The LEGO Ninjago Movie
Director: Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher, Bob Logan
Screenwriter: Bob Logan, Paul Fisher, William Wheeler, Tom Wheeler, Jared Stern, John Whittington
Cast: Dave Franco, Justin Theroux, Fred Armisen, Abbi Jacobson, Olivia Munn, Kumail Nanjiani, Michael Peña, Zach Woods, Jackie Chan
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Rated PG | 101 Minutes
Release Date: September 22, 2017

The LEGO Movie franchise has proven that if you build it, they will come. Coming off of two widely successful films, The LEGO Movie and The LEGO Batman Movie, comes The LEGO Ninjago Movie – based off their Ninjago LEGO toyline. While the film is still set in the same LEGO world and has the same LEGO quirks – the self deprecating humor and pop culture nods – the film doesn’t pack the same punch as its predecessors. Which is ironic, because this is the most action-packed LEGO movie of them all. It’s filled with ninja action, mechs, and so much more. But a lackluster story that seems to be at odds with itself makes The LEGO Ninjago Movie the weakest of the three films. My full review below.

The Little Hours
Written & Directed by Jeff Baena
Starring Aubrey Plaza, Kate Micucci, John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, Fred Armisen, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Dave Franco, Paul Reiser, Jemima Kirke, Paul Weitz
Gunpowder & Sky
Release date: June 30, 2017

When looking for inspiration for modern comedy, I know what you’re thinking… the 14th century! For The Little Hours, writer/director Jeff Baena turns to an odd source, Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron. Written in the late 1300s after the Bubonic Plague ripped Europe apart, The Decameron was a collection of novellas about ten young people living in a secluded villa. The atmosphere and period setting made me instinctively think of Monty Python and the Holy Grail while the tone of the comedy — sex-based and vulgar — brought to mind There’s Something About Mary and Superbad. Somehow these two angles come together to form an oddly unique film that is intriguing throughout and laugh out loud funny at times.

Warner Bros. has just released the first trailer for The LEGO Ninjago Movie that features the voice talents of Dave Franco, Justin Theroux, Jackie Chan, Olivia Munn, Fred Armisen, Abbi Jacobson, Kumail Nanjiani, Michael Peña, and Zach Woods.

With The LEGO Batman Movie hitting theaters this weekend, now it seems like a perfect time to get our first look at newest spinoff. Check out the trailer along with a poster below.

Paramount Pictures released the trailer to Zoolander 2 today, in response to the online leak yesterday. About a minute and a half, the trailer ponders the mysteries of the universe as narrated by someone who sounds suspiciously like Stephen Hawking, going from the Big Bang to the evolution of the human brain, which looks like it includes hair dryers and mermen (from the first film).

Check out the teaser trailer below.

I remember when I first saw Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy — it was on the big screen opening dayin 2004, and as I fondly recall I laughed my ass off many times during that first viewing and then some. Then when the movie was released on DVD I bought it and began to watch it repeatedly. Soon Anchorman became one of my top five favorite comedies. It has become a signature movie in my life, a wonderful comedy loaded with memorable characters, hilarious gags, classic comedic set-pieces, and terrific dialogue that my friends and I never tire of quoting to each other. The movie was so great in fact that I seriously desired for a sequel to be made. That doesn’t usually happen much with comedies I love.

Action, science-fiction, and horror films easily lend themselves to being franchised, but franchising comedy is a much difficult prospect. But the principal cast and crew of Anchorman saw what a hilarious and special film they had made and sought for years to make a sequel, not out of the mercenary pursuit of greater wealth and exposure but out of the love they had for the characters and the world they created. It was just that the studio was adamant against making it for reasons that sound utterly ridiculous when you say them out loud. The project’s future seemed so questionable that the original film’s star was considering it dead in the water as recently as a few weeks again.

Then a funny thing happened just a few days ago….

Earlier this week, we brought you the news that comedy superstar Will Ferrell made a surprise appearance on the late night talk show Conan as the character Ron Burgundy, the egotistical news anchor with a heart of gold and a brain of vanilla pudding he played in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. His appearance was to wow the audience with a jazz flute jam and to make the special announcement that a deal had been worked out with Paramount Pictures for a sequel to the 2004 hit comedy to finally move forward.

Funny or Die, the website Ferrell co-created with friend and frequent collaborator (and co-writer and director of Anchorman) Adam McKay, has posted a video chronicling the moments before and after Ferrell’s Conan appearance. You can check it out here below.

FX, the network behind hit shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Rescue Me, and Sons of Anarchy, has picked up a brand new animated comedy series called Unsupervised.

The series comes from It’s Always Sunny creators (and stars) Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, and Glenn Howerton‘s RCG Productions banner. It’s part of a recent three–year, $50 million deal between the company and FX. The show is created and executive produced by Rob Rosell, Scott Marder, and David Hornsby, who have also worked on It’s Always Sunny.

Funny or Die is known for their hilarious videos — many of which feature well-known actors in Saturday Night Live-like sketches.

Recently, the site released a new video directed by Ron Howard that reunited a bunch of SNL alumni and some special guests for a message about the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. The hopes here is that this message will reach the eyes of President Barack Obama and help him with some majorly important decisions.

SNL is renowned for always having someone who creates a comical caricature of whomever the President is at the time for use in the many skits that will be written using that person. Currently, that job is owned by Fred Armisen, who portrays Obama whenever a skit for him is penned.

Continue on over to the other side to see the video!

Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!
Season 2
Starring Eric Wareheim, Tim Heidecker
Warner Home Video
Release Date: February 10, 2009

Launching a sketch comedy series these days often turns out to be a thankless task since very few of them ever manage to catch on during their first season. For every Saturday Night Live there’s a Fridays, for every In Living Color there’s a House of Buggin’, and for every Mr. Show with Bob and David there’s a Cedric the Entertainer Presents. Most sketch comedy series tend to fail because they’re little more than an interesting gimmick and a handful of failed attempts at creating iconic characters and hip catchphrases. There’s never any thought put into crafting skits that are genuinely hilarious and over-the-top performances that mostly veer close to being flat out obnoxious and sour movie parodies that would be rejected by even Cracked magazine become the order of the day.

The Cartoon Network’s nightly Adult Swim programming block has featured live-action shows to compliment their animated shows in the past. Two years ago Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, the creators of the short-lived Adult Swim staple Tom Goes to the Mayor, merged their unique brand of humor with the sketch comedy format and the result was Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!. Of all the shows on Adult Swim Tim and Eric may be the most experimental, each 11-minute episode a strange sculpture built out of the strange programs one could find between cable channels early in the morning. There are a ton of small skits crammed into every show and each one often manages to spin humor out of the most unlikely sources, and some sources ripe for a comedic ripping.