Category: Movie Comedies (Page 60 of 195)

The pimp and the hippie

June 5, 2010 / Bob Westal

Since “Get Him to the Greek” has been on our mind lately, and if you haven’t read my mammoth press day interview thingy with cast members Russell Brand, Jonah Hill, Rose Byrne, and writer-director Nicholas Stoller you may do so now, or at your leisure. I’m also happy to report that, whatever the recently returned Nikki Finke is saying, it’s doing somewhat better than expected and defeating the really horrid looking (and, not surprisingly, horribly reviewed) “Killers” as of this moment at the Box Office.

Be that as it may, inspired by a fun piece over at the Playlist on fake bands from movies, along the lines of Aldous Snow’s Infant Sorrow from “Greek.” This weekend, I’ll be presenting some great moments with great fictional cinema bands. I’ll lead with one of the best moments from 2004’s “Hustle and Flow.” I think this was the moment I realized what I was watching was going to be a little more like “The Commitments” and a little less like “Superfly” when I saw it cold at Sundance. (Did I really declare it “the sweetest pimp movie of all time”? Oh, I was young and foolish then.) Since this is a rap tune created by an actual, fictional, pimp played by Terrence Howard, all the usual work-related provisos apply. Also, I wonder about those subtitles on the video. Just how do you translate “Whoop That Trick” into Greek? For that matter, how do you translate it into English?

And now for something completely different. A lot of you are probably familiar with the gay Hitler from the musical version of “The Producers” but fewer of you may know the hippie Hitler played to insane perfection by Dick Shawn in Mel Brooks 1968 original comedy cult-classic. Here, Lorenzo St. Dubois, call him “LSD” for short, sings “Love Power” and grabs the Broadway glass ring with the help of his all-female back-up band.

External Entertainment, External Movies, Humor, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News

Aldous Snow Dick Shawn Get Him to the Greek Headlines Hustle and Flow Infant Sorrow Killers Lorenzo St. Dubois Love Power LSD Nicholas Stoller Nikki Finke Rose Byrne Russell Brand Superfly The Committments The Producers

Let’s see them do an American remake of this!

June 4, 2010 / Bob Westal

From the alleged producer of “Dead Snow” not listed in IMDb, “Norwegian Ninja” is here.

H/t to the Daily Mubi and Twitch for this.

You probably laughed when you saw that “Norwegian Ninja,” is a true story — but it turns out that there really was an Arne Treholt who was convicted of treason for working with the KGB and the Iraqi Intelligence Service in 1984. His Wikipedia page mentions nothing about ninja skills, however — but then, it wouldn’t.

Action Movies, External Entertainment, External Movies, Humor, Movie Comedies, Movies, News

Arne Treholt Iraqi Intelligence Service KGB Norway Norwegian Ninja

“Shrek Forever After” to live up to its name?

June 4, 2010 / Bob Westal

Quite possibly, if three weeks constitutes “forever.” The final installment of the CGI animation series was considered a fairly major disappointment in its first week, earning a relatively anemic amount just under $71 million, tens of millions less than prior entries. However, “Shrek Forever After” has shown decent staying power, indicating that the relatively strong reviews this time around might be reflective of something that actually matters to audiences. If we are to believe jolly Carl DiOrio, it is once again the probable box office champion. Indeed, DiOrio expects the grosses to be between $25 and $30 million, which could easily double almost all of the four, count ’em, four major new releases coming out this week, assuming his lowish guesses for the other films are right.

To a lesser extent, the second week of the widely hated “Sex and the City 2” is also a contender for third place according to DiOrio — in his video, he doesn’t mention it in writing — but the Numbers see things quite a bit differently. I’d personally expect a bigger than average drop-off from it’s unimpressive debut simply because I get the feeling that hardly anyone liked it much, perhaps not even the franchise’s biggest fans.

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, Animation, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies, test

Ashton Kutcher Forgetting Sarah Marshall Fox Frankenstein Get Him to the Greek Headlines Joel Silver Jonah Hill Judd Apatow Katherine Heigl Killers Lionsgate Marmaduke Nicholas Stoller Paramount/Dreamworks Russell Brand Sex and the City 2 Shrek Forever After Splice The Hangover Universal Warner Brothers

Met Them at the Greek — a press day chat with Russell Brand, Jonah Hill, Rose Byrne and Nicholas Stoller of “Get Him to the Greek”

June 3, 2010 / Bob Westal

If you saw “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” — and I hope you have as its one of the stronger comedies to be made over the last several years — you’ll likely have noticed the strong comic chemistry between British comedy sensation Russell Brand as three-quarters insane, recovering addict rock star Aldous Snow and Jonah Hill (“Superbad“) as a resort waiter and somewhat overly devoted fan of Snow’s. Well, you’re not the only one, and so we have the somewhat slapdash, sometimes brilliant, and ultimately winning new comedy, “Get Him to the Greek,” which once again brings us Brand as Aldous Snow, who, since the events of “Sarah Marshall” has suffered a failed marriage to rocker Jackie Q (Rose Byrne), had a seven-year old son, and removed the “recovering” from his addiction — kind of impressive since “Sarah Marshall” was only two years ago.

Nevertheless, having fallen headlong off the wagon, Snow needs help arriving on-time and semi-cognizant for an important TV appearance, a sound check, and a special comeback performance at L.A.’s Greek Theater. The task falls to ambitious young record company assistant Aaron Green (Hill, playing a different character than in “Sarah Marshall”), a huge fan of Snow’s in a sweet but rocky relationship with his improbably adorable doctor girlfriend (Elizabeth Moss of “Mad Men“). Frequently vomit-stained hijinks ensue as Green and Snow barely survive a number of unfortunate events, including a nearly apocalyptic visit to the set of “The Today Show,” one of the most truly mad Las Vegas sequences in film history, and the kind of freaky three-ways that would make most porn producers blanch. It’s all wrapped up with the sort of good-hearted traditional morality which reminds us that the producer is the Walt Disney of male-centric, R-rated comedies, Judd Apatow.

Actors, Actresses, Celebrities, External Entertainment, External Movies, Interviews, Movie Comedies, Movies

21 Jump Street 28 Weeks Later Aaron Green Adventures in Babysitting Aldous Snow Almost Famous Andew Sachs Arthur Back to the Future Bill Murray Boogie Nights Brad Pitt Charlie Chaplin Chris Miller Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Cyrus Damages Dan Bern Despicable Me Devin Faraci Dudley Moore Duplass Brothers Elizabeth Moss Fawlty Towers Forgetting Sarah Marshall Get Him to the Greek Glenn Close Heckler Helen Mirren I Hop Jackie Q Jamie Kennedy Jason Schwartzman Jason Segel Jay Leno Jeff Dashnaw Jim Carrey John C. Reilly John Gielgud Johnny Depp Jonah Hill Jonah Hill interview Jonathan Ross Judd Apatow Julie Taymor Katy Perry Knocked Up Lars Ulrich Liza Minelli Mad Men Marisa Tomei Mark Duplass Mark Linn-Baker Martin Scorsese Matt Stoller Metalica Midnight Run Mike Bacall Mike Viola Moneyball Morrissey Muppets My Favorite Year Neil Young Nestle Nicholas Stoller Nicholas Stoller interview P. Diddy Paul Krugman Perfect Strangers Peter DeLuise Peter O'Toole Phil Lord Phillip Glass Phillip Seymour Hoffman Richard Greico Richard Pryor Robert Yeoman Robin Williams Rodney Rothman Rose Byrne Rose Byrne interview Russell Brand Russell Brand interview Scooby Doo Sean Combs Sergio Roma Steve Martin Superbad The Adventurers Handbook The Dail Mail The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made The Sitter The Tempest The Today Show Troy Walk Hard Wes Anderson Woody Allen

RIP William A. Fraker

June 3, 2010 / Bob Westal

Via Anne Thompson comes word of the passing of director of photography William A. Fraker. Fraker wasn’t one of the biggest names in cinematography of the later 20th century, but he had a definite knack for atmosphere and direct storytelling, and wasn’t afraid to take on highly diverse and unusual projects. His CV included everything from “Tombstone,” “Vegas Vacation” and “War Games” to such ultra-culty projects as Ralph Bakshi’s “Coonskin,” Theodore Flicker’s spy-satire “The President’s Analyst,” Curtis Harrington’s “Games,” and the underrated musical biopic “American Hot Wax.” Of course, he also worked on a couple of bonafide sixties mega-blockbusters, the ur-action cop movie, “Bullitt,” and the horror masterpiece that still reverberates whether any of us likes it or not, “Rosemary’s Baby.”

Below are some clips which show what a versatile director of photography like Mr. Fraker can do, starting with the obvious, which really shows that Fraker knew his way around shadows.