This Week (June 28 - July 6)

MOVIES – Opening this week:

• Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) is the third installment in Fox Animation's overextended Ice Age franchise.
  - Watch trailers and video for Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

HOME VIDEO – Out on DVD this week:

• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, the sequel to the video game adaptation, comes out on DVD on June 30.
  - Watch trailer for Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.
• Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) have been out on DVD before, but they're being reissued in a new keepcase version June 30. Rumor has is that director George Miller is working on a fourth film, without Mel Gibson involved. No one knows why.
  - Watch trailer for The Road Warrior
  - Watch trailer for Beyond Thunderdome

TELEVISION – Not much on TV this week, though Merlin, already off to a strong start, is introducing its version of Lancelot, played to great effect by Santiago Cabrera (Isaac Mendez from season 1 of Heroes).

Next week: the return of Eureka and the premiere of Warehouse 13, both on the channel that as of July 7 we will be calling Syfy.

New episodes this week from:

• Eli Stone, and
• Merlin.

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

• Eli Stone "Tailspin" (212). Jordan and Eli take up the cause of a room-service waiter (Kurt Fuller) who was one of hundreds of employees laid off from a failed financial institution that awarded its former CEO a multimillion-dollar golden parachute. Meanwhile, Eli's latest vision involves his father and an airplane.
• Merlin "Lancelot" (105). Merlin would have been killed by a giant griffin (half eagle, half lion) if it hadn't been for valiant Lancelot, who bravely attacked it and got them safely away. Learning Lancelot's life dream is to become a knight, grateful Merlin brings him to court, and when told only noblemen may apply magically forges proof of nobility. Lancelot passes hazing and close combat tests against prince Arthur, but is found out as commoner and jailed. When the griffon attacks Camelot, even inside the royal castle, the knights' arms prove unable to penetrate the monster. Merlin frees Lancelot, and magically helps him triumph where all knighthood fails miserably, but will Uther hear Arthur's plea to allow the best sword to serve in chivalry against his law?