ScreenCrave.com » Jack Black

Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black in The Big Year Trailer

Damon Houx — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 22:28:17 +0000

Who would think that Jack Black, Owen Wilson and Steve Martin would make a comedy together? Wilson and Black have already crossed paths, from their would-be TV show Heat Vision and Jack to the first season of Community, they’re both regular collaborators with Ben Stiller, and that gang of comedians. But Steve Martin seems to either make quality films or plain hackwork. Hard to say what The Big Year will be, which has three men taking a year off from life to explore the world. Check out the trailer and the poster…

A little bit of slapstick is expected, some smartish dialog is there, the question is if it is a wank-fest, or actually insightful. Hard to say. All three lead performers are capable with the right material, but all three have not only phoned it in, but sucked it up in some of their films. The director is David Frankel, which – as the poster notes – worked wonders with The Devil Wears Prada.

Perhaps more interesting is that the script is fro Howard Franklin, a mercurial talent who co-directed Quick Change with Bill Murray. That suggests good things, and perhaps the trailer plays up the stupid. The most fascinating moment for me is at the end when both Jack Black and Steve Martin dance. Martin dances in his iconic “goofy” style while Jack Black dances in his iconic way as well. But it’s an interesting yin and yang, as Martin returning to his “happy feet” roots evokes nostalgia, while Black’s schtick invokes the flop sweat that has come with his string of unfunny vehicles (from Saving Silverman to Guliver’s Travels). That said the film this most reminds of is The Darjeeling Limited, which starred Owen Wilson. Here’s the poster.

Is this a comic trio that interests you?

Kung Fu Panda 2: Movie Review

Laura Aguirre — Fri, 27 May 2011 18:18:16 +0000

In 2008 we got the cute and funny cartoon Kung Fu Panda, featuring the voice of Jack Black. Three years later, our panda Po is still overweight, but doing what he loves and so hilariously fought for in part one — being the legendary Dragon Warrior. The sequel still has its tasty tray of A-list Hollywood voices (Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Dustin Hoffman) and this time around we also get Gary Oldman. We also get more heart and soul and less laughs, which for me, was a good thing!

The Players:

Director: Jennifer Yuh
Writers: Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger
Actors: Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, David Cross, Dustin Hoffman, Lucy Liu, Gary Oldman, Seth Rogen, Jean-Claude Van Damme
Producer: Guillermo del Toro
Music By: John Powell, Hans Zimmer

The Plot:

Po is now living his dream as The Dragon Warior, protecting the Valley of Peace alongside his friends and fellow kung fu masters, The Furious Five – Tigress, Crane, Mantis, Viper and Monkey. But Po’s new life of awesomeness is threatened by the emergence of a formidable villain, who plans to use a secret, unstoppable weapon to conquer China and destroy kung fu. It is now up to Po and The Furious Five to journey across China to face this threat and vanquish it.

The Good:

Jack Black: Like any actor, Black has had his hits and misses (maybe more misses than hits), but hearing his voice via an animated Panda, took me back to the first time I decided I liked the guy (flashback to seeing Black singing Led Zeppelin‘s “Immigrant Song” in School of Rock). Black does well as the martial arts fighting Po. He knows when to be funny. He’s in tune with the flow of his character and other characters around him.
Deep stories: At the heart of Kung Fu Panda 2, there’s a wise Buddhist waiting to get out. One could appreciate the animated film for including mature themes like fate and identity, but still keeping its primary goal in clear focus, which is to entertain the family. Audiences will get to know where Po really comes from, and get their answer to why his father is not a panda, but a goose.
Action: Yes, animated films have a lot more room for this kind of thing than live-action films, but as far as action and fighting scenes go, Kung Fu Panda 2 kicks butt! The action scenes look amazing, and they will be entertaining whether you’re a 5-year-old boy or a 22-year-old girl.
Gary Oldman: First off let me say that all the characters are fun and add something great to this sequel, but it would be wrong if I didn’t give a special shout out to the voice behind the peacock, Mr. Oldman. Here, Oldman plays the evil Lord Shen (who’s set on conquering all of China), and he’s perfectly casted. Never has the beautiful peacock been so, so not beautiful. Thanks Mr. Oldman!

The Bad:

More tears, less laughs: This sequel is not like those other sequels. It won’t have you saying, ‘Well, that was a complete waste of my time.’ Or regretting the $11.50 you paid to see it. Like I said, it’s got a heart and soul, and that sets it apart from the first one. The story focuses on Po’s journey of self-identity (hint: adult theme). But beware, you’ll be bursting into tears more than you’ll be bursting into laughs. There are laughs, but I would’ve preferred to spend more time laughing at more jokes and puns than sobbing at Po’s emotional baggage.

Overall:

Just ask yourself, pain in simple — if you loved the first one, how are you not going to love the second one? (This doesn’t always work for sequels, but, in this case, it does.)

Rating: 9/10

Kung Fu Panda 2 hits theaters May 26th (at midnight, if you can get the kiddies to stay up that late).

Photo Gallery:

Trailer:

New DVD Releases: The King’s Speech, Gulliver’s Travels, Somewhere

Andrew Payne — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:06:09 +0000

A very solid week on DVD this week, crowned by this year’s Best Picture winner, The King’s Speech, making its way on to small screens. But that’s only leading a charge that includes bombs aplenty including misfires from Peter Weir, Sofia Coppola and a colossal pile of sunk costs from Jack Black!

All that plus some very cool retro TV on DVD choices and the latest film from one of the most legendary action stars of all time. Betcha can’t guess who it is.

Check it out below…

Feature Films

The King’s Speech

There are so many lazy Oscar prognosticators out there. So many. And what was there favorite cliche this year? That The King’s Speech was a movie “tailor-made for the Academy”. That if you could make a movie specifically for the Academy it would be this one?

Really? This is the movie that you’d make? In what world does that make sense? This movie couldn’t be less tailor-made for the Academy. Let’s play a little game where we go back in time to see how many Best Picture winners we have to go through in order to find one that resembles the type of “tailor-made Best Picture winner” that The King’s Speech is.

The Hurt Locker

Gritty, ultra-realistic war picture without a touch of “prestige”. Not even close.

Slumdog Millionaire

A hyper-kinetic trip through the slums of India. Doesn’t exactly scream upper-crust.

No Country for Old Men

An ultra-violent commentary on present society. (Which beat The Queen, by the way)

The Departed

A dirty crime drama filled littered with violence and Bah-stahn accents. No British manners here.

Crash

A hyper-link modern-day Los Angeles film about race relations. Wasn’t a whole lot of diversity in Speech.

Million Dollar Baby

A boxing drama. Hey, at least the sport was invented in England.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

A fanboy fantasy epic. At least it has the word “King” in the title.

Chicago

A subversive musical about murder with a total post-modern presentation. Though there was some “sing-as-speech”

A Beautiful Mind

A character study about a crazy southern mathematician.

Gladiator

A swords and sandal action epic.

American Beauty

A comedic modern-set suburban satire. Couldn’t be more the opposite.

Shakespeare in Love

British? Check. High-Class? Check. Prestigious Subject Matter? Check check check.

Yes! We finally have a film that sort of resembles the type of “surefire Oscar film” that was The King’s Speech.

It took us an amazing twelve Best Picture winners in order to finally find a film that looks and feels like The King’s Speech. So where did these Oscar writers find this cliche? There are several Oscar winners in recent years that couldn’t be less like The King’s Speech, yet this is the movie that you’d make in a paint-by-numbers Oscar formula?

Look at those Best Picture winners again. See what they have in common? That’s right, they won Best Picture. That’s it! This is a genre grab-bag and tonal mishmash if there ever was one on all sorts of different scales, budgets and pedigrees.

In other words, there is no formula for an Best Picture Oscar winner. It just happens.

And if you want to see why that happened to this film, you can buy The King’s Speech on DVD.

Gulliver’s Travels

I thought about writing a brief few paragraphs about how Jack Black has become irrelevant (and this movie proves it), but then I got to wonder – was he ever really the big star that everybody seems to think he is?

Think about it, he’s only had one real hit that was a “Jack Black Movie” – The School of Rock. His other big hits were Tropic Thunder (an ensemble piece of which he was about the seventh most memorable character), The Holiday (a chick flick where his role could’ve been played by anybody), King Kong (a minor role at best, a role you didn’t even remember at worst) and Kung Fu Panda (a cartoon where his voice role could have been filled by anybody).

That’s about it. The rest of his career is mostly cameos and huge misfires such as Year One, Envy and Nacho Libre.

And now this massive bomb. A movie that bombed so horrifically that it didn’t really effect him because nobody even remembers it came out.

So is this guy really a gigantic comedic movie star? You look at the Eddie Murphys and Ben Stillers of the world in their primes and you see nothing but $100 million hits for a five-to-ten-year run. Where is Jack Black’s run? I don’t see a prime anywhere.

And that’s not to rag on Jack Black. I think he’s great. By my count he should have two Oscar nominations right now (for High Fidelity and Rock), but I don’t think he’s ever gotten close to the Comic Megastar Status people seem to want to attach to him.

But if you really dig him, you can buy Gulliver’s Travels on DVD.

Also:

Ip Man 2 – Buy Now
Rabbit Hole – Buy Now
Somewhere – Buy Now
The Way Back – Buy Now

TV on DVD

“Captain Planet and the Planeteers”: Season 1

Nickelodeon recently announced plans to dedicate a channel to all the great Nick shows of my youth. Shows like “Clarissa Explains It All” and “Hey Dude”. I’m extremely excited, but it’s just not enough for me.

It’s probably too much to ask, but I wish we could go without network borders and combine all the shows I loved in my youth to one channel regardless of who produced them. “Captain Planet” would definitely be on that list, if only for the theme song.

Also, now that I’m more sophisticated than I was when I was drooling out of a sippy cup and watching this show, I may finally find out why exactly the Planeteers didn’t just summon Captain Planet right at the beginning of every episode. It seemed each storyline revolved around one of them getting separated from the rest of the group (usually that pipsqueak Heart) and the other four desperately trying to find that person so they could summon Captain Planet and the episode would end.

Luckily, we can at least finally solve that mystery and buy Captain Planet: Season 1 on DVD.

Also:

“American Dad”: Volume 6 – Buy Now
Ernie Kovacs Collection – Buy Now
“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”: Season 6 – Buy Now

And Just So You Know, This DVD Exists…

Beastie Boys Fight For Your Right – Revisited Trailer Brings Out the A-Listers

Damon Houx — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 22:13:16 +0000

There’s something to be said that only the Beastie Boys could bring out Danny McBride, Seth Rogen, Elijah Wood, Jack Black, Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Ted Danson, Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon and many more famous people for what appears to be a very funny goof on the history of the Band. McBride, Wood and Rogen play younger versions of the band, with Reilly, Ferrell and Black the older iterations. How this all works out is unknown, but the trailer is here for Fight For Your Right – Revisited, and it is great. Check it out…

This is a short film written and directed by Beastie Boy Adam Yauch. It will come with their latest album Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2, which hits stores and iTunes on 5/3. The premise is that it’s a sequel (as has been reported) to the Beastie Boys breakout video “Fight For Your Right to Party.”

With all the celebrities and cameos this could descend into navel-gazing nonsense if it goes too long or attempts too much, but with the sheer comedic talent involved, the likelihood of that is smaller than average.This trailer has everything, including Ferrell hitting a cowbell. It looks like inspired lunacy. Even if the B-Boys are middle-aged rappers in a genre of music that has yet to see many elder statesmen, the album should be worth getting for this.

Because you can’t, you won’t and you don’t stop, do you think The Beastie Boys came with the sure shot?

Jack Black to Host Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards…Again

Krystal Clark — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:15:46 +0000

Jack Black will once again take center stage at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards. The actor has hosted the event twice before in the past, and he’s gearing up to tackle lucky number three. According to EW, who reported the announcement exclusively, Black is ecstatic to host the 2011 awards show this spring.

According to Black,

“Anyone can host something once,” Black tells EW. “But if they ask you back a second time, that means they liked the way you did it. And if you host a third time, that means the first time wasn’t a fluke, and it means you did good two times. So the third time, well — that’s the real achievement.”

Since he’s done the show multiple times in the past, what can he bring to the table year that will set him a part? Black acknowledges that he has to follow up a pretty impressive act.

“You wanna top the last one. I’ve had some pretty dynamic opening numbers,” Black tells EW. “I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but ‘I Was Made for Sliming You, Baby?’ That was one for the ages.”

The Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards will air on April 2.

What do you think of Black returning for the Awards?

Sundance 2011: Beastie Boys ‘Fight for Your Right Revisited’ Review

Christie Ko — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 20:31:36 +0000

Adam Yauch’s Fight for Your Right Revisited, featuring Elijah Wood, Danny McBride, Seth Rogen, Jack Black, Will Ferrell, and John C. Riley delivers big time. Just imagine every actor you can think of packed into a hilarious 30 minute music video. This is Hollywood the way I like to see it, poking fun at itself and reminding everyone that the very best actors are not only able to make you laugh, but they’re able to laugh at themselves.

The Players:

Director: Adam Yauch
Written By: Adam Yauch
Cast: Elijah Wood, Danny McBride, Seth Rogen, Will Ferrell, John C. Riley, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Rashida Jones, Will Arnett, Rainn Wilson, Ted Danson, Roman Coppola, Steve Buscemi, Amy Poehler, Alicia Silverstone, Milo Ventimiglia, Jody Hill, Jason Schwartzman, Chloë Sevigny, Kirsten Dunst, David Cross, Orlando Bloom, Jack Black, Adam Horowitz, Mike D, Adam Yauch, Martin Starr, etc.

Review:

This short takes place the morning after the party featured in the Beastie Boys original music video, Fight for Your Right in 1986 (watch it here). The film comes complete with cameos from a cast I couldn’t believe, including Susan Sarandon, Jason Schwartzman, Rainn Wilson, and Stanley Tucci, to name just a few. It’s almost as if Seth Rogen, Elijah Wood, and Will Ferrell just walked through the studio lot and grabbed any actors they happened to come across, and they came across a few, including Steve Buscemi and Kirsten Dunst. The film has the feel and tone of a long SNL music video skit that you never want to end, even after a metaphorical pissing contest turns into a literal pissing contest and Chloë Sevigny stabs someone.

This film accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do, and that is show amazing actors really playing with an idea and having fun with each other. The Beastie Boys have come a long way since 1986, and I think this parody is their way of saying they know how absurd and ridiculous they were back then and are inviting everyone to join them in laughing at it. Even if you aren’t a huge Beastie Boys fan, this is still going to make you laugh.

Overall:

When this thing hits the interwebs, it’ll go viral and you’ll be able to watch it over and over again. Believe me, you will want to.

Rating: 6/10

Jack Black Compares His Muppets Role to Being John Malkovich

Krystal Clark — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 19:34:53 +0000

A month ago we learned that Jack Black had been cast in the long awaited Muppets movie alongside Jason Segel, Amy Adams, and a slew of other actors. For the most part we weren’t told what or who the actor would be playing so we assumed it was a cameo role, which is partially correct. Jack Black will be Jack Black but with a little something extra…

While walking the red carpet at the premiere of his latest film Gulliver’s Travels, Black opened up about his role in The Muppets and revealed a little bit about his part.

“I will be playing myself,” Black says. “It’s kind of like Being John Malkovich. It is a new twist on the Muppets. Very cerebral and meta.”

Black also co-stars with Segel in Travels, so he felt like he owed him an appearance in his film. He described it as a “tit for tat.” Black will begin filming in January but revealed that he hasn’t memorized his lines yet. Get to it Jack, a lot of people are depending on you here!

The Muppets will open in theaters nationwide on November 23, 2011.

What do you think of Jack Black’s part in The Muppets? Do you think it will be funny?

Source: EW

Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Ed Helms, Lady Gaga Join Muppets Movie

Krystal Clark — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 17:44:02 +0000

We didn’t really need another reason to check out Jason Segel’s upcoming film The Muppets, but this latest casting announcement has piqued our interest. According to several sources, a total of 9 new people have been added to the film’s roster including our personal favorite Paul Rudd along with Jack Black, Ed Helms, and even Lady Gaga! Find out who else is joining the party below…

“Glee” star Jane Lynch has joined the cast along with “Community’s” Donald Glover, and Machete’s Danny Trejo. Lynch will play a a prison guard and Trejo will play her prisoner, while Glover’s role has been left unspecified. Are we the only ones slightly disappointed that Trejo is playing a convict — again? On another note, we’re happy to see Glover get more big screen work. He’s the funniest actor on “Community” and that’s really saying something because that show is hi-lar-i-ous!

Next, there’s Black and Rudd, whose roles haven’t been revealed but “The Office’s” John Krasinki and Ed Helms have! The duo along with “Modern Family’s” Eric Stonestreet will play members of Lady Gaga’s entourage. If that wasn’t enough Zach Galifianakis has also been cast in the role of “Hobo Jo.” We don’t even need to know anything besides his name do we? We’re already there!

The line up for this film is sweeter than anything we could have ever imagined. All of these actors will join the current roster, which includes Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper, and Rashida Jones. The Muppets is scheduled to hit theaters on December 25, 2011.

What do you think of the expanding cast of The Muppets?

Source: The Wrap, Production Weekly

Jack Black to Appear on iCarly – Who Saw That Coming?

Krystal Clark — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:58:07 +0000

We all know that Jack Black has nothing but love for the Nickelodeon network. The man’s hosted their Kid’s Choice Awards twice (in 2006 and 2008) and has no problem dabbling in a little slime from time to time but who knew he had a thing for the show, “iCarly“? The series that stars Despicable Me’s Miranda Cosgrove, has somehow landed the actor for a guest spot this season. Who will he play and most importantly what will he do? Let’s find out…

According to EW, Black will appear in one episode as the arch rival of Spencer Shay (Jerry Trainor) and in true “iCarly” fashion they’re not rivals in the real world they’re rivals in video games. Black will play Spencer’s gamer competition Aspartamay and the duo will go head to head at the show’s version of Comic-Con, Webicon! The episode is scheduled to film this week and will air sometime later this season.

Black has a goofy, child-like persona that can mesh well with the “iCarly” world. It sounds like he’ll be playing a slightly less mature version of his character in Gulliver’s Travels. The whole idea of him being engulfed with video games, action figures, and all that isn’t that much of a stretch. Since, “iCarly” isn’t exactly our demographic how many of you who watch the show think that Black is the right guy to go against Spencer?

What do you think of Black’s casting? Do you think he’ll fit in with the show?

Jack Black Reunites With Richard Linklater For Bernie

Krystal Clark — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 22:46:36 +0000

Did you know that Jack Black was a Golden Globe nominated actor? Yep, he is and it’s thanks to a little performance that made a lot of noise in a film called The School of Rock. It was directed by Richard Linklater, who recently helmed Me and Orson Welles and the duo are reuniting for another project. According to THR, they’ll tackle a dark comedy aptly titled, Bernie.

The plot for Bernie sounds like a present day remake of Weekend at Bernie’s, which might explain it’s coincidental name. It centers on “a Renaissance man-community leader-mortician Bernie (Black) who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a wealthy but very particular widow. When he kills her, he goes to great lengths to maintain the illusion that she is still alive.” Um, yeah that sounds awfully familiar.

The unfortunate old woman will be played by Shirley MacLaine, so who’s excited to see Black toss her lifeless body across the screen for an hour and a half? It’s great that Linklater and Black are joining forces again but why does it have to be for something like this? Bernie will begin production this fall in October and is being co-produced by Mandalay Vision and Castle Rock.

What do you think of the plot for Bernie? Are you interested in seeing the film?

Jack Black in Gulliver’s Travels Trailer

Krystal Clark — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 01:12:35 +0000

Twentieth Century Fox has released the first trailer for Rob Letterman and Nicholas Stoller’s new film, Gulliver’s Travels. The movie stars Jack Black, Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Romany Malco, and Billy Connolly and is one of the many films that will be fighting for your money this Christmas holiday season. Check out Black as the fabled Gulliver below…

Gulliver’s Travels is a contemporary adaptation of the popular Jonathan Swift novel. Jack Black stars as the title character who, while going on a routine business trip gets caught in a storm and washes up on the shores of a hidden island called Lilliput, the home to a population of very tiny people. In a short period of time he goes from enslaved prisoner to the land’s new hero.

To be completely honest this movie doesn’t look as bad as I thought it would. Adapting a story that’s been done several times before isn’t an easy feat but it seems like Stoller and Letterman may be on to something. Not only does it feature a top notch cast but the giant/mini-men special effects aren’t half bad.

Gulliver’s Travels will hit theaters in 3D on December 22, 2010.

What do you think of the first trailer for Gulliver’s Travels? Does the movie look funny to you?

Jack Black in First Gulliver’s Travels Poster

Krystal Clark — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:07:28 +0000

Even though we’re still slightly bitter that Gulliver’s Travels is the film that kept Emily Blunt from playing Black Widow in Iron Man 2 our anger is starting to subside. We’re at the point where we feel comfortable revealing the first theatrical poster for the film that features its main star, Jack Black. Check out the full sized image and see why “Black is the new big”…

A few weeks ago we brought you a photo of one of the international posters for the film that appeared at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. This domestic version is slightly different because instead of it being a profile shot it shows Jack Black looking straight into the camera.

Gulliver’s Travels is based on the famous story of the same name (written by Jonathan Swift) and besides Black and Blunt will co-star Jason Segel and Amanda Peet. The film is directed by Rob Letterman from a screenplay by Joe Stillman and Nicholas Stoller (Get Him to the Greek, Forgetting Sarah Marshall).

Gulliver’s Travels is scheduled to hit theaters this holiday season on December 22, 2010 and will be in digital 3D (no surprise there).

What do you think of the first poster for Gulliver’s Travels? Are you interested in seeing the film?

ScreenCrave.com » Jack Black

Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black in The Big Year Trailer

Related Posts

Kung Fu Panda 2: Movie Review

The Players:

The Plot:

The Good:

Overall:

Photo Gallery:

Trailer:

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New DVD Releases: The King’s Speech, Gulliver’s Travels, Somewhere

Feature Films

TV on DVD

And Just So You Know, This DVD Exists…

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Beastie Boys Fight For Your Right – Revisited Trailer Brings Out the A-Listers

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Jack Black to Host Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards…Again

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The Players:

Review:

Overall:

Rating: 6/10

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