Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World
Directed by Lorene Scafaria
Written by Lorene Scafaria
Starring Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Adam Brody, Patton Oswalt, Connie Britton, Rob Corddry, Melinda Dillon, Rob Huebel, Gillian Jacobs
Focus Features
Rated R | 93 Minutes
Release Date: June 22, 2012

“It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.” – R.E.M

Written and directed by Lorene Scafaria (writer, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist), Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World is a warm, charming, and well-acted film that explores what people will do when humanity’s last days are at hand.

As the massive asteroid Matilda hurtles toward Earth, Dodge (Steve Carell) finds himself alone after his not-so-faithful wife (Nancy Carell) abandons him in an apocalyptic panic. This isn’t Armageddon though, Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck aren’t going to save the day this time. Dodge and the rest of the human race have 21 days until Matilda smashes into the planet, an extinction-level event no amount of “Leaving On A Jet Plane” and animal crackers can prevent.

Good news for fans of the hit NBC sitcom Community, as the entire cast has been confirmed to be returning when the show goes into production on season 4.

Returning cast includes Joel McHale, Alison Brie, Donald Glover, Yvette Nicole Brown, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Jim Rash, Ken Jeong, and Chevy Chase.

All but Glover, Chase, Rash, and Jeong are set to appear at Comic-Con next month.

The second of the three Community animated shorts has been released. You can watch “Abed’s Master Key Part 2” here below.

Other than a couple of nice running gags involving Super Soakers and Danny Glover, I didn’t get much laughs out of this cartoon. I understand that the purpose of these shorts is to help increase awareness of Community before the show returns next week, but shoddy Flash animation is hardly the way to go. Despite having the participation of the show’s cast there’s just not much life or even hilarity to be found here. Plus they’re too damn brief; each short runs less than two minutes and that’s not including the intros and outros. I would have preferred live-action webisodes with sharper writing. Maybe the final part of “Abed’s Master Key” will make it all worthwhile.

On Monday we brought you the news that NBC would be producing a series of animated shorts to mark the return of Community from its mid-season hiatus.

The first of the shorts has premiered online today. You can watch “Abed’s Master Key Part 1” here below.

Featuring the voices of the Community cast, “Master Key” finds Abed (Danny Pudi) becoming Dean Pelton’s (Jim Rash) “depu-dean” and being given a master key to all of Greendale Community College, something the rest of the gang will likely attempt to exploit in the next two shorts.

Community is coming back to television in less than two weeks. It’s about time. For so long I’ve missed hanging out in the halls and on the grounds of Greendale Community College with Jeff and the gang. It’s been three months since the show went on hiatus and a lot has happened in that time. Dean Pelton even won an Oscar. Truly amazing.

NBC is rolling out the red carpet, or rather raising the Greendale butt flag (E Pluribus Anus), for Community‘s return by releasing a three-part series of animated promotional shorts this week, with each short to premiere over three consecutive days.