ben stiller Tagged Articles at Cinematical
If Ben Stiller & Downey Jr. Aren't Hosting the Oscars...
Filed under: Awards », Exhibition », Oscar Watch »
Back in October, Adam Shankman was determined to make the Oscars fun, itching to "kick up the funny a little bit" and celebrate entertainment. But there wasn't a whole new revamp in mind -- he still wanted to continue with the path laid out last year and have Hugh Jackman host ... but the actor refused. Rumors immediately started bubbling that Neil Patrick Harris was circling, but there were other funny men in his sights. Deadline Hollywood reports that Shankman and Bill Mechanic went to Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr. to host as a duo.But they said no.
Talk about a bummer. It's quite easy to imagine the red carpet coverage wind down, and Stiller and Downey Jr. dancing or strolling to center stage. They could easy bring a healthy dose of classic funny, yet still embody the new spin focused solely on entertainment and mirth. Hell, I would easily take Robert on his own. Can you imagine a series of blips where he acts out scenes from the top contenders or top grossing films? He could fall in love and be a lonely old man with a balloon house, travel into space, throw out classic Tarantino dialogue, channel Julia Child, suffer through a painful locker, feel the pressure of A Single Man...
But that dream is done. Is there any duo who could bring the same excellence? It would never happen, but if Ben and Robert are a no-go, I want insanity with a slice of brilliance by joining Christopher Walken and Jane Lynch. How about you? What other Oscar hosting duos would you suggest?
Review: The Marc Pease Experience
Filed under: Comedy », Independent », Theatrical Reviews », Paramount Vantage »
Once upon a time, Marc Pease (Jason Schwartzman) flipped out during his high school's production of The Wiz, despite every assurance from his drama teacher, Mr. Gribble (Ben Stiller), that he was at the very least capable ("You set the bar... so that others can go beyond it!").
Eight years later, Gribble's giving The Wiz another shot, while Pease tries to keep the remaining half of his once mighty a cappella group together and heading towards some modest goal of stardom. The two of them share a common love with present-day senior Meg (Anna Kendrick), and all three of them have a love for performing -- and an aversion to anything resembling comedy over the course of The Marc Pease Experience.
Watch This: The Ballad of G.I. Joe
Filed under: Music & Musicals », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Fandom », Trailers and Clips »
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...
The Ben Stiller Comedy You Won't 'Experience' This Summer
Filed under: Comedy », Paramount », Distribution », Paramount Vantage »
You'd think that the next movie featuring the star of a very recent blockbuster would be a surefire candidate to get a splashy theatrical release. Yet despite the presence of Ben Stiller in its cast, chances are that you won't see The Marc Pease Experience this summer.
Stiller, who starred in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian -- which has earned nearly $400 million worldwide since its release in late May -- plays a supporting role as a mentor to Jason Schwartzman, who must come to terms with his dream of becoming a musical star on Broadway. Rising starlet Anna Kendrick is also featured. As reported by The Playlist, Paramount will be releasing The Marc Pease Experience on August 21 in just 10 markets: Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle ... and "maybe" Boston, according to director Todd Louiso. Those are definitely major markets, but New York and Los Angeles will be avoided, and I'm guessing those of us in the selected markets will need to search out where exactly the movie will be dumped be playing.
Production on the film began under the Paramount Vantage banner, a division that has since been shuttered. The Playlist speculates that "there was basically a mandate from Paramount to all the Paramount Vantage movies 'on the way out' that 'We're just not going to put any more money into them.'" Whether that's true or not -- and I'm inclined to hope that they evaluated each movie on its own merits -- you might need to buy a plane ticket to see another Ben Stiller comedy this summer. Failing that, The Marc Pease Experience is expected on DVD before the end of the year.
Review: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Filed under: Comedy », New Releases », Theatrical Reviews », Family Films », Remakes and Sequels »
Like its predecessor, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is a mix of genuinely funny performances and highly lazy storytelling. You know how it goes: the plot is inane, but a lot of the dialogue makes you laugh. It's hard to respect a movie like that -- but, then again, I'm pretty sure "respect" isn't really what they were going for anyway.
In the sequel, Larry Daley, the hapless former security guard played by Ben Stiller, is now a successful TV pitchman, having invented such handy products as the glow-in-the-dark flashlight. It's been a couple years since he visited his pals at the American Museum of Natural History -- you know, the exhibits and models that come to life after dark, thanks to the magic of an Egyptian artifact -- and when he does, he's alarmed to learn that most of them are being shipped off to the Smithsonian archives in Washington D.C., where they'll sit in storage crates for the foreseeable future.
This is progress, it seems. Dr. McPhee (Ricky Gervais), Larry's old boss, tells him that people are bored with dioramas and wax figures. They want holograms and robots. All these old-fashioned pieces are going to be replaced with state-of-the-art technology like a talking Teddy Roosevelt -- which, strangely, speaks with the same voice as the waxwork Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) from the first film. What, did the graphic artists who created the computer program see him come to life late one night and record his voice? (Sorry. I'll try to keep that sort of thing to a minimum for the rest of the review.)
When Stiller and Carrey Doesn't Work, Get Stiller and Witherspoon!
Filed under: Comedy », Romance », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Casting »
All the way back in 2006, Ben Stiller and Jim Carrey were headed to a future where women not only rule the world, they also "clone and trade men like used cars." Emily Mortimer was going to co-star as a woman whose unease over buying a cloned man leads to love with the cookie cutter Stiller. However, a few days later, the whole thing was scrapped ... but then it was back on the pre-strike priority list. And now, it's back on (again), with a whole new focus.The Hollywood Reporter posts that the sci-fi comedy has dropped Jim Carrey, and will now star Stiller and Reese Witherspoon. But this isn't a case of sex-changing characters. The project will now focus on Clone Ben, and his relationship with clone owner Witherspoon -- in other words, the character once played by Emily Mortimer. Little Miss Sunshine's Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton are in talks to helm the project, but no writer has been hired yet to change things up.
This makes perfect sense. When the economy is alright, the project is scrapped because it would be way too pricey. The economy tanks, and they decide to pay for a big re-write, and to hire another big-paycheck star. As for the why behind switching this from buddy comedy to romance, THR notes that "Fox hasn't yet successfully mined the new vein of guy-centric comedy," but have fared well with funny flicks aimed at women. Yay. Gotta love when films of the future go back to the stereotypical past. Couldn't this be aimed at us without making the central theme romance? I mean, it is about a women-leading future after all.
Is Adam Sandler Really the Most Valuable Comedian?
Filed under: Comedy », Newsstand »
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Forbes has released its Most Valuable Comedians list, and through some intricate calculations I stopped studying after high school, came up with Adam Sandler as Hollywood's most powerful laugh riot, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.
Sandler is gaining traction not only because of his starring roles in such critic-proof movies as You Don't Mess with the Zohan and I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, but because he can also occasionally show off some real acting chops as in 2007's Reign Over Me and Punch-Drunk Love. The number of movies he's producing and has in development under Happy Madison Productions are growing in number. And despite its premise, this summer's Funny People, which stars Sandler as a comedian dying of cancer who mentors a younger comedian, has quite a number of big names attached. Judd Apatow wrote, directed, and produced the film; Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill costar. Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski is behind the lens. So even though at first glance, I thought, "Adam Sandler, WTF?" it's clear that even though Sandler doesn't tickle my funny bone, he does have all the criteria for Forbes's list firmly in place.
Will Ferrell, who's #2, is getting more and more into production along with writing and acting, and launching FunnyorDie.com with director and writer Adam McKay was a watershed moment for viral video. HBO's investment in the website led to a deal with Ferrell and his FoD cohorts for a TV show - 10 episodes to be exact - which turned out to be the hit Eastbound and Down.
Cinematical Seven: Most Pointlessly Disgusting Scenes
Filed under: Comedy », Documentary », Horror », Sony », Universal », 20th Century Fox », Fox Searchlight », Cinematical Seven », Remakes and Sequels », Fox Atomic », Picturehouse »
I can think of at least three movies in the coming two weeks that feature scenes that are strikingly out of tone with the film they're a respective part of and yet seemingly included as a means of getting people to tell their loved ones how ridiculous Bit X in Movie Y is. And so today's Cinematical Seven list will be an arbitrary, far from ultimate compilation of the most distractingly disgusting and supremely superfluous parts in recent movies. Sure, most of these are comedies, and yes, most of them seem to have been released from the year 2000 on, and as always, we welcome your comments below. Just make sure they're not too gross.
(Speaking of which, NSFW clips follow after the jump.)
Stuff We Missed: Transformers, Russian Tom Cruise and Mumblecore
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Drama », Casting », Deals », Fandom », Newsstand », Comic/Superhero/Geek »
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Because it's easier when everything is in one spot ...
-- Michael Bay stopped to chat with Collider on the red carpet during the Friday the 13th premiere, and he talked all things Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Highlights include Bay calling the three scenes they shot in IMAX "awesome" and the film itself "dark", as well as noting that while he'd be interested in directing a third Transformers movie, he definitely wants to take a year off first. Also: New toy images of the robots over here.
-- Sam Rockwell has joined Hilary Swank in a legal drama called Betty Ann Waters, which tells the true story of a woman who spent a decade trying to free her innocent brother (Rockwell) from a life-in-prison sentence for a crime she thinks he didn't commit. [Hollywood Reporter]
-- Say what? Tom Cruise may star alongside Denzel Washington in the next David Cronenberg flick? Sounds like some bizarre nightmare you had after a night of partying with some film buddies, but it's totally true. The film is that big-budget adaptation of The Matarese Circle, and Cruise would go from playing a German in Valkyrie to a Russian spy who's the "mortal enemy" of Washington's American intelligence character. Word is this sucker has Bourne-like franchise potential. [Hollywood Reporter]
-- The Mumblecore movement is slowly inching its way toward the mainstream as indie darling Greta Gerwig (Baghead, Hannah Takes the Stairs) has signed on to star opposite Ben Stiller (!) in Noah Baumbach's (Squid and the Whale) next film, Greenberg. No plot information yet (relationships, awkwardness, etc ...), but I'm jazzed to see Gerwig getting some more love. She's a fantastic moody actress that deserves greater exposure. [Hollywood Reporter]
-- Rob Zombie's Halloween sequel (aka H2) will hit theaters on August 28, 2009. Check out the teaser poster that was sent to us below.
Gallery: Halloween 2 ... Again
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Stuff We Missed: Fallen Superheroes, Hit Men and Amber Heard
Filed under: Casting », Deals », Fandom », Distribution », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand », Movie Marketing », Trailers and Clips »
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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]
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Robert Downey Jr. Wants to Retire?
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