Review: 'Wonder Park', A Mediocre Ride That Yields Valuable Lessons

A child's imagination gives birth to a magical theme park in Paramount and Nickelodeon's Wonder Park, which is colorful and heavy in lessons for kids to follow, but lacking in the imagination it aims to inspire. Fortunately, it's also inoffensive and brisk on runtime, so parents shouldn't mind tagging along for this ride.

In what turns out to be like the fun-sized version of the Tomorrowland storyline, Wonder Park centers on 10-year-old June (Brianna Denski), a creative and destructive powerhouse who builds and tests very experimental theme park rides in her neighborhood. Joined by her BFF and secret crush Banky (Oev Michael Urbas) they hurtle between the houses and through fences with reckless abandon and boundless youthful energy. June's parents (voiced by Jennifer Garner and Matthew Broderick) deal with the angry neighbors and mounting bills caused by her destruction, refusing to quash their daughter's passion.

There's more to this than a kid who needs to lay off the sugar. June and her mother are designing the amusement park of their dreams, where attractions are made of candy and other indescribable things. Whatever could spring forth from the mind of a 10-year-old girl, this place, which they call Wonder Park, can turn it into a reality. The park is run by a group of talking animals with all of the personality traits you've come to expect from a movie targeting a younger age group. There's the reliably sensible wild boar Greta (Mila Kunis); Steve (John Oliver) the uptight British porcupine who frets over park safety; Boomer (Ken Hudson Campbell), a big blue narcoleptic bear; Gus and Cooper (Kenan Thompson and Ken Jeong) are beavers and the required squabbling duo; and finally the team is held together by Peanut (Norbert Leo Butz), a chimpanzee who can create anything with his magical pen, but only when he's properly inspired.

Wonder Park is basically a paradise, a place any kid, and a heck of a lot of adults, would want to stay forever. But when tragedy strikes and June's mom falls ill, she forgets everything she loved about the park. June shuts down emotionally, refusing her friends, her family, and anything to do with Wonder Park. Little does she know, her apathy has consequences in the real world. Upon discovering that Wonder Park actually exists, and all of the beloved characters she imagined are real, June finds that the once-wondrous utopia is in a state of disrepair, threatened to be swallowed whole by a looming darkness and overrun by a horde of chimpanzombies.

While young eyes will be dazzled by the bright colors and logic-defying attractions, Wonder Park is a movie with a message, and it stays simple enough for young viewers to understand. June's depression over her mother has affected all of the things in her life that she used to love, for fear of losing them to a force she cannot control. The script by Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol writers Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec doesn't delve too deeply beyond this, so if you're hoping for the next Inside Out you'll be sorely disappointed. But it also teaches a valuable lesson about owning up to one's mistakes, as June takes it upon herself to save Wonder Park from the danger she, however innocently, placed it in. To do it, she'll have to rekindle the imagination she had forgotten.

The lack of a clear creative vision is felt, however. The film's original director was fired over misconduct allegations, and he was never truly replaced which is why to this day there's no one credited. None of the characters stand out as particularly memorable, either visually or in personality, and the novelty of the park fades before long. Fortunately, at only 85-minutes Wonder Park doesn't overstay the welcome; speaking directly to its audience about coping with tragedy and using the power of expression to do it.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Read More

'Wonder Park' Trailer: Chimpanzombies Take Over A Dream Amusement Park

Okay, this is a much better trailer for Paramount and Nickelodeon's Wonder Park, after the first teaser was downright creepy. This is the first to feature an actual voice cast, and with it comes a deeper sense of the plot. A 12-year-old girl named June, who created an imaginary theme park with her mother, discovers that it somehow has become a reality, full of the amazing rides she loved when she was younger. Later, an older June discovers something deeply wrong with the park, and only reigniting her imagination can save it.  The chimpanzombies are kinda disturbing...

The voice cast includes Jennifer Garner, Mila Kunis, Brianna Denski, Sofia Mali, Ken Jeong, Matthew Broderick, Kenan Thompson, John Oliver, and more. One thing you won't find? A director. Mission: Impossible and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles writers Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec penned the script, but original director Dylan Brown left the project and Paramount decided to go with a team effort rather than hiring his replacement. Interesting strategy. We'll see if it pans out on March 15th 2019.

If Wonder Park is a success, a Nickelodeon TV series will follow.

Read More

Review: 'Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween' Does The Monster Mash With Less Jack Black

The original Goosebumps movie was more than just a tip of the hat to fans of R.L. Stine's horror novels for kids, they were an attempt to reach out and grab a new audience. The surprisingly sizable box office shows some accomplishment in that regard, but the seasonal sequel Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween has a much narrower focus. It's almost solely for those who enjoyed the first movie, which makes the strange, uneven presence of Jack Black such a puzzler.

As Stine himself, Black was by far the biggest name Goosebumps had but he wasn't guaranteed to return for the sequel. Two scripts, one with Black and one without, were written and somewhere along the way maybe the pages got mixed up. The first half of the film shows almost zero interest in Stine, and certainly there's no sign of Black. And then out of nowhere he pops up on the scene in what amounts to a glorified cameo, so out of place that it's like he wandered in from a different movie. Maybe he did? The House with a Clock in its Walls seems like a reasonable culprit.

Kids who have yet to partake in the gory frights of Blumhouse or Stephen King won't care about the bizarre casting. Goosebumps 2 is perfectly enjoyable Halloween entertainment, full of decent kid-friendly "scares", some passable monster effects, and a story that zips along enough that adults won't get too bored. In the Halloween-obsessed town of Wardenclyffe, best friends Sonny (It star Jeremy Ray Taylor) and Sam (Caleel Harris) have a fledgling junk business, and in the process of cleaning out an old haunted-looking house they discover not only a blank R.L. Stine manuscript, but his evil ventriloquist's dummy, Slappy. When they open the book, Slappy is released into the world to cause all kinds of mischief.  Jack Black voiced Slappy in the first movie but in another nod to the sequel's fractured production, he's voiced by Mick Wingert even though Black is in the movie.

Slappy is by far the best thing Goosebumps 2 has going for it. The kids are pretty bland, and that includes Madison Iseman as Sonny's older sister Sarah. She joins them when Slappy uses his magical powers to turn Halloween costumes, decorations, and even candy (evil Gummi Bears!!!) into living creatures, forming his own makeshift family. But you kinda find yourself rooting for Slappy, who has the maniacal streak of Chucky without the homicidal tendencies.  He's not even really scary, more like a pest with delusions of grandeur and he makes a good foil for the misfit protagonists. While witches, mummies, and even a giant spider made of balloons stalk the neighborhood, truly the kids' biggest threat turns out to be the school bully.

I take that back. Their biggest threat is being overshadowed by gobs of CGI, fun as it may be, and then later by Jack Black. The funny thing about Stine is that he shows up to help save the day, but the first thing he does is recognize that there isn't really anything for him to do. So...why is he there at all? It's just weird. Much better, and integral to the story, are Wendi McLendon-Covey as Sonny's workaholic mom, and Ken Jeong their wacky neighbor, Mr. Chu, who perhaps is too invested in Halloween for someone without any kids.

Despite some clear problems director Ari Sandel was unable to keep masked, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween should be a treat to its target audience. Whether it's enough to warrant a third movie is unclear but if so let's hope they figure out what to do with Stine well in advance.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Read More

'Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween' Trailer: Kids Need To Stop Opening R.L. Stine's Books

Goosebumps was a surprising $150M hit for Sony a few years ago but they were talking sequel long before that. Doubtful they thought it would end up looking like Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, which has a virtually unknown cast and lacks the presence of the prior film's biggest draw, Jack Black as author R.L. Stine. That said, it'd be wrong to write the film off completely because based on this new international trailer it's going to have a lot of trick 'or treatin' action.

The story is mostly the same as before, with a new group of kids finding yet another of Stine's dangerous manuscripts. This one unleashes a horde of monsters just in time for Halloween, all led by the evil Slappy the Dummy, who was previously voiced by Black but now by Avery Lee. The kids must defeat the monsters, including some creepy-looking Gummi Bears, and stop Slappy from causing a Halloween apocalypse.

Not gonna lie, I kinda dig this trailer even though it looks like a total cash grab. The pace is brisk, the kids don't appear to be idiots, and Halloween always makes for a fun setting.

Directed by Ari Sandel and starring Jeremy Ray Taylor, Madison Iseman, Caleel Harris, Ken Jeong, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and Chris Parnell, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween opens October 12th.

Read More

Review: 'Crazy Rich Asians' Is Worth Falling Crazy In Love With

I went into Crazy Rich Asians thinking it looked like a Chinese version of The Prince and Me, and came away thinking I'd just seen one of the freshest romantic comedies in years. The amount of pressure on this film, an adaptation of Kevin Kwan's smash novel, can't be overstated. As the first major Hollywood movie with an all-Asian cast in more than two decades, Crazy Rich Asians is being seen as a litmus test for diversity. Sad as that may be, it's just a fact that movies which look like this simply don't get made. Fortunately, there is now a reason to expect and demand that there will be a lot more.

Crazy Rich Asians works even though my initial fear of its formulaic nature is totally true. What is so special about the script by Adele Lim and Peter Chiarelli is how the familiar elements, the Cinderella love story, the fish out of water aspects, are presented through a Chinese culture most of us are unfamiliar with. But you don't have to be Asian to find so much of this story relatable, funny, and gorgeous to watch unfold.

Constance Wu (from ABC's Fresh Off the Boat) plays Rachel Chu, a Chinese-American economics professor at NYU and the daughter of a single mom. We see Rachel's got some street smarts, too, as she bluffs one of her students in a hand of poker, teaching him a lesson about playing the opponent and not the hand he's dealt. We get it; that lesson is one she's going to have to remember herself at some point, but that's okay. A little foreshadowing never hurt.  Rachel is dating the handsome Nick Young (Henry Golding, a Brit-Malaysian actor who will also star in A Simple Favor this year), and for over a year things have been going well. He seems normal and down to Earth, stealing bites of her meal at a local diner. But little do they know, his being seen out in public with Rachel is a big deal. Director Jon M. Chu (he of the Step Up and GI Joe flicks) cleverly and quickly whisks us through social media as this little date cracks a certain segment of the Internet. Within moments it's like the world knows Nick has a girlfriend. But who is he that anybody would care?

Nick wants to take Rachel back home to Singapore to attend his best friend's wedding. She agrees, but when he escorts her into the luxury-class private suite aboard the flight, it's the first time she figures out that Nick's family may have some money. Turns out, the Youngs have what is called "old money". They are the richest of the richest, the elite, and a family dynasty that Nick has chosen to avoid in New York. For him, coming home means dealing with his mother Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh), a firm believer in the old traditions that have kept them thriving for generations. She instantly disapproves of Rachel, who she perceives as an American commoner unfit to be with her son, and incapable of handling the thankless life of a woman in their ruthless world.

Crazy Rich Asians has a lot going on, and I was taken aback by how easily it juggles numerous storylines and themes while plunging us feet first in the culture of China's rich and famous.  While the Youngs show off their wealth with a regal flair, the "new money" families, like that of Rachel's filter-less college friend Peik Lin (the terrific Awkwafina, last seen in Ocean's 8), are loud with it, drawing unnecessary attention to themselves. Peik's parents, including a hilarious Ken Jeong as her father, live in a home so big and tacky it looks like it ought to be bulldozed as a crime against architecture. But Jeong also has some of the film's best lines. When one of their many kids refuses to eat, he says “Eat. There are a lot of children starving in America." Peik thinks Eleanor sees Rachel as a banana, "Yellow on the outside, white on the inside."

The love story between Rachel and Nick is sweet but not without its difficulties. She has to deal with more than just Eleanor, but also Nick's jealous ex-girlfriend relishing in making her life miserable. Yes, it's a classic story of a plucky girl winning over the rich snobs, but there's more to it than that. Crazy Rich Asians is a film about lineage and history, something Eleanor wears as a badge of honor one moment, then uses as a bludgeon the next. It's up to Rachel to take charge of who she wants to be, and to accept where she comes from. Strip down all of the gloss, and there is certainly a lot of that in this extravagant feature, and you have an empowering story of a woman coming into her own. That idea is mirrored in a subplot involving Nick's sister, Astrid (Gemma Chan), and her marriage to a man uncomfortable with having his wife as the breadwinner.

There's so much to look at here that sometimes it's hard to decide where to focus. The cast itself is stunning, and Mary Vogt's costume designs accentuate while informing us of each character's personality. We know Peik Lin the instant we see her rockin' her first pair of Jimmy Choos and Stella McCartney pajamas. The locations are breath-taking; gigantic neon mansions lighting up the Botanical Gardens in Kuala Lumpur, the stunning Marina Bay Sands casino hotel, and an impressive array of floral arrangements, including the rare Tan Hua plant which blooms only at night and wilts before dawn. The decadence is so thorough that it becomes laughable during the silly underwater-style wedding for Nick's closest friends, Colin (Chris Pang) and Araminta (Sonoya Mizuno).

Predictable? Yes, but Crazy Rich Asians definitely isn't your typical Hollywood rom-com. With lack of representation on the big screen such a major issue right now, we may finally have the film that swings the pendulum in the opposite direction. No matter who you are or where you're from, you might just fall crazy in love with Crazy Rich Asians.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Read More

The Long-Awaited Trailer For 'Crazy Rich Asians' Is Finally Here

That Crazy Rich Asians is being adapted for the big screen shouldn't be a big deal, the same way a film like Love, Simon shouldn't have. But there has been a severe lacking of representation for Asian-Americans in Hollywood for far too long. It's like there are more white-washing scandals per year than American movies with Asian casts. Well that changes now, and it actually looks like a lot of fun.

Directed by Jon M. Chu (Jem and the Holograms) and featuring an all Asian cast, Crazy Rich Asians is based on the novel by Kevin Kwan about Rachel Chu (played by Fresh Off The Boat's Constance Wu), a Chinese American who joins her boyfriend Nick (Henry Golding) to his home country of Singapore for a friend's wedding. Little does she know that Nick is not only filthy rich but one of Asia's most eligible bachelors, drawing the attention of the press and Nick's family.

While this wouldn't normally be my cup of tea, it kinda looks like the Asian version of The Prince And Me, I'm won over by the interactions between Wu and the always-great Michelle Yeoh. Others in the cast include Ken Jeong, Jimmy O. Yang, Awkwafina, Gemma Chan, and Harry Shum Jr.

Here's the synopsis: The story follows native New Yorker Rachel Chu (Wu) as she accompanies her longtime boyfriend, Nick Young (Golding), to his best friend’s wedding in Singapore.  Excited about visiting Asia for the first time but nervous about meeting Nick’s family, Rachel is unprepared to learn that Nick has neglected to mention a few key details about his life.

It turns out that he is not only the scion of one of the country’s wealthiest families but also one of its most sought-after bachelors.  Being on Nick’s arm puts a target on Rachel’s back, with jealous socialites and, worse, Nick’s own disapproving mother (Yeoh) taking aim.  And it soon becomes clear that while money can’t buy love, it can definitely complicate things.

Crazy Rich Asians opens August 17th.

Read More

Review: 'Norm of the North' Featuring The Voices Of Rob Schneider, Ken Jeong, And More

Every time I think I'm over being surprised at the crap that some studios expect parents to shovel into their kids' faces, they manage to outdo themselves.  The latest insult to children's tastes is Norm of the North, courtesy of Splash Entertainment, better known for their tie-in videos for Bratz dolls and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it theatrical release of a CGI Strawberry Shortcake movie.  So this is their first "real" movie, but they're not a studio known for making anything other than cheap cash-ins on a market segment that has yet to build up any real defenses against commercial pandering.  And that sensibility comes across in the writing, which comes primarily from a pair of (I'm assuming, from their names) brothers who once wrote direct-to-video sequels to the already-bad live-action Scooby-Doo movies.

On top of that, it's a Rob Schneider movie.  Don't worry, he's still putting out lazy, puerile garbage for overgrown middle-schoolers; The Ridiculous Six is doing quite well on Netflix, evidently.  But as his movie career has faded he seems to have picked up a sideline doing voice work for, well, cheap computer-animated toy tie-in cartoons.  Thankfully his usual adolescent sense of humor doesn't carry over, though one of the very few oblique references aimed at anyone over six in the audience turns out to be a gay joke.  Seriously.

All this goes to say that Norm of the North isn't just accidentally bad, it has bad baked right in.  This is a movie that started at bad and then set up a committee to ask where it could cut even more corners.  It's a pastiche of pop-culture references and stereotypes as they might appear to someone who doesn't have any real understanding of them.  Just like, well, what had become of Saturday morning cartoons, before everyone realized how terrible they'd gotten and pulled the plug.

So the Arctic is in trouble, which kids might have heard about from the news.  Except the danger isn't climate change; it's an overzealous developer (Ken Jeong) who wants to install pre-fabricated architectural monstrosities for some reason called "condos".  His director of marketing, Vera (Heather Graham), comes up with the idea of a polar bear mascot to drive interest in the venture.  Which is where Norm (Schneider) comes in: as one of two polar bears who -- no explanation even attempted -- are able to "speak human", he wants to get the mascot job and bring down the project from the inside.

It's kind of impressive that an 86-minute movie -- including the longer-than-average credits typical of animated fare -- still feels so padded.  The actual storyline has no development whatsoever; the time is instead filled with subplots.  Norm feels different from the other bears, and isn't good at hunting.  The other arctic animals like the recent increase in tourism and don't see the danger.  Vera has misgivings about the plan, but needs the developer's recommendation to get her daughter into an exclusive private elementary school.  And even more.  As a result, the movie has about four distinct endings, none of which feel satisfying, and they still leave loose ends around.

These are signs that the producers, at best, do not care about your children beyond exploiting them for profit.  Telling a worthwhile story is secondary to providing moment-by-moment distractions.  Throw in some indestructible lemmings as a cheap rip-off of Despicable Me's minions; kids seem to love them.  Pad out a slow bit with a random mass-produced pop song they might recognize.  The Peanuts Movie at least had the decency to commission one that vaguely supported its plot, but there's not even that fig leaf here.

And, worst of all, they're probably right.  I'm sure many parents do care enough about their children's media diets to steer them away from empty calories like this, but there are plenty who don't.  The executives at studios like Splash are not stupid; pumping out cheap crap is their business model, and as bad as Norm of the North is they're still likely to turn a tidy profit.  In fact, they've already greenlit two direct-to video sequels.

Rating: 1 out of 5

Read More

Review: 'Ride Along 2' Starring Ice Cube And Kevin Hart

The brother-in-law’s are back. Yeah…I just stole my opening line from the movie I’m writing about, what can I say, it’s catchy! Ride Along was the funniest movie of 2014 in my oh so humble opinion, one of those movies that would make even the quietest guy in the group laugh out loud, consistently funny in at least 5 different ways bringing clever writing, pop culture references and physical comedy, among at least 2 other things (I did say 5 ways) under one roof to crack up audiences around the country. Of course this can mean only one thing, SEQUEL! Though something strange has happened in recent years, sequel doesn’t seem to be such a dirty word anymore. What used to be a dirty word in Hollywood has become something to actually look forward to, in some cases. Ride Along 2 is one of those cases. Ben Barber (Kevin Hart) is finally a badge and gun carrying police officer, now in his rookie year and a week away from marrying the far too much woman for him, Angela (Tika Sumpter) while still desperately trying to impress his future brother-in-law James (Ice Cube). After blowing James’s undercover operation and getting his partner shot Ben manages to weasel his way into a road trip to Miami where James needs to pick up a computer hacker named A.J. (Ken Jeong) who may have information that will lead to his suspect. Surprise, surprise, all is not what it seems and the two get in way over their heads after finding out A.J. actually works for the biggest drug trafficker in Miami…who also happens to be a respected public figure. Helped out by Maya (Olivia Munn), a Miami detective who James just may have a thing for, the three take it to the edge trying to bust the bad guys and keep A.J. alive.

Ride Along lived and died on the chemistry between Cube and Hart, thankfully for us they have the kind of chemistry that you only see in the best comedy teams, Abbot and Costello, Ferrell and Reilly, etc. When you have that proverbial lightning in the bottle it’s almost impossible to add more to the mix and have it fly, as a matter of fact the last one I can think of that worked is Lethal Weapon 3 which added Joe Pesci to the Gibson/Glover sandwich and worked out better than anyone could have imagined. In comes Ken Jeong the salt of cinema, you can add him to any cinematic meal and it just improves the taste. He doesn’t disappoint, I’ve never seen him not meld with his co-stars and this flick is no exception. Jeong and Hart together on screen almost become too much to handle. You’d almost feel bad for Ice Cube having to put up with it if you weren’t laughing so hard. Speaking of Cube, is there anyone better at playing the “straight man” side of a comedy two-some working today? Seriously, the baddest dude in NWA has become a top level comedic actor. There’s something about his seriousness that makes every situation that much more funny. Olivia Munn doesn’t have much to do in the comedy department, which is kind of a downer as she has a talent for the goofball antics but that’s not really her character in this flick. If I can be totally misogynistic for a second, there is a can’t miss dance scene in the film that really makes me ready to see her turn as Psylocke in the next X-Men film.

So, yeah, the supporting cast is great but let’s be real, this is Kevin Hart’s movie and like he almost always does, he kills it. It’s hard to believe that the guy who once starred in Soul Plane (not going to lie, it’s a guilty pleasure) is the most consistently hilarious actor working today. This movie would get my recommendation if it was only comprised of two scenes; Ben Barber undercover as an African dignitary, and the car chase in which Ben transforms the real world into his GTA knock-off video game. That’s not all there is though the movie is literally stoked end to end with memorable scenes. Try and keep a straight face in any scene between Hart and Sherri Shepard, just try it!

I don’t think this closing paragraph is really necessary, my point’s been made pretty clearly, I definitely recommend seeing this flick. Are there things in it that people can nit pick? Sure, it’s predictable, the bad guys are all straight from central casting and the action scenes lack originality but to be perfectly honest, none of that matters in the context of a movie that sets out to make you laugh and does just that for 90 minutes. You can bet that I’ll be in line when Ride Along 3: Paternity Leave comes out.

4 Out of 5 Guttenbergs

Read More

Kevin Hart Saves Ice Cube In The 'Ride Along 2' Trailer

Tired of all the heavy, dramatic Oscar-contending movies of December? Well, you're in luck because January is right around the corner and there ain't much that's going to weigh too heavily on the mind. One of those lightweight comedies is Ride Along 2, which pairs up Kevin Hart and Ice Cube in a sequel to the hit 2014 film.

Once again directed by Tim Story with Olivia Munn, Ken Jeong, Tika Sumpter, Tyrese Gibson, and more part of the cast, the film has Hart's character now a full-fledged cop on the beat, but that doesn't make him any more competent an officer. Before he can get married to Cube's sister, the two are sent down to Miami to bust a drug lord, and of course nothing goes quite as it should.  Think Bad Boys only less explodey and with a few more laughs. Maybe.

Ride Along 2 opens on January 15th.

Read More

Ice Cube and Kevin Hart are Back on Patrol in the 'Ride Along 2' Trailer

It's no coincidence the first trailer for Ride Along 2 is playing ahead of this weekend's Straight Outta Compton. There has perhaps never been a greater career transformation than the one Ice Cube has managed to pull off, going from the controversial rap group to star of R-rated comedies, family-friendly films, and action flicks. He scored a $150M+ hit by pairing up with Kevin Hart for Ride Along, and the sequel looks like it will offer up more of what worked the first time.

Both stars are back along with director Tim Story and co-star Tika Sumpter, with Ken Jeong, Olivia Munn, and Benjamin Bratt the newest additions. As for the plot, it probably doesn't matter that it has been kept under wraps because the focus will be on the oil 'n water dynamic between Cube and Hart. Bratt is clearly the bad guy, which is a good slot for him, while Hart's character is more of a fool than ever. The opening bit, a riff on Fast & Furious featuring a cameo by Tyrese Gibson, gets the trailer off on a funny note.

Ride Along 2 opens on January 15th 2016.

Read More

Trailer for 'Community' Season 6 Spoofs 'Avengers: Age of Ultron'

Uh, you'll be able to find Community where now? On something called Yahoo! Screen? Yahoo has their own streaming service? Well....tell me how that works out. I didn't watch the show on NBC and I certainly won't on Yahoo, but this Avengers: Age of Ultron spoof trailer for Season Six is pretty clever.

Not everybody is coming back but Joel McHale, Ken Jeong, Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, and Dani Pudi will, with new additions Paget Brewster and Keith David. Okay, I may tune in for Brewster, especially if she's playing a "villain", and David has always been a favorite.

Basically, it looks like class is back in session for the students and faculty at Greendale Community College. Community begins streaming on March 17th.

Read More

Review: 'The DUFF' starring Mae Whitman, Robbie Amell, and Bella Thorne

Oh, the high school comedy. Hollywood has explored the terrain of teenaged freaks, geeks, and social elites from just about every angle and they all tell essentially the same story. There are mean girls, dumb jocks, awkward pariahs, frenemies, nerds, and they all fit into the same comedic battleground that usually ends one of two ways...or both: with some kind of school dance and two childhood friends realizing they should be lovers. The DUFF doesn't deviate much from the pattern, in fact it doesn't stray from it all, but a pair of playful lead performances by Mae Whitman and Robbie Amell makes it a worthy entry in the genre.

While not as edgy as Mean Girls, The DUFF may have one of the more memorable headlining performances from Whitman, who many may recall as the forgettable Ann Veal on Arrested Development. Her character in The DUFF is a light-hearted twist on Veal, actually, as Whitman plays Bianca Piper, a quirky and witty Honor Roll student whose stylistic tastes veer towards overall and flannels. That makes her the least sought-after member of her little clique, with her two best friends Jess (Skyler Samuels) and Casey (Bianca A. Santos) a pair of hotties all the guys drool over. That makes Bianca the unofficial "gatekeeper" when guys want to mack on her friends, but sadly nobody ever wants to talk to her. The reason, she learns by way of childhood friend-turned-jock dufus Wesley (Amell), is that she is the "DUFF", or the "Designated Ugly Fat Friend". While he tries to make it sound less harsh than it is, Bianca focuses on the "ugly" and "fat" part of the equation, and understandably causes her to lash out against everyone around her, including her BFFs who seem actually kind of sweet.

It should come as no surprise that things take a turn towards She's All That or Some Kind of Wonderful by having Wesley teach Bianca how not to be perceived as the DUFF, and hopefully win the heart of soulful guitarist Taylor (Nick Eversman). In exchange, she'll help the slow-witted college hopeful pass his exams and get back on the football field. But to the film's credit, the goal for Bianca isn't to become "hot" in the traditional sense, or even popular enough to compete with the other girls, like the cruel Madison (Bella Thorne). Her goal, and Wesley's hope for her, is that she gains the self-confidence to be herself, whatever that may be. As such, he encourages Bianca to let her freak flag fly, which leads to an uncomfortable YouTube video spread around the school of her making out with a store mannequin. While the embarrassment drives Bianca to hit rock bottom, she never succumbs to the desire to be the school's queen bee.

 Based on the book by Kody Keplinger, the film keeps the author's strong message about body image and self-esteem, but struggles to deliver it and maintain a humorous touch. The best scenes are those between the comedically-gifted and adventurous Whitman and the likable, good-looking Amell who has become a fixture on CW's The Flash. But Whitman is the breakout here, and she's so much fun to watch that it's hard to imagine anybody ever overlooking her. She and Amell have a great spark, especially when jokingly tearing down the high school social structure. Unfortunately there's also a great deal of talent that doesn't get much to do, namely Allison Janney as Bianca's mom, a self-help guru who speaks in sound bites; and Thorne who is capable of much more than playing the standard school witch. Somehow, Ken Jeong manages to not be irritating in an underplayed role as a helpful teacher, while Romany Malco might as well not even be there as the worrisome school principal.

The DUFF doesn't rank up there with the classics by John Hughes, although few movies do, but it's an enjoyable update on the universal themes that keep these stories popular.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Read More

First Trailer for 'The Duff' stars Mae Whitman as the Designated Ugly Fat Friend

If there's anything we learned from Mean Girls it's that high school girls can be...well, pretty darn mean; especially to other girls who are supposedly their friends. Mae Whitman has built her career on playing either unremarkable girls (her??) on Arrested Development, or the rejected girl like in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but in The Duff she gets a little bit of revenge on the mean girls in school.

After co-star Bella Thorne (Blended) had teased the trailer on her Instagram a few days ago, the first official trailer for The Duff has been released. Based on the Kody Keplinger book and directed by Ari Sandel, the film stars Whitman as the "designated ugly fat friend" of her clique of hot friends, and sets out to get some payback. In true She's All That fashion, she gets a cool makeover from a hunky dude (Robbie Amell) in an attempt to raise her social status.

So basically this looks like something that should be on The Disney Channel, but otherwise pretty inoffensive....except for the presence of Ken Jeong.  The Duff opens February 19th 2015.


The DUFF TRAILER 1 (2015) - Bella Thorne, Mae Whitman Comedy HD by MovieTrailerz

Read More

Ken Jeong will Try to Kill Hulk Hogan and David Hasselhoff in New WWE Studios Comedy

The long-running feud between Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon, the one that had Hogan off WWE television for nearly a decade, came to an end earlier this year at WrestleMania, but you know he's back in their good graces when he's being put into movies. Variety reports Hogan will cameo, along with his pal David Hasselhoff, in an untitled comedy starring Ken Jeong.

Directed by Darren Grant (Diary of a Mad Black Woman), the WWE Studios feature working under the title “Untitled Celebrity Death Pool" is about everything that name implies. Jeong will play a struggling nightclub owner saddled with debt who decides to try and cash in on a celebrity death pool by killing Hasselhoff.  Other celebs are expected to appear and it's probably a safe bet other WWE superstars will find a way into the film, probably as Jeong's potential victims. How could they not put the celebrity-obsessed Miz (The Marine 3 & 4) into the mix somehow?

Truth be told when I saw that Hogan was doing a WWE Studios film my first reaction was "Oh my God they're making remaking Thunder in Paradise!!", but fortunately for us all that's not the case. Filming on the celebrity death pool flick will probably begin once Jeong wraps on Ride Along 2.

Read More

Ken Jeong Boards 'Ride Along 2'; Oliver Platt Joins 'Bessie'; 'Chef' Adds Sam Keely

* Ken Jeong has joined Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, and Olivia Munn for Ride Along 2, the sequel to this year's buddy cop comedy that broke $150M at the box office. He'll play "a cocky computer hacker who fancies himself a ladies man but who also is key in solving the case that Cube and Hart are working on." While this could possibly be very irritating having Jeong and Hart sharing scenes together, this will be the rare time when Jeong can look down on somebody. [THR]

* HBO is adding some familiar faces to the cast of Bessie, Queen Latifah and Dee Rees' biopic on blues singer, Bessie Smith. Oliver Platt has come aboard the film along with Bryan Greenberg (How to Make It In America) and Tory Kittles (True Detective), with Latifah as the iconic singer who became known as the Empress of the Blues for her acclaimed performances in the 1920s and '30s. Platt will play photographer and writer Carl Van Vechten, Kittles is Bessie brother Clarence, and Greenberg is renowned record producer and music critic John Hammond  [Deadline]

* That other Chef movie, the one led by Bradley Cooper, continues to add a number of promising ingredients to the pot. Cooper, Sienna Miller, and Omar Sy have now been joined in the kitchen by Irish actor Sam Keely. Keely's a rising star who has a role in Ron Howard's In the Heart of the Sea and the upcoming sequel Monsters: Dark Continent. Chef, which hopefully will undergo a name change to avoid confusion, has Cooper as a Parfs chef who loses everything because of his hard partying ways. After sobering up he assembles a team to start anew by heading a restaurant that can earn the coveted 3-star Micheline rating.

Read More

Dylan Baker Joins 'Selma'; Gemma Arterton Goes 'One Square Mile'; Ken Jeong Causes 'International Incident'

* Character actor Dylan Baker (remember he was The Lizard in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies?) will play J. Edgar Hoover in Ava Duvernay's MLK biopic, Selma. Hoover, who was last portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio a couple of years back, used the power of the FBI to keep tabs on King (David Oyelowo) and his followers in an effort to undermine the civil rights movement. [Deadline]

* Gemma Arteron has joined Idris Elba in the gritty, South West London drama One Square Mile, written by Leon Butler and directed by Michael Caton-Jones. Elba will also produce the multi-tiered story previously described as centering on "four people, four extraordinary stories, all lived out within one square mile." Arterton adds to that saying “it’s about ‘love, action and gangsters in London.’”. [DailyMail]

* Ken Jeong is set to star in the Steve Carell-produced comedy, International Incident, from The Daily Show writer David Javerbaum. Jeong will play one of five United Nations delegated who go on a road trip to find their former loves. Carell and Javerbaum know one another from the actor's time as a correspondent on The Daily Show. After a string of supporting roles and voice acting gigs this will be Jeong's first time leading a major studio project. [THR]

Read More

Charlize Theron Leads 'American Express'; Alec Baldwin Joins Howard Hughes Pic; 'The DUFF Adds Ken Jeong'

* Charlize Theron will produce and star in American Express, the latest directorial effort from Nash Edgerton, Joel's brother and director of 2008's The Square. There are zero details as of yet but we do know Megan Ellison's rebranded Annapurna International will be selling it at Cannes. Stay tuned for details.

* Warren Beatty continues to cast up his untitled Howard Hughes biopic with some big names. Already with Alden Ehrenreich, Lily Collins, Annette Bening, Matthew Broderick, and Martin Sheen on board, Alec Baldwin has joined the cast as Hughes' lawyer, Bob Maheu. The story will focus on Hughes' assistant and his love affair with a young woman. [Deadline]

* The final bell may have rung on NBC's Community but Ken Jeong has quickly landed another gig, one that puts him back in the familiar role of teacher. He'll join teen comedy, The DUFF, which stars Mae Whitman as the "Designated Ugly Fat Friend" to a pretty and popular group of high school seniors. She reinvents herself and with the help of other DUFFs seeks revenge on Madison (Bella Thorne), the school's evil queen. Ari Sendel is directing the film adapted from Kody Keplinger's book.

Read More