mystery team Tagged Articles at Cinematical

By Erik Davis (reprint from 2009 Sundance Film Festival) The film opens this weekend in Austin, Texas, and should it "expand" in October (like we've heard it will), then we'll probably reprint the review again! We liked the flick just that much.

It's Encyclopedia Brown meets Napoleon Dynamite with a pinch of Ace Ventura ... and it's hilarious.

The Derrick Comedy troupe arrived at Sundance with a snot full of sketch videos and a massive internet fanbase. Sure, these were a group of kids from NYU who struck a cord with the YouTube audience and never looked back -- but a series of short online comedy bits and random late night improv are one thing; opening a feature film at the Sundance Film Festival is a completely different ballgame. Thankfully, with Mystery Team, these boys hit one way out of the ballpark, producing not only the funniest comedy I've seen at the fest so far, but one that definitely has the potential to stand toe-to-toe with the finer comedies of 2008 and the most hyped of 2009.

Inspired by Encyclopedia Brown, the Mystery Team are comprised of three kid detectives who run around with big magnifying glasses and several cheap, cliched disguises solving neighborhood whodunits, like who stuck their fingers in Mrs. What's-Her-Name's freshly-baked pie. Only problem is they're 18-year-old high school virgins who should've grown out of this detective phase back when they were seven. The entire community laughs at them, except for Jordy, the half-brain-dead doofus (aka the Mystery Team's "inside informant") who works at the 24-hour hole in the wall. However, when a tiny neighborhood girl asks the Mystery Team to find out who killed her parents, the guys that spend their days solving lame schoolyard pranks are forced to take their game up one giant, life-threatening notch.

One of the small, lovable festival films I've been championing all year, Mystery Team first debuted back at Sundance (where I watched it with a midnight crowd that loved every minute) and it has since gone on to build lots of positive buzz ahead of its fall theatrical release. A smart move for the boys (and girl!) from Derrick Comedy was to bring the movie to Comic-Con, where not only did they screen it, host a panel and set up a booth on the Con floor, but they also created a short film specifically for the convention. That short film, titled Mystery Team Adventures: The Case of the Haunted Hotel, has just arrived online along with the film's opening release dates and cities.

Those of you lucky ducks in Austin, Texas will be able to enjoy the film's premiere at the Alamo on August 27 and 28, before it heads on to places like Georgia, Florida, Iowa and Kansas. Fear not, the rest of you will be able to catch a screening when Mystery Team opens nationwide in October. In the meantime, check out their pretty hilarious Comic-Con short film after the jump.

For more on the film, as well as where and when it's hitting a theater in your neck of the woods, hit up their official website over here.

Alice In Wonderland
Tim Burton's take on the classic Lewis Carroll book is just as creepy as you might expect. Johnny Depp is the stand-out as The Mad Hatter, but Tweedledum and Tweedledee will give you the willies too and the Cheshire Cat has more teeth than could possibly fit comfortably in his mouth. This may be the movie Burton was born to make. The tumble down the rabbit hole begins on March 5.

The Book of Eli
This trailer basically shows Denzel Washington being a bad ass in a bleak post apocalyptic future set thirty years after a global war has wiped out most of the population. Washington's character is walking across the wasteland carrying a book that can somehow save humanity. Gary Oldman and Mila Kunis also star. Look for this on January 15.

Whiteout
Kate Beckinsale stars as a U.S. Marshall stationed at an Antarctic research base who must find a murderer before the sun sets for six months. Based on a series of graphic novels, this kind of reminds me of 30 Days of Night mixed with elements of The Thing. This will be out on September 11.

Above: An exclusive look at one of the Mystery Team Comic Con Trading Cards

One of my favorite films from this past Sundance Film Festival was a little laugher called Mystery Team, from those awesomely ridiculous nutjobs at DERRICK Comedy. In a nutshell, my one-sentence pitch for the comedy went something like this: "It's Encyclopedia Brown meets Napoleon Dynamite with a pinch of Ace Ventura ... and it's hilarious." Now, as Mystery Team gears up for a fall release, the dudes (and dudette) from DERRICK Comedy are bringing their movie to Comic Con for an exclusive screening that's, like, totally undercover and hard to get into and you have to know a guy who knows a guy who went to school with a girl who watched Ferris pass out at 31 flavors last night. You get the idea ...

Of course your friends at Cinematical are here to hook you up on the down-low -- and we've got a whopping 12 single tickets for the Comic Con screening of Mystery Team to give away. The screening will take place on Thursday night (July 23rd) at 8pm and you will need to be in the immediate San Diego area on that night in order to win these tickets, so do not leave a comment on this post if you will not be in San Diego on the day of the screening. You will also be responsible for getting yourself to and from the screening because, well, we ain't no taxi service!

To enter, leave a comment telling us why you want to attend the Comic Con screening of Mystery Team. Check out the official rules for this contest -- as well as the brand new trailer for Mystery Team -- after the jump ... and good luck!

Mystery Team hits theaters this fall.

Hey, we have good news for those people who like to laugh when they go to the movies. One of my absolute favorite films from this past Sundance Film Festival has finally nabbed some well-deserved distribution thanks to the fine folks over at Roadside Attractions. Yup, Mystery Team -- brought to you by those freaky deaky cats from Derrick Comedy -- will arrive in theaters this fall following a national tour of colleges in the late summer. It's a smart move, too; the film, while it doesn't feature top-notch, familiar talent, is still original and hysterical and an absolute ball to watch in a packed theater.

From my Sundance review: "It's Encyclopedia Brown meets Napoleon Dynamite with a pinch of Ace Ventura ... and it's hilarious ... Similar to The Brady Bunch Movie, Mystery Team relies on the audience member buying into their fish-out-of-water shtick. If you don't dig the concept -- think its humor is too Napoleon Dynamite-esque and not original enough -- then you won't have a fun time. Clearly this is Derrick Comedy's Super Troopers -- it's a silly, stupid, ridiculous comedy that when it works, it really works, and when it doesn't, there's still a laugh or two to be found."

So, yeah, check out the NSFW trailer after the jump, head over to the Derrick Comedy website for more info and look for Mystery Team when it hits a town near you in just a couple months from now.

A bunch of us really got a kick out of Mystery Team when we saw it at Sundance earlier this year, and now you lucky ducks in New York City can catch two free screenings next week ... assuming you march your ass down to the Cinema Village in a timely fashion. Director (and good pal of Cinematical) Dan Eckman told me earlier that they're trying to set up something similar for you Los Angeles fans, and more word on that will be coming soon.

I definitely know I'm not alone in feeling that Mystery Team was one of the most marketable films at Sundance, and for some reason it still wasn't picked up for distribution. The boys from Derrick Comedy (watch some of their YouTube stuff over here) are pretty damn hilarious, and I'm sure this is just the first in a long line of quality comedic offerings from the group. Seriously, and I'm not just saying this because Derrick Comedy bought me a house, a boat and a new sports car last month -- go see this flick if you're anywhere near New York City. The audience I watched it with were rolling in the aisles; this was probably close to being my favorite moviegoing experience at Sundance this year. So check it out ...

Warning: This trailer contains foul language

Ben Schwartz is an improv and sketch comedian at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, and at one time or another he's also written for Robot Chicken, David Letterman and Saturday Night Live (and he plays a small role in the Sundance flick Mystery Team). Here he is starring in a short (film? sketch? bit?) called Valentine's Break Up, in which he plays a guy who winds up on the opposite end of where he wanted to be during a romantic Valentine's Day dinner with his girlfriend. And since we're quickly approaching that fabulous holiday for lovers (and people who like to buy red things), we felt it was an appropriate video to share. Plus this dude Ben is hilarious, and I can't stop watching him. Starring opposite Ben is Sarah Burns, who you'll soon be seeing in the film I Love You, Man. Check it out below.


Valentine's Break Up from Ben Schwartz on Vimeo.

And as an added bonus, here's another video from Ben called Job Interview. In this one, he plays a kid who tries his hardest to slip a fake fanboy resume (you'll see what I mean) past what he hopes is his future employer. Hilarity ensues. Something tells me this is one dude to put on our comedic watch list -- whaddya think?


Job Interview from Ben Schwartz on Vimeo.

(Warning: This one goes up to eleven...)

1. Moon -- Most were admittedly intrigued by the prospect of Sam Rockwell alone and yet potentially not on a lunar station going into the fest, and this seemed to be the first film to live up to its promise as a modest yet straight-up sci-fi endeavor (that just happened to have a Kevin Spacey-voiced robot, and just tell me you wouldn't want one of those waking you up and telling you to pay it forward all the friggin' time).

2. 500 Days of Summer -- I'd liked the vague stuff I'd been hearing about this one going into the fest as well -- namely, "Zooey Deschanel, Zooey Deschanel, Zooey Deschanel" -- and I certainly liked the teaser trailer that made its way out just hours before the film's formal premiere. Does it look like Fox Searchlight's particular brand of indie hipster quirk that's just begging to get too popular for its own good by about Labor Day? Sure, but if it's as adorable as it seems, that's a chance I'm willing to take, Zooey.

Sunday may be a day of rest, but not for the intrepid Cinematical crew, who cranked out reviews and posts between screenings and interviews. They weren't the only busy ones, of course!

Deals. Nothing closed, but Gregg Goldstein of Movie City News reported (very early) that David Mackenzie's sex comedy Spread, starring Ashton Kutcher and Anne Heche, excited distributors because of its commercial appeal. The Jim Carrey "gay prison love story" I Love You Phillip Morris premiered tonight and distribs are expected to be circling.

Cinematical Reviews, and An Interview. Erik Davis says Marc Webb's 500 Days of Summer, with Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon Levitt, is "an anti-fairytale" romantic comedy. (Did you watch the teaser trailer? Fox Searchlight will release it in July.) Erik was super impressed by the teen detective antics of the Derrick Comedy troupe in Mystery Team, which he calls "a silly, stupid, ridiculous comedy." Paul Solet's Grace inspired the inimitable Eric D. Snider to opine: "If you are the sort of person who might enjoy an effed-up gore-fest about a woman [Jordan Ladd] who delivers an undead baby, you can rest assured that Grace lives up to its potential." Scott Weinberg wrote about killer trees, Nazi zombies, and a cool celeb .

James Rocchi interviewed Antoine Fuqua, director of Brooklyn's Finest, a few hours before the film sold to Senator Entertainment. James was cool toward Doug Pray's doc Art & Copy ("essentially, an ad for advertising") but warmed up to Sophie Barthes' Cold Souls, with Paul Giamatti giving "what may be his best performance" as an actor who stores his soul. James also saw a "French-style ... transgendered revenge comedy," and lived to tell about it.

Blog Talk. My favorite quotes of the day, if you have a few more seconds, after the jump.

It's Encyclopedia Brown meets Napoleon Dynamite with a pinch of Ace Ventura ... and it's hilarious.

The Derrick Comedy troupe arrived at Sundance with a snot full of sketch videos and a massive internet fanbase. Sure, these were a group of kids from NYU who struck a cord with the YouTube audience and never looked back -- but a series of short online comedy bits and random late night improv are one thing; opening a feature film at the Sundance Film Festival is a completely different ballgame. Thankfully, with Mystery Team, these boys hit one way out of the ballpark, producing not only the funniest comedy I've seen at the fest so far, but one that definitely has the potential to stand toe-to-toe with the finer comedies of 2008 and the most hyped of 2009.

Inspired by Encyclopedia Brown, the Mystery Team are comprised of three kid detectives who run around with big magnifying glasses and several cheap, cliched disguises solving neighborhood whodunits, like who stuck their fingers in Mrs. What's-Her-Name's freshly-baked pie. Only problem is they're 18-year-old high school virgins who should've grown out of this detective phase back when they were seven. The entire community laughs at them, except for Jordy, the half-brain-dead doofus (aka the Mystery Team's "inside informant") who works at the 24-hour hole in the wall. However, when a tiny neighborhood girl asks the Mystery Team to find out who killed her parents, the guys that spend their days solving lame schoolyard pranks are forced to take their game up one giant, life-threatening notch.