Writer-director Jordan Roberts’ Frankie Go Boom is one of those films that seemed destined for cult comedy status.  The premise is simple enough: a young man, tormented all his life by his older brother’s pranks, must track down an unauthorized and rather embarrassing sex tape before it gets out to the general public.  Then you look at the impressive cast – Charlie Hunnam, Chris O’Dowd, Lizzy Caplan, Chris Noth and Ron Perlman – and you wonder, how can this one possibly miss?  I decided to check out the newly-released Blu-ray to find out.  Hit the jump to check out my review.

For the record, Chris O’Dowd and Aziz Ansari, I was totally onto you.  Appropriately, the comedy duo serves as Epic’s comedic relief, Grub (O’Dowd) the snail and Mub (Ansari) the slug. When Grub isn’t dreaming of joining the ranks of the Leaf Men and Mub isn’t hitting on Mary Katherine (voice by Amanda Seyfried), the pair is in charge of keeping a very special little pod moist. It sounds like a silly job, but if that pod doesn’t bloom in the moonlight, the entire forest could wilt at the hands of the leader of the Boggans, Mandrake (voiced by Christoph Waltz).

When Ansari wasn’t rising to the challenge and seeing how many times he could squeeze Ice Age 4: Continental Drift into a single interview, we discussed how they fleshed out their characters while the animators put the world of Epic together, to Ansari’s amusement, how working on Epic compared to Ice Age 4: Continental Drift, a Michele Bachmann namedrop, and whether or not they got the opportunity to improvise. Moving on to their upcoming films, O’Dowd was cryptic or perhaps honestly uninformed about his Thor: The Dark World cameo and Ansari touched on the difficultly of getting his own scripts into production. Hit the jump to watch the interview.

HBO has put a lot of stock in British-based comedy over the years, particularly in their partnership with The Office‘s Ricky Gervais, his writing partner Stephen Merchant and their brilliantly bizarre friend Karl Pilkington.  There’s also the current series Veep, which although it is based entirely in American politics, is written wholly by Britons.  Their latest comedy offering, Family Tree, which is paired with Veep in a Sunday comedy block, has its roots in Britain, but does reach out across the pond as well, reflecting the dual-citizenship sensibilities of its creator, Christopher Guest.

Fans of Guest (who created seminal works This Is Spinal Tap and Best in Show, and served as a big influence on Ricky Gervais in creating The Office‘s style) have been waiting for something new since 2006′s For Your Consideration, which was fun, though not his best effort.  Family Tree, like his other work, takes on a mockumentary style (with varying success) and a minimalistic atmosphere, where most of the humor is found in subtle phrasing and background content, such as a poster at a theater in Hove for “Avatar: The Musical.”  Hit the jump for more on Family Tree and why it’s definitely worth tuning in for. 

The star and director of 2005′s The Upside of Anger will re-unite for Black and White, an on-the-nose title for a drama centering on racial issues.  Written and directed by Mike Binder,  Black and White is an indie that will star Kevin Costner as a man left widowed after his wife died in a car crash.  He’s then left alone to raise his bi-racial granddaughter when his own daughter dies during childbirth.  The plot thickens when the child’s paternal grandmother begins to wage a custody battle and raises questions about race and where the child should grow up.  Deadline reports that the indie will start shooting in New Orleans this summer.

Hit the jump for more casting news concerning Colin Firth (The King’s Speech) in Woody Allen’s next picture and Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) in talks for The Coward. 

It’s weird to think we’re only four movies in to Judd Apatow’s directing career, because for the last ten years he’s become a brand.  Between working with Adam McKay and Will Ferrell on their comedies, to launching Seth Rogen and Kristen Wiig (and more), he established that he was one of the biggest forces in comedy.  But his most recent film, This is 40, came out and it didn’t feel like event.  It’s a modest film that’s enjoyable enough, but feels like a B side.  Our review of This is 40 follows after the jump.

Three breakout comedy stars have added new projects to their rosters:

• Dave Franco (21 Jump Street) and Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad) were just added to the impressive cast of Townies, also featuring Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, and possibly Rose Byrne.  The comedy will be directed by Nicholas Stoller (The Five-Year Engagement).

• Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) is in talks to join Melissa McCarthy and Bill Murray in Ted Melfi’s St. Vincent De Van Nuys  After impressive turns with Girls and This is 40, this would see him re-teaming with his Bridesmaids costar McCarthy.

Hit the jump for more on each casting.

While the action cast is set for both Thor: The Dark World and Kick-Ass 2, the comic book movie sequels will be getting additional comedic cameos.  Chris O’Dowd (The Sapphires) recently revealed that he will be doing a small part in Alan Taylor’s Thor: The Dark World and it appears to be opposite star Natalie Portman, who is reprising her role from the first film.  While O’Dowd likely won’t be donning a cape or cowl, Kick-Ass comics writer Mark Millar and illustrator John Romita, Jr. will be in full regalia in a fight between good and evil in Jeff Wadlow’s Kick-Ass 2.

Hit the jump for what O’Dowd had to say about his scene and for more images of Millar and JRJR. 

HBO has released the first trailer for brilliant satirist Christopher Guest’s newest television venture, Family Tree.  Family Tree stars Chris O’Dowd as a man who starts to track down his real family, and follows him on that crazy journey.  The trailer gives a quick look into this journey, with O’Dowd’s character discovering his family’s military past, and eventually making it out to Los Angeles.  O’Dowd was last seen in Judd Apatow’s This is 40, but also made big splashes stateside with Bridesmaids and his recurring appearances on Girls.

I’m glad that O’Dowd is getting the chance to lead his own comedy series, and with help from Guest mainstays like Michael McKean, Ed Begley Jr., and Fred Willard, Family Tree could be a really solid new HBO comedy.  With a straight-to-series eight-episode pick-up for the first season, it looks like HBO is starting to hone in on creating a fantastic roster of innovative and hilarious comedy shows that could rival any of the big networks.  Hit the jump to watch the trailer.

A new trailer has gone online for The Sapphires.  Based on the play of the same name, the film takes place in 1968 and tells the story of four Australian aboriginal girls who are plucked from obscurity by a talent scout (Chris O’Dowd) and packaged as the answer to The Supremes.  I like the mash-up of cultures in the plot, and it looks like a fun movie with just the right amount of drama.  The movie played at TIFF and Telluride last year, and it could be worth checking out when it theaters next month.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens, and Miranda Tapsell.  The Sapphires opens in limited release on March 22nd.

Did anyone count the seconds Shoshanna and Jessa turned up on screen in this episode of Girls?  More than twenty, but less than a full minute, surely.  The problem with any episode that focuses entirely on Hannah is that Hannah is, by far, the least likable of the foursome.  In small doses she can be fine — the cold open was a thing of beauty to anyone who works in, or pays close attention to, media.  Hannah, looking to do some kind of Woody Allen-esque “I just want to talk about how awkward I am” piece, or maybe some kind of long-form old-school journalism is told, “have a threesome with strangers you meet off of Craiglist.  Or go on a cocaine binge.  Just an idea.”  Hit the jump to see how that played out, as well as why you should “look at the doll and describe her!”

“I watched Girls, but I didn’t really have an opinion of it” – said no one ever.  Last year the show started off shaky and turned some viewers off, but got progressively better as the reality of what the series is — and not what the divisive hype claimed it was — became clear.  Girls is really a fine show.  Series creator and star Lena Dunham is not “the voice of the generation” (which was a satirically uttered line that HBO turned into a sincere tagline), but she has moments where she gets it really right.  So maybe getting the most out of the show means accepting it as an ironic embrace of White Girl Problems, without being dismissive of its truths.  Hit the jump to find out where all of the girls are now, and why things are already so much better than before.

It’s not all gold, Mr. Apatow.  The logic behind his films seems to be, “If it got big laughs at a test screening, we should probably keep it.”  Therefore, the editing isn’t decided on how best to tell the story, but how many jokes they can stuff into a borderline-ridiculous runtime.  If this is the case, then there must be an absolute certainty that the jokes are all terrific, and that it doesn’t detract from the characters or the plot.  You can have the “Know how I know you’re gay?” scene in The 40-Year-Old Virgin because it’s funny, it doesn’t slow the film down, and it doesn’t detract from overall narrative.  This Is 40, Judd Apatow‘s latest film, lacks any such cohesion.  As nothing more than a slice-of-life, it’s free to wander around aimlessly, sometimes running up against great jokes, and sometimes meandering through scenes that could be cut completely.  More frustrating, beneath the sporadic success of the humor, there’s a compelling story and strong performances, especially from Leslie Mann.  Unfortunately, This Is 40 works in reverse, trying to let a story flow out of humorous situations rather than vice-versa.

Universal Pictures has released five clips from writer/director Judd Apatow’s new film This Is 40.  For those unaware, the pic is a “sort-of sequel” to Apatow’s 2008 film Knocked Up, and continues the story of the characters played by Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann five years later as they’re navigating new challenges to their careers, parents, marriage, and children.

Hit the jump to watch the clips.  The film also stars Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Megan Fox, Chris O’Dowd, Charlyne Yi, Jason Segel, and Melissa McCarthy.  This Is 40 opens on December 21st.

Universal Pictures has released a large batch of images from writer/director Judd Apatow’s upcoming comedy This Is 40.  For those unaware, the film is a “sort-of sequel” to Apatow’s 2008 film Knocked Up and picks up with the characters played by Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann five years later as they’re navigating new challenges to their careers, parents, marriage, and children.  I’m encouraged by what we’ve seen thus far, and if anyone can bring a brutally honest portrayal of a marriage to the screen with equal parts charm and heartbreak, it’s Rudd and Mann.  These new images provide a colorful look at Apatow’s impressive cast.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film also stars Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Megan Fox, Chris O’Dowd, Charlyne Yi, Jason Segel, and Melissa McCarthy.  This Is 40 opens on December 21st.