I like the dynamic Todd Packer brings to The Office. Among the group of miserable souls who have their own beefs with each other and whose allegiance depends on whatever the week’s plot requires, Packer was always a fun wrench to toss into the cogs and, somehow, make them work better.

Basically, in his earlier appearances, Packer became the one thing towards which every petty person at Dunder-Mifflin could put aside personal differences and rally against. There’s something heartwarming in that solidarity. I also love David Koechner.

Of course, Packer has only made a handful of those appearances (four? five maybe?), but they’ve all been memorable thanks to Koechner, who finds the relishing humor in school-yard insults such as “Michael Snot!” and adolescent put-downs regarding Jim’s sexuality. He’s the missing link in the evolution of the 1^st-grade-bully-to-frat-boy-to-?-to-child-molesting-Uncle-John. Naturally an episode devoted entirely to him wouldn’t work.

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It’s nice to see that among the bevy of Michael send-offs, that The Office took a slight detour to give thanks to the rest of its fantastic cast. “Threat Level Midnight” is a self-indulgent love-letter to the cast that’s very generous with its humor and divvies up the best lines evenly among the current cast and even takes time to fondly remember some of the former performers, including a great cameo from Jan and creepily carnal lines from Pam’s mom and Karen (though the most disturbing one is Goldenface’s “I’m going to dig up Scarn’s dead wife and have sex all over her”).

Michael’s screenplay was first introduced wayyyy back in season 2, when the gang discovered it in Michael’s office and shut down work for the day to hold a reading in the conference room (the episode also had one of the best Michael-defining jokes of the series when it was discovered that Scarn’s bumbling sidekick was originally named “Dwight” until Michael did a search-and-replace to rename the character.

Unfortunately for the real Dwight, it didn’t pick up Michael’s misspelled “Dwigt”–it loses something in the explanation, but trust me, it was funny). I didn’t think there’d ever be more than a passing reference to it, if were ever brought up again, and that it’d go down as one of those things best left to the imagination, kind of like The Office’s own “Rules of Calvinball,” but run with it they did.

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The phrase “it was only a matter of time” seems a bit obsolete if I’m going to use it to describe the meeting between Michael Scott and the original Michael Scott, David Brent. The U.S. Office is in its seventh season, and by now the characters are molded enough that a guest appearance by Ricky Gervais is less a gimmick for a ratings boost than it is a nice little detour on the way toward Steve Carell’s sendoff.

And that’s pretty much what they do. Brent’s not integral to the plot; he just appears in the cold open, shares some banter with Michael, the two hug, and end scene. It’s basically your standard sitcom cameo, but it works a little better than most. For one, and like I said, it’s not a cheap attempt for ratings, and it’s also not punctuated by a score of hoots and hollers from the studio audience (the lack of which has served The Office endlessly well throughout its seven seasons). It’s quick, it’s fun, and that’s about it.

The A plot of the episode deals with Andy conducting a small-business seminar in an effort to boost sales. Essentially his plan is to get a bunch of gullible, budding entrepreneurs into the conference room, have some of the sales team come in and make a few platitudinal, motivational speeches (“Dream big!”), and then hit them with a sales pitch for some business-plan packages.

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It goes without saying that NBC’s Americanized verison of The Office has been a smash hit since its debut in 2005. It did have a bit of a rocky start as some fans panned the show for being a cheap knockoff of Ricky Gervais’ UK original. Later, the show earned its wings and became a staple in current American comedies.

While the shows gone on to create its own identity, Gervais has slowly made his way into the hearts of American TV viewers everywhere. So it only makes sense to have Gervais’ Office character David Brent meet Steve Carell’s Michael Scott.

That’s exactly what happened in last night’s episode of The Office, as the shows cold open included a meeting of stars between Carell and Gervais and we have that clip just for YOU!

Check it out after the jump, and catch the rest of The Office season 7 every Thursday night on NBC.

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“Ultimatum” follows up on Holly’s decision to force her fiancée AJ to either marry her or leave her, and no one’s more excited to know how that played out than Michael, who’s already gone overboard before even hearing the news and prepared (with the ever-adorable help of Erin) two emergency boxes: a happy one for if Holly’s left AJ (including streamers, champagne, a rubber mallet, etc.), and a sad one if she hasn’t (gummy bears, a sponge “to dry my tears,” and two fifths of scotch).

Meanwhile, Pam, taking a cue from the evidently more chipper staff of Bob Vance’s office (am I the only one who wants to see the inner workings of Vance Refrigeration?) sets up a “resolution board” for the rest of the office. The premise is that each member of the office writes down their New Year’s resolutions on a 3X5 card and posts it on the board. Then the board will be hung somewhere ostentatious to keep everyone committed to their word.

Holly shows up, and, after a quick tease as to whether she has an engagement ring (she doesn’t), she tells the nosier element of the office that AJ has not, in fact, committed, but she’s staying with him anyway, which naturally sends Michael into another depression.

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Uwe Boll has given up. At least, that’s what he’s trying to give the impression of. From the man who brought us films like Postal, Rampage, and an upcoming documentary on Auschwitz, comes Blubberella, a film about an overweight half-vampire who takes her hungry vengeance out on Hitler and his band of Nazis.

If Lloyd Kaufman were dead, he’d be spinning in his grave at the thought that Boll is making films that could be considered more vulgar and pointless than his films. As if you needed any kind of proof that this film will be obscurely bad, cult hero Clint Howard is cast as a Nazi scientist in the film.

Boll regulars Lindsay Hollister and Michael Paré also join in the cast. You may remember Hollister as Steve Carell’s lonely overweight dance partner from Get Smart, and you may remember Paré from other decent films like Streets of Fire and The Philadelphia Experiment.

The film is begrudgingly making it’s way to theaters next year, but you can check out what we’re talking about with the full trailer after the jump. Enjoy!

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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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I’m always happy to see what the office is going to look like each Halloween: Dwight’s going to be something topical (The Scranton Strangler—check); Angela’s going to be some kind of animal (a penguin—check); Michael’s going to be something hopelessly unfunny (MacGruber—well, you get the idea); and Jim’s going to be apathetic.

The costumes are always fun because they’re great reflections of the characters themselves—Kevin always tries desperately to be cool but never quite succeeds (this year he’s Michael Moore); Creed’s always a step behind the times (Dracula, the Mummy); Pam’s a dork (Olive Oyl—and is it a meta-joke that Jenna Fischer is waaaay too busty to pull off the outfit?), but this year’s standout is the weasely Gabe, who comes dressed, to many a cringe, as Lady Gaga.

On one level I can see him going for the popular choice (never mind the gender differences, or should they matter?) because of his fleeting hope to fit in, but on another, more plausible level, I said it’s because there’s a much darker side to Mr. Lewis.

I haven’t gotten much enjoyment from the season so far, but it was a nice touch to joke around with the characters’ personalities—that’s the kind of humor that made The Office a great show, and it’s either been missing or fallen flat for much of season 7.

But as for the actual episode, the bulk is dedicated to a rising tension between Michael and Darryl, who took an idea to have the warehouse workers/drivers suggest other products when making their deliveries straight to Gabe, bypassing his obligatory running it by Michael first. Michael had previously rejected the idea, and when he finds out that Darryl “Took him from behind” (“Went behind his back”), Michael throws a tantrum and pretty soon has ditched his MacGruber costume to dress up as Darry and ruin the Halloween party by openly mocking him.

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Did I miss something, or isn’t The Office company Sabre now and not Dunder-Mifflin? Yeah? Then why did they keep referring to it as “Dunder-Mifflin” all this episode? Was it part of the ruse? I don’t know. I couldn’t follow this episode too well and am apparently one of the few people who didn’t find it particularly funny.

The basic rundown is that hotshot salesman Danny Cordray (guest star Timothy Olyphant—but wouldn’t it be awesome if it were Rob Corddry?), who apparently is the best salesman in the Dunder-Mifflin company (ah, maybe that’s what was confusing—but then Sabre bought out Dunder-Mifflin, right?) is competing with Jim and Dwight to land an account with a high-profile potential client, so to hit heavy, they bring in Michael, who, despite all his incompetences as a manager, is still a first-rate salesman.

Nevertheless, Sabre still loses the account, so Michael and Dwight set up the titular “Sting” to learn his sales secrets and enlist Meredith to pose in a wired room as a company head and potential client. Danny falls for the bait while Michael, Jim, and Dwight watch from another room, but the plan goes awry when Meredith starts coming on to Danny, prompting Michael to intervene and try to patch things up by offering Danny a job at Sabre (or was it Dunder-Mifflin?).

Danny’s greeted coolly by the rest of the office, who are worried that he’s going to steal their clients, and apparently he has a past history with Pam, which puts Jim on the defensive.

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Of all the characters in The Office who’d seem prime candidates for an STD, I’d say Creed and Meredith probably top the list. Michael, albeit hopelessly naïve, seems to gravitate toward women more mentally, rather than physically, questionable.

So when he shows up with a cold sore and the rest of the office immediately leaps to the conclusion that it’s the result of herpes, it’s kind of odd. Nevertheless, his condition goes mostly ignored by the rest of the gang save Dwight, who takes it upon himself to oversee Michael’s informing his past exes about his new (though undiagnosed) STD.

First on the list is the love of Michael’s life, Holly, who’s since gone on to a more rational plane, still seeing her current boyfriend AJ and noting that Michael over-romanticized their time together. A bit at a loss for words, he hangs up without delivering the news and moves on to the next, Donna, the bar manager who would be the most likely candidate (if, in fact, Michael actually has an STD).

But the call consists of little more than a quick, “Get tested,” before Michael moves on to meet up with Carol the real-estate agent (played by Steve Carell’s real-life wife Nancy) and Pam’s mother Helene.

Back at the office, Andy decides to host a Sex-Ed/Pizza Jamboree, which devolves into a flimsy list of the good and bad aspects of sex (“Looks cool” is by far the best of the “good”), but it quickly becomes clear that the session is a guise through which Andy hopes to discover whether Gabe and his old flame Erin have or have had sex.

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This summer hasn’t exactly been the best when it comes to comedies, but that may come to an end next Friday as the new comedy Dinner for Schmucks starring Paul Rudd and Steve Carell hits theaters nationally.

The film stars Rudd as an up-and-coming executive who wants to succeed so badly that he falls in line with the rest of his superiors in finding a socially awkward moron to invite to an annual dinner. Enter Steve Carell, who is a walking social catastrophe.

The film reunites Rudd and Carell for the first time since 2005′s 40 Year Old Virgin and looks to have quite a bit of hilarious moments in it. Joining in the ride are other genre funnymen Ron Livingston, Zach Galifiniakis, and Flight of the Conchord’s Jemaine Clement.

We’ve got four new clips from the film for you to check out, each of which show off the dynamic of Rudd and Carell. Paul Rudd even gets to do some physical comedy, which we haven’t seen him do in quite some time.

Check out the clips after the jump, and be sure to catch Dinner For Schmucks in theaters next Friday, July 30th.

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Who would have thought that two of the best movies of the summer would be animated family fare?  First we had Pixar’s wonderful Toy Story 3, and now we are treated to Despicable Me, the debut film by production company Illumination Entertainment.

By the looks of this fledgling feature, we have a lot to look forward to with this company. Despicable Me is simply adorable, that truly is the best word to describe it. Gru (voiced by Steve Carell), is a villian who has fallen to the lower ranks of  the bad-guy pecking order in recent years.  He longs to rise to the top once again.

An enthusiastic new schemer named Vector (Jason Segel) has stolen the villain spotlight because he successfully swiped a Pyramid landmark in Egypt.  While media outlets frantically report that there is  a new villain in their midst, Gru seethes, and hatches a plan.  He will obtain a top secret machine that can shrink objects, travel to the moon, shrink it to a manageable size, and steal it.  Surely this will be the most dastardly deed ever!

Gru assembles his army of minions (those adorable yellow creatures you’ve seen in the trailers) to help him erect a spaceship and steal the device. Vector thwarts Gru once again by stealing the shrinking device from him after he successfully acquires it.

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