thomas lennon Tagged Articles at Cinematical

This is difficult for me to confess, but I'm starting to like Zac Efron ... although not in a crushworthy way, because at my age, that would be creepy. High School Musical 3 was not my thing, and he didn't make an impression on me in Hairspray, but I thought he was wonderfully energetic and fun in Me and Orson Welles when I saw Richard Linklater's film at SXSW last month. And now Efron is starring in 17 Again, a run-of-the-mill family comedy that would be tiresome if not for Efron and a few of the other cast members. Together, these actors kept me from digging through my purse continually for my phone so I could see how many minutes were left in the movie.

17 Again drags out every cliche from body-changing movies -- if you don't know them, check out Christopher Campbell's hilariously accurate list on SpoutBlog -- and unfortunately, doesn't try anything new or suspenseful. In this particular variation, Mike (Matthew Perry) is still reliving his high-school days, when he was the BMOC and a basketball star and everything was perfect, until he made a choice that has landed him with a dead-end job, two kids in high school who practically ignore him, and a wife (Leslie Mann) who's divorcing him because she's justifiably tired of his eternal whininess. So he wishes he were his teenage self again, and does so in front of a Clarence-esque janitor (Brian Doyle-Murray) -- and whammo! He's 17, but everyone else stayed the same age. Now he can go back to high school and help his kids and shoot lots of hoops and make it all better.

Yesterday there was a rumor that a new video was premiering on Funny or Die called Zac Efron's Pool Party, and that it starred the most random cast ever assembled. Well, it was real, it's now online (watch it below), and it stars Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Thomas Lennon, Queen Latifah, Nicole Ritchie, Carmen Electra, Justin Long, Brody Jenner, Lance Bass, Brittany Snow, Jessica Stroup, Chelsea Staub, Jessica Rose, Nicole Sullivan, Joel Madden ... and the list goes on. Granted, I'm not very familiar with some of these kids because I'm, well, sorta lame and out of touch with the hottie youth circles -- but when you bring a group like this together, I'd assume you're guaranteed to take away a few decent laughs, right?

Well ... I'll admit this ain't the funniest piece of viral action I've ever seen from Funny or Die, but it's cute and it has its moments (Justin Long's underwater antics cracked me up, and both Lennon and Sullivan steal every scene), and I'd watch it if you've got a few minutes to spare. Basically, the set up is that Zac Efron is hosting a pool party for this friends when his nasty, trailer-park uncle (Lennon) shows up with his equally-as-trashy girlfriend (Sullivan). Hilarity ensues. Check it out below and let us know what you think.

If the sequel to Night at the Museum wanted to retain the level of accuracy seen with the original, it would have a Chinese actor playing Russian Czar Ivan IV (aka Ivan the Terrible). But while I'm sure there will still be historical errors abound in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, the honor of playing Ivan has gone instead to pale-enough actor/filmmaker Christopher Guest (Best in Show), according to the Hollywood Reporter. And since Guest is actually a far more serious man than you'd expect, despite all those silly mockumentaries he writes and directs, here's hoping he studies his Eisenstein for inspiration.

A bunch of other actors have also joined Ben Stiller in the fantasy film, including Jon Bernthal (World Trade Center) as Al Capone, Bill Hader (Superbad) as General Custer, Alain Chabat (The Science of Sleep) as Napoleon and the franchise's screenwriters, Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, as the Wright brothers. This makes for a very packed cast, considering most of the first movie's co-stars are apparently returning, including Robin Williams, Steve Coogan, Owen Wilson, Ricky Gervais, Dick Van Dyke, Jake Cherry and Patrick Gallagher, the guy who looked all wrong for the part of Atilla the Hun. Other newbies to the series include Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart and Hank Azaria as Egyptian pharaoh Kah Mun Rah.

The sequel is currently filming in Vancouver, which seems a bit far away from the actual Smithsonian Institute, but reportedly the production will have access to shoot a few scenes in the actual museum, which is located in Washington, D.C. Maybe it will actually look like it takes place there, too.

If you grew up in or around New York and spent any time in the city's Museum of Natural History, you were probably baffled by Night at the Museum, which portrayed the landmark so loosely that it was totally unrecognizable. If you had to choose whether to bet that the museum was storing mermaids in a secret room (as in Splash) or resembled much of the interiors of the Shawn Levy-directed, Ben Stiller-starred comedy, you might have better odds with the former (it could be storing mermaids, but it definitely does not look like it does in NATM). Fortunately for us in the Big Apple, Night at the Museum 2 will take place in another location. In an interview with IGN, screenwriters Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon revealed this bit of info, though they couldn't divulge the actual museum we'll be seeing in the sequel (like Erik, I'd love to see a Salvador Dalí exhibit -- please put Stiller in Figueres' Teatre-Museu Dalí). Aside from this tiny leak, the duo, who wrote this next week's release Balls of Fury, could only share that it will be funnier than the original, which they also wrote, and that it would have "big new characters."

Of course, Robin Williams is reportedly signed on for the sequel, so the new museum will have to have its own Teddy Roosevelt statue -- unless Stiller's character takes the other one with him, which I doubt could happen. Despite the all the historical inaccuracies -- Attila the Hun obviously confused with Genghis Khan -- and the fact that it was obviously not shot inside the real Museum of Natural History, I didn't despise the first Night at the Museum. It sure was stupid, but I kinda enjoyed the miniature Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan, and I love a geriatric villain, especially when one of them is played by Mickey Rooney. Most of all, though, I appreciate the fact that it got kids more interested in the real museum, which saw a huge boost in ticket sales following the movie's success. It almost makes up for the inaccuracies that kids likely found out the real history and science by visiting the real place. Hopefully Garant and Lennon do better research for whatever museum they're tackling for part 2.

Check out IGN's video after the jump.

There's something vaguely schizophrenic about the career arcs of filmmakers Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant. (And by "vaguely" I mean "ridiculously.") On one hand they're the co-creators of stuff like The State and Reno 911!, both of which are certifiably hilarious TV shows. On the other, less enjoyable, hand, these guys wrote not only The Pacifier, but Taxi and Herbie: Fully Loaded as well. (And they also have Let's Go to Prison and Night at the Museum on the way, as well as the Reno 911! movie.)

Mr. Garant makes his directorial debut on a bizarre-looking ping-pong comedy called Balls of Fury, and before you check out the brand-new trailer, give a gander at the blissfully bizarre cast list: Dan Fogler, Maggie Q, George Lopez, Aisha Tyler, James Hong, David Koechner and Christopher Walken, looking as if he just wandered off the set of Dracula: The Spoof.

OK, now you can check the trailer out. I got a few chuckles out of the thing, even if it does feel more like a Netflix rental than an opening night gotta-see.

You Are Going to Prison is Bob Odenkirk's upcoming film about two criminals sharing a cell in a maximum security prison. The movie was written by Ben Garrant, Thomas Lennon and Michael Patrick Jann of The State and Reno 911! It's also being scored by Alan Elliot, who has been writing about the movie and posting pictures on his blog since August. Apparently Bob gave some nice gifts to the likes of Meg White and Queens of the Stone Age in order to get them to play songs for the movie. This film just might have the right combination of talent and bribery to make it worthwhile.