gary cole Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Yes, that's a printer on the red carpet for the 10th anniversary screening of Office Space at the Paramount Theatre in Austin on Sunday night. The guys swinging baseball bats are the same ones you saw attacking the printer in the 1999 movie -- Ajay Naidu and David Herman. We like our red carpet scenes lively here in Austin.

Mike Judge, who wrote and directed Office Space (and played the manager at Chotchkie's), appeared at the event with nine other actors who played major characters in the movie -- everyone except Ron Livingston and Jennifer Aniston, essentially. The theater was sold out, and watching Office Space with 1,200 people who've seen it before was amazing and hilarious. Everyone frequently contributed cheers, whoops and applause for certain actors or memorable bits of dialogue ("Looks like you've been missing a lot of work lately." "I wouldn't say I've been missing it, Bob.").

If you've seen Death at a Funeral, I'm sure you were thinking: Forget Ewen Bremner, Alan Tudyk, and the rest of them! I want an urbanized remake of Chris Rock! If you did, you should be overjoyed to learn that The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Rock is producing, starring, and co-writing (with Aeysha Carr) an "urban reworking" of the comedy. It's supposed to be "a hysterical, completely new reimagining" of the original, but while words like "hysterical" and "urban" are perfectly good for a film, I'm getting Guess Who twitches. But man, I'd love to be wrong.

Meanwhile, after taking an almost decade-long hiatus from the big screen, Variety reports that Lauren Hutton has signed on for David Duchovny's The Joneses, along with Glenne Headly and Gary Cole. The movie is just like you'd assume it to be -- what life is really like for "The Joneses" -- that infamous family we all have to keep up with. They look all perfect with their trend-setting, but behind the surface ... hopefully the skeletons aren't of the sexual dysfunction theme.

And Kali Hawk, who last appeared in Lovers & Haters, has picked up a spot on the Couples Retreat.

And Brianne Davis, fresh off of Prom Night, has nabbed a lead in an indie called American Virgin, alongside Rob Schneider and Jenna Dewan.

(No, I'm not stoned. It's just that Pineapple Express opens today (8/6), but my review was published over a week ago. This reprint is brought to you by Cinematical's Recycling Division. We care about wasted bandwidth.)

I won't get into the precise reasons, but my friends always seem to think I'm going to LOVE the next big "pot comedy." They chuckle and assume such silly things despite the fact that the only real pothead comedies that I truly enjoy are Up in Smoke, Next Movie, and a large portion of the Harold & Kumar misadventures. Frankly I'm of the opinion that most pot comedies feel like they were written by someone very stoned, and let's just say that writers don't always do their best work when they're extra-baked. (They might THINK their stuff is hilarious, but usually it's not. That's just the weed talking.) Oh, you'll definitely find a few cannabis-caked giggles in Half-Baked, Grandma's Boy, and Smiley Face -- just not enough to sustain a whole movie, if it's me you're asking.

So it is with much pleasure, enthusiasm, and recently-applied Visine that I offer you Pineapple Express, which just may be the Casablanca of Pot Comedies. Or perhaps it's more like When Ultra-High Harry Met Super-Stoned Sally, but either way Pineapple Express showcases some of the funniest "weed culture" insights since the arrival of Richard Linklater's fantastic Dazed & Confused -- which I wouldn't call a full-bore "pot comedy," but it sure isn't shy about passing those joints around. Best of all, while Pineapple Express will absolutely appeal to both the casual and committed pot-smokers, it's also just a very funny buddy comedy / action flick parody that comes bearing the very unique stamp of director David Gordon Green.

While I'm not willing to go into too many details about my personal habits, I will say that I do have an affinity for the so-called 'stoner movie' (well, at least the ones that try to portray smokers with just a modicum of reality). So with that in mind, you can guess why I am looking forward to the release of Pineapple Express -- the first poster of which has just hit the interwebs (check out the full size in the gallery below).

Seth Rogen stars as Dale Denton, a perpetually baked process server with a close relationship to his dealer, Saul (as played by James Franco). When Dale accidentally witnesses a murder, he and Saul are forced on the run from bad guys while suffering from the mother of all paranoid freak outs. Rosie Perez also stars as a crooked cop, and Gary Cole (aka Bill Lumbergh) as a drug lord.

Sony Pictures has just launched Stage 6 Films, "a label that will acquire and produce films for theatrical and straight-to-DVD release." The Variety announcement reports that Stage 6 will focus mostly on the DVD market, and on films budgeted at $1 to $10 million dollars. They've got a lot of movies on the horizon, with some pretty big stars involved. Conspiracy is an action flick starring Val "Iceman" Kilmer, Gary "Lumbergh" Cole, and Jennifer "Hot" Esposito. Thomas Jane is acting in and directing Dark Country (hope it's not a punisher!). The Stone House is a horror film starring Shane West and JK "Schillinger" Simmons. The Lodger stars Alfred Molina, whom I always picture in his underwear singing "Sister Christian." And Felon brings us even more Kilmer thrills, with Stephen Dorff and Harold Perrineau in tow.

And you know when you're talking direct-to-DVD, you're talking about some really random sequels. Stage 6 has announced a prequel (a prequel?) to this year's pretty cool horror flick Vacancy. There will also be a second Starship Troopers sequel -- Starship Troopers: Marauder, with Casper "Van Dien" Van Dien, Boris Kodjoe, and Jolene Blalock. Wesley Snipes will star in a sequel to the absolutely terrible action movie The Art of War, which I will refer to as The Art of War 2: Seriously? And Center Stage 2 will capitalize on the public's love of melodramatic teen dance dramas. I must confess a special place in my heart for the original Stage, because it led to a memorable high school back seat rendezvous. Put that quote on your poster, Sony! "Stage 6 will also continue to leverage our vast library of studio films, as we have done with Daddy Day Camp and the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise," threatens a Stage 6 executive.

Two of the best character actors currently working have just signed on for the road-trip comedy Say Hello to Stan Talmadge. Gary Cole will play Stan Talmadge, "an estranged ex-husband who tries to reunite his family with a cross-country motor-home trip to a "Family Feud"-style game show called "Beat Your Neighbor." Jennifer Coolidge will play (what else?) "his boozing, acid-tongued ex-wife." Also along for the ride are Stan's new wife, played by Half Nelson's Tina Holmes, and Talmadge's traumatized daughter, played by up-and-comer Agnes Bruckner. The film takes place in 1979 and the story will use a flashback structure. According to the movie's writer/director David Moreton (Edge of Seventeen), "Stan hopes that by getting his family on TV, it will make them a real family again."

Cole is probably best known for playing Bill Lumbergh in Office Space, one of My Favorite Comedy Villains. Coolidge caught the public's eye playing "Stifler's Mom" in American Pie, and has been a consistent highlight of Christopher Guest's movies. Her "humming" in A Mighty Wind kills me every time. Bruckner did strong work in the indie Blue Car, and was the lead in Lucky McKee's highly disappointing follow-up to May -- The Woods. Talmadge is described by producer Rob Aitro as "a charming indie in the tone of Little Miss Sunshine." At least they're acknowledging the similarities, this thing sounds pretty much like a carbon copy of LMS. I imagine we can expect a lot more of these "wacky dysfunctional family takes a road trip" movies after the smash success of Sunshine.

The comedy villain is one of the trickiest characters to pull off. Too often, the villain's scenes are there simply to further the "plot," which, in a lot of comedies, is pretty inconsequential. If a comedy even has a true villain, and many don't, scenes focusing on him or her usually drain the movie of life and make the audience eager to get back to the laughs. But a smart comedy creates a villain every bit as funny as the hero(es). Below are my favorite movie slimeballs, in order of release date. I'd love to hear some of yours.

John Vernon as Dean Vernon Wormer in National Lampoon's Animal House

One of the best traits for a comedy villain to have is that he or she is an "Enemy of Fun." You've met people like this. They hate fun. They hate people who have fun. Dean Wormer is a perfect example. In fact, unlike the other bad guys on this list, you can't imagine Wormer ever having had fun at any point in his life. Smileless, humorless, joyless...but hilarious. The crusty, bitter dean is almost a requirement for college movies, and you can feel Wormer's influence in every flick of its type released since. You certainly wouldn't have Dean Pritchard in Old School without Wormer. Animal House is a movie brimming over with jerks, Doug Neidermeyer would have made a perfectly good choice here, too -- frat guys always make great villains. But you've got to have some sympathy for that dude-- he got killed in Vietnam by his own troops.

Best Line: "The time has come for someone to put his foot down. And that foot is me."

Ted Knight as Judge Smails in Caddyshack

Stopping just short of actually chewing on pieces of scenery, Knight's work in Caddyshack is a masterpiece of taking it over the top. A master of the slow burn, the man is made of simmering anger and rage. Knight more than holds his own against three incredible comedians: Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, and Chevy Chase in his prime. In a lesser movie, Judge Smails would be a generic authority figure, enabling the three comedy stars to do their riffs around him and act out against him. But Knight's Judge is a worthy opponent, and manages to grab just as many laughs as the goofballs. Every bit as influential as Dean Wormer, you can draw a straight line from Judge Smails to say, Shooter McGavin.

Best Line: "I've sentenced boys younger than you to the gas chamber. Didn't want to do it. I felt I owed it to them."

Curious to see if Ryan Phillippe can hold his own against old-school pros like Laura Linney and Chris Cooper? Well, I don't seem to detest Phillippe as much as most movie fans do, and based on the new trailer for an upcoming espionage thriller called Breach, I'm beginning to think that Mr. Reese Witherspoon could soon be coming into his own, respect-wise.

Or maybe he's awful. I've no idea.

I do know that Breach is the first film from Billy Ray since he directed 2003's Shattered Glass, although he did (co-)write the screenplays for Suspect Zero and Flightplan in the interim. Based on true events, Breach tells the story of, no not a Caesarian section, but of the biggest security breach in United States history. Phillippe is the young agent tasked with spying on the treasonous Chris Cooper; Ms. Linney plays a high-level security chief of some sort. Also on board are Gary Cole, Dennis Haysbert, Bruce Davison and Kathleen Quinlan. The cast alone feels worthy of eight bucks.

Universal has Breach scheduled for a February 16 release date.

I posted earlier today on Joystiq that a new TV commercial for the role-playing game World of Warcraft hit the airwaves on Monday, which of course means it hit YouTube about .0815 seconds later. I'm waiting for the day that things come out on YouTube before they reach TV or the big screen. YouTube will become self-aware and telepathic and rule the world one day. You think Terminator was just a movie? SkyNet is YouTube, silly rabbit.

Oh, look ... we've veered back on-topic. This commercial features footage from Office Space with everyone's favorite cubicle-slacker Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) playing WoW while Bill Lundbergh (Gary Cole) tries to talk to him about TPS reports. Originally in the scene, Peter was playing Tetris, but they've stuck this footage in pretty seamlessly. Look how they've even littered his desk with the Warcraft box and game discs.

The ad works here because Office Space isn't generally considered a "classic", but how long until companies really screw up something that Cinemaniacs will cry sacrilege over? Come to think of it, it's already happened several times. We've had Gene Kelly selling Volkswagens, Steve McQueen pushing Mustangs, and Elton John plugging Diet Coke with Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Louis Armstrong. The recent Gap commercial starring Audrey Hepburn was funky and fun, but I found myself wondering what she'd think about it. It's hard to imagine that she would be thrilled. Will Apple use Citizen Kane to sell iPods? Matthew Broderick hawking new computers in WarGames? Okay, that last one probably wouldn't really bother me, but when does it end? At what point is too much just too much?


Check out these ads after the jump and let us know what you think.