Will Ferrell

CHICAGO – You have to admire the commitment to a goofy concept that allowed “Casa de mi Padre” to exist in the first place. The idea that Will Ferrell would star in a Spanish-language film about drug dealers and land control in Mexico and that the result would not only be subtitled but often remarkably straight-faced in its melodrama is conceptually hilarious. The actual product? Not quite as funny.

CHICAGO – Thanks to the internet, movie trailers are having a bit of a golden age recently. They’ve never had a wider reach and, as a result, they’ve never had a bigger cultural impact.

CHICAGO – Will Ferrell can never be accused of sitting on his comic laurels, nor repeating himself. “Casa de mi Padre” is a complete set-in-Mexico Spanish language film, including Ferrell’s dialogue. Although uneven, it delivers such a peculiar vibe that it can’t help but be admired, at least for the effort.

CHICAGO – The midnight movie show, popularized by “Rocky Horror,” always needs new candidates. The raunchy, hit-and-miss “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie” is fresh midnight meat, stamped with “love” from Tim Heidecker and Eric Warheim of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim (”Tom Goes to the Mayor”).

CHICAGO – Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim already have conquered the realm of the TV cult show. They broke through with the Cartoon Network Adult Swim Classic, “Tom Goes to the Mayor,” and their unique brand of surreal humor is now on the big screen with “Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie.”

CHICAGO – HBO brings back a few of their most larger-than-life personalities with the third (and final) season premiere of “Eastbound & Down” and the stateside premiere of “Life’s Too Short.”

CHICAGO – Alcohol mixed with the American Dream sometimes becomes a destructive chemistry. With every individual’s reaction to ethyl alcohol like a fingerprint, the general image of the party animal can easily morph into what John Cheever called ‘The Sorrows of Gin.” These sorrows are explored through Will Ferrell in “Everything Must Go.”

CHICAGO – DreamWorks’ “Megamind” features a fantastic voice cast (one of the best of 2010) and will play very well to legions of rugrats over the next few years, but it’s a film that might leave their parents shrugging their shoulders in disappointment. With three of the best animated films ever made hitting theaters last year (“Toy Story 3,” “How to Train Your Dragon,” “The Illusionist”) along with quality alternatives (“Despicable Me,” “Tangled”), it’s likely that “Megamind” will appropriately get lost in the mix of history when people talk about this era of the medium.

CHICAGO – What does a smart man like Will Ferrell do after a total disaster like “Land of the Lost”? Return to the man who has proven that he knows how to use him best, regular collaborator Adam McKay (“Anchorman,” “Talladega Nights,” “Step Brothers”), delivering the laughs that his fans have come to expect and even a few that they won’t see coming. Recently released on DVD and Blu-ray, “The Other Guys” is a funny movie with a few too many jokes that hit the floor to be considered great but an entertaining diversion nonetheless.

CHICAGO – Both games based on video games and a large majority of children’s games often have issues with creativity and when the two merge it can result in products that are truly bankrupt artistically. Such is the case with “Megamind: Ultimate Showdown,” a massive disappointment that is so clearly designed to pull dollars from parents of kids who love Dreamworks’ #1 movie “Megamind” but offers nothing to entertain them in return.