This just in: "The Blues Brothers" is a classic

Complaining about the vuvzelas is embarrassing. It's part of their game and we are their guests. Suck it up and stop whinging. Hooooooooonk!

Amen, brother. Not surprisingly, Simon Pegg gets it exactly right in that tweet. Do the vuvuzuelas really bother you that much, or more to the point, how are they any more annoying than thunder sticks, the wave or any other obnoxious thing we do at sporting events?

But, one paragraph in, already I digress. Just watch the World Cup already, and enjoy it as I am.

Here today, however, it's all about a startling discovery by the Vatican, well known for it's cutting-edge pronouncements on film and everything else. Its latest directive, issued in the Vatican's official newspaper "L'Osservatore Romano," in honor of the 30th anniversary of John Landis' movie, calls "The Blues Brothers" a "Catholic classic" and says it should be recommended viewing for Catholics everywhere.

Well, duh. The only way you could make that statement more accurate would be to make it say "film and comedy lovers" everywhere, but how in the world could the tale of Jake and Elwood, on a mission from God to save a Catholic orphanage, among other pursuits, not be a classic? Way to finally get on board, guys ...

And just in case you want to get all your viewing advice from the Vatican, here are a few others they have endorsed (and though I haven't seen "The Passion of the Christ" and won't, I can confirm that the rest of these are indeed very good, if not particularly edgy, movies): "The Blues Brothers" joins the list of dozens of films recommended by Catholic authorities that includes Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments," "Jesus of Nazareth" from Franco Zeffirelli," Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ," Victor Flemming's "Joan of Arc," and "It's a Wonderful Life" from Frank Capra.

OK, from here on out today, before we get to a few trailers, it will be all about comedies to come that will hopefully bring the serious funny, starting with a bold pronouncement from Ricky Gervais, who is the king of comedy in my book.

Anyone who's seen the original "The Office" or "Extras" knows that Gervais and writing partner Stephen Merchant have already established themselves as purveyors of very good observational comedy. So, when you see a statement like this, even if it's obviously self-promotion, you have to get at least a little excited:

"It's the funniest thing we've done," Gervais said while attending the Banff World Television Festival. "It's pure funny."

So, what's he talking about? Well, it's "Life's Too Short," and it's a show he's doing now for BBC2 (and hopefully HBO or some other American medium soon enough) starring the truly great Warwick Davis as a little person with "a small-man complex."

According to Gervais, among the real-world experiences shared by Davis are using a broom handle to retrieve out-of-reach supermarket products, or being forever touched by ordinary people for good luck, as if he were a leprechaun (just go ahead and admit it - you laughed at that last bit too. It's OK, because it's just plain funny.)

Bring this on already, and as soon as possible. If the aforementioned list of my funniest people in the world were expanded a bit, it would certainly include Tina Fey, Bill Murray, Dave Chappelle, Kristen Wiig and Larry David, and not too long after that, Danny McBride, so you can count me as psyched any time he sets up a new project.

Mandate has picked up "Bullies," from an original McBride idea and to be penned by "Yes Man" scribes Andrew Mogel and Jarrad Paul (so I suppose they're due for a winner, right?) The comedy, which one would have to assume will also star McBride, centers on two brothers who have bullied people their whole lives and finally get what is coming to them.

Sounds good to me, and for fellow Danny McBride fans, 2011 should be a very good year. He's just wrapped "Your Highness," a stoner/knights in armor comedy also starring James Franco, Zooey Deschanel and Natalie Portman, and directed by David Gordon Green (and if you've seen "Pineapple Express" and that didn't make you smile at least a little bit, why the heck not? If you haven't seen it, rent it immediately.)

He's also now shooting the second season of HBO's "Eastbound and Down" with director Jody Hill (yes, the South is rising again, in very good comedy.) I may be the only person in the world who's psyched that this seriously bitter show about a washed-up former pro baseball player (McBride, natch) got a second season, but I certainly am.

And finally, he'll also star in "30 Minutes or Less," director Ruben Fleischer's follow-up to the rather insanely funny "Zombieland." The dark comedy also starring veryfunnyguy Aziz Ansari is about two fledgling criminals who kidnap a pizza delivery man and strap a bomb to his chest to make him rob a bank. I said dark, right?

OK, enough of that. All I have after that today is a trio of trailers for flicks that look like they'll certainly be worth catching. First up, does anyone remember the "Chronicles of Narnia" series? The flicks certainly seem to be lost in our current sea of bad 3-D and thoroughly unnecessary sequels/prequels/remakes/reimaginings, but I loved "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe," and thought "Prince Caspian" was even better. So, you can certainly count me as jazzed for "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader," set to come out this Christmas. Enjoy the first trailer I know of for it.



OK, since you must be using the Internet to read this, I have to assume you've been on it at least once, and have probably noticed that along with the musing of movie fans, you can also count on it as a pretty solid source of pornography of just about any kind you can imagine (if you somehow didn't know that, go ahead and take a few minutes to find out - I won't tell anyone.) Well, it wasn't always that way, and this next flick, "Middle Men," which I had never heard of until this morning, stars Luke Wilson and Giovanni Ribisi and takes a clearly tongue-in-cheek look at one of the pioneers of turning the Internet into a moral wasteland (congrats!) Seriously, though, this looks like it could be really good when it drops in August. Enjoy.



And finally, since I declare my love for "This is Spinal Tap" in the permanent sideboard of this site, I should at least give the benefit of the doubt to the first movie Rob Reiner has both written and directed since that true gem, right, even if he has made a ton of stinkers in between? "Flipped," as you'll see below, is a sweet-looking tale of kids growing up in the 1950s and discovering that, yes, boys and girls can have all kinds of fun together. It will make you obviously think of "Stand By Me," and it does somehow have veryfunnyguy J.K. Simmons in it, so here's hoping this will far from suck when it also comes out in August. Enjoy, and if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch some World Cup before I have to go to the job that I somehow still get paid for. Peace and futbol ...

If I made a Muppet movie ...

I'd certainly put myself in the human starring role too, but more on that in a little bit, because the best possible news to start off this particular Tuesday would have to be the possibility of more "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

For my money, there isn't anything funnier on TV, and hasn't been for at least the past 10 years. Larry David's mix of eventually sweet but very bitter along with the way is just comic perfection, so any news of an eighth season would certainly be welcome.

And being an ornery showman, David offered only the slightest hint it might happen when he recently showed up at the TV confab PaleyFest.

After shooting down the possibility of a movie (thank God for that), he finally got around to saying "I think there's a pretty good chance" and "We're working on a couple of things."

Not much to work with there, but since baseball season is almost here, it's all about hope around here, so here's hoping he gets busy on this soon, and stay tuned until the end for the reason HBO is going to get me to re-up very soon.

And now back to the lead. If I were somehow the person writing a new Muppet movie, you can certainly bet I'd cast myself in it as the human lead, which is apparently just what "Freaks and Geeks" vet Jason Segel has done.

Though the plot of the new Muppet movie he wrote with buddy Nicholas Stoller is still under wraps, we do know it's called "The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made" and it's being directed by James Bobin of "Flight of the Conchords." Apart from that, it will of course be about the Muppets reuniting for a big show (what else, after all?), and Segel will apparently be the human who leads the effort to reunite them. That all sounds like nothing but fun to me, so get on with it already!

Scorsese's "Hugo Cabret" taking shape quickly

It can be maddeningly difficult at times to figure out what exactly Martin Scorsese will work on next, but with the cast taking shape seemingly instantly, we can now be certain it is "The Invention of Hugo Cabret." And having read and adored this "children's" book, that's definitely good news to me.

The book itself by Brian Selznick is about an orphaned boy who ends up living in the walls of a Paris train station with his uncle, and operating the station's clocks when his uncle is too drunk to do so. Along the way, he encounters filmmaker Georges Melies and his mechanical men and, well, it's just gets more and more fun from there.

Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen has signed on to play the station inspector, and Sir Ben Kingsley will reunite with Scorsese to play Melies (if you haven't seen "Shutter Island," by the way, you're about to miss your chance ... I thoroughly enjoyed it.) As far as the kids go, Asa Butterfield, who had the misfortune of starring in the simply dreadful "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," will play our young hero, and that foul-mouthed hit girl Chloe Moretz will play the female lead, Isabelle.

There's certainly a lot of fun stuff for Scorsese to play with here, so definitely bring it on.

Inside the mind of Michel Gondry

It can be even harder to tell what's up with Michel Gondry, but since I almost always dig whatever finally springs from his overactive imagination, it's worth keeping track of.

He is, of course, now shooting "The Green Hornet," starring Seth Rogen (yes, really) from a script by the "Superbad" duo of Rogen and Evan Goldberg. You can count me as mildly intrigued by that, but it's with what might come next that things really start to get interesting.

He says that after that will come the indie drama "The We & The I," which is based on his own book, "You'll Like This Film Because You're In It: The Be Kind Rewind Protocol." I haven't read that, but probably will soon, and here's what Gondry had to say about the flick:

“It’s about the group effect, how people in groups transform when the group is dislocated, because everyone jumps out of the bus at different times, there is a smaller group and how the relationships evolve. .. it’s kids on a bus, it’s more like a social thing. It’s not [well-known] actors, it’s going to be kids from a school in the Bronx. I love kids and just [regular] people too because they are not polluted by the medium. They come as they are and they have beautiful stories to tell, so I want to show that.”

Not sure what in the world all that will produce, but his music videos (mi hermano gave me a collection of them for Christmas a few years ago, fantastic viewing) and "Dave Chappelle's Block Party" have shown he can have some real fun with crowd dynamics. After that, thankfully, things just keep getting odder and odder.

He's also working with funnybook writer and "Ghost World" scribe Daniel Clowes on some kind of time travel movie which would somehow star Ellen Page (remember her?) Called "Return of the Ice Kids," it's apparently about a group of teenagers who invent a kind of water that makes you hear music (believe me, I couldn't make this stuff up if I wanted to.) Here's a bit of what he had to say about Page's role in it:

“I’d like to do a movie of this size with my own story, which would be quite amazing. But we’ll see. I’m developing a screenplay with a writer right now about kids who travel [into] the future by mistake and a machine [that] keeps people younger… ehhh, it’s complicated to explain…Ellen Page is supposed to be the main character…She’d play Nancy, a young woman who participates in the discovery and changes the world.”

Also on Gondry's apparently indefatigable mind is an animated movie called "Megalomania," which he's been working on since 2007 with Clowes and his son, Paul. Here's what he had to say about that:

“It’s about three kids who discover how to create energy from hair. And they shave everyone on the planet. The rich people wear and rule the world. So the rich people wear wigs and the poor people are just bald. And they want to make a better world, but the maker — which is sort of based on my son — is a horrible dictator…"

And here's what he has to say about his son:

"I didn’t want him to be the son of me, I want him to be his own person. I always saw him as an individual from the first second he was born. I always appreciated from him from how different he was from me. He’s very well dressed and stylish and much more confident then me. He’s street smart.”

The film is currently set to star the voice talents of Steve Buscemi, Seth Rogen, and Juliette Lewis. And like I said, though it certainly be frustrating to keep track of all that, it's very often well worth it when you see what he finally comes up with. Stay tuned.

OK, after that, all I have today is a trio of videos, starting in honor of today's big release of the Drive-By Truckers' new album "The Big To-Do." It's the band's first album of all new material in a few years, and having listened to it streaming for the last week or so, I can tell you it's a grand rock record well worth a few bucks if you dig that kind of thing. The guys (and gal) are apparently releasing webisodes about the making of each track, which is more than a bit of overkill, but the first one at least, for the sensational Mike Cooley track "Birthday Boy," is very entertaining. Enjoy, and go buy the album too!



And finally today, two videos for David Simon's New Orleans series "Treme," which is finally coming to HBO (along with my money) on April 11. It stars "The Wire" vets Clarke Peters and Wendell Pierce, Melissa Leo of "Homicide" (and a lot of other things), and even somehow Steve Zahn and John Goodman too. It takes place three months after Katrina, and I think you'll agree that in at least these short glimpses, he and co-creater Eric Overmyer have really captured the city's rhythm. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.

Trailer

Please, please, please just say no to Jay Leno

Before I go any further, I just wanted to thank Kanye West for finally proving to the world just how much of an ass he is. Not that it really matters to me, since I've thought that much of him since he was obviously the only person who had no fun at "Dave Chappelle's Block Party," but I am glad the proverbial cat is completely out of the bag now.

But I didn't tune in for much else of MTV's Video Music Awards last night because, first of all, I'm obviously far too old, and more importantly because last night was just such an epicly good night of television in other places.

First up at my house came the two-episode finale-of-sorts for "King of the Hill," a finale-of-sorts because it was really just two really good episodes. I love the fact that, apart from that they all ended up eating Hank and Bobby's steaks, there really wasn't any big closing at all, just two naturally funny Bobby-centric episodes that showed why "King of the Hill" has always been funnier than anything else in Fox's Sunday night lineup - and a heck of a lot better than Mike Judge's latest movie, "Extract." R.I.P. Hill clan.

Next up was the season two finale of "True Blood," and man was that just a wildly entertaining mess. It hit me about five minutes into it that, even though what they had come up with all of Maryann's madness was just crazy enough to work, absolutely none of it came from Charlaine Harris' very popular Sookie Stackhouse novels (of which, since I'm nearing the end of book five, you can certainly count me as a fan.) And the ending (I'm just gonna have to assume that you've seen this by now if you want to)? If Sookie had somehow even agreed to marry Bill it would have just been way too much of a departure from the novels to even stomach, so I'm certainly glad that never happened (at least to his knowledge.)

But, amazingly, episode five of season three of "Mad Men" was still the best thing on TV last night, and by a pretty wide stretch. Poor Bertie giving birth while Don and his new prison guard buddy bonded over a bottle of booze? Priceless. And you can just tell that the schoolteacher is gonna be a femme fatale like Don just hasn't encountered yet. Of all his mistresses so far, Rosemarie DeWitt from season one would have to be my favorite, with Maggie Siff a close second, but you can just tell that the teacher will do more damage than the both of them combined, and I can't wait to see it unfold. And it really is amazing that season three so far is miles better than season two, which was just as much better than season one.

And I tell you all that to tell you this: In your mind, compare all that wild entertainment to what's going to be unleashed on NBC tonight and, for that matter, every weeknight at 10 p.m. or the foreseeable (or should it be "unforeseeable"?) future. Is there really anything worse you could imagine for primetime than FIVE HOURS A WEEK of Jay Leno kissing celebrities' asses? I can't come up with anything, and given the rather amazing amount of reality crap that pollutes most of the airwaves now, that's saying quite a bit.

Tonight will be a test of willpower for me, because I really like Jerry Seinfeld (Jay's first 10 p.m. guest), but I'm gonna stand strong and just say no. If I have any power at all (and, believe me, I'm well aware that I don't), please do me this tiny favor and never, ever tune in to this garbage. I have a feeling from everything I've read so far that, no matter how abysmal Jay's ratings might get, they're unlikely to pull him off the air any time soon because the show is just so cheap to produce, but we can still try, right?

OK, enough bile for a Monday morning. I'll leave you with something much more glorious: A making-of featurette for Wes Anderson's upcoming "Fantastic Mr. Fox." As you can see from this clip, Anderson clearly has the same respect for Roald Dahl and his work that Spike Jonze has for Maurice Sendak and his. Enjoy the clip, and have a perfectly passable Monday. Peace out.

Remember when Eddie was funny?

I know it can be hard to do. And I'm not talking about the family-friendly, super-silly funny of "Daddy Day Care" or "Dave" (actually, I can't confirm or deny that there was anything funny about either of those, since I didn't bother to watch them.)

I'm talking about really funny. Rude funny. "Raw" funny. Well, luckily, Bill Condon - most recently the producer of this year's rather pedestrian Oscars broadcast - does, and he wants to do something about it.

He's currently shopping around a script for the biopic "Richard Pryor: Is It Something I Said," with Murphy attached to play the great Mr. Pryor himself. And to me that sounds like nothing but cool.

Richard Pryor, of course, created so many great comic routines, but my favorite was that one about the "big water-head boy." It was just so foul and funny at the same time, and like the best of his routines it made you feel thoroughly uncomfortable as you were unable to stop laughing. Much like Paul Mooney, who was adopted by Dave Chappelle and given a rebirth on Dave's Comedy Central show. I sure wish Richard Pryor had lived long enough to get in on that action.

I couldn't find the "water-head" boy clip anywhere, but I did find that one of Mr. Pryor explaining why (like Mr. Mooney) he's not gonna use the N-word anymore. Enjoy, and relish the thought of a first-rate director leading a once-seriously funny guy in a biopic about one of the true comic geniuses. Bring it on.



Seth Green about to cash in big time

Given all that Seth Green has done in animation with "Robot Chicken," which though it's thoroughly crude and ADD-inspiring is also insanely funny, it's certainly about time he gets to cash in with a big-time animated movie, especially one that sounds as good as this.

Robert Zemeckis is producing a performance-capture movie of "Mars Needs Moms" for Disney, and Green has signed on to voice the lead.

But what is "Mars Needs Moms"? Though I had never heard of it, it's apparently a children's novel by Bloom County creator Berkeley Breathed. The story is about a boy named Milo (of course), to be voiced by Green, who stows away aboard a spaceship to rescue his mom after she's kidnapped by aliens.

That all sounds great to me, and it's just well about time that Oz gets some big-time respect and, of course, cash.

Yes, I watch "Gossip Girl"

It's probably nothing I should ever admit, but I've done so here before, so I suppose that cat's already out of the bag.

And yes, I'm well aware that I'm far too old and male to be among the show's intended target audience, but I just enjoy shutting off my brain after a long day of work and ingesting entertaining trash, and "Chuck" creator Josh Schwartz is a master at delivering it.

When he's not paling around with McG to create the adventures of everyone's favorite accidental superspy, Schwartz is an expert at peddling soapy teen trash, first with the "O.C." and now with the almost-as-good "Gossip Girl." And now, not surprisingly given the CW's appetite for such fare, he's deep into a "Gossip Girl" spinoff coming to the network in May.

It was announced this morning that Brittany Snow will play the lead role in the as-yet-untitled series, which focuses on the teen adventures of Lily van der Woodsen, a k a Serena's mom, who was hopefully for our sake more than a little of a wild child. On the show, Lily has a falling-out with her parents and has to move from posh Montecito to the San Fernando Valley to live with her black-sheep sister and go from private to public school in the 1980s.

I know this means absolutely nothing to most of the people who would bother to stop by and read this site, but it does to me, so thanks for bearing with me, and hopefully this last bit will serve as a bit of a reward.

Go on a "Boat Race" with "I Love You, Man"

The more I see of this March 20 flick starring Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, Jamie Pressly and, thankfully, J.K. Simmons, the more I'm convinced that it's gonna be exactly the kind of R-rated comedy that I love.

And the red-band clip below certainly does nothing to lessen that. Be warned, if you watch until the end, that the finish is as funny as it is simply thoroughly disgusting. Enjoy, and have a fantastic weekend. Peace out.

When Michel Gondry met ... "The Green Hornet"?

Actually, the best news I found out there today is that Andy Richter and Conan O'Brien are going to be reunited again when Conan takes over "The Tonight Show" on June 1.

Though it was purely by coincidence, when Richter left "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" in 2000 was just about the same time I stopped tuning in loyally almost every night (having nothing to do with him, but instead because increasingly grumpy, clearly middle-aged men simply shouldn't be up that late.)

In his new role, Richter will serve as announcer but also, thankfully, participate in a lot of the sketches too. I'd much rather see him back as a traditional on-the-couch sidekick a la Ed McMahon or, well, Andy Richter, but this still will be enough to make me stay up a little later for at least the beginning to see what Conan cooks up in his new time slot.

And the weirdest thing is easily that the Humane Society gives out movie awards, including Best Picture, for flicks that it thinks address animal issues well. And the nominees (none of which I've seen) are:

"Bolt"
"Marley & Me"
"Red"
"Saving Luna"

Actually, that "Red" is one I'd like to see, and will instantly watch on Netflix soon, because I like Brian Cox in just about anything. And for one that they missed, though it just moved way too slow for my tastes, no 2008 movie better addressed the perils of dog ownership when you don't have a home for yourself than "Wendy and Lucy," which starred Michelle Williams.

But easily the coolest news out there is that Michel Gondry is now attached to direct "The Green Hornet." Take a minute to let that sink in.

It may seem odd that the director of such mind-bending flicks as "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "The Science of Sleep" would take on something as silly as a superhero flick, but I think this could really work well, because if you look at two other recent flicks from Mr. Gondry, he clearly also just likes to have fun.

I own a copy of "Dave Chappelle's Block Party" on DVD, and that Gondry flick delivers just what its title promises (with some sensational music to boot.) And anyone who's seen "Be Kind Rewind" (and if you haven't, why not?) knows that he can be just as goofy as anyone when he wants to be.

So, what's up with "The Green Hornet"? Well, amazingly enough, it's set to star Seth Rogen as the titular hero (yes, really) and - even better - Stephen Chow as his loyal sidekick Kato (the role made famous by one Bruce Lee.) Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the team behind "Superbad," wrote the script. Chow was attached to direct at one point, which would have been even more bizarrely entertaining, before pulling out over "creative differences."

I know that's a lot about a movie that isn't even set to come out until June 25, 2010, so I'll just wrap this up with a clip from the "Block Party" featuring probably my favorite rap act of all, Dead Prez. If you like hip-hop, R&B (Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Dead Prez, Kanye West, the Roots and even the Fugees all show up to perform here) or the humor of Dave Chappelle, I can't recommend a rental higher than I can this great little concert flick. Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Wednesday. Peace out.