Ken Marino Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Remember Broken Lizard's Beerfest? Whatever you thought of that 2006 comedy, it's difficult to dispute how incredibly astute the filmmakers were with rattling genre expectations in just a single scene. See, the American team's greatest beer guzzler, "Landfill", has passed away under shady circumstances, and right when everyone's ready to throw in the towel, in walks Landfill's identical twin brother, who they knew nothing about but who happens to have been told everything about each of them. Better yet, he's more than willing to even adopt Landfill's name, in an effort to bypass that whole awkward 'getting-to-know-you' stage.

It's every end-of-second-act "what do we do now, coach?" dilemma from an inspirational sports movie mercifully condensed to a couple of rapid-fire beats, and even if the rest of the film otherwise adheres to said sports movie formula, it's nice knowing that audience and actors alike were not going through the paces entirely unaware of how clichéd the entire narrative was.

Yup, it's getting late in the day and we're going there. For those of you out there who've always wanted to see Winona Ryder doing the nasty with a puppet, now is your chance. So dim the lights, pour yourself a glass of wine and bring over that box of tissues (in case you accidentally spill the wine), then settle in to watch this ridiculous clip from The Ten (whose DVD hits streets early next month). JoBlo has the first clip, which is unedited, and features Winona Ryder ... well ... riding her way toward a comedic gold medal. The second clip, posted after the jump, features a press conference with Gary the puppet -- as well as snippets of his rendezvous with Ryder -- as he fields questions from the press regarding this explosive sex tape.

The Ten features all sorts of names, and the comedy presents ten different stories; each based on one of the ten commandments. In his review from last year's Sundance fest, Cinematical's Scott Weinberg called the film "a skit-intensive (and entirely bizarre) amalgam of ideas -- clever, silly and just plain stupid. Those who don't see the humor in this sort of stream-of-consciousness, ultra-strange and intensely self-referential material will walk out of The Ten with their reaction phasers set firmly on "hate" -- but I discovered a solid handful of worthwhile chuckles in the flick, most of which come from the smoothly reliable Paul Rudd and the still-adorable Winona Ryder." Oh yes, she is definitely adorable in this scene. Additionally, check out our interview with The Ten's David Wain and Ken Marino for more on the film. Head over to JoBlo for the first taste, and we have the second clip for you after the jump (though be warned there's some foul language and gratuitous human-on-puppet sex to be found).

Big Brother was supposed to start production in January of this year, at least, according to early reports when Seann William Scott was cast. But what movie ever sticks to a schedule? When Paul Rudd joined in December, production was pushed back to April. But as of September, McLovin -aka- Christopher Mintz-Plasse signed on and production still hadn't started. Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Elizabeth Banks has also signed on, to play Rudd's girlfriend who gets him into the Big Brother program -- and, it's finally into production.

Unfortunately, it's still having name issues. First, it was Big Brother; then, it became Little Big Men, which wasn't so good as it sounds like some sort of orphan drama or something; now, it's currently an "untitled mentor project." I have to admit, I'm pretty psyched about this flick, mainly because it was written by The Ten's David Wain (who is also directing) and Ken Marino, along with Rudd. Between Marino's work as Vinnie Van Lowe, Rudd's involvement, and James Rocchi's great interview with Wain and Marino back in August, you couldn't keep me away from this picture. Now that they've finally begun shooting, maybe we can see this sucker some time in the new year.

If you're a fan of mild-mannered dramedies about small-town life, you could do a lot worse than Diggers. Scripted by television actor Ken Marino -- he also plays the main dramatic role and plays it well -- the film centers on the trials and tribulations of a community of blue-collar clam-diggers in mid-70s Long Island. There's a big corporate entity that is moving in on the island and intends to squeeze the locals out of the clam business once and for all. Some of them, like Hunt (Paul Rudd) are thinking of shaking up their lives, trying their luck in the big city and starting new relationships, while others like Lozo (Marino) are reluctant to embrace any kind of change, small or large. Lozo is such a traditionalist, in fact, that his old-fashioned view of the world ends up setting the stage for the film's most effective scene, a confrontation with his wife over her desire to end a pregnancy she doesn't want. Women's rights and Jaws references -- this is a film 70s-lovers can really warm to.

Maura Tierney, most known from TV's ER, plays Gina, the central female character. She's a sister to Hunt and love interest to a local do-nothing called Jack (Ron Eldard) and is a general anchor-character of the story -- one that all the other characters sort of swirl around. In fact, one of the things Diggers usually does well is to make most of the significant characters seem like they are the central character whenever its time for their story to kick into gear. A lot of thought clearly went into the film's structuring, which is refreshing. The mixture of comedy and drama is a little more uncertain, though -- some scenes feel like the script said 'comedic hijinks ensue at this point' and the actors sort of had to wing it. The comedy gets a little too physical for my taste. Marino has certainly shown here that he has the chops to write a real story with real dramatic and comedic moments, and the film would have benefitted by leaving some of the artificial comedy on the cutting room floor.

Such is this business that sometimes you see the movie before you see the preview. I saw Diggers at a screening a few days ago, and now the trailer has popped up over at Moviefone. I can tell you that the trailer is a pretty fair representation of the film, which is about a bunch of clam diggers in mid-70s Long Island, who struggle with life, love and dreams of moving away to the big city. There's a pretty even balance between humor and drama, as the trailer depicts, but the one thing that struck me as odd -- I'll be writing about this in my review of the film as well -- is that even though Lauren Ambrose of Six Feet Under fame is second-billed in the trailer and touted as the film's leading lady, she has only a few, truncated scenes and her character has substantially less time than the other players. As a fan of her work, that was a little disappointing.

Aside from Ambrose, the main players are Paul Rudd and Maura Tierney as a brother and sister who just lost their lifelong clam-digger father, Ron Eldard as a comedic lowlife who is trying to date Maura Tierney and Ken Marino as a hothead father who struggles with whether or not he should give in to the corporate bad guys who are trying to take over his territory. Marino has a couple of knockout scenes, and overall I'd say his role is the cherry of the bunch and could propel him into more substantial acting roles after this. There's also a good gag in the film about Jaws still playing in theaters -- I believe it takes place in September 1976 -- but was Jaws really still in theaters, even with the old releasing style, over a year after it opened? I wonder. Anyway, Diggers is scheduled to drop on April 27.

If I described Diggers as being about "four old friends who struggle to (finally) mature in the face of grown-up stresses, miseries and generally unpleasant turns of event," you'd probably respond with something like "Oh yeah, just like 45% of all indie/comedy/dramas I've seen this decade." And you'd be right -- it's not a stunning sense of originality that makes Diggers worth watching; it's the actors, combined with the asset of a surprisingly insightful screenplay that does the job. It's amusing to note that while screenwriter Ken Marino's old State-mates are out banking huge coin writing chaff like Let's Go to Prison and Herbie: Fully Loaded, his first screenplay is a much more personal and low-key affair.

While Diggers would most likely be labeled a "drama," the truth is that there's a lot of solid wit to be found here. It's just couched in between a lot of (surprisingly compelling) melodrama, which helps the 'funny bits' to succeed more often. Plus, Diggers is packed with really strong performances, particularly from likable folks like Paul Rudd, Lauren Ambrose, Sarah Paulson, Josh Hamilton, Maura Tierney and Ron Eldard. Marino gives himself a very juicy central role, but the guy manages to steal every scene he's in, so it's not like it's a bad thing. (His scenes with Ms. Paulson are really quite excellent.) Rudd, Eldard, Hamilton and Marino make for a quietly compelling quartet of old pals; the guys exhibit a clear and casual chemistry that helps the semi-familiar material go down a lot more smoothly.

Of the large comedy troupe that appeared on MTV and very briefly on CBS as The State, no single member has risen to any great length of fame, but three of them broke off to form the funniest trio since The Marx Brothers worked without Zeppo or Gummo. Michael Ian Black, Michael Showalter and David Wain have performed on stage, online and on Comedy Central as Stella, and the latter two wrote the brilliant cult comedy Wet Hot American Summer, which was also directed by Wain. Since that film, Showalter made his own movie (the understated and underrated The Baxter), and Black's directorial effort (The Pleasure of Your Company) is coming soon. Now Wain is finally making a follow-up to Summer, this time co-writing with Ken Marino, who appeared in the previous film and was also a member of Stella. The film is a spoof of The Ten Commandments and is simply called The Ten. It is set to begin shooting in July and will star Paul Rudd, Jessica Alba, Amanda Peet, Justin Theroux, Adam Brody and Marino. My guess is that the three Stella guys will have roles, as usual, too.

I always felt this bunch was the real successor to Monty Python, and now with a wacky Biblical picture, they may prove it. Sure, Mel Brooks did an adequate bit in History of the World: Part I that spoofed Moses' story, but if you've ever seen any of the hysterical projects that Wain has been involved in, you have to agree that his latest endeavor will be equally amazing. If you haven't seen any of his work, go and rent Summer and download all the Stella episodes from iTunes this very minute. And be prepared with stitches for when your stomach bursts from laughter.