With Will Ferrell’s latest movie Semi-Pro hitting theatres this weekend, a little bit of reflection on his career seems to be in order. He’s undoubtedly among the upper echelon of former Saturday Night Live actors who have graduated to film, and has quickly become one of the most successful comedic actors working today. At this point he has notched a few pretty huge blockbusters on his belt including Elf, Talladega Nights and Blades of Glory, all of which made over $100 million. He also became an internet sensation last year with the viral video “The Landlord”.
But more and more as time goes on, we are starting to see a Will Ferrell backlash brewing. People are complaining that his whole “man child” schtick is tired and played out, and the formulaic sports comedies that he has been starring in are now a dime a dozen. Semi-Pro is getting hammered by critics (currently at 25% on Rotten Tomatoes), and public opinion seems mixed. Has his career already peaked?
I will admit that I thought Blades of Glory looked terrible and yet I ended up laughing a heck of a lot more than I thought I would. As a result, I will give Semi-Pro the benefit of the doubt. Ferrell has also been taking on a few somewhat higher brow projects lately such as Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda and Marc Forster’s Stranger Than Fiction. I personally would not count him out just yet, but I am curious to hear what everyone else thinks. Are you still excited about new Will Ferrell projects, or do you think he has become overexposed? Is his career on its way downhill? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.
Way back in 2003, The Onion editor Robert Siegel and writer Todd Hanson struck a deal with Fox Searchlight to create an Onion movie. The resulting film would parody current events and pop culture, and considering The Onion’s massive online following, it should have been a guaranteed cult hit. Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out. The movie was actually shot by music video directors Tom Kuntz and Mike Maguire, but then wound up being shelved by Fox for a few years due to poor test screenings. As of last year, the entire project had been scrapped, with all the major players walking away from it, determined never to look back.
But then a strange thing happened. A trailer for The Onion Movie suddenly turned up on the recent Fox Searchlight DVD release of The Darjeeling Limited, leading many to believe that Fox has changed their mind about the project. At this point, I’m guessing a lot of the jokes in the movie are dated, so perhaps they thought it best to just cut their losses and put it out direct to DVD. However, since pretty much everyone involved wanted to do some level of reshooting, you have to wonder if this is even going to be worth watching. You can check out the trailer for The Onion Movie over on the New York Times site right now. Although it doesn’t look particularly amazing, there are a couple segments that show promise (namely, Steven Seagal’s Cockpuncher). Are you interested in this movie? Do you think it can still be salvaged?
Are you ready for the comeback of Canadian funnyman Mike Myers? After 4 or 5 years of preparation, he’s finally about to unleash his latest and most outrageous new character on the world, Indian self-help advisor Pitka aka The Love Guru! No, seriously, this really is the new Mike Myers film. Oh how the mighty have fallen. Myers once sat atop the comedy world with his Austin Powers movies, and now it looks like he’s just out of practice and out of touch. Heck, I remember when Wayne’s World and So I Married an Axe Murderer seemed like some of the funniest movies ever made. But this… well, this just has disaster written all over it.
I want to believe that Myers has something up his sleeve, but the trailer feels like he is desperately trying to avoid acting like Austin Powers or using his Shrek voice (and failing miserably). And can we please just give it up with the Toronto Maple Leafs already?! We get it… you’re Canadian and you like hockey. You mention it in EVERY freaking interview. Now you’re inserting it into a movie where it barely makes any sense? This can’t possibly turn out well. The Love Guru is directed by Marco Schnabel (second unit director on Meet The Parents and Austin Powers in Goldmember), and is co-written by Graham Gordy (War Eagle). You know you’re in trouble when the only thing that can possibly save this movie is Jessica Alba. I think the people I’m most embarrassed for are Justin Timberlake and Romany Malco. What did they get themselves into? The Love Guru hits theatres on June 20th.
Something tells me that even the duo of Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson in The Other Boleyn Girl will be no match for Will Ferrell this weekend as he gets basketball sweaty in Semi-Pro. The Christina Ricci fairytale comedy Penelope is also in a decent number of theatres this weekend, although I’ve seen very little in the way of marketing for it. In limited release we have City of Men, the pseudo-sequel to Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund’s brilliant City of God, plus Brett Morgen’s unique animated documentary Chicago 10. I’d like to see both, but I imagine I’ll be waiting for DVD before I can catch them. Will audiences still flock to Will Ferrell’s latest sports comedy regardless of the negative reviews? Let’s face it, there ain’t much competition out there in February.
I often feel that I haven’t done my part as a blogger unless I continue to spread wild, unfounded rumours across the internet. With that in mind, I consider it my duty to inform you that some random person out there thinks Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville) is up for the role of a young Freddy Krueger in the upcoming A Nightmare on Elm Street remake/prequel (or whatever it’s going to be). How did they obtain this information, you ask? Well, supposedly they saw Michael Bay and Michael Rosenbaum out for lunch somewhere in Hollywood, leading them to believe that Rosenbaum is the new Freddy. Can’t you see how this is an obvious conclusion from the situation?
Nevermind the fact that Michael Bay seems pretty focused on Transformers 2 right now, clearly a dude who looks good bald is a perfect shoo-in for the part of a burned up Freddy Krueger. Yeah, needless to say I really don’t believe this rumour at all, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Rosenbaum ends up playing some sort of army commander in the next Transformers flick. What do you think? Would Rosenbaum be a good choice for Freddy or should they just make Robert Englund look young with CG effects and make-up?
Treknobabble is a continuing series of columns written by uber-Trekkie Reed Farrington in anticipation of the upcoming J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie.
He is omnipresent for his presence is felt everywhere and his works are innumerable.
He cares for us. He has done PSAs for The Cancer Society and AIDS. Spread the word about the affliction known as tinnitus from which he suffers. Hosted a television show called, “Rescue 911.” Starred in a ten-hour ecological television special, “Voice of the Planet,” to champion the environment. He annually hosts a Hollywood Charitable Horse Show that benefits children’s charities. He started a foundation for women with addictions after the death of his third wife. And, of course, he promotes bran for our health.
He has been worshipped (and widely imitated). On the Web, visit The First Church of Shatnerology and The Temple of Shatner. He’s had an art gallery present “The Shatner Show” that contained illustrations inspired by his life and career. Check out the movie “Free Enterprise” as an example of the effect he has had on people.
If you were one of the many people who hated the fact that Galactus was portrayed as a formless storm cloud in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, you’ll be happy to hear that the big guy will supposedly get his due in the upcoming Silver Surfer spin-off movie. During a recent panel at Wondercon, writer J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5, Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, The Real GhostBusters) explained that the movie would be an origin story, and did his best to appease angry fanboys by explaining that the reason Galactus was not shown in Fantastic Four 2 was because they were saving the reveal for this movie instead.
Although it may seem like a convenient excuse for the whole storm cloud fiasco, as long as Galactus does indeed show up in full armor and helmet in this movie, I’m assuming people will be happy (unless he looks goofy, which he probably will). Does this news make you more excited for the Silver Surfer standalone film? Hey, I’m just interested because of the fact that Alex Proyas (Dark City, The Crow) is still believed to be directing it, but I do think that a Silver Surfer movie probably wouldn’t be complete without Galactus playing a major role.
Looks like we’re in for another wave of movies about drug dealers and organized crime, thanks in part to the duelling Pablo Escobar biopics that are currently in the works. You can also add to the list a fictionalized remake of the recent Billy Corben documentary Cocaine Cowboys. We’ve been hearing about numerous documentaries getting the remake treatment lately, although not too many have made it to the big screen as of yet.
Cocaine Cowboys claims to tell the true story behind Miami Vice and Scarface, in particular the massive amounts of cash and coke that flowed through Miami in the 1980’s. Among the film’s subjects are Jon Roberts, a trafficker who actually worked for the Medellin Cartel, and pilot Mickey Munday. According to Page Six, Mark Wahlberg is signed on to star in the remake as Roberts, and he is trying to convince his buddy Leonardo DiCaprio to star as Munday. This is one case where I’d definitely love to see a fictional version of a documentary, because the original doc is mostly talking head interviews. It would be great to see how some of the crazy stories play out on screen.
On a related note, a sequel to Cocaine Cowboys is in production right now and it’s called Cocaine Cowboys II: The Godmother Returns. Check out the trailer below.
