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….