April Fools Day is usually a day that brings tons of fake news, including trailer releases (like that Legend of Zelda trailer that will never be made into a movie *sadface*). But this year, April 1st was the release date of the red band trailer for the unbelievably star-packed action comedy This Is The End starring James Franco (who has had an already packed 2013 with the release of Spring Breakers and Oz The Great and Powerful), Seth Rogen, Emma Watson, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson, and that’s just the supposed “main cast.” From just watching the trailer, expect appearances by Michael Cera, Rihanna, Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, Jason Segel, Paul Rudd, Mindy Kaling, and more. Holy freaking casting!

The main plot of the movie is simple: James Franco is throwing a kick-ass party and invites all his friends (because celebrities always party with tons of other celebrities) to have a crazy good time. Until the apocalypse happens. Los Angeles is engulfed in fire and brimstone, monsters and aliens are running rampant, people are looting and killing, mass hysteria basically.

Eventually, the main cast barricade themselves in what’s left of Franco’s house and try to survive. At one point, Emma Watson breaks in with an ax (a freaking AX) to try her hand at some looting, which looks to be successful based on the apparent self-testimonial video that is shot by the guys who are documenting what’s going on during the end of days.

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Sorry for missing last week. My sister was getting married, and it put the kibosh on reviewing the Parks and Rec opener, which I wasn’t even aware had premiered until it came up during the reception, between one of my friends and cousin Jane, both of whom raved about it while I bit my tongue, cheek, lip, and anything with gnawing range for having missed it.

They also mentioned that next week’s episode would feature a drinking contest between Tammy I, Ron’s mom, and Leslie. Add to that the fact that the episode is titled “Ron & Tammys,” the Ron-and-Tammy episodes being among the series’ best, I was very excited for tonight.

But to back up a bit, we’re finally introduced to what we can only believe is the demon whose evil outdoes even Satan (Tammy II): Tammy I (Patricia Clarkson, looking sexy in an appropriately red dress). The cliffhanger that Season 3 ended on, where Leslie told Ron that Tammy I was waiting in his office (and scaring away Tammy II with a mere shot of I’s shoes) certainly lived up to the hype, and, just to reinforce it, there was a great scene last week when Tammy I put April in her place (and further magnified the threat by having her work for the IRS and auditing Ron).

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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!

• Want to learn how to have the body of Spider-Man and the creepiness of a grown man in tights hanging out with kids? This instructional workout video hosted by Spider-Man himself should help!

• Homemade puppets aren’t usually a collection that one brags about, but this homemade Wheatley puppet from Portal 2 is definitely one to show all of your friends as they drool with envy.

• The very first episode of Adult Swim’s Black Dynamite animated series has made it online before it hits TV. Bring on the animated exploitation!

• The folks at Sesame Street feel like enough is enough and have decided to come forward with an official statement about whether Bert & Ernie are actually gay or not.

• What do Kanye West, Jay-Z, Aziz Ansari and Spike Jonze all have in common? They all came together to bring us the official music video for “Otis” and it’s pretty awesome.

• Hot off of his Oscar win for the Social Network score, get your first taste of what Trent Reznor is bringing to the table in the score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

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I’m by no means a fan of reality television. That being said, I have stuck with some of the traditional shows that gave birth (in a Rosemary’s Baby kind of way) to the current reality programming genre. Those shows are COPS and America’s Most Wanted. I even remember when both shows premiered on Fox, a newbie network at the time…and I probably just dated myself with that comment given they’ve been on for over twenty years respectively.

It was because of my loyalty to America’s Most Wanted that had me shiver a little when I saw the trailer for the upcoming Jesse Eisenberg film, 30 Minutes or Less.  Here’s the premise care of IMDB:

Two fledgling criminals kidnap a pizza delivery guy, strap a bomb to his chest, and inform him that he has mere hours to rob a bank or else…

Sounds pretty funny, right? Pizza delivery guy gets a bomb strapped to him and he’s forced to rob a bank.  I’d be laughing had this not unfolded in real life with far less comedic repercussions.

On August 28, 2003 Brian Wells arrived for work at 11:00 am.  His occupation: pizza delivery driver.  At 1:30 pm Brian was asked to deliver two cheese and pepperoni pizzas to a remote location near the woods.  About an hour after that Brian entered a bank with a bomb strapped to him (around his neck in this case) and handed the teller a note demanding money.

It’s an eerie tale to be sure and when I first saw the segment on America’s Most Wanted I thought, who’s going to be the first to make a movie about that.  At the time I imagined some type of Michael Mann crime drama in the same vein as Collateral. Apparently I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Instead, this real life, horrifying event has been wrapped in what I’m sure critics will call a “laugh-out-loud” buddy comedy.  I have no way to confirm if writers Matthew Sullivan and Michael Diliberti knew anything about what has been dubbed “the collar bomb” case, but according to Wikipedia (take it with a grain of salt) that was the basis for 30 Minutes or Less.

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You didn’t think I’d let the season finale of Parks & Rec go by without a writeup (however late), did you? Well, given my inability to balance it among The Office recaps and the usual movie reviews and whatever else is kicking around in my head and just oozing to be ignored, I can’t blame you.

I did, in fact, have a recap of the season’s best episode “Ron and Tammy II,” but it ran to over a 1,000+ words, and I still hadn’t scratched the surface of its brilliance (“Real piece of work…”), so sometimes quality overtakes quantity regarding something or other that probably likely also begins with “q.”

But that’s not to say that recapping the final two episodes is a mild attempt to do them justice, it’s just a shorter, briefer form of justice. A McJustice. Plus both of them were awesome enders to an equally awesome season.

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I’m glad there were two episodes—disregarding the fact that it meant double the recaps—because it was nice to see the Leslie/Ben (is there a name for this yet? If not, I’m submitting “LesBien” for mass consideration) sexual tension get some mutual recognition—and some face-munching.

But that comes later. The first episode, “The Fight,” honors the timeless sitcom staple of everyone getting really, really drunk. The setup is that Pawnee’s head of public relations for the health department has, as Chris says, “Gone bananas,” freeing his position up for Leslie to swoop in and recommend Ann Perkins for the job, a job Ann’s none too willing to take since it entails memorizing every Pawnee health reform since the 1950s (which actually might make interesting, if not terrifying reading)…in one night.

Meanwhile, Tom’s developed a new drink to promote at the Snake Hole: Snake Juice, a 140-proof, Kahlua-inspired liquor (basically a lot of alcohol mixed with sugar and coffee), which likely tastes as good as it sounds, but oh how it does the job. Tom invites the gang out to partake (but more to help peddle the hooch), and oh how they do, particularly Ann Perkins, who ditches the massive amount of homework Leslie prepares and is now dating The Douche, Pawnee’s own radio-shock-idiot, last seen in “Media Blitz.”

Leslie gets incensed at Ann’s promiscuity and Ann retaliates by chiding Leslie for hiding her feelings toward Ben, leading to a booze-fueled confrontation between the two that results in a falling out/massive hangover.

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Oh, just make out already! Or go hog wild on Tom’s desk. Or have Chris or Ron or Ann Perkins or all three catch you in bed together, Leslie and Ben! You guys were doing so well avoiding the trap of lingering romance that every damn sitcom and its mongoloid step-brother trips, I hope you can chew your foot off before it’s too late.

“Jerry’s Painting” continues pushing the Leslie/Ben thing that, hopefully, will culminate in an upcoming episode where the two take a road trip to Indianapolis (I saw it on the Wikipedia), and Chris even goes so far as to set Ben up with someone who has what he deems “compatible traits,” to the natural chagrin of Leslie. But the bulk deals with the eponymous (damn, I hate that word) Jerry’s Painting—on full display at the Pawnee community art exhibit—which depicts a topless female centaur slaying a deer while a Reubenesque cherub looks on.

But, of course, it’s by Jerry, so naturally it has to have something wrong with it, which is that the centaur resembles a topless Leslie and the cherub resembles Tom (I wonder what mythical Greek creature Ron would be…Zeus?). However, while Tom is (in a cosmic sense unjustifiably) incensed, Leslie loves it and feels empowered that it’s her flailing boobies taking down a stag. What woman wouldn’t? Still, topless art is topless art, and Marcia Langman, the same Bible-beating woman who tries to find some anti-Christian message in everything objects to the implied beastiality of the painting and wants it destroyed, as does Tom, though for completely different reasons.

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Members of my generation probably remember Rescue Rangers, the cartoon that (if you lived in mid-Michigan in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s) eased the de-gression each weekday from the awesomeness of Ducktales to the mediocrity of Tailspin. Rangers wasn’t up to the same level of quality of Ducktales, but it did have one thing that kept our pudgy little eyes watching: Gadget.

Smart, sexy, and sporting a dynamite purple jumpsuit that no girl ever dared try pull off, Gadget was ashamedly appealing, and Disney gets a lot of credit for screwing up our concepts of attractiveness and sexuality. My college roommate’s predilection for redheads stems from seeing The Little Mermaid at a birthday party when he was seven (that same friend also took my “Who’s Your Ideal Cartoon Woman” quiz and, oddly enough, ended up with Gadget, which he reasoned was actually an ideal choice).

So what does this have to do with Parks & Rec? Outside of mindless filler and the hope of scoring more hits from the nostalgic crowd, I think I’ve nailed down what makes Leslie Knope so fetching: She’s the human equivalent of Gadget. “Mousey” would certainly be a good adjective to describe her—she’s petite and generally shy, regarding the opposite sex; she’s blonde; and she’s scatterbrained yet curiously competent at what she does (and in both cases it’s implied that their work is a substitute for social interaction).

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NBC’s Thursday night lineup may be some of the funniest comedies on TV today, and that is in no small part due to the outrageous ensemble cast on Parks & Recreation. Sure, people love Amy Poehler and Aziz Ansari, but another performance that stands out beyond many others is the dry one-liners of Aubrey Plaza.

She’s done great things on Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Parks & Rec, and seems to have a continuing relationship with College Humor. A few years ago, she worked on a Twilight spoof for the online comedy site, titled Three Wolf Moon. Now she’s back again, this time spoofing Star Wars.

Sure, they avoided a heavy budget and a letter from Lucas Ranch by using knockoff stormtrooper helmets, but that doesn’t mean the skit didn’t capture the true essence of the Imperial prison from A New Hope.

Sadly, you can’t add Plaza to the list of actresses like Olivia Munn and Alessandra Torresani who have donned the epic Slave Leia outfit, but that doesn’t mean she still doesn’t have the hair buns. Check out the skit after the jump.

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While it may not seem like it, MTV still appeals to kids. Though they aren’t the same cut of “kid” that was watching Twisted Sister music videos (or music videos in general), they’re still the #1 demographic for the network.

With that in mind, it was no surprise that Twilight: New Moon took home nearly half of the awards from last night’s MTV Movie Awards. A few other upsets included Ken Jeong winning for Best WTF Moment, and international superstar Rain being crowned Best Badass.

Aziz Ansari managed to hold together the night, bringing the same amount of energy and seniority that Andy Samburg brought to the awards show last year. A few fun surprises like Sandra Bullock and a drunk Peter Facinelli were entertaining. The newest go-to gag of Betty White and yesterday’s go-to gag Will Ferrell delivered, as usual.

Biggest surprise of the night has to go to Tom Cruise reprising his Les Grossman role from 2008′s Tropic Thunder. 2008! That would be two years ago. Long enough for it not to be relevant, but not far away enough for it to be retro. That would be like Owen Wilson doing a bit as Marmaduke 3 years from now. Not entirely necessary.

Check out the full list of broadcast winners from last night’s show, and be sure to catch the worthwhile clips of last night’s ceremony all over the web.

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It’s that time of the year when the regular award season comes to a halt and those “other” award shows start picking up the slack. The quotes are in place due to the fact that awards like the upcoming MTV Movie Awards are only awards in the sense that the chosen winner gets a trophy. It can’t even be called a popularity contest anymore as it’s more like the ”Twilight wins while people promote their upcoming project” awards.

Last year, Twilight collected a record four awards, which is a third of the categories given. This year, there are a few others hoping to knock the shiny vamps off of the hill like Avatar and Alice in Wonderland.

Parks and Recreation star Aziz Ansari is hosting this year, so expect some solid written material for the opening monologue and more. Check out the site to vote for your favorite film and actor/actress, and be sure to catch the 2010 MTV Movie Awards Live(ish) on June 6th at 9PM/8PM Central.

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Funny Or Die is one of those websites that brings wasting time on the internet, and our favorite comedians together. Originally created by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, the minds behind Anchorman, Step Brothers, and Taladega Nights, the site was meant as a place for comedians to come together and contribute for the masses.

The site has had such contributors as Zach Galifiniakis, Judd Apatow, Ed Helms, Don Cheadle, Tim Meadows, James Franco, Aziz Ansari, Tom Lennon, and countless others. HBO finally caught wind of the site’s growing popularity and have put together a weekly anthology collection, which premieres this week.

The show will have some of our favorite bits, such as Drunk History, Just 3 Boyz, Hold Up, Between 2 Ferns, and many more. The first episode hits this Friday, February 19th at midnight, and looks to be a good one.

Check out an exclusive new preview of the coming episodes after the jump, and be sure to keep it here for all the updates we can bring you on HBO’s Funny or Die Presents.

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Remember how much you enjoyed Forgetting Sarah Marshall? That is, if you did. Either way, you’re in luck, because the least entertaining part of that film is back, and this time you get a whole 90 minutes of it!

Basically, director Nicholas Stoller loved the scene from Sarah Marshall where Jonah Hill acts quirky around Russell Brand’s Aldous Snow so much that he felt the need to work that into an entire movie. And here it is. The premise follows music label assistant Hill, who needs to get Brand’s “Snow” to L.A.’s Greek Theater, while learning to live life like a rock star along the way.

Even the use of comedians Nick Kroll and Aziz Ansari are instantly quashed when Sean “P. Diddy” Combs takes up a good half of the trailer. This looks to be Universal’s big attempt at comedy this year, which will go up against others like Date Night starring Steve Carrell and Tina Fey, the Death At a Funeral remake, and Katherine Heigl’s Killers.

It’s up to MacGruber, Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil, and Hot Tub Time Machine to save us in 2010. No matter what happens, check out the first trailer for Get Him To The Greek after the jump, which hits theaters on June 4th.

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2010 is in full swing and some really great movies are hitting store shelves this week for the first time and for the first time on Blu-ray. This week’s releases include Gamer, Magnolia, Boogie Nights, Che, Damages, the complete run of ABC’s canceled too soon Defying Gravity and the Blu-ray release of Whiteout with Kate Beckinsale (pictured above).

Check out this week’s releases:

Movies

According to Greta ~ Hilary Duff, Ellen Burstyn (DVD)

Boogie Nights ~ Mark Wahlberg, Heather Graham, Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore (Blu-ray)

Bourne Supremacy (Single-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) ~ Matt Damon, Brian Cox, Karl Urban (Blu-ray)

Bourne Ultimatum (Single-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) ~ Matt Damon, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn (Blu-ray)

Che (Criterion Collection) ~ Benicio del Toro (Blu-ray)

Gamer ~ Gerard Butler, Amber Valetta, Michael C. Hall, Kyra Sedgwick (DVD and Blu-ray)

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