Friday, December 29, 2006

A Look Into the Future

It’s the end of another shitty year, but instead of drinking yourself into a thick depression and jumping out your office window as the ball drops this New Year’s Eve, why not titillate yourself with the Comedyblog’s look at the 30 most anticipated comedies of 2007? Many of these potential laugh riots have already been completed, and the rest have been greenlit and approved for mass consumption. In other words, the Comedyblog ultimately decided to leave out possible dream projects such as the wham-bam duo of the Pee-Wee’s Playhouse movie and the adults-only Pee-Wee Herman Story, Tina Fey’s musical comedy Curly Oxide and Vic Thrill with Sacha Baron Cohen, and the based-on-the-comic-strip Harvey Richards, Lawyer for Children, from Sky High director Mike Mitchell and King of the Hill and Idiocracy co-writer Etan Cohen. Hopefully these and many other great stories will find their studio backing and reach you next year, but here’s what you can already count on.

30. Dan in Real Life


What It Is: Writer-director Peter Hedges tells the story of Dan Burns (Steve Carell), who accidentally falls in love with the girlfriend of his brother (Dane Cook).

Why You Should Care: Hedges has always done lukewarm work (Pieces of April) and Dane Cook is a giant red warning light, but Carell should fit nicely into Hedges’ gentle, quirky style.

29. How I Met My Brother’s Dead Fiancée


What It Is: When Paul Rudd begins dating psychic Lake Bell, his dead ex-girlfriend’s ghost (Eva Longoria) starts interfering.

Why You Should Care: The writer/director previously wrote John Tucker Must Die, but if you can ignore that, the early buzz on this script has been really great, and Paul Rudd tends to pick them well. Plus Jason Biggs, Stephen Root, and Reno 911’s Wendi McLendon-Covey are in the supporting cast.

28. Quebec


What It Is: The directorial debut of Steve Conrad, the writer of the dark dramedy The Weather Man and the charming Pursuit of Happyness, features Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly as two assistant grocery store managers competing for a promotion.

Why You Should Care: The similarities to Employee of the Month are immediately disconcerting, but Conrad has been doing some smart work and Reilly is especially lovable in comedic roles. Fred Armisen and Jenna Fischer have signed on as well.



27. I Could Never Be Your Woman


What It Is: Amy Heckerling (writer of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and writer/director of Clueless) writes and directs this romantic comedy about Rosie (Michelle Pfeiffer), a woman who falls in love with a younger man (Paul Rudd), while Mother Nature (Tracey Ullman) meddles with their fate.

Why You Should Care: Heckerling has only made a few films, but they’ve mostly been pretty decent, plus Paul Rudd is always fantastic. It could easily slip up on all the familiar rom-com clichés, but hopefully supporting performances from Ullman, Fred Willard, and Henry Wrinkler will at least keep it funny.



26. The TV Set


What It Is: Jake Kasdan tells the complete story of a TV pilot, from beginning to end, with David Duchovny as the show’s producer and Sigourney Weaver as one of the network execs trying to ruin his baby.

Why You Should Care: Jake Kasdan has done a lot of great work, especially on Freaks and Geeks and his debut film The Zero Effect. Some have described this as Network Lite, but the online clips are appealing and there’s a lot of interesting casting choices.

25. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry


What It Is: Adam Sandler and Kevin James play two fireman who pose as homosexuals to receive partner benefits.

Why You Should Care: The silly, archaic plot and stupid title don’t instill a lot of confidence, and neither does Dennis Dugan, a director of whom the best thing can be said about is that he directed Happy Gilmore. But Sandler and James have proven themselves to be at least occasionally funny, and the main draw is the script, which seems to have gone through a lot of rewrites, which is usually a bad sign, but the draftsmen have included indie heroes Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, and comedy idol Robert Smigel. Also, Dan Aykroyd and Steve Buscemi are on board as supporting performers, and that can’t be bad. (Well, unless you count Blues Brothers 2000, Celtic Pride, Crossroads, Christmas with the Kranks, Armageddon, Home on the Range, or 28 Days.)



24. Balls of Fury


What It Is: Dan Fogler plays Randy Daytona, a professional ping-pong player recruited by an FBI agent (George Lopez) to infiltrate the dangerous underground ping-pong championships put on by the nefarious Feng (Christopher Walken).

Why You Should Care: The script by Thomas Lennon and director Ben Garant could easily turn out a sophomoric rip-off of Dodgeball, which wasn’t even a great movie to begin with. After all, they did write this year’s highly disappointing Let’s Go to Prison, as well as Night at the Museum, the Pacifier, and Taxi. But hey, they’re still the guys from The State and Reno 911!, and the Comedyblog is still rooting for them to succeed, which will be a lot easier with the help of the always enjoyable Walken, the promising newcomer Fogler, and a supporting cast that includes fantastic comic talent such as Diedrich Bader, Terry Crews, David Koechner, Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Lennon himself, and Garant and Lennon’s Reno partner Kerri Kenney.


23. Diggers


What It Is: The story of four men (Paul Rudd, Ken Marino, Josh Hamilton, and Ron Eldard) who are the youngest in a long generation of Long Island clam diggers, who have to come to terms with the changing times.

Why You Should Care: As far as the Comedyblog knows, no one’s ever made a movie about clam digging before, and the presence of The State's Ken Marino, who also wrote the script, and of course Paul Rudd make this sound pretty tasty. Also, the director worked on The Adventures of Pete & Pete.


22. Evan Almighty


What It Is: Steve Carell reprises his small but star-making role in that shitty Jim Carrey movie about God. Morgan Freeman tells Steve to build an ark and fill it with animals, which puts a lot of stress on his social life.

Why You Should Care: Maybe you shouldn’t. It’s an obvious cash-in, but the story is slightly funnier this time around (building a boat filled with every kind of animal is a much funnier task than just having generic God powers), and Carell has had a good enough track record so far to give him the benefit of the doubt.



21. The Haunted World of El Superbeasto


What It Is: Based on Rob Zombie’s explicit comic El Superbeasto, which follows the sexual exploits of a Mexican wrestler slash crimefighter.

Why You Should Care: Because a collaboration between Zombie and the creative team behind Rocko’s Modern Life and Spongebob Squarepants could be really damn weird in a groovy way, and the voice cast so far includes Brian Posehn, Danny Trejo, Sherri Moon, veteran voice-over genius Rob Paulsen, and most importantly, Paul Giamatti as “Dr. Satan.”



20. Fido


What It Is: Dylan Baker and Carrie-Anne Moss play a suburban couple who adopt a zombie manservant named FIDO (Billy Connolly), which has become as common as owning a computer. When FIDO eats the neighbor, the couple’s son has to fight to keep his “pet.”

Why You Should Care: Zombie movies, and even zombie comedies, are quickly becoming played out…but come on! Billy Connolly as a subservient corpse, with underrated character actors like Baker and Tim Blake Nelson on board as well? You must be at least a little interested.



19. Drillbit Taylor


What It Is: Beavis and Butt-head vet Kristofer Brown and rising superstar Seth Rogen write the script from a story by John Hughes, about two picked-on schoolkids who hire a low-rent bodyguard (Owen Wilson) to protect them from the school bully.

Why You Should Care: This sounds like producer Judd Apatow’s first attempt to make a family-friendly movie, but he and Rogen have been batting a thousand so far, and it’s about time for one-time comedy king Hughes to make a comeback. Wilson could use one too after the disaster that was You, Me, and Dupree. Plus, look for Leslie Mann, Ian Roberts, Robert Musgrave, and Cedric Yarbrough in the supporting cast.



18. The Brothers Solomon


What It Is: Will Forte’s writing debut casts himself and Will Arnett as socially inept brothers who race to give their father a grandchild before he passes on. Bob Odenkirk directs.

Why You Should Care: This has already been showing around Los Angeles, and word on the street is that it’s much funnier than Odenkirk and Arnett’s work on Let’s Go to Prison, and is just as whacked out as a Will Forte script seems like it would be. Also, Chi McBride is getting credit for sole-handedly earning the film a hard R rating.



17. Hot Rod


What It Is: The first feature from the increasingly popular Lonely Island team follows Andy Samberg as a moped stuntman.

Why You Should Care: The Lonely Island shorts aren’t necessarily anything to write home about, but they’re consistently amusing enough, and might work better in long form, especially with script work by South Park and Team America writer Pam Brady, and a great cast including Will Arnett, Isla Fisher, Sissy Spacek, Ian McShane, Chris Parnell, and Bill Hader.



16. Bee Movie


What It Is: Jerry Seinfeld makes a long-awaited return to non-live comedy with an animated family film about a bee who sues humanity after discovering we’ve been eating the honey he and his friends and family work so hard to make.

Why You Should Care: CGI talking-animal movies are getting pretty damn irksome by now, but it’s doubtful that Seinfeld would phone in his big return, and he worked on the script with at least one other Seinfeld writer, which could potentially lead to some of the funniest G-rated dialogue on screens in years. Plus, the teaser trailer is delightfully bizarre, and the voice cast includes Matthew Broderick, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Alan Arkin, Kathy Bates, Eddie Izzard, Larry Miller, Rip Torn, Colin Quinn, and Patrick Warburton. Of course, there’s also a few less exciting names like Renee Zellweger, Oprah Winfrey, and Megan Mullally…



15. Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium


What It Is: The directing debut of Stranger than Fiction screenwriter Zach Helm stars Natalie Portman as the manager of a strange and possibly dangerous toy store owned by the eccentric Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman).

Why You Should Care: Stranger than Fiction had a refreshingly original script, and this sounds just as entertaining. Hoffman is almost always a pleasure to have around, and even better, Jason Bateman rounds out the cast.



14. Reno 911!: Miami


What It Is: The feature film version of the popular Comedy Central COPS spoof has the whole team in Miami, where they accidentally become the only police force in the city after the other, more skilled officers are quarantined inside a convention.

Why You Should Care: Early reviews were lukewarm, but the pushed-back release date suggests that some reshoots have been done, since the improvised digital footage is quick to come by. If it ends up half as funny as the show, then it will probably find a lot of success with the 18-25 crowd. If you’re not a fan of the show, you still might want to go and check out Paul Rudd as a Cuban gangster.

13. Long River 7


What It Is: The latest from Stephen Chow, writer-director-star of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, involves a Chinese-launched satellite, and apparently aliens and dinosaurs.

Why You Should Care: Chow’s recent comedies have been more original and hilarious than most of Hollywood’s output. He’s keeping this big-budget movie’s story under wraps, but if his name in conjunction with outer space dinosaurs doesn’t get you excited, than what does?



12. Fred Claus


What It Is: Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin reteams with star Vince Vaughn, who plays Fred Claus, the less successful brother of Santa Claus, played by Paul Giamatti. Somehow, an angry elf played by Ludacris and a villainous Kevin Spacey factor in.

Why You Should Care: Not a lot is known about this one yet, but there’s already a lot to be concerned about. It’s a stupid idea, based on a story by the crappy writer of insipid melodramas like I Am Sam and Stepmom, and written by Dan Fogelman, whose only credit is the mediocre Cars. But hell, who are we kidding? A Vince Vaughn Christmas movie with Paul fucking Giamatti as Santa? You know you’ll be there.

11. Sicko


What It Is: In director Michael Moore’s own words, “a comedy about 45 million people with no health care in the richest country in the world.”

Why You Should Care: The health care system is a significantly less sensitive and divisive subject than oil and terrorism, so this could easily be a return to the more comedy-oriented filmmaking seen in The Big One and Bowling for Columbine, as opposed to the occasionally amusing but mostly terrifying Fahrenheit 9/11.



10. Ratatouille


What It Is: The newest from Pixar and Incredibles creator Brad Bird, who wrote the script and took over directing duties from Jan Pinkava, follows Ratatouille (voiced by Patton Oswalt), a rat with expensive taste, who holes up in a French bistro and dreams of becoming a chef.

Why You Should Care: Even Pixar’s worst movies are still pretty fun, and Brad Bird is probably the most exciting talent on their roster. The trailer gives off a fun Looney Tunes vibe as opposed to the magical Disney quality of earlier Pixar productions.



9. Hot Fuzz


What It Is: Shaun of the Dead creators Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright take the same semi-spoof style to the buddy cop genre popularized by Shane Black.

Why You Should Care: Shaun of the Dead was a lot of fun, and the same dark humor should work just as well using the gritty crime film template.



8. Super Bad


What It Is: Jonah Hill and Michael Cera play best friends in their senior year of high school, who attempt to have a blow-out party to drown our their separation anxiety.

Why You Should Care: Jonah Hill and Michael Cera are the two funniest young actors on the market right now, and the script by real-life high school friends Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg will not likely disappoint, since Rogen has done great work already writing on Undeclared and Da Ali G Show, plus he’s bringing Undeclared and Arrested Development vet Greg Mottola along to direct, and the whole thing is under the Judd Apatow production umbrella, naturally.



7. The Ten


What It Is: David Wain of The State, Wet Hot American Summer, and Stella directs from a script by fellow troupe member Ken Marino and himself, which spins ten different tales based on each of the Ten Commandments, starring an awful lot of funny people.

Why You Should Care: Wain’s work is always a good time, religion has sparked some of the funniest movies of all time, and the aforementioned funny people include all the members of the State plus Paul Rudd, Rob Corddry, Jon Benjamin, Oliver Platt, and many more.



6. The Simpsons Movie


What It Is: It’s the Simpsons movie.

Why You Should Care: The Simpsons may have slipped over the years, but it’s always worth at least a couple chuckles, and Matt Groening and his writing staff surely know how much pressure they’re under to create something big enough to merit moving to the big screen after nearly twenty years.



5. Aqua Teen Hunger Force: The Movie


What It Is: The feature film version of the popular Adult Swim series, explaining the origins of a milkshake, fries, and wad of raw meat who occasionally solve crimes, but usually just throw shit at each other and set things on fire.

Why You Should Care: Early reviews from even the most eager Aqua Teen fans has been intensely negative, but the show’s humor is sometimes too weird for its enormous fan base, so we’re still hoping for the best. Plus, Bruce Campbell plays a box of chicken nuggets. Come on.

4. Be Kind Rewind


What It Is: Michel Gondry writes and directs a story of two men (Jack Black and Mos Def) who recreate the popular movies in their old-school video store after Black accidentally erases every tape.

Why You Should Care: Gondry is possibly the most innovative and exciting director working right now, so it’s going to be very interesting to see how he handles what sounds like a fun and goofy but mainstream comedy, and to see how he works with hit-and-miss funnyman Black. Seeing the two of them work together to do low-budget remakes of Ghostbusters, Robocop, and King Kong could easily turn this into the funniest movie of the year.



3. My Name is Bruce


What It Is: Directed by the man himself, Bruce Campbell stars as Bruce Campbell, who is expected to defeat a monster who’s attacking a small town in Oregon when the townspeople assume he has experience from his Evil Dead films.

Why You Should Care: Self-aware, meta plots like this are getting stale and annoying…but only for those other actors. Bruce can do what Bruce wants.



2. Blades of Glory


What It Is: Will Ferrell and Jon Heder play two athletes in the men’s single ice skating competition are banned from the sport forever, but return to the Olympics through a loophole by performing as a couple.

Why You Should Care: What originally sounded like a quickie cash-in on sports comedies and Napoleon Dynamite has evolved over the last few months to look a lot more interesting. Most importantly, the heroes’ rivals will be played by hilarious real-life couple Will Arnett and Amy Poehler, and the cast also includes Craig T. Nelson, Jenna Fischer, Andy Richter, Rob Corddry, 40-Year-Old Virgin and Weeds standout Romany Malco, and Nick Swardson, best known as being the only funny part of most Adam Sandler productions.



1. Knocked Up


What It Is: Judd Apatow’s follow-up to 40-Year-Old Virgin stars Seth Rogen as an unambitious slacker who unintentionally impregnates an unlikely one-night stand (Katherine Heigl.)

Why You Should Care: The early buzz is already calling this the funniest movie of 2007, much like Borat was tagged early on as the funniest of 2006. There’s not even enough space to mention all the talented and hilarious people who appear in this movie, but if you’ve followed Apatow’s career, there will be many, many familiar faces. There were so many improv scenes and alternate jokes filmed for the movie that the DVD will include a “Randomizer” function that will insert different gags at different moments each time you watch it, meaning you’ll never watch the same movie twice, and each time it will be funniest thing you’ve ever seen.

Almost Made the Cut: Barry Munday, Bill, Brand Hauser: Stuff Happens, the Bucket List, Charlie Bartlett, the Comebacks, Coxblocker, Fanboys, Go Go Tales, Gary the Tennis Coach, Igor, I Think I Love My Wife, Lars and the Real Girl, Meet the Robinsons, Mr. Woodcock, Neanderthals, No Reservations, Parental Guidance Suggested, Sex and Death 101, Smiley Face, Spring Breakdown, Surf’s Up

Thursday, December 21, 2006

The King Shall Return to His Throne



Mike Judge's King of the Hill will kick off its 11th season on January 28th at 8:30 (note the new time slot). The season premiere is titled "The Peggy Horror Picture Show," and involves Peggy unknowingly befriending a cross-dresser. The 11th season can be seen as a bit of a Christmas miracle for Hank Hill fanatics, since the series was only renewed at the last possible second by FOX, causing Judge and his crew to scramble back together and start work from scratch, since they had long ago packed their bags.

Speaking of FOX treating Mike Judge unfairly, his highly mistreated minor cult classic Idiocracy will see an unceremonious DVD release on January 9th, including exclusive deleted scenes.

Hey, the Comedyblog has an idea... why don't you pre-order that fucker?

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Ken Marino Outed



The State's Ken Marino will join his fellow troupe members Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon, Kerri Kenney, and Michael Patrick Jann of Reno 911!, as well as David Wain, Michael Showalter, and Michael Ian Black of Stella, by creating his own series on Comedy Central. Out of Bounds will feature Marino as the host of a sports talk radio show "Ball Talk." The pilot will shoot early next year.

Marino will have his share of big screen time in 2007 as well, starring in Diggers with Paul Rudd, from Marino's script, as well as the anticipated Ten Commandments comedy The Ten, which he wrote with director Wain.

LINK

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Comedy Gift Guide

…because the Comedyblog wants to help you check your favorite comedy-lover off your list, and also because no non-profit infoblog is complete without a shameless barrage of rewards-based Amazon links masquerading as a friendly shopping list. Here's some brand-new items that any self respecting fan of laughter should be asking for this year.



Saturday Night Live - The Complete First Season


Fuck best of's, now you can start collecting the whole thing, at least until it turns god awful. All the episodes are completely uncut, with many skits and musical guests that haven't been shown on TV for years.



Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (Unrated Widescreen Edition)


Talladega Nights was amusing in theaters, but Ferrell and McKay have complained about what they had to cut to get a PG-13, so the Comedyblog pretty much guarantees you that there's a lot of gold left to mine.



Get Smart: The Complete Collection


It's only available from Time-Life in a massive $200 set, but if you have the cash, who wouldn't want this 25-disc collection of the original spy spoof from Mel Brooks and Buck Henry? Plus it comes in a phone booth collector's box that will make your other DVD boxes look like shit. Get it now, before it gets all "reimagined" by Warner Bros. and Steve Carell in 2008.



Police Squad! The Complete Series


All six episodes of the inspiration for the Naked Gun series. Also six times as funny?



Da Ali G Show - Da Compleet Seereez


If you didn’t already have the individual seasons, you can now have this boxed collection, which is just like the original DVDs except with extra cardboard.



Extras - The Complete First Season


The release date just barely misses Christmas, but if you like to be fashionably late, you can buy someone all 10 episodes of Ricky Gervais’ fantastic new series.



That's My Bush! The Definitive Collection


DVD is probably the only place you’ll ever see Trey Parker’s misunderstood sitcom parody, and it’s a Christmas miracle that it even got one. All 8 episodes!



Seinfeld - Season 7


If you like great sitcoms, or sitcoms starring recently outed racists, then this would be for you.



The Kids in the Hall Megaset


The perfect gift choice if you have $150 burning a hole in your pocket and know someone that doesn’t already have any Kids in the Hall episodes.



The Dog Dialed 911: A Book of Lists from The Smoking Gun


The ballsy and hilarious Smoking Gun team has a new crime book, featuring infotaintastic lists such as 7 Things You Should Never Tell a Cop and 3 Ineffective Ways to Kill Your Spouse.



World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War


One deadpan book about zombies wasn’t enough for author Max Brooks, so now there’s this one too. Word on the street is that it’s even better.



Live In: Nerd Rage


Is Brian Posehn the funniest Comedian of Comedians? The Comedyblog thinks maybe.



These Are Jokes


The unique and hilarious Demetri Martin is now a “Daily Show” regular, and has multiple movies in the pipeline. But this CD/DVD before it’s too late to be in the “I heard him first” crowd.



En Garde, Society!


Eugene Mirman is the sort of comedian that works very well in album form…whatever the fuck that means.



Har-Larious



Harland Williams: What a Treat


Harland Williams is probably the weirdest person alive right now, and the Comedyblog doesn’t throw around “alive right now” lightly.



Tenacious D The Pick of Destiny


Yeah, the movie was (arguably) pretty disappointing, but it’s hard not to want this smoking collector’s item that includes the lovable soundtrack, the movie tie-in book, 8 tarot cards, and a poster.



Homestar Runner: Everything Else, Volume 2


The second collection of Homestar Runner shorts of the non-Strong Bad Email variety.



Flaming Carrot Volume 1 (Flaming Carrot Comics)


Did you know there was an all-new Flaming Carrot series by Bob Burden? The Comedyblog didn’t, and thought you should know.