Posts filed under 'Comedy'
October 28th, 2009
Have you ever dreamed of seeing Adam Sandler playing both the male and female roles in a romantic comedy?
If so, I’m happy to tell you that your sick, twisted dream is about to come true. From Variety…
Adam Sandler is climbing up the hill for Columbia Pictures. The actor will next star in the romantic comedy JACK AND JILL and produce via his Happy Madison shingle. Sandler will play Jack as well as twin sister Jill.
OK, since the characters Sandler is playing are brother and sister, we can be pretty sure they’re not the romantic couple at the center of the story ( I sure hope not!). But after admiring Sandler’s performance in PUNCH DRUNK LOVE and seeing him stretch a bit as an actor in FUNNY PEOPLE, it’s a disappointment to see him fall back into the same dopey comic ruts he’s been stuck in for years. I mean, surely the guy has enough money by now, right?
Oh well. At least it’s being produced by the same guy who brought us PAUL BLART: MALL COP. That means it has to be good, right? Right?
October 16th, 2009
Today seems like the sort of day that could use a little Marx Brothers. So here’s a classic classroom scene from HORSE FEATHERS…
“According to Von Steinmetz, the eminent physiologist, there is ever present a group of white thagacytes…”
September 25th, 2009
Back in the glory days of the studio era, Warner Bros. would compile collections of each year’s bloopers and screw-ups and show them at the annual holiday party. Thankfully, many of these have been included on various Warner Bros. DVDs (the first gangster boxed set has plenty). Here’s the reel from 1936. You’ll see some familiar faces — including Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis and Edward G. Robinson — and hear them spout some slightly naughty language.
September 18th, 2009
When he was at his best — i.e. trying to live in a world set against him — there was almost no topping W.C. Fields. And he’s at his best in this clip from IT’S A GIFT, when all he’s trying to do is catch a few much-needed winks.
“La Fong! Carl La Fong! Capital L, small A, captital F, small O, small N, small G! La Fong! Carl La Fong!”
September 11th, 2009
Here’s the trailer for BLACK DYNAMITE, a faux-blaxploitation movie that looks like it nails the genre more accurately than anything I’ve ever seen, from the frenzied voice-over to the kung fu to the list of (fake) actors’ names at the end. (The actual trailer it most resembles is the hard-to-believe-it’s-real promo for Rudy Ray Moore’s oddball masterpiece, DOLEMITE.)
It opens Oct. 16, and as a fan of crazed ’70s cinema, I can’t wait to see it. Here’s one of the posters which, like the trailer, nails the time-period perfectly. (For more, check out the official site.)
September 4th, 2009
It’s Labor Day weekend, which means the Jerry Lewis Muscular Distrophy telethon will be airing somewhere on a TV set near you. Jerry is clearly past his prime, and just about the only time you see him these days is on the annual telethon. But once upon a time, back in the 1950s and 1960s, he was a global superstar — and one of the most interesting filmmakers around. Check out this surreal, beautifully shot and staged scene from his 1961 movie THE LADIES MAN (my personal favorite in the Lewis filmography) and you might change your opinion of the guy…
And, if you’d like to donate to the fight muscular distrophy, click here.
September 3rd, 2009
We haven’t heard from this pair of cultural critics in a while, but Beavis and Butt-head have returned just in time to bring us a review (sort of) of the new movie EXTRACT, which opens this weekend and just happens to be written and directed by Mike Judge, the same guy who created the troubled teens (and provides both their voices).
As you’ll see, they haven’t changed a bit. Take that as a warning, if you must.
August 21st, 2009
In GROUNDHOG DAY (one of the best movies of the 1990s, incidentally), snarky weather man Phil Connor (Bill Murray) learns to be a better person after reliving the same exact day over and over (and over and over) again. The question remains, though — just how long was poor Phil stuck in the 24 hours of Groundhog Day?
It turns out there’s a bit of a debate. Harold Ramis, who wrote and directed the movie, says in this e-mail to Heeb Magazine’s Web site that he spent at least a few decades on that single day:
 ”I think the 10-year estimate is too short. It takes at least 10 years to get good at anything, and, alloting for the down time and misguided years he spent, it had to be more like 30 or 40 years… People [i.e. spaz] have way too much time on their hands. They could be learning to play the piano or speak French or sculpt ice”
Turns out Ramis is responding to this guy, who claims it was eight years, eight months and 16 days. And he has the math to prove it! (Check out his site for the extremely detailed explanation of the graphic below.)
Supposedly, the original version of the script had Murray stuck on the same day for the equivalent of 10,000 years. Personally, I like that idea. It fits more into the philosophical theme of the film — that to become a better person, it might take a very, very long time.
August 14th, 2009
THE GOOD opens this weekend, and while this Jeremy Piven comedy about a car lot trying to sell off everything might be amusing, I highly doubt it’s going to match the comic brilliance of USED CARS, the 1980 Bob Zemeckis film starring Kurt Russell as a salesman with an astounding lack of scruples.
Here’s a scene with my favorite actor in the cast, Gerrit Graham, playing Rudy, Kurt’s superstitious buddy. All you need to know is (a) Rudy refuses to drive a red car, (b) Rudy is driving a red car, and (c) Rudy has to get the car to the lot ASAP. Oh, and (d) Kurt has explained to him that, because it has a coat of gray primer, it’s really a gray car. Got it? Okay…
There’s an even better stunt that precedes this one, with Rudy stumbling backwards across the highway and just narrowly avoiding getting hit by an oncoming car. I couldn’t find that one online, but if you rent the movie, keep an eye out for it. I think it was accomplished by (a) hiring a very good stunt driver and (b) not telling Graham just how close he was to the car.
August 12th, 2009
Via Hollywood Elsewhere, here’s a great clip of … well, I’ll just let you watch it for yourself. It’s funnier that way.
Previous Posts
