, but Jennifer Garner being seductive? No way.

• Detroit is taking a page from their fictional history and trying to raise money to put a RoboCop statue in the center of town. That should stop all the crime.

• Amber Heard is in talks to play Ren Sonja in the upcoming remake. She already has the red hair and Amazonian body down, so she sounds like a fit!

• Now that he has that political mid-life crisis out of the way, Arnold Schwarzenegger is looking to get back into acting. Do we smell a sequel to Jingle All The Way?

• Alex Borstein has returned to play Ms. Swan to bring us a Black Swan spoof. Totally topical, right?

• For the diehard film fanatic: 100 of the greatest Noir posters ever created.

• Supercut of the Week: Because Valentines’ Day is coming up, we bring you the Epic TV Kisses Supercut.

It’s no surprise with the amount of sponsorship Capcom has given to the New York Comic Con that they’d have some big announcements for their most anticipated new title, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: The Fate of Two Worlds. Not surprisingly, these announcements came in the form of additions to the roster.

First up is Magneto, returning from his stint in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, this former mutant terrorist turned X-Men gets the HD makeover with all of his favorite Hyper Combos for the next generation of Marvel vs. Capcom combat.

Also buffing up the Marvel side of things is M.O.D.O.K., the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing. The leader of A.I.M. may seem like an odd choice for a fighting game with his limited mobility but Capcom has shown in the trailer below just what kind of technology this former technician is equipped with to put him toe to toe with Capcom’s best.

Speaking of Capcom, their classic hero Arthur from the Ghosts ‘n Goblins series will make his series debut as a playable character. Fans of the series will remember the underwear wearing knight in all his boxer glory as an assist character in the first Marvel vs. Capcom.

Finally, the Bionic Commando Spencer will be added to the series as well. Take a peek at the video below showing the Mortal Kombat-esque “Get over here” attack that Spencer possesses.

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Our good friends at NBC have graciously dropped a bunch of new Merlin clips and cast interviews on us today. And of course, we’ve decided to share them with you. In case you’re not familiar with the show, its a drama that, according to NBC: “updates the story of the infamous sorcerer of Arthurian legend for a new audience. ”

In addition, the show takes place in “the mythical city of Camelot, in a time before history began; a fantastical realm of legendary beasts and mysterious people; a dangerous world in which magic has been banned by the ruthless tyrant, Uther Pendragon.”

The videos we’ve got to share today include a long preview of the show broken into two parts, a discussion of the real-life castles the cast gets to work in while filming the show and interviews with the cast themselves. Speaking of the cast, Merlin features Colin Morgan as Merlin, Bradley James as Prince Arthur, Anthony “Giles” Head as King Uther, Richard Wilson as Gaius, Katie McGrath as Morgana and Angel Coulby as Gwen.

Merlin premieres Sunday, June 21st 8/7c on NBC. Be sure to check out all the videos after the jump.

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