Earlier this year, I wrote about how The Five-Year Engagement over-indulged its actors’ improvisational comedy, which caused scenes to run on for far too long.  Director Jay Roach wisely dodges this problem by cutting his new film, The Campaign, down to a lean 85 minutes.  There’s clearly plenty of more material as stars Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis‘ strong chemistry and comic mastery play brilliantly off each other, especially when the humor gets particularly crass.  It’s a film that can deliver big laughs, and yet it features an odd concoction of broad comedy that grazes up against targeted political commentary.  The brew tastes a bit off as it highlights a missed opportunity to truly take advantage of the political arena.

Last week, Warner Bros. invited us to attend the press junket for The Campaign.  The R-rated comedy stars Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as two politicians who keep finding hilarious new lows in order to win a district election in North Carolina.   For more on the film, click here for all of our previous coverage.

During my on-camera interview with Ferrell and Galifianakis, we talked about setting the film in the South, taking the movie to Comic-Con, memorable stories about politicians, Galifianakis’ future regarding stand-up comedy, an update on Anchorman 2, and the worst thing about working together (it involves peach juice).   Hit the jump to check out the interview.  The Campaign opens Friday.

If you’re going to center your movie’s plot around a cutting-edge technology firm, take a lesson from director Shawn Levy and choose Google.  Levy’s The Internship stars Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as two out of touch salesmen who reinvent themselves at a tech company through a highly contentious internship. Today on Twitter, Levy revealed that the company would be the very real, and very progressive, Google.  The director has also accompanied his Tweets of late with set photos.  Hit the jump to check them out.

It’s a Wedding Crashers reunion!  Not only are Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson getting together for The Internship, but Will Ferrell is now reported to be making an appearance as well.  Much like his turn in Wedding Crashers, Ferrell’s role will be small (but memorable, I’m sure).  Directed by Shawn Levy, the film follows Vaughn and Wilson as two out-of-touch and out-of-work salesmen who attempt to reinvent themselves by taking an internship at a major tech company.  Hit the jump for more details on Ferrell’s cameo.

There are few performers as consistently funny and interesting as Will Ferrell. Sure, he’ll take a gig in a studio paycheck film, but often those are often weird and interesting too (say what you will about Land of the Lost, that’s not a boring choice), and so it’s no surprise that Ferrell would appear in a movie in which he spends the entire movie speaking Spanish. He stars in Casa de mi Padre as a rancher stuck in the middle of a drug war. He’s between his brother (Diego Luna) and the town’s vicious drug lord (Gael Garcia Bernal), and all three have interest in his brother’s fiancée (Genesis Rodriguez). Our review of the Blu-ray of Casa de mi Padre follows after the jump.

As you’re likely aware, the 2012 Summer Olympics kicked off in London yesterday. In other words, it’s time for me to care about competitive swimming and gymnastics for the first time since the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. To all of our readers, especially those internationally-based, I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on the Summer Olympics. Is it an event that evokes your inner-patriotism and love of otherwise obscure athletic feats? Do you take great joy in defeating the ol’ U.S. of A. in something other than Math and Science scores? Sound off in the comments.

This Saturday brings us the Man of Steel teaser trailer set to John Williams‘ original Superman score, coverage from our visit to the set of Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis‘ The Campaign, an extended trailer and first official images from Cloud Atlas, interviews with the fellas of The Watch, and Brendan’s latest By the Numbers installment covering The Caped Crusader from Batman: The Movie to The Dark Knight Rises. Unless you’re a Top 5 noob (in which case, welcome aboard!), you know that a brief recap and link to each can be found after the jump.

Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis will duke it out in the upcoming comedy The Campaign, and six clips, 10 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage, and over 25 new high-resolution images from the pic have been released.  Ferrell stars as an incumbent congressman who is surprisingly challenged by the green and inexperienced Galifianakis in a North Carolina race.  Jay Roach (Recount, Austin Powers) directs the pic, which takes the ridiculousness of American politics to another level.  Ferrell and Galifianakis appear to be having a blast, and I’m looking forward to seeing the two take on the world of politics with gusto.

Hit the jump to check out the cilps, featurettes, and images, and if you missed any of our set visit coverage click here.  The film also stars Jason Sudeikis, Dylan McDermott, Dan Aykroyd, Brian Cox, and John Lithgow.  The Campaign opens on August 10th.

A new restricted trailer for director Jay Roach’s The Campaign has debuted.  The political comedy features Will Ferrell as a slick incumbent who is at odds with the oddball dark horse (Zach Galifianakis) in a Congressional election race.  While you can learn a lot about the film from our recent set visit and interviews with Ferrell, Galifianakis and Roach, the new restricted trailer goes back to the old Ferrell comedy stand-by: the family dinner table.  It’s not quite as funny as the kids from Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, but there are some good one-liners.  Hit the jump to check out the new restricted trailer before The Campaign comes to your town on August 10^th.

As we gear up towards one of the most heated elections in our country’s history, people are getting a little (OK, a lot) stressed out:  political pundits are viciously attacking one another—and Batman movies—in the press, candidates are slinging mud via increasingly-aggro campaign ads, and voters on both sides of the aisle seem poised to tear one another limb from limb.  Seems like we could all use a good laugh right about now, doesn’t it?  Good news is, Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, writer Chris Henchy and director Jay Roach’s The Campaign is here to provide that much-needed dose of anger-deflating political comedy.

I visited the set of the film a few months ago, and have returned with 20 things you need to know about The Campaign before it opens next month.  Wanna know more?  Meet me after the jump.

On August 10^th, Warner Bros. releases the Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis political comedy, The Campaign, and—based on what we’ve seen thus far—director Jay Roach might have a monster hit on his hands.  The film looks topical, hilarious, and like it pulls no punches while skewering politicians on both side of the aisle.

Back in February, Collider and a few other members of the online press were invited to the film’s set in New Orleans.  While there, we had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with Will Ferrell to learn more about his Campaign character, and found him to be one of the nicest celebrities I’ve ever encountered.  What’d he have to say for himself?   Find out after the jump, folks!

Director Jay Roach has been gearing up for The Campaign for years now, even if it wasn’t a conscious decision:  the Will Ferrell/Zach Galifianakis-starring politi-comedy (arriving August 10^th) might—at first glance—seem like the sort of thing that any comedy director might be able to tackle, but look closer and you’ll see a film that needed the touch of someone familiar with the world of politics.  After his last two films (Recount and Game Change), Roach was the perfect guy for the job.

Along with some other online press, I traveled to The Campaign set back in February.  While there, we had a chance to speak with Roach about working with Galifianakis and Ferrell, where Roach’s career path almost took him, and to find out just how much of The Campaign is based in reality.  Wanna know what he had to say for himself?  Meet me after the jump.

Warner Bros. has released a new trailer for the political comedy The Campaign.  The film centers on an incumbent candidate (Will Ferrell) who doesn’t expect to be opposed in his run for a fifth-term, but he finds an unexpected challenger in the unassuming and dim-witted Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis).  Ferrell and Galifianakis showed up for a surprise Hall H panel at Comic-Con last week, and this trailer has bits of footage from the hilarious reel that was shown.  There are a ton of alternate takes from the “dinner table scene” that are really, really funny, so hopefully those show up in the finished film.

Along with the trailer, YouTube video from the Hall H panel has also appeared online.  There’s really not much information from the film to be gleaned during the Comic-Con panel, but it’s funny as hell to watch Ferrell and Galifianakis respond to audience questions.  Hit the jump to watch the new trailer and Comic-Con panel.  The Campaign opens on August 10th.

We’ve got some new posters to share with you today.  Check them out in brief below:

• The Campaign – Starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, the Jay Roach film pits the actors against each other as opponents in a political race for a seat in North Carolina.  The Campaign opens August 10th.
• Lawless – Starring Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Guy Pearce, Gary Oldman, Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska, the John Hillcoat film is a throwback to the Prohibition era.  Lawless opens August 29th.

Have a look at the full-size posters after the jump.

When last we reported on the adaptation of Susan Trott’s novel, Flamingo Thief, it was to announce that Will Ferrell (Old School) was set to star.  Now, we have word that Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) is in negotiations to direct the bittersweet comedy.  The Michael LeSieur (You, Me and Dupree) script made its way onto the 2011 Black List.  Faced with the impending loss of his wife and his business, Ferrell would play a lawyer who steals novelty flamingos as a coping mechanism.  There’s no timeline being reported for Ferrell’s involvement yet as he’s set to star in Anchorman 2 later this year and will topline Three Mississippi, a football comedy for Warner Bros.  Gillespie most recently directed the remake of Fright Night starring Colin Farrell and the TV movie, Trooper. Hit the jump for the synopsis of the Trott novel, Flamingo Thief.

Today’s poster round-up features comedy, action and horror.  What more could you want?

• The Campaign, starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as political opponents, opens August 10th.
• Goats, based on the Mark Jude Poirier novel and starring David Duchovny and Vera Farmiga, also opens August 10th.
• Premium Rush, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a bike messenger with a volatile delivery, opens August 24th.
• The Tall Man, a horror mystery starring Jessica Biel and Jodelle Ferland, opens August 31st.

Hit the jump to check out the posters and synopses.