Comedy »

Given the kaleidoscopic venn diagram of contexts in which Bruno can and will inevitably be viewed, it's tough to know precisely where to start, and how far to go when deconstructing Sacha Baron Cohen's new comedy. Like the singular, groundbreaking Borat, it's a balls-out comedy, but it's also a social commentary; it's both the latest movie Cohen appears in, and the big-deal "next effort" from him as a performance artist and lead rather than costar or day-player; and finally, it's a lightning rod for controversy and also a generally innocuous goof on mainstream expectations of him and his character, a flamboyant homosexual. All of which suggests that the film is, or perhaps would necessarily be, richer and more substantive than its predecessor - the sort of galvanizing experience that leaves audiences buzzing, changes minds and perceptions, and transforms the face of entertainment forever.

And yet, Bruno is curiously ineffective, a sort of middling effort that fails to liberate itself from the stereotypes that provide the character's foundations, even if it also doesn't deliberately or harmfully reinforce them.

It looks like Brooke Shields is making her way back to the big screen, and this time she won't be getting saucy in The Blue Lagoon. After a decade away, The Hollywood Reporter posts that Shields has signed onto the live-action comedy Furry Vengeance. Actually, considering the title, it's probably good to note that this is a family film. There's no word on what role she'll play in the Brendan Fraser flick, which follows a real estate developer who gets a hard time from a band of raccoons. One -- What's the obsession with coons lately? Davey Crockett on the brain? Two -- It might be the usual Fraser fair, but the cast does boast Ken Jeong, Samantha Bee, and Dick Van Dyke as well.

Meanwhile, in the shadow of Parenthood heading to the small screen, THR also posts that Freestyle Releasing has picked up Motherhood, and will release it this October. This is the Uma Thurman/Minnie Driver/Anthony Edwards project that has Uma trying to pull together her daughter's sixth birthday party in the midst of "urban challenges." As the ed note pointed out in the post about her casting last year, "More Goose!" But there's also the perk of a practically fully female production. Katherine Dieckman wrote and directed it, and it's produced by Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon, Jana Edelbaum, and Rachel Cohen. They say: "From the outset, Motherhood has been a labor of love for us. As a collection of female filmmakers, we immediately took to the humor and honesty of the project."

Hopefully the labor is worth it!

Having co-created "The Office" (the original) and "Extras" (which I've had sitting on my shelf to watch for ages now), Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have most recently seen fit to co-write and direct their first film together, the seventies-set Cemetery Junction. With filming just having begun less than a month ago, though, the duo has nonetheless whipped up a brief but funny teaser trailer with the help of star Ralph Fiennes -- an actor not exactly known for his comedic prowess...

(You know what? Scratch that: all his guff served In Bruges and that Wallace & Gromit movie quite well.)

Also starring Emily Watson, Matthew Goode, and (yes) Gervais and Merchant themselves, Cemetery Junction should hit theaters at some point in 2010 (the UK has an April date, so here's hoping the US release is similarly spring-like). With any luck, maybe they'll coax their colleagues into similarly amusing appearances before the film's finished.

Watch the teaser trailer after the jump

The summer movie season has already past its half-way point, but my two most anticipated films still haven't arrived: District 9 and Judd Apatow's Funny People. We talked about the former yesterday, and now today it's time to plug a film that looks to bring it all: laughs, tears, Australian accents, Seth Rogen's weird cough-laugh, sarcastic Australian accents, Jason Schwartzman looking stoned, Jonah Hill being a d*ck, tons of stand-up comedy -- seriously, what more could you want from a movie?

Two new pieces of Funny People marketing have arrived today. We have a red-band trailer that premiered over at MySpace and a piece of viral awesomeness that premiered over at Moviefone. The red-band (or restricted ... which sounds so mean, doesn't it) trailer isn't all too bad (with the exception of an oral sex joke), and it definitely shines a light on the finer aspects of Apatow's films, which include real, human moments, or, as some would say, the little stuff.

Meanwhile, the viral piece is something pretty unique. Back in the early '90s, Judd Apatow and Adam Sandler were actual roommates, who, apparently, filmed ridiculous things like prank calls. So ... this video is Apatow filming a very young-looking Sandler prank-calling the local deli as an old lady to complain about a sandwich while wearing underwear on his head. Check out both the trailer and the viral video after the jump.

Funny People hits theaters on July 31.

Call it Juno on Wheels. The first image of Ellen Page in the upcoming roller derby flick Whip It has been released, showing her strapped into a girl scout uniform as she skates around a track with Drew Barrymore and Kristen Wiig. The photo above, and several others, can be viewed at USA Today (additionally, check out two extra images below)

The film represents Barrymore's directorial debut. Page stars as 17-year-old Bliss Cavendar, who is tired of competing in beauty pageants at the insistence of her mother (Marcia Gay Harden). She rebels by joining the Hurl Scouts, a women's roller derby team in Austin, Texas, and finds her true calling -- or, at least, a good place to unleash some pent-up aggression. Barrymore skates with the Scouts, as does Saturday Night Live's Wiig and the great Zoe Bell (Death Proof). Juliette Lewis is described as the villain of the piece, an opposing player determined to defeat Page and the Scouts, and the players all have cool nicknames: Smashley Simpson, Maggie Mayhem, Bloody Holly, and so forth.

As Jenni Miller advised, Fox Searchlight will distribute the film, which is set for release on October 9. Roller derby vet Shauna Cross (AKA Maggie Mayhem) wrote the screenplay, based on her own novel, Derby Girl. A very good doc about the Austin roller derby scene, Hell on Wheels, is available to view at SnagFilms (we also embedded it after the jump), and if Whip It can approach that real-life excitement, it could break out of the fall pack. Since nicknames are de rigeur for roller derby players, what nickname will you choose if you decide to see Ellen Page Whip It?

Patrick Dempsey, Eric Dane -- Is one Grey's Anatomy star all that different from another? In a strange news twist and ultimate bit of Grey's fandom, our classic movie trades are reporting that both of the hit show's leading hottie doctors are signing up for Garry Marshall's Valentine's Day. Variety reports that Eric Dane (who plays Dr. Mark Sloan) is joining the cast, while The Hollywood Reporter posts that Patrick Dempsey is. Neither mentions the other bit of casting. Is New Line spreading the casting news wealth?

Dane will play a quarterback wondering whether he should retire in the ensemble comedy, while Dempsey once again plays a doctor. But this time, he's no good doctor, but rather "a married obstetrician dating [Jennifer] Garner's character on the sly, with her unaware of his status." Bad Dempsey.

Valentine's Day is the super-packed romcom ensemble that Peter posted about back in May. Following on the He's Just Not That Into You bandwagon, the film boasts names that range from Julia Roberts to Jessica Biel as they work "their way through a tangle of circumstances in Los Angeles" -- presumably on Cupid's big day.

While I'd like to see this flick have a little more brains than the one it's following after, I bet the chances are slim to none. Marshall is the guy, after all, who followed up Pretty Woman and Frankie and Johnny with Exit to Eden. But for the undying fans of floofy romantic schlock, I bet this'll be downright irresistible.

One day he's getting tortured by the Taliban and then heads home to discover that his bad-boy brother is getting saucy with his wife. The next, he's taking part in a modern War of the Roses. Variety reports that Tobey Maguire is taking on more marital dysfunction by starring in Jacob Estes' new indie black comedy called The Details alongside Elizabeth Banks.

The pair (which was once set to be Banks and James McAvoy) will play a troubled married couple struggling with infidelity and other marital issues. But here's where things get strange: "their lives [are] further complicated by ravenous raccoons burrowing under the sod in their back yard. A disagreement over how to dispatch the pests creates a chain reaction of mishaps that include a murder by bow and arrow." There's nothing like a few coonies to ruin a marriage! Just in case that insane plot isn't enough to whet your appetite, the cast also contains Ray Liotta, Dennis Haysbert, Anna Friel, and Laura Linney, the latter playing an eccentric neighbor. (You can also check out many details of the plot here.)

Maguire reportedly decided to hop onto this project before heading back to Spider-Man land, and I say: "Huzzah!" As much as the webbed wonder is great, it's nice to see us one more reminder that Maguire has talents outside of comic superheroes.

Why not make a movie based around one of the unfunniest recurring characters of late, the normally likeable Will Forte's MacGruber? Yes, it's true. Monika wrote in May that Lorne Michaels said he's considering a feature-length film version of the Saturday Night Live MacGruber sketch, and now Variety and The Hollywood Reporter are confirming that the wheels are in Mac-motion. They are also reporting that Val Kilmer and Ryan Phillipe could join Wiig and Forte in this comedy of errors, which is being written by Forte and fellow SNL writers John Solomon and Jorma Taccone, who will also direct.

The MacGruber skits on Saturday Night Live poke fun at the popular MacGyver TV series, which aired from 1985 to 1992 and starred Richard Dean Anderson as a secret agent who concocted useful devices from the objects around him -- hence the term MacGyvering. MacGruber, who is MacGyver's long-lost son, is not as successful as dear old dad at defusing situations or bombs, and ends up getting himself, his assistant Vicky (Kristen Wiig), and whoever that week's hapless guest host is blown up.

I always seem to start these pieces the same way: "I don't normally do set visits," given my general distaste for air travel and a frequent disinterest for movie sets, but once in a while ... something fun and easy comes along, and I go for the ride. The friendly folks at Sony invited me to visit the set of a flick called (wait for it) Zombieland! Come on! If you know anything about me, then you know "Zombieland" is a place I want to visit, even if it is just a movie set! (Oh, and the flight was from Philadelphia to Atlanta, and that really helped to seal the deal.)

So I arrive in the surprisingly quiet but very charming section of Atlanta (a city I'd love to revisit soon) and am greeted by several gracious colleagues -- and ... what's this? Mr. James Rocchi, an old friend to Cinematical and one of my very best buddies? He was here for the Zombieland set visit too? Toss in a quick beer with some of my Signal pals ... and this turned out to be a smart trip.

But here's where I'll let you in on a little secret. Gather 'round, movie geeks. Ready? Here it is: movie sets are really boring! No, it's true! It's like wandering through a stunningly orchestrated construction site that also has a tiny little stage play taking place in a corner somewhere. If you're interested in the crafts of photography, fashion, carpentry, or electrical engineering, then a movie set could be pretty fascinating. (But you'd keep getting bumped into, believe me.) Luckily for us, "set visits" are just a bit more elaborate than a normal day on the set...



(Much) more right here at HorrorSquad!

It's entirely possible I am the only one disappointed by the following news, but bear with me. The latest word on Rob Zombie's dirty lucha libre cartoon, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, is that it's headed directly to DVD and Blu-ray. That's the bad news. The good news is that after three years, it will finally see the light of day (or the darkness of night). Zombie's first foray into animated filmmaking has plenty of clever characters doing the voice acting, like Rosario Dawson, Paul Giamatti, Danny Trejo (!), Clint Howard, and Zombie regulars Bill Moseley, Sid Haig, and Sheri Moon Zombie.

Zombie told IGN in an interview this past spring, "It came out awesome... That started off as this little tiny half-a-million dollar direct-to-video movie that expanded into this $10 million animated extravaganza." Except, well, it's a $10 million animated extravaganza that is going direct to DVD.

I have high hopes that it will make an appearance as a midnight movie in my local theater (and yours!) and perhaps get some attention at one of the many horror festivals like Fantastic Fest. Even though I'd like to see in on the big screen, it does look like the type of movie that would make more money on DVD than in theaters, especially with its target audience, which I can only guess is made up of fans of over-the-top cartoons, horror, heavy metal, and Mexican wrestling... or stoners. Not that they're mutually exclusive, of course.

(Courtesy of FEARNet)