So unless you're here for the first time you might know that I think Kristen Bell is one of the best actors of my generation. Last night I was lucky enough to catch a very early sneak preview of her upcoming film Forgetting Sarah Marshall. And by very early, I mean it's not coming out until next May. Which means it could be a fairly different movie by the time it comes out, but since I say Knocked Up about this long before the movie released, and with the exception of a few small snippets of dialogue it was the same film.

I've been excited about seeing this film for some time because not only am I a fan of Kristen Bell, but it was produced by Judd Apatow, the creator of both Knocked Up and The Forty Year-Old Virgin, two of the funniest movies of the last few years. While both are full of raunch they are also full of heart, so I was anticipating another film that fits in that category.
But possibly the most exciting part of the movie is that it was written by and stars Jason Segel, who has been in two of the most loved series in the CineManiac household, Freaks & Geeks and How I Met Your Mother. So it was with this anticipation that I went into the movie last night.

Jason Segel plays Peter Bretter, a struggling musician who creates the music for the hit TV show, Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime. Peter's girlfriend the titular Sarah Marshall is the shows star, and her star is rising because of it. The movie starts with "The Break-up Scene" as Sarah dumps Peter, telling him there's another guy. The scene plays out in a way that I don't think has been attempted before, so I don't want to ruin it, I'll just say it's funny. Devastated Peter tries to go on with his life, but quickly spirals into a depression he can't get out of. So on the insistence of his Step-Brother, Brian (Bill Hader) Peter decides to take a trip to get away from it all.

Peter winds up at an amazing resort in Hawaii, only to discover that his Ex, Sarah, is there with her new boyfriend/other guy, Brit Rocker Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). It quickly becomes clear that getting over Sarah is going to be much harder than he thought. As both decide to stay at the resort, they keep running into each other, At dinner Peter, seated alone, is given "the best table in the house" because it's facing Aldous and Sarah, the next morning non-flexible Peter runs into the duo at a Yoga class, where he tries to keep up, and being an island they can't get away from each other.

Luckily for Peter, he meets a girl, Rachel, the resort's Customer Service lady played wonderfully by That 70s Show's Mila Kunis. What starts as a simple flirtation quickly (very quickly) turns into a relationship over Peter's 4 days at the Resort. While somewhat fast based, the relationship does seem fairly realistic.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the fantastic supporting cast. Jonah Hill plays a resort employee whose clearly obsessed with Aldous Snow, to the extent of baking him a cake. Paul Rudd is fantastic, as always, as the local Surfing Instructor with an awful memory. SNL's Kristen Wiig steals the show in her small scene as a Yoga instructor, who fawns over Aldous and Sarah and gives Peter a hard time.
But possibly the best of the supporting cast is 30 Rock's Jack McBrayer as one half of a Mormon newlywed couple, who's having trouble in the bedroom. McBrayer's scenes are hilarious and he constantly made me laugh.

If there was any disclaimers about the movie it's the amount of sex. There are several sex scenes, each of which are played for laughs, which could turn some people off. The scenes are done in a way that there's no actual nudity, but instead implied nudity.

The cut we saw, while having some raunchy material, is definitely the cleanest of the Apatow movies so far. The other difference is that this film does not throw out a joke a second. This doesn't mean it's not funny, to the contrary I laughed as much in these as I did at Super Bad or Knocked Up. It's just a different beast altogether, and I don't think it should be compared to those, although I'm sure it will be.

Labels: Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Jason Segel, Kristen Bell, sneak peek

The first picture of Harrison Ford and Shia LeBeouf from the next Indiana Jones Film, scheduled to come out next summer, has surfaced and I thought I'd post it here for you guys to see.
I just finished watching Raiders of the Lost Ark (like 10 minutes ago) and personally can't wait until next summer to leave the kid with Jeri and rush off to see the new adventures of Indiana!

Labels: Indiana Jones, Shia LaBeouf, sneak peek

1. Fanboys
Starring Kristen Bell, that’s all you need to know to understand why it’s at the top of my list.
Oh, you want to know more? Ok, it’s set in 1998/99 and follows a group of friends who make a pact to go cross country to Skywalker Ranch in order to see the newest Star Wars movie. Why would they make such a pact when they can just wait to see it in theaters you ask, because one of their group is dying of cancer and doctors don’t give him long enough to wait.
Full of geek humor and wit and lots and lots of Star Wars, not to mention Seth Rogen in a small role, and in my book every movie suffers from a lack of Seth Rogen.
In fact every movie should go back in and edit Seth Rogen back in some way. For Example: “Babel,” had the director only had Seth Rogen wondering around in the background, or given him one line, I would have changed my final view of the movie and recommended it to people by saying “As Depressing, unfun, and full of nudity as Babel is, it’s worth seeing for one reason, its small sampling of Seth Rogen.”

2. Spider-Man 3
What can I say, I love Spider-Man and I love these movies, and if only it had Kristen Bell or even a snippet of Seth Rogen it would be number 1, but alas it’s a lack of these two magical elements lands it at number 2 (which is really just number 1 part 2)
I know some people, fools we’ll call them, are out there asking why we should see Another Spider-Man movie. And to you fools, I say, for many reasons!
Reason 1: Everyone’s back. Sam Raimi, Toby Maguire, Kristen Dunst, James Franco, and everyone else from the first two films are back, even Michael Papajohn. That’s right Michael Papajohn! Okay don’t worry if you don’t know who he is, he played the carjacker in the first movie who kills Uncle Ben, or did he?!?!? Bum Bum BUM!!!! (on a side note I met Mr. Papajohn at a friends birthday party this summer, he was very nice and told me he had been working on the third film)
Reason 2: Sandman. Thomas Haden Church brings the role of a man made of sand to life, and it looks like good stuff.
Reason 3: Gwen Stacy. The first love of Peter’s life in the comics, who met a sad demise when the Green Goblin dropped her off a bridge, much like what happened to MJ in the first film, only Gwen’s neck snapped when Pete used his webs to save her and she dies instantly. Could the introduction of Gwen, mean the demise of MJ in a reverse of the comics?!?! I personally hope so!
Reason 4: The Real Reason to see this film: VENOM!!!! If you don’t know who Venom is go look it up online, all I’ll say is he’s basically the polar opposite of Spider-Man, which makes Topher Grace a perfect casting choice.

3. Be Kind Rewind (Coming out in 2007?)
Here’s what I know, it’s from Michel Gondry, the director of The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and stars Jack Black. But the best part is the premise. From IMDB: A man (Black) whose brain becomes magnetized unintentionally destroys every tape in his friend's video store. In order to satisfy the store's most loyal renter, an aging woman with signs of dementia, the two men set out to remake the lost films, which include Back to the Future, The Lion King, and Robocop.
Who cares how we get there the only thing that matters is it centers on two guys trying to recreate lots of movies. I read an interview with the Director and he said they didn’t let anyone watch the movie before hand, so it would be more authentic with these guys just making them from their memories.
I can’t wait to see their recreation of Back to the Future, one of my favorite movies of all time. Also they apparently recreate Superman but because of rights issues, they had to rename it, Stupid Warner Brothers.
But it should still be a lot of fun.

4. My Name is Bruce
The plot is stellar, Bruce Campbell is mistaken for his character Ash from the Evil Dead series and kidnapped by a group of people whose town is being overrun by monsters in order to defend them from the evil. Bruce Campbell is directing this movie and it seems like it will be another great B grade comedy/horror mix. Along for the ride is Ted Raimi, who some might remember as Joxer from Xena.
A great idea for what should be a fun romp.

5. The Invisible
The Directorial Debut of Batman Begins writer David Goyer, comes this story of a teen who wakes up to find that no one can see him. He must get a fellow classmate to help solve the story of his murder in order to get another chance to be seen.
That’s about all I know of this one, but it looks really good, and quite intriguing, and who knows maybe because I know very little, it will be that much better.

6. Hot Fuzz
A new movie from the fine folks behind Shaun of the Dead. This time around we follow Simon Pegg as one of London’s finest whose colleagues get him transferred to a small town because he’s so good he makes them look bad. Pegg is then paired up with his Shaun castmate Nick Frost, as his witless new partner. From there the pair stubble upon a serious of suspicious looking accidents.
The simple fact that it’s from the people who brought us Shaun shifts this to the top of the pile. Shaun is one of my favorite movies from the past few years, a zombie movie which is much more of a comedy, it makes you laugh and wince at intervals. Having seen Pegg in several other things since seeing Shaun, he’s become one of my favorite British actors and throwing Frost in as his cohort only makes this movie sound better.

7. Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix
Kind of Self Explanatory, its Harry Potter, lots of Voldemort, and the gang hits London with all of their magical goodness. All in all not my favorite book in the series, but these movies seem to keep getting better and better, so it will be great to see what they do this time.

8. Gone, Baby, Gone
Ben Affleck’s Directorial Debut. As a huge fan of Affleck this is almost enough to put this movie in my top ten, but it’s the fact that it’s based on a novel by Dennis Lehane, the same author that brought us Mystic River. Add to that the fact that Affleck has co-written the adaptation, something he hasn’t done since 1997’s Good Will Hunting and you have a very promising movie. Starring Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, and Casey Affleck (Ben’s younger brother).

9. The Nines
A Movie that wouldn’t have been on this list a week ago, because before that I’d never heard of the movie, has now jumped up into my top ten for ingenuity alone. Not to be confused with the promising television show that quickly lost all momentum, “The Nine,” The Nines is made up of three short stories each starring Ryan Reynolds (Smoking Aces, Van Wilder), Hope Davis (The Matador), & Melissa McCarthy (Gilmore Girls) as different characters. Each story follows Reynolds characters as they are pulled in different directions by the two lead actresses.
“The Prisoner” follows Reynolds as a troubled Television star under house arrest with his Publicist (McCarthy) and neighbor (Davis) as his only links to the outside world. He beings to wonder if the women are misleading him about the nature of his imprisonment.
“Reality Television” is an episode of a Project Greenlight-style show that follows the Creator of a new show (Reynolds) as he tries to make it through post-production with his star/best friend (McCarthy as herself) and the development VP (Davis).
“Knowing” finds a videogame designer (Reynolds) and his wife (McCarthy) stuck in the woods with their daughter (Elle Fanning) because of car trouble.
What do all of these stories have in common? What does the number nine have to do with it all? I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out!

10. Grindhouse
Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez had a great idea, each would write and direct an hour long horror story which would then by put together with an “Intermission” of fake trailers to make “Grindhouse” an homage to the theaters of the 70s which showed the horror movies of the day.
What sounded like a good idea with a run time of about 2 hours soon bloated, thanks to the fact that neither of them men have never been able to make a short movie, into two full length films with 10 to 20 minutes of fake trailers. The current run time runs between 180 and 223 minutes, depending on who you listen to.
The fake trailers are being made by everyone from Rob Zombie to Edgar Wright (Director of Shaun of the Dead and the aforementioned Hot Fuzz). And over all it looks to be a fun, bloody, waste of a Saturday night.

Honorable Mentions:
Live Free and Die Hard – Bruce Willis Bringing Back the late 80s/early 90s!
Transformers –Robots in Disguise Bringing Back the 80s and my Childhood! And There is so much More Than Meets the Eye
Evan Almighty – The Sequel to Bruce, starring Steve Carell. Most expensive Comedy ever made. Plus it’s got Lauren Graham.
I Am Legend – Classic horror tale about the last man on earth after a Vampire plague, starring Will Smith.
Blades of Glory – Ice Skating Doubles with the first All Men’s pair, Will Ferrell and Jon Heder. Also starring Will Arnett and his real life wife Amy Poehler, as the pairs brother and sister rival team.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds’ End – The 2nd one made over a billion dollars worldwide this summer, so I don’t think there’s anyone left that doesn’t know what this is.
Knocked Up – I know you’re wondering how come a movie STARRING Seth Rogen in his first STARRING role isn’t in your top ten, especially after having gone on and on about how great Seth Rogen is?
Easy, I’ve already seen it, so I’m not looking forward to it as much as the movies I haven’t seen yet. But it still makes the Honorable Mention because of Seth and the fact that my friend who’s currently working on the trailer has watched the movie and there’s at least one scene which was completely different. In the version I saw there’s an interview with James Franco at E! about Spider-Man 3. In the version my friend saw the interview is now with Orlando Bloom about Pirates 3. So I’m curious as to what else has been changed and which scenes they will end up using.

So that’s what I’m looking forward to in 2007. What are you looking forward to?

Coming This Week:
Because I Said So

Diane Keaton (The Family Stone, Father of the Bride) stars as Daphne the mother of three girls who decides to set up her youngest, Milly, with the perfect man, in order to prevent her from making the same mistakes she did. What Milly doesn’t know is that her mother found the man by placing a personal ad. Also it seems to involve a romance between Rev. Camden (7^th Heaven’s Stephen Collins).

Also Starring: Mandy Moore, Lauren Graham, Piper Perabo, and Tom Everett Scott.

Rated: PG-13 for sexual content including dialogue, some mature thematic material and partial nudity.

Labels: 2007, sneak peek