Judd Apatow

God’s Vajoojoo Tastes Like Semi-Glorious ‘Pineapple Express’ in Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen Stoner Film

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:01:00 -0700

CHICAGO – If god had a vajoojoo, Judd Apatow and company think it’d taste something like smoking “Pineapple Express”. There’s no question “Pineapple Express” is ultimately a stoner film, but is it the ultimate stoner film of our decade?

Always the most difficult proposition in a comedy is maintaining its comedic pacing with consistency.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

A comedy’s goal is to sidesplittingly laugh your socks off from start to finish (and even after the credits roll). So often, though, a semi-successful comedy will instead feel like a humorous rollercoaster replete with some ups and some downs due to the inability to maintain its “A”-game material in a consistent fashion.

Read Adam Fendelman’s full review of “Pineapple Express”.

View our full, high-resolution “Pineapple Express” image gallery.

“Pineapple Express” falls victim to the comedic consistency trap. While the story has its heart in the right place for a film that’s centered on reefer madness and the script successfully grows ever-more complex and ridiculous, the story needs to be sliced and diced.

For every two comedic lines that successfully land one falls short. While the film certainly has the beginnings of stoner-film greatness, it’s still sometimes stifled by lines that had the potential to be roundhouse knockouts and instead were crippled stumbles.

That said, everything successful about “Pineapple Express” comes in threes from its writing (Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg) and its primary actors (Rogen, James Franco and Danny McBride).

There’s a lot of talk about James Franco playing against type for this role. Based on his performance, though, this shouldn’t be viewed as Franco playing against type. This should be viewed as Franco having found his type. For Franco, all other roles pale in comparison.

“Pineapple Express,” which is directed by David Gordon Green and is written by Seth Rogen, Judd Apatow and Evan Goldberg, stars Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Rosie Perez, Amber Heard, Gary Cole and Kevin Corrigan. The film opened everywhere on Aug. 6, 2008.

Continuing reading for Adam Fendelman’s full “Pineapple Express” review.

Dale Denton (Seth Rogen, standing) and Saul Silver (James Franco, being carried) are two lazy stoners running for their lives in “Pineapple Express”.
Photo credit: Dale Robinette

Saul Silver (James Franco, left), Red (Danny McBride, center) and Dale Denton (Seth Rogen, right) in “Pineapple Express”.
Photo credit: Dale Robinette

Continuing reading for Adam Fendelman’s full “Pineapple Express” review.

Adam Sandler is White Ladies Man in Judd Apatow’s ‘You Don’t Mess With the Zohan’

HollywoodChicago.com — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:01:00 -0700

CHICAGO – In the relatively anemic anthology of recent Adam Sandler flops, “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” hangs above with comedic charm and a nonsensically amusing plotline. The story is divisively intermingled with racial and ethnic sensitivities between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

At first, it even feels like a scribe sat down for a few weeks, slammed back a few brewskies and toked daily on the good ganja while attempting to ink a forcefully novel plot.

Surprisingly, its idiosyncratic nature tends to work as you build esteem for the libidinous man Adam Sandler has transformed into. While Sandler has played the full gamut of roles in recent memory, this time he’s actually a Thor who beckons women to his sexual mercy.

Read Adam Fendelman’s full review of “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan” in our reviews section.

View our huge, high-resolution “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” image gallery.

Sandler as Zohan is the white version of the legendary Tim Meadows character The Ladies Man from “Saturday Night Live” but with a thick Israeli accent. Zohan is an Israeli counter-terrorist commando who fakes his own death in order to pursue his unlikely and embarrassing dream of becoming a hairstylist in New York.

To make matters more outlandishly canned, Zohan’s arch nemesis, Phantom (played by John Turturro), has a similarly humiliating reverie: selling shoes.

Lainie Kazan is welcome motherly relief – except when she’s revealed utterly nude from the rear and causes an eruptive audience gasp – and Rob Schneider, of course, can’t let an Adam Sandler flick make it to the big screen without joining him on it. As well, you might notice Dave Matthews in the film, but I didn’t.

In “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,” Emmanuelle Chriqui stars as Dalia: a Palestinian immigrant to New York and owner of a hair salon who gives Zohan his big break in his dream to become a hairstylist.
Photo credit: Columbia Pictures

In “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,” Adam Sandler stars as Zohan: an Israeli commando who fakes his own death in order to pursue his dream of becoming a hairstylist in New York.
Photo credit: Columbia Pictures

Read Adam Fendelman’s full “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” review.

Judd Apatow Again Fashions Gimmick Into Gold in Uproarious ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’

HollywoodChicago.com — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:00:19 -0700

CHICAGO – After being blitzed by an onslaught of attention-demanding advertising that begged the question “who is Sarah Marshall?” even before you realized it’s a film, anticipation was ravenous.

It became nothing short of voracious upon learning it’s backed by producer Judd Apatow of “Superbad,” “Knocked Up,” “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” fame (also with high hopes for his “Pineapple Express,” which opens on Aug. 8, 2008).

Read Adam Fendelman’s full review of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” in our reviews section.

View our huge “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” image gallery.

Through his Apatow Productions company, Apatow has made beaucoup bucks and a mountainous name by banding together the same stooges time and time again. In “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” we’re treated to the return of Bill Hader and Jonah Hill (both in Apatow’s “Superbad” and “Knocked Up” together).

While it’s still early in the year and few films have stood out to date, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” indeed delivers on its hype as the funniest comedy so far in 2008.

Apatow has once again fashioned what could have been cheesy gimmick into delicious gold. In a telltale sign of its riotous good time, Chicago critics have even been promising to return on opening weekend for a second paid viewing with friends.

While first-time filmmaking talent is often a precarious, hit-or-miss gamble, it pays off in spades here.

Kristen Bell as Sarah Marshall in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”.
Photo credit: IMDb

Jason Segel (left) and Kristen Bell in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”.
Photo credit: IMDb

Read Adam Fendelman’s full “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” review…

Jack Black Drops Biblical ‘Year One’ Bomb in ‘Be Kind Rewind’ Interview

HollywoodChicago.com — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 21:12:05 -0700

CHICAGO – Though actors aren’t supposed to chat it up about their other films when they’re being interviewed specifically for one, every now and then they do and the focus of the interview changes entirely. When Collider.com on Saturday published an interview with Jack Black about his Feb. 22 film “Be Kind Rewind,” details willingly slipped about his upcoming film “Year One”.

Mos Def (left) and Jack Black in “Be Kind Rewind”.
Photo credit: IMDb

Though the particulars of that project have been kept quietly sacred and despite the ongoing writer’s strike, we learn the following about “Year One”:

“Year One” is a biblical comedy. It’s about the Old Testament. I’m just a dude wandering through biblical times. I’m not a famous character … you would have heard of before. Me and Michael Cera are just sort of wandering through and you get to see all these old stories from the Torah told through agnostic – sort of – eyes.

The talent in the film feels partially “Superbad” as it features both Michael Cera and Christopher Mintz-Plasse along with Jack Black and Oliver Platt. The film is directed and written by Chicago native Harold Ramis (“Ghostbusters,” “Caddyshack”) and produced by Judd Apatow (also a producer for “Superbad” and Knocked Up). /Film wrote about the interview:

It appears we might have a new controversial comedy that takes aim at religion (i.e. Monty Python’s “Life of Brian”), which may explain why details have been kept hush-hush.

Black also confirmed that the script was finished before the [WGA strike started] and the project is plowing ahead without the constant rewrites that he is accustomed to. “Year One” is scheduled to hit theaters on June 19, 2009.

A video segment from the Collider.com interview can be seen here. MTV published a very brief video clip from an “Year One” interview with Black back on Dec. 10, 2007. I’ve embedded it below.

By ADAM FENDELMAN
Editor-in-Chief
HollywoodChicago.com
adam@hollywoodchicago.com