The latest Tyler Perry flick may not have his go-to character of Madea in the title, but Good Deeds should be a virtual lock for first place at the box office this weekend. Perry has the kind of built in audience that follows him whichever direction he takes, and this film should prove no different. Look for an opening weekend gross of $21 million.

Act of Valor is a new action film that is building buzz thanks to the fact that it stars real NAVY Seals. An action flick with real life action heroes? This could be a surprise hit this weekend – the only thing that could hold it back is the actual lack of name value. I’m predicting Act of Valor will surprise us all with a strong showing to debut at number 2 with $19 million.

The final big release this weekend is Wanderlust, staring Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston as a couple of New Yorkers who wind up staying at a bed and breakfast that’s actually a hippie commune. Rudd and Aniston have worked together before on Friends and in The Object Of My Affection, and Rudd is really one of thee go to guys when it comes to comedies at this point, but the trailers haven’t made the film’s premise totally clear, which is never a good thing. Even with Judd Apatow as producer, I think Wanderlust‘s opening weekend will be underwhelming. Look for a fifth place finish with $10 million.

As for the rest of the top five, last week’s number one, Safe House, should claim the third spot with $18 million while the overperforming Journey 2: The Mysterious Island should grab the fourth spit with $15 million.

So, to recap, here are our predictions:

1) Good Deeds – $21 million
2) Act of Valor – $19 million
3) Safe House – $18 million
4) Journey 2: The Mysterious Island – $15 million
5) Wanderlust – $10 million

Be sure to check back on Sunday to see how the weekend turns out!

Read on for a quick description of the show & link to premiere:

Created by Kyle Killen (Lone Star) AWAKE is an intriguing drama about a detective (Jason Isaacs) who finds he is leading an arduous double life that defies reality.  Following a tragic car accident, detective MICHAEL BRITTEN (Isaacs) finds himself awake in two separate realities: one where his teen son, REX (Dylan Minnette) died in the crash and his wife, HANNAH (Laura Allen,) survived; and another where Hannah has perished, leaving Michael and Rex to pick up the pieces. In order to keep both of his loved ones alive, Michael begins living in two dueling realities, churning up confusion. In one reality, Michael and his wife debate about having another child, while in the other his son Rex is turning to his tennis coach, TARA (Michaela McManus), to fill the void from the loss of his mother.

Click the image below to watch the first episode and then hit the comments to tell us what you think!

Oh man – I’ve waited, like, a loooong time to say that. And by “loooong time” I mean “weeks”. It’s probably been a good few months since I last uttered those words (I just love that particular Triskelion quote so much) a favourite original Star Trek television series line of dialogue for the few of you that don’t know. Go on. Look it up. Q-u-a-t-l-o-o-s.

“One hundred quatloos on the newcomers!” … at the casino; …amidst a business-oriented request for quotation; …in a battle of domestic chore duties between newlyweds; …when making sports disagreements between pals - interesting.

It never fails to amaze me just how many real life situations actually call for that particular sci-fi statement. Today marks an entirely new scenario: with the weekly Wednesday Run to the local comic book shop still before me, the “quatloo” quote is, now, perhaps more apt than any other time before. Here’s why: Wolverine & The X-Men #6

Wolverine & The X-Men #6

Written by: Jason Aaron

Illustrated by: Nick Bradshaw

Published by: Marvel Comics

Wolverine, the headmaster of a mutie-school? Wolverine, the guy with the adamentium blades protruding from his fists? Wolverine, the short, cigar-smoking Canuck with the obnoxiously thick sideburns and a distinct penchant for trouble who calls people “bub”? Wolverine, in charge of a group of kids in a…sort of…responsible-teacher-parental-figure-type position?

Man, I’d say that goes against type. That it just couldn’t be done. That it’s all wrong – an idea doomed to fail.

Well, some editor put “one hundred quatloos” on writer Jason Aaron’s brave – if seemingly foolish – idea. And we readers cashed in. Big time!

Wolverine & The X-Men (think superheroes meets Hogwarts) has been one of the most fun monthly reads I’ve ever had, and this issue (#6) kicks the school-time hi-jinx into another gear. In order to fund the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning (‘cos, you know, someone’s got to pay for the repairs to the quad after what happened last issue), Headmaster Wolverine and precocious (and problematic) student, Kid Omega, head to an intergalactic casino to win them some do-re-me.

My “quatloos” are on the newcomers. And this book!

Hey! Think you’ve got what it takes to apply to this educational institution? Then make the Wednesday Run today ‘cos the faculty is looking for mutie students just like you. Check out the class program list by visiting: www.jeangreyschool.com or follow the school’s whimsical updates: @JeanGreySchool

A degree at the Jean Grey School for Higher Education tells potential employers that you can handle anything. After all, they are the best there is at what they do.

Every Wednesday, JP makes the after-work run to his local downtown comic book shop. Comics arrive on Wednesdays you see and JP, fearful that the latest issue will sell out, rushes out to purchase his copy. This regular, weekly column will highlight a particularly interesting release, written in short order, of course, because JP has to get his – before someone else does!

Essentially, CBC Music is a free online radio platform featuring 40 stations that cover a wide-range of music genres. The site is also available as a free mobile app which means you can take CBC Music with you everywhere you go.

As a fairly active digital music consumer – I frequent iTunes, Rdio and Sirius Satellite radio online, as well as via their mobile-friendly apps – I have to say that I’m not terribly impressed with CBC Music.  It took me almost five minutes to figure out how to navigate the radio stations and get the one I wanted to actually play.  Then I found it quite odd that the site doesn’t tell you what track is playing at any given time.  Even terrestrial radio in most modern cars has RDS (radio data systems) that display basic track info.  NOTE: I notice that this feature isn’t available in my car when listening to CBC Radio 2 so maybe it’s a CBC issue.

Also, unlike many online radio stations you can’t toggle between tracks or skip ahead if you don’t like the track.  So, essentially CBC Music is just CBC radio online…or is it.

If you take a deeper dive in to the site what you find is that the entire CBC music (small ‘m’) world has found its way online.  Everything from live TV performances to full concerts ranging from City and Colour at the Calgary Folk Festival to more than 100 classical music performances are available on demand.  You also find archived content from popular CBC properties such as Q and Strombo.

Overall I would say CBC Music is really just an enhanced online CBC Radio/TV experience.  They have basically taken their terrestrial properties and digitized them while offering some pretty impressive archived material as well as accompanying editorial content ranging from interviews, exclusive performances and commentary from CBC personalities.

What makes the prospects for CBC Music interesting to me is the ability to use the platform to introduce listeners to new Canadian talent.  Everyone agrees that terrestrial radio and the likes of MTV are no longer responsible for breaking new artists – these days this either happens on the road or online as bands/artists build their audiences one show or one click at a time.  If CBC Music can somehow become ‘the’ place to go to discover up-and-coming Canadian talent then that could be the differentiator between them and the numerous other digital music communities out there.  Another thing CBC Music has going for it is the price.  It’s free.

At the end of the day, one has to wonder if anyone has truly mastered the online/digital music experience the way iTunes has for digital entertainment distribution.  Perhaps the next big thing is just around the corner with music sharing pioneer Sean Parker poised to take his Spotify to the masses in the very near future.

Hauser suggests that the doctor contact him when a more tangible method is discovered.

This week’s Alcatraz inmate on the run is Johnny McKee (Adam Rothenberg).  We first meet Johnny as a bartender at some trendy club, where he has an altercation with a rude male customer.  Johnny mixes a “special” drink for the customer’s table, which kills him and his friends.  Video of the men dying shows up right away on the internet which alerts the computers in the Alcatraz lair.  Doc, who is occupying the computer to play some Starcraft, immediately recognizes McKee in the video and informs Madsen.

Doc meets up with Madsen and Hauser at the bar and they get his job application with an address on it.  Madsen and Doc head to the address, but of course it doesn’t exist.  Doc then realizes that the address refers to the cell that McKee was in, which means McKee’s cell was right next to Jack Sylvane’s.  Madsen informs Hauser that she needs to interview Sylvane.  Hauser won’t tell her where he’s keeping the prisoner, he just tells Madsen that he will bring Sylvane to her.  As Madsen and Doc are going through Johnny McKee’s inmate box, they find books by science fiction author Jules Verne, chemistry articles and a picture of a girl with a burnt face with the name “Ginny” written on the back.

Somehow Johnny McKee ends up getting another job (in this economy???) – this time as a pool boy at a hotel or country club.  McKee gets to work and immediately encounters another rude male customer.  Once again, McKee gets back at him by putting something in the pool water, which kills the rude customer and everyone else in the pool.

Obviously McKee doesn’t like to be bullied.  In flashbacks to Alcatraz we see that Johnny was confronted by Cullen, the big prison bully, to kill a man that he had a beef with.  McKee gets a shank from his intended victim, and goes back to his cell to poison the tip.  He tells Cullen his plan is to kill the man during a movie night, and instead ends up killing Cullen, the bully.

Madsen visits Sylvane to learn more about McKee.  Sylvane asks what happens if he doesn’t cooperate asking if Hauser is going to send him back to Dr. Beauregard for treatment.  Madsen questions this, but Hauser tells her to continue with her interview.  Before getting into the discussion about McKee, Madsen asks Jack about his return to present day to find out Jack had only been in San Francisco “a few days” before he was caught and that he showed up at Alcatraz when he returned.

In a flashback to 1960, we see McKee telling Sylvane about how Jules Verne wrote about submarines years before their inception, and how he’s also written about a man on the moon.  Sylvane doesn’t believe it and says it’s not possible, but McKee says that the future is coming.  The entire time this conversation is going on, he is poisoning the shank he later used to kill Cullen with the same mixture he used in the bar killings.  Sylvane tells Madsend that McKee had a jar for bugs that he called his “killing jar”.  He explained that McKee would always land garden duty where he would collect weird plants with big yellow seeds.  He would crush the seeds and drop them in the jar and watch the bugs die.  He says that it was some kind of nightshade that grew all over the island.  Before Sylvane gets taken away by Hauser, Rebecca finds out from Sylvane that Tommy Madsen was often in the infirmary giving blood, and that Tommy told him there is some kind of hole beneath the hole under the strip cells.

The team heads to Chinatown to see if McKee was trying to buy any nightshade and they find an address where he had the plant delivered to.  The address leads them to an abandoned high school and they break into the chemistry lab, but McKee is gone.  They learn that he is producing Phosgene, which is a noxious gas.  On a chalk board they find “the future is now” which somehow meant he was referencing the East Bay Tub system and Jules Verne and that he was planning on poisoning the underground subway.  They are right and we see McKee unleash his toxic gas through the air vent system in a subway packed with sports fans.  Luckily, all trains are monitored by computers so the team learns exactly where he is.

Somehow the team shows up just in time to break the glass of the subway to help everyone out.  Madsen and Hauser chase McKee and after a bit of a fight Madsen throws him onto the tracks where he is electrocuted, but still alive.  Back in the office, Doc tells Madsen that he learned that Ginny, the burnt girl in the picture, was burned with acid – most likely from McKee.

Flashback to 1960.  Lucy is trying to help McKee and she asks more about Ginny Winters. She knows that Ginny took Johnny on a date.  Afterwards he was led to a dark place where they held hands, kissed, and she got him to take off his clothes.  At this point, the lights went up and the entire football team was there to laugh and ridicule him.  They threw fireworks at him, one of them exploding at his genitals causing him to lose his testicles.  She explains that she can make those memories go away.  McKee admits that the incident happened and admits that he burnt her face with acid.

Back to present day, we see Hauser have a discussion with Jack Sylvane.  Jack wants to know what is going to happen to him and says that he doesn’t dream anymore.

AMANDA’S QUESTIONS: How come Jack can’t dream anymore?  Is the hole beneath the hole the same as the warden’s magical door?

NEXT WEEK:

Clarence Montgomery (guest star Mahershala Ali), the only innocent man in Alcatraz, returns to present day, but is now committing crimes.