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.

Bryan Singer making return to the X-Men? Bring it on

After watching the purely craptastic "X-Men: The Last Stand" and the entirely mediocre "Wolverine," I wasn't sure there was anything that would be able to bring me back to the franchise at this point, but Bryan Singer - rather amazingly - is about to do it.

Stealing more than a bit of the thunder from the Los Angeles premiere of "Avatar" Wednesday night, Singer let slip to a MySpace television crew that he had indeed signed on the previous day to direct "X-Men: First Class," which should be nothing but cool.

Why? Well, Singer, of course, directed the first two X-Men movies, and while "X-Men" is a perfectly fine superhero movie, "X2: X-Men United" is one of the very best in the genre, right up there in my book with "Spider-Man 2."

Here's exactly what Singer had to say about the matter: "I'm ramping up to do a movie called 'Jack the Giant Killer' at Warner Bros, and I just yesterday signed a deal to do an 'X-Men: First Class Origins' picture, which is kind of cool. I'm very excited."

I have yet to see any actual confirmation of this from the trades, but since I'm at least willing to assume the man isn't flat-out lying, I have to take this as true and great news, made all the more unlikely given how Singer spurned Fox once already to direct "Superman Returns" instead of the third X-Men flick (which I don't think even he could have saved.

But what exactly is "X-Men: First Class"? Well, it comes from a script by "Chuck" co-creator Josh Schwartz, and will look at the early days of our mutant friends at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Schwartz has yet to do anything wrong on TV in my book (yes, I even watch "Gossip Girl," and "Chuck" is simply fantastic), so this certainly now seems to be in all the right hands.

Is Disney killing achingly bad comedies?

Probably not, but John Travolta and Robin Williams certainly have to be wondering if that's the studio's new mission.

First this week (or maybe last, I really don't know) came news that new Disney boss Rich Ross (not to be confused with the Miami rapper Rick Ross, I suppose) had terminated a virus called "Wedding Banned" (get it?), which would have been a "comedy" starring Williams about a divorced couple who kidnap their daughter on her wedding day in order to prevent her from making the same mistakes they did. Even though the always very funny Anna Faris and Diane Keaton (as daughter and mother, I presume) were set to co-star in this, it's probably best that it never sees the light of day.

And now, Disney has also stepped in to stop the "Wild Hogs" plague too. "Wild Hogs 2: Bachelor Ride," would have brought back Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence and even poor William H. Macy for a production that would have launched next summer, with Walt Becker coming back to direct again, but Disney has halted all that for good.

Like I said, I don't really believe this puts even a dent in the bad comedy factory, but it has to at least be some kind of progress, right?

"The Freshman," the tv show?

My fellow cubicle slave John Parnell likes to quote from "The Freshman" all the time. Remember that one? I do, and though it was a genuinely funny flick, most of its charm came from the truly oddball pairing of Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick in the tale of a NYU freshman who gets involved with the mob (and fine dining and exotic lizards, of course.)

Now it seems that USA, which has unleashed a flurry of original shows in the past few years ("Burn Notice" is one I always tune in for, and it will soon return for a fourth season), has latched on to this idea for a series, with the movie's writer/director, Andrew Bergman, on board to at least write the series adaptation.

Can this work? I seriously doubt it, because like I said, most of the charm of the original came from the Brando/Broderick combo, and obviously that can never happen again. USA, however, has proven me wrong before, so certainly keep your eyes on this one.

OK, what else? Well, I suppose I could have led with this, but it's easily only the second-best superhero movie news of the day. Below is the first trailer for Jon Favreau's "Iron Man 2," set to start the movie summer May 7, with Robert Downey Jr. back as our hero and Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke and even Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson somehow coming along too. As you can see from the trailer, Tony Stark is certainly every bit as brash as we remember, so here's hoping he's just as funny too. Rourke as Whiplash, at least, should make a first-rate big bad. Enjoy.



Next up comes two clips for flicks that promise to bring the funny, but about the first oddity, at least, I have my doubts. "Hot Tub Time Machine," judging from the trailer below, will almost certainly be as goofy as it title promises when it drops in March, starring John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Michael Cera's bff and even Darryl from "The Office," aka Craig Robinson. It's directed by "Grosse Pointe Blank" writer Steve Pink and, as you'll see from the trailer, at least returns Cusack to the ski slopes like "Better off Dead," so I'll at least give it a chance. Enjoy.

And finally, courtesy of MTV comes a look at what should be a better comedy, "Dinner for Schmucks," a remake of the Froggy flick "Le Diner de Cons," which has sat near the top of my Netflix list for a while now but somehow hasn't yet made its way into my mailbox. The title is pretty self-explanatory, and as you'll find out from the clip, Steve Carell is the titular schmuck in this flick being directed by Jay Roach and coming out in July. Enjoy, and have a perfectly endurable Thursday. Peace out.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

What will become of Heath's other movie?

You won't hear anything from me, even when any definite word comes down, about what exactly killed Heath Ledger because, frankly, it's just really none of my damn business.

But what is my business (as much as volunteer work can be labeled such) is talking about movies, and Mr. Ledger left behind two potentially great ones in the works, and a third that was yet to really begin.

First and foremost, of course, is "The Dark Knight." Warner Bros. had been putting together the next phase of a marketing campaign that would have focused on Mr. Ledger's work as The Joker (and if you've seen that trailer, I'm sure you know why; it's pretty friggin' amazing.) I can only assume this approach will be either scrapped or at least modified, but we'll have to wait and see.

Of more interest to me is "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus," which could either turn into another epic failure for snakebit director Terry Gilliam or maybe be salvaged to make a pretty compelling flick.

As many might know, this isn't the first time that Gilliam has run into trouble on a fairly big-budget flick ("Parnassus" had (has?) a surprisingly large $30 million behind it.) Gilliam's quixotic attempts to film "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote" with stars Johnny Depp and the great Jean Rochefort (who, I found through a quick IMDB check, is indeed alive and still working at age 77) never got too far off the ground, but it did result in a fairly amusing Keith Fulton and Luis Pepe documentary about the process titled "Lost in La Mancha" (definitely recommended if you haven't seen it.)

And now, at least according to an anonymous source in Us magazine (via Comingsoon.net), the worst may happen to Gilliam yet again.

"I just got the call [Tuesday] saying everyone was being let go," the on-set source said. "We were supposed to start this weekend, but obviously they fired everyone today. They don't know yet what they are doing with the footage that was already shot," the source added.

Who knows if that's true, but I'd have to imagine at least 90 percent of the people who put up that $30 million did so for a movie starring Heath Ledger, who was the film's only extremely bankable star.

The pic wrapped the London leg of its shoot last Saturday. The production team has moved to Vancouver, Canada, where blue-screen work was due to start next week and continue until early March.

So, what in the world would this flick be about? Well, it certainly sounds like pure, perfect Gilliam, so here's hoping they're somehow able to salvage this project.

Here's what I know of the plot: 1,000-year-old Doctor Parnassus (Christoper Plummer) leads a traveling theater troupe and offers audience members a chance to go beyond reality through a magical mirror in his possession, a talent he has acquired through a deal with the devil (Tom Waits, natch.) Beelzebub, as is his wont, eventually comes to collect on his debt, targeting the doctor's daughter (model Lily Cole). The troupe, who is joined by a mysterious outsider (Ledger), embarks through parallel worlds to rescue the girl.

I'm not sure you could make this sad story any worse, but along with starring in the Gilliam flick, Mr. Ledger was apparently, as every actor seems destined to do, also about to start working on directing his first feature film, "The Queen's Gambit," based on a novel by Walter Tevis. Oscar nominee Ellen Page had been offered the lead role of a young female chess prodigy, but any work on this has obviously ground to a halt.

And, except for any further talk about "The Dark Knight" or the possible salvaging of "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus," this is hopefully the last you'll ever from me about the late Mr. Ledger. It's just not a subject I enjoy writing about, so I'm gonna move on now to much better news ...


There's a new Drive-By Truckers' album!

The world's greatest rock band, Athens, Georgia's own Drive-By Truckers, has this week released a rather epic, 19 track album called "Brighter than Creation's Dark," and though it's clearly going to take me a lot more than the two listens I've given it so far to digest it all, I can thankfully report that it's pretty damn good.

Though with that many songs it's of course all over the map, the songs this time, still primarily from Patterson Hood and the Stroke Ace Mike Cooley, are a lot more intimate than most of what appeared on "Dirty South." Bassist Shonna Tucker even steps up to pen three tracks and sing the lead on a fourth.

If you use Itunes, which I just recently started doing so I'll never in my life have to give another damn dollar to Best Buy for CDs, you can download the whole mess for like $11.

My favorite track so far is Cooley's "Self-Destructive Zones," with Hood's closer "Monument Valley" a close second. As best as I can tell, "Zones" might be an autobiographical tale about the duo's attempts to start a band in the era of grunge, and it features nuggets like this: "Caught between a generation dying from its habits, and another thinking rock and roll was new." Definitely check this one out for yourself.

The trailer for Tyler Perry's "Meet the Browns"

In what's surely much more than a coincidence, there are two black family reunion movies coming out at just about the same time fairly soon.

Martin Lawrence will surely be hamming it up as a successful talk show host who leaves Los Angeles to reunite with his family in the Deep South in Malcolm Lee's "Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins." Lawrence, a very funny guy, is sorely due for a solidly funny and entertaining movie, so I'm hoping against hope that this is it.

A much better bet, however, is the rather similarly plotted offering from Tyler Perry, "Meet the Browns," set to come out in March. In it, Angela Bassett (a hearty, hearty huzzah!) plays the single mother of two who returns to Georgia from Chicago when she gets a letter informing her that the father she never knew has died. In the ensemble you'll also get Perry stage regulars David and Tamela Mann, and even former L.A. Laker Rick Fox. This being a Tyler Perry movie (which is always fine by me), expect a lot of laughing, crying and, of course, drama. Enjoy the trailer, and have a perfectly bearable Thursday. Peace out.