stevecoogan Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I've never read Laurence Sterne's "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman," and apparently, that's no small feat anyhow. After all, Sterne's protagonist starts out just before his birth and spends his time describing so many tangents of his existence that the book ends by the time his life has barely begun.

But I was delighted by the approach with which director Michael Winterbottom and writer Frank Cottrell Boyce adapted the seemingly unfilmable novel -- by making a movie about making the movie, which itself never quite gets around to unfolding. Steve Coogan plays a version of himself who's trying to keep his supporting actor/co-lead down and his girlfriend and newborn happy, in addition to juggling the production and the press and the pressures that come with the shoot as a whole.

It's all so delightfully twisty and sly, and I suspect that it's very much keeping in spirit with Sterne's work. I'm not sure that I could pick one favorite scene (actually, maybe the bit where an exceptionally perky Gillian Anderson gets hired), but YouTube has cut my work out for me. There's only one full scene I can embed here, but it's as much a doozy as most, as Coogan acts like he's coping with a hot chestnut in his trousers, only to then try it with an actual hot chestnut (or did he?).

As for the entire movie -- which also stars Dylan Moran, Kelly Macdonald, Stephen Fry, Jeremy Northam, and Naomie Harris -- at least I can promise it'll only run about ninety minutes. Talk about making a long story short....

Watch the video after the jump

Like its predecessor, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian is a mix of genuinely funny performances and highly lazy storytelling. You know how it goes: the plot is inane, but a lot of the dialogue makes you laugh. It's hard to respect a movie like that -- but, then again, I'm pretty sure "respect" isn't really what they were going for anyway.

In the sequel, Larry Daley, the hapless former security guard played by Ben Stiller, is now a successful TV pitchman, having invented such handy products as the glow-in-the-dark flashlight. It's been a couple years since he visited his pals at the American Museum of Natural History -- you know, the exhibits and models that come to life after dark, thanks to the magic of an Egyptian artifact -- and when he does, he's alarmed to learn that most of them are being shipped off to the Smithsonian archives in Washington D.C., where they'll sit in storage crates for the foreseeable future.

This is progress, it seems. Dr. McPhee (Ricky Gervais), Larry's old boss, tells him that people are bored with dioramas and wax figures. They want holograms and robots. All these old-fashioned pieces are going to be replaced with state-of-the-art technology like a talking Teddy Roosevelt -- which, strangely, speaks with the same voice as the waxwork Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) from the first film. What, did the graphic artists who created the computer program see him come to life late one night and record his voice? (Sorry. I'll try to keep that sort of thing to a minimum for the rest of the review.)

Percy Jackson: The Lightening Thief is the first in a series of young adult novels by Rick Riordan about a kid with dyslexia and ADHD who's also the kid of, you know, the son of Poseidon. As with most of us, he learns all about himself at summer camp -- except instead of mosquito bites and panty raids, Percy finds his camp is full of the sons and daughters of demigods. Since being optioned by Fox 2000 in 2004, it's acquired quite a roster of theatrical demigods to the cast, and its latest additions are pretty swell.

Rosario Dawson (who was the only part of Seven Pounds that didn't make me want to throw a shoe at the screen) is playing a sexy Persephone who gets a little friendly with Percy's BFF Grover, who, as it turns out, is a satyr. Awkward!

The very first trailer for Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian has arrived online ... via the McDonald's Happy Meals website. Not exactly ideal viewing (who knew McDonald's was fighting their way into the trailer premiere game), but if you want to watch the preview, head on over here.

There doesn't look to be anything groundbreaking here -- if you were a fan of the first film, you should dig this one quite a bit. In fact, this looks just like the first Night at the Museum, except, like any sequel, there are more characters, more special effects and more gags. Story once again follows our clumsy night watchman (Ben Stiller) who rushes to the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. after his friends Octavius (Steve Coogan) and Jedediah (Owen Wilson) are accidentally shipped there. Also starring in the film are Amy Adams, Bill Hader, Ricky Gervais, Hank Azaria, Eugene Levy, Christopher Guest and more. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian hits theaters on May 22.

Gallery: Night at the Museum 2

Like every red-blooded American, I dread the interminable Best Original Song presentations during the Oscars. More often than not, the songs suck, the presentation is elaborate and boring, and the insistence on playing the songs in full drags out an already too-long evening. But this year there's one song I'll actually be excited to see -- assuming it actually gets nominated. Thankfully, none of the Academy's arcane rules disqualified it.

Variety has the just-announced list of 49 eligible Original Songs from 2008. It features the entire soundtrack to High School Musical 3, the memorable "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire, the worst Bond song of all time, and -- the one I'm rooting for -- Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler" from, uh, The Wrestler. If you haven't heard it yet, you can do so here. You'll probably want to bookmark that until the official soundtrack is released on a date to be determined.

Needless to say, a Dark Knight snub's got nothing on the possibility of the Boss not getting to perform this amazing song at this year's ceremony. I might boycott the damn thing. Though, if Steve Coogan gets to perform "Rock Me, Sexy Jesus" instead, I could be persuaded to reconsider.

What are your favorites from 2008? Any of them not on this list? (Ahem, Pineapple Express, anyone?)

In anticipation of what's sure to be the first trailer (or teaser) for Night at the Museum 2, USA Today has unloaded the first official batch of photos -- most of which show off a few of the new characters, a couple of returning characters and a cameo from Jonah Hill (who plays a security guard). Above, you'll see Ben Stiller, returning as the bumbling guard, and Bill Hader, who's playing General George Custer. Director Shawn Levy and Stiller both chat up the film, claiming it's definitely better than the first one. And with a cast that includes Robin Williams, Dick Van Dyke, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan, Ricky Gervais (all of whom are returning), Christopher Guest, Hank Azaria, Craig Robinson, Ed Helms, Eugene Levy, Bill Hader and Amy Adams, you can't really go wrong.

In the sequel, Stiller's Larry Daley goes in search of his friends (and museum pieces) Octavius (Coogan) and Jedediah (Wilson) after they're mistakenly shipped to the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. On whether this will turn into a franchise for the studio, Levy says, "There are rumblings of another installment. We would love to take this premise (further). But even to say there's a likely third film is premature. We're not going to jinx things." We've included a few more images below, then feel free to hop on over to USA Today for the rest.

Night at the Museum 2 hits theaters on May 22.

Considering the lengths to which the Tropic Thunder gang went to sell all of their Hollywood fakery, it comes as little surprise that the mock making-of Rain of Madness does exist beyond a mere trailer (embedded above, and probably not kid-friendly) and website. However, while I'm sure it'll be included on the eventual DVD, who's really going to wait that long when it's currently available as a free iTunes exclusive?

That's right: for thirty minutes and zero dollars (yep), one can follow filmmaker Jan Jürgen (co-writer Justin Theroux, acting as if making Werner Herzog's Werner Herzog were making Hearts of Darkness) as he chronicles the expensive chaos that went behind making the movie within the movie. Star/director/co-writer/probable caterer Ben Stiller explained in a recent press release: "We wanted to do a fake documentary about the making of the movie within the movie which is called "Tropic Thunder" -- not the actual movie "Tropic Thunder". The fake documentary focuses on the real movie's fake director, and what happens to the fake cast before they go into the real jungle. It's pretty straightforward."

Well, I know who I am. I'm the dude playing the dude currently downloading this S.O.B. Any of you who follow suit, share your thoughts below.

For those concerned commenters, I'm well aware that Werner Herzog did not, in fact, direct Hearts of Darkness. However, Mr. Theroux is behaving as if he were Mr. Herzog and, as such, proceeded to make a film not unlike the doc actually made by Fax Bahr and George Hickenlooper.

What I didn't know was how to directly link to any items made available through the iTunes store. I still don't, but I do appreciate the considerate ones below who were both helpful and tactful in passing the direct iTunes link on - namely, Niraj and not the exceedingly impatient Marcos.

The dog days of summer hit the indie box office this weekend, as the top earner was a film in its third week of release. Elegy, directed by Isabel Coixet and starring Ben Kingsley and Penélope Cruz, expanded from six to 92 theaters and grossed $5,546 per screen, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. The adaptation of a novel by Philip Roth has not been universally praised, but maintains a strong 74% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes. I can't help but conclude that Penélope Cruz is the art house crowd's answer to Megan Fox, because . . .

. . . Cruz also stars in Vicky Christina Barcelona (pictured), which made $4,339 per screen in its fairly wide (692 theaters) second week. Woody Allen's latest features other pretty people such as Javier Bardem and Scarlett Johansson, of course, and has very good reviews behind it, yet it's silly to ignore the current Cruz heat factor.

As Eugene has already noted, Andrew Fleming's Hamlet 2 got a jump start on its wide release by opening on 103 screens, but its average of $4,223 "doesn't inspire confidence for the expansion." Will this slow down star Steve Coogan?

Suspense drama Transsiberian ($4,157 per screen, 38 theaters, 6th week), tense drama Frozen River ($4,048 per screen, 41 theaters, 4th week), and mystery thriller Tell No One ($3,643 per screen, 101 theaters, 8th week, $3.8 million total) continued to draw well, while debuting debt doc I.O.U.S.A. made $3,461 per screen at 18 locations.

Steve Coogan, 42, is perhaps best known for his TV persona, the part-arrogant, part-clueless sports announcer Alan Partridge. And though Coogan could go on playing him forever, he has instead used his budding American film career to branch out, try different things. His collaborations with "serious" director Michael Winterbottom were a good start; 24 Hour Party People (2002) and Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2006) earned rave reviews here in the States. He appeared opposite big stars such as Jackie Chan (Around the World in 80 Days) and Ben Stiller (Night at the Museum, Tropic Thunder) and answered the call of a handful of cult directors, making small appearances in films by Jim Jarmusch (Coffee and Cigarettes), Sofia Coppola (Marie Antoinette) and Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz).

His name appears alone above the title of his new film, Hamlet 2, in which he plays Dana Marschz, a washed-up American actor now teaching drama at a Tucson high school. To save his class and his career, he writes a sequel to "Hamlet" that causes a huge ruckus. (Hint: it has something to do with "Sexy Jesus.") The one connecting factor with all these movies is that Coogan's characters are more or less awful, but compulsively watchable, people. Coogan -- who is conversely very nice in person -- recently chatted with Cinematical about his new movie.

Cinematical: How did your gallery of humorously annoying characters come about?

Steve Coogan: I don't know. It just sort of happened. I'm just attracted to playing people who are ostensible unlikable. That's not to say that there's something in there that makes you care. It might be that you just find them so awful that you just can't stop watching, like a car crash. And they're not self-aware. I think somehow, whenever I see a character on screen who I feel is trying to get me to like them too much, it has the reverse effect. It kind of puts you off. It's: "Quit looking at me with those doe eyes. I want to kill you." It's not like I've thought this through. It's just, you do stuff often enough and you see patterns. You see them, and I see them too. Sometimes they're not self-conscious. I guess that's why I'm probably doing it.

Welcome back to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game where we definitely rock it with sexy Jesus all night long. Last week we asked you to strap in Statham-style and race to be the first one to knock us over with a caption for an image from the flick Death Race. Congrats to all three of our winners -- your thirst for speed, prison humor and bald men is quite inspiring to us all.


1. "You sank my battleship!!" -- Jason F.

2. "Unfortunately, the Death Staring Contest proved unpopular." -- Dan N.

3. "In the prisons of the future, its all about survival of the baldest." -- Ben K.

See full image and all captions




This week we're trading in our set of death wheels for a little fun with the theater kids as they rock it out in the new comedy Hamlet 2. In the flick (which has been getting great buzz for a long time now), the hilarious Steve Coogan stars as a failed actor-turned-drama teacher who rallies his students around an absurd, politically incorrect staging of, well, Hamlet 2. The aspirings behind our three favorite captions will prance away with one Hamlet 2 t-shirt, one Hamlet 2 wristband, one sexy Jesus action figure, and one Hamlet 2 car air freshener. I personally have the action figure dancing on my desk as we speak and -- um, yeah -- this Jesus is pretty sexy. (Do I go to hell for saying that?) Sound off below!



Read the official rules for this contest