I think we can all agree that Pete and Debbie from “Knocked Up” stole the show from Ben and Alison when they were on-screen together. So why not give them their own project? It comes in the form of This is 40 and the premise is . . . you guessed it, a change of…
In the opening shot of Richard Linklater’s Bernie, our eponymous protagonist (played by the infectious Jack Black), who is an assistant funeral director and mortician, warns that, “You can’t have grief tragically becoming a comedy.” Ironically, this dramedy based on a 1996 murder that shook the small town of Carthage, Texas does just that. Written…
I tried to make a list of movies which I laughed at less than Universal’s newest release, The Five-Year Engagement, and could only think of two: “Observe and Report” and “The Passion of the Christ.” Films I found much funnier include: “The Love Guru,” “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,” “All About Steve” and “Platoon.” That does…
There is certainly something to be said for the wonderful claymation and quirky British comedy of The Pirates! Band Of Misfits, the by-product of such other animated films as “Flushed Away,” “Chicken Run” and the “Wallace and Gromit” series. I have always appreciated this technique because it shows that the old-style way of making this…
Damsels in Distress is perhaps the most pretentious screenplay ever filmed. I imagine there was a more comprehensible first draft and then writer/director Whit Stillman (“The Last Days of Disco”) pulled the thesaurus off the shelf and went to work. These damsels come across more as ridiculous caricatures than actual flesh and blood characters; nobody…
I do not know Joseph Kahn. I have no idea what kind of person he is. I would like to assume he’s a pretty square fellow and all, but if his ability to direct a feature-length motion picture were solely based upon what he did with Detention, I would strongly urge him to pursue another…
I suppose the main question about this update is will the ridiculously violent, but often hilarious, slapstick comedy of Moses and Jerome Horiwitz and Louis Feinberg translate onto the modern screens of 2012. I am of course writing about Moe and Curly Howard and their third wheel, Larry Fine, who became the Three Stooges (after…
