Soul Men - Upcoming Movie Featuring Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes

When one of his final flicks, Soul Men, is released, Bernie Mac will not only be remembered for his comedic acting chops, but also his great singing voice.
Yes, his singing voice.

"He definitely can carry a tune," the movie's director Malcolm D. Lee told me this morning. "He does a great falsetto in the movie, and a baritone and alto as well. He has a range. He plays a range of emotions in the film as well as octaves."

In the November flick, Mac and Samuel L. Jackson star as soul singers who agree to reunite and perform at a tribute for their recently deceased band leader after being estranged for a couple of decades.

"They do their own singing and their own dancing in the film," says Lee. "You get the opportunity to see both of these guys go for it in a real way that's fun and energetic."

Mac and Jackson will be included on the movie's soundtrack. "We prerecorded five songs with Sam and Bernie," Lee says. "One of them is original, and the rest of them are covers." (Lee declined to reveal which covers, because he'd like to keep it a surprise.)

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Lee last spoke to Mac on the final day of shooting in April. "When I went to shake his hand and tell him how much I loved him and what a great job he did, he hugged me back and looked me in the eye and said, 'Make a great film, man,' " Lee remembered. "I promised him that I would."

Lee also has special memories of Isaac Hayes. The music legend plays himself in Soul Men. "He was written into the script as himself," Lee said. "When I came on, they asked, 'Do you want him in the movie?' and I was like, 'Of course.' Not to include him in the movie would have been sacrilege. I had to have Isaac in the film."

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How to Lose Friends and Alienate People Trailer

Simon Pegg has proven he's an amazing talent in the work he's done with his buddy Edgar Wright, from the hilarious (and soon to be on DVD) British sitcom Spaced to zombie movie Shaun of the Dead. But when he's stepped out with other directors, it hasn't been pretty-- if you managed to avoid Run, Fat Boy, Run, I applaud your smarts.

So it's hard to know what to think about this new trailer for How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, posted by Moviefone. It's the story of a guy who goes to work for a fancy lifestyle magazine in New York, and apparently makes an idiot of himself. It's either not so bad a job, because he works for the Dude, or a terrible job, because he works for Obadiah Stane-- depending on which Jeff Bridges role you prefer. Oh, and Kirsten Dunst is in there too, looking pretty cute actually and of course who could forget the beautiful Megan Fox.

Pegg has played a doofus in most of his roles thus far, but he's usually been a clever doofus. If this whole movie consists of nothing but pratfalls and cringe-inducing humor, it might not do any favors for his American career. Check it out below and see if this makes you like Simon Pegg any more.

Lindsay Lohan to star in new Movie "Labor Pains"

Lindsay Lohan jumps onto the pregnancy bandwagon on the set of her upcoming film Labor Pains in Los Angeles on Monday.

The 21-year-old actress’ character pretends to be pregnant in order to avoid being fired from her job. When that gets her a bunch of special treatment by everyone involved in her life, her character tries to keep up the lie for nine months!

The movie due out next year and is directed by Laura Shapiro.

Keshia Knight Pulliam cast as a Hooker named Candy in New Film - Madea Goes to Jail

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Little Rudy from "The Cosby Show" all grown up and playing a hooker? Yes indeed, thanks to Tyler Perry.

Keshia Knight Pulliam will star as an imprisoned prostitute in "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail." Derek Luke also stars in the Lionsgate comedy, which is set to begin filming in Atlanta next month for a tentative early 2009 release.

Writer-director Perry returns to the front of the camera as the irrepressible matriarch Madea, whose penchant for trouble-making lands her behind bars. She comes to the rescue of Candy (Pulliam), a fellow inmate preyed upon by a large woman. Luke will play an attorney who has a past with Candy.

Pulliam, 29, recently appeared in Perry's TBS series "House of Payne" and is launching an Atlanta-based production company for film and television projects that she has in development. She played Bill Cosby's lovable daughter Rudy Huxtable in NBC's ratings smash "The Cosby Show."

Luke, who made his screen debut as the title character in "Antwone Fisher," played opposite Robert Redford in "Lions for Lambs."

Harald & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Review by A Remington

George W. Bush: You guys are awesome.
Harold & Kumar: No, you're awesome!
George W. Bush: No, you guys are awesome!
--dialogue from the movie

What is courage? Courage is making a movie called Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay in which George W. Bush is a sympathetic character, especially considering that most of the audience would probably disagree apoplectically with the sentiment. However, that's about as far as it goes, politically; it's about the Global War on Terror to the same degree as Hot Shots! is about the first Iraq war. And, because it's a funny stoner comedy that's the sequel to a popular movie, it's also likely to be the most successful War on Terror movie ever made.

That's not saying much, of course: there has been a glut of movies about Iraq, both fictional and documentary, and nearly all of them have failed both critically and commercially. With the minor exception of Syriana, virtually every movie about the War on Terror, the war in Iraq, or our post-9/11 society has bombed at the box office: Redacted, Rendition, Lions for Lambs, In the Valley of Elah, Grace is Gone, Stop-Loss, The Road to Guantanamo, The Great New Wonderful, Reign Over Me, and even the mindless action flick The Kingdom.

But Escape from Guantanamo isn't really a War on Terror movie, per se, so much as it's a continuation of the first movie's dopily sincere message about how we incorrectly judge people based on their outer appearance. Especially Neil Patrick Harris.

In fact, the title notithstanding, it's one of the most remarkably faithful sequels you'll ever see, in tone, setup, and execution. In other words, if you liked the first movie, you'll like the second. If you didn't, you won't. Escape from Guantanamo begins about an hour chronologically after the last movie ended, and, after a quick encarceration in Gitmo and a quick breakout, our heroes spend the rest of the movie on the lam (chased by insane G-man Rob Corddry, channeling his inner Jon Voight), finding themselves in brief sketchlike comedic situations. This time, the ultimate destination is Texas, where Kumar's ex is marrying a buddy of Harold's who works for the Department of Homeland Security, who has the power and connections to clear their name.

In the meantime, they do a lot of drugs, see a lot of nudity, run from a lot of scary people, and learn over and over not to judge a book by its cover. It's lucky the two stars are so well-cast, because the movie really rests entirely on their charisma. (Well, that, and the knowledge that a good number of audiencemembers are going to come to the theater bombed out of their mind.) The jokes aren't really political, the situations aren't really satirical, and the social commentary isn't really sophisticated. But it has a happy ending, the guys get the girls, our democracy is preserved, and Neil Patrick Harris fans get all the NPH they could ask for, including a Starship Troopers appreciation that I applauded.

On the other hand, it's not a movie that takes a lot of risks, blazes a lot of new ground, or totally lives up to the promise of its title -- there's a lot of Harold and Kumar, but only about a minute and a half of Guantanamo. Like Albert Brooks's Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, it's funny on its own terms, but it fails to take advantage of the chance to comment meaningfully on the great cultural issue of our time. Every little bit helps, and it's far better that the movie be funny but politically demure than unfunny and politically strident. Still, it feels a bit like a missed opportunity.

The movie's directed by the guys who wrote the last one, Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg. Visually, they do a fine job by keeping the camera on Cho and Penn, though some of the episodes could perhaps be spiced up to interrupt the predictable rhythm of the two of them traveling and bickering and then periodically running into a comedic setpiece. The soundtrack is quite good, and very well-suited to the mood. The house was full on opening night, and the entire theater was laughing, which was both a good sign and a big help -- if at all possible, stoner comedies should be watched with other people.

Other than Neil Patrick Harris and a brief scene with Ed Helms, there are no other celebrity cameos, which is actually a good thing, as celebrity cameos are a frequent pitfall of lazy comedy sequels from Wayne's World to Austin Powers. This movie comes by its laughs slightly more honestly. Hopefully they'll be able to stick to their principles by the time the inevitable Harold & Kumar 3 comes around.

And when it does, my buddies and I will definitely be there to see it.

Toni Collette to join Maya Rudolph in new comedy

Toni Collette will join John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph in an upcoming relationship comedy from "American Beauty" director Sam Mendes.

Krasinski ("Leatherheads") and Rudolph ("Saturday Night Live") star as a couple who canvas the country to find the best place to raise their unborn child.

Collette ("Little Miss Sunshine") will play a college professor and close family friend convinced that the kid will end up dysfunctional no matter where it's raised. Cheryl Hines ("Curb Your Enthusiasm") also will appear.

Dave Eggers wrote the script for the untitled Focus Features project with his wife, novelist Vendela Vida. Filming begins this month in Connecticut.

Hindu's Concerned over Mike Myers Parody in "The Love Guru"

As the people of Kazakhstan know all too well, mockery of culture and religion seems to be kosher in Hollywood, under the following conditions:

The humour must be so over-the-top, so beyond reality, that it could never be misconstrued as mean-spirited. That, and the targeted groups cannot be large enough, loud enough or organized enough so that their hurt feelings make an impact at the box office.

Just ask Borat. Though Kazakhs complained that their country and customs were misrepresented in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, the film was a $128 million success in the U.S. – among 2006's top-grossing films.

In the context of Sacha Baron Cohen's uncomfortable in-character interactions with unwitting Americans, Mike Myers' parody of another cultural minority in the U.S. – as the oversexed, overly ambitious, American-born spiritual leader in the summer comedy The Love Guru – would hardly seem cause for complaint.

Myers' character is an amalgamation of Eastern-style spiritual movements, never making reference to any particular religion. And yet the Guru Pitka – billed as "the second best guru in India" – draws a distinct picture.

He wears long hair, a long beard and a flowing caftan. "Prepare to get your enlightenment freak on," Pitka tells visitors to his MySpace page, where he blends real information – such as the Sanskrit origins of the word "guru" – with silliness, including impossible yoga poses that would require elastic limbs. He plays sappy pop songs on the sitar. His mantra is "Mariska Hargitay."

Pitka identifies himself as "a spiritual teacher affiliated with no one faith" and has the same crass-and-goofy charm as Myers' Austin Powers and Wayne's World characters. And the movie's plot – he heads West when he's offered $2 million to heal a hockey star's romance so the team can win the Stanley Cup – is harmless enough.

Still, weeks before the film is even ready for screening, some in the Hindu community feel The Love Guru has the potential to ridicule vital elements of their religion.

Rajan Zed, a self-described Hindu leader from Nevada, demanded that Paramount Pictures screen the film for members of the Hindu community before it's release in June. Based on the movie's trailer and MySpace page, Zed says The Love Guru "appears to be lampooning Hinduism and Hindus" and uses sacred terms frivolously.

"People are not very well-versed in Hinduism, so this might be their only exposure," he said. "They will have an image in their minds of stereotypes. They will think most of us are like that."

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Paramount, which has screened sensitive films for select audiences in the past, said early screenings would be held for the Hindu community.

"Love Guru, which is not yet complete, is a satire created in the same spirit as Austin Powers," Paramount said in a statement. "It is our full intention to screen the film for Rajan Zed and other Hindu leaders once it is ready."

Myers, who declined to be interviewed for this story, says in an episode of the Sundance Channel's Iconoclasts that spiritual teacher Deepak Chopra, his longtime friend (who also appears in the movie), was the inspiration for the Love Guru character.

"He is the basis of why I went down this path of a character like that, and it's because I am interested in higher states of consciousness and I am interested in comedy," Myers says. "The guru, he breaks down your barriers, gets you silly and gets you light so you're in a place to receive love."

But religious communities rarely take well to faith-themed comedies, said Diane Winston, a professor of media and religion at the University of Southern California.

"To be funny, you have to get in people's faces and disturb their complacent perspectives," she said. "Religious groups have tended to be very concerned about their portrayal in the media, especially the entertainment media. Often ... in comedies, it's a very broad representation which they perceive as offensive. It's the nature of stereotype."

Her take on The Love Guru trailer and website? Rather than a spoof of Eastern religion, it seems more of a satire of American culture's tendency toward materialism, promiscuity and quick spiritual fixes told through a pseudo religious figure.

"The character didn't have to be a guru. He could just as well have been a rabbi, minister, priest or imam," she said. "These are problems within the culture at large.

"Hindus were a fresh target," she continued. "Jews and Christians have been parodied before so perhaps Myers thought this was a different take on a familiar comedy routine."


Paramount officials point out that The Love Guru is ``non-denominational comedy that celebrates spirituality and that the character has his own fictional belief system."

For all its sight gags and goofy jokes, the film is about three things, Myers says: "It's about fate versus choice ... it's about self love and the third part of it is that internal validation trumps external validation."

Interview with Leatherhead John Krasinski

John Krasinski, best known as the sardonic sales rep Jim Halpert on NBC's "The Office," says sports "always have been a major part of my life."

In "Leatherheads," a George Clooney-directed, 1920s-era screwball comedy opening Friday, the 28-year-old former high school basketball player and distance runner from Newton, Mass., plays a World War I hero and college football star who is recruited to play on a struggling professional team. The film also stars Clooney as the team's aging star and Renee Zellweger as a journalist pursued by both men.
Question: Did your athletic background come into play in making this movie or in helping you land the role?

I don't know if it helped me land the role. I would assume that George probably figured that if I played any sort of sport that I'd at least be athletic enough to look like I knew how to play. That's the actor's thing: We all look like we can do whatever we're doing, and we probably don't have the first clue. As far as helping me with the role, I've played pickup football my whole life with family and friends and, believe it or not, that's actually more like how the game was played back then than putting on pads and actually playing organized football.

Did you play organized football?

I played one year -- in seventh grade -- and it was pretty clear that I was better at playing for fun. I could never really get past the facemask. I could never catch the ball with the facemask on. So, with this movie, problem solved.

Clooney, nearly 20 years older and a few inches shorter than you, says he won a $2,000 bet by outscoring you in a one-on-one basketball game. True?

Yes, it is. I'm going to be the bigger man and admit it. All I'll say is, I thought I had him and then, all of a sudden, he throws that "People's Sexiest Man" smile on you and you're stunned for just long enough for him to run by you.

You'd like a rematch?

Oh my God, I've tried to yell it from the rooftops, so if you want to print that, we'll do this in Vegas. We can charge money, all proceeds to charity.

Renee Zellweger has attended Lakers games and starred in "Jerry Maguire" and "Cinderella Man" and now "Leatherheads." Is she a sports fan?

Yeah, I think absolutely. She's definitely an athletic girl; she runs every day. And as far as being a sports fan, when you're from Texas I'm pretty sure that football is literally in your blood; they give you a shot when you're young. So, when we talked about doing the football scenes, she actually knew what she was talking about.

As a moviegoer and sports fan, what do you like about sports movies?

What I love about sports movies is when they're able to capture the nostalgia that everybody experiences and wants to continue experiencing with sports, whether you're playing or just watching. You never really remember the days where you had a mediocre game or when your team won by 30; you always remember the one that was down to the final tick of the clock. And I think there's something awesome about capturing that feeling. Movies like "Hoosiers" did that for me. That's probably my No. 1 sports movie. And "Leatherheads" is definitely a similar type of vibe. It's shot like an older-time movie. It's from the golden era of film, so as much as it is a sports movie, football is the backdrop for all these characters to come together.

The Super Bowl must have been a downer for you, obviously, but has there ever been a better time to be a New England sports fan?

Absolutely not. I think all Boston fans probably feel like this is the dawn of a new era. We're ecstatic to be in this position we're in now, as far as fans go, but I think we're all shocked. I don't think any Boston fan can believably say, "Yeah, we knew this was coming." To be not only competitive but dominant in almost all the sports, it's a day that I don't think we ever even dreamed of.

Is Jim Halpert an ex-jock?

Yeah, definitely. I think he probably played basketball at the University of Scranton, or in high school. Very similarly to me, he didn't get a chance to excel at it all the way. It wasn't really in the cards.

You live in L.A. now, so who do you root for if the Lakers and Celtics meet in the NBA Finals?

Without a doubt, the Celtics. Not only am I Celtics fan, but I've got to say, I went to a game over Thanksgiving with my family and there's an energy in the Garden now that I haven't seen since I was really little. I remember going when Larry Bird was playing and they were incredible, but I remember going when I was in high school in the '90s and it was the most quiet I've ever seen a basketball game.

Do you go to Lakers games?

I actually don't. I think I made a promise to a bunch of Boston fans that I would try not to be caught dead in Lakers Stadium.