One can only expect fun and fireworks when two former Daily Show correspondents get together. And that’s just what we got when Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell got together at NYC’s Apple Store for a sit down about Carell’s Get Smart. The pair shows off their wide range of talents when they decide to sing the National Anthem, in harmony! Check it out:
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Contrary to what the name may evoke, Dr. Dog is not the unholy love child of Dr. Dre and his protege Snoop Dogg. Nor is it the latest fad in children’s television programming. So what is it? It’s a band built on the idea that they are the only band that ever was, and therefore gets to make up their own rules as they go along.
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From the “wha?” department…
Rose McGowan is set to star in a remake of the ridiculous classic 80’s fantasy Red Sonja. Even stranger, the movie is set to be made by her boyfriend, Robert Rodriguez.
If you don’t remember Red Sonja I don’t blame you. I’m pretty sure the only reason I do is that my little brother watched it on about 200 times on an endless loop (on Beta, nonetheless). The basic premise is that Sonja is a female version of Conan the Barbarian, and she has to save her world from an evil bad guy out to take it over.
Now that you’re caught up, let’s count the ways this is a bad idea. First, in the original Sonja is played by Brigitte Nielsen, a 6′ 1″ Dane who is built to play an ass-kicking Valkyrie. McGowan is 5′ 4″. Not exactly barbarian material.
Second, Rodriguez is a good director, but he doesn’t exactly have any experience in the fantasy genre. He does great with Mexican westerns (Desperado, El Mariachi) and zombie flicks (Planet Terror), so-so with comic book movies (Sin City), and I’m assuming fairly well with kids movies (all the Spy Kids movies). But what makes us think he’ll be any good at epic fantasy?
Finally, and most importantly, the original movie was just stupid. So how about we just leave it alone? To wither and die. Like it should.
Producer Frank Marshall confirmed to IESB that the fourth installment of the Bourne franchise will hit theaters in 2010. No word yet on the story, though it will not be based on any of the books. Not that the first three were really based on the books either.
via SlashFilm
It’s a recipe for disaster: take a current TV star and put him in a movie version of a classic TV show. It’s sure to disappoint both the star’s fans and fans of the old show. The script will be contrived, stuck between slipping in homages to the original and providing modern audiences with what they expect from current movies. The director is sure to assemble lots of other stars in supporting roles, to bring in audience members who aren’t fans of either the TV star or the original series, and they will end up being completely wrong for their parts. In short, it will be exactly the sort of summer blockbuster shit that nobody actually enjoys, yet somehow makes money.
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I love it when white boys cover gangsta rap. Who didn’t love Dynamite Hack’s cover of Eazy-E’s “Boyz N the Hood”? Here’s Ben Folds, who in case you hadn’t noticed is very white, covering Dr. Dre’s “Bitches Ain’t Shit”. It’s become a staple of his live shows over the years, but this performance is especially cool because of the audience participation.
Wow, I’m getting old. I distinctly remember getting Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville my freshman year in college. And this week was the 15th anniversary of its release (though I actually got it a year later…I’m not THAT old). To commemorate this anniversary, let’s hop in the wayback machine and see Liz perform one of the album’s standout tracks, “Fuck and Run”, live in 1995:
To compare, here’s Liz performing the same song this week, at a special show to celebrate the album’s anniversary:
If this has tickled your nostalgia bone, Phair has released a special anniversary edition of Exile in Guyville
The Dark Knight is getting closer. We’re less than a month away now! And as July 18th creeps up on us the TV ads have increased. Here’s a round-up of all the TV ads so far, just in case you’re the kind of obsessive fanboy that has to see every piece of footage that’s been released so far.
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I’ve been going back and forth about Wanted ever since I saw the first trailer. Would it be a hyper-kick-ass, balls to the wall action film? Or a completely over-the-top parody of itself? As each new trailer has come out I’ve watched, and tried to figure it out. I was finally leaning towards the former, but this fact has pushed me right over the edge into full-on excitedness: It has a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. Holy shit. The Matrix only has an 86%.
In case you’ve missed it, here’s the red band trailer for Wanted, which hits theaters this Friday:
The first poster for the upcoming G.I. Joe movie is out. It shows Joe leader Duke in his ridiculous body armor and overly fancy gun. It also shows something we haven’t seen before: the movie’s subtitle. I have to say that up until now I’ve been very skeptical of this shameless attempt to rape my childhood memories nostalgia-fest, but now that I know that it’s subtitled Rise of Cobra, I have to say, I’m, well, unchanged. Really. This does nothing for me. Meh.
Comedian and actor George Carlin died of heart failure on Sunday. He was 71.
Carlin may have been a comedian by trade, but to me he was a voice of reason in a world far too willing to blindly accept whatever bullshit it’s fed. Known for his foul mouth, love of language, and outraged persona, I saw him as someone who was completely unafraid to call people out when they’re doing something stupid.
Never was this more apparent than when he was arrested for performing his “Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television” routine in Milwaukee. He fought back, taking his case all the way to the Supreme Court. Ultimately the court ruled that the routine was indecent, and that the FCC had the power to decide what is indecent. So he lost, but at least he fought.
I could go on for a long time about the things Carlin did that inspired me, made me think, or just made me laugh. But instead I’ll just let some of them speak for themselves. Read the rest of this entry »
This post combines two things I love: trailer remixes and Superbad. Here’s what the hilarious movie would look like as a blockbuster action film:
Before listening to the latest album from The Burning Hell here’s what I knew about the band: they sometimes feature an electric ukulele. That was really all the motivation I needed to give them a shot.
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There’s not a whole lot to say about this, other than it looks like what a Vampire Weekend video should look like.
It’s starting to look like Quentin Tarantino doesn’t like standalone films anymore. First he gave us the two-part epic Kill Bill. Then he teamed with buddy Robert Rodriguez on the Grindhouse double feature. Now there’s news that his next project is another two-parter.
Inglorious Bastards will be Tarantino’s first foray into the war movie genre. He’s been working on the script for years, and he announced at Cannes that he’s finally finished it. Not only that, but it’s so big it’s going to be two movies!
The film will follow a group of criminals on a military transport during WWII. The transport is attacked by Nazis and only the prisoners survive. The decide to head for the freedom of neutral Switzerland, but have to fight both Nazis and Allies along the way. Great premise.
The films title is taken from a 1977 Italian movie of the same name. Apparently it’s similar to that film, but more of an homage than a remake.
No set release date or cast yet. Ain’t it Cool News has more info.
If you’re anything like me the final moments of The Sopranos still bothers you. A while back I linked to a really good theory about what happened. Well here’s an even more thorough breakdown of the finale, presenting very compelling evidence that the cut to black was Tony dying, having been shot by the guy in the Members Only jacket.
This explanation works for me. But David Chase still gets a big “BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”.
Loading ...Following what seems to be a theme recently, here’s the international teaser trailer for the Coen brothers’ upcoming comedy, Burn After Reading:
Not a whole lot of new stuff here. Regardless, this movie’s starting to look like another Big Lebowski for the Coens. Only funny.
Burn After Reading comes to a theater near you September 12th.
This week’s random cover is yet another take on Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”. This time it’s not a robot playing a theremin. Or a Jack White-led supergroup. It’s a simple, heartfelt rendition from a simple, heartfelt musician. Here’s Ray LaMontagne’s and his acoustic guitar deconstructing the song and rebuilding it better than ever.
Behold the first poster for the Coen brothers’ upcoming Burn After Reading. It’s a great homage to classic Hollywood posters, especially those by Saul Bass from the 50s and 60s. Film School Rejects has some good examples of Bass’ posters.
If the poster doesn’t help get you excited for Burn After Reading, go back and watch the trailer. That should do the trick.
Burn After Reading hits theaters September 12th.
NBC is bringing Britain’s favorite car show, Top Gear to the States. If you’ve never seen the show, it’s a group of regular, funny guys who do cool things with even cooler cars. For example, in this clip they test the advertised top speed of a Bugatti Veyron:
Kick ass! The British version stars three guys most Americans have never heard anything about, so it’s probably a good thing that NBC hiried Adam Carolla, Tanner Foust and Eric Stromer to host the American version. Corolla should be a particularly good fit. He’s got the sense of humor too keep everything light.
If you’re looking to watch whole episodes of Top Gear tune into BBC America. For more info on the American version, check out TV Squad.
The release of The Dark Knight is just over a month away, but more and more stuff keeps trickling out. Today, as part of the massive viral marketing campaign associated with the movie, Warner Bros launched a website for Gotham City Pizzeria. Clicking on the “HA” in Gotham on the site takes you to this clip, showing a brief glimpse of Two-Face:
Really it’s not much. You can’t even really see anything. Unlike the picture of Two-Face that came out a while ago. What’s more interesting is trying to figure out how this fits into the movie. Any thoughts?
If I tell you that a band out of Seattle gets signed to Sub Pop Records, you’ve probably got a pretty good idea of the type of music the band plays, right? They probably wear flannel, turn their guitars up to eleven, and sing heavy songs of angst and pain. Well Fleet Foxes is from Seattle, and they’re signed to Sub Pop, but they couldn’t be further from the cliche. They’re less Nirvana than Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. Less Pearl Jam than Buffalo Springfield. And less Soundgarden than The Byrds. In other words, they’re less grunge, more hippie. And all about the music.
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This illustration by artist Jason Freeny finally sheds light on the inner anatomy of the wild Gummi Bear. No longer does science have to rely on primitive guesswork when diagnosing the rubbery candy’s common ailments.
Is there a Nobel Prize for candy research? If there is, Freeny deserves it. One can only hope that his next task is to apply his groundbreaking research to the Gummy Venus de Milo.
If you like the illustration, go order it as a print.
Happy Father’s Day to all of you dads out there. To celebrate, here’s condom manufacturer Durex’s latest ad. Hilarious!
And here are a few father-inspired musical and standup comedy selections:
The second trailer for the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars is out, and it’s just as mediocre as the first one. Is anyone other than the hardcore Star Wars fanboys actually looking forward to August 15th? Check out the uninspiringness below:
Here’s yet another trailer for The Dark Knight. A few new clips, but nothing too major. Still can’t wait for July 18th..
Everyone’s favorite incredibly overrated band, Radiohead, recently held a video remix contest for their song “Nude” (from the bafflingly overrated album In Rainbows). James Houston wanted to enter the contest and came up with a great idea: use old and busted computer equipment to cover the song. So he rigged up an old scanner, a printer, some bad hard drives (for speakers), and a Sinclair ZX Spectrum pc to play all the parts a created this video:
The result sounds like a Nintendo version of the song, and almost actually improves on it. Nice work!
Behold, the first poster for Righteous Kill, the upcoming police thriller starring Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. If you haven’t seen the trailer for it yet, Al and Bobby play cops trying to track down a serial killer. The twist? The serial killer is killing criminals. Cool!
Righteous Kill comes to theaters September 12th.
American Teen follows five teenagers through their last year in high school. They make up a cross-section of high school life - a jock, a geek, a princess, a rebel, and a heart throb. Sound familiar? Yep, it’s The Breakfast Club, only it’s a documentary. Kick ass.
Apparently I’m way behind the rest of the world when it comes to discovering Ray LaMontagne. I only heard of him last week, while the rest of the world has known about him since his single “Trouble” hit the charts in 2006. Regardless, now that I know about him he’s gained a huge fan.
Raycharles LaMontagne avoided music throughout his childhood. His father was a traveling musician, a fact that led to his mother leaving his father. Consequently Ray pursued activities other than music. It wasn’t until after high school, while he was working in a shoe factory, that he heard Stephen Stills’ “Treetop Flyer” on the radio and something clicked in his brain. He decided to quit his job and pursue a career in music.
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If you haven’t seen The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters this probably isn’t going to make much sense. But then again you kind of deserve to be punished for not seeing it, so I’m fine with that. In case you’re still interested, it’s a documentary following the world’s two best Donkey Kong players. Steve Weibe is the upstart, coming out of nowhere to challenge Billy Mitchell, the man who’s owned the world record score for 20 years. I won’t ruin the movie for you, but let’s just say they don’t get along so well.
Now that you’re all caught up, here’s G4’s take on what a sequel would look like:
It’s hard not to love it when people come up with creative uses for Legos. Here’s a guy who takes famous photographs and recreates them with Legos. From the photo of Marines planting the flag at Iwo Jima to New York construction workers eating lunch on a girder and Buzz Aldrin on the moon, he’s reenacted them with great care and attention to detail. If you’re not familiar with the original photos, here’s a site that shows both the original and Lego versions together.
You Ain’t No Picasso has an interview with The Apples in Stereo frontman Robert Schneider. In it he discusses how to put together a tracklist for an album, and why it took 10 years to finish the song “Dream”, which just appeared on the band’s latest rarities collection, Electronic Projects for Musicians. Interesting stuff, even if Robert seems like he may be a little, um, “chemically altered”…
Here’s another in our continuing series of covers of Britney Spears’ “Toxic”. This one is performed by Dutch singer Stevie Ann, live in a radio studio. It’s a slow, sultry version, and yet another example of how this is actually a good song once you remove Britney from the equation…
Can’t…stop…laughing… Some genius took the audio from a conversation between Joe Pesci and Robert DeNiro from Casino and synched it to Elmo talking to DeNiro. Hilarious.
Via BoingBoing
You may remember Metallica. They’re that band that used to kick serious ass, then got really lame and bitter. Well now they’re trying not to be so bitter (though they’re still lame…). Billboard is reporting that Activision is going to release an edition of Guitar Hero featuring the band, much like the soon-to-be-released Aerosmith edition. Metallica has had several songs included in various editions of Guitar Hero and Rock Band already, but this new version would focus on their music, and ostensibly music of other bands they choose to include.
Despite the fact that I really haven’t enjoyed or appreciated anything Metallica’s done in about 12 years, I’m pretty psyched about this. If they get the majority of the good songs from Kill ‘Em All through Metallica (the black album) it should kick ass. But let’s just all pretend St. Anger never happened, please?
Often times our Sunday Music Spotlight band is some kind of exotic, foreign band who plays some kind of strange or challenging music. This week’s band couldn’t be further from that. The Hold Steady is from Minnesota, currently based in Brooklyn, and plays good old-fashioned American rock n’ roll.
Ironically, this all-American rock band got its inspirations from a bunch of Canadians. Frontman Craig Finn and guitarist Tad Kubler were in a band called Lifter Puller which played 80s-inspired synth-rock. One day they were watching the classic concert movie The Last Waltz, which chronicles the final concert of classic rock legends The Band, when they decided that was the type of band they wanted to be in. They enlisted drummer Judd Counsell and bassist Galen Polivka, and got to work.
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Hot on the heels of their latest masterpiece, No Country for Old Men, the Coen brothers are back. This time it seems they’re going a different route, with a comedy about spies and gym employees. Burn After Reading assembles an all star cast, including Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Frances McDormand, John Malkivich, and Tilda Swinton.
Burn After Reading is scheduled to hit theaters September 12th. SlashFilm has all the details
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