Posts Tagged ‘comedy’

Surely to be one of the more controversial movies of the year, especially in this Tea Party-led society we suddenly live in, Four Lions is about four British Muslims who, disillusioned with the western world, decide they’re going to wage jihad against their country. In other words, they’re going to blow some sh*t up. Oh, and it’s a comedy.

Read FilmJabber’s full Four Lions movie review.

There’s unfunny, and then there’s painfully unfunny, and the new R-rated romantic comedy She’s Out of My League falls somewhere between the two. A derivative of Knocked Up, about an awkward young man who finds himself with a much hotter girlfriend, the movie is two hours worth of forced dialogue and flat jokes. Stay away. Stay very far away.

Read FilmJabber’s full She’s Out of My League movie review.

For years, HBO was the preeminent leader of high-quality television. No other station, and especially no other premium station, consistently produced expertly done and engaging shows the way they did. Think Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, Deadwood, Big Love, Entourage and Carnivale. These are some of the best shows ever made, and are considered as such.

But every great empire must fall at some point. Enter Showtime.

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The Hangover repeated its dominance at the box office this weekend, taking in another $33.4 million; the R-rated comedy is now on pace to rake in approximately $175 million, against a budget of $25-$35 million. The people behind Land of the Lost (biggest flop of the year?) and Terminator Salvation are shaking their heads in shame.

Up earned another $30 million, while The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 debuted in third with an okay $25 million. Eddie Murphy’s Imagine That fell flat with only $5.7 million.

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Taking Woodstock comes to limited theaters on August 14, 2009, and looks like it could be an enjoyable late-summer event. A comedy about the unsuspecting hosts of the famed Woodstock event, the movie stars some recognizable-but-not-well-known actors, though stand-outs include Emile Hirsch and Imelda Staunton.

Watch the Taking Woodstock movie trailer here:

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Mike Judge is behind a little movie you may have heard of called Office Space, which can only be described as one of the biggest cult film I can imagine. If you work in an office, you’ve probably seen, liked and related to the movie. Needless to say, Mike Judge has some comedic clout…

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Watch the funny new movie trailer for Away We Go, from director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Revolutionary Road). The film is a notable change from Mendes’ other bodies of work as it is, in fact, a comedy and presumably doesn’t include one of the main characters dying at the end.

Watch the Away We Go movie trailer now:

For more information, go to the Away We Go details page.

I just watched the two-and-a-half-minute movie trailer for The Great Buck Howard, which stars Colin Hanks and John Malkovich, with a guest appearance by Colin’s father, the little-known actor named Tom Hanks. The movie is about a washed-up performer who is still living in his glory years until his new, youthful manager helps get him back on the fast track.

The movie looks entertaining enough, and Malkovich appears to be in his element here as the overly enthusiastic and seemingly fake title character. Unfortunately, the movie trailer itself is not that good. It’s about 45 seconds too long, not very well structured and altogether just a little bland. Worse is that it establishes no sense of conflict – things just seem to get better and better for Howard – so now that I’ve seen this trailer, what’s the point of seeing the movie?

Watch The Great Buck Howard movie trailer yourself:

Soul Men comes to DVD next Tuesday, and of three big names in the film – Bernie Mac, Samuel L. Jackson and Isaac Hayes – only Jackson lived to see this comedy released to theaters.

I’m not sure that Jackson was the lucky one.

After all, Jackson most likely attended the premiere, which means that he had to be embarrased in front of everyone when he saw the final product. Soul Men is pretty disastrous, and is definitely not the way Bernie Mac would have wanted to go out.

Read my full Soul Men movie review here.

It’s funny: of all the successful comedies of the year, one of the funniest, which combined the likes of Seth Rogen with the director who made his kind of comedy possible in the first place – Kevin Smith – flopped. One shouldn’t have been surprised, given that Kevin Smith has hardly been a box office phenom and that The Weinstein Company wasn’t even allowed to market its film title in many venues, but given that Seth Rogen has been in one hit after another – the sudden failure of Zack and Miri Make a Porno struck me by surprise.

And, given that it is one of the most hilarious movies of 2008, I was disappointed. Nevertheless, the movie should make plenty of money this week as it spins its way onto DVD. Those who haven’t seen this movie should, and those who have already seen it should definitely consider buying the 2-Disc Edition, as it is packed with bonus features.

Most notably, Zack and Miri Make a Porno includes over an hour and a half of deleted scenes. Some of them are alternates, but these deleted scenes give you a sense of just how much improv was conducted by the cast. There are plenty of hilarious lines (“what do scrotums taste like?”) and exchanges, especially between Rogen and Justin Long. An entire movie could be made just around Justin Long’s character – if you liked his brief involvement in Zack and Miri, you’ll definitely get a kick out of the deleted scenes.

Beyond those, there’s a pretty strong making-of featurette, which goes through every stage of filming, from casting to filming to getting the film past the MPAA. The making-of documentary is impressively in-depth and honest, and well worth watching.

A series of webisodes are included, some of which are better than others. One with Kevin Smith and Seth Rogen exchanging barbs is pretty good (“What’s Jersey Girl?” “Let’s not talk about it.”).

Some footage from Comic-Con 2008 puts the cast altogether in an audience-driven interview setting. There are no major takeaways here, but it’s not worthless, either.

The outtakes and bloopers are surprisingly disappointing.

Lastly, Seth Rogen and Justin Long face off in an improvisation battle. Most of this can be found in the deleted scenes, but it’s still pretty disappointing.

Between the hours of deleted scenes and the making-of featurette, Zack and Miri Make a Porno 2-Disc Edition is well worth buying. The movie itself is hilarious and surprisingly sweet, so the combination of the film and bonus features make for one of the first great packages of 2009.

The long-delayed Fanboys finally comes to theaters next Friday, and here are a few video clips recently provided by the studio. The first one features Kristin Bell taking her shirt off… sort of.

Take Your Shirt Off

2008 was a good year for comedies, and this coming from a guy who rates comedies as the least desirable genre. I actually do really enjoy comedies, but I like action flicks and depressing dramas much, much more. But in the absence of really great dramas, this genre rose up to truly deliver….

1. In Bruges
   Most people haven’t seen this movie, but it is certainly worth it. Unlike the four or five movies that follow on this list, In Bruges may not be the non-stop laughfest, but it comes pretty close. More importantly, it is a unique and surprisingly excellent drama-comedy that features Colin Farrell bashing the poor town of Bruges for two hours, getting overly excited about cracked-out midgets and telling fat Americans that they can’t climb up some steep stairs. OK, so that explanation does the comedy absolutely no justice, but this is a movie that blew me away in more ways than one.
2. Role Models
   Based on the previews, who could have seen this one coming? Role Models flew in under the radar, looking like a decent but generic comedy starring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott. But from the first minute, Role Models is a consistently funny and vulgar picture that has a surprising amount of heart and more laughs than you’ll know what to do with.

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Fans were already apprehensive with the casting of Seth Rogen as The Green Hornet, one of the world’s oldest superheroes, and now they have a reason to be downright upset. With the hiring of director Stephen Chow (Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer), it sounds like the movie is headed back towards being more of a comedy than the serious action flick “promised” a little while back.

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Anyone remember watching The Tick, which starred an idiotic but good-natured superhero (named The Tick) and his brainier but not quite so confident sidekick, Arthur? The show was hilarious, and while it has been canceled a few times, it never seems to die completely. The lovable superhero is back on the Minisodes Network, which takes the original content, shrinks it down to five minutes while maintaining the general storyarc, and provides them for free on the Internet.

So, in other words, for all of you – like me – who liked cartoons growing up but don’t have the patience to watch 25-minute episodes anymore, this could be a great alternative (I’m pretty sure they have non-cartoons as well). Here’s the pilot episode of The Tick… [EDITOR'S NOTE: Having written this post before watching the video, I now see that the pilot episode is for the live-action version. Either way... Enjoy!]

I’ve posted ten new clips for Drillbit Taylor, the new Owen Wilson movie. As I’ve calculated out, this probably means you can see about a third of the movie sitting in front of your computer… legally.

Drillbit Taylor opens this Friday, and is the first major film release for Wilson since his suicide attempt last year. Will he get extra fan support as a result? I think he might, though I haven’t seen much promotion for the film, if any.

Watch the Drillbit Taylor media clips here.