OK. Though I’m sure most people will be lining up for the 3D re-release of Phantom Menace, I’ve been kind of looking forward to Safe House, which was on the 2010 Black List (a yearly compilation of favorite unsold screenplays). It’s getting decent notices: ”a rollicking smash-and-crash chase movie that happens to be surprisingly well acted”, and, despite similarities to the wily black veteran/naive white rookie dynamic in Training Day, looks like it’s going to be pretty fun.

Over on the forums, we’re celebrating Trailer Overload and Belinkie wonders whether he should take his six-year-old to see Episode 1.

And we’ll be launching something very special early next week… of the video variety… so stay tuned.

How are you celebrating the impending V.D.? (That’s Valentine’s Day.) Sound off in the comments (yes, we still have them), for this is your… Open Thread.

Aside from pop culture, it’s been an eventful week for Overthinking It. We celebrated our fourth birthday on January 22, experienced half a day’s worth of downtime the next day (all that partying must have crashed the server), opened up discussion forums, and launched a new design, which has inspired passionate discussion from both admirers and critics.

To both camps, I say: Thanks for caring enough about the site to spend time giving us your feedback. We read every piece of it and take it seriously. This new design is a work in progress, and we’ll be tweaking and improving it as we go. First, though, we’ve gotta solve the problems with Android phones.

OK, that’s enough about us. Onto the pop culture!

The widest release is man vs. wolves survival thriller The Grey. I have to admit, I haven’t heard a single thing about this move. Let’s have a look:

OK, not interested. I’d probably enjoy Man on a Ledge more (I like a good heist film), but there’s nothing too groundbreaking there either, and if you’re interested in a romantic comedy, Lionsgate has helpfully counterprogrammed One for The Money, an adaptation of the first Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich.

Overthinkers who wish to spend their hard-earned entertainment dollars subjecting movies to a level of scrutiny that they definitely do deserve would probably be better served checking out The Descendants, which opens wide, or especially the fascinatingly weird-seeming Albert Nobbs, which opens a little wider.

On the music front, um, what? There’s a new record from Leonard Cohen called Old Ideas? I’ll bet it goes like this: The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift… (Actually, stay tuned for an article coming soon considering that lyric, which is rather puzzling if you try to figure out what it actually must mean.)

On the TV front, we haven’t mentioned yet that Justified is back. It’s a great show, though it’s got tough work cut out for it this year in topping Margo Martindale’s Emmy-winning turn as the powerful, terrifying backwoods matriarch Mags Bennett. The first two episodes have been villain-of-the-week deals, though there have been a few moves at setting up larger, serialized storylines. Man, was she ever good.

With the forums open, we were wondering whether these Open Threads are even useful anymore. Maybe we should turn them into more of a pop-culture roundup, but we don’t pay attention that closely, and you can get that stuff from dozens of other websites out there. Should we keep publishing these? Sound off on that or any other topic, for this is your… Open Thread.

Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire opens this weekend to pretty positive reviews. Bruce Springsteen debuted his angry new single, “We Take Care of Our Own,” with a tone that will be harder to misinterpret this time. Entertainment Weekly premiered some exclusive photos of Katniss and Peeta’s parade costumes for The Hunger Games.

Damn, girl - you're ON FIRE! (Or will be in a moment)

And in bittersweet news, the decades-long tradition of a mysterious stranger drinking a silent toast to Edgar Allan Poe on the writer’s birthday seems to have come to an end, with three consecutive no-shows.

Inaugurate your own traditions, Overthinkers! What fallen heroes of pop culture will you celebrate this year, and how? Or is there something we missed? Sound off in the comments, for this is your … Open Thread.

First of all, have you ever researched (read: looked up on Wikipedia) the origin of Friday the 13th? So sayeth the oracle:

The fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia (Frigga being the name of the Norse goddess for whom “Friday” is named and triskaidekaphobia meaning fear of the number thirteen), or paraskevidekatriaphobia a concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή, meaning “Friday”), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς, meaning “thirteen”) attached to phobía (φοβία, from phóbos, φόβος, meaning “fear”). The latter word was derived in 1911 and first appeared in a mainstream source in 1953.

In OTI news, I’ve closed the polls for OTI Reader’s Choice 2011, and the winners are The Economics of Death Star Planet Destruction (by a large margin) and Beauty and The Beast’s Dark Delusion in the guest post category. Congratulations to Peter Gross, that post’s author, on his good timing, since…

Disney is releasing a 3D conversion of Beauty and the Beast. Given the astronomical return this strategy yielded them for The Lion King, I think we can suspect many more of these. Are you planning to… wait for it… be their guest?

We haven’t been featuring movie releases, lately (what movie releases?), so let’s delve into those hoping that our Friday the 13th luck will change.

Nope! During this dreary winter season, the movie industry takes a break from aiming at box office (as they do in summer, which these days runs from March until September) or prestige and awards eligibility, as in the fall. So the business is putting out the trash, and this week we get the Dolly Parton/Queen Latifah church choir sports movie Joyful Noise. It also Stars Kris Kristofferson, who has done much stronger work in the past.

And after a Wahlberg-less 2011 following huge artistic success in The Fighter, the artist formerly known as Marky returns to the big screen in Contraband. To me, the most remarkable thing about this trailer is the characters’ ingenious use of duct tape.

Apparently, he didn’t hear Kevin Antoine Dodson’s advice: “Hide your kids. Hide your wife.”

So instead of going to the movies, why don’t you put our service the test? Sound off in the comments, for this is your… Open Thread.

I wish I had some more for you, but it’s been a slow week in the world of pop. Portlandia and Downton Abbey are coming back, for those of you with cable. Etta James is out of the hospital at last. Van Halen reunited. And Benedict Cumberbatch was announced as the villain for Star Trek 2. All of it interesting, sure, but none of it groundbreaking.

Anything we missed? Sound off in the comments, for this is your … Open Thread.

Not a whole heck of a lot going on in pop culture this week, aside from the wide release of some Oscar-bait films (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Iron Lady, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, etc). So let’s make this Open Thread more like an Open Thread and start with some questions.

First: with the gift-giving season winding down, what was your favorite pop culture gift this year? I’ll start: mine was Skyrim. Expect some additional Overthink on the Elder Scrolls series coming soon.

Second: what was the most interesting or entertaining piece of pop culture you consumed in 2011? Was it a new band, a cool movie, an engaging book or a fun video game? Share it with the rest of us! We’re people of taste and discernment.

Third: what are you anticipating for 2012? What’s got you shaky with anticipation? For me, it’s the film adaptation of The Hunger Games. But The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers should also be popular. How about you?

And is there anything else you want to make sure you get out before 2011? If so, sound off in the comments, for this is your … Open Thread.

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Are there other holidays? I don’t know! (It’s not Tet for about a month)

In TV news, The X Factor had its first winner last night in Melanie Amaro. In movie news, every movie worth seeing is out now, somewhere: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Artist, We Bought a Zoo, War Horse, Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, and of course Mission Impossible: G-g-g-ghost Protocol (zoinks!).

Are you getting everything you wanted for the gifty season? If not, treat yourself to a selection from the Overthinking It Gift Guide. Something to delight every taste and budget.

Finally, our friends in Massachusetts at ImprovBoston have announced open submissions for Geek Week VI, coming April 2012. Do you have a sketch, improv or multimedia show that’s at least a little geeky and at least a lot funny? Submit it as a show concept! Who knows? You might even get to perform with us!

What pop culture item do you hope you’re getting for the holidays? Sound off in the comments, and to all a good night, for this is your … Open Thread.

We’re getting closer to Christmas, Overthinkers! Light an Advent / Hanukkah candle and make a wish, or whatever!

In movie news, Mission Impossible: Spooky Operating Procedure opens this weekend. The Sherlock Holmes sequel opens as well, which, despite indie darlings Noomi Rapace and Jared Harris, doesn’t seem as well-received.

Also, the Golden Globe nominations were announced.

Last minute shopping this weekend? Don’t forget to check out our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide. Or, if you’re getting someone a Kindle – and you are, right? – pick up a copy of Perich’s debut novel, Too Close to Miss, already receiving excellent reviews. Tell the people you love, “Well, actually …” this season.

Do you have an Overthought gift to recommend? Or is there something we missed? Sound off in the comments, for this is your … Open Thread.

The only movie news worth talking about is the opening of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in theaters this weekend. Adapted from one of John le Carre’s most well-received novels, it stars a female hipster’s sexual fantasy of British stars: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch. It’s one Fassbender away from an estrogen bomb.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SRGi6GCt4k

In fallen heroes news, we salute two pop culture work horses: Jerry Robinson, comic book legend and creator of The Joker; and Harry Morgan, famous for his roles on “Dragnet” and “M.A.S.H.” Keep being sardonic in heaven, you two.

Could Colonel Potter uncover the psychopathic clown hiding in his unit? Or is there something we missed? Sound off in the comments, for this is your … Open Thread.

It’s the first Open Thread of December, Overthinkers! And that means Grammy nominations! Bon Iver, Mumford and Sons, and of course Kanye West get nods.

(Speaking of music, did you get the new Black Keys album, El Camino? Did you? If so, let me know if it’s worth it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_426RiwST8

In movie news, Roger Ebert’s experimental self-produced show “At The Movies” is going on hiatus. Michael Fassbender is starring in an NC-17 movie about sex addiction, which I’m sure some of our female readers might find interesting. An enterprising student snapped a pic of Daniel Day-Lewis made up as Abraham Lincoln for the upcoming biopic; in shocking news, the tall, craggy actor looks rather like our tallest, craggiest President.

And finally, the book that made history, Action Comics #1, sold for $2,200,000 in an online auction this week. I hope the buyer knows that all of the content within has been retconned at least three times. (I had another joke in mind about how much of DC Comics you could buy for $2.2MM, but DC Comics is pretty valuable, at least as a battery of intellectual property for Time Warner, so the byzantine entertainment market has once again rendered my irony obsolete)

Can I get a mic check for a shameless plug? Wait, I’m the only one here? Then let’s go:

John Perich’s debut novel, Too Close to Miss, is available today as an Amazon Kindle download or a Barnes & Noble Nook download for the low price of $0.99! At that price, you can’t afford not to buy it.

What’s it about? We’ll let the marketing copy do the talking:

Mara Cunningham knew that sleeping with a married man was a bad idea. But when her lover shows up in the hospital after his wife and son are murdered, the rumors about Mara turn dangerous. Now she’s the prime suspect in a double homicide, and the real killers will stop at nothing to silence her. Mara’s race against time takes her from the dense heart of Boston to the dark woods of New Hampshire, from gritty streets to the halls of power. Before she’s through, she’ll learn just which of her friends she can trust – and she’ll stare death in the face.

Buy it for yourself! Give it as a gift to an Overthinker or a fan of gritty thriller novels! And if that’s not your speed, don’t forget our other holiday gift ideas! We serve all kinds.

Could Daniel Day-Lewis survive if he were falsely accused of murdering the Black Keys on the mean streets of Boston? Or is there something we missed? Sound off in the comments, for this is your … Open Thread.