0 Comments · Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Screenwriter Dan Fogelman (Crazy, Stupid, Love.) and director Anne Fletcher (The Proposal)
team up behind the scenes of this tag-team road trip tracking an
overbearing mother (Barbra Streisand) and her son (Seth Rogen) as they
cross the country.
0 Comments · Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Pack your bags for a holiday retreat to the place where the dream of the 1990s and 1890s is alive. Portlandia might
not return for Season Three until next month, but IFC has left a little
gift in every hipster’s stocking with the holiday special, Winter in Portlandia.
by Jac Kern
04.30.2012
Jac's favorite recent pop culture and Internet findings
The
White House Correspondents’ Dinner was Saturday, and while CityBeat’s invitation
must have gotten lost in the mail, the event brought journalists, celebrities
and famewhores from across the country to Washington, D.C. What began in the
1920s as an opportunity to recognize journalists is now more of a “Washington
goes Hollywood” event, usually hosted by comedians and attended by celebs who
have little (if anything) to do with politics or reporting. Although the event
gets criticism for becoming a schmooze-fest,
I’m a fan of what has become a Washington roast, where politicians stop taking
themselves too seriously, at least for one night.
President
Obama kicked off the night with a dig at his recent “hot mic” incident, and
continued by poking fun at other politicians, odd celebrity guests and other
current events.
The
evening was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, who took the stage like a true equal
opportunity offender:
Speaking
of diminishing journalistic integrity, how ‘bout the rise and (immediate) fall
Gawker’s Fox News mole? Earlier this month, Gawker announced
a new column by a Fox News employee, who was prepared to share the deepest,
darkest secrets from everyone’s favorite conservative channel — or something.
Two days later, the “mole” (revealed as O’Reilly
Factor associate producer Joe Muto) was found out by the network and
subsequently fired. So that’s the end of that, right? Not quite. Muto
was served with a search warrant early Wednesday morning. New York’s District
Attorney’s office seized Muto’s laptop, cell phone and some notebooks as part
of an open investigation. Fox News is accusing Muto of conspiracy and grand
larceny, according to this warrant.
The best/worst part of the whole debacle is that Muto only managed four Gawker
posts, which included juicy Fox dirt like a photo of a bathroom Bill O’Reilly
uses and a clip of Mitt Romney talking about his horses to Sean Hannity. Yawn. UPDATE: Muto apparently grew up in Cincinnati. Represent!
From
Pizza Hut’s new pies with cheeseburgers instead of crusts to the Heart Attack Grill
living up to its name, junk food on ‘roids is all the rage right now! Las
Vegas’ Heart Attack Grill is known for its over-the-top diner grub, including a
“Quadruple Bypass Burger,” so should anyone be surprised that eating there
could potentially be harmful to one’s health? For the second time this year, a guest collapsed at the restaurant, which boasts the Guinness World Record for
highest calorie hamburger (9,983 — about five times the calories recommended
for one day).
People go to Vegas for the thrill of a gamble — the Heart Attack Grill just
offers a unique spin! Meanwhile,
in the Middle East, Pizza Hut is finally solving that boring pizza crust
problem (what are we supposed to do — just eat plain dough?!) by swapping it
for cheeseburgers and chicken sliders. This
came just weeks after we were introduced to The Hut’s hot dog-stuffed crust,
which is now available in the U.K. The most shocking part about these pizza monstrosities?
They aren’t served in the States (yet)! Are we becoming a healthier nation or
is our fatness just rubbing off on other countries? In
movie news, a 2007 viral comedy short is now becoming a
star-studded smorgasbord. Jay
and Seth vs. The Apocalypse starred Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogan as friends
confined to an apartment during the end of the world. Filmed in just four days
immediately following production on Knocked
Up, the short is only available as a trailer on YouTube:
After
the success of Knocked Up, Pineapple Express and other Rogen
comedies, the crew is remaking the short into a feature film, currently titled The
End of The World. In
the film, James Franco (playing himself) hosts a party at his apartment when
the world begins…to end. Party-goers will include Jonah Hill, Danny McBride and
Aziz Ansari, in addition to Rogen and Baruchel. It’s an Apatowpocalypse!
While these dudes are taking something scary (the apocalypse) and turning it into
something funny, this bitch is turning something from my youth (dolls) into
the stuff of nightmares. Meet Valeria Lukyanov, “human” Barbie!
Also,
this Craigslist ad:
0 Comments · Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The Beastie Boys have denounced a lot of their early work. Maturity and a social conscious apparently do not allow for songs about Wiffle Ball-bat rape and giant penis stage props. So it was a bit of a shock when it was reported that the Boys’ Adam Yauch is working on a short film based on the trio’s first huge hit, “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!).”
Judd Apatow delivers another hilarious comedy
0 Comments · Friday, July 31, 2009
Writer/director Judd Apatow raises the stakes on his already stellar formula for generating laughs with a comedy that's equal parts sincerity and wit. This is by far Adam Sandler's best movie because Apatow writes comic set pieces that allow germs of humor to expand between the more obvious laughs that Sandler hits with sharp-shooter accuracy. Grade: A-.
0 Comments · Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The genius here is the way the film pulls you into the character of Ronnie Barnhardt (Seth Rogen) — he just wants to be loved — and then pushes the audience away with his repellent behavior. That there are no likable characters in the story, save one, adds to a real sense of mall social miasma where Ronnie earns likeability points for at least having some personality, even if that persona is completely deranged. Grade A.
Wallows in genre pleasures and avoids a Pixar comparison
0 Comments · Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Creature features, alien invasions, 3-D gimmickry: From start to finish, 'Monsters Vs. Aliens' celebrates some of the staples of the 1950s B movie. And in a way that's perfectly fitting, because maybe it's time to start giving the unapologetic genre picture some credit again. Grade: B.