Due Date, from director Todd Phillips (Old School, The Hangover, Starsky & Hutch), opens domestically on November 5th, 2010.

Due Date Official Poster

Jason Bateman

Bateman takes control in the film in which his character…, well… takes control of a pregnancy. He is very funny and charming. He reminds viewers of his character in Arrested Development in a way that his character tries to run everything and feels responsible for everyone else. His lines are not always funny, but what makes him funny is his mannerisms and facial expressions.

Jennifer Aniston does not offer anything special like she did in Management or The Break-Up. Yet she is not supposed to. She is what is supposed to be the straight path in the movie and keep it from getting out of whack, and in that role she performs very nicely. Goldblum and Wilson offer very nice comedic relief.

Bateman’s best attribute in the film is the chemistry he has with his character’s son played by Thomas Robinson. Bateman does a very good job of being a parent like figure for him. The two reflect nice lines off each other, and keep the movie interesting as Bateman does a great job showing how much he cares and how far he is willing to go for the boy.

The film is nothing special, but is still a solid movie. The cast does a good job, but it is too predictable and a little too “Happy- Go-Lucky”. Though Bateman has been consistently good in his starring roles over his last few movies in Hancock, Up in the Air, Extract, Couples Retreat, and The Switch.

Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg in The Other Guys

Please welcome our newest blogger, Christian Garber - Ed.

Will Ferrell is back! After 2009’s disappointing flop Land of the Lost Ferrell has returned to the top of the comedic world. Alongside Will is Mark Wahlberg (Date Night). The two lead a stellar cast that includes Dwayne Johnson (Get Smart), Steve Coogan (Night at the Musuem), Samuel L. Jackson (Star Wars), Rob Riggle (Step Brothers), Eva Mendes (The Wendall Baker Story), and Michael Keaton (Herbie Fully Loaded).

Ferrel re-teams with Adam McKay (Anchorman, Step Brothers) who wrote and directed the film, and even has a small role. The story centers around two loser cops (Ferrell, Wahlberg) who go on a wild case about a famous stock broker (Coogan). On the way the two develop a friendship full of laughs.

The film returns Ferrell to king of the comedy world for at least a minute. It isn’t the best of him we have seen, but he is still great. Ferrell does very well as the sensitve number-crunching cop. He provides possibly the line of the year while reflecting on a college experience (hopefully not spoiling too much) “Gator’s bitches better be wearing jimmies!” However he does make you wonder if the film would have been funnier with an “R” rating so he could fully push some of his jokes.

Wahlberg does something we are not used to from him and turns on the funny. He is a former cop on the rise recovering from a broken heart and an embarrassing incident. He does not necessary have the funniest lines, but he is the one who gets Ferrell’s character going which makes the movie great. Scene stealer is Keaton who delivers the funniest jokes and serves well as the captain to the crazy police station.

The Other Guys may not be as funny as Anchorman or Step Brothers. It may not even be the year’s funniest comedy (Get Him to the Greek), but it symbolizes the bounce-back year after the disappointing 2009 and gives fans great excitement for the future of the Pack. It is a solid comedy.

The “Kenny Fucking Powers” Twitter account has been a profane source of amusement for some time now, and the hits keep coming. Check out some of these recent gems of advice from everyone’s favorite has-been pitcher:

• Buy a man a woman and you get him laid for a night. Teach a man to womanize and you get him laid for a lifetime.
• If I ever WERE to fucking die, I’d want to donate my dick to science. I’m pretty damn sure it contains the cure to AIDS.
• If you’re not wasted, the fucking day is.

I think you get the idea.

Recently, a new account has been started by Kenny’s personal assistant Stevie (played by Steve Little on the show). The sycophantic musings of a social networking newbie are nearly as good as Kenny’s words of wisdom. Definitely follow Stevie’s Twitter account too.

Eastbound & Down returns for a second season on HBO on September 26. The first season was amazing and this year Kenny is heading to Mexico for a minor league fiesta and still trying to make it back to the Major Leagues. Here are some promo photos that were released that should get you all geared up for the show!

Kenny Powers

Eastbound Season 2

Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand

DeadlineHollywood confirms that Dustin Hoffman will be filming 4 scenes during Little Fockers‘ September shoot of pick-ups.  Deadline’s Nikki Finke is reporting that Hoffman will film a few pivotal scenes opposite Barbara Streisand, and one major ending scene involving all the film’s primary characters.

Talks between Hoffman and the Fockers/Universal camp came to a halt last November, allegedly over size of his role and salary.  The film moved into production without Hoffman’s Bernie Focker, the fan-favorite role which won the actor an MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance (even beating out Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy!)

Rumors of Hoffman’s return first surfaced two weeks ago, amidst news of the September pick-up shoot and allegations of replacing Director Chris Weitz with Little Fockers co-writer John Hamburg (writer/director of Along Came Polly and  I Love You, Man.) The pick-up scenes are reportedly the solution to the directing rumors, following two months of  Weitz, Hamburg, Ben Stiller and producer Jay Roach (director of the franchise’s first two films) re-examing footage and promising test screening results.

Little Fockers (or is it Meet the Parents: Little Fockers?) opens nationwide December 22nd, 2010.

Paul Rudd

Paul Rudd, and Kristen Wiig are rumored to be joining the cast of Bobby Blue Sky, an independent feature from the Gotham Group, according to Pajiba. Rudd and Wiig have both acted in several Apatow productions including Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Wiig in a scene on the extended DVD), and Walk Hard, but haven’t appeared together onscreen outside of Rudd’s appearances on Saturday Night Live.

Also starring in Bobby Blue Sky is the underrated Topher Grace. The script is from Emily Kapnek (Parks and Recreation), and “focuses on three dysfunctional siblings coming to terms with the way their baby brother’s accidental fame as a character in their father’s children’s book series warped their lives.” The dysfunctional family theme seems similar to Rudd’s currently-filming My Idiot Brother, though perhaps Rudd is playing the “responsible” older brother here.

No further details are available, and consider this is an independent release, don’t be surprised if this never comes to fruition. But, it sure seems like an appealing concept and cast so we’ll be watching for news on this one very closely.

Ben Stiller stars as the overworked manager of a luxury building who, along with other staff, lost their pensions to a Bernie Madoff-like Wall Street crook. It so happens that the fraudster is being held under house arrest in the luxury penthouse apartment upstairs, and the manager and four cohorts figure a heist will make them whole.

Ben Stiller

No need to belabor the obvious future casting implications of this news. It would be a shock if this wasn’t marketed as a comedy version of Ocean’s Eleven, especially considering Stiller’s track record at getting A-list comedians to sign up for ensemble comedies. In fact, there’s an Ocean’s connection with the script, according to Deadline.

“It has become the quintessential New York heist movie, where a bunch of blue collar employees in a tower building pull off the ultimate heist,” Ratner told me. The move away from Trump really began with Ted Griffin, who, Ratner reminds, originally wrote Ocean’s Eleven for himto direct.  “I didn’t get to do that movie, I didRush Hour instead, but I went back to Ted to do a rewrite, and he wanted to start over. His pitch was so good that I took it to Brian, who said, ‘let’s get it right.’ I brought the script to Ben on the Little Fockers set, and said this is perfect for you. He was looking at other projects like Mr. Popper’s Penguins (which went to Jim Carrey), I asked Noah Baumbach  to do some specific character work for Ben. Then my Rush Hour guy Jeff Nathanson brought it home. The major difference from the Ocean’s film is those guys were expert thieves. These are real guys whose talent is they know the inner workings of the building and the people in it. It took a long time for this to come together, but it was totally worth the wait. This has a lot of heart to go along with the humor.”

So, who do we expect to see in the film? Stiller pals Danny McBride and Steve Coogan would seem to have the wrong kind of accents for this role, but I could easily see Bill Hader and Jay Baruchel being cast. Who do you think should join the cast?

The Frat Pack Tribute's Class of Summer 2010

The Summer Movie Season is officially wrapping up, and the box office results for our comedy clique were… middling. But for now, let’s see what were your favorites from this year’s offerings.  Take our poll and send your comments.

Favorite Movie of Summer 2010?

	Get Him to the Greek (June 4th, 2010)
	Cyrus (June 18th, 2010)
	Despicable Me (July 9th, 2010)
	Dinner for Schmucks (July 30th, 2010)
	The Other Guys (August 6th, 2010)
	Middle Men (August 6th, 2010)
	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (August 13th, 2010)
	The Switch (August 20th, 2010)

view results

Winona Ryder, Jennifer Connelly, Vince Vaughn and Kevin James in 'The Dilemma'

USAToday’s Susan Wloszczyna (a friend of the site) has the first look at Vince Vaughn’s January comedy, The Dilemma, from Oscar-winning director Ron Howard.  In the film, Vaughn’s character begins to believe that his best friend’s (Kevin James) wife (Winona Ryder) might be cheating on him.

Further complicating things is what’s at stake: Vaughn and James run a business together and their spouses (Jennifer Connelly and Ryder, respectively) are also best friends. While the film (once again set in Vince’s hometown of Chicago) clearly has a dark subject matter similar to The Break-Up, the article promises comedic elements to please fans of Vaughn (his usual improvises riffs) and James (including dancing on the Jumbotron at a Blackhawks game.)

Universal Pictures currently has The Dilemma scheduled to open on January 14th, 2010, the same day Sony has The Green Hornet rolling into theaters. There’s a cheap pun to be made there which I’m sure all box office articles will abuse.

The new trailer focuses on the relationship between Greg Focker and his father in law Jack Byrnes (Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro). I won’t spoil the joke, but let’s just say they’ve come up with another doozy of a “focker” play on words, and it’s hilarious.

Meet the Parents: Little Fockers is set for release at Christmas.

Little Fockers