Ed Helms Tagged Articles at Cinematical

How strange it is to think that a comedy isn't brash enough or absurd enough or funny enough (okay, that one's not so strange), but the truth about The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard is that, while it is brash and absurd and funny in fits and starts, it also seems to lose its nerve as it goes on, running low on laughing gas and coasting to a stop or whatever it is that auto-minded metaphors for auto-minded comedies do.

A wheeler and dealer even in grade school, the now-grown Don Ready (Jeremy Piven) sells cars like nobody's business when somebody's business is in trouble, and that's just the predicament that Ben Selleck (James Brolin) finds himself in. Ready's entourage includes the likes of Ving Rhames, Kathryn Hahn and David Koechner; I'll leave you to guess which of the three is the willful slut. Selleck's staff includes Ken Jeong, Tony Hale and Charles Napier; I'll leave you to determine which of those three suffers most at the racist outbursts of another (hint: not Hale).

Todd Phillips scored a hit in 2003 with the raucous R-rated comedy Old School, then for some reason moved to tamer waters for Starsky & Hutch and School for Scoundrels, neither of which amounted to anything. Duly chastened, he now returns home with The Hangover, a movie that's as gleefully dirty as Old School, and maybe funnier.

It's a story of friendship, camaraderie, and alcohol. As such, it can only be set in Las Vegas. That is where Doug (Justin Bartha), who is getting married Sunday, is taken by his friends for an epic bachelor party: Phil (Bradley Cooper), a schoolteacher who hates his students almost as much as he hates being married, is the ringleader; Stu (Ed Helms), a wimpy dentist with a controlling shrew for a girlfriend, is the nervous nellie; Alan (Zach Galifianakis), Doug's soon-to-be brother-in-law, is the spacey, grubby, possibly mentally handicapped one who recalls Will Ferrell in Old School (which means he also recalls John Belushi in Animal House).

The four embark on a night of revelry. The next morning, Phil, Stu, and Alan wake up in their hotel suite with a tiger and a baby. There's no sign of Doug, the groom-to-be. And no one can remember anything that happened the night before.

As comedy premises go, this one is brilliantly simple. Three hungover guys stumble around Las Vegas in search of clues as to their missing friend's whereabouts, not to mention the origin of the baby and the tiger, and not to mention the other various things that have gone awry that, well, I won't mention. (Spoiler: Ed Helms is missing that tooth in real life.)

What does it take to get a sequel these days? Nothing more than a good response to a trailer and test screenings. Though The Hangover doesn't hit theaters until June 5, the buzz has been good enough that Warner Bros has made a "multimillion dollar commitment" for Todd Phillips and Scot Armstrong to make a follow-up.

According to Variety, the trailer brought the house down at ShoWest, encouraging the studio to move forward with a sequel. Phillips will return to direct it, and Warners is making deals to reunite the existing cast of Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms. They hope to go into production later this year.

Now, we all enjoyed the trailers (William Goss brought you the first, Peter Martin brought the second), the cast is top notch, and Phillips' past efforts have been a lot of fun. (I'll even include Starsky & Hutch in that -- I seem to remember the "Don't Give Up On Us Baby" scene at very inopportune moments.)

But it seems like the appeal of a film like The Hangover is because it's a one-shot comedy based around an absurd situation. Sort of like Phillips' Old School, which also was supposed to get the sequel treatment, though one assumes Warners managed to reunite the cast of Hangover for a much cheaper price than it would've taken to get the Old School gang back together. I haven't seen The Hangover, but going purely on on the trailer, where is a sequel going to go? More drunken debauchery which results in another lost friend, and another encounter with Mike Tyson? Might as well throw in a corpse named Bernie for good measure ...

Remember that night you can't forget when you did that thing you can't remember? Director Todd Phillips mines familiar territory for fresh laughs in the new trailer for his upcoming film The Hangover, starring Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, and Ed Helms (The Office) as three buddies who lose a friend after a wild bachelor party in Las Vegas.

"Lose," by the way, is not a euphemism for death; they literally can't find the dude (played by Justin Bartha). They wake up on the morning after to discover a trashed hotel room, a tiger in the bathroom and a crying baby in the closet. They piece together the events of the evening before as they try to find the missing groomsman in time for Cooper's wedding, somehow also encountering a real life, former heavyweight boxing champion. I won't spoil all the laughs, but it definitely looks like Old School with more alcohol, a silly, cheerfully incorrect tale of 30-something men celebrating boozing and general debauchery.

Phillips took somewhat of a left turn with School for Scoundrels in 2006, which didn't quite work the way it should have; before that, Starsky & Hutch was funny without being as consistently hilarious as Old School or as warmly goofy as Road Trip. As for Brad Cooper, he has a chance to knock one out of the park in a leading role after yeoman work in comic supporting parts (he was quite good as the star of the very good horror flick Midnight Meat Train). We previously posted a shorter teaser trailer; we've embedded the new, longer one below. The Hangover hits theaters on June 5, courtesy of Warner Brothers.

I feel like there's no right way to go about this, especially after yesterday's whole "I've barely seen Jim Jarmusch's work" bit, but I have admittedly seen (and admittedly enjoyed) most of Todd Phillips' work to date. His comedies tend to be slightly smarter about how to be dumb than most of their ilk, so between that and this new trailer for The Hangover, I'm willing to believe that he has something funny in store.

We've got three groomsmen (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zack Galifianakis of "Between Two Ferns" fame), one missing groom, an infant, a tiger, a squad car and Mike Tyson grooving on some Phil Collins -- all in the aftermath of a Las Vegas bachelor party that must've topped the shenanigans of Very Bad Things. Honestly, if you'd want more out of a minute-long trailer, I'd almost rather not know.

The Hangover is scheduled to open on June 5th, opposite Will Ferrell's Land of the Lost. By my count, it has some laughs to catch up on...

We told you about Todd Phillips' next directorial project, Hangover, way back in October, but there hasn't been any further word on it since then. But apparently someone's been thinking about it -- The Hollywood Reporter says Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper are in final negotiations to star in it, and the flick is entering pre-production. In other words, stock up on your electrolytes, because Hangover is on its way.

Hangover is a comedy about three friends who wake up after some pre-wedding festivities in Las Vegas to discover that they have misplaced the groom. (I think we've all been there.) Helms and Cooper will be two of the friends; the third has not yet been cast. Presumably the groom is a relatively minor character, given that he is missing for much of the film.

Helms (on the left) is a favorite these days from his work on The Daily Show and The Office, while Cooper, probably best known for TV's Alias and Kitchen Confidential, has slowly started adding movie comedies to his résumé. He shows up in this summer's The Rocker as a heavy-metaller whose bandmates are Will Arnett, Fred Armisen, and Rainn Wilson, which is pretty good company, comedy-wise.

It's worth noting that the Hangover, written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, was on the list of Hollywood insiders' favorite unproduced screenplays of 2007. On the other hand, Lucas and Moore's previous screenplay was the Martin Lawrence comedy Rebound. Still, one remains optimistic.

Phillips garnered a lot of fans for Old School in 2003, then stumbled with Starsky & Hutch and School for Scoundrels. Hangover sounds like a return to the Old School paradigm, and that sounds good to me. What do you think?

Recently, Eugene posted about Mark and Michael Polish's latest film, the wonderfully titled Manure. The flick, which just went into production, stars Billy Bob Thornton, Tea Leoni, and Kyle MacLachlan, and it's about manure salesmen in heartland America during the '60s. It sounds strange, but sort of irresistible with Billy Bob and Kyle. And now, there's one more.

Variety reports that Ed Helms has picked up a role in the film, which makes him one of a trio of manure salesmen. More specifically, he'll "play Chet, a womanizing manure peddler." That seems ... antithetical. But it's more than just manure and women. David Mullen threw up a blog post about shooting the film on May 23, and gave some more details. The film focuses on these salesmen as they try to compete with "new aggressive modern fertilizer salesmen." Billy Bob is the lead manure salesman, Tea plays a woman who inherits the ailing company, and Kyle is the lead fertilizer salesman.

That's not all -- the Polish brothers plan to have the whole movie done in brown tones, and you can see a really excellent still exemplifying the look in the blog post. History, browns, and manure, here we come!

Would you ever believe that Eva Longoria dated Jason Biggs? Well, Hollywood is asking us to suspend our disbelief, because the two are starring in a comedy in which they play former flames. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the sexy "desperate housewife" and the doofy "pie f**cker" have been cast alongside Rob Corddry in Lower Learning, the debut feature from writer-director Mark Lafferty, who was responsible for the gay-centric Sixth Sense spoof, The Seventh Sense ("I see gay people"). In Lower, Corddry will play a shady elementary school principal under investigation by Longoria's inspector with help from her ex, a former cop who is now a vice principal. The cast will also include Corddry's old Daily Show co-worker Ed Helms, Tenacious D's Kyle Gass and Saw's Monica Potter. I don't know about you, but I expect this to be another movie in which the adults are less mature than the children.

I hope there aren't too many disappointed men out there, but Jason Biggs isn't much of a substitute for Beyoncé Knowles. Remember last year, Longoria was said to be doing a lesbian film with Knowles, but the rumor was quickly and unfortunately shot down. Well, let's just hope Longoria's character doesn't end up getting back together with Biggs' character, so we don't have to suffer through their reunion kiss -- though I've already suffered from imagining it. I'm rather hoping this movie focuses more on Corddry, who is a lot more enjoyable to watch. However, I might be in a minority here, considering audiences weren't too receptive to his recent sitcom The Winner, nor were they interested in his starring role in Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story nor as support in The Heartbreak Kid. Personally, I think he needs another shot at carrying a movie -- his next few roles are fairly small, playing second fiddle to Justin Long, Will Ferrell, Harold & Kumar and Ashton Kutcher. Like Longoria, he could definitely do better.

About a year ago I was sure that Rob Corddry would be the next big thing to come out of The Daily Show. But now it looks like Ed Helms could pass him by. While Corddry waits around for his new show The Winner to get canceled (if it hasn't been killed already), Helms is busy setting up a good amount of decent movie gigs, including a starring role in A Whole New Hugh, which he will co-write and which Judd Apatow will produce. The movie, which was pitched to Universal by Helms, Jake Fleisher and Ian Berger, will be about a guy who gains confidence thanks to three friends who make him appear successful.

I'm glad for Helms, though I don't see him having enough appeal to be the next Steve Carell. I am also surprised by his sudden rise because the last thing I saw him in was Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story, in which Corddry starred and Helms merely had a cameo. What likely has helped Helms' success is his obnoxious run on The Office, co-starring with Carell, his former Daily Show cast mate. Other upcoming movies Helms can be seen in include Evan Almighty, where he'll again be supporting Carell, Starship Dave and Walk Hard, which stars The Office's Jenna Fischer. Both he and Corddry have parts in Harold and Kumar 2, so maybe he could give his old friend some tips on breaking out.

The cast for Norbit Nash, er, Starship Dave is starting to take shape; Gabrielle Union, Ed Helms and Elizabeth Banks have joined the Eddie Murphy comedy, to be directed by Brian Robbins (Norbit). Pic, which kind of reminds me of that awesome 1987 flick Innerspace, tells of a spaceship full of aliens that takes the shape of a human and comes to earth seeking out a way to save their planet. Inside the human (played by Murphy, of course) are 100 human-looking aliens operating its every move. (Don't you hate it when all the aliens look like humans? Knowing Robbins, he probably thinks it's the smartest idea in the history of ever.)

Once on earth, pic switches gears and becomes more like Innerspace meets Coming to America -- the captain of the ship (yes, Murphy) accidentally falls in love with a woman (Banks) who strictly dates losers (who use Soul Glow, we hope). I imagine things will get complicated from there -- there's no way Robbins is ending this flick without at least one attempted sex scene. C'mon, 100 people aliens trying to operate Eddie Murphy having sex. Comedy was invented for scenes like that! Gabrielle Union and Ed Helms will play members of the miniature alien crew; Union as the chief cultural officer and Helms as the uptight second-in-command. Does it have potential? Yes. Will critics hate it? Probably. Will Robbins take a critic hostage and force him (or her) to watch Norbit and Starship Dave back-to-back for 100 hours in a bizarre attempt to somehow convert them and reveal "the light?" Probably not ... although that would be a good idea for Eddie Murphy's next flick.