Bad News: That Big Lebowski Tease Is Just A Dull Super Bowl Ad

The Super Bowl is as much an event because of the ads as the game, since so many companies go over the top with the commercials airing during the year’s most coveted TV time. But just because someone spends a lot of money to make an ad doesn’t mean it’s going to be very good. Case in point: The Stella Artois ad teased last week that sees Jeff Bridges reprise his role as The Dude from The Big Lebowski.

The Stella ad, which is now up on YouTube ahead of Sunday’s game, hinges on the idea of The Dude changing up his usual drink order. Throughout the Coen Brothers’ 1998 movie, the stoner detective drinks White Russians–but in the Stella ad, he changes his order and goes for the Belgian pilsner.

He’s not the only one. The Dude is joined by Carrie Bradshaw, Sarah Jessica Parker’s iconic character from Sex and the City, who is known for drinking Cosmopolitans but switches things up in the ad. The change for the two characters shocks surrounding waitstaff so much, they drop several people’s dinners onto the ground. It’s not an especially good ad, seeing as neither Parker nor Bridges have good lines despite the fact both characters were birthed by comedies.

At least the ad is pushing a good cause as well as beer, though. The final moments of the commercial makes a very brief reference to a larger campaign Stella Artois is running, #PourItForward, which is defined by the idea of making social change as well as changes to drink orders. “Watch what happens when Carrie Bradshaw and The Dude change up the usual,” the YouTube description of the ad reads. “If every pour of Stella Artois can help provide access to clean water for someone in need, why choose anything else? Join Carrie and The Dude as they choose to change up the usual and do good.” As our sister site CNET notes, the #PourItForward campaign is a partnership with Water.org; for every Stella Artois purchased between now and March 31, Stella is donating a month of clean water access to someone who doesn’t have it.

But somewhat disappointingly, that the tease for the ad Bridges tweeted is not some indication of more substantive content featuring The Dude coming down the pipe. There may yet be a little more of The Big Lebowski, though. John Turturro, who played bowling sex offender Jesus Quintana in the movie, apparently wrote and directed a spin-off film about the character called Going Places a few years ago–so while it doesn’t seem there’s more of The Dude on the horizon, there may yet still be something related to The Big Lebowski waiting in the future.

Black Panther Will Return to Theaters for One Week

Disney announced Monday that Black Panther will be coming back to theaters for one week at the beginning of February.

The film is celebrating Black History Month and tickets will be free to ensure everyone has a chance to watch the SAG award-winning and Oscar-nominated film.

Black Panther will be available to watch at participating AMC locations from February 1-7, with two showings per day.

Disney is also giving a $1.5 million grant to support UNCF (United Negro College Fund) to help further it’s mission in assisting minority students through college.

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Fight Club 3 Begins This Week

With dozens of comic books to choose from, let us show you which are the best coming out this week. Take a look at this list spotlighting our favorite comics that we know are money-well-spent and new books that look cool and are backed by some top-tier talent.

Check out our picks, then head to the comments to let us know what you’ll be buying this week!

Fight Club 3 #1 – $3.99

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Writer Chuck Palahniuk | Artist Cameron Stewart | Cover Artist David Mack (Dark Horse Comics)

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Kingdom Hearts 3 Guide: Beginner’s Tips To Help You Become A Keyblade Master

Total War: Three Kingdoms Is a Riveting Ancient-Chinese Drama

Liu Bei, the hero of the loosely historical epic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, is both a very obvious and very odd protagonist for a Total War game. On one hand, he’s generally portrayed as the hero. The righteous, noble scion of the rightful dynasty looking to hold together the collapsing Han Empire. On the other hand, his journey through the first part of the story is utterly different from how most Total War games progress, entering and leaving the service of other warlords, gaining and losing his base of power, and eventually ending up hundreds of miles away from his starting position in Northeastern China. As it turns out, the Three Kingdoms campaign has a plan for telling the tale of this unorthodox rise to power.

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Black Ops 4’s Next Update Brings Further Armor Tuning, New Blackout Mode On PS4

Treyarch has another update on the way for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. This week, the developer will be rolling out patch 1.12, which will make some big changes to the way armor works in Blackout mode, add classic weapons to Zombies, and kick off another limited-time event on PS4.

In a post on Reddit, Treyarch outlined the biggest tweaks and additions that are coming in this week’s update. Among other things, the developer will be making further tuning changes to armor, concussions, and cluster grenades in Blackout mode.

The full list of changes will be detailed in this week’s patch notes, but Treyarch says it is reducing damage protection for armor “across the board.” On top of that, the developer is raising the number of armor plates it takes to repair level 3 armor, while the time it takes for cluster grenades to detonate is also being increased.

In Zombies mode, this week’s update will introduce five weapons to the Mystery Box across every map, as well as to the Zombies Armory: the MP 40, Grav, Daemon 3XB, SWAT RFT, and KAP 45. Treyarch says the MP 40 and Grav “will be unlocked by default in the Armory.” The PS4 version is also getting its second Zombies Gauntlet beginning January 29: “Vini, Vidi, Zombie!” for the IX map.

Also on PS4, Treyarch is kicking off another limited-time mode in Blackout. This one is called Ambush. It’s set to replace the current Down But Not Out mode and only features sniper rifles, melee attacks, launchers, and a continuously collapsing circle. Down But Not Out mode will remain available on Xbox One and PC for one more week.

Want to Win a Free Trip to LA for The Umbrella Academy Premiere?

Partner Content by Netflix

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Do you have what it takes to be a superhero? The Umbrella Academy is looking for their newest recruit, and they are searching for someone with a very unique skill.

The dysfunctional family of superheroes in the new Netflix original series, The Umbrella Academy, possess a variety of unique skills: super strength, time traveling, knife throwing, speaking with the dead…but they’re missing something. That’s where you come in.

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Madden NFL 19 Predicts Super Bowl 53 Winner

The Super Bowl is this Sunday, marking one of the biggest events in professional sports. As usual, EA has run a simulation game in its annual football release, Madden NFL 19, and concluded that the Los Angeles Rams will defeat the New England Patriots.

The final score of the simulated game was 30-27, showing a high-scoring game with tons of offensive play. The Patriots led in the first half 17-3, but the Rams came back big in the second with three touchdowns and two field goals. The simulation also pegged Aaron Donald for the MVP award, given a record four sacks in a single Super Bowl game.

EA has used Madden to predict every Super Bowl game since 2004. While the simulation is never bullseye-accurate on the exact score or game-winning plays, the simulations have come away with a pretty solid 10-5 record of success in predicting the winner. One of those misses was just last year, however, when the game showed the Patriots winning against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles ended up winning in an upset, and QB Nick Foles received the MVP award instead of Patriots QB Tom Brady.

“Madden 19 is an excellent football game that improves on last year’s entry in almost every way,” critic Eddie Makuch wrote in GameSpot’s review. “There are problems, but there has never been a football game that more authentically represents the NFL than this in terms of presentation, controls, and depth.”

Fortnite 7.30 Update Arriving Tomorrow After Ice Storm Challenges End

It’s your last chance to complete Fortnite‘s ongoing Ice Storm challenges before the world event officially wraps up. Developer Epic Games confirmed the event will end on all platforms tomorrow, January 29, with the release of Fortnite’s 7.30 update, which looks set to introduce another new weapon and more to the battle royale game.

Downtime for the update is scheduled to begin at 1 AM PT / 4 AM ET / 9 AM GMT, Epic confirmed on Twitter. As usual, the developer hasn’t estimated how long this maintenance period will last, but it has given fans a peek at a new item that will presumably be arriving with the update: the Chiller Grenade.

The Grenade is advertised as “coming soon” in Fortnite’s in-game News feed. Continuing the season’s wintry theme, it fittingly resembles a snowman’s head and sounds like it will function similar to the vaulted Chiller Trap. “Give your enemies cold feet with this winter blast,” its accompanying description reads.

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You have until downtime begins to finish any outstanding Ice Storm challenges. The event began earlier this month when the mysterious icy sphere in Polar Peak burst opened and revealed the Ice King, who blanketed the entire map in fog and snow and summoned the zombie-like Ice Legion. Throughout the event, Epic offered new daily challenges to complete and rewards to unlock; you can find the full list in our Ice Storm challenges roundup.

We’re also nearing the end of Season 7. Epic hasn’t shared any details on what awaits in Season 8, although some strange objects have begun appearing in the game ahead of the new season. In the meantime, you still have a few more weeks to complete this season’s challenges. You can find tips for the trickier ones in our complete Season 7 challenges guide.

BioWare Talks Anthem Demo Issues And What’s Being Fixed

BioWare has shared thoughts on the weekend’s Anthem VIP demo, and outlined bug fixes it has in the works before the public demo kicks off. It also sought to assuage concerns about the final release, which will include fixes not seen in either demo.

In the blog post, BioWare’s Chad Robertson says that entitlement bugs, server performance updates, platform bugs for Javelin unlocks, and client bugs were either addressed over the weekend, or will be addressed before the public demo begins. It also notes that it will be doing more scale testing to prepare for the influx of new players coming on Friday, and it plans to especially focus on the frustrating infinite load problem. The public demo will run February 1-3.

The post also mentions that preparations for the full launch have been in the works for a while, and as a result, “that version of the game already has a long list of things that are already fixed that won’t make the public demo weekend.” That includes weapons with 0% infusions, changes to Javelin unlocks, fixes to XP loss at the end of missions, stability and performance issues, and more. It promises a look at Anthem’s future to come on Sunday afternoon.

“As I shared on Saturday, it started rocky, but we stabilized that afternoon and maintained it until we turned servers off Sunday evening,” Robertson wrote. “We learned a ton about our game, our service, and you, our community. We’re working hard to ensure everyone can enjoy the game exactly as we’ve designed it.

“We had an extended look at Anthem and passed along what we learned, including some insights about the end-game. There’s no teacher like experience, though, and the VIP test was the first chance many players had to try it out. Unfortunately it was plagued by server issues, and the fixes that rolled out to mitigate them didn’t seem to solve the problem for everyone. BioWare has been communicating throughout, though, so its promise of more bug fixes to come over the weekend and then prior to launch should ease some worries.