Tag: Judd Apatow (Page 2 of 4)

Trailer for a Friday morning: “I Love You, Phillip Morris”

October 29, 2010 / Bob Westal

It’s looking like those of us who gay panicked their way into an excuse to avoid “Brokeback Mountain” will have a new quality film to miss for no good reason, and this film, which recently escaped from a distribution limbo, appears to be very funny indeed. If you dare — or if you’re a woman or an actual person with teh gay — check out this trailer that features some very funny and relatively explicit sexuality and language between stars Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. This could easily be one of the year’s more memorable films. Man up or miss out. Also, if you absolutely need to focus on a hetero thought, Leslie Mann (a woman, also Mrs. Judd Apatow) is actually kind of insanely adorable in this trailer as Carrey’s Christian ex-wife.

Oh, and before I saw this trailer, I somehow figured that the corporation best known for its tobacco products would somehow figure in the story. It’s still kind of an odd name for Ewan McGregor’s character, though.

H/t Screencrave.

Actors, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movie Comedies, Movies, Trailers

Brokeback Mountain Ewan McGregor I Love You Phillip Morris I Love You Phillip Morris trailer Jim Carrey Judd Apatow Leslie Mann

The box office kung-fu of “The Karate Kid” proves strong; “The A-Team” does B-grade business

June 13, 2010 / Bob Westal

It’s probably not a completely original thought of mine and it’s obviously a vast oversimplification, but it’s always seemed to me that what audiences really seem to want is more of the same, but different. If something is too unfamiliar, only a limited portion of viewers will be adventurous enough to try out a brand new movie flavor. If it’s too familiar, on the other hand, it’s kind of a bore, at best.

That formula has apparently been in full effect this weekend as a film which put a few gentle twists on a very familiar property prospered at the box office. A second movie — in terms of marketing, at any rate — was an apparent carbon copy of its source material, notwithstanding a new cast, more violence, and a bigger budget (too much bigger, probably). That film will prove vastly less profitable, at best.

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Dreamworks/Paramount Fox Get Him to the Greek Headlines Jackie Chan Jaden Smith Jennifer Lawrence Joan Rivers Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work Jonah Hill Judd Apatow Roadside Attractions Russell Brand Shrek Forever After Sony Splice The A-Team The Kung Fu Kid Winter's Bone

“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.

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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

Mid-week movie blips and bleeps

February 24, 2010 / Bob Westal

Another night under the Klieg lights.

* Nikki Finke is obviously in a nasty mood over it, but Rachel Abramowitz at the L.A. Times has a fairly interesting piece on Angelina Jolie‘s upcoming portrayal of best-selling mystery novelist Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta. Even though this will be character’s first appearance on film, they’ve decided to preboot the character by starting with an new “origins” story for the medical examiner character. (Was she bitten by a radioactive pathologist, perhaps?)

* You may think Sundance has been over for a few weeks now, but Anne Thompson details hows it’s not even close to being so simple as she describes how the indie film world is doing its business. One takeaway point: though indie filmmakers are making the most of new media with VOD and slightly older media with DVD, you still need “robust” theatrical to be in the mix if you’re hoping for significant bucks. (H/t Mr. Ebert’s Amazing Twitter feed.)

* The Coen’s have found the young, female lead to play opposite Jeff Bridges’ Rooster Cogburn in their sure-to-be interesting nouveau “True Grit,” and it’s 13 year-old Hailee Steinfeld. Mike Fleming has the scoop.

* Pulp loving writer-director Shane Black of “Lethal Weapon” and “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” is going to be helming a new cinematic take on Doc Savage writes Renn Brown of CHUD, via Variety. Brown admits to not knowing his Doc Savage, but I myself went through a pulp phase and read several of the good doctor’s adventures as a youth. I can tell you that “Scooby Doo” is not really the first thing that comes to mind. He’s really more of a non-superpowered Superman, or a much more clean living and nonviolent James Bond, but with the mental faculties of an Indiana Jones and a touch of Jesus Christ. (He has hangs out with a bunch of somewhat more flawed guys who help him to do his various earth-shattering good deeds. He’s so tough, however, he only needs five of them.) Buckaroo Banzai owes his very existence to Doc. Pretty much the only thing Doc couldn’t do was to get through a day’s work without ripping his shirt into shreds. In the world of pulp heroes, he was definitely the daylight yin to the dark yang of “The Shadow.” The character has foiled filmmakers before, but I think Black may be the man for the job.