Seriously, with a title like Tropic Thunder, I wonder how many storm-related movie headlines will be out there. Stuff like “Tropic Thunder blows into town this weekend!” or “Tropic Thunder hopes for box office lightning!” Is there anywhere you can apply for a job putting really bad puns to work? If so, I want it. (Ed: Yes)

So I caught a screening of Tropic Thunder during Comic-Con, and I have mixed feelings about it. Sure, there were some pretty funny moments in it, and as expected, Robert Downey Jr. stole most of movie. Right now the guy could do a one-man show making fun of every ethnic group in the world and probably win a Tony for it. But is the over-hyped Tom Cruise role as funny as people has been saying? Find out after the jump.

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• Variety says Hellboy 2 “did hellacious business in debuting to an estimated $35.9 million.” This seems to be a compliment. Meanwhile, Meet Dave bombed, and Journey to the Center of the Earth made a very respectable $20 mil on just 854 3D screens.
• Richard Linklater, Mike White and Jack Black will collaborate on a sequel to School of Rock, and it’s got what’s destined to rival Babe 2: Pig in the City for mockable sequel titles: School of Rock 2: America Rocks. Where’s the exclamation point?
  
• Terribly Happy, a Danish crime film, took the top prize at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival over the weekend. Man on Wire took the documentary prize, and there was also a “special mention” for Bigger, Stronger, Faster.

This new bit of internet marketing for the forthcoming Tropic Thunder claims to be a trailer for a fake documentary about the making of the fictional movie that Tropic Thunder is also about the making of. Wait, what? On the one hand, I love the piling on of ridiculously self-referential layers, but on the other hand, isn’t this a bit confusing? Let me try this again, Tropic Thunder is a fictional film about a film production where the director decides to put his (fake) actors in real (fake) danger. And Rain of Madness is a fake mocumentary about the fake movie, or about the real movie about a fake movie?

Well, whatever the case may be, the above clip proves two things: One, Tropic Thunder would probably be better as a mockumentary, rather than a fiction film about a fiction film. And two, Danny McBride is hilarious: “I just beat nature today.”

I don’t know what is more upsetting, that I’m actually excited about a movie starring Ben Stiller and Jack Black (remember Envy?) or that it’s actually Robert Downey Jr. in blackface that’s provoking all this excitement. Fortunately — or maybe unfortunately — I’m not the only one that’s going ga ga over Downey’s racial transformation for Tropic Thunder. It began a couple weeks ago when this still, featuring Stiller, Black and a colorized Downey, made the rounds through the blogosphere. It turned out the actor’s appearance is part of a brilliant joke on method actors. Downey plays Kirk Lazarus, a multiple Oscar-winner who goes through a special skin-darkening procedure in order to play an African American sergeant during the Vietnam War. It’s mostly funny because you could almost imagine someone like Sean Penn doing this for real.

But is there danger of the joke becoming a bit too much during the whole movie? After all, it began as a mere sight gag with the still photo, then continued with the website, where Downey actually looks eerily identical to Blaxploitation star Fred Williamson. However, now it’s also an audio gag, complete with what must be referred to as blackvoice. Yay, racism is funny! Not that I’m knocking it; I do actually think Downey is absolutely hilarious here. And having Brandon T. Jackson there as an actual African American actor, acknowledging how ridiculously racist Lazarus is, makes it the potentially the best use of racism as comedy since Blazing Saddles (sorry Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay).

I wonder, though, if the joke, the blackface and Downey’s performance will all completely overshadow the rest of the actors. I guess, considering my lack of favor for either Stiller or Black, I should be more hopeful of that being the case than worried.

Tropic Thunder, written by actor Justin Theroux (Inland Empire) and Etan Cohen (Idiocracy) and directed by Stiller, arrives in theaters August 15.

At the beginning of this week, Lindsay Lohan horrified classic nude starlet photo-shoot purists by revealing her apparently very real breasts in otherwise not-so convincing homage to Marilyn Monroe. We wondered, at the time, if aligning herself with the ultimate image of female celebrity self-destruction was really the best way for Lindsay to prove her post-rehab worth. Turns out, we were wrong––Lindsay just got a job! In a Jack Black movie! About renaissance fair nerds! Case closed, right? Also, with subscriptions currently going for about $20 each, New York Magazine made at least $10,000 off the spread. And thus, the career of one actress and the whole of the magazine industry are rescued in one fell swoop. Rejoice!

I should say first that I am about to wholeheartedly support the world viewing Be Kind Rewind in the face of what I believe will be a lot of poopooing over this movie (it’s currently “rotten” over at Rotten Tomatoes). I will also say I am not a Michel Gondry fanboy or, even, somebody who could pass for a hipster (that segment of the population making Wes Anderson, Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze and Puma economically viable). I saw Be Kind Rewind at Sundance 2008 thinking it would be a pallet cleanser from long nights of editing interviews and watching the really challenging stuff. But Be Kind Rewind was the most subversive movie at Sundance this year. So much so, I question the programmers even knew it.

The premise is straight from a sub-genre of comedy that has brought us such classics as Ski Patrol and One Crazy Summer (a perfect ball of ice cream for Gondry to hide his medicine in). Two slackers who while away their days in a hole-in-the-wall hangout–owned by a kindly old proprietor–have to raise more cash than they’ve ever seen or the hangout gets the wrecking ball. Antics ensue. The antics are brought to us by Jerry (Jack Black) and Mike (Mos Def) as they remake a library of hit Hollywood movies with a VHS camcorder when Jack Black inadvertently erases all the tapes at their neighborhood video shop (the hangout). The montages of their backyard productions are the stuff people will go to see this movie in droves for, and they are fall-down funny. However, these montages end partway through the story to make room for the proverbial “plot.”

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I keep forgetting that Kung Fu Panda is a real movie. I mostly relate the computer-animated panda character with his cross-promotional spots for AMC Theatres (memory escapes me again: is it for silencing your cellphone or anti-piracy or something entirely different?). But now that we have this full trailer for the DreamWorks Animation movie, I’m reminded that it is in fact a feature release. Unfortunately, it arrived a few days after the new trailer for The Forbidden Kingdom, and I’ve already laid dibs on my most anticipated martial arts film of 2008. Sure, Kung Fu Panda also features Jackie Chan (or his voice, anyway), here as “Master Monkey”, but when it comes to kung fu beginners, I’ll take Michael Angarano over the voice of Jack Black any day.

I shouldn’t be too harsh on Black (especially after yesterday’s unnecessarily mean-spirited trailer-of-the-day), though I couldn’t help but notice his own personal shtick making its way into the anthropomorphic actions of the cartoon bear when I saw that AMC spot (by the way, AMC, National CineMedia scored Martin Scorsese for a better promo — jealous?). And I simply can’t stand it when any animated film character is made to sound and look and behave like the Hollywood star providing its voice. Nothing will ever be as distracting as Robin William’s overcooked performance as the Genie in Aladdin, but it’s still always annoying. It’s odd that Black ever disliked the idea of Kung Fu Panda. What hammy actor would ever dislike an idea that permitted for such scene-chewing? …Read more

Making a “sweded” version of his own film’s trailer seems like such an obvious next step in Michel Gondry’s viral marketing of Be Kind Rewind. I can’t believe I didn’t see it coming. What’s next, self-”sweded” trailers for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep, Human Nature and Block Party?

In case you haven’t been following the promotions for Gondry’s latest post-modern surrealist fantasy film and have no idea what “sweded” is, it refers to the cheaply produced remakes of Hollywood movies that Jack Black and Mos Def’s video clerk characters create in Be Kind Rewind in order to restock their store’s rental library after they accidentally erase all the originals. OK, that was a long sentence, and is probably confusing if you’re not at all familiar with this movie. So, check out the real trailer here, and acquaint yourself. (Then check out Karina’s November clip-of-the-day post about “sweded” trailers and posters and her early January BlogNosh post about fan-made “sweded” trailers.)

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There’s some cool new promo stuff up online for Michel Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind. The film is about two video clerks who accidentally demagnetize every VHS tape in their store while their boss is on vacation, and then proceed to produced no-budget camcorder “remakes” of the most rented titles. The studio is–smartly, I think–exploiting the DIY theme of the story in order to sell it to kids who live online as a user-participatory event.

First, go to the official website. Wade your way through the animation about the internet being erased, and tell it that you want to rebuld the internet. Eventually, you’ll get to a place where you can insert an image of yourself into a VHS box of a “classic” film, such as, um, Drop Dead Fred. I went with My Own Private Idaho, because I thought it would be funny. See above.

Then, there’s the obligatory “viral” video component. So far, there are three trailers on YouTube, representing three of the films remade within Be Kind Rewind. I’ve pasted my favorite, for Ghostbusters, after the jump; you’ll find the Robocop trailer here and the Rush Hour 2 trailer here. I know the guru of faux-viral movie marketing said that clips this this should be under 30 seconds, but honestly, I could have gone for a longer Ghostbusters trailer, if only to hear Jack Black and Mos Def argue over who’s going to be the Key Master and who’s going to be the Gate Keeper.

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I first saw Margot at the Wedding, Noah Baumbach’s follow-up to The Squid and the Whale, in September at Telluride. I generally disliked it, but I vowed to see it again at the New York Film Festival and, if my opinion had changed, update my original review. If anything, the second viewing solidified many of my initial, negative feelings about the movie, but I did gain deeper respect for the performances, particularly that of Nicole Kidman, who creates a magnificent villain with a vivid backstory, despite the fact that Baumbach gives her very little to work towards. I’ve updated my review to include some thoughts based on a second viewing; you’ll find the old version here, and the new version after the jump.

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My first impression of Margot at the Wedding (which, admittedly, may change after I see it a second time at the New York Film Festival) is that Noah Baumbach’s follow-up to The Squid and the Whale is an intermittently fascinating exercise that barely holds together as a film. It plays as if Baumbach cut together a footage reel of master-class actors (plus Jack Black, who, perhaps emboldened by the company, somehow gives the finest performance of his career) rehearsing without a script. The characters are half-formed and/or disposed of unceremoniously, the themes are haphazardly integrated, the emotional arc is virtually non-existent.

And yet, some of the performances show flashes of magic, so much so that for all its faults, it’s not entirely dismissable.

It did look good on paper, didn’t it? Nicole Kidman plays Margot, a successful short story writer/prolific drinker who has developed a kind of perfect celebrity-literary scam: she projects her own self-loathing outward, and then drains the frustrations of her friends and family directly onto the pages of the New Yorker. It’s not entirely clear why Margot’s husband (John Turturro), son (Zane Pais) and sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh, who is married to the director) keep letting her get away with this, but in the film’s best scene, her sometime-lover very publicly dresses her down for the same.

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Remember that terrible camcorder leak of the Be Kind Rewind trailer? It apparently prompted New Line to push an official version of the trailer on to the web. Check it out via YouTube above, and let us know what you think. I’m seeing a little too much Jack Black-doing-Jack Black for my tastes, but come on — it’s a movie about two guys who try to pull off a ten cent remake of Ghostbusters. How could I not fall in love? The studio has apparently pushed the opening up from early 2008 to late 2007 (ie: Oscar-bait season), so they’re probably assuming they’ve got something difficult to resist.

Also, if you haven’t yet, you should check out Michel Gondry’s channel on YouTube. The “Will it Deblend” clip is a thinly veiled advertisement for the Science of Sleep DVD, but it’s the most charming thinly-veiled advertisement I’ve ever seen.

I rarely get excited about new trailers; I NEVER get excited about two trailers in the same week. But today, thanks to Variety’s Anne Thompson, I’ve had a glimpse at a second film on my list of Fall 07 Must-Sees, and I can tell you that it isn’t going anywhere.

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Margot at the Wedding (embedded via MovieFone above), written and directed by Noah Baumbach, stars Baumbach’s wife Jennifer Jason Leigh as a lady preparing to marry the schlub who got her pregnant. That description might call to mind a certain recent comic smash, but this looks like very different territory. Within the context of Baumbach’s filmography, Margot looks more like the dark family dramedy The Squid and the Whale than something like clever-but-fluffy Mr. Jealousy. Nicole Kidman–brunette, and just de-glammed enough to resemble a real person–plays Leigh’s judgmental sister. Jack Black is once again cast as in the “unlikely love interest” role, after his turn in Nancy Meyers’ embarrassing The Holiday, although I’m sure he’ll benefit from Baumbach’s ability to write characters that might actually, like, live in the world.

Interest in Margot seems to be fairly high. Shortly after the trailer appeared on Thompson’s blog, a flurry of other blogs picked it up. I even virtually eavesdropped on a Twitter conversation about the soundtrack. Hopefully we’ll get to see the thing at one of the late-Summer festivals, either Telluride or Toronto.

UPDATE: Margot will screen at the New York Film Festival.

***Proving that anyone who’s ever had a beer with Judd Apatow is going to have no trouble finding work this summer, Freaks and Geeks star John Francis Daley (seen above) has sold a script to New Line called The $40,000 Man. Per Variety, it’s about a “legendary astronaut and true American hero who finds himself horribly injured in a car accident and rebuilt by the government to be a bionic man, on a budget of $40,000 — which makes him not that bionic.”

***In other dude-com news, Jack Black and Todd Phillips are teaming up to develop something called Man-Witch for Warner Brothers. The pitch sounds something like School of Rock meets The Craft, but with Jack Black in the Neve Campbell part. Sexy!

***Steve Carell, Daniel Craig, and J.J. Abrams are among the notables who have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for 2007.

***Oh good! A Wild Hogs sequel is on the way! Your dad’s half-wit friend will be so pleased.