April 2008
102 posts
Cruel Reality
New York Magazine’s cover story this month focuses on the past troubled year at Horace Mann, a nearly parodic private East Coast school of the uber-privileged. Besides offering a tale more outlandish, ridiculous, and well-written than anything on the CW, writer Gabriel Sherman allows the piece subtly to follow a Thoreauvian path to examine larger issues of entitlement, the non-RIAA and...
March 2008
107 posts
Jason Kendall didn't even get a chance to put up a... →
Two negatives make a P.O.S.?
Diane Keaton and Steve Martin, both riding artistic highs following the smash successes of Mad Money and Pink Panther, respectively, have decided again to join comedic forces in a comedic tour de force by the comedic creators of Party of Five. It is going to be comedically funny.
There Will Be Gonzo
Jason Segel has revealed the plot of the movie he and co-writer/director Nick Stoller are putting together to reintroduce the felt greatness of the Muppets. In keeping with the honored tradition of the early Muppet movies and The Muppet Show, our favorite furry critters have to gather together to put on a show to save the ol’ theater from demolition at the hands of an evil oilman. Kermit...
Finally the new Allan Quatermain movie has a... →
Successfully ripping off two film series? Classic mockbluster.
“The whole tone of the speech, however, indicated that Mr. McCain has purged...”
– Paul Krugman, examining the proposals put forth this past week by the three remaining presidential candidates. Unsurprisingly, he ends up on the side of Mrs. Clinton, who is portrayed as “eating babies” apparently (I thought she was being portrayed as a poor loser willing to rip the...
No Corner Left Behind
Will Okun has a piece in the Times today where he details one extraordinary television production class in an “at-risk” Chicago Public School. Students write, edit, produce, and star in a weekly telecast of high school athletic events broadcast on local public access. Not only does the class teach predominantly minority and lower-class students aspects of television production, it...
David Paymer has officially joined the cast of Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell, making the film his 2,632nd entry on his IMDB profile while making the film cooler by roughly the same percentage.
Oh, don't worry -- I wasn't planning on messing... →
Wow. "Sarah Marshall" viral marketing just got... →
I think this might ruin some great jokes in the movie, though, so be warned.
Little Nicky auteur Steven Brill (a fellow BU alum, too!) has supposedly/apparently lashed out at fans of Fanboys (a movie only select preview audiences have seen and despised) who take Brill to task for rushing in at the behest of Harvey Weinstein to re-shoot and re-cut the film. I particularly adore his adept use of the Gen-Y lexicon in the first e-mail. Steve Brill, u are 1 kewl dood, obvs.
Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush? Has Oliver Stone seen any of these women? Ever? Or is Banks going down the ugly prosthetics Oscar path?
$35 will buy you a reserved leather seat, call... →
and one ticket to Cheaper by the Dozen III. Welcome to the future, according to Village Road Show Gold Class Cinemas, which is rolling out these 8-screen uber-prestige theaters beginning later this year. Finally a theater for the Metropolitan crowd.
“It’s just a movie. Just like the other movies. You probably have fond memories...”
– George Lucas yet again thumbs his nose at all those pesky “fans” of his work. And, Mr. Lucas, you’re correct: The Last Crusade holds up about as well as Leia’s hair-weave in Endor. Raiders, though, has aged gracefully and may be even better with its action-adventure spirit...
I live in east L.A. and work in West Hollywood
I walked out of my house today and found a pair of presumably used prophylactics lying next to a mound of canine excrement. I walked out of my office today to a line of women wearing only white bath robes.
WatchWow, The Dana Carvey Show can be viewed on Hulu but not DVD? Again ahead of its time. (via paulscheer)
4,000. →
Tracy Morgan + David O. Russell? →
It’s the blanket.
When I lead around lost, older delivery people, I feel like I’m guiding Natalya through the bunkers all over again.
When will someone in Hollywood watch a Jon Heder movie to stop another from ever happening again.
Craig Brewer continues to confuse people about his... →
An interesting trend has emerged, though, cresting in quality perhaps with The Wire, of returning to cop-and-drug tales, probably spurned on by the desire to recreate the success of Training Day. As foreign policy continues to extend an insidious and deadly reach, American culture looks and dwells further within itself.
Easter tradition in Eastern Europe: In the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, a tradition of spanking or whipping is carried out on Easter Monday. In the morning, men spank women with a special handmade whip called pomlázka (in Czech) or korbáč. Traditionally, the spanked woman gives a colored egg and sometimes a small amount of money to the man as a sign of her thanks. Then, the women can...
"Drillbit Taylor" makes two duds in a row for... →
Though I don’t know who’ll take the blame after the lethargic ad campaign.
The Risk for iPhone Users: They Know Too Much →
From the LA Times/Chicago Tribune, an absurd article that highlights yet again that knowledge and facts remain less popular than bluster and bullshit.
Hole-ridden boxer pants on top of an already overflowing waste paper basket may be the penultimate sign that I should take out the trash.
It's offical: No call-backs in Michigan. →
This Side of Awesome, you mean
Ricky Gervais’ co-directorial debut This Side of Truth either just became an instant classic comedy or stunning mess as it has added four of the greatest comic sensibilities out there: TINA FEY. CHRISTOPHER GUEST. JEFFREY TAMBOR. JOHN HODGMAN. Can one movie handle those five plus the already announced Jonah Hill and Louis C.K.? I don’t know if I’ve been this excited about a...
5 years. Nearly 4,000 Americans dead with countless Iraqis. And still no “wavering,” no acknowledgement of the blood soaked on his hands.
In a supposed slip of the tongue, John McCain warned of Iran training Al Qaeda forces, even though no link whatsoever exists between the country and the terrorist organization, especially since Iran is predominantly and supports (and purportedly trains) Shiites in Iraq whereas Al Qaeda is a Sunni outfit. McCain claims he meant no harm or insidious insinuation with the verbal gaffe… except...
Michael Cera + Edgar Wright? Geekgasm. →
“I remember thinking that Kermit was the original Tom Hanks - he was the everyman...”
– Jason Segel is going to nail the shit out of this Muppets movie.
GMail, I appreciate the sentiment, but I ain’t interrupting shit, and Dan knows it.
Not a lot of Thunder in my pants
The Tropic Thunder teaser has officially premiered over at Yahoo! Movies, and, wow, there are a lot of jokes about Robert Downey Jr. being black that aren’t that funny or culturally incisive. Jay Baruchel looks incredible, though, as does Steve Coogan and a batshit crazy Nick Nolte, and even Jack Black may turn out to be really funny playing a caricature of himself. Ben Stiller is playing a...
Anthony Minghella, director of "The English... →
A Walt Whitman joke? Wow, How I Met Your Mother, you just stepped up your game big time.
Wait! Back and Black Rhyme!
For all the Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang fans out there (which should be everyone), and particularly Craig, comes news that Shane Black is indeed back in front of a MacBook at a Starbucks somewhere hammering out his next smart-assed opus to guns, dudes, and the chicks that make both shoot blanks.