Thursday, July 10, 2008

Cohen pranking across America again as "Bruno"

Maybe its just me, but being pranked by Sacha Baron Cohen as his alter-ego Bruno sounds at least as fun as watching an evening of "extreme fighting" in Arkansas, especially when you throw in $1 beers!

Lest anyone be thinking I'm nuts, allow me to explain. According to the almost-always reliable The Smoking Gun, Cohen is again actively turning his revealing camera on America as he did as Borat, but this time as Bruno for his next flick. Bruno, another creation from "Da Ali G Show," is a rather flamboyant fashion reporter for Austrian TV.

And, judging from what he set up for the unsuspecting folks of Texarkana and Fort Smith, "Bruno" may well turn out to be at least as outrageous - and hopefully nearly as funny - as "Borat."

As the poster shows, the poor dupees were lured by not only $1 beer, but also the promise of "hot chicks" and "hardcore fights," but instead got a vintage dose of Cohen's shenanigans. After what attendees who bothered to comment at The Smoking Gun confirmed were a "pathetic" card of fights, each card ended with two male grapplers - one named "Straight Dave" - in their underwear and kissing each other up and down the chest.

To me, that's funny enough already, but I suppose unsurprisingly the folks in Fort Smith took the bait and pelted the ring with chairs and probably anything else they could get their hands on. Now that's some blue collar brawlin'!

Sherlock Holmes battle taking shape

Speaking of Sacha Baron Cohen, he's now got some serious competition as rival flicks set out to tell tales of the supersleuth Holmes and his partner Watson.

Cohen is set to play Sherlock himself, with Will Ferrell as his sidekick Watson (thank God it's not in the reverse order!), for Judd Apatow and company.

Now, however, in a rival production expected to get started first, Robert Downey Jr. has signed on to play Holmes in what one can only assume would be at least a slightly more serious version for director Guy Ritchie.

I used to have a lot of time for Guy Ritchie, but "Revolver" was just a nonsensical mess. Even so, two multi-flick projects (with "Iron Man," of course) starring Mr. Downey just makes my world a little bit more enjoyable, so here's hoping this brings Ritchie back to top form.

"Mad Men" has five-year plan

With "Mad Men" thankfully set to return for its second season on AMC July 27, show creator Matthew Weiner has been making the rounds to promote it and letting out some intriguing details about just where the great show is headed.

According to TV scribe James Hibberd, Weiner revealed at the Television Critics Association press tour that he envisions the show running for five seasons, with enough time lapsing between seasons to cover about 10 years in the lives of ad executive extraordinaire Don Draper and associates (man, I can't wait to see what in the world Peggy has done about her new baby since we last saw her!) And Weiner's reasoning in using this technique makes perfect sense:

"I can start the story fresh, and at the same time there will be all these events that happened in between that will provide additional storytelling energy," he said.

I love it when showrunners are bold enough to set their own time table, as the "Battlestar Galactica" folks did at Sci Fi. That life span is, of course, dependent on people continuing to tune in, but I can't see AMC giving up on its flagship show before its allotted run finishes. If you somehow missed the first season of the smartest show on TV, you can now either buy or rent the first season on DVD or catch all 13 episodes in a marathon catch-up block July 26 to prepare for the season 2 debut the following night.

One other programming note: If you're as amped as I am for "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" and want to watch the original flick again before seeing the sequel, F/X is airing Guillermo del Toro's "Hellboy" tonight at 8, so set your DVR. And now I have to go to the paying job I somehow still have. Peace out.

11 comments:

jeremy said...

I've been watching Picket Fences at work lately (because hulu.com rules) and a young Peggy from Mad Men plays a recurring role.
She looks about 9.
It made me feel really old.
And while I do adore Mad Men, the first season seemed to me to be a little rushed.

Reel Fanatic said...

I have to disagree with you there, Jeremy, but since you don't like Friday Night Lights as much as I do either, I guess that's not terribly surprising ... I thought they put almost as much care into concocting the storyline for season one as they clearly did constructing the '60s atmosphere

jeremy said...

Maybe its just that there were only 13 episodes and so much character and story to digest.

Sachin said...

Wow. I had no idea there were two Sherlock Holmes films in production. And both will be complete opposites as well. It has been a while since I read any of the Sherlock adventures but I do remember on quite a few occasions Holmes putting down Watson. I can imagine how Sacha Baron Cohen might do the same to Ferrell in a comedic setting :)

Unknown said...

I just finished watching Season 1 of "Mad Men" on Blu-Ray and loved it - especially the ambiguous ending.

If you're into hi-def I can't recommend this set highly enough. The cinematography and hi-def quality is top-notch and even the extra's (which are generous) are all filmed in HD.

If only all Blu-Rays were of this sort of quality!

Reel Fanatic said...

I haven't caught the hi-def bug yet, Ian, but only because I really can't afford to ... I did, however, manage to buy a used TV from a friend of mine that's about three feet square, so I'm rather happy with that

kat said...

I agree with you. To me, Mad Men was just perfectly, methodically paced. Looooooved it. So excited for season two. I just got my S1 DVD set in the mail from Amazon and I frakking love how they did the packaging on it. Very clever.

Reel Fanatic said...

Though I gave up smoking myself long ago, Kat, there's just something so refreshing about a show that's not afraid to portray just how prevelent it was back then, so I also just had to chuckle in appreciation when I saw the box too

Jake Mabe said...

The thought of Cohen playing my beloved Holmes makes me want to throw up. Call me crazy, but I just don't like the guy. I think "Borat" was one of the worst films of the year it came out. A 2-hour stinker.

"Mad Men," however, is just f-ing brilliant. May be my favorite current TV series next to the superb "Friday Night Lights."

So, Fanatic, do you have Directv? Or are you going to wait for the NBC airing of "Lights"?

Reel Fanatic said...

I unfortunately don't have DirecTV, Jake, so I indeed am going to have to wait to see "Friday Night Lights," which just pisses me off to no end ... I assume it's going to be until at least January when I'm going to get to see it again .. and you're far from alone in your opinion of Cohen, but I still love the guy myself

Anonymous said...

Love the fashion. I've been into vintage lately. The latest is the vintage sunglasses! I love em!