Even more generally, movies that feature ex-SNL cast members post 1985 are a bad bet.

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Recursive blogwhore.

Yep. One of the few movies I have not finished. Thirty minutes in, I turned to the wife and said we have better things to do. She agreed. Back to netflix you go.

My most recent unfinished movie: the "remake" of The Producers, featuring Matthew Broderick & Nathan Lane.

Avoid at all costs.

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Recursive blogwhore.

I haven't seen Taledaga nights, but I liked Zoolander (obviously), Elf, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and Anchorman (though I tried to watch that one a second time and it was nicht so gut).

www.lesjones.com

He was in Zoolander? Great movie, Ferrell must have been entirely forgettable. Same with Jay and Silent Bob.

Saw Good Night and Good Luck at the theater when it came out. Great movie. One of the few (four maybe?) we've seen at a theater in years. Interesting that three were at the Downtown West theater. Hope they are able to survive out there showing all that subersive stuff.

Definitely aimed at a subset of the population who enjoys crying at the movies. I was bored to tears.

So Ang Lee was successful despite himself, huh?

This weekend, I used the Amazon Unbox feature on Tivo to download Idiocracy, the latest flick from Mike Judge (Beavis & Butthead, Office Space, King of the Hill). It wasn't as immediately uproariously funny as any of those, but I suspect that's because it was unrelentingly bitter in tone. The central conceit of the movie is that by the year 2505, humanity has bred intelligence out of existence and that computers and corporations run everything.

Amazon Unbox is a nifty new Tivo feature, by the way. The content only comes in 480i resolution, but other than that, I have no complaints. You download a movie straight to your Tivo by linking your Amazon account and Tivo account, and it works pretty fast. You have 24 hours to view the movie from the first time you hit "play," and then it automagically vanishes from your list later.

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Recursive blogwhore.

OK, guess I gotta be the dissenter here. I flat out thought it was hilarious. Not every joke, of course. But by and large. Walker and T.J. (if I remember the kids' names) reminded me of little John Beans. Did you watch their outtake clips? Guess its kinda one-track humor, but so is the Three Stooges.

I thought they did a good job of spoofing Nascar without being (too) insulting. The jabs at generica as fine dining were dead-on, and made be wonder how Applebee's ever consented to being used that way. I also liked the John C. Reilly character. I liked the Borat character, but didn't think portaying him as gay contributed anything. My nephew said he didn't like the movie because of that, and I had forgotten that a gay charcter had anything to do with the movie.

FWIW, I hated all the other Will Farrell movies I've seen (which has only been a very few of them), except Elf which was a cute holiday flick for the family, but not great. I distinctly thought Anchorman really sucked.

Also, if you like the Christopher Guest movies (Best in Show, Mighty Wind, Waiting for Guffman, etc.) like we do, I wonder what other opinions are of his latest, For Your Consideration, which we saw last week. It is dreadful. IMO and that of Mrs. FC. You've been warned there.

Amazon Unbox is a nifty new Tivo feature, by the way.

How much they charge, Andy?

Saw Good Night and Good Luck at the theater when it came out. Great movie. One of the few (four maybe?) we've seen at a theater in years.

Ditto on all that. We might go twice a year. I think the last thing we saw at the theatre was Inconvenient Truth. (Don't tell 9.)

For Your Consideration, which we saw last week. It is dreadful. IMO and that of Mrs. FC. You've been warned there.

Sorry to hear that. I had high expectations for that one. Guffman was hilarious, Best in Show was even better, Mighty Wind not so much but still OK. Sounds like they peaked out with Best in Show.

I liked the Borat character, but didn't think portraying him as gay contributed anything.

Oh, but they had to do that to set up the Big Kiss at the end. Hilarity ensued.

(Maybe they also did it to explain all his quirkiness, because, you know, their target audience might not get the quirkiness of being a French Formula One turned existentialist NASCAR driver who reads Camus while tooling around the track being bored, and nothing says quirky to a good ol' Southern boy better than "gay").

I can't imagine Talledega being funny, based on the previews, which were not funny at all. But I am a fool for "Anchorman", especially the 'street brawl' with all the local competing news teams. maybe i just enjoy seeing news anchors being made fun of.

and from what i read of Idiocracy, which i watched a few weeks back, the studio hated it, completely re-edited it and added some narration, and shelved it for two years to boot. there are nuggets of goodness in it, but not too many. oh and i loved the old Zero Mostel/Gene Wilder version of "The Producers," but could not stand more than 15 minutes of that musical. sure hope it was something very different on Broadway.

a seldom seen improv movie akin to Guffman worth checking out is one called "Memron," a parody of what happens when a giant corporation is shut down after bankruptcy and criminal fraud charges. many fince scenes in that one.

(Maybe they also did it to explain all his quirkiness, because, you know, their target audience might not get the quirkiness of being a French Formula One turned existentialist NASCAR driver who reads Camus while tooling around the track being bored, and nothing says quirky to a good ol' Southern boy better than "gay").

Yeah, I figured that was the general idea.

Who knows, maybe you'd like the new Guest flick as much as I did TN. But the joke/premise of FYC is that there's phony Oscar buzz generated about performers making a bad movie and it causes them and all the stock Hollywood industry stereotypes to act hyper-dysfunctional. Only one of the oldest jokes about Hollywood and the spoofed movie looks better than the real one. (And sort of a variation on Waiting For Guffman, but sans humor.)

Of course Fred Willard is almost always funny doing anything. So there is that.

>How much they charge, Andy?

$3.99 per title. Pretty good, considering it's stuff in new DVD release and you don't have to go to Hollywood Video (sorry, no Blockbuster for me) or wait for your time to come up in queue for Netflix.

I think there's a deal now too where you get $15 credit if you sign up for the service. Even if you don't use it right away, just tie the two together and you can try it a few times at no cost.

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Recursive blogwhore.

Talladega Nights...so-so funny. Of course, I like Nascar (Bristol this weekend...woohoo!). I liked Anchorman.

We see only a few movies. I liked Thank You For Smoking, which we watched recently on Charter On Demand. Mrs. CBT wanted to see that Hugh Grant movie (Music, Lyrics, something like that). It was what I thought it would be.

If you want to see some funny Will Farrell, rent his "best of" from Saturday Night Live. More Cow bell please.

$3.99 per title...

Might have to try that before we go Netflix, which we've been considering. We're still 480i all the way!

This Ferrell absolutely rocks every time I watch it, which has been many! Might offend you, CBT, though maybe not. ;>)

It's the difference between the selection at your local bookstore and the selection at Amazon. The only reason I cancelled it is that with two kids we just didn't have time to watch two hour movies (though one hour HBO dramas work pretty well).

I plan on re-subscribing at some point just because of the great selection and movie-recommendation tools. It's just hard right now with kids.

www.lesjones.com

I liked Ricky Bobby, but then I'm a sucker for Will Ferrell. Especially his tour de force in "Old School." Plus there's the great, underappreciated John C. Reilly as Cal Naughton Jr.!

I thought Taladaga was funny in spots. My son works at Tinsletown here in the Atomic City.. and I got to see it for free.

I am hoping to join Netflyx when I get a credit card again. I had the service for quite a while at my old house, but cancelled when we had to move.

On the other hand, Comcast's On demand service is really nice.

Free movies and getting to watch a lot of the CBS lineup at will is really nice. I just hope NBC and ABC will join in at some point.

No Matter Where you go, There you Are!!!!