Matthew Broderick Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Being a huge Seinfeld fan, I'm really looking forward to Dreamwork's Bee Movie this fall. Originally, Jerry Seinfeld and friends were creating these hilarious live-action shorts (check out both teasers here) to promote the film, instead of giving us a normal trailer. Basically, they consisted of Seinfeld dressed up in a big goofy bee costume, while he awkwardly attempts to shoot scenes for the movie. With cameos from folks like Chris Rock and Steven Spielberg, they're pretty fun to watch, and provide an interesting lead-in to the real trailer that AOL Moviefone just released. Finally, we get a good look at some of the outstanding animation in glorious HD; the tennis ball scene being my favorite -- damn, does that look good.

In the film, Seinfeld voices Barry B. Benson; a recent college graduate who isn't so crazy about making honey for the rest of his life. Upon leaving the hive and discovering that humans consistently steal the honey for their own greedy consumption, Benson decides to sue them, er, us. Though none of that is in the trailer (they're probably saving that for a larger trailer down the line), what we do get is a rather funny sequence in which Benson cautiously maneuvers his way around the city streets (with amusing consequences), then meets up with a woman (Renée Zellweger) who can actually hear him talk. It's your typical "animated animal lost in unfamiliar territory," but I'm stoked to see what Seinfeld writers Spike Feresten and Andy Robin (as well as Seinfeld himself) have in store for us. In case you're wondering, pic also stars Matthew Broderick, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Eddie Izzard, Alan Arkin and Kathy Bates, among others. What, no Kramer?! Bee Movie buzzes into theaters on November 2.

Although Virginia Madsen has worked consistently since her start in 1983's Class, Sideways marked a bit of a return for the actress, who hadn't received much attention since some of her darker films of the 90's. After indulging in tasty California wines, she's had some higher-profile roles, but her live action work hasn't really measured up to her success in the Alexander Payne film. The Number 23? Egads! However, I wouldn't be surprised if the latest casting news will come to her aid. Variety is reporting that she's signed on to star in Diminished Capacity, along with Matthew Broderick and Alan Alda in headlining roles, and Bobby Cannavale and Lois Smith in other starring roles.

Sherwood Kiraly, who wrote the book that the film will be based on, is currently writing the screenplay, and Oz alum Terry Kinney will direct the feature. Mr. Sarah Jessica Parker will take the lead as Cooper Zerbs, a man who is suffering from memory loss after a closed-head injury. Along with his high school sweetheart (played by Madsen), and his Alzheimer's-ailed Uncle Rollie (Alda), he travels to a memorabilia show where the memory-loss pair scheme to sell a valuable baseball card to get the older man money. As if dealing with two memory-challenged men wasn't enough, the book has a bunch of added quirks -- namely, a poetic fish, a Dear John videotape, a gun-slinging alcoholic who trades baseball cards for booze (Could this be Cannavale's role? I can only hope!) and a fast-food establishment with a genetically-engineered salad. It sounds weird enough to work. But let's hope that it's more of the Sideways calibre, and less of the 23 flop. The movie will be filmed this Spring in New York and Chicago, so we might be able to see it by the end of the year.

Think of every bad scene from every bad Christmas movie ever made. Now mix them all together however you like and toss them up on a movie screen. The end result, I promise you, will still be a better film than Deck the Halls, an incredible mess of a film starring Matthew Broderick, Danny DeVito, Kristin Davis and Kristin Chenoweth. The four leads all seem vaguely embarrassed to be seen in this film (and they should be), as if they kind of hope you won't notice it's them up there. If I took all twelve days of Christmas, I still couldn't enumerate all the ways in which this is a truly atrocious movie, but I'll do my best to give you a general idea.

I posted earlier today on Joystiq that a new TV commercial for the role-playing game World of Warcraft hit the airwaves on Monday, which of course means it hit YouTube about .0815 seconds later. I'm waiting for the day that things come out on YouTube before they reach TV or the big screen. YouTube will become self-aware and telepathic and rule the world one day. You think Terminator was just a movie? SkyNet is YouTube, silly rabbit.

Oh, look ... we've veered back on-topic. This commercial features footage from Office Space with everyone's favorite cubicle-slacker Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) playing WoW while Bill Lundbergh (Gary Cole) tries to talk to him about TPS reports. Originally in the scene, Peter was playing Tetris, but they've stuck this footage in pretty seamlessly. Look how they've even littered his desk with the Warcraft box and game discs.

The ad works here because Office Space isn't generally considered a "classic", but how long until companies really screw up something that Cinemaniacs will cry sacrilege over? Come to think of it, it's already happened several times. We've had Gene Kelly selling Volkswagens, Steve McQueen pushing Mustangs, and Elton John plugging Diet Coke with Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Louis Armstrong. The recent Gap commercial starring Audrey Hepburn was funky and fun, but I found myself wondering what she'd think about it. It's hard to imagine that she would be thrilled. Will Apple use Citizen Kane to sell iPods? Matthew Broderick hawking new computers in WarGames? Okay, that last one probably wouldn't really bother me, but when does it end? At what point is too much just too much?


Check out these ads after the jump and let us know what you think.

The other day I was flipping channels (as I often do) and I stumbled across the movie War Games playing on one of my favorite High Def networks (HDNet Movies, in case you were wondering). It was just starting, so I decided to settle in and watch. I had not seen the movie in many years but as I watched it, I realized how much a part of my life Matthew Broderick and his films have been over the years. As I grew up, so did he -- and during that time there was always a film of his that I could watch, enjoy and relate to in some way. From War Games through Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Glory, The Freshman, Election and The Producers, Broderick and his films have consistently been an entertaining and welcome presence in my life -- like an old friend who comes to visit every so often.

Now Broderick is starring in a new film which sounds like it could be another one to add to my list of old friends. According to Variety, Broderick is set to star in Rescue Me co-creator Peter Tolan's feature writing/directing debut Finding Amanda. In the film Broderick plays an alcoholic and gambling-addicted TV producer who tries to convince his niece, who also happens to be a hooker, to go into rehab. Evan Rachel Wood of Thirteen and Running with Scissors is currently in negotiations to play Broderick's niece in the film.

I have to admit that after reading the description of Finding Amanda I'm on the fence about it. On the surface, it looks to have all the elements that go into making a successful film: the acting skill of Matthew Broderick, the writing and directing talent of Peter Tolan (his Rescue Me is one of my favorite shows) and the potential involvement of the very talented Evan Rachel Wood. All of these things together should spell "winner."

I really hope they do because the story sounds like the weakest part here -- more "movie of the week" or "after school special" than Hollywood feature film. Maybe once its all put together it will end up being great. With these people involved it really should be but I guess you can never be completely sure of anything these days. Finding Amanda is scheduled to start shooting January 3rd in L.A. and Las Vegas.

What's your favorite Matthew Broderick film?

So, this column thing -- From the Editor's Desk -- is just a sort of way of ... I don't know ... clearing my throat before I write? Letting you know that movie critics are human? Just generally talk about movies and life? All of the above, I guess. The problem is that you can say things -- stupid things, simple things, in-jokes and oblique references -- that may not make any sense, or make sense in the way you'd want them to. Hence my use of the phrase "I'm not a gay communist robot. ..." The joke is, to me, the combination of the three, because then I imagine the actual stereotypical, archetypal robot -- immune to feeling and an enemy of traditional American values. But the phrase itself, on its own, might not be funny, but it might also imply things I don't feel and don't think. So, yeah.

Remember how a few weeks ago, it was all Halloween movies? Well, lately it's about Bond -- when is it, where's the screening, what were your favorites, which were the worst? As if that's not bad enough, the internal editorial e-mail list at Cinematical has now, officially, got me humming both Duran Duran and A-Ha in my head. See, again, an in-joke oblique reference. Not funny. But you know what else isn't funny? What happened to Matthew Broderick? That, my friends, ain't funny. Oh, and Bobby. But that's a story for another day.

J.

It's hard for me to visit my parents' house without the topic of Seinfeld popping up at least seven times. My folks live and breathe the show; they watch it a few times a day. Oh, but it's not just them -- my cousin (who lives in Australia) watches it religiously and says the show is huge over there. My best friend is obsessed with Seinfeld, and if it happens to come on while he's visiting my apartment, the dude suddenly becomes hypnotized -- his eyes transfixed on Jerry, George and Elaine as if they've somehow grabbed control of his mind. Myself? I watch it. The wife watches it. And the dog loves it. Yeah, it's pretty safe to say Seinfeld (the show and the man) has completely taken control of my entire universe. But it's cool ... I never had much of a life to begin with.

Suffice it to say that I am pretty excited about Jerry Seinfeld's upcoming animated Bee Movie (yes, that's what it's called), in which the comedian co-wrote, produced and starred in. A preview of the flick shows up on the new Over the Hedge DVD and, lucky for us, a few screenshots were posted over at Animated News. In the pic, Seinfeld voices Barry B. Benson, a bee who, after graduating college upset with the fact that he's forced into the boring career of making honey, decides to sue all humans after he realizes that they actually eat (and subsequently steal) all the honey. Also starring in Bee Movie are Renée Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, Larry King, John Goodman and Kathy Bates, among others. Bee Movie is currently scheduled to buzz into theaters on November 2, 2007. Heck, I'm pretty stoked about this one. You?

[via Coming Soon]

Though it's taken forever to get off the ground, Helen Hunt is finally gearing up for production on her directorial debut, Then She Found Me. Pic, which is just about to start shooting in Brooklyn, New York has added Colin Firth, Matthew Broderick and Bette Midler to its cast. Not bad for her first feature, huh?

Based on the novel by Elinor Lipman, Hunt has been working on adapting the script (a role she took on herself) for the past eight years. In the film, Hunt will play a schoolteacher whose birth mother (Midler) pops into her life at the worst possible time. Broderick will play Hunt's husband, while Firth takes on the role of a man she meets through one of her students.

Personally, I'm not keen on first-time directors placing themselves in their film as a main character. Often, I find it takes something away from the role and, with so much going on behind the scenes, the flick might suffer. However, in this case, Hunt has been working on the damn thing for so long, I imagine she has every detail memorized by heart. Here's to wishing her good luck.

Apparently the people at upstart production company Big Beach have a bit of a "sunshine" fixation: They're going to follow up their smash indie hit Little Miss Sunshine with a project called Sunshine Cleaning. Not, just so we're clear, a sequel in any way -- they're just really, really into the word. According to this morning's Screen Daily, the film will star Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, and is "a character piece about a woman who starts up a business that cleans up after someone dies." Hmm. So we can pretend for the moment that it's about Harvey Keitel from Pulp Fiction, except as a woman? Sounds good to me. The movie is budgeted at about $7 million, and will be directed by New Zealander Christine Jeffs.

Sunshine Cleaning co-producer Glenn Williamson (Hollywoodland) spoke briefly about the project in Venice yesterday, and also offered a few details about another film with which he's involved, entitled Wonderful World. This one is another character piece with an even smaller budget -- $3-5 million, according to Williamson -- and will tell the story of "a cynical divorcee (Matthew Broderick) who starts a relationship with an African woman (Sophie Okonedo)." The film is being written by Josh Goldin, who will also direct.

• Doogal - A saccharine, cheap-looking CGI import from Britain about a lazy, cowardly, sugar-addicted pooch (with a mullet cut) who must find a way to save the world from an icy death is not the follow-up to Hoodwinked that Disney escapees Bob and Harvey Weinstein hoped for...or we asked for. At least they've got the swell Over The Hedge in theaters this week. Formerly titled The Magic Roundabout and re-dubbed (Doogal, that is. Not Over The Hedge.)

• Duma - With most arthouse films rated "R", it is always a pleasure when one comes along that culture mavens can take their kids to, and The Black Stallion director Carroll Ballard's latest nature trek -- a visually lovely adventure -- certainly does fit that bill. It is about a 12-year-old South African boy (Alexander Michaletos) who must return his pet cheetah to the wild, encountering and overcoming a number of obstacles along the way, the biggest one being our initial reluctance to accept its premise.