Check out this clever remix of the trailer to Superbad, making it seem like an epic action movie.
> Original redband trailer for Superbad
> Superbad at the IMDb
Category: Amusing
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Joan Rivers swears on Loose Women
Live TV can be very funny, especially when someone does something they shouldn’t.
Joan Rivers was recently on Loose Women (for US readers, it is essentially the UK version of The View) and she clearly didn’t realise it was a live show when she gave her thoughts on Russell Crowe:
ITV bosses issued the predictably stern press release:
Guests are always briefed that it is a live daytime show and are reminded not to swear or use inappropriate language.
An editorial decision was taken that Joan Rivers should not appear in the final part of the programme.
We would like to apologise to Loose Women viewers for the inappropriate language used on today’s show.
But Joan was hilariously unrepentant about the whole affair, according to BBC News:
‘I said: I apologise. Everyone apologised. It was hilariously funny’.
During a commercial break, Rivers said producers took her off the set, adding that it was the first time she had been removed in 40 years and she was ‘thrilled’.
However, the star is prepared to return – but only on her terms.
‘I would be delighted to go back if they would apologise and give me a gift’.
In 2005 she got into a row with Darcus Howe on Radio 4, calling him a ‘son of a bitch’.
Can someone high up in UK media please give her a show?
> BBC News on the latest swearing story and on the 2005 row
> Media Guardian with their angle
> Find out more about Joan Rivers at Wikipedia
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Star Wars dance off
This has to be one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while – a Star Wars dance off with Chewbacca grooving to Footloose, Princess Leia jiving to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Darth Vader dancing along to Thriller.
[Link via The Movie Blog]
Slate have come up with an ingenious video that somehow manages to compress the 2008 Democratic Primary into 8 minutes:
> Check out Slate’s previous video comparing Hilary Clinton to Tracy Flick from the 1999 movie ‘Election’
> Find out more about the 2008 Democratic Primary at Wikipedia
> More video at Slate
The veteran duo ofย Lorenzo Semple Jnr and Marcia Nasatir (aka The Reel Geezers) get stuck in to Sex and the City.
They make some excellent points:
- Lorenzo: ‘The movie itself, I found …very disturbing. It may be the most detestable movie I’ve ever seen.’
- Marcia: ‘They are women who make you ashamed to be a woman. They are a disgrace to women.’
> Our review podcast on the film
> Variety on the box office success of the film
> More reviews on Sex and the City at Metacritic
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Badly dubbed films for TV
Have you ever laughed or sighed when a film on TV has a ridiculous piece of editing to replace ‘offensive’ language?
This Basic Instinct video that compares the original film with the badly dubbed version altered for sensitive TV audiences.
Check out the differences between Scarface and the US TV cut (“this town is like one big chicken, just waiting to get plucked!”):
How about the safe-for-TV version of Die Hard 2? (“Hey turkey!”):
Or what about this scene from the TV edit of The Big Lebowski, with possibly the strangest substitute line ever? (“This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps!”)
And what about Casino, where the f-word is said 422 times?
This scene with De Niro and Pesci in the desert finds a way of avoiding it completely (“You better get your own fighting army pal!”):
Den of Geek has noted some other TV dubbing disasters:
Goodfellas: “Go fu*k your mother” bizarrely becomes “Go feel your mother”.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: “Pardon my French but you’re an AARDVARK!'”(????)
Field of Dreams: “We were going to ask Ty Cobb to play, but none of us could stand that son of a squid”
Robocop: “You’re gonna a bad mothercrusher…”
Lethal Weapon: “We bury the funsters!”
The Last Boy Scout: “I POPPED your wife, and later I’m gonna POP her again”
If you know of any others, just leave them in the comments below.
> Melon Farmers reprint an official BBC response as to why Thelma and Louise was cut for TV
> Bad TV Edits
> More edited-for-TV movies at Den of Geek
This is an amusing Indiana Jones mashup of an early Harrison Ford film called The Frisco Kid and Brokeback Mountain:
[Link via MCN]
> See more links and videos on our Countdown to Indy 4 post
> A summary of the critical reaction at Cannes to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Now this is how to launch a DreamWorks animated film about kung fu pandas in Cannes.
Get Jack Black and about 40 people in panda costumes outside the Carlton Hotel:
Kung Fu Panda screens at the festival tomorrow (Thursday 15th) and opens in the US on June 6th and the UK on July 4th
> Official site for Kung Fu Panda
> Find out more about the film at Wikipedia
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Gay Top Gun
Quentin Tarantino explains the gay subtext of Top Gun:
Tarantino’s speech is from the 1994 film Sleep With Me.
> More on Top Gun at Wikipedia
> Popmatters with a review of the Top Gun sepcial edition DVD
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Bill O’Reilly is Angry
When Fox News presenter Bill O’Reilly was on Inside Edition at CBS in the early 90s, he could still get angry:
UPDATE 14/05/08: A YouTube user has done a fine dance remix of the video with music from RevoLucian:
UPDATE 16/05/08: Stephen Colbert has his take on the video:
Bill’s arch nemesis, Keith Olberman of MSNBC has his take:
And Bill himself comments on the video in a piece on Fox News:
> More anger from The O’Reilly Factor
> Find out more about Bill O’Reilly and Inside Edition at Wikipedia
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The Dogway Melody
This is one of the strangest viral videos I’ve ever come across.
Called The Dogway Melody it was a short made in 1930 that recreates scenes from early musicals, such as The Broadway Melody. As you can see the cast are trained dogs with humans providing the voiceovers.
It was directed by Zion Myers and Jules White and is part of the MGM produced series of Dogville shorts.
> IMDb entry for The Dogway Melody
> More discussion on the MGM Dogville shorts at ToonZone
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Orson Welles roasts Dean Martin
Here is Orson Welles roasting Dean Martin back in 1977, after he himself has been introduced by Don Rickles:
> The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast at the IMDb
> More on Orson Welles at Wikipedia
> The infamous Orson Welles peas commercial
Back in the 1970s Telly Savalas (best known for playing Kojak) recorded a series of short films that extolled the virtues of UK cities like Birmingham, Aberdeen and Portsmouth.
I recently came across a Radio 4 show (via the excellent Speechification) about these bizarre and unintentionally hilarious films.
Check out Telly Savalas Looks at Birmingham, England:
Known as ‘quota quickies’, they were a product of the Cinematograph Films Act of 1927 which meant that short films – or supporting features as they were known back then – were subsidised by the government to offset the dominance of the Hollywood main features.
They were made by director Harold Baim who managed to persuade Savalas via his agent – Dennis Selinger of ICM – to provide the voice for these travelogues.
What makes it even funnier is that Savalas never even visited the locations he is waxing lyrical about.
You can listen to the Radio 4 show here or download it as an MP3 here.
> Find out more about Telly Savalas at Wikipedia
> Radio 4 page for Telly Savalas and the Quota Quickies
> The Baim Collection
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The Empire Strikes Barack
Someone has created a very slick viral video that reimagines the Democratic presidential primary as The Empire Strikes Back.
> Find out more about the 2008 Democratic presidential primary at Wikipedia
> The Empire Strikes Back at the IMDb
UPDATE: It looks like it was created by a YouTube user called Humanitainment.
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Bill Gates as Kermit the Frog
Come to think of it, Bill Gates does sound a little like Kermit the Frog:
[Link via Macenstein]
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Raging Bull vs The Flintstones
A classic scene from Raging Bull cut to The Flintstones:
[Warning: The fruity language may not be suitable for the workplace]
US comedian and talkshow host Bill Maher has a new documentary about religion coming out later this year called Religulous.
His recent monologue about Catholicism on his HBO show Real Time has recently been causing some debate in the US:
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Must Love Jaws
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This trailer mashup of Jaws as a cheesy family movie has been around for a while but I never got around to posting it before.
It was created by Mike Dow & Ari Eisner (Smacky Productions)
I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall yesterday and whilst it isn’t quite as funny as Superbad, it is still a solid comedy with a lot of laughs.
It certainly signals redemption for Team Apatow after the misfire of Drillbit Taylor and although it probably won’t top the US box office this weekend, it should have legs. It is that rare kind of comedy that should score solid word of mouth amongst young male and female audiences.
The plot is about a guy (Jason Segel) who travels to Hawaii after his famous actress girlfriend (Kristen Bell) dumps him for a British rocker (Russell Brand), only to find they are there too.
The cast have done this video detailing their own break up stories:
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Iron Man Onion News spoof
This Onion News piece on Iron Man is so well done it could almost pass for a real US news report:
Wildly Popular ‘Iron Man’ Trailer To Be Adapted Into Full-Length Film
N.B. Notice the strapline at about 2.02 which says “Yahoo tries to find ways to compete with Google by Googling ‘ways to compete with Google’ “
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Best Game Ever
Those clever folks at Improv Everywhere (the acting troupe behind the brilliant Frozen Grand Central) have now turned their attention to little league baseball.
They recently turned a regular kids game in Hermosa Beach, California into a major league style event:
> Official site for Improv Everywhere
> Find out more about Improv Everywhere at Wikipedia
German uber-hack director Uwe Boll has said he will retire if a million people sign this online petition for him to stop making films.
The people behind it state:
To Dr Uwe Boll,
We, the undersigned, respectfully ask that Uwe Boll give proper weight to the wishes of the video game community, the horror community, and the film going community in general and stop directing, producing, or taking any part in the creation of feature films.
His distasteful handling of the subject matter and lack of acknowledgement of his failures simply cannot be abided any longer.
Mr. Boll has repeatedly shown a complete lack of comprehension regarding the videogames he has dragged, kicking and screaming, to the silver screen and his ham-fisted approach to horror has soiled future possibilities for anyone else who may attempt to bring videogames to film.
Sincerely,
You can sign it here.
> Uwe Boll at the IMDb
> Some reviews of his work at Rotten Tomatoes
The Watercooler has been posting some of the worst movie scenes ever.
Here is Part 1, featuring Steven Seagal in a hilariously awful fight scene from On Deadly Ground:
The legendary Farrah Fawcett interview on Letterman from June 1997 (in three parts):
You can see a transcript here.
UPDATE 27/06/09: As CBS have ordered YouTube to take down the videos tryย this one instead (it might take a minute to load).
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Viral: Internet Power
Check out what the Internet was like in 1995 with this promotional video that Waxy.org have posted:
My favourite bit:
“You’ll need a device to access the online world. That device is a Computer, with at least 386 power and 8 megabytes of RAM and has a modem installed that has 14.4 or greater speed or ‘baud rate.’
And of course, access to a phone line. If you have a slower modem, you will not be able to enjoy the growing multimedia aspects of the Internet, such as graphics, sound, and video.
You will also need a connection to the Internet that connects your computer to the millions of other computers that make up this Superhighway of Information.”
This is an old video of Robert De Niro cutting a TV spot for the Tribeca Film Festival and getting pissed off with the director.
Not quite in the same league as the Orson Welles frozen peas commercial, but still funny.
Last night Hilary Clinton appeared on Saturday Night Live in a self deprecating sketch with her impersonator Amy Poehler, not long after her recent comments about the show in a debate:
UPDATE: Here are the recent debate sketches with Poehler as Clinton and Fred Armisen as Obama:
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Gary Busey at the Oscars
All the red carpet stuff at the Oscars doesn’t really interest me but I just caught up with this rather amusing video of Gary Busey going a bit nuts before the ceremony.
Ryan Seacrest was speaking with Jennifer Garner and Laura Linney for the E! channel when Busey joins the action…
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The Razzie Winners
The Razzies are the anti-Oscars, awarding the worst films of the year a Golden Raspberry award.
This year the winners were:
Worst Picture: I Know Who Killed Me
Worst Actor: Eddie Murphy in Norbit (as the character of Norbit)
Worst Actress: Lindsay Lohan in I Know Who Killed Me (tie) (as the character of Aubrey) and Lindsay Lohan in I Know Who Killed Me (tie) (as the character of Dakota)
Worst Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy in Norbit (as the character of Mr. Wong)
Worst Supporting Actress: Eddie Murphy in Norbit (as the character of Rasputia)
Worst Screen Couple: Lindsay Lohan and Lindsay Lohan (“as the yang to her own yin”) in I Know Who Killed Me
Worst Remake or Rip-off: I Know Who Killed Me (Hostel, Saw and The Patty Duke Show)
Worst Prequel or Sequel: Daddy Day Camp
Worst Director: Chris Sivertson for I Know Who Killed Me
Worst Screenplay: I Know Who Killed Me (written by Jeffrey Hammond)
Worst Excuse for a Horror Movie: I Know Who Killed Me
Mahalo Daily have a neat video covering this year’s awards:
> Check out the full nominees at The Razzies official site
> Find out more about The Razzie at Wikipedia
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The Oscars in 60 Seconds
Here is last nights’ ceremony in 60 seconds courtesy of Mahalo Daily:
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Oscar spoofs from Super Deluxe
You know certain films have hit a cultural nerve when spoofs start popping up on the internet.
Super Deluxe have some spoofs of three films up for Oscar consideration.
No Country for Old Men redone as a kids birthday party:
A fake behind the scenes interview with Juno writer Diablo Cody:
> More videos at Super Deluxe
> There Will Be Milkshakes – YouTube mashup of There Will Be Blood
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Be Kind Rewind vs The Amanda Show
Check out the similarities between Be Kind Rewind and an an eight year old episode of The Amanda Show:
Be Kind Rewind
The Amanda Show
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Orson Welles peas advert
Here are the hilarious outtakes from an advert Orson Welles once did for Findus frozen peas:
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> Download this as an MP3 file
> Find out more about the audio at Wikipedia
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Sweded films
The new film from director Michel Gondry is out this week and it is called Be Kind Rewind. The basic premise is that two guys (played by Jack Black and Mos Def) recreate films in an extremely low budget way.
Here is the trailer:
The concept is known as ‘sweding’ and Snacked has posted links to a bunch of sweded films.
Some of my favourites are:
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Viral Video: Windows music video
Check out this video made up of sound samples used in Windows:
The trailer for the latest release from the Judd Apatow comedy factory is now out.
It is called Pineapple Express and stars two stoners (Seth Rogen and James Franco) who go on the run after witnessing a murder.
Cinematical has posted some highly amusing items of rejected Star Wars merchandise including:
A Han Solo fridge (or should that be carbon freezer?):
A Jabba the Hut beanbag chair:
And – my favourite – a Death Star grill:
> There are more items of rejected Star Wars merchandise at Action Figure Insider
> More on Star Wars at Wookiepedia
Paul Thomas Anderson recently admitted he was a fan of YouTube andย a mashup of the milkshake line from There Will Be Blood has been doing the rounds:
But check out these other mashups inspired by his films:
There is Boogie Nights mixed with Star Wars:
There Will Be Blood is out nationwide at UK cinemas from this Friday
In this discussion with Variety’s Michael Speier at the ArcLight about the marketing of There Will Be Blood, director Paul Thomas Anderson describes how he put the early trailer up on YouTube without telling Paramount Vantage: