MOVIES—Opening this week:

• Repo Men (2010). This science fiction action thriller is the feature directorial debut of Miguel Sapochnik, starring Jude Law and Forest Whitaker in an adaptation of the story Repossession Mambo by Eric Garcia (Matchstick Men) It's been brewing for years, which meant it has unfortunately come out after the much more bizarre Repo: The Genetic Opera—though the plot borrows more from Logan's Run. Still: Jude Law, right? More details below the jump.
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HOME VIDEO—Out on DVD this week:

• The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009). More supernatural navel-gazing, but this time without Catherine Hardwicke's smart direction. Almost worth seeing for Taylor Lautner—not for the reason you're thinking, but because Jacob's the only likable character with interesting motivations in the movie. The friends, who leavened things beautifully last time, are cameos—or, in the case of Mike (Michael Welch), pathetic jokes, while the stunt casting of Dakota Fanning sabotages the intended horror of the final scenes. More details below the jump.
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• The Princess and the Frog (2009). A Disney princess movie, but filtered through New Orleans voodoo magic. Lots and lots of video clipds, interviews, featurettes, etc. on the video page. More details below the jump.
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New episodes this week from:

• Chuck,
• FlashForward (return),
• Caprica,
• Legend of the Seeker, and
• Survivors (season finale).

Guest stars this week include Robert Patrick on Chuck; Leah Gibson (The Devil's Ground) beginning a recurring role on Caprica.

Synopses below the jump. For details see the listings (regular or alphabetical). Read more...

Summer Glau (Firefly, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse) will costar in the pilot movie for The Cape, NBC's return to a more traditional superhero-themed drama after the failure of Heroes.

The concept is that Vince Faraday, a former cop (the bright-eyed Australian actor David Lyons, who was Simon Brenner on ER and Sam on Day One), is accused of being a criminal and becomes a superhero to clear his name. Glau has been cast as Orwell, an investigative blogger who goes after corrupt cops and costumed villains.

Lest you scoff that blogging is too staid a profession for our butt-kicking ex-Terminator, we're assured that Glau gets quite physical in The Cape as well.

The pilot is being set up as a TV movie and is being directed by Simon West, the writer-director of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider; he's recently been toiling on Human Target. The writer is Tom Wheeler (Empire, Captain Cook's Extraordinary Atlas).

Also cast: James Frain (Cromwell from The Tudors and Eli from Invasion) and Jennifer Ferrin (who played Rose Tyler--no, not that Rose Tyler, the recurring character of Sam Tyler's mom from Life on Mars).

Most team mascots are undeniably lame. At my high school in New England, all the teams were for some reason called the Rebels--except the all-state, league-champion field hockey team, which were called the Porkers. (Seriously.) At my undergrad university, the men's teams were the Scarlet Knights, symbolized by a life-sized, cartoon-faced guy with a big nose stuffed into scarlet medieval armor. The women's teams were called the Lady Knights, which gave my oxymoronophobic English Lit prof conniptions.

So who can blame Ole Miss, otherwise known as the University of Mississippi, for wanting to have what the Daily Radar called the "coolest school mascot ever"? The thought process is straightforward: the team's called the Rebels. Who's the most famous Rebel commander ever? Well, Robert E. Lee, of course, but you can't have Robert E. Lee stalking the sidelines chomping a cigar. He's too melancholy. So who's the coolest Rebel commander ever? Admiral Ackbar. He's even got his own cereal!

Reports that the student body, which had demanded a say in choosing the new mascot, were leaning toward the Mon Calamarian fleet commander caught the country's imagination, which in and of itself is intriguing. Ackbar only has a handful of lines in Return of the Jedi, but there's something about him that makes people like him. Read more...