old school Tagged Articles at Cinematical

One big-budget box office disappointment does not usually signal the end of a movie star's reign. The woeful under performance of Land of the Lost has observers looking for someone to blame, however, and Will Ferrell is under suspicion. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, columnist Patrick Goldstein suggests: "He's in danger of becoming the comedy equivalent of George Clooney, someone who enjoys a great deal of goodwill but who isn't actually a real movie star."

Goldstein doesn't provide his definition of a "real movie star," but in the context of his column, it clearly is all about the ability to open a big tent pole production to big box office numbers. Goldstein claims: "The verdict in Hollywood: Ferrell hasn't done a good job of managing his brand. [Adam] Sandler is the master of dumb hijinks. Eddie Murphy has become a cuddly family star. But who is Will Ferrell? No one knows anymore."

The theory is that Ferrell made his bones playing "the stupid guy" in a string of raunchy comedies (Old School, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby) but hasn't been accepted when it's branched out (Melinda and Melinda, Bewitched, Stranger Than Fiction). Ferrell evidently plays another "stupid guy" in Land of the Lost, but it wasn't sufficiently outrageous for the teen/20s crowd, who flocked to The Hangover, and was too potentially scary for families, who returned to Up.

Why did you skip Land of the Lost? Confused by the marketing? Burned out on Will Ferrell? Do you want to see him return to raunchy, R-rated comedies -- like The Hangover? Are Ferrell and George Clooney "real" movie stars?

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for The Hangover, which, if you haven't seen the trailer yet, looks to already have solidified its position as this summer's craziest, most ridiculously uncontrollable gotta-see-it-like-ten-times comedy. Directed by Todd Phillips (Old School, Road Trip), The Hangover stars Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis as three soon-to-be groomsmen who lose their buddy (aka the groom) and their memory during a balls-to-the-wall Las Vegas bachelor party weekend, then race to retrace their steps and find their friend before the wedding.

The film has garnered so much advanced buzz that a sequel is already being set up, and it's fairly safe to say that this could be Phillips' best film since Old School. You've got Vegas, live tigers in the hotel bathroom, an unknown baby, a stolen police car, a missing tooth and Mike Tyson -- what's not to love? (Note to those guys currently planning Las Vegas bachelor parties: You might want to leave the fiance at home before venturing out to see this flick. Just a hunch, but something tells me she might have a few additional questions, concerns and demands after watching The Hangover. Unless she's totally cool with whatever; if that's the case, the more the merrier!)

The Hangover wakes up with a killer headache and lots of laughs on June 5. Check out a larger version of the poster below.

At some point this past summer, between all but consecutive viewings of The Dark Knight, I slipped into a screening of Step Brothers with the same tempered expectations with which I had greeted Blades of Glory and Semi-Pro -- and found myself equally surprised in the coming days and weeks and months by just how admittedly tickled I was by any of them (quoting lines was moderate on all counts). Mind you, I'm saying this as the guy who chuckled during Anchorman, sure, but not really enough to keep it on my shelf or call myself thankful for it.

That's nothing against our Eric D. Snider, and nothing against the star of each film mentioned, Will Ferrell (yes, he was actually Batman). In fact, with Step Brothers hitting shelves today (with reports of a wholly sung commentary track), it only seemed fitting that we go over his most amusing roles as overgrown man-children (Ferrell's, not Snider's). Because they're there, and they always will be, and the sooner that I admit to being vulnerable to his shtick, a better world this very well may be.

Some say that Will Ferrell movies are just the same flick over and over again, but since I always get a giggle from them, I really can't complain. Movieweb is now hosting 10 new photos from Ferrell's latest sports-comedy, Semi-Pro. Farrell plays Jackie Moon, the owner and coach of the American Basketball Association's Flint Michigan Tropics. In hopes of getting the team status in a little organization called the NBA, he must turn his team into winners.

Semi-Pro was written by Scot Armstrong, who was also behind Road Trip, Old School, and The Heartbreak Kid. Armstrong is also hard at work on the sequel to Old School, but this time it will be without *Hank 'The Tank' by the looks of things. Even if you are not a big fan of Ferrell's particular style of comedy, you have to admit he does manage to put together some pretty great comedy casts. Joining Ferrell on Semi-Pro are Woody Harrelson, Will Arnett, Rob Corddry, and the criminally underused Andy Richter. Also joining in on the fun are Outkast's Andre Benjamin and Maura Tierney.

So while some of these pictures have already been released back in November, this latest set has a few new images plus your chance to get a look at Ferrell's 'fro in hi-res. So far, there have already been a few poster releases, a teaser, and the ever-popular "red band" trailer. But, let's be truthful here, if you are a Ferrell fan you are going to want to jump straight to the 'R' trailer for all the good jokes. Semi-Pro opens in theaters on February 29th.

*Correction: Ferrell will forever by haunted by the nickname Frank "the Tank", not Hank.

The interesting thing about the big strike that's looming is that it's causing all these filmmakers to come out of the woodwork and acquire pre-strike gigs with projects nobody's ever heard before. Here's one: Todd Phillips is set to direct and produce Hangover, which is a spec script Warner Bros. just bought from Rebound scribes Jon Lucas and Scott Moore for $2 million. Sounding like a cross between Bachelor Party, Dude, Where's My Car? and Phillips' own Old School (mostly because I picture that cast in this), the comedy will be about three guys who apparently wake up the morning after a Vegas bachelor party and realize they've lost the groom. So, they have to retrace their steps from the night before and find him before the wedding. According to Variety, Phillips said the premise spoke to him.

Another frat boy farce from Phillips? I'm sold, even if I haven't liked much that he's done since Old School, which was probably my favorite comedy of the early 2000s -- it was at least the one I watched the most times, anyway. As I mentioned, I can totally see the cast of Old School being in Hangover, especially Will Ferrell, since I'm imagining it being Frank the Tank's fault the groom has been "misplaced." Then again, the movie could also work with a young, college-age cast, with say Seann William Scott, who starred in both Phillips' Road Trip (and appears in Old School) and Dude, Where's My Car? I know, I'm just kinda rattling off potential names here, but I'm doing so because in a pre-strike world, this is also what Hollywood is doing -- acting fast and thinking quickly in order to lock things into place a.s.a.p.

If you're like me, you eat way too much on Thanksgiving. And the last thing you want to do after eating so much is to watch a film about food or eating. Kevin made up a great list of food movies in honor of the holiday, and Kim wrote about "eating" films with a twist, but following your feast, you might get stomach pains just thinking about most of them. None of them could do too much harm, however, because they are all enjoyable fictional films. As a companion piece, I have come up with seven documentaries that you would definitely want to avoid in the wake of turkey day; A few of them you will want to avoid even after your digestive system has settled.

Yes, its true. One of my favorite movies of the last few years, Old School, finally seems to be moving forward with a sequel. The movie (which Erik wrote about before) has long been rumored, due in large part to the success of the original, and Dreamworks has always seemed committed to the idea, but for one reason or another, a sequel never seemed to get off the ground. The delays now seem to be over though, at least according to IGN, as Director Todd Phillips and co-writer Sean Armstrong, who both did the original, have started work on the script for the sequel called Old School Dos.

Maybe its because I was in a fraternity in college and I kinda miss those "good old days" so perfectly captured by the first film. Or, maybe its because the first film had such great comic performances by Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will "Frank the Tank" Ferrell. Of course, it could also be that when I saw Old School for the first time (in a great theater in Portland where you can have a beer and watch movies at the same time) I laughed so hard I nearly choked on my frosty beverage.

It could be all of those reasons and any one of a dozen others, but no matter what it is, I am psyched about a sequel and look forward to seeing it when it comes out. But even though Phillips and Armstrong have started on a script, there's still no guarantee the film will get made -- or if it does, arrive at your local theater any time soon. There are many details still to be worked out, not the least of which are the schedules of Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Will Ferrell and a finished script approved by the actors.

Still, if Phillips and Armstrong do manage to get a script together that entices the actors to return, and Dreamworks can manage the schedules and put the rest of the pieces together, we might just see this film after all. And after seeing the film, maybe we'll swing by Bed Bath and Beyond, but I'm not sure if we'll have enough time.

Are you as excited as I am for Old School 2?

I used to have such high hopes for Todd Phillips. Not only was Old School a film so funny that I literally watched it repeatedly for days, its success was not caused solely on the talents of its cast -- which is the case with so many comedies these days. Phillips actually showed promise as a director, too. Then came the wretched Starsky & Hutch, which couldn't even be helped by its cast, and now coming this week is School for Scoundrels, which really can't make up for its casting of the bland monotony of Jon Heder. So, I for one am excited about his returning to Old School for a sequel, if it moves forward.

If it doesn't, Phillips' production company has a project about Russian brides at Warners (previously at Miramax) based on David Benioff's article "Goodbye to Romance", originally published in the magazine Arena. Phillips isn't set to direct the movie, which has a treatment written by E. Max Frye, but with Old School Dos, a remake called Men, a film listed on his IMDb paged called The Dogs of Babel and the postcards-from-god movie The Disassociate, it is obvious that his plate is already overfilled. If he does go with this film, though, I suggest he casts Vince Vaughn and Billy Bob Thornton (who probably doesn't really need another character in the style of Bad Santa/Bad News Bears/School for Scoundrels) as the men who go to Russia in search of women to wed.

Perhaps I'm very much in the minority here, but I wasn't crazy about Old School. Apart from a few scenes, the film just didn't do it for me. Needless to say, director Todd Phillips feels there's definitely enough funny to warrant a sequel and up until this point, all we knew was that a script was being written.

However, according to Skewed and Reviewed, they recently sat down with Phillips and managed to grab a little more info on the upcoming sequel. Apparently, the title will be Old School Dos and, while Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn are currently not signed on to reprise their roles, the script will focus more on Ferrell's "Frank the Tank" character and, especially, why his wife is so concerned with her husband's alter ego. Though all three actors are due for a significant pay raise, I can't imagine they will pass up the chance to return for another go-round. Should the film actually happen, this will mark Phillips' first attempt to create a sequel from the assortment of iffy comedies he's given us over the past six years.

[via Coming Soon]

Ivan Reitman and producing partner Tom Pollock have managed to score co-financing -- to the tune of $200 million over five years -- for 10 new films from their Montecito Picture Company. Mmm ... lots and lots of comedies. The deal is sort of complicated -- for example, the funding body, Cold Spring Pictures, also has the option of financial involvement in Montecito properties that don't get picked up by partner DreamWorks -- but the point is that Reitman and Pollack are very happy men this morning. When taken in combination with their recently extended first-look deal with DreamWorks, this news means they can make what they want, and that what they make will get distribution without a struggle.

Obviously, packages this sweet don't just appear out of the blue: Pollack and Reitman make movies that make money men happy. As Pollack himself told Variety, "The kinds of movies we make are in an exceptionally sweet spot in the studio system; we tend to make comedies at a price. When they work, like with Old School and Road Trip, they make a lot of money. When they don't, like EuroTrip, they don't lose much. From a Wall Street standpoint, that's a good risk."