shawn wayans Tagged Articles at Cinematical

In the wake of White Chicks and Little Man, the Wayans Brothers return to grace the world with the presence of next February's Dance Flick, which lampoons last February's Step Up 2: The Streets, not to mention Save the Last Dance, You Got Served, How She Move, maybe Center Stage, possibly Robert Altman's The Company, and probably plenty of stuff that isn't related to actual dance flicks.

Having watched the initial Scary Movie last week for the first time since my formative teen years, their spoof efforts there still aren't on par with SM3 (which they didn't do), but remain above SM2 (which they did do). In short: humor that's dated and crude is right up their alley (I'm frankly impressed they remembered to work Flashdance in), and besides, you saw that break-dancing newborn, right? Call up Calista Flockhart, and count me out already.

Starring the usually amusing Amy Sedaris and the often less so Wayans clan, Dance Flick serves the last laugh to the streets on February 6, 2009.

Here's one of the great disappointments of 2007: Hot Fuzz only earned $23.6 million in the U.S. despite being one of the best reviewed and most hilarious comedies of the year. Now, here's something even more tragic: the Wayans brothers are set to make a similar movie, one which will probably be a huge hit, easily doubling or tripling the box office of Hot Fuzz. According to Variety, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Marlon Wayans and Shawn Wayans will parody cop actioners in the same way they spoofed horror films in the first two Scary Movie installments (3 and 4, which the brothers hate, were made by David Zucker). The main difference with this project, though, is that most of the gags and send-ups will have to reference relatively old movies. Unlike the Scary Movie franchise, which attempts the most timely of horror allusions, this new project won't have as many contemporary releases in the cop action genre to make fun of.

Well, there are at least two old movies the Wayans have to joke on: The Last Boyscout and Bulletproof, both of which starred their formerly better-known brother Damon. No matter what, though, the Wayans' cop movie (probably to be titled "Cop Movie") will not be as funny as Hot Fuzz. It may not even be as funny as Loaded Weapon 1, unfortunately. But it will likely share the same type of replication-as-parody sequences as that 1993 action spoof. The only thing that can keep one from being too cynical is that the Wayans did give us a lot of brilliant comedy on In Living Color, and we can always hope for a return to that talent despite our having put up with White Chicks and Little Man. This time around, the Wayans brothers will be making comedy gold at Paramount rather than at Scary Movie's Dimension, with Keenan Ivory Wayans once again directing. Whether or not this will affect their involvement with the Munsters movie is unknown.

For those of you who are already sick to death of all the big-screen TV adaptations, you're not gonna like this latest news. According to an interview over at MoviePictureFilm.com with Shawn Wayans, the guys who brought you Scary Movie, White Chicks and Little Man are gearing up to bring The Munsters back to life up on the big screen. Yup, The Munsters. Ya know, the 1960s television show that starred the late Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster, the father of a family of friendly monsters. Al Lewis played Grandpa? Butch Patrick was young Eddie? Remember? Wayans says, "We're contemporizing it ... something I want to clear up is that we're not going to be in it. We're just writing and producing it. We're going to get some white people and paint them green." Might I start off by suggesting you cast the winners of Cinematical's Halloween costume contest. Different characters, but they certainly have the whole green thing down.

So will the boys go raunchy with their new, updated Munsters look? Wayans says the flick will be PG-13, partly because their R-rated movies weren't making a lot of money; they claim audiences were seeing them, but kids were buying tickets for other movies and sneaking into theirs. Hence, they'd like to lower the rating to allow more people to gain access. And when The Munsters crashes and burns (and it should), they'll probably blame the theater employees for giving away the wrong tickets. And then they'll blame us for "accidentally" going to see the wrong movie. But Wayans, who wanted to make it clear that his family was not at all involved with Scary Movie 3, 4 or the upcoming part crap 5, did get one thing right: That once they left the Scary Movie franchise, things went downhill.

When asked about the spoof sequels, Wayans replied, "Yeah, they sucked. Scary Movie 2 was better than both of them and it wasn't our best one, we know that, we were rushed to do that movie...the studio that was doing them (pauses) ... [interviewer asks, "The Weinsteins?"] ... "Yeah (sighs) that's all I have to say. Don't worry though, we got some more R rated movies coming." In the meantime, Moviehole (who turned us on to this story) claims Sophie Monk has joined Scary Movie 5, and she'll be playing Anna Faris' evil twin sister. Additionally, Hulk Hogan is rumored to be up for a part as well. Oh boy -- The Munsters and Scary Movie 5! If sh*t could talk, I think it would say: "Get ready for one helluva 2008 people!"

Hopefully we'll never again have to see Marlon Wayans' face on the body of a little person, or covered by a white-girl mask. If he and his brothers (Shawn and Keenan Ivory) want another franchise (they are still going with the Scary Movie series), they could possibly make one out of their next project. The Wayanses are turning their comic book Super Bad James Dynomite into a live-action feature film for Rogue Pictures with Marlon starring as the title role. Dynomite is a 1970s blaxploitation-era detective -- ala Shaft and Dolemite (which is apparently being remade) -- who has been in prison for the past 35 years, or so. When he's released in the present, he retains his 70s look, complete with exaggerated afro, and sets off to find the criminal who framed him.

The comic is full of adult material, so turning it into a franchise wouldn't be as easy as it has been for superhero titles. The Wayans brothers aren't reported as being interested in sequels, but I'm sure Rogue would love a franchise if the guys were down and if the first movie does good business. Of course, there are a few reasons why the movie might not be too successful. The most important of these reasons is that blaxploitation doesn't need another homage. Between the Shaft remake, Jackie Brown and the spy comedy Undercover Brother, we've seen enough tributes to and jokes on the genre recently to last us another 35 years. Plus, the Wayanses already covered the territory with the blaxploitation spoof I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. The bottom line, though, is that the original films are just too enjoyable by themselves to require any kind of hindsight rehash. If Dynomite is only a single shot film, Rogue should be fine. The studio also just bought another script from Marlon and Shawn, which was co-written by Xavier Cook and Mitchell Marchand (The Wayans Bros. television series).

If there's one thing I don't have, it's attitude. Born and raised in New York City, I've mastered the art of looking like I have attitude by studying those around me ... and it ain't easy. Through my training, I've learned the most important rule to follow while attempting to come off as someone with severe attitude is not to smile. Smiling shows weakness and, because of this, you'll notice that 98% of all New Yorkers rarely smile. Actually that's not true -- they will smile upon seeing something bad happen to another person. They smile because they're so glad it didn't happen to them.

It's okay though -- I've accepted the fact that I don't have attitude. I mean, growing up, I was rarely involved in a situation that forced me to utilize some form of attitude. I never ran with a bunch of punk kids, never played an intense sport like football, never joined the military and I never committed a crime. However, I did play video games and watch MTV. And yet, I don't have an extensive gun collection and never engaged in copious amounts of promiscuous sex. Go figure.

As you may have guessed by now, all of the following films feature characters with attitude. Something I don't have. And never will. I blame you, Carson Daly. Welcome to this week's Trailer Park:

 

 

A good parody is hard to spin beyond the here and now. Take "Weird Al" Yankovic, for example. The pop-music jokester has put out 11 regular albums since 1983, when the accordian-playing nice guy's spoof of The Knack's "My Sharona" (titled "My Bologna" and recorded in the men's room of his college radio station) started his career as a musician, comedic icon and food fetishist when it blew up on The Dr. Demento Show. However, every hilarious and unforgettable cut like "Eat It", "Like A Surgeon" and "Smells Like Nirvana" that hit was matched by fade-away tracks like the New Kids jape "The White Stuff" (an ode to Oreos), the Rocky III goof "Theme From Rocky XIII (The Rye Or The Kaiser)" or the misjudgment "Taco Grande" (a riff on Latin rough-boy Gerardo's only hit, "Rico Suave"). The secret to a successful parody is complex, involving a careful balance of picking a song that is big enough, worthy of a good-natured dressing down and most important, funny. The same is true with movies, and the latest in the popular Scary Movie series is a great example of what can go right and wrong with such an attempt.