For a quick look at the entertainment choices the Gargoyle has featured this year, be sure to visit our A&E Hitlist. There you'll find at-a-glance info about the movies, DVDs, CDs, and video games that we've included in our weekly guides since the school year began. In addition, you'll find links to external reviews (usually by Roger Ebert or New York Times critics) of the movies and DVDs in our guides, plus iTunes or MySpace links to our music selections. We've also added GameSpot links to our video game choices. So check out this wealth of A&E info!

Movies opening in C-U

Roger Ebert's Film Festival 2008
Wednesday, April 23, to Sunday, April 27
Virginia Theatre, 203 W. Park Ave., Champaign
This week in entertainment is all about Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert — specifically, the Urbana native's annual film festival, which celebrates its 10th year. Ebertfest 2008 begins Wednesday night with Kenneth Branagh's “Hamlet” and concludes Sunday afternoon with John Turturro's “Romance & Cigarettes.” All 14 films will be shown at the historic Virginia Theatre in downtown Champaign. Guests include actors Joe Pantoliano (“Canvas”), Christine Lahti (“Housekeeping”), Aida Turturro (“Romance & Cigarettes”), and director Ang Lee (“Hulk”). For a complete schedule, click here. Tickets for each film cost $8 for students and $10 for others. Don't worry if some movies are sold out. Go to the Virginia box office 30 minutes ahead of time and wait in the rush ticket line. According to the Ebertfest Web site: “At every festival since 2002, all patrons waiting in line for tickets for sold-out films were able to get in.”

“Baby Mama”
Rated PG-13, dir. Michael McCullers
Tina Fey stars as a successful, single, and barren businesswoman who allows a South Philly working girl (Amy Poehler) to be the surrogate mother of her child.

“Deception”
Rated R, dir. Marcel Langenegger
A mild-mannered accountant (Ewan McGregor) meets the personification of everything he wishes he could be — a charismatic, womanizing lawyer (Hugh Jackman) who draws him into the underground world of erotic sex clubs.

“Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay”
Rated R, dir. Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg
In this ostensibly politically charged sequel to 2004’s “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle,” an overzealous airplane passenger mistakes Amsterdam-bound Kumar (Kal Penn) for a terrorist, and he and Harold (John Cho) are sent to Gitmo.

“Under the Same Moon”
Rated PG-13, dir. Patricia Riggen
Kate del Castillo, Adrian Alonso and Jesse Garcia star in this drama about a young Mexican boy who embarks on a journey to the L.A. barrio to find his migrant worker mother. The film will be playing at Boardman’s Art Theatre.

Kumars’ Pick: See you at Ebertfest. Ebert's inclusion of “Hulk” and “The Cell” are a little suspect, but overall what I've seen from this year's schedule is a decent crop of films. As for what I haven't seen, “The Real Dirt on Farmer John” and “Romance & Cigarettes” look like the highlights.

CD releases this week

“Elephant Shell”
Tokyo Police Club
The Ontario-based Indie rock staples Tokyo Police Club release their first full-length LP, “Elephant Shell,” following the 2007 EPs “A Lesson In Crime” and “Smith.” Rolling Stone describes the music on “Elephant Shell” as “lean, clean and spacious: expertly constructed post-punk miniatures full of ringing guitar and keyboard counterpoint, melodic bass work, and drumming that tilts rock songs like 'Graves' and 'In a Cave' gently toward the dance floor.”

“H.N.I.C. Pt. 2”
Prodigy
Prodigy, one half of rap duo Mobb Deep, is the same guy who brought you “Smack My B**** Up,” which came in at No. 1 on MTV’s list of Most Controversial Videos. H.N.I.C. includes more hip-hop samples over intense electronica to either zone out to or start moving.

“The Glass Passenger”
Jack's Mannequin
The Orange County-based “piano rock” band, originally a side project of Andrew McMahon of Something Corporate, release their second album.

“Flight Of The Conchords”
Flight Of The Conchords
Describing themselves as “Formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo a capella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo” the comedy/rock acoustic duo that is Flight Of The Conchords release their third album. The group also spawned a BBC radio series and American TV show on HBO.

Laura’s Pick: Tokyo Police Club! Flight of the Conchords is a close second, but this week you can’t really go wrong.

DVD releases this week

“Cloverfield”
Rated PG-13, dir. Matt Reeves
A monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon New York City, and a video camera captures the attempts of one group of young Manhattanites to survive the nightmare.

“Charlie Wilson’s War”
Rated R, dir. Mike Nichols
Veteran director Mike Nichols (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” “The Graduate”) helms this screen adaptation of the true story of alcoholic, womanizing Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), the man who armed Afghan rebels against the Soviet Union and set the stage for the violence and bloodshed that occurs in the Middle East to this day. Julia Roberts, Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman also star.

“One Missed Call”
Rated PG-13, dir. Eric Valette
Critics and audiences alike panned this supernatural thriller in which a chain of victims receive cell-phone messages composed of recordings of their own gruesome deaths, which soon follow in identical fashion.

“The Savages”
Rated R, dir. Tamara Jenkins
Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman star as siblings who are pulled away from their independent, everyday lives to care for an estranged parent in writer-director Tamara Jenkins’ acclaimed indie dramedy.

Kumars’ Pick: “Cloverfield” was shockingly good, and not just in an I-was-entertained-for-two-hours way. If I delve into this any further, I promise you I will sound sickeningly pretentious, so just take my word for it. Please. I haven’t had the pleasure of checking out “The Savages,” but it’s got stellar reviews and I’ll be thoroughly impressed if someone else besides Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach can finally pull off the whole bittersweet family-themed indie deal. Everything else, well … meh.

Video game releases this week

“The World Ends With You”
Square Enix
One day, Neku Sakuraba, a normal teenager who likes music and graffiti, wakes up in an unfamiliar Japanese shopping district and finds he can read people’s minds. However, his new ability brings trouble, and soon he’s playing the Reaper’s Game, and he has seven days to complete it before it’s game over. “The World Ends With You” costs $39.99 for the DS.

“Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness & Explorers of Time”
Nintendo
“Gotta Catch Them All!” Actually, you won’t be doing Pokemon-catching in this game, but saving and recruiting Pokemon. A sequel to the “Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team Blue & Red,” this Pokemon game is a dungeon crawler, and you play as a human transformed Pokemon! This game costs $34.99 for the DS.

“NBA Ballers: Chosen One”
Midway
The latest installment in the “NBA Ballers” series, this game is all about one-on-one competitive basketball tournaments. Juke your opponents, play dirty, and see if you can become the No. 1 street basketball player. “NBA Ballers: Chosen One” costs $59.99 for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Gordon’s Pick: OMG, another Pokemon game? Whether you’re excited or not about this new Pokemon game release, it probably won’t appeal to you. If you want a DS game, get “The World Ends With You.” Pokemon games are starting to fade away not only in popularity but also in quality, and unless you’re a diehard Pokemon fan, skip it. If you’re into sports games and have been waiting for a basketball game, check out “NBA Ballers: Chosen One.”

Live music in C-U

Khann, Roberta Sparrow, Wildcat Revival
7 p.m., Tuesday, April 22
Error House, 505 Haines Blvd., Champaign, $6
Metal bands Khann and Roberta Sparrow as well as punk band Wildcat Revival will perform at an Error House show.

Greg Spero Trio, Sam Vicari
8 p.m. Thursday, April 24
Courtyard Café, 1401 W. Green St., Urbana, FREE
The Greg Spero Trio, Chicago musicians who classify themselves as a jazz/funk/hardcore band, join Sam Vicari, an indie/garage musician from Crown Point, Ind.

Casados, Audrey Ryan, Rachel Ries
9 p.m., Saturday, April 26
Courtyard Café, 1401 W. Green St., Urbana, $3-$5
Audrey Ryan, an experimental rock artist from NYC, Rachel Ries, a folk musician from Chicago, and local folk group Casados will perform at the Courtyard Café.

Note: The Jordin Sparks and Flo Rida concert originally scheduled for Friday, April 25, has been canceled.

Sindha’s Pick: I’m partial to the Courtyard Café performance on Saturday just because I’m a fan of folk music and Courtyard Café concerts, but I’m quite curious as to what on earth a jazz/hardcore band sounds like. A show as high-energy as the Error House one doesn’t sound good for a Tuesday nigh, so I wouldn’t recommend it.