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.

[With The Bourne Legacy set to open this Friday, we'll be taking a look back at the original Bourne trilogy.  These reviews will contain spoilers since the movies have been out for years.  Click here for my review of The Bourne Identity.]

The identity of the Bourne franchise begins in the third act of The Bourne Identity.  It’s when the character’s strengths and weaknesses begin to arise, and The Bourne Supremacy director Paul Greengrass took note of where not only the character was going, but where America was going.  The Bourne Identity came out in June 2002, and the sense of our country’s post-9/11 world was still hazy.  By the time The Bourne Supremacy arrived on July 23, 2004, the reverberations were clear.  We had been led into a war based on faulty intelligence that was cherry-picked so that we could attack a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.  Greengrass wasn’t obligated to insert the subtext into his spy thriller, but he was savvy enough to leave the political commentary simmering underneath an intense action flick that not only boosted Matt Damon‘s credibility as a kick-ass hero, but found a way to use hand-held cinematography to its full effect rather than a lazy shortcut.

[With The Bourne Legacy set to open this Friday, we'll be taking a look back at the original Bourne trilogy.  These reviews will contain spoilers since the movies have been out for years.]

In the years following his breakthrough success with Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon‘s career had hit a snag.  He was a talented actor who had made a series of bad choices in terms of leading roles.  Furthermore, he had never taken on the role of an action hero, but Universal took a chance on the actor, and had him star in the thriller The Bourne Identity.  Director Doug Liman has also never done an action film before, and had made his name on the indie features Swingers and Go.  Strangely, neither the director nor his star does a particularly great job with the film, but it was a hit and led to two excellent features once Paul Greengrass took over the franchise.  I didn’t care much for The Bourne Identity when I saw it back when it was released in 2002.  I hadn’t revisited the movie until today, and unfortunately, it still has a lot of problems.  Thankfully, these problems then serve to illustrate what makes the character works and separates him from other action heroes.

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.

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.

Earlier this week, we showed you a couple of fake campaign ads for Jay Roach‘s comedy The Campaign starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis.  Today, Warner Bros. has released the first trailer and poster.  The film centers on an incumbent candidate (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 (Galifianakis).  I was hoping that the trailer would deliver more laughs than the campaign ads, but no dice.  Yes, there’s some baby-punching at the end, but overall this looks like another weak comic effort from Roach.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars The film also stars Jason Sudeikis, Dylan McDermott, Brian Cox, John Lithgow, and Dan Aykroyd.  The Campaign opens August 10th.

About a month ago, we brought you these set photos from The Campaign (previously known as Dog Fight), starring Will Ferrell (Old School) and Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover). Now, we have the first official image from the movie which features Ferrell and Galifianakis’ characters as political opponents posing for a photograph. The plot of The Campaign follows Cam Brady (Ferrell) and Marty Huggins (Galifianakis), two North Carolina politicians who each have Presidential aspirations and are vying for a congressional seat in their district. This image isn’t as colorful as the previous set photos, but Galifianakis’ awkwardness is shining through loud and clear.

Directed by Jay Roach (Meet the Parents), The Campaign also stars Jason Sudeikis, Dylan McDermott, Brian Cox, John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd. Look for The Campaign to appear in theaters on August 10th. Hit the jump to see the image and a bonus quote from Ferrell. [Update: We've updated the image with a hi-res version]

Brilliantly slotted for a Christmas 2012 release, Django Unchained is quickly becoming one of my most anticipated movies. With a cast that includes Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Samuel L. Jackson just to name a few, how could it not be? Now, the ever-busy RZA has reportedly joined the Quentin Tarantino spaghetti Western picture as Thaddeus, a slave on a Mississippi plantation with a propensity towards violence.

In more light-hearted news, Brian Cox (Super Troopers) may return to comedic form, as the Scottish thespian is in final negotiations to join Warner Bros’ Dog Fight for director Jay Roach (Meet the Parents). The comedy stars Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as rival politicians vying to represent a small North Carolina district. Cox will star as Galifianakis’s distant father who is also a former senator. Hit the jump for more on both projects.

Director Nick Murphy made an impressive debut theatrical feature with his gothic horror film The Awakening (click here to read my review).  Screen Daily reports that he’ll be making his follow-up with Blood, an adaptation of the Bill Gallagher BAFTA-nominated TV series Conviction.  The plot centers on “two policemen who kill a murder suspect and are then plunged into chaos when they are forced to investigate their own crime.”  Murphy has assembled a strong lead cast for the picture with Paul Bettany, Brian Cox, and Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire) set to star with Gallagher handling the screenplay.  Filming is set to begin in the UK in January.

I’m hoping that The Awakening gets out in front of audiences sooner rather than later because Murphy is definitely a director to keep an eye on, and I’ll certainly be keeping Blood on my radar.

David R. Ellis, who has made a career out of making ridiculous movies (Snakes on a Plane and Shark Night 3D), has been set to direct the live-action remake of the Japanese anime Kite, per Variety. The original film, released in 1998, centers on a young girl who sets out to track down the killer of her father, who was a cop. The characters occupy a post-financial collapse failed state where corrupt security traffics young women for profit. I can’t really envision Ellis taking on such straight gritty material, but then again he may be putting his own spin on things. Anant Singh and Brian Cox are producing through their Distant Horizon banner. Hit the jump to watch the trailer for the original film.

Before now, my reaction to Coriolanus was “Oh, Ralph Fiennes is making his directing debut by adapting Shakespeare’s Coriolanus and setting it in a modern-day battlefield.  That’s nice.”  But the UK trailer just makes me go, “This is Fiennes’ directing debut?  Holy hell.”  The dialogue and plot may be Shakespeare’s but Fiennes has clearly amped up the setting with some sweet looking action and intense drama.  I hope this all comes together because it has an outstanding cast (Fiennes in the title role and joined by Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox, Gerard Butler, Jessica Chastain, and James Nesbitt).

As you’ll gather from the trailer, the plot centers on a banished former war hero who plans to conquer his homeland.  Hit the jump to check out the madness.  Coriolanus will play at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.  It opens in the US on December 2nd and in the UK on January 20, 2012.

You’re not supposed to cut out your stars half-way through your blockbuster movie.  You’re not supposed to rest your big summer movie on apes created by CGI motion-capture technology.  You’re not supposed to sell an audience on the far-fetched idea that humans can be defeated by a species that doesn’t have opposable thumbs [correction: Apes do have opposable thumbs.  We're all doomed].  You’re not supposed to leave the audience on a down note.  There’s so much that goes into making a formulaic, forgettable blockbuster and no one told the folks behind Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  Instead, Rupert Wyatt, the screenwriters, the actors, and the special effects team broke all the rules and came out with one the summer’s most exciting movies.

New clips from Rise of the Planet of the Apes have gone online.  I liked the earlier clip I saw of Caesar (Andy Serkis) protecting his human father figure (John Lithgow) but now I want to go into the film not spoiling any more of it for myself.  However, if you still need to be convinced about pre-damned-and-dirty apes then hit the jump to check out the 5 clips.  The film stars James Franco, Freida Pinto, Tom Felton, and Brian Cox.  Rise of the Planet of the Apes opens August 5th.

We’ve got a slew of monkey news for you today. A UK trailer and poster, as well as a batch of new images from Rise of the Planet of the Apes have been released. This international trailer looks to be the best one yet. I think it gets the tone just right, plus we get our first look at the apes standing up (next step, clothes). I still don’t think an Apes reboot is necessary, but I think a sequel to Rise, wherein we see the apes begin to build society anew, would be much more interesting than this film. Nevertheless, the effects on the apes keep looking better and better each time we see a new trailer. The new images released give us a great look at some of WETA Digital’s work.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer, poster, and images. Starring James Franco, Andy Serkis, Tom Felton, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, and Freida Pinto, Rise of the Planet of the Apes hits theaters on August 5th.

Continuing our coverage of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, 20th Century Fox has sent over high resolution images of the concept art that was shown during yesterday’s webcast.  While the trailer that premiered earlier today definitely focuses on the action, I’m hoping the story is solid and it’s more than just some cool action set pieces.  After reading Germain’s set report, I’m very optimistic.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes stars James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, David Oyelowo, and Andy Serkis as the ape Caesar.  The film opens August 5th.  Hit the jump for the concept art.