Directed by Harold Ramis (Caddyshack, Groundhog Day) and co-produced by laugh-meister Judd Apatow (Superbad, Knocked Up), the absurd Year One stars comedy veteran Jack Black (Nacho Libre, Tropic Thunder) and young funnyman Michael Cera (Juno, Superbad) as an offbeat pair of cavemen — exiled into the wilderness of the ancient world by their fellow tribesman — who soon find themselves on a journey of biblical proportions as they travel through the early days of mankind. Earl Dittman chats with Cera and Black after the jump. (Plus: this week in home video.)
Zed (Black), a bumbling hunter, and Oh (Cera), a gentle gatherer, not only survive the dangers and hostile environment of early human history, but their wacky words of “wisdom” and slapstick antics play major roles in many of history’s biggest events. Reminiscent of such iconic comedy classics as Mel Brooks’ The History of The World Part 1 and Monty Python’s Life Of Brian, Year One also stars Hank Azaria (Night at the Museum), David Cross (Arrested Development), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad), Oliver Platt (Frost/Nixon) and Paul Rudd (I Love You, Man).
For those who might have missed Year One in theaters, how would you best describe it?
JB: “Basically, it’s a very funny comedy set in biblical times. It’s kind of in the vein of one of the old Monty Python biblical movies, like Life Of Brian or Meaning Of Life.”
MC: “Jack carries the movie, and it’s him kind of looking for an answer to the meaning of life. Jack is pretty much the star of the movie.”
JB: “No, that’s not true. Michael’s role is just as important as mine. We’re just two dudes roaming through the olden times.”
Would it be fair to call Year One “a biblical comedy?”
JB: “Oh yeah. It’s set in biblical times, focusing on the Old Testament and the Torah — and it’s really funny. So, I think biblical comedy applies.”
Michael, do you play a son who’s going to be sacrificed?
MC: “No, nothing that dramatic. But, that would have been cool.”
Of course, Judd Apatow produced Year One. What was that like for you to work with a familiar face, Michael?
MC: “Fantastic, it was so much fun working with him again.”
Superbad did a lot for you career. What’s the gravitational pull with the whole Judd Apatow crowd? If he called you next week and said, “I’ve got a role in a film for you,” would you do what you could to do that film?
MC: “You kind of do a lot of table reads and stuff. Those guys do a lot of table reads and rework scripts and stuff. A lot of times, you do it just for fun, just to do a table read, and they’ll go and work on the script for a while and maybe you’ll never hear of it again. But yeah, they’re all friends and they all trust each other and like working with each other and trust each other’s input. And I did another movie with Judd that’s coming out next year.”
Do either of you feel like you are at the pinnacle of your career?
JB: “Oh yeah, I think I’ve made it.”
MC: “I’m just starting. I hope my best work is still yet to come.”
Jack, when you started your career, did you ever dream that the day would come when directors and studios would come knocking on your door and you could choose to do any project you wanted to?
JB: “Well, I feel like I’ve made it in so many ways, but I don’t ever feel like I’m safe, though. I always feel like, ‘This is it, oh my God. What if Year One bombs? Then, there will be no more movies for Jackie, and I’ll have to go back to living at my mom’s house.’”
When you are choosing projects, do you have a commercial pile and an art-house stack? Do you think to yourself, “Something like Be Kind Rewind is my art-house movie, and Tropic Thunder and Year One are going to be my mainstream films for me the year?’”
JB: “No. Everything I do, I want to like it and I want it to be a movie that I want to go see. That is my rule. Before I agree to make a movie, it has to pass my rule of ‘Would I go see this movie?’”
How does it work for you, Michael? Do you take any leading role that’s offered to you or you do the movies you actually want to do?
MC: “It has to feel good to me. It’s just that you know as things come, you see who’s involved and go with your gut and see if the script’s good and see if you trust the director. If it’s someone that you click with, want to spend time with and want to collaborate with then go with that.”
Do either of you ever sneak into your own movies to hear people laugh? How do you know the things you do are making audiences laugh?
JB: “If I am making myself laugh, then I feel like other people are going to laugh. I don’t need to be in the theatre. I actually get pretty nervous in the theatre. I just start freaking out, thinking, ‘What if they don’t laugh, oh Jesus Christ.’
Michael, what was the first time that somebody actually came up and told you that they loved your work or recognized you while you were walking around?
MC: “Probably, I think after the pilot for Arrested Development aired, I went and saw this show, it was like A Mighty Wind live. It was a one-time thing. It was amazing.”
How do you stay grounded?
MC: “What do you mean?”
How do avoid becoming a raging egomaniac? Is there anything or anyone in your life, like your mom or dad, that helps you stay close to reality?
MC: “Yeah, but I don’t think they keep me grounded. I mean, they’re supportive and they’re my family. It’s just acting, you know. It’s just I’ve been acting since I was little, and it’s just working. There’s people that like you and people that don’t like you. It’s very strange. People feel like they know you, but people you know, they don’t know you either way. I have my sisters and my parents who know me, and my friends know me, but otherwise, it’s just acting.”
Jack, when we chatted in the past, you talked about having an anxiety attack for your high school plays. When you first start a movie, do you begin to have those feelings again?
JB: “Yeah. Totally, before I came in this room to talk to you.”
Does it ever go away?
JB: “Sometimes, if you get a little respite, a little boost of self-confidence chemical that goes in your brain for some reason. A valve releases and it feels like you are Superman. The insecurities are always there.”
Do you ever read reviews about your movies?
JB: “No, never. [Laughs] Of course, I’m obsessed with numbers. I love numbers.”
MC: “I try not to, but I always end up reading, one way or another.”
Jack, do you feel like your comedy has changed at all since becoming a father?
JB: “No, I’ve said some bad language stuff, but they don’t hear that. They won’t need to hear that until they’re older. They also doesn’t need to see any of my movies where I cuss and swear. I don’t really think that hurts kids, anyway. Bad language doesn’t really hurt them, it just makes them rude, and they will survive that.”
Has daddy-hood possibly affected your sense of humour?
JB: “Maybe, they’re really funny to me. My kids might be influencing me without me knowing it. I might have already stolen some of my older son’s dance moves.”
Michael, you have been doing movies back-to-back. When do you have time to live? Do you try to take time off?
MC: “Yeah. You kind of need to do that, take time off and relax a bit and hang out. Yeah. You do it when you can. When I’m not working, I’m just hanging out.”
What’s going on with you own musical career, Jack? Since you’re both a talented musician and actor, does either one ever suffer from lack from attention?
JB: “Yeah, because I feel like I’m mostly an actor. Music is really fun, I love to do it, but I’m not really prolific. It takes the back seat. I’m like, ‘Sorry music, you go chill out over there for a while. I’ll get to you, maybe.’”
Year One — Blu-Ray: Bonus Features: Includes both the original theatrical version of the film and an all-new Extended Version, deleted scenes, extended and alternate scenes, an alternate ending, Line-o-Rama, gag reel, audio commentary with director Harold Ramis, Jack Black and Micheal Cera, three making-of featurettes, BD-LIVE! – “Year One Cutting Room,” MovieIQ, Cinechat and a Digital Copy. (Also on DVD)
Assassination Of A High School President
A smart dark comedy and a witty, twisted satire (in the tradition of Election and Rushmore), Assassination Of A High School Cheerleader is a horrifyingly amusing tale of a geeky high school newspaper reporter, Bobby Funke (Reece Daniel Thompson), who uses the power of the press to become popular. When a stack of SATs are stolen from the office of the principal (Bruce Willis), Bobby accuses the jock of stealing them and becomes a hero to the student body. But when the jock’s girlfriend (Mischa Barton) and even the bullies start to treat him nice, he doubts his initial assessment. As he digs deeper, he uncovers a campus-wide conspiracy that could bring the entire school down. Bonus Features: Alternate opening equences with optional commentary, extended and alternate scenes with select optional commentary and deleted scenes with optional commentary.
Dark Country
Directed and starring Thomas Jane (star of the cable hit Hung), Dark Country is a suspense thriller in the vein of Lost Highway and The Twilight Zone. After two newlyweds (Jane and Lauren German) decide to help a mysterious car crash survivor (Ron Pearlman) in the Las Vegas desert, their dream honeymoon turns into a night in hell. Instead of being rewarded for their good deed, the man turns on them, forcing the newlyweds to do sometime they never thought they good. In a blur of paranormal chaos, husband and wife become desperate to hide their hideous decision from the local copy. But, once they try to bury the past, fate meets them head one. Each decision leads to an even worse outcome, making their lives even more horrifying. Dark Country has the look and feel of a film noir, but Thomas Jane has injected it with thrills that may yet shock hardened horror fans. Bonus Features: Audio commentary with Thomas Jane, screenwriter Tab Murphy and producer Patrick Aiello and a Making-Of featurette.
Mirageman
Martial arts master Marko Zaror — “The Latin Dragon” — portrays Maco, a simple nightclub security guard in Chile, who becomes a masked national hero after saving the life of television reporter from a gang of vicious attackers. When the reporter praises her unknown savior, Maco decides it time to become a full-time superhero. His life as a good guy not only brings joy to would-be victims, it seems to help his the mental health of his institutionalized brother. Filled with action, Mirageman is the winner of several prestigious movie stunt awards. Bonus Feature: Behind-the-scenes featurette.
Nip/Tuck: The Complete Fifth Season Part 2
With Season Six set to debut in a couple of weeks, it’s time to refresh your memory about the murders, knife attacks, cheating, Sean’s (Dylan Walsh) outrageous new gal-pal and the outcome of Christian’s (Julian McMahon) fight with cancer that occurred during the last cutting-edge episodes from last season of Nip/Tuck. However, their move from Miami to Los Angeles continued to be a financially rewarding one for the relocated plastic surgeons of McNamara/Troy. The guest stars get brighter — from Bradley Cooper, Portia de Rossi, Katie Sackhoff, Morgan Fairchild, John Schneider, Sharon Gless and Jennifer Coolidge — and, the surgeries just get more bizarre: from a white rapper wants more booty to shake, to repairing a vampire bite to an 18-year-old man who wants to look older after he marries his former elementary school teacher. Bonus Feature: The featurette “Skin Deep? The Science of Beauty.”
Not Quite Hollywood
Featuring narrative interviews from such Hollywood legends as Quentin Tarantino, Jamie Lee Curtis And Dennis Hopper, Not Quite Hollywood is a fast-paced documentary that chronicles the growth of the Australian genre cinema of the ’70s and ’80s. A docu-drama packed with gratuitous nudity, senseless violence, car crashes and a bit of kung fu, Not Quite Hollywood highlights footage from such infamous Aussie films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, My Brilliant Career, Alvin Purple, The Man from Hong Kong, Patrick, Turkey Shoot and Mad Max. Not Quite Hollywood explains how this artistically rich, but unjustly forgotten cinematic era with outrageous anecdotes, stars from around the world and the filmmakers’ heartfelt, infectious love of Australian movies. Not Quite Hollywood commemorates the cultural explosion that gave birth to a group of talented, trail-blazing cinematic mavericks who snubbed their nose at mainstream cinema, made their own rules and introduced the car chase, karate kick, BMX bikes and the water-bed to audiences Down Under.
Scare Tactics: Season Three, Part One
Forget the juvenile pranks on such so-called reality shows as Jackass and Punk’d, there’s only one terrifying scenarios constructed to scare the holy daylights out of hapless victims. Hosted by 30 Rock star Tracy Morgan, this 2-disc DVD set of the 13 episodes from the SyFy Channel’s third scream-packed season I filled with such pranks ranging from genuinely horrorific to laugh-out-loud hysterical. From a psycho invading the home of a unsuspecting babysitter and a mutant creature bursting from a eerie cocoon, to a horror film director who kills his critics, Scare Tactics aims to follow up the chills with the giggles. Bonus Features: Never-before-seen footage on 4 episodes and Tracy Morgan’s bloopers and out-takes.
Ally McBeal: The Complete Series • Ally McBeal: The Complete First Season
Single-handedly revolutionizing the television legal series from serious and staid courtroom dramas to a laugh-filled, dramedy, Ally McBeal, created by writer, director David E. Kelley (The Practice, Boston Legal), would take home seven Emmy Awards and four Golden Globes throughout its five seasons in front of judges, in the offices of Ally’s quirky Boston law firm and inside the bedroom and private lives of the series’ colorful characters. Starring then newcomer Calista Flockhart, as the eccentric and neurotic 28-year-old, Harvard Law graduate Ally McBeal, the series followed Ally in her search for true romance and a fulfilling life. Sharing the spotlight with Robert Downey Jr., Portia de Rossi, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Lucy Liu, Peter MacNicol and Jane Krakowski, it was Ally’s amusing fantasy sequences, flashbacks and voice overs that revealed her innermost thoughts and feelings, that were the real stars of the series (remember the dancing baby?) The show is making its DVD debut in Ally McBeal: The Complete Series, a 32-disc collection, featuring every episode from the show’s five-year run; and the six-disc box set Ally McBeal: Season One. Bonus Features — The Complete Collection: The new featurette “Bygone Days: An Ally McBeal Retrospective” with Flockhart, Krakowski, Liu, MacNicol, Gil Bellows, Greg Germann, and David E. Kelley, The Best of Ally McBeal soundtrack with never-before-released songs, Season 2 TV Special “Life and Trials of Ally McBeal,” Season 5 “Goodbye, Ally,” behind-the-scenes and much more. Ally McBeal: Season One: an insert to download three songs from The Best of Ally McBeal soundtrack.
Besieged Fortress
Besieged Fortress, narrated by actor John Cusack, uses cutting-edge close-up cinematography to follow the collision of two insect empires on an African savanna. The nature documentary trails a colony of termites as it battles for survival against a catastrophic flood and an invading ant army out to take over their fortress and to kill them. A rare look inside the insect kingdom, Besieged Fortress examines one of the most savage and thrilling conflicts that goes on in a part of the world that is foreign to us all.
Lost Tapes
Are most urban legends concerning animals simply false or made up? Do massive, maneating snakes truly exists? What about a death raptor or a skinwalker? Lost Tapes enters the mysterious realm where fact meet fiction and science meets legend. This set of 14 episodes follows the truth and lies behind the bizarre creatures of urban legend. Lost Tapes takes you to the most mysterious, scary and skin-crawling places on the earth. Most scientist are reluctant to admit these chilling beasts of lore (like the megaconda) exist, but once you see the footage collected on the Lost Tapes, you may, once and for all, believe.
The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Season 5
During its legendary, seven-year-run, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which would go on to win 29 Emmy Awards to become one of television’s top-rated and critically acclaimed programs, and Mary Richards (Moore), would become one of the most recognizable and beloved characters in primetime history. Mary and her eccentric friends at WJM-TV — her boss, Lou Grant (Edward Asner), news writer Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod) and pretentious anchorman Ted Baxter (Ted Knight) — would weather a few storms in Season Five, sometimes literally. Mary takes a crack at producing the news, and even has a brush with the law, Lou becomes Mary’s neighbor, and Ted starts a rumor that he and Mary are dating.
My Fair Lady
The winner of eight Academy Awards in 1964 including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor, director George Cukor’s My Fair Lady (with lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner) stars such Hollywood legends as Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Gladys Cooper. Based on the Broadway musical, which was adapted from the George Bernard Shaw play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady is the fairy-tale story of a cockney flower girl (Hepburn) who falls for an arrogant, misanthropic phonetics expert Henry Higgins (Harrison). Featuring such legendary songs a “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” “The Rain in Spain” and “Get Me to the Church on Time,” My Fair Lady remains a classic. Bonus Features: Audio commentary, vintage footage from the production, vintage featurettes, insights on the film from Martin Scorsese and Andrew Lloyd Webber, alternate Audrey Hepburn vocals, trailers, posters and lobby cards and Rex Harrison radio interview.
NOW ON BLU-RAY
Bones: Season Four
Combining dark humour and crime scene forensics (and a little sexual tension thrown in for good measure), Bones and Booth uncover the truth behind gruesome homicides by examining rotting flesh — it is just another day at the office for a prosaic forensic anthropologist and her F.B.I. partner. Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel) is a brilliant, but socially slow, doctor, and F.B.I. Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) is her protective, crime-solving partner. Aided by a group of unlikely colleagues including an insect expert and conspiracy theorist, coroner and psychologist, among others, they always get the killer. Bonus Features – Blu-ray: Three extended episodes, deleted scenes, a gag reel, and several featurettes. (Also on DVD).
Red Dwarf: Back to Earth – Director’s Cut
It’s been nine years since the BBC gave North American audience new Red Dwarf episodes. That’s all changing with thi incredible 2-disc set of brand new episodes on Blu-ray and DVD — which debut on disc before the episodes will be shown on TV. Written and directed by Doug Naylor, this metaphysical odyssey/sci-fi satire begins as the Red Dwarf crew are thrown through a portal back to Earth during the 21st Century, only to discover they are just characters from a TV series. Having read the last script that reveals their fate, the crew now know that they will die in the final episode. So, the Dwarfers, in the best Blade Runner tradition, look for the people who created them and the actors who play them so they can at least find out how much time they have left to live. Bonus Features: Cast and director commentary, an all-new exclusive documentary, outtakes, featurettes, deleted scenes, Meg ups – gag reel, trailers, web videos, photo gallery and an Easter egg.
My Life In Ruins
After her hugely successful acting and writing debut with My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Nia Vardalos is following up her hit movie with this story of an American tour guide in Greece who discovers herself, and possibly love, when she least expects it. The discouraged single woman looking for a way to reconnect with her soul and find her kefi — Greek for “mojo” —takes a motley group of eccentric tourists on a dilapidated tour bus through Greece, while waiting to land her dream job. It’s during that time that she find much more than her mojo, she finds a new romance in the process. Directed by Donald Petrie (How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days), and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Alexis Georgoulis, Rachel Dratch, Harland Williams, María Adánez, María Bottoand and Alistair McGowan. Bonus Features - Blu-ray: Deleted scenes, an alternate ending, commentary by Nia Vardalos and more.
