What will Wes Anderson's next movie look like?

I guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that with Wes Anderson about to get busy on a new movie, there are plenty of stars ready to sign up for it. And in even better news, unlike the disastrous "Darjeeling Limited," it seems like this one might even have a proper story behind it.

Anderson is expected to start shooting his next film, "Moonrise Kingdom," in the spring, and he's apparently in negotiations with regular partner in crime and funniest man alive Bill Murray, plus Frances McDormand, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton and even Bruce Willis.

And even though he's again working with co-writer Roman Coppola, who was with him for "Darjeeling Limited" (sorry to keep bringing it up, but I really hated that movie), it indeed sounds like this flick will have something actually going on in it.

In a story set in the late 1960s, two young adults fall in love and run away, and leaders in their New England town go in search of them. Norton will play a scout leader who brings his charges on a search. Willis is in talks to play the town sheriff who’s also looking, and who is having an affair with the missing girl’s mother, the role McDormand is in talks to play. Murray will play the girl’s father, who has his own issues.

Oooohh, drama. Since Anderson has managed to make four movies I have nothing but love for with "Bottle Rocket," "Rushmore," "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (and also two real duds, but enough about that), I'll definitely be keeping track of this one, so stay tuned for more on this soon.

A fairly short report today because, after all, I am on vacation (but, of course, watching movies, since I'm at the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival.) The only other real bit of news before a couple of clips today is something that just makes me giddy: The Muppets movie taking shape painfully slowly is finally starting to line up some seriously funny people.

Along with writing the movie, Jason Segel, of course, gets to cast himself as the main human in this operation, and it's already been announced that he'll be joined by Amy Adams, as his girlfriend (rough gig for Segel, eh?), and Chris Cooper as the big bad, an oil man who wants to drill below the Muppets' theater. But now surrounding them is when things are starting to get really good.

Lady Gaga will make an appearance (why not?), and her entourage will be made up of veryfunnyguys Ed Helms, John Krasinski and Eric Overstreet (a recent Emmy winner, and deservedly so, for "Modern Family"). Also in the mix will be Jack Black, Paul Rudd and "Community" uberfunnyman Donald Glover in unspecified roles, Jane Lynch as a prison guard and Danny Trejo as her prisoner (why a prison guard would have a personal prisoner I don't know, but anything can happen with the Muppets!), and Zach Galifianakis as Hobo Joe.

Whew. Is that enough funny for you? The flick, being directed by James Bobin of "Flight of the Conchords," isn't set to come out until two Christmases from now, but you can already count me as thoroughly psyched for this.

OK, that's all the real news I have today, so here are couple of clips to wrap things up. First up comes the first trailer I've seen for "Barney's Version," based on the comic novel by Mordechai Richler and, thankfully, starring Paul Giamatti. The story is about the life of the titular Barney, or at least his version of it, which includes three wives, two continents and any number of possibly true adventures. It's probably much better than I'm making it sound here. Enjoy the trailer and keep an eye out for this in at least some corners of the world Jan. 14.

And I'll leave you today with the trailer for a magical movie I saw last night here in Rehoboth, a 2009 Indian movie titled "Harishchandrachi Factory." Directed by Paresh Mokashi, it's a humorous look at the life of impossible dreamer Dabasaheb Phalke who, in 1913, made "Raja Harishchandra," thus launching India's feature film industry. It really is a movie made for people who love movies, and though I have no idea if it's coming to DVD in the Western world any time soon, definitely see it if you get a chance. Unfortunately, this trailer was the only one I could find that has the English subtitles, but it also has a truly unfortunate voiceover. It still gives you an idea of the spirit of this great movie, so enjoy the clip, and have a great weekend (and if you happen to live in Macon, of course, please go see the Macon Film Guild's presentation of my favorite flick of 2010, "Winter's Bone," Sunday at 2, 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. at the Douglass Theatre.) Peace out.

OK, maybe I will go see "The Other Guys"

Before I get into any of that, think: What's the best possible news you could hear about the return of "Glee" to make it even better than the wickedly funny/cheesy/outright entertaining show already is?

Well, how about Sue Sylvester's mom? In what, even if you don't watch the show you'll have to concede is rather genius casting, Carol Burnett will play the nazi-hunting mother of Jane Lynch's cheerleading coach/bully extraordinaire on a November episode of the Fox show. The only possibly bad news there? In the place where I first saw this, in Michael Ausiello's Entertainment Weekly column, it was pretty clear this will be for only one episode. Oh well.

And the baseball season may well have ended for the Orioles in, well, the second week of April or so, but my favorite team of lovable losers is now 2-0 under new manager Buck Showalter and are now guaranteed to win their fifth series of the year (out of 35, yes, but always look on the bright side of life.) As I heard some dude on ESPN radio say, and though of course I couldn't see him, it seemed to be with a straight face, "here come the Orioles," so watch out.

In their honor, here's a picture I found this morning of Philip Seymour Hoffman as A's manager Art Howe in the upcoming flick "Moneyball" that just made me smile. The flick itself is directed by Bennett Miller from the Michael Lewis book about general manager Billy Beane, who kept the team's payroll low and its winning percentage high (as opposed to the Orioles, who, oh well ...) One Brad Pitt is set to play Beane, who often clashed with Howe on the direction the team was taking. Anyways, this flick is one I'm definitely looking forward to. Here's the pic, which gets bigger if you click on it:


OK, finally on to the main event, I suppose. Although I managed to give up smoking long ago (and was never terribly good at it anyway), I still have plenty of bad habits, and the worst of them all just might be Will Ferrell movies. I haven't quite seen them all (I managed to just say no to whatever that basketball flick was called), but it's definitely well more than half, and I really can't explain why.

There all universally pretty stupid, but sometimes very funny too. An example: That "Stepbrothers" flick with John C. Reilly was a hoot. Yes, really. So, while I was at first at least trying to resist seeing his new flick directed by Adam McKay, "The Other Guys," it looks like it has enough going for it to make me spring for a matinee or so (though not this week, because I have to work six days and on my day off, I'm gonna see "The Kids Are All Right" instead, since that has one week at best to survive around here.)

The upside: Steve Coogan is not only in it, but is apparently the big bad, and I'll watch him in just about anything. Markie Mark and Samuel L. Jackson should also be very funny.

The downside: If it's bad, it will just be a 90-minute SNL sketch, and I already made that mistake once this year already with the not-even-for-90-seconds-funny "MacGruber" (yes, I see far too many movies.)

Anyways, if you happen to see this this weekend, please feel free to let me know if it was any good, and in the meantime, enjoy this mysteriously bleeped, four-minute clip of footage screened at Comic-Con, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

Of comedy, the good, the bad and the crazy

Before we get into any of that, a bit of bad business for people like me who have become at least partly addicted to those Redbox machines at your local grocery stores.

Since I have a Netflix account, I should surely just be satisfied with that, but far too often I get to the weekend with no new movies in hand and have to give into the Redbox siren. Well, and I guess we shouldn't surprised, knowing that they have us (or at least me) in their grasp, the folks behind this enterprise are at least testing a rate rise.

There's no word on when or if this might go national, but Redbox is now testing out raises (from $1.00) to $1.50 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, $1.25 in Modesto, Calif., and $1.15 in Spokane, Wash., and Miami/West Palm Beach, Fla. Nothing but sinister news there ... stay tuned.

OK, as promised today, it's all about good, bad and simply crazy news about what I at least consider comedy, so here goes.

Let's start, of course, with the crazy. It seems that although "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" did fairly well in its midnight run (only smashing all possible records with $30 million or so), certain young viewers did object to what came before it.

Though its merely a teaser trailer and by all accounts not terribly creepy at all, Cinemark theaters in Texas have pulled the "Paranormal Activity 2" trailer because viewers who were simply there to enjoy some Team Edward vs. Team Jacob action found it to be too scary.

Now, having been scarred for life by "The Blair Witch Project," I made a vow to never watch any more "found footage" horror movies, and therefore haven't seen the first "Paranormal Activity," but just the thought that 30 or so shadowy seconds from the sequel's trailer would be too much for "Twilight" viewers to take is nothing but funny to me.

OK, now on to the good, and if you're a fan of Pee Wee Herman (and if you're not, why not?), I should really say great. It seems that Paul Reubens has come up with a script for a new Pee Wee Herman movie, and has somehow managed to hook Judd Apatow to produce it, meaning this will probably really happen, and fairly fast.

All that's known so far about the plot for this, which is already booked at Universal, is that it will have Pee Wee going on some kind of road trip. No word yet on who would direct this (though I can't imagine it could possibly be Tim Burton), but I'd probably be happy watching Pee Wee simply eat a bowl of Cheerios, so bring it on!

And in a bit of tangential good comedy news, it seems that IFC (which I unfortunately don't get on my cable) has picked up the rights to what are still Apatow's two best creations, the single-season TV shows "Freaks and Geeks" and "Undeclared." The only surprise in that news for me was that it's taken so long for this to happen, since "Freaks" is without exaggeration simply one of the best TV shows ever made (and certainly the best one-season-only show), and "Undeclared" is in its own way almost as good.

"Freaks and Geeks" will premiere on IFC this Friday at 11 p.m., and then run there weekly, with encore airings Mondays at the same time. "Undeclared" will follow sometime this fall, and in the best news of all of this, there will be an episode that never managed to make it to the air before the show was canceled after only 17 episodes. If you've somehow never seen either of these and get IFC, just trust me and tune in.


And I guess the comedy troika today wouldn't be complete without the bad (if inevitable), so here goes: Starz has canceled the seriously funny "Party Down" after only two seasons. The show about wannabe actors who work at a catering company was created by "Veronica Mars" mastermind Rob Thomas and Paul Rudd, and has starred (before many of them moved on to shows watched by many more people) Jane Lynch, Adam Scott, Lizzy Caplan and even "Freaks and Geeks" vet and veryfunnyguy Martin Starr.

I've been enjoying the second season on Netflix, but once I finally get around to the finale, probably this weekend, I guess I'll join a fairly select group. It seems that only 74,000 people tuned in for the finale when it aired on Starz, giving the show a rather unsensational 0.0 rating (ouch). R.I.P., "Party Down."

But enough of that bad news. The only other thing I have today, before a welcome sneak peek at episode three of the new run of "Futurama," is two intriguing bits of casting news.

Going back to his movie roots in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," Sean Penn is in negotiations to produce, and I'd have to assume star in, a biopic about surfing icon Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz and his family.

And in a sure bit of Oscar bait, Meryl Streep is eyeing the lead role in "Thatcher," which would of course be a biopic about the former British Prime Minister. In another bit of good casting news for this potential flick, Jim Broadbent is likely to play Thatcher's husband, Denis, who I would have to assume spent plenty of time simply saying "yes, dear."

The movie would center on the 17 days in 1982 leading up the Falklands War. As soon as this all comes together, I suppose we should just go ahead and give her the little statue in advance.

And where better to end today than with a clip from the third new episode of "Futurama," coming to Comedy Central Thursday at 10 p.m. Although the first episode last week was much funnier than the second, they both were imbued with that familiar and fun "Futurama" spirit, so I'm looking forward to the whole new season. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant Thursday. Peace out.

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Hulu Plus: Why in the world would anyone pay for this?

The rumored day that Hulu goes to pay-per-view is almost here as the TV-online service is previewing its subscription service - Hulu Plus - and for so many reasons it's pretty much predestined to fail.

Before I get into why, here are the specs. Hulu Plus will offer content not available on the free site, including full current seasons of certain shows, plus all the past seasons of shows like "Glee" and "House" (those were the two most often mentioned in the write up I saw, so I suppose Fox is full in here.)

OK, fair enough, but does anyone else see the huge problem here? If you subscribe to Netflix, as I do, you probably well know that, for the same $9.99 price tag (I think - it may have gone up without me noticing), you can get not only the two or three movies at a time mailed to your house, but also a seemingly always-increasing library of TV shows you can watch on your computer (sound familiar?).

Even better than that is that, in perusing the offerings in the latter category, they certainly seem tailor-made to my tastes. I've recently enjoyed past seasons of "30 Rock," "The Office," "Friday Night Lights" and even somehow "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" too. Perhaps best of all, they have the current season of "Party Down" for all of you who don't get Starz, and even without Jane Lynch, that show is almost as wickedly funny as it was in season one.

So, if you can get Netflix's movie library (supplemented very well by the documentary offerings of Docurama) plus its TV on DVD content via computer content, why in the world would you pay the same price for simply the TV offerings, and surely not as much content at that?

The only thing that stood out in the Hulu press release is that you can stream content to your cell phone. Wow. Now if I ever a) feel the need to buy a cell phone or b) want to watch TV on a screen so small it will make my eyes bleed, I know where to go.

OK, enough of that. There has to be some actual good movie news out there today, right? Yes, and it starts with Martin Scorsese's adaptation of one of my favorite books by Brian Selznick, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret."

As production starts this week on that December 2011 flick, it's just been announced that Jude Law and Reel Fanatic fave Ray Winstone have joined an impressive cast that already included Sacha Baron Cohen, Sir Ben Kingsley, Hit-Girl Chloe Moretz and Asa Butterfield (who had the misfortune of starring in the simply dreadful "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" - meh.)

The story itself is about an orphaned boy (Butterfield) who's living in the walls of a Paris train station, where an encounter with a broken-down machine leads him into the world of silent filmmaker George Méliès (Kingsley) and his automatons. Baron Cohen will play the station inspector and Moretz the young female lead, but nothing is known yet about the roles Law or Winstone play.

Even if this is being filmed in 3-D (why in the world?), it's still easily one the movies I'm most looking forward to for 2011.

And in one more bit of news before we get into the videos which, yes, feature a rant from John Cleese, there's a music biopic in the works that has caught my eye.

How do you spark interest in this fairly tired genre? Well casting a great actress or actor to play an interesting subject is certainly the best way. Casting Chiwetel Ejiofor to play Fela Kuti (which has so far only happened in my overactive imagination) would certainly be one way, as would casting Peter Sarsgaard to play bluegrass legend Bill Monroe, which has actually just happened in the real world.

I really can't see the kids en masse getting into bluegrass, but Sarsgaard is easily one of my favorite actors (witness his truly skeevy performance in "An Education" for the most reason example of why), and this aging dude digs that high and lonesome sound, so count me as intrigued by this.

OK, since there's no World Cup futbol until Friday morning, how better to fill the void than this classic rant from John Cleese about the differences between futbol and American football? I love the latter far too much, and unlike Cleese find it to be plenty full of creativity, but there's no denying that this clip, which I found in the latest Roger Ebert Club newsletter, brings the funny. Enjoy.



Until I found out otherwise yesterday, I just assumed that no one would dare open opposite "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," but it seems that one M. Night Shyamalan is brave and foolish enough to enter that fight with "The Last Airbender." And, I have to say, even though M. Night has now delivered more stinkers than winners, he'll still be getting my movie money (in 2-D) this weekend, partly because I love the Nickelodeon "Avatar: The Last Airbender" series it's at least loosely based on, and just out of sheer curiosity. To get ready for it, enjoy this clip of the Slumdog Millionaire engaging in a battle of the elements with some young lady whose name I don't know.



And finally, in what might be - even with John Cleese included - a case of saving the best for last, here are the first five minutes of "The Disappearance of Alice Creed," a crime drama set to drop in at least some American cities in early August. As you'll see from the clip below, it stars Reel Fanatic fave Eddie Marsan as one of two ex-cons who plot to kidnap the daughter of a rich businessman. This could easily devolve into your average torture porn, especially with the rather beguiling Gemma Arterton playing the victim, but judging from the methodical nature of the beginning (I can't do anything about the script at the bottom - sorry), I think director J. Blakeson is up to a lot more than that here. Enjoy, and have a perfectly endurable Wednesday. Peace out.

Say it ain't so, Hulu

Before I get into any of that, there's some much better news out there for people who like their TV to make them laugh, which I certainly do.

First up is that NBC has given full-season orders to two shows I tune in for every week, "Community" and "Parks and Recreation." The former is already very funny and seems to get a little better with each episode, and the latter has a sweetness that masks just how sly it can often be.

And, in even better news, it seems that both Jane Lynch and Kristen Bell will be returning for the second season of Starz's "Party Down," set to begin in April, if only for limited runs. Lynch was, as usual, extremely funny as a regular on season one before she got a better gig on "Glee," which, yes, I watch. And Bell showed up at the end, most likely as a favor to "Veronica Mars" and "Party Down" creator Rob Thomas, as a rival caterer with a mean streak but a wounded heart. Lynch will return for the second season finale, while Bell will apparently show up for a few episodes mid-season to stir up some trouble.

If you've never seen this often wickedly funny show about a group of wannabe actors who work at a catering company, you can catch up on all of season one with that watch instantly thing at Netflix. I'd highly recommend it.

And now on to the bad news. Since I don't own a cell phone and never will, and the only computer I own sits permanently on the desk in my front room, I'd say Hulu.com is just about the best technological innovation of the last five years or so, and easily one of the most addictive.

For anyone who's never used it, the site essentially compiles TV episodes and some movies (including, somehow, Whit Stillman's "Metropolitan," which I've watched at the site), which you can watch in their entirety with limited commercial interruption. It's a great way to catch a recent episode you might have missed (if you somehow don't have any kind of DVR device), but even better, it's a great place to rediscover shows long gone. For example, you can watch the entire first season of "Arrested Development" there now for free, and since it rotates, I'd imagine seasons two and three will appear soon, as they have in the past.

The key word there, however, and what may change very soon, is "free." Though is hasn't yet said what form any coming fees might come in, News Corp., which owns the site with NBC Universal, the Walt Disney Co. and Providence Equity Partners, announced Thursday that a subscription fee of some sort could come as early as next year as the site struggles to remain viable.

Oh well. I guess something this cool couldn't last forever, but I don't think I'll be paying for the service, since I already have the Netflix and more than enough digital cable.

OK, enough of the bad news. All I've got otherwise today is two clips that will hopefully pick up everyone's spirits at least a bit. First up comes the first eight minutes or so of ABC's upcoming remake of "V." The network apparently plans to release four episodes of it in November to see how it does, and then bring it back as a midseason replacement. That just sounds goofy as hell, but I'll tune in for at least the first four to see what they have going on, because my TV is sorely in need of some good sci-fi right now. Enjoy.



And finally today comes the second (I think) trailer for "Men Who Stare at Goats," which will hopefully play everywhere when it drops Nov. 6. It just makes me smile every time I see George Clooney stare down a poor goat, and it looks like this one is just gonna be insanely funny. Enjoy, and have a great rest of the weekend. If you'll excuse me, I'm off to get a gyro at the Central Georgia Greek Festival and then go see Chris Rock's "Good Hair." Peace out.

If you have Netflix, Party Down!

You know, I really don't take proper care of my Netflix queue.

I visited it the other day to add the first season of "Burn Notice" and found it to be empty except for three movies and TV stuff in the "saved" category that have yet to come out: "Homicide: The Movie," "Margaret's Museum" and "Party Down: Season One."

Now, it looks like the first two will never come out, so I just kinda keep them there to keep hope alive. It was with the third, however, that I found a pleasant surprise.

I know you can watch movies instantly at Netflix, but have only done that so far with "Superbad" (still, except for maybe "O Brother Where Art Thou," the best way to kill a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon, and "To Kill a Mockingbird," just because.) When I visited the queue the other day to replenish it (any suggestions are welcome), I found you can also watch the entire first season of the extremely funny show "Party Down," even though the show doesn't come out on DVD for who knows how long (and, I checked, you can't do that at either the Starz site or Hulu.) Amazingly, however, you can apparently watch the great Angola Prison documentary "The Farm" at Hulu if you so choose.

But back to the matter at hand. I know I'll always sound like a rube until I die, and believe me, by now I'm just fine with that, but the Internets just continue to amaze me, and this is no exception.

"Party Down," given its pedigree ("Veronica Mars" creator Rob Thomas and veryfunnyguy Paul Rudd are among its creators) and cast (Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Lizzy Caplan, Ryan Hansen, the great Martin Starr and Jane Lynch, who I think has departed for "Glee," are all very funny in it), this show should be extremely funny, and it doesn't disappoint. But the show about a catering company full of former or extremely underemployed actors features a dark, very bitter kind of funny, so be warned.

The funniest thing to me in the first eight episodes (which is how far I've made it, out of 10) was Marino's character, the caterer who just wants to open a Soup R Crackers franchise, discussing with rapper Dro Grizzle (guest star Kevin Hart, remember him from "Undeclared"?) whether or not black people eat soup. You'll have to believe me that it's a whole lot funnier on screen than on paper, and the first season is riddled with very funny celebrity cameos, including in one of the episodes I haven't seen yet, a visit from "Veronica Mars" herself, Kristen Bell.

And OK, that's a long enough plug for a lazy Sunday morning. Peace out.

Mottola, Pegg and Frost assembling A-list comedy

After the pure disaster that was Mitch Hurwitz's "Sit Down, Shut Up" (though out of loyalty, I did watch every episode that made it to air, hoping against all evidence that it would somehow get better ... it didn't), I could certainly use a smart and funny animated offering for my summer viewing slate. And I have a feeling Mike Judge has just the right thing with "The Goode Family," coming to ABC at 9 tonight.

According to Variety: What "King of the Hill" did for Texas rednecks, Mike Judge and crew accomplish with Prius-driving tree-huggers in "The Goode Family" -- a smart, wryly funny animated comedy that's going to need a strong word-of-mouth campaign to flourish.

Sounds great to me, and it also features wannabe freak Lindsay Weir, a k a Linda Cardellini, so I'm definitely in.

But the coolest news I saw this morning is about what Greg Mottola, who's quickly becoming one of my favorite directors, is cooking up starting very soon.

But first a look at his track record. As for this year, I'd say there have already been a surprising amount of good-to-great movies, with my list so far being: "Coraline," "The International," "Watchmen," "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail," "Duplicity," "Sin Nombre," "Moon" and "Tyson," with the best two of all being "Star Trek" and Mottola's "Adventureland." Though it thoroughly tanked at the box office, that flick starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and a very funny Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig was just a real charmer that moved at a naturally entertaining pace.

And before that, of course, he made for my money the best comedy of 2007 with "Superbad." I just watched that one again with that instant "play" feature on Netflix (man, is that addictive), and I have to say the B story about the cops played by Hader and Seth Rogen, which I initially thought was the far weaker of the two, has really grown on me. And, coincidentally enough given what's to follow here, I'm now waiting for "Spaced," starring Simon Pegg, to arrive in my Netflix mail, hopefully today.

Now to finally get to the main course, Mottola is next directing veryfunnyguys Pegg and Nick Frost in something called "Paul," from a Pegg/Frost script. The road trip flick is about two British geeks (Pegg and Frost, natch) who set out on a road trip from Comic Con to Area 51 and manage to encounter an actual alien named "Paul." And the flick, set to start shooting in June, is quickly attracting an A-list cast.

Rogen will provide the voice of Paul, and he'll be joined by Wiig, Hader, Jason Bateman and the seemingly ubiquitous Jane Lynch. As I said earlier, Mottola is rapidly becoming one of my favorites, and with this crew I don't see how this can be anything but extremely funny, so keep your eyes on it. And with that, I have to get ready for the job that still actually pays me a little scratch each week. Peace out.

Comedy catch-up: A look at "Role Models"

Like the songs says, I'm a "Simple Man" in many ways, so it doesn't take much to make me have a pretty great day.

First, the mighty Maryland Terrapins man up in the closing minutes to vanquish the Golden Bears of California, and the Turtle is now ready and willing to maul those Memphis Tigers. I can't wait to watch that Saturday afternoon.

Then after that I sat down to watch "Role Models," a truly crude comedy that I had just passed on in theaters but was loaned to me now by my cubicle mate Randy Waters, who usually has reliably good taste (though he couldn't get into "Chuck," so there is that caveat.)

And what I found with "Role Models" was a series of almost completely satisfying surprises. I knew going in that it would star veryfunnypeople Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks and Jane Lynch. Also Stifler and McLovin, both of whom I can only take in small doses.

What I didn't expect, however, was that it would at least partially be a reunion of "The State," and even better capture much of the spirit that made that show so deliriously funny. Remember "The State"? Being a certified old fuddy-duddy I can testify that the comedy troupe show that lasted for 29 episodes from 1993-95 was the last time I bothered to tune into any MTV series in its entirety.

"Role Models," it turns out, was directed by "State" vet David Wain, and co-written by Rudd and "State"-er Ken Marino. And along with Marino, the flick stars fellow "State" funnypeople Keri Kenney-Silver and Joe Lo Truglio, who can make me laugh out loud with just a look.

The second surprising thing "Role Models" has going for it is that, like the best Christopher Guest flicks, it throws you into a weird world and treats it with humorous respect, laughing with and sometimes at its players, but never cruelly mocking.

And that world for "Role Models" is LARP, or Live Action Role Playing. If that doesn't make you laugh at least a little already, you should probably just stay away from this one, in which Lo Truglio, Matt Walsh and most of all Ken Jeong as King Argotron dive completely into the madness this presents and wring just about all the comedy you can out of it (Rudd "killing" Walsh's Davith of Glencracken on the battlefield but then going into overkill was just particularly funny.)

Now, "Role Models" isn't a comedy for all tastes. It's consistently crude, and the opening bit about pimping energy drinks to kids, while making a point, wears thin too fast. And young Bobb'e J. Thompson will certainly test your tolerance for hearing kids spew the most profane of profanity throughout (I however, no matter how old I supposedly get, will always find that funny, and I did here.) The world also could certainly survive without any more Kiss jokes. All that said, however, if you just passed on "Role Models" in theaters like I did, take a chance on it now and I think you'll find a genuine laugher with just enough heart.

And speaking of funny, I'll close today with the new (I think) trailer for Harold Ramis' "The Year One," which is set to drop in the middle of June. Like "Tropic Thunder" I think this one will certainly try the nerves of people for whom a little Jack Black goes a very long way, but I'm really looking forward to it. Rudd and David Cross as Cane and Abel, in particular, should just be a hoot. Enjoy, and have a perfectly pleasant weekend. Peace out.