TinaFey Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I have this feeling the brilliant Ricky Gervais probably won't make it big in Hollywood. Now before you get all riled up, hear me out: Whenever Gervais gets the chance to 'ingratiate' himself into the Hollywood big-time, let's face it, the results are less than cuddly. In fact, more often than not the guy winds up on a demo reel of controversial moments. Gervais is someone who can't sit down with Elmo without it turning into a moment of subversive comedy, and that is what I love about him. But the biggest thing that stands between Gervais and a big movie career (other than an absence of a six-pack and capped teeth) is that the man just couldn't care less about playing nice -- and it's that quality that has earned my eternal respect (after all, it takes a lot of guts to put this scene in a Christmas special).

Gervais has been making some inroads stateside with the romantic comedy Ghost Town -- a relatively successful film that tried to capitalize on Gervais' fondness of creating sympathetic yet unpleasant characters. Granted, it wasn't a big hit, but it was well liked enough and managed to win some fans who weren't strictly Office devotees. But I think the big test for whether or not Gervais becomes movie star is his directorial debut, This Side of the Truth, with Jonah Hill, Jennifer Garner, and Rob Lowe. But even if Truth doesn't work out, Gervais and long-time creative partner Stephen Merchant will be going back to slightly more familiar territory when they team up with Sony for a coming of age flick, The Men at the Pru, about a group of men working at an insurance company in the 1970s.

As much as we try to cover everything here at Cinematical, unfortunately some stories slip through the cracks. Here's a bunch of stuff we missed this week:

-- The first images of The Fallen, from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen have arrived online ... except it's the toy version of the Transformer, which means it's a toy and not very interesting. But that's an image of the toy up above, and you can see two more below (courtesy of TF08).



-- Robert Downey Jr., Tina Fey and Ben Stiller are in negotiations to lend their voices to a new animated superhero flick called Master Mind. This one, however, focuses on a brilliant superhero villain who loses purpose in life when he accidentally kills his good-guy nemesis. DreamWorks is currently eying a November 5, 2010 release for the film. [Hollywood Reporter]

-- Mickey Rourke has signed on to play a hit man who returns to New York (in disguise as a priest) to complete a botched hit in St. Vincent. Walter Hill, who directed the 1989 Rourke flick Johnny Handsome, is stepping behind the camera, and production is supposed to begin sometime later this year. [Hollywood Reporter]

-- Amber Heard is slowly becoming the next up-and-coming starlet, beating out ladies like Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley for the leading lady role opposite Johnny Depp in Rum Diary, based on the Hunter S. Thompson novel. Heard will play "the free-spirited girlfriend of a fellow journalist who cheats on him with Kemp (Depp), trying to convince him to run away with her." [Hollywood Reporter]

-- According to Upcoming Pixar, the short accompanying Up on the big screen will be called Partly Cloudy, and it will be directed by Peter Sohn (a storyboard artist and animator who also lent his voice to Remy's brother Emile in Ratatouille.) Partly Cloudy, which doesn't have an official plot description yet, will mark Sohn's directorial debut. [Slashfilm]

From the Who Woulda Thunk It File: According to a story over on Current, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has been offered her first starring role in a film since her and McCain wound up on the opposite end of "the winning ticket" last week. No, we're not talking about a Tina Fey biopic or that so-called Disney flick Matt Damon warned us about awhile back. This one has, well, a tad more ... flesh. A Florida-based porn director by the name of Cezar Capone is willing to pay Palin a whopping $2 million to appear in an adult film. Oh yes. As Current points out, "Capone promises in an open letter on his website that the film would be distributed internationally, shot in high definition and feature a "beautiful mother recognized by all of America as well as the rest of the world -- the most desirable woman over 40."

Good news is Capone is more than willing to let Palin star in this film opposite her husband Todd, and will even "kick in an extra $100,000," as well as a new Arctic Cat snowmobile. I love the way this guy bargains: If the $2 million isn't enough, surely the snowmobile and the fact that the entire world will be able to purchase it should do the trick. The offer was sent to her administration in Alaska on November 6, but so far the good Governor has not responded ... and we don't expect her to.

.... Ahem, $10 million and we'll talk.

While I'm sure we'll all agree that these past few years have given us some wonderful little comedic gems, it's often unfortunate to see most of the attention thrown at one particular sex, or, in some cases, one particular man: Judd Apatow. But this post won't be about Judd Apatow, or Seth Rogen ,or Jonah Hill, or Michael Cera, or Will Ferrell, or Adam McKay, or Vince Vaughn, or Owen Wilson, or Kevin Smith ... or any of the male names that currently populate (and dominate) some of your favorite comedies. Nope, because it's about damn time we give the ladies some respect.

I'm sick of the female roles in comedies today. She's either the bland girlfriend, or the bland friend, or the bland enemy -- she's full of cliches, and only serves two purposes: 1) to help move the story along, and 2) to make her male counterpart appear funnier. That said, Hollywood is beginning to take more chances on the female-driven comedy, with films like Baby Mama, The House Bunny, Sex and the City, Bride Wars and Confessions of a Shopaholic all arriving in theaters this year or in early 2009. But is this enough? Is there better, smarter and funnier material for women out there, somewhere ... over the rainbow? While you ponder that, here, in my opinion, are the funniest ladies of 2008 (in no particular order) ...


1. Tina Fey

Right now you know her as "that woman who does the awesome Sarah Palin impersonation," but people forget Fey has been making us laugh for a good while now. One of three four women on this list who began their career on Saturday Night Live, Fey brings hilarity from multiple directions. Whether she's producing, writing or starring, anything with her name on it is guaranteed to bring in more than a few laughs ... and then some. (See: Mean Girls, 30 Rock, Baby Mama)

Welcome to Cinematical's revamped but still opinionated guide to movies on disc, whether new-fangled Blu-ray or good old fashioned DVD, Hollywood blockbusters or indie wonders, direct to video debuts or refurbished classics.

Buy: The Fall
Rent: Baby Mama, The Forbidden Kingdom, How the West Was Won
Pass: Foreign Exchange, Seed, Sarah Landon & The Paranormal Hour, Then She Found Me

Blu-ray Spotlight: Exiled, Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2, Jerry Maguire, Cool Hand Luke, Rudy
Indies on DVD: Heckler, The Last Days of Left Eye, Last House on the Beach
Collector's Corner: The Big Lebowski, Child's Play, Pumpkinhead

The Fall.
Directed by Tarsem (The Cell), this incredible visual feast, filmed over four years, imagines the fantastical, far-flung stories told to a little girl recovering from a fall in a hospital. A wild, weird trip of a flick that cries out to be replayed time and again. Extras include deleted scenes, featurettes, and audio commentaries. Of the Blu-ray edition, DVD Talk said: "Easily ranks as reference quality." Buy.

Baby Mama
The "must rent" of the week, just to luxuriate in the comedic stylings of Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin SNL vet Tina Fey as she learns about compromise with baby surrogage Amy Poehler. Extras include an audio commentary with Fey, Poehler, director Michael McCullers and SNL's Lorne Michaels. Also available on Blu-ray. Rent.

Read on for many more details on this week's highlighted releases.

It's not too hard to find some super-sympathetic villains right now. You can travel the Internet waves and check out Dr. Horrible, or head to toon town and watch The Monarch and the other Guild of Calamitous Intent members in Venture Brothers. You can see dudes sending in applications to the evil organizations, bad guys storm the wrong building, and even crappy reassignments that suck one's loathing hatred out of their job. These incarnations are great, addictive pieces of fun.

Could the same be said of Ben Stiller's forays into the fold? (*cough* Mystery Men) Not really. But would it help with Robert Downey Jr. and Tina Fey? Entertainment Weekly posts that both actors are looking into joining Stiller's animated villain film, Master Mind. (Christopher blogged about it here, last year.) The premise is simple. A villain accidentally kills the guy he's arching, and loses his will to live.

Having these two voices certainly sweetens the pot, but as we've learned after many years of disappointment -- amazing casts don't necessarily make even decent movies. It all comes down to the script (written by Alan Schoolcraft and Brent Simons), and Stiller's involvement. We'll have to wait and see.

Note: EW says that Cameron Hood and Kyle Jefferson are still on to direct, but Moviehole talked to a Dreamworks source who said that they left the project months ago. IMDb, meanwhile, says it's Gary Trousdale.

First the good news: Steve Carell and Tina Fey, who I consider two of the funniest people currently on television, are going to star in a film together. It's called Date Night, and it's about a married couple whose attempt at keeping the romance alive leads to an evening of hilarity and merriment and shenanigans and whatnot.

Now the bad news: It's going to be directed by Shawn Levy, whose previous films -- Big Fat Liar, Just Married, Cheaper by the Dozen, The Pink Panther, and Night at the Museum -- do not inspire a great deal of confidence. I'm seeing a lot of implausible slapstick and embarrassing pratfalls. I'd like to think Carell and Fey are smart enough to avoid something that will humiliate them -- but I used to think that about Steve Martin, too, and look where we are now.

According to Variety, Date Night came from an idea by Levy and was written by Josh Klausner, who did some writing on Shrek the Third and has worked as a second-unit director on several Farrelly Brothers films. (He also wrote and directed the 1999 thriller The 4th Floor.) Levy is making the Night at the Museum sequel right now, but Date Night will come immediately after that, most likely next summer, when Carell and Fey are both on hiatus from their NBC sitcoms.

Both performers are quick-witted, smart, and adept at improvising. I think their sensibilities mesh well, and I'd love to see them in a film that matched their style. (Ooh, what if Michael Scott visited NBC Studios on one of his New York trips, and ran into Liz Lemon? Would that be cheesy, like when Arnold from Diff'rent Strokes visited Ricky on Silver Spoons? It would be, wouldn't it? Damn.) What do you think: Will Date Night be a good fit? Or is it too soon to tell and we're all just talking out of our butts right now?

If I wasn't already sold on Ricky Gervais' comedy, This Side of The Truth, then this picture alone would convince me to shell out my hard earned dollars -- and keep in mind, I don't normally say that kind of thing about a film starring Jennifer Garner and Rob Lowe. Over at Gervais' production blog, the comedian has posted some new photos from his film about a writer who invents the art of lying. Gervais has always been a big fan of all things web-related, including his massively successful podcast series, and various blogging endeavors. So to be expected, Gervais has been pretty consistent with updates, with only a few of his trademark diversions here and there.

Truth was written by Matthew Robinson and Gervais, and the cast includes a nice helping of comedic heavyweights. Monika already brought us the news about Christopher Guest and Tina Fey signing on. The two will be joining Jonah Hill, Jeffrey Tambor, John Hodgman, and Louis C.K. in what is shaping up to be what I would call a comedy 'dream team'. This is Gervais' first attempt at directing a feature film, and according to reports coming off the set, everyone is having a fine old time. Filming will wrap in the next couple of weeks, and then Gervais is off to England to put the final touches on the film.

This Side of the Truth will arrive in theaters in 2009.

If someone were to get caught illegally recording a movie in New York City today, he would get charged with a violation (like a speeding ticket) and hit with, at most, a $250 fine. Not much of a deterrent, I daresay, for folks who make a criminal enterprise out of making and selling bootlegs. Furthermore, only the folks actually in the theater with the camcorder would get in trouble -- everyone else, like the people doing the selling, get off scot-free, assuming they're not breaking any other laws.

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo was joined Monday by Tina Fey and a couple of other movie types for the unveiling of the "Piracy Protection Act," which would make piracy either a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on whether you're a first-time or repeat offender, and punish it with actual, y'know, jail time (up to a year for first-timers). They're hoping to have the law in place within the month. So, uh, if you're in New York City and you're planning to bootleg something, I'd recommend doing it now.

This law is obviously a result of movie industry lobbying, as evidenced by MPAA president Dan Glickman standing by Cuomo's side at the press conference. Does the new punishment fit the crime? Will harsher punishments make a difference? (I'm not so sure -- especially not if New York law enforcement doesn't dedicate more effort to actually ferreting out the bootleggers.) And are you surprised to hear that up until now people could record movies with virtual impunity, even if they got caught?

ed note: Corrected Attorney General's name

In these supposedly progressive times, gender equality is one of those touchy issues relegated to the last paragraph of a trend piece nobody reads. When Katherine Heigl suggested to Vanity Fair that Judd Apatow's movies were sexist, the assertion came across like an after-the-fact shrug of acceptance. Ever the galvanizing provocateur, New York Times critic Manohla Dargis confronts the issue head-on with a thorough analysis of the gender bias in this year's summer blockbusters.

With "Iron Man, Batman, Big Angry Green Man" and other massive expressions of virility invading the box office, female roles appear to be relegated to the back of the multiplex. Dargis touches on the rumors that Warner Bros head Jeff Robinov believes no woman has been able to sell a movie since Julia Roberts (a point that Natalie Portman might contest, but not Paris Hilton) before sizing up numerous upcoming studio releases, with particular attention paid to Anna Faris, "who could be the next Judy Holliday but without the right material will, alas, probably end up the next Brittany Murphy." It's the kind of pronouncement that hits you in gut.