Tag Archives: Ben Stiller

Still-er funny

Posted on December 18, 2012 | 1 Comment

It’s Tuesday — time to tout one of my favorite flicks!

AMC agrees.

Keeping_the_Faith_HR622752

The 2000 comedy, Keeping the Faith, was featured on AMC this very afternoon while I was working from home.

(Really.  I was.)

Ben Stiller and Edward Norton star as a rabbi and a priest.  Jenna Elfman is the woman they both fall in love with.

The city of New York provides the backdrop for both their childhood story — the three were good friends — and their reunion as adults (where all hell breaks loose).

I love seeing Edward Norton in a lighter role like this, and Ben Stiller in a comedy that isn’t quite so over the top.

It’s the perfect feel-good film for the holidays.  Trust me –

I feel better already.

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Posted in Celebrities, Comedy, Commentary, Entertainment, Humor, Movies, Religion

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Censor this

Posted on November 5, 2011 | 1 Comment

After a long day yesterday, I was excited to see that Tropic Thunder, the hilarious Vietnam War movie-within-a-movie, was playing on FX. So I settled on the couch, prepared to laugh away my lethargy. But I was soon too annoyed to enjoy the film.

Why?

One of my favorite scenes in the movie — which is also one of the most controversial — was censored.  As in bleeped.  When no curse words were used.

In the scene, actors Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr.), a five-time Oscar winner, and Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), an action hero whose career is definitely waning, are discussing Tugg’s recent performance in the movie Simple Jack, where Tugg portrayed a mentally challenged boy ala Forrest Gump.

The conversation pokes fun at actors — how they choose these roles to garner major awards — and not at the characters they portray.  But the comedy is apparently too subtle for some, because FX bleeped out certain words in Lazarus’s speech, thereby killing the scene and the movie (for me).

If he had belittled the Simple Jack character, that would be one thing.  But the whole scene made fun of actors.

Actors!

Trust me, they can take it.  And hopefully have maintained their sense of humor.

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Posted in Business, Comedy, Commentary, Entertainment, Humor, Life, Movies, Television, TV

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Stop sign

Posted on November 13, 2010 | 1 Comment

I have never sat in a movie theater and literally boo’ed a trailer.

Until now.

It happens every time I see  the promo for “Little Fockers.”  (Yes, they went there.)

The very funny “Meet the Parents” movie beget the extremely mediocre sequel “Meet the Fockers.”  (It’s like they thought a funny title would make up for everything the script was lacking.)

But instead of quitting while they were ahead, the producers churned out a third and what we can only hope is the concluding — please, please let it be the final — chapter in this tale of a highly dysfunctional blended family.

Based on the trailer for “Little Fockers,” mediocre may even be a stretch for this one.

How many times can we sit and watch Ben Stiller hurt and humiliate himself?  DeNiro walk the line between cranky and cuckoo?  Hoffman peacock?

And is this really Teri Polo’s only acting job?

The most frustrating thing for me is listening to all the people in the theater laugh at the promo.   Judge for yourself.

Does it really take so little to tickle our funny bones?

I mean…fock.

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Posted in Celebrities, Comedy, Entertainment, Humor, Life, Movies

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Cruise control

Posted on June 10, 2010 | Leave a comment

Even if you didn’t watch the “MTV Movie Awards” last Sunday night, you probably got a glimpse of Tom Cruise in the show’s promos.

Didn’t see him?  He was the heavyset, bald guy with the ridiculously large hands chewing Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner a new one.  And during the awards show, he danced with J Lo and didn’t miss a step.

Those lucky enough to see the 2008 comedy “Tropic Thunder” with Ben Stiller and Robert Downey, Jr. no doubt recognized producer Les Grossman, the character Cruise created for the film.  Some labeled it as his comeback from the whole Scientology debacle and lower-than-expected box office for “Mission Impossible III” and “Lions for Lambs.”

Well, look out — it was just announced that Les Grossman has been tapped to get his own film!  Cruise and Stiller will produce and Michael Bacall, who wrote the soon-to-be released “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” is on board to pen the script.

I personally am thrilled for Cruise.  If people had rejected his latest endeavors based on his talent alone, that would be one thing.  But the majority of his critics attacked him based on his religious beliefs…and that burns my butt.

I don’t agree with his stance on Scientology.  It sounds like a load of wonk to me.  But I certainly don’t pick and choose films based on the religion — or lack thereof — of the actors in the cast.  And critics shouldn’t slam actors for the same.

I’m just saying.

So, good luck, Tom Cruise.  I hope Les Grossman kicks you-know-what all over you-know-where come the film’s release date.

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Posted in Humor, Movies, Travel

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Eyes clinched shut

Posted on March 23, 2010 | 1 Comment

I hadn’t been to the movie in a couple of weeks, which is an eternity in Carla years.  So I was excited to be able to see not one, but two movies this weekend.  I followed the critics recommendation for my first choice, “Greenberg,” and went counter to their advice for my second, “The Bounty Hunter.”

Both made me cringe.

When did movie makers decide that creating characters that audiences hate is a good idea?

I know that every person I watch on the big screen doesn’t have to be like me, or make the same kind of choices.  But I do think, at some point in the story, the audience has to care about them and the choices they are making…or why would we want to sit there and spend two hours of our lives with them?

In “Greenberg,” Ben Stiller plays a New York City carpenter who goes to his brother’s Los Angeles home to recover following a mental breakdown.  We get to watch him mistreat and belittle every person (and animal) he comes in contact with for the balance of the film.

It kinda made me miss blood and gore.  At least that’s more honest.

“The Bounty Hunter” just proved that bad writing can sink good actors.  I hated everyone in that movie, especially the writer Sarah Thorp.  She should be whipped for what she did to poor Jason Sudeikis (of “Saturday Night Live”) who had a ridiculous supporting role.

I realized when the movie was over that the funniest part of the evening was the trailer for “MacGruber.”

Now, there’s a character I get behind.

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Posted in Humor, Movies, Television

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