Starring: Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill [full cast list under the ‘Cast’ tab]
Directed By: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Based on the Television Series Created By: Stephen J. Cannell and Patrick Hasburgh
Release Date: March 16, 2012
Genres: Action, comedy
Running Time: 109 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for crude and sexual content, pervasive language, drug material, teen drinking and some violence
Official Synopsis: In the action-comedy 21 Jump Street, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) are more than ready to leave their adolescent problems behind. Joining the police force and the secret Jump Street unit, they use their youthful appearances to go undercover in a local high school. As they trade in their guns and badges for backpacks, Schmidt and Jenko risk their lives to investigate a violent and dangerous drug ring. But they find that high school is nothing like they left it just a few years earlier – and neither expects that they will have to confront the terror and anxiety of being a teenager again and all the issues they thought they had left behind.
[tabs style=”default” title=”’21 Jump Street’ Resources”] [tab title=”Cast”]
Channing Tatum – ‘Jenko’
Jonah Hill – ‘Schmidt’
Brie Larson – ‘Molly Tracey’
Rob Riggle – ‘Mr Walters’
Dave Franco – ‘Eric Molson’
DeRay Davis – ‘Domingo’
Ice Cube – ‘Captain Dickson’
Dax Flame – ‘Zack’
Chris Parnell – ‘Mr Gordon’
Ellie Kemper – ‘Ms Griggs’
Jake Johnson – ‘Principal Dadier’
Nick Offerman – ‘Deputy Chief Hardy’
Holly Robinson Peete – ‘Officer Judy Hoffs’
Johnny Pemberton – ‘Delroy’
[/tab]
And this one’s just for the internet. This final parody trailer parodies The Muppets‘ other parody trailers – nice! – and also pokes fun at Paranormal Activity 3, Puss in Boots, Happy Feet Two, and Breaking Dawn (whoever dreamed up this marketing campaign deserves a raise).
Watch the final The Muppets parody trailer:
The Muppets arrives in theaters on November 23, 2011.
Want to hear the entire Breaking Dawn soundtrack before it’s released on November 8th? If so, then head to Twilight‘s official Facebook page where, for a 24 hour window, the Breaking Dawn soundtrack will be streaming.
Atlantic Records will stream the soundtrack beginning Saturday, October 29th at 7:30am PT (10:30am ET) and ending on Sunday, October 30th at 7:30am PT. All the songs off the album will be available to listen to for 24 hours, including the tracks by Christina Perri, Bruno Mars, and The Belle Brigade.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 opens in theaters on November 18, 2011.
Fox just announced they’ll be bringing back In Living Color for two half-hour specials next year. The sketch comedy, which originally ran from 1990 to 1994 and starred the Wayans brothers (Keenen Ivory, Damon, Shawn, and Marlon), will be updated in the new specials set to air in the spring of 2012.
Keenen Ivory Wayans is hosting and executive producing the specials which will feature a new young cast and musical acts.
More on the Original In Living Color [Courtesy of Fox]:
The iconic series put a hip, edgy spin on popular culture and featured characters and sketches that became part of the American vernacular, such as “Men on Film,” starring flamboyant film critics Blaine Edwards (Damon Wayans) and Antoine Merriweather (David Alan Grier); Homey D. Clown (Damon Wayans), a dour urban kiddie entertainer whose catchphrase was “Homey don’t play that!”; streetwise scam artists “The Home Boys” (Keenen Ivory and Damon Wayans); and Fire Marshall Bill (Jim Carrey), a disfigured safety expert.
Oh Goody. A spin-off from a franchise that’s become as irrelevant as James Bond has become emasculated. Off-topic. Sorry.
The Shrek series is Dreamworks’ animated cash cow franchise, making over 1.2 billion dollars domestically between the 4 films released between 2001 and 2010. The first was the only one that brought something interesting to the table, its sequels largely being bad copycats of the original. However, while it’s not cheap to make these movies, a smart release strategy and the less-than-discerning taste of tiny humans allow most well-marketed examples of the genre to net a tidy profit.
Probably sensing that there were only so many times the central voice cast would keep coming back, plans moved forward on spinning off one of the side characters and the result is Puss in Boots. Putting aside my own ambivalence towards the swashbuckling cat (voiced by Antonio Banderas), I have no idea what producers were thinking when choosing a director; going with Chris Miller, the guy who made Shrek 3, easily the worst in the franchise. Nice choice! (Dammit, when will they invent sarcasm font.)
Under his guidance, what ends up on the screen is a pacing nightmare. Following a decent opening scene, there are thirty minutes of exposition and flashbacks to explain the situation Puss finds himself in. We meet a fellow adventure seeker, Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek), learn about Puss’ orphanage childhood and friendship with Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis), and set the stage for the trio to attempt to steal the golden goose at the top of Jack’s Beanstalk. It’s slightly more complicated but I just condensed 30 minutes into one sentence, you can thank me later.
All this talking, talking, talking wouldn’t have been quite so bad if the movie then picked up from there and became the adventure-comedy promised by the premise. What follows the opening exposition is a fun action scene, which is then followed by loads more talking, then cue an action scene, and now we’re back to more talking. Rinse and repeat until the end credits thankfully release us from the theater. (Hearing all the restless kids in the audience was also a sure sign my nitpicking wasn’t just the result of a film critic expecting too much.)
Weighing the good versus the bad leans heavily towards the latter. Watching Miller yet again fail to realize that good filmmaking is about showing the audience a story, not telling it to them, is a pain. Also, although it’s a hallmark of the Shrek films to attempt current humor and fail miserably, it’s too bad that trait followed Puss and his pals (the Fight Club reference is more than slightly dated at this point).
The 3-D isn’t terrible, but after the first few scenes that do some nice things with the technology, the majority of the film then felt rather flat (pun intended). And if they were going to reunite Banderas and Hayek, I’d rather have seen yet another Desperado sequel (yes, I realize what I’m saying with that statement).
Puss in Boots was originally going to be a direct-to-DVD affair and the final product just proves that the studio should have trusted their first instinct. While I’m sure this will make plenty of money at the box office (what else can parents bring their kids to right now?), it’s lazy filmmaking from a director who’s now 0 for 2. They say the third time is the charm … I’d rather not test that theory.
Unless you’ve got kids who won’t shut up about seeing the film or a particularly masochistic streak when it comes to deciding how to spend $83 dollars on a trip to the theaters, skip this one entirely.
GRADE: D+
Puss in Boots hits theaters on October 28, 2011 and is rated PG for some adventure action and mild rude humor.
In a television season in dire need of fresh, new comedies, it is quite ironic that the season is being led by Tim Allen, playing a character closely resembling Tim Taylor from Home Improvement. There are enough differences to keep the audience entertained, but the similarities make the show feel strikingly familiar.
Tim Allen plays Mike Baxter, another man’s man character. Mike Baxter works for an outdoor sports catalog company and uses the same “sales pitch” platform that Tim Taylor used in Home Improvement while hosting a home improvement show. He is now providing sales pitches over the internet while playfully interacting with the subject matter and his co-workers. He matches some manly knowledge of his product with the innocent, but slanted views of life that usually leads to trouble. Even with presenting an outward appearance of experience and skill, there is usually an idiotic component that he spins in a very funny way.
Tim Allen’s character remains incredibly macho and biased to the male sex in every way. This is especially true when he interacts with the gay / flower-child operators of his grandson’s preschool, with how his eldest daughter is trying to raise his grandson out of wedlock and without a father figure in his life. Instead of the father and sons topics and situations we enjoyed in Home Improvement, now there is the father and daughter interaction with double standards and overly protective father approaches when he’s at home with his beautiful wife (Nancy Travis) and three daughters.
Tim remains very opinionated, chauvinistic, and is constantly fighting change while reminiscing how life used to be and how real men should behave like real men. However, he remains incredibly innocent with a kid-on-Christmas-morning enthusiasm within his humor. He also stays true to good-spirited, family-value type comedy that continues to be appreciated by parents, children and people of all ages. It is good to see Tim Allen back on a sitcom and it is entertaining that we get to see him do his best comedic work, again.
* * * * * * * * * Last Man Standing debuted on ABC on October 11, 2011.
Adele has had to cancel the rest of her 2011 in order to take care of her throat and undergo surgery. Here’s the official statement as posted on Adele’s website:
“It is with deep regret that Adele has been forced to cancel her remaining live dates and promotional appearances in 2011. She is to undergo surgery to alleviate the current issues with her throat and a full recovery is expected. As a result, doctors have ordered her to rest her voice and completely recuperate before looking to schedule any work commitments.
Ticket holders for all cancelled live dates will receive a refund from the point of purchase. We apologise for any inconvenience and disappointment caused, and appreciate your understanding during this time.”
The cancelled dates are:
October (US)
7th – Atlantic City, NJ – Borgata Spa
8th – Durham, NC – Performing Arts Center
10th – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
11th – Asheville, NC – Thomas Wolfe Auditorium
13th – Orlando, FL – Hard Rock Live
14th – Miami, FL – Waterfront Theatre
16th – Atlanta, GA – Fox Theatre
18th – Spring, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion
19th – Austin, TX – Frank Erwin Center
21th – Grand Prairie, TX – Verizon Theatre
Following in the footsteps of Where the Buffalo Roam and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas comes the latest novel-turned-film from late author/gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary.
The story concerns aspiring novelist Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp), hired onto a sinking ship of a newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Set at the beginning of the 1960s, not only is the fight against communism in full swing but rampant greed is on the rise as Americans look to cash in on the beautiful island before anyone else can.
To that effect, a small consortium of big shots, with so-called PR consultant Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart) as their talking head, is hoping to use Depp’s talents as a writer to help secure the rights to build a hotel on a soon to be available island nearby. And the Puerto Rican people are upset about jobs and wages. And Sanderson’s trophy girlfriend, Chenault (Amber Heard), has a thing for Kemp (and vice-versa). And the editor of the newspaper (Richard Jenkins) might be a crook. And the eternally drunk crime & religion reporter (Giovanni Ribisi) might be the smartest man on the island. And … well, you’re getting tired of “And” aren’t you?
The film completed principal photography about three years ago. 3 YEARS AGO. That’s a bad sign 99.999% of the time and most certainly in this case, with an end result that makes the probably countless edits and tinkering painfully obvious. The listed runtime is an already too-long 120 minutes that mysteriously feels more like some 3-hour epic (of tediousness). Looking for positives, the acting is fine, and there are a few very funny bits but the aimless nature of the picture, with loads of metaphors and symbolism coming across as either half-hearted or over-the-top, simply makes it all a very flat and unentertaining experience.
The entire movie feels like reading a very dry novel, with all of the subplots and nuances either stripped down or included without the faintest care in the world whether or not it helps the overall story. Recruiting Kemp to help with the hotel scheme takes far too long only to see the specific elements become completely irrelevant. The budding romance between Chenault and Kemp feels somehow both central and tangential all at the same time. The buddy-buddy antics between Kemp and the newspaper’s photographer (Michael Rispoli) have a “Fear and Loathing” vibe, which is both at odds with the film as a whole and fits in nicely at times. Can you tell if things are hit-and-miss?
It’s no surprise Depp wanted to have another of Thompson’s novels made into a film. However, there should have come a time in the last three years when this scattered mess of a film was jettisoned straight to DVD or basic cable. Subjecting people to $54 movie tickets on the promise of Depp being Depp is just cruel. And while I never quite reached the point of wanting to walk out on The Rum Diary, had I been at home, the channel would have been changed long before the credits rolled.
GRADE: D+
The Rum Diary was directed by Bruce Robinson and is rated R for language, brief drug use and sexuality.
Charlie Sheen stars in ‘Anger Management’ – Photo Credit: Frank Ockenfels/FX
Charlie Sheen will be back on television in 2012 in a new series on FX. The network’s just picked up Anger Management, a new sitcom loosely based on the 2003 Adam Sandler/Jack Nicholson film, with Sheen set to star.
Here’s the press release:
“FX has ordered 10 episodes of Anger Management from Lionsgate-owned distributor Debmar-Mercury, led by Co-Presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein. Production on the sitcom will begin in early 2012 with comedy veteran writer-producer Bruce Helford (George Lopez, The Drew Carey Show) as executive producer and showrunner. It will be produced by Lionsgate Television, led by Television Group President Kevin Beggs and COO Sandra Stern; Joe Roth and Revolution Studios’ Vince Totino; Sheen manager Mark Burg’s production company, Evolution Management; and Ramon Estevez and Estevez Sheen Productions.
In success, FX will pick up an additional 90 episodes under a unique syndication model crafted by Debmar-Mercury for multiple Tyler Perry sitcoms and Revolution’s and Ice Cube’s Are We There Yet? The series will air exclusively on FX until the off-network episodes start airing in broadcast syndication in fall 2014.
“We think that Bruce Helford, Joe Roth and Charlie Sheen have come up with a wonderful, hilarious vehicle for Charlie’s acting talents—and a character we are very much looking forward to seeing him play,” said John Landgraf, President and General Manager, FX Networks. “Two and a Half Men has been an outstanding component of FX’s schedule for the past 14 months, and we have every confidence that Anger Management will soon be as well.”
Sheen will retain a significant ownership stake in the series inspired by the film, in which an anger management therapist, who may need more counseling than his patients, wreaks havoc on the lives of his patients through his unconventional methods.
“I have been fortunate to work with Charlie Sheen on six hit films,” said Roth. “Now to have Charlie, the number one comedy star on TV, doing Anger Management, feels like a perfect fit. And I could not be happier than being back at Fox with John Landgraf and Chuck Saftler.”
“We were very gratified by the high level of interest in Anger Management from across the industry,” commented Marcus and Bernstein. “Ultimately, we felt FX’s track record for airing daring and distinctive shows would provide the perfect home for a sitcom headlined by one of the most successful sitcom stars of all time and produced by Joe Roth.”
Beggs said, “The FX brand epitomizes creative excellence and risk-taking combined with entrepreneurial business acumen. Partnering with them on Anger Management is a no-brainer and we are thrilled to bring Charlie Sheen, Bruce Helford and this amazing creative team to the FX family of original series.”
“Charlie and I are thrilled to be in business with FX and look forward to producing this series for years to come,” said Burg.
Charlie Sheen, who has starred in more than 40 feature films, catapulted to fame in such critical and commercial hits as Platoon and Wall Street. His other feature film credits include Major League, Red Dawn, Lucas, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Eight Men Out, Young Guns, Hot Shots!, Hot Shots! Part Deux, The Three Musketeers, The Chase, Money Talks, Being John Malkovich, Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4. He also appeared in the television movies Rated X and Good Advice.
Sheen became known to television audiences through his Golden Globe Award-winning lead role in Spin City. In 2003, Sheen was cast as Charlie Harper in the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men, which was loosely based on Sheen’s bad boy image. The role garnered him an ALMA Award and four Emmy Award nominations, as well as two Golden Globe Award nominations for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series.
In 2011, Sheen set a new Guinness World Record for Twitter as the “Fastest Time to Reach 1 Million Followers,” adding an average of 129,000 new followers per day.”
That’s the number of minutes I’d like to spend writing a review about writer/director Andrew Niccol’s film, In Time. (Any more, and I’m simply wasting mine.)
The sci-fi premise here is that time has become the commodity by which all things are bought and sold. People are now genetically engineered to stop aging at 25 … which would be great except for the 1-year ticking clock that starts up as a result. And when your clock hits zero, that’s it, folks. C’est fini. Need a cup of coffee? That’ll be 4 minutes. Need to pay your rent? That’ll be 2 days. Need to travel to a nicer time zone? That could cost you a full year.
Time zones you ask? Well, it’s basically the way in which society has walled off each caste segment of society. The rich lounge around in beautiful houses with little to fear but a freak accident or violent crime. The poor beg and scrape to stay ahead of their personal clock, rarely figuring out a way to save up enough to move up to a nicer zone.
Crap, I’m 5 minutes down.
Okay, so the story here centers on Will Salas (Justin Timberlake). He has dreams of taking his mom to the nicest zone there is (by the way, mom’s played by Olivia Wilde … remember, everyone stops aging at 25 … and yes, this would make mingling at a bar very awkward). After a chance meeting with a rich man who’s mentally fatigued from living for so long, Will makes his way to the Beverly Hills of time zones and meets Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried), the daughter of a very wealthy time mogul (Vincent Kartheiser). Will and Sylvia’s beginning is a bit of a ransom scheme but eventually, the film turns into a cross between Bonnie and Clyde, Robin Hood, and Logan’s Run. The two of them try to stay one step ahead of the law (headed up by Cillian Murphy), and the audience should try to stay well away from the movie theater.
Sorry, that seemed rushed, but I’ve only got five more minutes!
Look, the script is insipid, to say the least. It’s full of flat puns about time and its value (my favorite being a hooker saying she’ll give you 10 minutes for an hour). The cutesy attempts to shoehorn a story about class warfare into this sci-fi shell merely come off like some film student who thinks he’s the wittiest kid in school. And then there’s the weird fact that the entire film feels like it’s filmed within a square mile of the Sixth Street Bridge in Los Angeles, with at least half a dozen trips back and forth on it.
TWO MORE MINUTES!!!
By the end of it all, I couldn’t help but get the giggles watching Timberlake and pals run from place to place, supposedly with purpose but their intentions are only loosely hinted at. It’s like Niccol had some great, grand plan but in only giving the loose framework of this sci-fi setting, trying to develop real, tangible results in the end simply don’t work. I doubt it was intentional but I laughed more at this than nearly every “comedy” of 2011.
So, with my time quickly running out, here’s the run down: Timberlake & Seyfried are pretty. The script is not. This is fine for a lazy afternoon on the couch but don’t let In Time part you from your money at the theaters. Then you truly would have wasted both your money and your time. (Sorry, I had to have at least one more shot at the title, didn’t I?)
TIME’S UP! (Okay, so I got another one in.)
GRADE: C-
In Time hits theaters on October 28, 2011 and is rated PG-13 for violence, some sexuality and partial nudity, and strong language.
Want to hear the entire 
Fox just announced they’ll be bringing back In Living Color for two half-hour specials next year. The sketch comedy, which originally ran from 1990 to 1994 and starred the Wayans brothers (Keenen Ivory, Damon, Shawn, and Marlon), will be updated in the new specials set to air in the spring of 2012. 
