CharlesGrodin Tagged Articles at Cinematical

So many comedians don't really play well with others. They're mostly scene-stealers with little regard for anyone who gets in their way. So it's always a treat to find some that click together. If they click, their connection usually passes on to the audience. Two mega-comedians, Adam Sandler & Seth Rogen, team up for the first time in this week's Funny People. It remains to be seen just what kind of chemistry they'll have, or if it deserves to be repeated, but in any case, it's a good time to revisit some of cinema's greatest comedy team-ups. [Note: I thought I would stay modern and therefore exclude Martin & Lewis, Laurel & Hardy, Fields & West, Abbott & Costello, Hepburn & Grant, Hepburn & Tracy, etc. Just because it goes without saying.]

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Jamie Foxx is returning to the genre that brought him loads of acclaim and an Academy Award -- he has signed on for another musical biopic. Foxx will be portraying Nathaniel Anthony Ayers in The Soloist, the true story of "a homeless musician with schizophrenia who dreams of playing at Walt Disney Concert Hall." Wow. A 1) Homeless 2) Musician with 3) Mental Problems and 4) A Dream? Foxx is pretty much demanding the award here, isn't he? Can't we just give him the Oscar before production begins? They're probably polishing it up for him right now.

So how does this movie differ from all the other schmaltzy musical biopics? Producer Gary Foster tells the Los Angeles Times: "Midnight Cowboy is a perfect example of what we want this movie to feel like. It won't be slick and glossy. It's going to be emotional and real." He says that now, but I'll bet you $100 the movie ends with a teary-eyed audience jumping to its feet and bursting into applause. Joe Wright (director of the surprisingly non-boring Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice as well as the upcoming Knightley film Atonement) will direct the film. Susannah Grant (writer of a very solid run of chick flicks that includes 28 Days and Erin Brockovich) wrote the script, which is based on a 12-part series of articles by Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez. The film will focus on the relationship between Ayers and Lopez. Lopez has yet to be cast, and his photo doesn't have any casting choices leaping out at me. Any ideas?

Here is a list of actors who appear in Jesse Peretz's The Ex: Jason Bateman, Zach Braff, Amanda Peet, Charles Grodin, Mia Farrow, Amy Poehler, Fred Armisen, Amy Adams, Donal Logue, Josh Charles and Paul Rudd. Every single one of 'em is a very talented actor who can really deliver the laughs -- given the right material.

Here is a list of actors who appear in Jesse Peretz's The Ex without delivering one single laugh over the course of 81 resoundingly wretched minutes: Jason Bateman, Zach Braff, Amanda Peet, Charles Grodin, Mia Farrow, Amy Poehler, Fred Armisen, Amy Adams, Donal Logue, Josh Charles and Paul Rudd. It's almost like a world's record: How long can a movie stocked with really funny people go on without doling out, at minimum, one mild chuckle? Comedy experts may one day look at The Ex with a scientific eye. Aspiring filmmakers should check it out as a lesson plan from Bizarro World: Make a movie that's the exact opposite of The Ex and it could be the funniest film ever made.

Since humor and "what's funny" are entirely subjective things (meaning that you might find "cripple humor" the pinnacle of all things hilarious whereas I can't help but see such material as obvious, desperate and witless), I'll leave my "zero laughs" opinion at the door and just explain how terribly-made The Ex is. (Basically picture the lamest, longest sitcom pilot you can possibly imagine.) You may have heard of this movie under its original title (Fast Track) or knew a little something about its three or four previous release dates, but it's now limping into theaters with no fanfare whatsoever, desperately hoping to dupe a few fans of Scrubs and Arrested Development into buying a ticket.

According to a small item in the Boston Herald that was recently picked up by the New York Post, Gwyneth Paltrow is set to make her return to the big screen (you can be forgiven for not missing her, what with the constant spouting of directives about how and where we ought to be living, but she stopped acting for a while to have the horrifically-named Apple and Moses Bruce) with ... a Farrelly brothers-helmed remake. Um, ok. I wonder how many scripts she threw away before she chose that one -- "Great! A remake of The Heartbreak Kid! Just what I've been searching for!"

From what I can tell, the remake -- retitled Seven-Day Itch, for our hip modern times -- is the Ben Stiller-starrer Erik reported on back in April. That film's plot, about "a man ... [who] marries [what] he thinks is the perfect woman, only to fall in love with someone else while on his honeymoon," exactly mirrors that of Heartbreak Kid, so the intellectual leap is one even I can handle. The Herald reports that Michelle Monaghan is the first choice of the Farrellys for the "other woman" role, but so far that's pretty much a fantasy -- it doesn't appear that talks are even underway.

While I'm doing a pretty good job of suppressing my knee-jerk remake bitterness here, I remain troubled by the fact that Stiller is trying to step into Charles Grodin's shoes here. Ben, I know Charles Grodin. Charles Grodin is a friend of mine. You, sir, are no Charles Grodin.*

*I've never met Charles Grodin.