What do you do after co-writing one of the best horror films in years, directing an incredible superhero movie, and presiding over a highly-emotional Comic-Con panel?  If you’re Joss Whedon (and I don’t know anyone else who has accomplished those three feats in a row), then you star in the short film, Scary Smash, which is based on a story by a 5-year-old kid named Brett Baligad.  To Brett’s credit, his story about a S.Q.U.A.T. leader (Whedon) facing off against a giant one-eyed monster (leave your sick minds at the door) after the death of a milkman (Dave Foley) is more entertaining than most movies you’ll see.  It’s got a good set-up, strong dramatic tension, obstacles, and a clear resolution.  Some screenwriters would do well to take notes from young Brett.

Hit the jump to watch the short film, which was directed by not-a-five-year-old-kid, Daniel Strange (The Ballad of G.I. Joe).  If you need more convincing to watch the short, it was produced by Felicia Day (The Guild).

The popular SNL Digital Short series Laser Cats got a new installment last night featuring none other than the legendary Steven Spielberg.  And with the Spielberg touch, just about everything in the short parodied the director’s most popular movies, or at least his popular popcorn movies.  Don’t expect to see any Saving Private Ryan or Schindler’s List references floating around.  Even though you won’t see anyone shouting “Give Us Us Free!” it’s nice that Spielberg decided to drop by and join in the Laser Cats fun even though he wasn’t promoting an upcoming movie or TV series.

Hit the jump to check out the short, which also stars Laser Cats regulars Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, and Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels.

It was only a matter of time before The Simpsons set its sights on Game of Thrones.  Tonight’s episode of The Simpsons used Game of Thrones‘ stunning opening credits as the basis for the couch gag and the animation did not disappoint.  Since we’ve known since the end of Game of Thrones‘ first season that season two of would be in spring 2012, I wouldn’t be surprised if The Simpsons had this couch gag waiting and aired it to coincide with Game of Thrones‘ upcoming season premiere.

Hit the jump to check out the couch gag.  Season two of Game of Thrones premieres April 1st.

Last night, I watched more Oscar red carpet coverage than I ever have in my life because I made the grave error of showing up to a party two-and-a-half hours early.  We watched far too much of E!’s pre-show coverage and when we felt our brains trying to escape like a passenger on a sinking ship, we switched over to ABC’s red-carpet coverage.  Naturally, that’s when something interesting happened on E!.  The Twitterdome exploded by saying that Sacha Baron Cohen‘s character from The Dictator, Admiral General Aladeen (who was “banned” and then “unbanned” from the Oscars), had spilled Kim Jong-il‘s ashes on Ryan Seacrest.  We scoured the Internet for video because of course E! wasn’t going to replay the night’s best moment.  We couldn’t find the video online because the Internet chose to let us down.  Thanks, Internet.

Thankfully, the video has finally gone online and you can check out staged antics after the jump.  The Dictator opens May 11th.

Like it does every year, Jimmy Kimmel Live followed the Oscars with a bit that packed in every Hollywood actor they could find.  This year, they poked fun at epic movies by creating Movie: The Movie and throwing in every genre possible.  Of course, the premise of trying to sell a movie by overloading it with famous faces is absolutely ridiculous.  Still, it’s an amusing way to try to start your Monday.

Hit the jump to check out the 9-minute trailer.  The fake film’s cast includes George Clooney, Charlize Theron, Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Alba, Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, and Bryan Cranston as the world’s unluckiest hot dog vendor. Movie: The Movie opens Thanksgiving, Christmas, and summer 2012.

Last Sunday, the third and final season of Eastbound and Down premiered with one of the series’ best episodes to date.  They’ve got the comedy of Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) down to a science, and every one of his lines absolutely kills.  A couple years ago, K-Swiss made the bold and brilliant decision to hire Kenny as their pitchman/MFCEO (Motherfuckin’ Chief Executive Officer).  Now he’s back, parodying Steve Jobs (tooo soooon!), and selling K-Swiss’ latest shoe, Blades.  The commercial is five-minutes long and only ten seconds are devoted to talking about the design of the shoe.  Everything else is Kenny Powers being awesome and hilarious.

Hit the jump to check out the commercial, which features a conversation with Bruce Lee, green chicks on the moon, and a blood-drenched animated sequence.  Eastbound and Down airs at 10pm EST on HBO.

If we get ultra-violent video games and shovelware TV and movie tie-ins, is it too much to ask that we combine the two (without the crap, rushed video game programming)?  College Humor came up with a nice alternate universe where we still made 16-bit RPGs and then tied one to Breaking Bad.  It’s not only fun, but a great way to sum up every season!  If you’re opposed to any kind of Breaking Bad parody, you should A) lighten up; and B) remember that the show has a sense of humor.  It’s a ridiculously dark sense of humor, but that’s part of what makes the show so amazing.

Hit the jump to check out Breaking Bad in 16-bit RPG form.

The Alamo Drafthouse has a strict no-texting policy.  They have this weird theory that losing one shitty customer is alright because you’re getting so many more sensible, polite customers in return.  It makes the theater experience better, makes people want to come to the theater, and then profits happen.  Everbody’s happy.  They also make warnings/PSAs that actually work.  When you go to a multiplex, you get a cellphone company like Sprint or AT&T doing a cutesy PSA telling people they shouldn’t talk and text during the movie.  No one pays attention, and they act like ass-holes anyway because the theater isn’t going to enforce anything.

By comparison, the Drafthouse does really catchy PSAs.  Their best was using an angry voicemail from a patron who was kicked out for texting.  Young Adult director Jason Reitman and star Patton Oswalt built off this hilarious voicemail for a new PSA and you can check it out after the jump.

NBC has pulled Community from the network’s midseason schedule so we can all continue to enjoy the magic of the wretched new sitcom, Whitney.  In fairness, NBC has given Dan Harmon‘s hilarious and brilliant sitcom over two seasons to find an audience and that audience has never come.  But the ones who have shown up (i.e. smart people) have been rewarded with references so clever that sometime they cannot be seen with the naked eye…or at least not in a single episode (or even a single TV series).

Case in point: a Community fan recently noticed that the show had directly referenced Tim Burton‘s Beetlejuice once per season for the past three seasons, which would of course complete the eponymous character’s summoning chant, “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.”  On any other show, that would simply be a coincidence and a writer’s room that liked the 1988 comedy as a go-to reference.  On Community, it’s par for the course.  Hit the jump to check out the proof of Beetlejuice summoning and hope that a Michael Keaton guest spot is on the way.  Community airs at 8/7c on NBC.  Tell your friends.

Hey, remember that live-action Captain Planet movie we reported on last month?  Remember how stupid the idea sounded?  It still is!  But that doesn’t mean it isn’t ripe for parody and Funny or Die has done just that.  When Captain Planet (played by Don Cheadle) is summoned by the Planeteers (whose ranks include Community‘s Gillian Jacobs and Napoleon Dynamite‘s Efren Ramirez), he goes a little overboard with his superpowers.  They say that absolute power corrupts absolutely and that saying still applies to environmentally-conscious superheroes.

Hit the jump to check out the video.

The Weinstein Company picked up My Idiot Brother at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and changed the title to Our Idiot Brother.  But star Paul Rudd believes the studio can do so much more.  In a new Funny or Die video, Rudd comes into Harvey Weinstein’s office and starts pitching marketing ideas.  You’ll laugh at these ideas now but I’m sure we’ll be seeing all of them being used in less than ten years now.  Paul Rudd will jump out of the back of your taxi and Morgan Freeman will be your driver.  The future is strange and wondrous.

Hit the jump to check out the video.  Our Idiot Brother opens August 26th.

Final Destination 5 star Miles Fisher’s is also a musician and creator of viral parodies.  He’s blended both for his single “New Romance” where he and his fellow Final Destination 5 stars take on a Saved by the Bell look and promptly get slaughtered in a variety of hilarious ways.  It’s yet another acknowledgement that these movies may not be intended to scare as much as they’re designed for grotesque laughs.  Also, if you ever wanted to see Jessie Spano get destroyed by her own locker, this is the video for you.

Hit the jump to check out the parody.  The film and music video also stars Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Arlen Escarpeta, P.J. Byrne, Ellen Wroe, Jacqueline MacInnes-Wood, and David Koechner in the Mr. Belding role.  Final Destination 5 opens in 3D on August 12th.

A couple weeks ago, I wrote an editorial chastising those who were upset at Netflix’s recent price hike.  I explained that the company needs to raise their prices in order to stay competitive and that no one owes you cheap movies nor are you obligated to stay a Netflix subscriber.  Total strangers disagreed with me in the comments section and now I have seen the error of my ways.

That’s why I’m so glad Jason Alexander has done a PSA for the Netflix Relief Fund.  I was so ignorant to think that having to pay six to ten extra dollars wasn’t the same kind of suffering endured by non-middle-class white people the world over.  So please, drink deep of this white whine and together we can refuse to pay a little more for movies where Jason Statham plays a hitman.

The Comic-Con panel for Community is one of many I wish I could have attended.  The show is arguable one of the funniest on television and certainly one of the most intelligent and daring.  Of course, Emmy voters don’t really recognize the value in taking huge risks and then succeeding when it comes to comedy and so the show has been overlooked completely for the past two seasons.  Filming began today for season three and the cast and crew got a nice reminder of that fact.  Hit the jump for the wonderfully self-deprecating banner that welcomed everyone back from hiatus.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is 154 minutes long but did you know you could condense every Michael Bay movie in under a minute?  It’s true and the folks at CollegeHumor have done exactly that!  While I think some Bay movies are better than others, he certainly has a formula that earns both massive box office and massive scorn from critics.

Hit the jump to check out the video.