“Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner has been wanting to make a feature film called You Are Here for a long time, and many incarnations of the project have seen people like Matthew McConaughey, Jack Black, Matt Dillon, and Renee Zellweger come and go over the years. But now it appears the showrunner is finally going to step into the film world, because he’s got comedy superstars Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis signed on to star in the movie. Hit the jump for plot details and more.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, You Are Here ”centers on a weatherman who is dependent on a best friend for his good times. When the friend inherits a business and some land from his father, the weatherman is forced to get his own life in order.” Sounds way more lighthearted than his Mad Men work, which, if nothing else, will provide an interesting opportunity to view Weiner’s range as a director in the wake of the show’s massive success. Amy Poehler is also in talks to take a supporting role here, so I’m looking forward to seeing three comedians with such different styles working together with a director known for his serious dramas.

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Though they’ve been in many of the same movies over the years, it’s hard for me to believe that Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson have only teamed up in one true buddy movie until now. (That’d be 2005′s Wedding Crashers, for those of you keeping score at home). Perhaps it was their great chemistry in that film, but it seems like they’ve been yukking it up on screen together for years. Well, fans of quick banter and witty one-liners have cause for celebration today: the duo is going to reunite for a movie called Interns, and it sounds right up their alley.

Vulture brings the news, and describes in great detail the series of events that went down to bring this project to fruition. Bottom line: director Shawn Levy (Real Steel) was going to make a Frankenstein movie at Fox and Vaughn was going to make a comedy called Insane Laws for Universal, and both fell apart at the same time. The holes in their schedules lined up, and now the two are working together on Interns, a comedy that Vaughn himself wrote.

Vaughn and Wilson will play forty-ish company guys who both get laid off in a downsizing. Convinced they’ve gone about managing their careers entirely wrong, they resolve to become interns at a Google-like dotcom and start anew. Suddenly, the two old chums are competing against wily, fresh-faced 22 year olds for advancement.

Sounds like a great premise, and a perfect fit for a pair of guys who should have been headlining movies together for the past five years. But that’s coming from a guy who loves Wedding Crashers. What do you think? Are you sick of their schtick, or does this sound good?

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The setting: It’s late February 2012, wait, scratch that…it’s January 2012, and the Oscar nominees are being rattled off; some A-list celebrity is about to read the candidates for Best Animated Film, and wouldn’t you know it, a Pixar film is noticeably missing…

That’s because Cars 2 sputtered at just about every turn.  If you’re looking for what makes Pixar the perennial dominating product in this genre, this 113 minute flick is a very average sample size.  And don’t pull the “it’s for the kids” on me this time people; for the only element these said kiddies will laugh at are the funny accents two of the talking cars deliver.  Even the animation just seems like its on cruise control half the time.  Can you be cited for being under the influence while making a movie about automobiles?  Cause the directors should be for their often times out-of-control execution in this sucker.

Now labeling something very average doesn’t mean it’s dreadful.  And though this review could easily use an infinite number of car metaphors and puns to illustrate why this flick ran like a 4-cylinder as opposed to the V8 audiences have come to expect from this heralded studio, we’re going to try not to go there too often.  Just like the studio should have not gone the sequel route here.

Our refurbished tale sees the sharp sports car, Lighting McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) and his unorthodox, small-town tow-truck best friend Mater (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy), taking part in a world championship race to help promote an alternate fuel source, which would make oil obsolete in cars.  While attending lavish events in Japan, Italy and England, McQueen gets into a rivalry with an arrogant Italian race car named Francesco Bernoulli (voiced by John Turturro).  Their desire to beat each other becomes intense and McQueen needs to remain focused on the task at hand.  So when he allows Mater to tag along and work in the pit crew for the first time ever, the curious tow-truck who likes to shake things up in his own unique – and indirect – way, causes McQueen some issues on the track.

Meanwhile, Mater somehow is also mistaken for an American spy, as British agents Finn McMissile (voiced by Michael Caine) & Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer) force him into an espionage caper involving a mystery villain, who is purposely sabotaging the races McQueen is participating in.  Since Mater has a junkyard crush on Holley, he reluctantly goes along with the mission, yet gets more fired up when he realizes that his best friend McQueen is the latest target.

Look, this is paced well for the younger audiences’ attention span and the jovial accents of Larry the Cable Guy and John Turturro will get them laughing even if they don’t comprehend all the jokes.  The physical make-up shows the Pixar shine every now and again, too.  Seeing cars, planes and ships with personalities will catch your eye for a while.  But it will never tickle the funny bone as other recent animations have been able to smoothly accomplish.  This would be satisfactory if there was a rich story on display, yet the cartoon James Bond with a goofy sidekick angle will only please those that have never experienced this redundant theme before.  So of course a good portion of hyper summer kids will be drawn to this.  Just be prepared to explain what happened when this wistful feature concludes parents/guardians/babysitters/older siblings/recreation park supervisors/etc.  That is, if the kids give a crap.

And that’s the biggest issue with Cars 2:  It’s so uneven that film professors could go on for days about all its defects.  The story haphazardly goes from being completely calibrated for wholesome entertainment, and then jumps to moments where characters meet their demise in not-so elaborate action skits.  Yeah, characters die here.  So as far as continuity goes, this script looks as if some portions were written by Chris Columbus, while others were under the guidance of the destructive Michael Bay.  As stated earlier though, the kids will simply give blank stares at the 3D screen during these nonsensical transitions.

Finally, much respect to Michael Caine, Larry the Cable Guy, Emily Mortimer and John Turturro for their exuberant voice work.  If they weren’t subjected to being trapped in an animated frame, this may have been more engaging.  Pretty sad when one yearns for live-action actors instead of the dated CGI atmosphere.

Overall, Cars 2 is nothing special.  The characters are as much fun as a 1990 Volvo…safe, but boring as hell to drive.  Portions of the animation reveal glimpses of the creative minds at Pixar (kind of like this review haha).  That said, the animation – even with the 3D – is more of a matte finish rather than the patented glossy that will continuously entice audiences to explore this world.  In the end, Cars 2 should be recalled from theaters and placed in the DVD shop.  And so much for avoiding all those metaphors eh?

RATING: 2 out of 5

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Pixar and Disney have released what is probably the final trailer for Cars 2. I’ve lost count how many we’ve had so far, but this one contains lots of unseen footage and we get a glimpse at the characters voiced by John Turturro and Eddie Izzard.

Pixar may have made a sequel purely because of the merchandise sales, but at least it will entertain the younger members of society for a few hours.

You can watch the trailer below:

In the sequel Lightning McQueen, his pit crew and his new crew chief, Mater, head around the world for the “Race of Champions” taking place in five different countries: Japan, Austria, Italy, a 24-hour race in France and the United Kingdom. However, Mater, involved in a case of mistaken identity, saves the life of a British secret agent named Finn McMissile and finds himself embroiled in his world of international espionage.

Ratatouille producer Brad Lewis will direct along with original Cars director John Lasseter. Cars 2 opens in 3D on June 24, 2011.

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With Disney and Pixar making over $2 billion a year from Cars merchandise a third Cars movie is likely in the pipeline, but in the meantime they have a new batch of toys to sell a movie to promote in the form of Cars 2.

Today a new extended international trailer was released on the UK Disney YouTube account, and it looks like it will be a fun movie. For the kids.

In the sequel Lightning McQueen, his pit crew and his new crew chief, Mater, head around the world for the “Race of Champions” taking place in five different countries: Japan, Austria, Italy, a 24-hour race in France and the United Kingdom. However, Mater, involved in a case of mistaken identity, saves the life of a British secret agent named Finn McMissile and finds himself embroiled in his world of international espionage.

Ratatouille producer Brad Lewis will direct along with original Cars director John Lasseter. The voice cast includes Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy, Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Bonnie Hunt, Tony Shalhoub, Cheech Marin, Jason Isaacs, Joe Mantegna, Peter Jacobson and Thomas Kretschmann.

Cars 2 opens in 3D on June 24, 2011.

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After a successful string of movies in the late 90s and early 2000s, the Farrelly Brothers have had a shaky track record lately. Their newest directorial effort, Hall Pass, is the most recent entry in the raunchy adult comedy genre revitalized by Judd Apatow and his contemporaries over the past decade. It doesn’t quite live up to the Apatow standard, but impressive chemistry and an inherent likability between the leads makes this an easy movie to digest.

Owen Wilson has had some issues in his personal life in the past few years, but all of that seems like ancient history for him here. He’s back – not quite his full self, it seems, but invested enough to keep us entertained throughout. The aloof schtick, his bread and butter, is firing on almost every cylinder once again, and as enjoyable as Wilson is to watch, I think this movie is further proof that he’s just a small part of a greater equation: he needs someone to bounce back that rapid-fire dialogue. In Hall Pass, Wilson’s partner in crime is current SNL star Jason Sudeikis, shining here as he makes the transition to leading man after a solid supporting turn in one of 2010′s best romantic comedies, Going the Distance. The two work very well together, coming close to the phenomenal chemistry of Wilson and Vince Vaughn in 2005′s underrated Wedding Crashers. They play suburban husbands granted a “hall pass” by their wives – one week off from marriage, in which they can theoretically do whatever they want (read: have sex with whoever they can).

On the female side of the gender line, Jenna Fischer and Christina Applegate aren’t given as much to work with, but the actresses are equally capable at throwing quips and digs as their male counterparts. (This project actually marks a reunion for Sudeikis and Applegate, who also co-starred in Going the Distance.) This film is being told from mostly the male perspective – take a look at the Farrelly Brothers’ filmography and this shouldn’t come as a surprise – so most of the best zingers go to Wilson and Sudeikis. While many of the best moments of the film are seen in the trailers, one of my favorite sequences comes during an ill-timed conversation between the two male leads during a housewarming party for a rich couple: the rest of the party – including the wives – has moved into a safe room and listens in as the guys spout off a serious of wildly inappropriate comments about the people at the party, completely unaware they’re being eavesdropped upon.

This movie has its moments, but ultimately I’d say it’s just worth a rental. There wasn’t anything that truly separated it from other films of this kind, and the script felt watered down at times, with the kind of typical story beats that make you roll your eyes if you’ve seen more then fifteen movies in your life. It’s the kind of thing you hope a movie like this might have the balls to rise above, but disappointingly this isn’t that kind of movie – it’s still a studio comedy, and though it’s certainly funny at points, it’s not all that special in the grand scheme of things. Hall Pass is better than its release date would indicate – for you newbies out there, early months of the year are typically dumping grounds for terrible films – and it works as a nice little buddy comedy for the male leads, but it won’t change your life.

I could spend a few more paragraphs nitpicking some plot points and details (including some of the worst Photoshopped family photos I’ve ever seen on film), but this isn’t the kind of movie that deserves that kind of attention to detail. It knows what it is, and embraces its identity as best it can - Hall Pass is a studio comedy that attempts to push the boundaries at times (including a full frontal male nudity scene that makes Forgetting Sarah Marshall looks like a kid’s movie), but succeeds mainly as a showcase for satisfying chemistry between Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis. Until next time…

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Disney has released a new trailer for Cars 2, which includes 99% more footage than what we saw in the teaser trailer last month. The trailer gives us a closer look at the story, and we get a surprise appearance from Sir Michael Caine who provides the voice for a British secret agent named Finn McMissile.

Watch the trailer below:

In the sequel Lightning McQueen, his pit crew and his new crew chief, Mater, head around the world for the “Race of Champions” taking place in five different countries: Japan, Austria, Italy, a 24-hour race in France and the United Kingdom. However, Mater, involved in a case of mistaken identity, saves the life of a British secret agent named Finn McMissile and finds himself embroiled in his world of international espionage.

Ratatouille producer Brad Lewis will direct along with original Cars director John Lasseter. Cars 2 opens in 3D on June 24, 2011.

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The first teaser trailer for Cars 2 was expected to be released on the Toy Story 3 Blu-ray at the beginning of November, but it seems to have arrived online early. We don’t see a whole lot, but Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) and Mater (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy) appear in a laser field as they are now “the worlds newest secret agents”.

Watch the teaser below:

You can check out some new concept art of locations in London, Porto Corsa, Paris, Tokyo and Runcorn over at Empire.

In the sequel Lightning McQueen, his pit crew and his new crew chief, Mater, head around the world for the “Race of Champions” taking place in five different countries: Japan, Austria, Italy, a 24-hour race in France and the United Kingdom. However, Mater, involved in a case of mistaken identity, saves the life of a British secret agent named Finn McMissile and finds himself embroiled in his world of international espionage.

Ratatouille producer Brad Lewis will direct along with original Cars director John Lasseter. Cars 2 opens in 3D on June 24, 2011.

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The trailer for Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox is now online. It’s actually quite refreshing to see a kids movie that isn’t all CGI’d with wide eyed animals. It’s got a retro feel to it. When I first watched the trailer it kinda freaked me out a little, especially the rat, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it gave a few kids nightmares. However, after I watched it a few more times it gradually grew on me.

As the trailer shows, the film has quite a lot of cool actors providing their voices, people such as George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Brian Cox and Adrien Brody. Fantastic Mr. Fox will be released on November 13th in the US and October 23rd in the UK

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French site Filmsactu got their hands on some new images from Fantastic Mr. Fox. The film has quite a lot of cool actors providing their voices, people such as George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Brian Cox and Adrien Brody.

Directed by Wes Anderson, the stop-motion film is based on Roald Dahl’s classic children’s story and centers on the clever Mr. Fox who must outwit three mean, dimwitted farmers who try their hardest to hurt him and his family.

Fantastic Mr. Fox will be released on November 13th in the US and October 23rd in the UK and we should be getting a trailer by the end of July.

Click here to see another image!

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