Widescreen

Many theaters in the suburbs will be showing the original "Twilight" on the big screen Thursday night at 9 p.m., followed by the midnight premiere of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," in which Team Jacob and Team Edward collide in (hopefully) spectacular fashion. Click here for a list of every theater within 40 miles of the Daily Herald office building that will be showing both movies this week.

Of all the reasons to love ABC's new Wednesday night comedy "Modern Family" -- and there are many, like Ed O'Neill's return to the sitcom, young Rico Rodriguez's impressive performance as O'Neill's stepson, and the instant warmth and chemistry of the entire cast -- none can even come close to the perfection of Ty Burrell in the role of Phil Dunphy, the hopelessly square dad who thinks he's cool.

Burrell has been a reliable character actor in film and television for the past decade; I first took notice of him in 2004's "Dawn of the Dead" remake, in which he played a acid-tongued playboy who is sometimes more hateful than the zombies chasing him. He was a regular cast member on two failed series ("Out of Practice" and "Back to You"), failed in his bid to romance Diane Kruger in the "National Treasure" sequel, and briefly appeared in last year's "Incredible Hulk" reboot. His biggest screen role came in the Nicole Kidman bomb "Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus," playing the photographer's husband.

But Burrell has hit the jackpot with the de facto lead role on "Modern Family," a show that continues to surprise me every week.

Ever since I was a young boy, I played the silver ball. From Arlington Heights down to Charleston, I must have played them all. I've never seen anything else like it in any amusement hall. That fat, dumb and nerdy kid sure plays a mean pinball.

Finding a place to play a mean pinball is becoming harder and harder, and not just because there are barely any arcades anymore. The pinball industry all but died in the past decade, and only one company in the entire world -- yes, the entire world -- even makes pinball games commercially. That company is Stern Pinball, Inc., owned by Gary Stern and based right here in the Chicago area (Melrose Park, to be exact).

The theme park war between Disney and Universal rages on, and the past five days have brought big announcements from both companies. Themeparkinsider.com reported in August that Disney's American parks saw attendance plateau while profits fell 19 percent; Universal, meanwhile, saw a drop in attendance but a 13-percent increase in profit, thanks to cost-cutting.

But neither company is cutting costs in their quests for money from you, the suburban traveler. Here's how each company intends to get that cash in the next few years:

Oh, Kanye West.

What can I say about the behavior of one of Chicago's former favorite sons last night at the MTV Video Music Awards that hasn't already been said? Very little, I'm afraid. But I can point out just how ridiculous the premise of his "argument," as it were, appears to be.

So Kanye's upset that Taylor Swift's video for "You Belong With Me" won the best female video award over Beyonce's "Single Ladies." Kanye says Beyonce's video was "one of the best videos of all time." He is apparently outraged that any video could be considered better than Beyonce's.

But here's the thing, Kanye: That award means nothing.

Click here for live updates on this deal from CHUD.com's Devin Faraci. Forgive him for his salty language.

The Walt Disney Co. will acquire Marvel Entertainment in a $4 billion cash-and-stock deal, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A company that already controls an enormous chunk of the world's iconic characters -- not to mention an enormous chunk of our lives -- will soon own Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, all of the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Thor and about 5,000 other comic-book heroes and villains.

If you thought you were sick of superhero movies now, just wait until Disney starts milking them for all they're worth.

Tonight's estimated Mega Millions jackpot is $252 million, which, if taken in a lump-sum payment, works out to $136.2 million, according to this jackpot calculator. One could live pretty darn comfortably on that, huh? Play your cards right, and you could probably make a living "wage" on the interest alone.

But what exactly does one person do with an amount of money that astronomical? Winning an obscene amount of money didn't really help Hugo Reyes or Jack Whittaker, and I shudder to think about the ramifications such wealth would have on the relationships in my life. If you help one friend who needs money, won't they all want help?

(Sure, new Powerball winner Solomon Jackson Jr. is all smiles now, but we'll see how he feels a year from now.)

This sort of question was far from my mind just a couple years ago. I used to scold my then-girlfriend after she first moved from the South suburbs to Sherman Oaks, Calif., and found herself in a money situation that was far from ideal; she would constantly say things like, "If only I could win the lottery ..." That seemed like such an insane thing to pin your hopes and dreams on.

But these days, I find myself thinking the exact same thing.

• The audience doesn't talk through it;

• Almost no one gets up to go to the bathroom;

• No one walks out;

• Everyone applauds at the end.

These should be obvious, I suppose, but these things rarely happen all at once. But it happened twice this weekend for me, first at the AMC 30 South Barrington, and again at the Century Theater in Evanston. Both times, the movie in question was Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds."

I've considered Bravo's "Top Chef" to be the best competition reality show on television since its inception in March 2006, and tonight's Las Vegas premiere does nothing to change my mind. It's the slickest, most consistently entertaining show in a genre that includes titans like "Project Runway" (returning tomorrow on Lifetime!), "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race," and has an amiable quality that the other shows often lack. "Top Chef" has had its share of drama -- who could forget Betty vs. Marcel in Season 2? -- but one always feels the chef-testants respect each other's work.

And it always makes me so damn hungry!

Whenever you see a rock concert in a movie, the entire place is going absolutely nuts the entire time. The screaming never stops, everyone's jumping up and down, and all the performers on stage are running all over the place, putting on the most energetic show imaginable.

That's more or less what happened Friday night at the Demi Lovato concert.

Yes, frequent commenter Sean T and I -- two single, 30-year-old men -- attended the Allstate Arena show, unaccompanied, because we think the young Miss Lovato is the real deal. Scooped up by the Disney machine and given a starring role in the cable movie "Camp Rock," Lovato is the Mouse House's next big thing. As she demonstrated Friday, she can play the piano and the guitar, and can actually sing. She had a hand in writing most of the songs on her two albums, and has lots of enthusiasm on stage.