FarceOfThePenguins Tagged Articles at Cinematical

We're a few hours late with this report -- and when I say "we" I actually mean "me, Scott" -- but Sundance saps a whole lot of strength from even the most ardent movie freak. With apologies we I now offer you this week's big fat DVD titles ... and a few old-school pieces of ultra-cheese.

Catch a Fire -- Philip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence) goes political again and delivers a fast-paced and very efficient thriller that focuses on the ways in which governments often create the very enemies they're trying to thwart. (Governments are ironic that way.) Tim Robbins and Derek Luke contribute some very fine work. Extras include a multi-filmmaker commentary and a few deleted scenes.

Farce of the Penguins -- From what I've been hearing from reliable sources, this simplistic spoof is way too little way too late. But if you simply must see a movie in which Bob Saget, Samuel L. Jackson, Dane Cook, Jim Belushi, Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Lovitz and the rest of the Friar's Club provide raunchy voice-over dialogue for a bunch of innocent penguins, hey, here's your dream come true. Extras include a Saget-track, deleted scenes, featurettes and a bunch of other penguin-related silliness.

Flyboys -- Big-budget derring-do war flick ... that dropped absolutely dead at the box office. (Budget: $60 million / Domestic Gross: $13 million) I've yet to see the movie myself, but I do look forward to giving it a fair shake -- even if that "running across the blimp" sequence looks like something out of a post-apocalyptic anime story. Extras include a Tony Bill / Dean Devlin audio commentary, more than a half-dozen featurettes and some deleted scenes.

Gymkata -- Yes! Mid-'80s kung fu wackiness combined with hardcore Mitch Gaylord gymnastical stuff! I swear this movie's funnier by accident than most comedies are on purpose. Extras include the knowledge that you now on Gymkata on DVD.

Back when that seriously overrated March of the Penguins was cleaning up at the box office, comedian Bob Saget felt an apparently irresistable impulse: Why not shoot a bunch of penguin footage and then invite a bunch of his comic pals into a recording studio to tell some jokes?!? It's such a lazy idea, I can't believe it hadn't been done before! Voila, Farce of the Penguins was born.

But aside from his work on Full House and America's Stupidest Home Videos, I happen to think Bob Saget is a pretty funny guy, so I was more than happy to play "wait and see" regarding Farce of the Penguins -- and when the voice-cast list ballooned to include Samuel L. Jackson, Dane Cook, Tracy Morgan, Jason Alexander and Christina Applegate, I considered myself "actively anticipating" the goofy little experiment.

And then we learned that ThinkFilm was releasing the thing directly to video ... and then they released this trailer, which could be described by way of 3,000 different adjectives, but "funny" wouldn't be one of 'em. I mean, how lame do the rest of your jokes have to be if TWO different trailer gags start out with the line "If I had testicles"?

It's still waiting in my Netflix queue, and I'd be thrilled to report that the movie's actually pretty damn funny, but based on the trailer it seems like Farce of the Penguins will be a lot like The Discovery Channel on MUTE while a bunch of semi-drunk comedians crack wise in the background. And there's no way something like that will fill 90 minutes without making me want to stick pins through my ears.

If you were one of those people anxiously awaiting the theatrical release of Bob Sagat's March of the Penguins spoof, Farce of the Penguins, well you're crap out of the luck -- the flick will instead debut on DVD at the end of January. ThinkFilm was supposed to shovel the raunchy pic into theaters last Spring in order to take hold of the lingering buzz left by the popular documentary, but since production fell behind (to this day, it's still not done), they decided to just toss the thing onto DVD.

If you dig Sagat's warped and disgusting humor, then you should definitely enjoy Farce; a live-action comedy featuring shots of penguins mixed with narration from Samuel L. Jackson (I take it they were looking for the complete opposite of Morgan Freeman here) and a host of voiceovers from folks like Jason Alexander, Dane Cook, Whoopi Goldberg and Christina Applegate. Also, John Stamos and Dave Coulier will show up somewhere, however this Full House reunion should be kept far away from the little ones.

With the amount of talent involved here (I only listed a few names, but there are lots more), I'm surprised it's not getting a theatrical release. I wonder if ThinkFilm is pissed Sagat hasn't finished the film on time, and subsequently pulled this move in order to get back at the guy? Something feels fishy. Was anyone looking forward to seeing this in theaters, or are you just happy the film is being released at all?