ZachGalifianakis Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Jay Roach's Dinner for Schmucks is adding another seat at the table for Ron Livingston; the movie also stars funny guys Zach Galifianakis, Steve Carell, and Paul Rudd. Dinner is based on the famous French movie directed and written by Francis Veber, Le dîner de cons, otherwise known as The Dinner Game, which won a César for best writing. Dinner is the story of a dining group with a rather interesting twist; they have a contest to see who can bring the biggest idiot to dinner. Soon enough, though, the guests realize their little snarky game isn't so harmless.

The question is, who will be the biggest schmuck? Carell and Rudd star, and either could be schmucky, although Carell can play dumb with a straight face pretty damn well. (He loves lamp, after all.) However, I can't picture Zach Galifianakis as a bougie dinner party guest and not a schmuck. Maybe he's a more minor schmuck? In any case, this dinner table is getting full of schmuckitude, and will give all us writers a great chance to exercise our mastery of Yiddish slang for weiners.

If you happen to subscribe to the Hitchen's theory of comedy (you know, the one that says women can't be pretty and funny), then you're going to need to explain Charlize Theron to me. The Oscar-winning actress is probably one of the most beautiful women to walk the earth ... but that's not all, because she's also damn funny. Now, we've seen installments of Between Two Ferns here at Cinematical before, but the latest moment of strangeness from Zach Galifianakis just might be my favorite.

Most of us know Theron from her dramatic work, but if you're a fan of Arrested Development then you know how good she is at comedy. In fact, I think that's why this installment works so well, because Theron is a good enough actress that you honestly can't tell if she's in on the joke -- and considering Galifianakis relies on moments of awkwardness in his comedy, presto! You've got the perfect pairing.

Watching this clip reminded me that it's been too long since Theron has unleashed the funny, and with The Road and The Burning Plain already on their way to theaters, and an Atlas Shrugged mini-series on the horizon, this could be our last chance to see her crack a smile for a long, long, time.

After the jump: Charlize gets between the ferns...

If you're into classic toys and cartoons, then for you G.I. Joe probably never left. But for most of us, the arrival of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra in theaters has brought the Real American Heroes back into the spotlight, which means one thing -- it's time for a little parody. Fans of Adult Swim's Robot Chicken are used to seeing their Saturday morning heroes get a little postmodern treatment, and over at Funny or Die they've gotten in on the action with The Ballad of G.I. Joe ... and just because it's a joke that's been done before doesn't mean that it isn't still pretty darn funny.

The song was written by Daniel Strange and Kevin Umbricht, and gives you a glimpse of what the Joe team is up to after a hard day of battling for the American way -- and I'll just say that ordering episodes of The Wonder Years was not what I was expecting. The video boasts an all-star cast and plenty of your favorite Joes making an appearance. I won't spoil all of the cameos for you, but some of the bigger names to pop up in the video are Billy Crudup, Zach Galifianakis, Ben Stiller, and Julianne Moore. Now if only Stephen Sommers could have gotten some of those people to appear in the actual movie, we might have been on to something.

After the jump; The Ballad of G.I. Joe...

Look out, Tony Stark and Sherlock Holmes, your master will soon be an expectant father. Robert Downey Jr. is set to star in Due Date, according to Variety, a comedy that will be directed by Todd Phillips. Downey will be teamed with Zach Galifianikis, who gave a sharp performance in The Hangover for Phillips.

Last year, Jessica Barnes reported that Due Date "centers on a first-time father and burgeoning workaholic whose wife goes into labor while he is stuck hundreds of miles away in a snowstorm. The only way he can make it to the birth in time is by hitching a ride with a college student." Obviously, Galifianikis' character is now described as a "mismatched partner" for expectant father Downey.

In an interview with Cinematical, Phillips said that neither Old School 2 nor The Hangover 2 were ready to move forward, so perhaps he already had his eye on this project. Both Downey and Phillips have a lot to live up to: Downey was nominated for an Academy Award in his last comic role (Tropic Thunder) and Phillips is coming off a film that recently became the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time. But put Downey and Galifianikis together on a cross-country road trip with the clock ticking, under Phillips' direction, and it sounds like a good bet that the movie will be funny as hell. Filming begins in September, ranging from Atlanta to Arizona to Los Angeles.

Get ready all you Twispians, because Cinematical has just received this exclusive teaser poster for Youth in Revolt, which stars Michael Cera as the ultra-angsty (and legendary) Nick Twisp and is based on one of my favorite books of all time. Ah, what can you say about Youth in Revolt? The book, written by C.D. Payne, has amassed a huge, cult-like following partly because we can all relate to being an awkward teenager who'd do anything to capture the love of that special someone, and also because it's just damn funny.

For those who haven't read the book (seriously, read it -- the thing is hilarious), Youth in Revolt follows the misadventures of a love-sick teen who stops just short of destroying the world in order to win the love of one Sheeni Saunders. Cera plays said teen, Nick Twisp, while newcomer Portia Doubleday plays Sheeni. The film also boasts a pretty impressive supporting cast, including Steve Buscemi (as Nick's seedy, trailer-trash father), Zach Galifianakis, Justin Long, Fred Willard, Ray Liotta, Jean Smart and Ari Graynor. Needless to say, I cannot wait to see this cast bring some of these wacky, ridiculous (and memorable) characters to life, and I'm sure you Revolt fans are right there with me.

Youth in Revolt hits theaters on October 30. Click the image below to view entire poster.

It seems redundant and pointless to talk about how intimidating Mike Tyson is, but I admit that I was nervously excited when Cinematical was offered the opportunity to interview him in conjunction with the release of The Hangover. Having spoken to Tommy Lee Jones, the toughest of tough celebrity interviews, I'd survived gauntlets far more fearsome than dealing with a former heavyweight, especially since I'd recently seen Tyson, which offers a portrait of him at his most reflective, self-aware and lucidly articulate. But I did want to get a good, and more importantly real interview with him, not just lob softballs in his direction and be yet another guy who was too scared to ask a substantive question.

Tyson's cameo in The Hangover is just one great moment in a film with plenty of other ones, but it seems to mean more for him, if not also to him: while the film's $45 million opening-weekend haul means higher paychecks and better roles for co-stars Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis, its visibility and success gives Tyson a sense of humor, and moreover, a humanity that he's never quite achieved on such a significant scale. Cinematical spoke to Tyson on May 17 in Las Vegas, where the former prizefighter discussed what it meant to appear in the movie, looked back on the experience of making Toback's documentary, and talked about what the future holds for him following his recent adventures on the silver screen.

Todd Phillips scored a hit in 2003 with the raucous R-rated comedy Old School, then for some reason moved to tamer waters for Starsky & Hutch and School for Scoundrels, neither of which amounted to anything. Duly chastened, he now returns home with The Hangover, a movie that's as gleefully dirty as Old School, and maybe funnier.

It's a story of friendship, camaraderie, and alcohol. As such, it can only be set in Las Vegas. That is where Doug (Justin Bartha), who is getting married Sunday, is taken by his friends for an epic bachelor party: Phil (Bradley Cooper), a schoolteacher who hates his students almost as much as he hates being married, is the ringleader; Stu (Ed Helms), a wimpy dentist with a controlling shrew for a girlfriend, is the nervous nellie; Alan (Zach Galifianakis), Doug's soon-to-be brother-in-law, is the spacey, grubby, possibly mentally handicapped one who recalls Will Ferrell in Old School (which means he also recalls John Belushi in Animal House).

The four embark on a night of revelry. The next morning, Phil, Stu, and Alan wake up in their hotel suite with a tiger and a baby. There's no sign of Doug, the groom-to-be. And no one can remember anything that happened the night before.

As comedy premises go, this one is brilliantly simple. Three hungover guys stumble around Las Vegas in search of clues as to their missing friend's whereabouts, not to mention the origin of the baby and the tiger, and not to mention the other various things that have gone awry that, well, I won't mention. (Spoiler: Ed Helms is missing that tooth in real life.)

Remember that night you can't forget when you did that thing you can't remember? Director Todd Phillips mines familiar territory for fresh laughs in the new trailer for his upcoming film The Hangover, starring Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, and Ed Helms (The Office) as three buddies who lose a friend after a wild bachelor party in Las Vegas.

"Lose," by the way, is not a euphemism for death; they literally can't find the dude (played by Justin Bartha). They wake up on the morning after to discover a trashed hotel room, a tiger in the bathroom and a crying baby in the closet. They piece together the events of the evening before as they try to find the missing groomsman in time for Cooper's wedding, somehow also encountering a real life, former heavyweight boxing champion. I won't spoil all the laughs, but it definitely looks like Old School with more alcohol, a silly, cheerfully incorrect tale of 30-something men celebrating boozing and general debauchery.

Phillips took somewhat of a left turn with School for Scoundrels in 2006, which didn't quite work the way it should have; before that, Starsky & Hutch was funny without being as consistently hilarious as Old School or as warmly goofy as Road Trip. As for Brad Cooper, he has a chance to knock one out of the park in a leading role after yeoman work in comic supporting parts (he was quite good as the star of the very good horror flick Midnight Meat Train). We previously posted a shorter teaser trailer; we've embedded the new, longer one below. The Hangover hits theaters on June 5, courtesy of Warner Brothers.

We've posted an episode of Between Two Ferns before, back when Zach Galifianakis interviewed (and subsequently molested) poor Michael Cera. Now, though, in Episode 3 of this hysterical little bit, Zach sits down with Jon Hamm, from AMC's Mad Men and the new flick The Day the Earth Stood Still. While Hamm has made a huge name for himself lately, Galifianakis is slowly emerging as well with six films in different stages of production, including the Youth in Revolt adaptation and the Todd Phillips comedy The Hangover. I'm still waiting to catch his indie Visioneers (which we reviewed here), and these little bits he does for Funny or Die just crack me up.

Also on Funny or Die today is a little advertisement for Will Ferrell's new George Bush show, A Final Night with George W. Bush, which hits NYC in January. Watch that here, and watch the Zach interview below. Warning: This interview contains mild foul language and may be inappropriate for young, normal children.

Operating out of a small space on Fairfax, the nightclub Largo quickly became more a legend than a venue. Intimate and loose, part of the appeal of Largo is that you literally never knew (I only use the past tense as the club has moved from its Fairfax location to a larger venue on La Cienega in the past month) what, or who might turn up. Largo's where Jack Black and Kyle Gass did some of their earliest work as Tenacious D; Jackson Browne's dropped in to sing a few songs. John C. Reilly has hosted casual, extemporaneous chat shows there; composer Jon Brion (best known for his work on Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love) has held shows where he alternates constructing songs out of intricately arranged loops of instrumental figures he records live and composes and conducts on-stage with spirited cover versions of requests shouted out from the audience.

Co-directed by Largo manager and co-owner Mark Flanagan and Andrew van Baal, Largo recreates the Largo experience; loose, smart, random and unique. Mixing concert musical performances with snippets of comedy, the final film makes you feel like you've been to Largo, even as the more elegant notes in the black-and-white composition and the vignettes of the club's rhythm and tempo between the acts make it abundantly clear you're watching a film that was constructed and not just a tape that was turned on.