F

Flavorwire

Jack Black

Television

The Embarrassing Early TV Commercials of Your Favorite Comic Actors

By Jason Bailey on

Last week, the folks at Gawker did a bit of celebrity archaeology, discovering a 1993 TV ad for the NRA that featured a very young Molly Shannon. The soon-to-be Mary Catherine reached out to the site, emphasizing that she appeared in the spot when she was — direct quote, with emphasis — “A STRUGGLING ACTRESS,” and while we understand her taking pains to separate the spot from her own views, she’s hardly the first future famous funny person whose early work was only humorous in retrospect, and unintentionally. After the jump, we’ve got early commercials by several of our favorite comic actors — all equally embarrassing. … Read More

Film

The Saddest Comedies Ever Made

By Jason Bailey on

As we move into Thanksgiving week, DVD players and cable networks across the land will be cuing up our favorite turkey day movie, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. One of its viewers may very well be Flavorwire favorite Emma Stone, who recently told Entertainment Weekly that Planes is the movie that made her want to be an actor — specifically, Steve Martin’s late-night motel “Chatty Cathy” tirade. Miss Stone explains, “You go from laughing hilariously at Steve Martin to your heart breaking for John Candy in that one scene, and that was, I think, the first time that I saw that you could do both.” Planes, Trains wasn’t the first movie to prove that you could “do both” — i.e., mesh the funny and the sad with equal effectiveness. But it’s one of the best, and after the jump, we’ll take a look at that and a few other very sad comedies. … Read More

Comedy

Awesome Photos of Comedians Hanging Out Together

By Jason Bailey on

From a photo of George Carlin meeting Groucho Marx to a shot of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David (back when he had hair!), we’ve rounded up 25 pictures of our favorite funny people hanging… Read More

Film

Flavorwire’s Guide to Movies You Need to Stream This Week

By Jason Bailey on

Welcome to Flavorwire’s streaming movie guide, in which we help you sift through the scores of movies streaming on Netflix, Hulu, and other services to find the best of the recently available, freshly relevant, or soon to expire. Netflix has dropped a ton of new and catalog titles over the past couple of weeks, so we’ve got movies from George Clooney, Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Lopez, Rachel Weisz, Steve Buscemi, Paul Greengrass, Steven Soderbergh, and the Coen Brothers, plus the most recent Best Picture winner and one of our favorite documentaries of the year. Check them all out after the jump, and follow the title links to watch them right now. … Read More

Film

Exclusive Supercut: Big Hollywood Stars in Their Early Horror Roles

By Jason Bailey on

Many a young actor has come to Hollywood seeking fame and fortune, only to discover that the road to success is a long and difficult one, with plenty of detours and diversions along the way. And many have found that, in their early, hungry days of trying to make it as a working actor, the horror genre always has a (meager, but cashable) paycheck for a rising young talent with stars in their eyes. And as a salute to those young, starving artists, we give you this week’s special, Halloween-tinged supercut, in which we’ve tracked down and collected some of the more entertaining and surprising of those early roles. Check it out after the jump. … Read More

Film

10 Fantastic Comedies Based on True Stories

By Jason Bailey on

You wouldn’t think that the cold-blooded murder of a defenseless old woman would make for big laughs, but that’s just one of the surprises found in Bernie, Richard Linklater’s wickedly enjoyable Texas comedy, out today on DVD and Blu-ray. And it’s all true — or, as the opening title card notes, “What you’re fixin’ to see is a true story.”

As the old saw goes, truth is stranger than fiction, and in ruminating about the pleasures of Bernie, we discovered that several of our favorite comedies were, in fact, based on real events. After the jump, a few thoughts on that film, and nine others based on (varying degrees of) true stories. … Read More

Film

Video Essay: “And Introducing… Famous Faces in Their Film Debuts”

By Jason Bailey on

This week’s must-see DVD for film fans is Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, Alex Stapleton’s wickedly enjoyable documentary profile of Roger Corman, the B-movie master whose exploitation movies launched half the moviemakers and movie stars of the ’70s. One of the film’s highlights is Jack Nicholson’s remembrances of his first movie roles, including his debut performance in The Little Shop of Horrors (which Corman shot in all of two days). Nicholson’s story got us thinking about other stars and their first movie roles, so we put together this quick video essay with a peek at some other famous film debuts. Check out our latest video essay after the jump. … Read More

Comedy

Tenacious D Returns With a Cameo-Heavy Short Film

By Emily Temple on

We haven’t heard much about Jack Black and Kyle Gass’s mock rock band/sketch comedy act Tenacious D since 2008, when their forgettable film, Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, came out to lukewarm reviews. Which, we admit, we weren’t too torn up about — we have mixed feelings about the whole ironic project, though we tend to enjoy Jack Black. Regardless, the pair have just released a short film announcing (and faux-documenting) their return, complete with cameos by Val Kilmer and Woody Harrelson and a coaching montage presided over by Josh Groban (vocals, cement block breaking) and Dave Grohl (guitar, ballroom dancing) — and after watching it, we found ourselves just a little bit glad to have them back in the mix. If only so we can see Val Kilmer in more stuff. Click through to watch the video, and let us know if you’re excited for this musical turn of events in the comments. … Read More

Film

This Week in Trailers: ‘The Avengers,’ ‘Frankenweenie,’ ‘Neighborhood Watch,’ and More

By Jason Bailey on

Every Friday here at Flavorwire, we like to gather up the week new movie trailers, give them a look-see, and rank them from worst to best — while taking a guess or two about what they might tell us (or hide from us) about the movies they’re promoting. We’ve got nine new trailers for you this week, including a new look at The Avengers and Richard Linklater’s latest (yay!), and new films from Adam Sandler and Tim Burton (boo!). Check ‘em all out after the jump, and share your thoughts in the comments. … Read More

Film

10 Crazy Early Roles of Famous Actors

By Emily Temple on

This week, we read about one of Rooney Mara’s first acting gigs, as a guest on Law & Order: SVU. She’s not proud of the moment, calling the role “ridiculous,” which, let’s be honest, it probably was. But there’s not necessarily any shame in that. After all, many great (or at least famous) actors started out doing bit parts in cheesy movies and TV shows, especially in horror flicks, crime procedurals and soap operas. Inspired by Mara, we’ve decided to take a look at some of the most notorious (and unknown) early roles of actors and actresses who have stood the test of time. Obviously, every actor has to start somewhere, so there are an unlimited number of these, but these are our personal favorites — be sure to chime in with your own in the comments! … Read More