What does Hollywood do after they've recently covered all the ages between High School(Superbad), College (Old School et al) and late 20s/early 30s (Knocked Up, Saving Sarah Silverman)? No more room for stoner comedies (Knocked Up, Strange Wilderness, Grandma's Boy, Pineapple Express) Try looking back at the past for comedic material. Since we're talking comedy, we're usually talking extremes so when Hollywood/the Apatow Crew offshoots dig into the past they aren't talking 1920's. They are talking what I'm gonna call the "Olde School Comedies."
The first inkling of this came with the announcement of Will Ferrell in the Land of the Lost movie, a popular TV show that was due for a reboot (especially since Ferrel got so much praise from his last TV revamp attempt in Bewitched. Still, the idea has all the makings of Hollywood Tentpole (AKA Summer Blockbuster) like comedy, explosions, and especially dinosaurs. Have you ever heard of Jurassic Park? To be honest, this one looks like its more for the kiddies
Then came the Superbowl and the ad for Year One, written and directed by Harold Ramis (best known as Egon from Ghostbusters, director of Caddyshack & Groundhog Day. Year One's plot line is as follows: "When a couple of lazy hunter-gatherers (Jack Black and Michael Cera) are banished from their primitive village, they set off on an epic journey through the ancient world." This one is a very mixed bag for me because even tough I'm a fan of both, I have not been impressed with either one's recent film output. (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist anyone?) Althought they both have excelled in turns on the youtube masterpieces known as drunk history especially Jack Black as Benjamin Franklin.
Now Black and Cera leave the 18th century to become caveman in Year One. Even though I'll undoubtedly see it when it comes out in June - as I do see just about everything -
I don't know if I'm headed into another Semi-Pro style disaster. Check out the trailer and see for yourself.
It just seems already to over the top with Cera self deprecating humor - although that seems to be the only style he has in his repetoire (see "Arrested Development", Juno, Superbad). Jack Black makes me laugh and laugh hard especially when he is bearded or soulpatched. June is pretty soon so we shall see.
I thought that I found another one while digging through Jonah Hill (the fat oaf from Superbad, not ot be confused with newly slim Seth Rogen) and stumbled onto How To Train Your Dragon, but this is actually an animated movie about "The son of a Viking chief must capture a dragon in order to be initiated into his tribe" with Hill, Jason Schwartzman, McLovin, and Mr. 300 Gerard Butler voicing the characters. It will be out sometime in 2010.
Now on a kind of related note, Bruno is coming. If you're not familiar, Bruno is a bumbling, gay German fashion reporter character of Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G & Borat). Well a few days ago came the news that Bruno recieved an NC-17 rating. Surprisingly, a few days later a red band trailer came out ("red band" meaning naughty and NSFW). Now here's a comedy I can get behind although I'd recommend if you don't want to be embarrassed on film you should stay far away from Bruno's actual behind. Somehow I don't think Bruno will be as embraced by the critics as much as Borat. Borat opened the critics eyes' to Cohen's genius but I don't know if they'll take the second major dose of infantile humor as well, as well as plenty of dildo and penis jokes. Enjoy!
The first inkling of this came with the announcement of Will Ferrell in the Land of the Lost movie, a popular TV show that was due for a reboot (especially since Ferrel got so much praise from his last TV revamp attempt in Bewitched. Still, the idea has all the makings of Hollywood Tentpole (AKA Summer Blockbuster) like comedy, explosions, and especially dinosaurs. Have you ever heard of Jurassic Park? To be honest, this one looks like its more for the kiddies
Then came the Superbowl and the ad for Year One, written and directed by Harold Ramis (best known as Egon from Ghostbusters, director of Caddyshack & Groundhog Day. Year One's plot line is as follows: "When a couple of lazy hunter-gatherers (Jack Black and Michael Cera) are banished from their primitive village, they set off on an epic journey through the ancient world." This one is a very mixed bag for me because even tough I'm a fan of both, I have not been impressed with either one's recent film output. (Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist anyone?) Althought they both have excelled in turns on the youtube masterpieces known as drunk history especially Jack Black as Benjamin Franklin.
Now Black and Cera leave the 18th century to become caveman in Year One. Even though I'll undoubtedly see it when it comes out in June - as I do see just about everything -
I don't know if I'm headed into another Semi-Pro style disaster. Check out the trailer and see for yourself.
It just seems already to over the top with Cera self deprecating humor - although that seems to be the only style he has in his repetoire (see "Arrested Development", Juno, Superbad). Jack Black makes me laugh and laugh hard especially when he is bearded or soulpatched. June is pretty soon so we shall see.
I thought that I found another one while digging through Jonah Hill (the fat oaf from Superbad, not ot be confused with newly slim Seth Rogen) and stumbled onto How To Train Your Dragon, but this is actually an animated movie about "The son of a Viking chief must capture a dragon in order to be initiated into his tribe" with Hill, Jason Schwartzman, McLovin, and Mr. 300 Gerard Butler voicing the characters. It will be out sometime in 2010.
Now on a kind of related note, Bruno is coming. If you're not familiar, Bruno is a bumbling, gay German fashion reporter character of Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G & Borat). Well a few days ago came the news that Bruno recieved an NC-17 rating. Surprisingly, a few days later a red band trailer came out ("red band" meaning naughty and NSFW). Now here's a comedy I can get behind although I'd recommend if you don't want to be embarrassed on film you should stay far away from Bruno's actual behind. Somehow I don't think Bruno will be as embraced by the critics as much as Borat. Borat opened the critics eyes' to Cohen's genius but I don't know if they'll take the second major dose of infantile humor as well, as well as plenty of dildo and penis jokes. Enjoy!
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