For Friday, four or five degrees of funny

Even if it still is the most unnecessary prequel/reimagining/or whatever of all time, director Marc Webb is certainly piling up an impressive cast for his take on "Spider-Man."

After making the beyond-perfect choice of Emma Stone to play Gwen Stacy and the perfectly adequate choice of Andrew Garfield from "The Social Network" to play Peter Parker himself, the movie has now somehow added Martin Sheen to play Uncle Ben and Sally Field as Aunt May. Is that enough prestige for you?

Webb has so far, however, made at least one mistake (beyond the studio's choice to fire Sam Raimi in the first place): Rather than the rumored Mia Waskikowska or any other young actress to play Mary Jane Watson, they're apparently just leaving the character out altogether. Bummer.

But enough about a movie that, even with that cast, I'm not sure I'll even be able to bring myself to see when this finally all comes together. As the headline makes clear, this was supposed to be all about the funny this morning, but it lost a little sheen when I found that the promised first episode of "Mid Morning Matters With Alan Partidge" is not yet available, even though it was promised for Nov. 5, and it is indeed already noon UK time on that very day. Keep an eye out for it some time later today here, and I guarantee you'll laugh out loud.

Instead, I have four clips delivering differing degrees of funny, pretty much in descending order, until the final one, which is pretty much just here as word of warning about the impending monstrosity. First up comes the first trailer I know of for the return of the Farrelly Brothers, on Feb. 25 with something called "Hall Pass." I can't remember the last time I bothered to see a Farrelly Brothers movie, but this one looks like it could be funny, and with a cast that includes Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis of "30 Rock," Jenna Fischer, Christina Applegate and even veryfunnypeople JB Smoove and Stephen Merchant too, this one should at least be worth checking out. Watch trailer to find out just what a "Hall Pass" is.



Though I've yet to see the need to tune in to George Lopez's 11 p.m. show on TBS, and will have even less incentive to do once he moves to midnight starting Monday, if he's promoting the return of Conan O'Brien, I'm on board. This clip from Wednesday's show, in which CoCo makes an appearance to promote his return to late night Monday night at 11 p.m., is actually really funny once O'Brien lapses into his "native tongue," Spanish. After that comes William Shatner "singing" what is easily my favorite pop song of the moment, Cee Lo Green's "Fuck You," known to you kids who still listen to top 40 radio in its much more family-friendly form, "Forget You." Shatner's skewering of it is indeed pretty funny, but as a further bonus, I've included the original text only video from Cee Lo, so anyone who hasn't heard the original version of this can see just how incredibly entertaining it is in its very raw form. Enjoy.







As someone who plays with fonts for a living, I just don't think I'll ever get tired of watching that very clever video, and the song of course is pure gold. OK, remember that, at the outset today, I did warn you that the final clip is more a warning than anything else, because it certainly doesn't deliver any funny. It does, I suppose, finally answer the burning question of whether or not Martin Lawrence has even a drop of shame left with a thundering no. Without any further ado, and yes, really, here is indeed the trailer for something called "Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son." If you really want to know when this is coming out, you'll have to look it up yourself, because I really just can't bring myself to tell you. "Enjoy" the clip and have a fantastic weekend. Peace out.

For Friday, a ton of fun movie news

There's indeed a whole lot of fun stuff out there today, but the best and oddest of all just might be that there's a horror remake opening this weekend that I'm gonna take a chance on seeing.

"The Crazies" is at least slightly intriguing because it was shot about 20 minutes from my house, but that's really not enough to snag me. Two good reviews from sources I trust, however - Collider and HitFix - are, so I'll be there Saturday afternoon, 'cause I just love smart horror.

OK, in news that might just impact somebody besides me, easily the best of all is that Angelina Jolie has bailed on a "Wanted 2" (did the world really need that?) and instead signed on for something much, much better - an Alfonso Cuaron sci-fi movie (huzzah!)

"Gravity" will be about a woman (Jolie, natch) who is the sole survivor of a space mission, desperately trying to get home to Earth and her daughter. Sounds a bit like Duncan Jones' "Moon" (for which Sam Rockwell certainly should have gotten an Oscar nomination), but anyone who's seen Cuaron's "Children of Men" knows he can work wonders with good sci-fi, so definitely keep your eyes on this on.

Before that, however, I seem to remember reading something about Cuaron making an odd road movie of sorts starring Daniel Auteil and Charlotte Gainsbourg (a definite crush around here.) Indeed, IMDB lists him also working on that flick, "A Boy and His Shoe," but with only a vague 2012 release date so far.

Will there really be a funny Farrelly brothers movie?

I certainly have my doubts about that, but there's no question that they've somehow assembled a first-rate cast for "Hall Pass," which is shooting this week in Atlanta, if I'm not mistaken.

Starting with a base of Owen Wilson and someone named Jason Sudeikis, they've this week or so added HBO vets Stephen Merchant and J.B. Smoove, and even more recently Alyssa Milano and Christina Applegate. The latter two certainly need no introduction, but comedy fans will know Merchant as Ricky Gervais' comedic partner in crime, and Smoove played Larry David's brother-in-law, Leon Black, on "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

But what in the world is this all about? Well, Wilson and Sudeikis play two lucky dudes whose wives (Milano and Applegate, perhaps) give them passes to engage in extramarital shenanigans. Merchant and Smoove will play two of their buddies.

Not the most promising of premises, but with that cast I'm relatively optimistic about a winner here.

Farina joins Mann pilot at HBO

Although I'm most excited about the return of "The Wire" creator David Simon (with the N'Awlins series "Treme," coming in April, when I'll return to HBO too), what Michael Mann and David Milch ("Deadwood") have cooking up for the station sounds like an awful lot of fun too.

Dennis Farina has now signed on to star in "Luck," which Mann is directing at least the pilot of from a script by Milch. The show centers on a man who, after just getting released from prison, teams with his longtime chauffeur and muscle (Farina) to craft a complex plan with a crooked jockey (John Ortiz) to fix races at a racetrack.

I love the ponies, and Mann has a real talent for developing a seamy sense of place, so I'll definitely be tuning in for whatever comes of all of this.

Demme to head back to Haiti

Though Jonathan Demme makes usually-great movies of all kinds, I think his documentaries are the best of all. And since the single best of those is "The Agronomist," about slain Haitian activist Jean Dominique, it only makes sense that he would turn his thoughts and camera to the country at this troubled time.

Actually, his route back to the country this time intersects with one of his other documentary passions, music. Demme had been planning a documentary about Arcade Fire (new album coming very soon, huzzah!), whose founding member Regine Chassagne is Haitian. He and the band were set to head to Haiti to shoot something music-driven the very morning the quake struck, which of course changed his plans entirely. Here's what Demme had to say about his new course of action.

"My personal feeling was, those who go down two months or three months from now, with a specific mission in mind, will be valuable in their own way, as the people that are going now. So I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go within the next six months, but I haven't been yet."

He's certainly right, there. Though the people of Haiti needs just about everything, what they'll need months from now is continued attention from the rest of the world, so here's hoping Demme follows through on this and even makes a movie about it too.

And a bit closer to home, Demme is apparently now working on the documentary "Right to Return: New Home Movies from the Lower Ninth Ward," about the most devastated neighborhood in New Orleans after Katrina.

Broken Lizard signs Universal deal

Though the juvenile antics of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe certainly aren't for everyone (Nell Minow knocked me, perhaps correctly, for including "Super Troopers" in my list of the 100 best movies of the '00s), they just make me laugh almost every time they put something out.

Their latest flick, "Slammin' Salmon," didn't manage to play anywhere near me, so I'll have to just watch it on DVD, but now comes word that the guys have signed on for two movies that will hopefully play a lot wider with the help of Universal.

The studio has picked up "Rogue Scholars," a college comedy revolving around five unruly professors played by the members of the troupe, plus an additional as-yet-untitled Broken Lizard flick to follow. Like I said, I'm a devoted fan of "Super Troopers" - for which they are still promising a sequel someday - so I'll follow these guys just about anywhere.

A new flick for Ed Helms

Though he's surrounded by plenty of very funny people. Ed Helms has slowly and steadily developed into the best character on "The Office" with the Nard Dog, so any word of him appearing on the big screen is welcome in this little corner of the world.

He'll next be seen hopefully everywhere as an insurance salesman in Miguel Arteta's "Cedar Rapids," due out this year. And now comes word that he's signed on to star in something called "Central Intelligence" for director Dean Parisot (who, yes, really did direct "Galaxy Quest" back in the day.)

The flick is about an accountant (Helms) who reconnects with an old friend via Facebook and finds himself sucked into a world of espionage (I always knew that Facebook was nothing but evil, but yes, I'm on it.)

That sounds like nothing but funny to me, so definitely stay tuned to this one.

And finally, what in the world is "Harold and the Purple Crayon"?

Though I had never heard of it until about a year or so ago, it's apparently a fairly classic children's tale by Crockett Johnson, and has already been made into a movie and short TV series.

The first I had heard of it, however, was in a New York Times magazine profile of Spike Jonze in which he revealed he was at work on another movie version of this when he thankfully got sidetracked by "Where the Wild Things Are" (I still say the single biggest Oscar snub this year is that even in the field of 10, that didn't get a Best Picture nomination. Criminal.)

Now comes word that the book is coming to movie life again, this time with the help of "Where the Wild Things Are" author and national treasure Maurice Sendak as a producer.

The story apparently follow our hero Harold as he uses his magic purple crayon to retreat into his own fantasy world, but soon realizes that he’s been selfish with his crayon and so uses it to help his parents and others, and even go on a mission to Mars.

This will be a CG-animated affair, with no director attached yet, but why not Mr. Jonze himself? Sounds like it would be world of fun for him, and I know for sure he'd love to work with Maurice Sendak again.

OK, this has certainly gone on long enough today, so I'll just wrap it up with a couple of clips. The first is for a flick called "The Good Heart," set to come out in at least some urban portions of the world on April 30. It caught my eye because it stars Reel Fanatic favorites Brian Cox and Paul Dano. The flick tells the story of Lucas (Dano), who attempts suicide and meets bar-owner Jacques (Cox) while in the hospital. The two quickly form a friendship and Lucas starts to work in Jacques' bar. Enjoy the trailer.

The Good Heart trailer from zik zak on Vimeo.

Actually, make that only one clip, because although there's a new international trailer out there for the "Karate Kid" remake starring Jackie Chan and Will Smith's offspring, I've decided to just ignore that monstrosity from here on out. Peace out.

Well, there is an "Arrested Development" movie in the works, but ...

"Well, if there was a drinking game where one had to drink every time a character cursed then the player of that game would be dead in ten minutes. Seriously. Don’t play that game."
- Judd Apatow, about the amount of cursing in his new movie, "Funny People"

I love that quote, and it's easily the funniest thing in a recent interview Apatow gave to MTV Movies.

Even better, and I'm more than happy to swipe it - with credit, of course - the MTV Movies Blog also had an interview with Charlie Day of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" which contained this rather juicy description of an upcoming show:

“One of my favorite scripts right now is an episode called ‘The Gang Wrestles for the Troop.' In our attempt to honor the troops coming back from Iraq, we try and put on a wrestling match and ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper is appearing in that. He’s playing a down on his luck wrestler called Da Maniac. All great wrestling performers had a good entrance song, so we’ve written our own entrance song about the Birds of War, which is what we call ourselves.”

Wow .. I can picture all that, and in my mind at least, it's just insanely funny. Day, who is somehow going to star in a romantic comedy called "Going the Distance" with Drew Barrymore, Christina Applegate and Justin Long, also promised some shenanigans with ponzi schemes and perhaps maybe even an octomom, so I'll definitely be watching when the show finally returns Sept. 17.

But, as the rather cruel headline promised, what I wanted to mention today was an "Arrested Development" movie of sorts, though certainly not the one many people have been hoping for.

Instead, as you can see from the trailer below, it's a documentary project by two rather crazed AD fans named Neil and Jeff, and I'm really not sure what to make of it. On the one hand, I can certainly admire and respect (actually, I just realized the Federer-Haas match is in a first-set tie-breaker ... be right back ... OK, Federer won, I'm back) that level of rather obsessed fandom, but I really can't imagine that 90 minutes of talking heads (though, not, apparently, stars who are still working, meaning Jason Bateman or Michael Cera) waxing nostalgic for this seriously great show, without apparently any clips, will be all that entertaining.

But, like I said, I can certainly support this level of obsession, so check out the site here, enjoy this trailer for what they're cooking up, and have a great weekend. Peace out.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.