In this weeks’ edition of The MashCast, Matthew, Mike and I discuss some of the films that we saw last week, including: Flowers of War, Haywire, Man on a Ledge and Red Tails. We also discuss a HUGE Dark Knight Rises spoiler per an interview with a member of the cast, where she let a bomb drop about the identity of her character. Last on the docket, the new trailer for the Keanu Reeves documentary Side by Side, which tackles the ongoing debate about the technological revolution/transition of film-to-digital filmmaking.

Click play below to listen and be sure to leave your comments after the break, as well ast on Twitter: #MashCast.

Download audio file (Episode-3_-_Dont-Google-That_.mp3)

What Do You Think? Discuss.

I think we can all agree that Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a suprisingly good film this year. And a lot of the buzz has come from motion capture actor extrodinare Andy Serkis’ performance as the lead ape, Caesar. There has even been buzz and a small Oscar campaign for his “revolutionary” performance and ability to use physicality to convey emotioin and create compelling drama. Well, comedians Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer are poking fun at Serkis with this new Funny or Die video that shows the real-life artistry and dedication of inanimate object motion capture acting. Check out the video after the break.

Even legit filmmakers and actors are in on the gag. Jon Favreau, Michael Bay and Ray Liotta all play themselves and thoroughly praise the highly-skilled ability to put on a suit with censors, stand still and pretend to be a boookcase. It’s just a really clever satire. Check out The Future of CHI w/ Michael Bay, Jon Favreau, Ray Liotta and Paul Scheer & Rob Huebel below.

What Do You Think? Pretty Damn Hilarious.

In this week’s edition of The Movie Mash podcast, The MashCast, Matthew, Mike and I discuss the 69th Annual Golden Globes, hosted by Ricky Gervais. We break down most of the major film and television categories and chat about who we thought should have won, who should have been nominated, wins we’re excited about, Ricky’s shenanigans and what (if any) impact this awards show has on the impending Oscar season. We also discuss some movies that we’ll be seeing this week and what upcoming flicks you should be on the lookout for. Click the play button below to listen. And be sure to leave your comments after the break. Or join the conversation on Twitter: #MashCast.

Download audio file (Episode-2_-_F__kin-Meryl-Streep_.mp3)

So, what did you think of this year’s Golden Globes? Agree? Disagree? U mad, bro? COME AT ME, BRO!

Fathers, hide your daughters. Errr, whatever. The first OFFICIAL production still of the new James Bond film Skyfall has been released, and it…is….HOT. No, seriously. Can we all agree that Daniel Craig is by far, at least, the most jacked/cut 007 to date, regardless of the mediocrity that was Quantum of Solace? Anyway, it’s nothing revealing at all; at least towards the plot. But it showcases Craig’s dedication to the physical prowess of the world’s most famous MI6 agent. See the full image after the jump.

This is probably one of the most boring/uneventful production stills to be released for a highly-anticpated blockbuster, but it’s somethin, nonetheless. In last week’s episode of The MashCast, we chatted briefly about our excitement for Skyfall. Particularly because the 007 reigns have been taken over by acclaimed filmmaker Sam Mendes, and the baddie in the film will be portrayed by none other than the awesome Javier Bardem. Check out the first production still of Skyfall below, which I’m dubbing: “Poolside Jimmy.” This still is ripe for meme-ing.

[viaEmpire via Slashfilm]

What Do You Think? Excited For Skyfall now? I know I AM!

Well Movie Mashers, it’s a new year so it’s time for new and exciting things on The Movie Mash. We’ve talked about it for quite some time, but we’re finally rolling out a podcast that we’ve dubbed The MashCast. It’s going to be a weekly podcast featuring Mike Eisenberg, Matthew Deery and myself where we discuss everything that’s going on in movies. In this inaugural episode, we discuss the year that was 2011 and the movies that made us laugh and cry. We also take a look at the year to come, and some of the films that we are looking forward to most.

We will be recording The MashCast every Sunday night and it will be posted on the site the following day, every Monday. So mark your calendars. Click play to listen to our shenanigans below. The MashCast will also be available for subscription and download on iTunes very soon. So stay tuned.

Download audio file (Episode-1_-_Cascade-of-Shadows_.mp3)

And be sure to leave your comments on our discussion after the break, and/or tweet your thoughts:

#MashCast

So what were some of your fave flicks of 2011? What are you looking forward to most in 2012?

There have a dozen parodies of the theatrical trailer for The Dark Knight Rises that dropped last month. Most of them lazily rip on Bane’s “unitelligible” speech, and/or some sort of “garble-off” between Bane and Batman, as people still can’t get over Christian Bale’s scruffy inflection from The Dark Knight. I digress. I came across this brilliant pardoy trailer streaming down my Twitter feed which takes the audio of the theatrical TDKR trailer and puts it over clips from Disney’s The Lion King to create…The Lion King Rises. Check it out after the break.

There’s a couple things that are really impressive and funny about this parody trailer. The first is the near pitch-perfect matching up of dialogue scenes fromt The Lion King to match the audio of the TDKR trailer. It’s really damn impressive and whoever made this must have spent a lot of time picking out just the right scenes. My particular favorite is when Scar is holding Simba over the cliff and says the now famous Bane line, “When Gotham is in Ashes…You have my permission to die.” It’s just great.

The other thing that’s great about this trailer, which makes it funny, is during the montage of increaisnly intesense action scenes/”Deshey Ba-sa-ra” chanting in the second half, there are a couple clips of random goofy shots that awesomely contrast the childish nature of Disney films, such as Zazu holding Pumbaa over his head and getting smooshed by his giant butt. This is thrown in-between shots of the great lion battle amidst the massive fiery flames backdrop. It’s just a really funny contrast.

Anyway, check out the TDKR parody trailer The Lion King Rises, below.

[via The Huffington Post]

What Do You Think? Pretty awesome, huh?

Follow Barrett on Twitter: @barrettgoetz

I am currently enjoying a nice holiday break from work. Upon waking up from a nap yesterday, the TV was randomly on Fuse, the cable channel that focuses on the music industry, music videos, etc. Anyway, the show that was on at the time was Funny or Die’s new pop culture game show Billy on the Street. It’s hosted by comedian Billy Eichner, in which he approaches random strangers on the streets of New York and asks them trivia questions about movies, music and celebrities in exchange for cash on the spot. But there’s a twist: Billy is an eccentric, loud and in-your-face host who basically insults the contestants and creates supremely awkard situations. And it is absolutely hysterical. More after the break.

There are two segments to the show. The first is “Quizzed in the Face,” featuring three rounds of questions and a few life lines for contestants to utilize if they have trouble answering questions. The life lines are: 1) Beg a stranger 2) Call a woman or 3) Have Billy act out the answer in charades. The “Beg a Stranger” life line is the best becasue Billy  has to find a random person walking by to help the contestant out.  Whether or not this stranger is helpful, Billy usually becomes enraged at them afterward and and tells them that they’re worthless and to “get the hell outta here.” Obviously, Billy is a seasoned comedian and it’s all in good fun, but most of the time the strangers don’t know this and get very offended by his abrasive yelling and screaming.

The second segment is “For a Dollar,” in which Billy frantically runs up to random people and asks hilariously inappropriate questions about celebrities, such as “Does Zac Efron dress the way he does because he wants to be molested by an older man?” If Billy likes what you say, you get a dollar. If he doesn’t, he’ll say “fuck you” and run away. It’s side-splitting.

It’s seriously one of the most unique and funny game shows I’ve seen in quite some time. Billy Eichner is going to be very big and I’m so glad that I woke up from my nap when I did and was able to catch the first two episodes of Billy on The Street. The show plays on Fuse every Thursday at 10pm CST. CLICK HERE to find the Fuse channel near you. Oh, and make sure to follow Billy on Twitter. You won’t regret it. Check out this promo video for Billy on the Street below to get a taste of what I’m raving about.

What Do You Think? Will you be watching Billy on the Street?

So I saw New Year’s Eve last night, the new multi-storyline romantic comedy from the creators of last year’s Valentine’s Day. My full review will be up later this week, but SPOILER ALERT: It was…awful. Anyway, I saw this streaming down my Twitter feed earlier today and had to share it with you, in the spirit giving this holiday season. It’s a parody trailer from the peeps at Funny or Die for Christmas Day. Check it out after the break.

The trailer, of course, rips on the painfully cookie-cutter formula that has become a staple for these rom-coms, where there are a ridiculous amount of A-listers (like too fucking many), all seeking “the one” on said particular holiday. However, miscommunication/misidentification and atrocious storytelling usually hinders the ability for our love birds to find each other. But, somehow, it all works out in the end; in one way or another.

I’ll delve into this more in my review of New Year’s Eve, but that film is everything that’s wrong with Hollywood today: lazy scripts filled with too many storylines to keep track of, laced with cheesy one-liners, forced jokes and even more forced conflict. Anyway, I took a lot of pleasure from this parody trailer; it’s hysterical.

Check out the trailer for Christmas Day below. And with this cast, I think I would actually consider paying to see it in theaters.

What Do You Think? Would You See Christmas Day? Lol.

In this edition of Trailer Trash MASH we a have long-awaited horror/sci-fi/comedy and an under-the-radar sci-fi/action/thriller. Man, movie genre categorization has become particularly granular over the last decade, huh? Anyway, let’s start with the former, shall we? Joss Whedon is currently in the midst of post-production on next year’s The Avengers. Before he was tapped for the superhero blockbuster, Whedon had co-written and produced  The Cabin in The Woods. His writing partner and the film’s director is none other than Cloverfield and the upcoming Spielberg-helmed Robopocylpse scribe, Drew Goddard. With this duo, you know the film is gonna have some weird, bloody goodness. Check out the trailer after the break.

What’s nice about this trailer is it blatantly calls out that “you think you’ve seen this before.” Which is true, because the setup looks identical to other cabin-set, college horror bloodbaths (i.e. Cabin Fever). But instead of a flesh-eating virus, there is some truly weird shit going on here. We’ve got an apparent force field protecting a state-of-the-art underground complex (the sci-fi), swat teams, Jabbawockeez and zombie-esque bros with super strength (the horror!!). Ya, it looks nuts.

The film has some notibles to the cast, including a pre-Thor/Star Trek Chris Hemsworth, as well as veteran character actor Richard Jenkins (who I couldn’t spot; let me know if you did). Anyway, it looks like Whedon’s Avengers gig finally got the distribution delay back on track for this film, and we’re all in for a bloody good time. Check out the trailer below for The Cabin in the Woods, hitting theaters April 12, 2012.

Next up we have a space opera-esque action pic with ma’ main man Guy Pearce in. An actor who has been criminally underutilized – whether that’s his fault or his agent’s. Anyway, the movie is Lockout, and the trailer opens up in a pretty unique way; the first 20 or so seconds are Pearce (giving a very Brad Pitt-esque performance) while being interrogated (punched in the face) by everyone’s favorite Russian bad guy, Peter Stormare, until all hell breaks loos with a montage of space battles,  explosions, gun fights and Guy Pearce looking broodingly badass… ’nuff said, right?

If that didn’t sound like enough cred for you space geeks, Lockout is written by French action scribe Luc Besson, writer of one of my favorite sci-fi action films of all time, The Fifth Element. And although his work has been a tad atrocious as of late (i.e. From Paris With Love, Columbiana), here’s to hoping that he can re-ignite that creative flame from Element (*raises glass*). Check out the trailer for Lockout below, hitting theaters April 20, 2012.

[ via Yahoo!, Wired]

What Do You Think? Which one are you more excited for?

As Christmas approaches, I’ve been receiving a lot of requests for holiday movie recommendations. In the spirit of giving, I wanted to provide Movie Mashers with a rental suggestion of one of my favorite Christmas comedies, The Ref. The film stars Dennis Leary as Gus, a jewel theif who, after a snafu in his robbery scheme, is forced to kidnapp a horrifically unhappy married couple (played by Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis) and hide out in their quiet Connecticut suburaban home until he can figure out his getaway. Only one problem, Lloyd’s (Spacey) family is on their way to have Christmas dinner. Shenanigans ensue.

What’s great about The Ref is it’s one of the, if not the first R-rated Christmas comedies, chock full of profanity-laced tyrads from our anti-hero, Gus, who indirectly helps Lloyd and Caroline (Davis) repair their troubled marriage while being held hostage, forcing them to work out their issues. Great line: after suffering from Lloyd and Caroline’s non-stop arguing over the most superficial bullshit, Gus sighs and says “great…I kidnapped my fucking parents.”

The film is filled with hilariously uncomfortable and awkward situations, as, when Lloyd’s family comes over, Gus pretends to be the couple’s therapist “Dr. Wong,” and tries his best to play the part, but he’s not very convincing…

Lloyd’s Mother: “So, Dr. Wong. Tell us about how your therapy is helping Lloyd and Caroline.”
Gus: “Well…marriage is a complex web…of complications. In order for a couple to maintain a good relationship, they must, uh, keep the highways of communication open” (downs his glass of wine)
Lloyd’s Sister-in-Law: “That’s funny, I heard something very similar on Oprah last week…”

The Ref  is a very original and refreshing comedy. And one that is perfect when you’re curling up with a glass of eggnog next the fire, looking for some holiday laughter.

Check it out. Great flick.