Didn’t get around to posting this yesterday and then everybody else did. One day in internet time is about a month in real life. Which is why I’ll excuse the Funny or Die peeps for making this video a month after voting day. That it’s funny and has a great cast makes it a-okay.
The MTV Movie Awards are pretty much shit. I believe Peter Griffith would call them “shallow and pedantic.” But one thing he wouldn’t call this video is unfunny.
Ben Stiller trying to get Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black on board with creating a viral video for their upcoming comedy Tropic Thunder. I would be sad if this video is funnier than the movie, but let’s be honest anytime you’ve got RDJ hitting Jack Black in the crotch with a a wrench, baseball bat, karate chop and hammer you’ve got comedy gold.
So what do you do to top the bonanza that will be Iron Man? Well you go black face in a Ben Stiller directed comedy. Yup, Robert Downey Jr. is playing a white actor who gets surgary so that he can play the role of a black man in the action-comedy Tropical Thunder.
Sounds confusing? Well let’s go to the photo evidence first. Yes, Downey is in the middle, flanked by Jack Black and of course, Ben Stiller.
So here’s the deal. According to Entertainment Weekly, Downey is playing Kirk Lazarus, a very “serious Oscar-winning actor” cast as Sgt. Osiris in the most expensive Vietnam War movie ever made.
”If it’s done right, it could be the type of role you called Peter Sellers to do 35 years ago,” Downey says. ”If you don’t do it right, we’re going to hell.”
The film marks Stiller’s first directing effort since 2001’s Zoolander. With Thunder (opening Aug. 15), he takes aim at the sweetest target of all: actors. Downey plays one of a team of self-indulgent stars cast in the modern equivalent of Apocalypse Now. Stiller plays an action hero who has just adopted a baby from Asia but worries that ”all the good ones are gone.” Black portrays a comedian known for performing multiple roles in a single film ? his latest is called The Fatties: Fart 2. But when the film’s director (Steve Coogan) and writer (Nick Nolte) get fed up with their prima donna cast, they drop them into the jungle to fend for themselves. The actors think they’re doing some sort of full-immersion filmmaking, but the danger they’re in is very real.
Not exactly the stuff that would set the box office on fire. Hollywood satires traditionally fair poorly, since um no one likes watching movies about actors playing actors. Though this one could buck the trend when it comes out Aug. 15. Downey Jr. should be hot off the blazing Iron Man, and Stiller and Black are always good draws. Plus the controversy of having Robert “Fucking” Downey Jr. go black face will stir interest.
We can already hear O’Reilly getting on his high horse and pulling his knickers up for a fight. But you know what? Stiller has already screened the movie and it sounds like it went over well, especially with African-Americans. ”I had no idea how people would respond to it,” Stiller said, relieved at the reaction. ”It seems people really embrace it,” he says.
As for Downey Jr., he just hopes he doesn’t end up looking like C. Thomas Howell from Soul Man.
By James Furbush | November 25th, 2007 | 12:57 pm PST
The mind of Michel Gondry knows no boundries.? I know on a very technical level he’s not responsible for the film Be Kind Rewind’s website, bekindmovie.com, yet I feel like somehow he is.? When most people use 10% of their brain the director of Eternal Sunshine and Science of Sleep has to be using like 18%.? How else to explain the fun things you can do over on the site.
They have several trailers for the movies within the movies starring Jack Black and Mos Def, for sweded versions of Robocop, Rush Hour 2, Boyz N Da Hood, and many others.? Check out the sweded (the practice of re-creating something from scratch using commonly available, everyday materials and technology.? In other words doing something homemade, this word was coined in the movie and I kinda like it.) trailer for Rush Hour below.? Head here for the rest of them.
Jack Black has just signed on to star in the Harold Ramis (Groundhog Day, Stripes, Cadddyshack, Ghostbusters) comedy Year One. No details have been given about the plot, but the film will also be produced by Judd Apatow, the man responsible for Knocked Up and The Forty Year Old Virgin. Ramis co-wrote the film with a couple of guys from NBC’s The Office. Sounds like this could be something to keep an eye on, especially cause it stars Michael Cera, he of Arrested Development infamy.
Cera can be seen in the other Apatow produced comedy at the tail end of the summer called Superbad. Early word coming out of screenings for Superbad is that despite a cliched premise it’s one of the funniest and effortless comedies in some time. And if you can’t wait until then to get your dose of Michael Cera head over to his new website which he set up with longtime friend Clark Duke.
By James Furbush | February 27th, 2007 | 10:36 am PST
Stranger Than Fiction - Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, and Maggie Gyllenhaal star in this unusual comedy. Will Ferrell is an IRS agent who hears the voice of a novelist in his head. He must persuade the novelists (Thompson) to change the ending of her story so that he may live. Very Kauffmanesque.
Tideland - Terry Gilliam directs this story about a young girl with a terrible life. To escape said life she retreats into a fantasy world. Unfortunately even Terry Gilliam can’t save this convoluted mess and a plot similar to the much superior Pan’s Labyrinth. Speaking of? How did Pan’s not win the Oscar for Best Foreign Picture?
A Good Year - Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott teaming up for a movie that’s the exact opposite of Gladiator. Crowe stars as an investment banker who inherits a French vineyard. And he learns the true importance of life. Yeah, it’s that schmaltzy.
Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny - The epic story of how The D became the greatest rock band in the world. Um… Jack Black and Kyle Glass steal a supernatural pick. It’s sort of funny, but was much funnier when they used the same jokes for their HBO show.
The Return - A creepy horro movie staring Sarah Michelle Gellar. Someone needs to call her agent and let them know SMG doesn’t need to do teen horror movies anymore. Treads a similar tone to The Grudge.
And just because we love Jack Black, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. I’m still sad I missed this live. Oh well.