farce of the penguins Tagged Articles at Cinematical

We're a few hours late with this report -- and when I say "we" I actually mean "me, Scott" -- but Sundance saps a whole lot of strength from even the most ardent movie freak. With apologies we I now offer you this week's big fat DVD titles ... and a few old-school pieces of ultra-cheese.

Catch a Fire -- Philip Noyce (Rabbit-Proof Fence) goes political again and delivers a fast-paced and very efficient thriller that focuses on the ways in which governments often create the very enemies they're trying to thwart. (Governments are ironic that way.) Tim Robbins and Derek Luke contribute some very fine work. Extras include a multi-filmmaker commentary and a few deleted scenes.

Farce of the Penguins -- From what I've been hearing from reliable sources, this simplistic spoof is way too little way too late. But if you simply must see a movie in which Bob Saget, Samuel L. Jackson, Dane Cook, Jim Belushi, Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Lovitz and the rest of the Friar's Club provide raunchy voice-over dialogue for a bunch of innocent penguins, hey, here's your dream come true. Extras include a Saget-track, deleted scenes, featurettes and a bunch of other penguin-related silliness.

Flyboys -- Big-budget derring-do war flick ... that dropped absolutely dead at the box office. (Budget: $60 million / Domestic Gross: $13 million) I've yet to see the movie myself, but I do look forward to giving it a fair shake -- even if that "running across the blimp" sequence looks like something out of a post-apocalyptic anime story. Extras include a Tony Bill / Dean Devlin audio commentary, more than a half-dozen featurettes and some deleted scenes.

Gymkata -- Yes! Mid-'80s kung fu wackiness combined with hardcore Mitch Gaylord gymnastical stuff! I swear this movie's funnier by accident than most comedies are on purpose. Extras include the knowledge that you now on Gymkata on DVD.

Back when that seriously overrated March of the Penguins was cleaning up at the box office, comedian Bob Saget felt an apparently irresistable impulse: Why not shoot a bunch of penguin footage and then invite a bunch of his comic pals into a recording studio to tell some jokes?!? It's such a lazy idea, I can't believe it hadn't been done before! Voila, Farce of the Penguins was born.

But aside from his work on Full House and America's Stupidest Home Videos, I happen to think Bob Saget is a pretty funny guy, so I was more than happy to play "wait and see" regarding Farce of the Penguins -- and when the voice-cast list ballooned to include Samuel L. Jackson, Dane Cook, Tracy Morgan, Jason Alexander and Christina Applegate, I considered myself "actively anticipating" the goofy little experiment.

And then we learned that ThinkFilm was releasing the thing directly to video ... and then they released this trailer, which could be described by way of 3,000 different adjectives, but "funny" wouldn't be one of 'em. I mean, how lame do the rest of your jokes have to be if TWO different trailer gags start out with the line "If I had testicles"?

It's still waiting in my Netflix queue, and I'd be thrilled to report that the movie's actually pretty damn funny, but based on the trailer it seems like Farce of the Penguins will be a lot like The Discovery Channel on MUTE while a bunch of semi-drunk comedians crack wise in the background. And there's no way something like that will fill 90 minutes without making me want to stick pins through my ears.

If you were one of those people anxiously awaiting the theatrical release of Bob Sagat's March of the Penguins spoof, Farce of the Penguins, well you're crap out of the luck -- the flick will instead debut on DVD at the end of January. ThinkFilm was supposed to shovel the raunchy pic into theaters last Spring in order to take hold of the lingering buzz left by the popular documentary, but since production fell behind (to this day, it's still not done), they decided to just toss the thing onto DVD.

If you dig Sagat's warped and disgusting humor, then you should definitely enjoy Farce; a live-action comedy featuring shots of penguins mixed with narration from Samuel L. Jackson (I take it they were looking for the complete opposite of Morgan Freeman here) and a host of voiceovers from folks like Jason Alexander, Dane Cook, Whoopi Goldberg and Christina Applegate. Also, John Stamos and Dave Coulier will show up somewhere, however this Full House reunion should be kept far away from the little ones.

With the amount of talent involved here (I only listed a few names, but there are lots more), I'm surprised it's not getting a theatrical release. I wonder if ThinkFilm is pissed Sagat hasn't finished the film on time, and subsequently pulled this move in order to get back at the guy? Something feels fishy. Was anyone looking forward to seeing this in theaters, or are you just happy the film is being released at all?

Kevin Federline Wants to Act ... In Movies!

Move over Britney, your hubby is dreaming big ... screen, that is. Aside from trying to establish himself as the next hot singer, Kevin Federline would also like to act -- not as a real father and husband -- but in movies. Speaking to In Touch magazine, the pop-something notes he's been offered a few scripts -- one actually had him playing a drug dealer opposite Casey Affleck. Says Federline, "Sometimes I wake up in a comedic mood, and sometimes I wake up in a serious mood." Yeah, well, it doesn't matter when and how I wake up, I'm never in the mood to see Kevin Federline in anything except, maybe, a mug-shot photo.

Lohan Fired!

While, at one point, she was dangerously close to losing her job on the film Georgia Rule, Lindsay Lohan's careless off-screen actions have caused the actress/singer to be dropped from her UK record label. According to a report in The Sun, record company bosses were fed up with Lohan after she failed to do any promotion for her new album across the pond. Please, the girl can barely get out of bed in the morning, you really expect her to get on a plane and travel half-way across the world?

Sagat and Those Filthy Penguins!

Comedian Bob Saget was forced back into the editing room recently after those involved with his upcoming March of the Penguins spoof were afraid the first version of the film was too insane. In fact, Lewis Black (who voiced a penguin in the pic) felt that, not only would Farce of the Penguins be denied a theatrical release, but the folks behind the film may even be arrested. Arrested? What the hell are they doing to these poor penguins? Black says, "It's not just completely filthy, but it's certainly a funky little movie." Okay, there's pushing the envelope ... and then there's raping the damn thing. Yet, how come I want to see this film so badly?

The last roundup for the week:

• Randy Quaid has been terribly mistreated by the folks behind Brokeback Mountain. He appeared for about $14 out of the goodness of his heart, because the film's makers told him that the movie was gonna be tiny, and they had no money to spend. Quaid's response, basically, is "LIARS!" He feels the movie was willfully misrepresented, and is suing for the $10 million his brilliance deserves.

• Street Fight, Marshall Curry's Oscar-nominated documentary about 2002's nasty race for governor in Newark, NJ, has been picked up for distribution by Ironweed Films. As we've discussed here earlier, Ironweed is a socially-minded online DVD club that "aims to be an outlet for indie pics that never make it beyond the festival circuit"; members are sent a new DVD each month "with a theme such as globalization, human rights and civil liberties." The bummer, of course, it that those of us who are NOT Ironweed members are now going to have a hard time seeing the movie.

• Because he clearly needed a black guy with chops, Bob Saget has hired Samuel L. Jackson to provide the voice-over for Farce of the Penguins, the target of which I trust you'll be able to guess. The film, which Saget wrote and is directing, details the adventures of one male penguin "on a 70-mile trek with hedonistic buddies obsessed with getting laid." In addition to Jackson and Saget himself, the film's vocal talents will include John Stamos and Dave Coulier (Ah, Full House humor), Jason Alexander, Harvey Fierstein, Whoopi Goldberg, Gilbert Gottfried, Norm Macdonald, and Jon Lovitz. I admit it: I'm giggling a little bit already.