Adam Sandler's movies haver never represented the apex of cultural awareness, but they do tend to grapple, if somewhat brashly, with the finer points of human relations. In his latest raunchfest, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, the insolent comic creates "his stupidest character ever" (as an audience member muttered five minutes into last night's New York preview screening), but it's also his most symbolic one: Sporting a hyperbolic flair for disco music and using hummus as toothpaste, hardened Israeli soldier Zohan is a bloated creature of Semitic extremes.

Overall, however, the movie uses metaphors more than stereotypes. When Zohan and a furious Palestinian terrorist (John Turturro) use paddles to bat a live grenade back and forth, the result is a lowbrow editorial cartoon.

Everyone knows that kids rule Hollywood. Without them a lot of movies wouldn't be made, wouldn't make millions and wouldn't sell a ton of merchandise. When studios aren't thinking of how to do well in foreign markets, they're thinking of how to succeed with the little ones. For the past twenty years, the Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards have been showing us what the kids apparently prefer, and on Saturday they honored some more predictable favorites.

The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest was the choice for favorite movie of the year, though surprisingly Johnny Depp was not the favorite actor. Instead the kids picked now-7-time-winner Adam Sandler, who also beat out Will Smith and Jack Black. The favorite actress was Dakota Fanning, despite the fact that kids didn't go crazy for her Charlotte's Web last year. Her competition was Halle Berry, Keira Knightley and Sarah Jessica Parker. Happy Feet won for favorite animated film, though it wasn't even nominated for favorite voice from an animated film, a category won by Queen Latifah for Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. Rounding out the movie-related awards this weekend was a special honor given to Ben Stiller, who received the "Wannabe" Award for being the person who kids most want to be like. Of course, they probably just want to be in the Museum of Natural History after dark.

Now that films like Wild Hogs have done so well at the box office, you best prepare yourself for a whole lot more of these "middle-aged guys leave suburbia to live dangerously"-type projects. Our first example can be found in Frank Coraci's (Click, The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy) next film, Part-Time Pirates, which he'll be directing for 20th Century Fox. However, don't think this idea was hatched as soon as Hogs hit it big -- actually, it was pitched as an original idea back in 2004 by newbie Jordan Cahan, and Fox has been sitting on it, patiently waiting for the right Hogs, er, time to unveil it.

Story revolves around a group of bored working-class guys who, for some odd reason, decide to hit the open seas and raid the pricey yachts of their stingy former bosses. Somewhere along the way they become "real men" and learn the meaning of life while taking on the roles of modern-day pirates. Honestly, it's a wicked smart idea from Fox, as they'll be looking to reel in the same audience who flocked to see both Pirates of the Caribbean and Wild Hogs -- not to mention, the film is being brought to us by the guy who directed three of Adam Sandler's biggest films. No word yet on whether Sandler will take part; pic is being produced by Terra Firma Films and not Sandler's Happy Madison. Based on Coraci's track record, the only recent film he helmed without Sandler (Around the World in 80 Days) absolutely tanked, and so I'd be curious to see if he can keep up those big box office numbers without his lucky star.

For me the most entertaining part of the annual Oscar schpiel is not seeing which films get awards and what actors earn the most respect; it's scratching my head through the boneheaded decisions that seem to come a) out of nowhere and b) from a bunch of people who really ought to know a little better. Here are my picks for the seven biggest pieces of silliness regarding this year's Oscar nominations:

7. Borat for best adapted screenplay? Whaaaaat? Did we see the same movie? Don't get me wrong: I absolutely LOVED this movie -- I called it "one of the funniest movies ever made" and I stand by that opinion today -- but didn't most of the funniest bits come from moments best described as "off the cuff," "reaction-driven" and "semi-improvised"? I understand that more of the flick was scripted than one might expect, but c'mon. Unless all of Borat's interview subjects were given lines to read, I really don't see how this nomination makes any sense. I love seeing the movie get some respect, but what a silly way to do it.

6. Click gets nominated for best makeup ... but Pirates of the Caribbean 2 does not? What the hell? Did any of the Academy members see this movie? Yeah, I know that most of the more dazzling FX were full-bore CGI, but heck; the makeup used on Naomie Harris was more impressive than anything in freakin' Click! Fat suits and really lame "old man" makeup is all it takes to get an Oscar nom these days? Sheesh. Plus I just don't like living in a world that calls Click an Oscar nominee.

5. Nominating The Devil Wears Prada for Best Costume Design is like nominating Talladega Nights for Best Product Placement. Welcome to the world of Home Shopping Cinema.

Yes, it's that time of the year again -- time for the ever-popular People's Choice Awards (or, as I like to call them, "The Choice for People Under the Age of 16). Seriously, from glancing at the winners, one can only speculate that the folks actually voting are either teenagers or woman who read nothing but Us Weekly and Star Magazine -- basically, the types of people who think Jennifer Aniston (who won for best female star) is the greatest female movie star on the planet. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but c'mon ...

For those of you lucky enough to have missed the live broadcast, Johnny Depp and his merry band of pirates were the big winners on the movie side -- Depp took home the award for best male star, best male action star (what, no Daniel Craig?) and best on-screen matchup (for his on-screen partnership alongside Keira Knightley), while Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest won for best movie and best movie drama. Gee, ya think that movie is popular, or what? As far as best movie comedy goes, folks just scanned the list looking for whatever Adam Sandler film was out in theaters, choosing Click as their favorite. Not surprisingly, Cars walked away with the award for best family movie (and here I thought Tideland would give it a good fight).

Other winners include Cameron Diaz for best lading lady and Halle Berry for best female action star. Something tells me that best female action star trophy will look pretty sweet sitting next to Berry's Oscar -- man, remember back when we actually took her acting seriously. Sure, it was only for a couple of months ... but those were some special months, huh? Next year's show should be fun to predict -- how about we go ahead and give everything to Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End and call it a day?

The Academy has shortlisted another seven finalists for one of its award categories, and at least one movie on the list was a surprise to me. Click, which is considered by many critics to be one of the worst movies of 2006 (though is popular with "the people"), has been recognized for its achievement in makeup, and depending on how the Academy's makeup branch votes on January 20, it could even garner an Oscar nomination.

Of course, a lot of bad movies are nominated for Oscars, particularly in specific artistic and technical categories like Best Makeup, but typically with this category the nominations are obvious. 2000 winner How the Grinch Stole Christmas, for example, is perfectly apparent as having distinguishable makeup, if little else of worth. What does Click have in the way of significant makeup? Well, there is some special aging makeup -- designed by the master, Rick Baker, no less -- but does anybody, including the voting makeup professionals, really pay attention to aging makeup anymore? As I think should be the case with any Oscar category, the award should honor outstanding, innovative, monumental and pioneering work. Nothing less.

Yesterday, Cinematical's own Mark Beall went off on Adam Sandler a bit, going so far as to say, "there's only so long a grown man can talk like a seven year old before it ceases being funny and becomes irritating -- about ten minutes, really." While I expected a bunch of you to immediately jump all over Mark, surprisingly, most agreed with his opinion. You're tired of Sandler's shtick, and some probably wish he would use that mysterious remote control found in Click to just turn himself off.

Unfortunately, that's not going to happen anytime soon, as Sandler's Happy Madison will help produce and adapt Dan Zevin's memoir The Day I Turned Uncool: Confessions of a Reluctant Grown-Up for Paramount Pictures. And, of course, folks are leaning towards shoving Sandler into the lead role. Through 24 chapters (dubbed confessions), memoir chronicles one man's slow journey into adulthood. One reviewer described Uncool as taking a "sentimental first-person approach to suburban adult dilemmas such as wine tastings, lawn care, the starter home and the contrast between the freewheeling college semester abroad and the fearful, sensible 30-something European vacation."

Seeing as I sort of enjoyed Sandler's performance in Spanglish and loved him in Punch Drunk Love, I know the dude has it in him to really entertain us -- ya know, if he stops putting himself in such cheesy roles. This particular project sounds like a lot of fun, and it could potentially be a great starring vehicle for Sandler, assuming he doesn't twist it around and go the silly route. What do you think? Does the guy deserve another chance.

In 1989, Daniel Neman, a staff writer at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, began counting flatulence jokes in movies, beginning with the lovable cop-and-dog buddy comedy K-9. This year, thanks to Nacho Libre and Click, his list of movies with funny farts has reached a milestone of 100 (that seems surprisingly low). So, to celebrate, he has written a little piece in his paper about the overused gag, which he claims made its first appearance thirty years ago in Blazing Saddles. Basically he tells us what we should already know: flatulence isn't actually funny, especially not after more than 100 movies. So why do filmmakers continue to include flatulence for comedic effect? Neman blames film school, that place where he says future writers and directors learn to copy what has been done before. In fact, according to him, the entire lack of originality in Hollywood these days is because of film school.

Well, I kinda see Neman's point about film students being too obsessed with the filmmakers who came before them, but if film school graduates were actually copying the greats that much, then today's movies would probably be better than they are. Anyway, I went to film school, and I don't recall a class that taught flatulence. Maybe in the ten years that I've been out of school it was added to the curriculum, but I doubt it. The kinds of movies that use fart jokes, except for maybe Blazing Saddles, are just not the kind studied at film school.

So what could be the real reason screenwriters put the gag into their scripts? Easy answer: People still laugh at it. Even if we know it isn't really funny we still sometimes laugh. Especially if we're 10, and exist in the demographic to which Hollywood caters.

[via Fark.com]

So, let's start with the good news for Warner Bros.: Superman Returns topped the box office this weekend! Yay! The film made just over $52 million from 4065 screens, easily out-earning The Devil Wears Prada, which took in $27 million on about 1200 fewer screens. The bad news, however, is that, big-picture, the movie tanked. Its $81.2 million over the first five days of release is good enough for ... 30th place on the all-time, five-day list. Add to that the facts that a)27 of the films that earned more opened on fewer screens, and b)WB is rumored to have spent about $300 million total (including promotional costs) on the movie, and those box office numbers spell a very, very, VERY worried studio. Look for the WB spin to kick into high gear on Monday, featuring sound bytes like "It outdid our expectations among female senior citizens" and "When the World Cup is over, just watch the box office explode!"

Meanwhile, Click and Nacho Libre both dropped about 50%, with Click's $19.4 million placing it in the third spot, and Nacho Libre's $6.2 good enough for fifth, right behind a still-solid Cars. In other news, The Break-Up is still in the top 10. This weekend's earnings of $2.8 million ran the movie's total domestic takes to about $110 million and pushed it even further into the black. The full top 10 is after the jump.

When I'm in the mood to get good and depressed, I just take a look at the weekend box office numbers. There are few things more guaranteed to send me into the depths of despair than seeing how many people lined up to see the latest Tyler Perry flick or Adam Sandler comedy (and I use that term very loosely when applied to Sandler, who ranks just marginally below David Spade on my list of people I wish would never, ever make another movie). I swear, every time I see Sandler on the screen, I just want to hurt him -- and I'm a peace-loving, non-violent person under ordinary circumstances. I'm sure he's a perfectly nice person in real life, and he's probably a blast at parties, but I'd rather get my gums scraped without numbing medication than sit through his films. Perplexingly, though, his tend to do okay at the box office, so apparently a lot of people actually like him.

Sandler's latest effort, Click, about a man who buys a remote with the power to affect reality, dominated the top weekend box office slot, with an estimated take of $40 million. The film is going to need some good word-of-mouth to get past its budget of $70 million and into the black, but I expect it will make it over the hump. Jack Black vehicle Nacho Libre, in theaters for 10 days now, has raked in $52.7 million off a relatively small $35 million budget, already putting the flick in the black for Paramount and pretty much guaranteeing we'll be seeing more of Black in the future. For some reason, Black doesn't tend to irritate me nearly so much as Sandler, but neither do I find him particularly appealing. I think what it comes down to for me is that Sandler's roles often have this streak of meanness running through the surface comedy, which I really dislike. Black, on the other hand, tends to have this innocence and naivete about him that's just charming, even when he's running around in tights.