Humor District

Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are the stars of the latest buddy cop movie, The Other Guys, and it looks hilarious. This is the next in a long line of buddy cop movies, and The Other Guys will have a hard time living up to some of them. Of course with Mark Wahlberg playing the straight man against Will Ferrell, I don’t think we have to worry about this movie providing laughs. The only question is if it will provide as many laughs as some of the great buddy cop movies that came before, and how the comedy will be balanced with action. No buddy cop movie is complete without a bad guy meeting justice at the end of a bullet. Or fist. Or bullet fist.

Lethal Weapon

Lethal Weapon is the standard that all buddy cop movies are judged by. When this movie came out, Mel Gibson was still a lovable sort of crazy who played perfectly against Danny Glover. As Sergeant Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh, Gibson and Glover made the perfect team. Just picture an old bickering married couple that can kick an extreme amount of ass. While they got on each other’s nerves, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover came together to defeat the bad guys and become best friends. They don’t call them buddy cop movies for nothing after all.

Rush Hour

Before I start talking about Rush Hour, has anybody seen Chris Tucker recently? He has been getting a little chunky, he needs to start hanging out with Jackie Chan again. Speaking of hanging out with Jackie Chan, the main appeal of Rush Hour was the interaction of Chris Tucker’s Detective James Carter and Jackie Chan’s Inspector Lee. The culture clash between the two provided many laughs, and Jackie Chan used the fact that he was Jackie Chan to kung fu bad guys into oblivion. Chris Tucker helped with that a little bit too.

Bad Boys

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence bickered almost as much as Mel Gibson and Danny Glover throughout Bad Boys. Will Smith is the Mel Gibson type character, willing to break rules and take chances to get the job done. Martin Lawrence is the Danny Glover type, often complaining about being too old for this poop despite his relatively young age. Will Smith was definitely cooler. when things got down and dirty though, both Smith and Lawrence were ready to unleash a fiery hail of lead based justice. If only the chief would get off their backs and let them solve crimes their way, at a very high cost to the city!

Hot Fuzz

When it comes to pure comedy, Hot Fuzz is one of the best buddy cop movies around. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost of Shaun of the Dead fame starred as cops in a small town with an unusually high rate of accidents. Nick Frost plays the big innocent dumb guy very well, and Simon Pegg plays the top cop type, although one who doesn’t approve of the tactics often shown in buddy cop movies. Many of the other movies on this list are actually referenced throughout Hot Fuzz. In the end, Simon Pegg realizes there is no better way to rid a small town of corruption than removing the corrupt people with violence. Lots and lots of gratuitous violence. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

Cop Out

Cop Out was Kevin Smith’s recent attempt at a buddy cop movie. While the story wasn’t great, the main characters Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan did a great job saving the movie. The action scenes weren’t very good, but they made up for it with a lot of comedy, which is what Kevin Smith does best. Hopefully The Other Guys takes some pages from the comedy side of Cop Out, but also greatly improves upon the action. A buddy cop movie cannot be considered complete until the amount of violent justice can be described as excessive.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Chris Evans has been discussed a lot recently, mostly for his part as Jensen in the upcoming The Losers movie and his casting as Captain America in The First Avenger: Captain America. As you might have noticed, both of those movies are based off of comic books, which seem to be a recurring theme throughout Chris Evans’ career. Let’s take a look at some other comic book related roles Chris Evans has had over his career.

Johnny Storm/The Human Torch – Fantastic Four

Chris Evans broke into comic book movies with his role as Johnny Storm AKA The Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies. Nobody will mistake the Fantastic Four franchise for good movies, but Evans was actually a perfect fit for Johnny Storm. He was a perfect mix of headstrong, playful, and loyal to pull the character off. Also, the ladies loved him. In his first comic book movie, Chris Evans was a bright spot in an otherwise mediocre film. He played Johnny Storm once again in the sequel, 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and while that movie was an improvement on the first, it still wasn’t good. Now that Chris Evans is going to be playing Captain America, don’t expect to see him around for any reboots of the Fantastic Four franchise.

Lucas Lee – Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World has not come out yet, but Chris Evans has jumped into this comic book movie as the character Lucas Lee, an evil skateboarder. This should be an interesting comic book role for Evans as we have not seen him play a villain yet, he’s always been one of the good guys. Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World is fairly lighthearted, so we should still be able to see Chris Evans’ playful side, especially considering the fact Lucas Lee is based off of skateboarder/actor Jason Lee. You might remember him from every Kevin Smith movie and My Name is Earl.

Nick Gant -Push

Push was not based off of a comic book, but it has super powered individuals and that is close enough for me. Push dealt with people who had powers like being able to see the future, yell loud enough to kill somebody, and move things with their minds. We actually got to see a more serious side of Evans in this movie as he played a more reluctant hero who didn’t have much of a sense of humor. Ladies still loved him. Push was enjoyable, not great, but it had plenty of scenes with Chris Evans either kicking ass or getting his ass kicked. It also featured Dakota Fanning being a creepy little girl.

Casey – TMNT

For those of you who don’t know, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles didn’t start out as a Saturday morning cartoon, but rather as a comic book created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The comic book is quite a bit darker than the cartoons and movies, and as expected TMNT did not get very dark. One of the darker characters in that movie, however, was  Casey. If you don’t remember he was the guy with the hockey stick and old school hockey mask who helped the turtles beat up other ninjas. If that didn’t clear things up for you, he was the turtles’ human friend who didn’t have breasts. Alright, now that we are all on the same page we can all agree that he did a good job in the movie as the angry guy who wasn’t Rafael. TMNT was definitely geared toward a younger audience, but Chris Evans and everyone else made it enjoyable for all audiences.

Captain America – The Avengers

All of Chris Evans’ comic roles have been leading up to this moment. After The First Avenger: Captain America, Chris Evans will be playing Captain America in the biggest comic book movie event ever. The Avengers will take all of the characters from the various Marvel movies we have seen and put them together as a team of superheroes. Chris Evans has arguably the most important role as Captain America, the leader of the team. We will have to wait and see if his experience in various roles in many comic book movies has prepared him for this moment.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Or at least that’s my hope.  I have been a customer with Blockbuster Total Access for about a year, and I am trying to switch over to Netflix because it’s slightly cheaper.  But I’m starting to realize it may not be worth it.  My biggest (and possibly only) Netflix complaint is that I cannot search for movies by release date.  How hard is it to list all the movies just released on DVD in one place?  And then all the movies coming out next week in another?  And all the movies playing in the theaters in another (so I can save them for later)?

Netflix seems tailor made for folks who like to watch old movies, or category movies or indie movies.  Don’t try to put me in a box.  Yes I like Action and Sci-Fi movies, but that’s not all.  I can think outside my category, thank you very much.  Oh and guess what else?  New release is a category Netflix!  Just show me all the movies that have become available and let me pick my own dammit!  If I want your suggestions…I’ll go to the suggestions page.

Fortunately, you already knew that and paid for two seats.  So what’s the problem Southwest Airlines?  Well apparently he was switched to a flight where there was only one seat available.  Oops.  Yea, in that case you have to wait Kevin Smith.  Maybe you could sit in the seat with two arm rest down and your seat belt buckled, but that doesn’t change that fact that there is an extra person sitting on one side of the plane. I could squeeze into a child’s swing if I had to, but that don’t mean the chains or plastic is going to hold me over time.  And it also doesn’t mean that the kid next to me is going to enjoy being knocked around by my adult sized elbows as we swing.

Airplane safety is not the time to be politically correct.  If I was Southwest Airlines I’d hate to answer questions about a plane crash — a-la Aaliyah — because I was afraid to answer question about why I ejected a fat person from my plane.  Kudos to Southwest Airline, the friendly — and safe — skies.

I love vampire movies, or at least I used to…before Twilight (and a host of other stupid bloodsucker movies) killed them.  Yet just like real, or ahh…fictional vampires they just never seem to stay dead.  Someone is always reviving them, just to shove the stake in deeper.  Que Vlad the Impaler.

Look, hardcore vampire fans and wannabe vampires are going to see the movie regardless, but here’s some food for thought: it’s not going to be nearly as “sexy” as Twilight, thus no teenage girls and the casual vampire fan is going to throw up at the sight of the preview they are so full on this crap, so who’s that leave to actually go see this movie?  It’s going to be another Daybreakers.  Decent idea, poor timing.  Don’t do that to Dracula.  Please.

Beaze and all his crazy antics, featured articles and random thoughts are now on twitter @Beazewriter

Popularity: 1% [?]

The Redband trailer for Kevin Smith’s Cop Out with Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan is out, and really, thank God for redband trailers. Theres swearing and Tracy Morgan punching a kid in the nuts. Looks like a damn good movie. The only problem I see it having is the Kevin Smith factor, OK fan boys settle down and hear me out. When I think “Kevin Smith” first thing that comes to mind is “Clerks” and I let out a little smile, and then I think “Jersey Girl” and I dry-heave. Zack and Miri Make a Porno — smile, Clerks II — dry heave. Here’s hoping Cop Out comes out punching with the smiles, and not lying on the canvas in a pool of last nights carrots.

What you guys think, hit or miss?

[via FSR]

Popularity: 2% [?]