WilliamHMacy Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Mice have enjoyed a great ride in the movies. The animated variety first rose to prominence thanks to Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse in the late 20s, enjoyed a rebirth as heroes in the late 70s and 80s with The Rescuers, The Secret of NIMH, The Great Mouse Detective, and An American Tail, and overflowed into live-action territory a few years later with Stuart Little. More recently, Flushed Away was a superior entertainment about a spoiled upper-class mouse who must learn to survive in the wild and wooly sewers, while the superb Ratatouille gave a rat a rare favorable turn in the spotlight as a culinary artist.

Adapted by Gary Ross (Pleasantville, Dave) from the award-winning book by Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux features both a rat and a mouse in leading roles, but the self-described fairy tale is much more than a slapdash character study of two rodents. The setup makes it sound like a cousin to both Flushed Away and Ratatouille: a disgraced rat must learn to survive in a dark dungeon, a mouse develops a friendship with a human, and gourmet soup features prominently. Yet as the tale unfolds, it deepens and broadens its themes to a welcome degree. Though it never climbs too far above average and too often embraces the familiar, Despereaux remains a gentle and nurturing children's story, imparting lessons without being too condescending to its audience.

While Despereaux is aimed squarely at the little ones, adults may enjoy the top-notch animation and appreciate the above average performances by a celebrity voice cast (Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Watson, Tracey Ullman, Robbie Coltrane, Kevin Kline, William H. Macy, Stanley Tucci) that is well matched to the characters they play, which is a rare pleasure indeed.

Wow, this is awesome. Usually we have to wait for a DVD release to be offered a meaningless (and generally entertainment-free) collection of movie bloopers, but the marketing team behind the motorcycle comedy Wild Hogs has decided to dole out those goodies extra early. Click right here to see if this material makes Wild Hogs look more appealing ... or less. (Still, it's a bit funnier than the trailer.)

Starring Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy, Wild Hogs comes from second-time director Walt Becker (after Van Wilder) and first-time screenwriter Brad Copeland -- a man who has penned a few episodes of Arrested Development and My Name is Earl and must therefore have some talent. Plus the flick seems to have a Ray Liotta cameo, and really, doesn't every movie need a Ray Liotta cameo? The Disney comedy opens on March 2.

If the idea of seeing John Travolta, Martin Lawrence, Tim Allen and William H. Macy do the following things sounds appealing to you, then by all means you should click right -->HERE<-- and watch the all-new trailer for Wild Hogs. Ready for the list? OK...

• Scream at children
• Search for internet porn in a crowded coffee house
• Get hit in the crotch with softballs
• Fall off motorcycles
• Get hit in the neck with birds
• Blow up a bar
• Get hit in the butt by a bull
• Spoon in bed together

Now, far be it for me to judge a movie I've not seen, but I'd be willing to bet my Criterion Edition Brazil DVD that I just described the very best jokes to be found in the whole of Wild Hogs. Aside from the intriguingly odd foursome, there's nothing about this comedy that looks even remotely fresh or appealing. (Plus, the trailer has the one little "wistful" moment, which means the fart jokes and pratfalls will, somewhere around the end of Act II, give way to some really mawkish sentimental crap ... and I've got no patience for pap like that.)

The screenplay comes from first-timer Brad Copeland; the director is Walt Becker, last seen cinematically as the man who helmed Van Wilder. (Yes, it's taken Becker four years to rediscover his muse.) In addition to the four aforementioned knuckleheads, Wild Hogs also promises bit parts from cool folks like Ray Liotta, Marisa Tomei, John C. McGinley and Stephen Tobolowsky. The "City Slickers meets Masters of Menace "opens on March 2.

Wait ... Tobolowsky's in it? Sold!

Just one week ago, we shared some news about an all-new Re-Animator trilogy that producer Brian Yuzna seems pretty darn psyched about, and today Fangoria brings us some even cooler news:

William H. Macy, one of the most talented, admired, and gosh-darn likable character actors in the known universe, has been signed to play the President of the United States in Stuart Gordon's House of Re-Animator! Returning for the third trilogy are director Gordon, producer Yuzna, screenwriter Dennis Paoli, and Dr. West himself: Jeffrey Combs. (Someone get Bruce Abbott's agent on the phone ... or his wife if he doesn't have an agent anymore. And please don't forget the lovely Barbara Crampton...)

Ready for the plot? The U.S. President dies, so one high-ranking moron calls Dr. West in to bring the Commander-in-Chief back to life ... and if you've ever seen, say, 5 random minutes of Re-Animator, then you know precisely what happens next. (Yay!)

(Y'know, while the gorehounds stress and worry about Sam Raimi's potential return to the Evil Dead series, I'm of the opinion that the Re-Animator trilogy gets a pretty raw deal. True, everyone loves the first one cuz it's a splatter-tastic mega-classic, but those sequels aren't all that bad, you know. And now that a new trilogy is getting the kick-start (and with the original filmmakers, no less), I think this is pretty big news indeed. For the horror geeks, anyway. Like me.)