Comedy
Dr. Frasier Crane to Resume Listening in New Reboot for Paramount+
After three years spent on hold, a reboot of Frasier is finally coming to air. Via The Hollywood Reporter, star Kelsey Grammer will be reprising his role in a sequel series on Paramount+. Grammer has been pushing a revival since at least 2018. But the salad remained untossed and the eggs unscrambled until earlier this month, when reports surfaced that Grammer and CBS/VIacom had joined together at the negotiating table. On Wednesday, ViacomCBS finally announced the reboot as a go. Grammer sounds understandably excited about returning to the role he first originated on Cheers in 1984. “Having spent over 20 years of my creative life on the Paramount lot, both producing shows and performing in several, I’d like to congratulate Paramount+ on its entry into the streaming world,” he said. “I...
What’s Streaming on Hulu in March 2021
Busy times for Hulu in March. On the features front, Frank Grillo will try to escape a time loop in Boss Level, Eva Green will train for space in Proxima, Soleil Moon Frye captures her Hollywood youth in kid 90, and Devon Sawa learns the consequences of living off the grid in Hunter Hunter. Meanwhile, National Geographic will explore the life and legacy of Aretha Franklin in Genius: Aretha: Complete Season 3, the second season of FX’s Breeders begins, and Justin Roiland’s Solar Opposites returns for seconds. The back catalogue additions aren’t too shabby, either. Martin Scorsese’s Shine a Light is refreshing for these pandemic times, Wes Anderson’s Rushmore is always worth a 45th rewatch, and who doesn’t love a good horror like The Social Network. Check out the full list below, which also ...
10 Happy Gilmore Quotes You Probably Say All the Time
Adam Sandler hit a hole in one with Happy Gilmore. The blockbuster sports comedy completely changed the game for the Saturday Night Live comic, extending his appeal well beyond the bratty teens who were already quoting his albums and sketches. Now, Sandler was winning over their parents. Blame it on golf, or Bob Barker, or the ‘70s-fueled soundtrack, but the film was the rare ubiquitous hit for the comedy genre. Everybody saw it, everybody quoted it, and everybody wanted more of Sandler. Not much has changed in the 25 years since its release. Sandler remains a hot commodity, continuing to fascinate us in the most surprising ways (see: 2019’s Uncut Gems), and Happy Gilmore is still one of the most rewatchable and quotable comedies. Editors’ Picks So quotable that it’s almost become a ...
Happy Gilmore’s Shooter McGavin Is the Perfect Comedy Villain
Editor’s Note: This op-ed originally ran in 2016 for the 20th anniversary of Happy Gilmore. Today, we’ve dusted it off for the 25th anniversary of the Adam Sandler blockbuster. So, grab your clubs, your gold jacket, and meet us in the sand. Happy Gilmore is basically perfect. Disagree with me? That’s your right, but I’m going to stab you with this skate. There’s a lot that makes Happy Gilmore, Adam Sandler’s 1996 golf-idiot-savant comedy, so wonderful. Part of it is that it’s almost gleefully simple: failed hockey player discovers that his lousy slap shot could be good for golf and uses his newfound power to save Grandma’s house in a battle of homegrown hero versus rich prick. Part of it is that it’s just funny, made before Sandler started to exhaust his schlumpy charms. But more than anyt...
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar Deserved to Go to Sold-Out Theaters: Review
The Pitch: Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo reunite as screenwriters a decade after Bridesmaids, this time co-starring as the eponymous leads in a new raunchy comedy. Is the magic still there for another hugely successful laugh riot? A Movie That Oughta Be in Theaters: Movies like Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar are a good reason why it remains heartbreaking that movie theaters are mostly ghost towns these days. The new comedy from Lionsgate Pictures was originally intended for theatrical release last summer, and there’s little doubt that it would be best served by playing in front of a large, boisterous crowd. It’s not to suggest that Barb and Star is bad; anything but. Yet it’s undeniably the kind of film that would work at the height of its powers with a ready audience gobbling up every ...
SNL Top Highlights: Dan Levy Charms In Hosting Debut
Since kicking off Season 46 last fall, Saturday Night Live has been running closer to business-as-usual than almost any other late-night show during the pandemic. Still, if you look closely, there are differences: Their audience size has been reduced, which has often made studio reactions more muted; the schedule has featured more episodes in a row and yet longer breaks in between; and the host bookings feel less tethered to the usual promotional cycles of big movies, TV show premieres, and awards season. Case in point: 10 months after Schitt’s Creek ended, four months after the show’s historic Emmys sweep, and two months after his co-starring role in Hulu’s Happiest Season, Dan Levy took a victory lap this week with his first Saturday Night Live hosting gig. In other words, he wasn’t real...
Ranking John Carpenter: Every Movie from Worst to Best
Dark streets, empty lawns, singing trees, and the nauseating pulse of synths — you’re watching a John Carpenter film. Chances are the Master of Horror was responsible for a few of your earliest childhood nightmares. He’s more or less the Ray Bradbury of filmmaking, an underrated visionary who can conjure up a brand of fear that’s both out of this world and within your reach. Six years after returning to the synthesizer for 2015’s Lost Themes, the Master of Horror is back for more with its second sequel: Lost Themes III: Alive After Death. Once again, Carpenter is working alongside his son Cody Carpenter and his godson Daniel Davies, a collaboration that’s only grown stronger with time. “We’ve matured,” Carpenter has confidently expressed. In celebration, we’ve resurrected this original bre...
Sacha Baron Cohen Says He’s Done Playing Borat
The saga of Borat Margaret Sagdiyev has come to a very nice end. In a new profile in Variety, Sacha Baron Cohen said he’s finished with his most famous creation, and that the fictional Kazakh journalist is now “locked away in the cupboard.” The character had been retired once before, after the release of the 2006 film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. The satire of Borat is based in surprise. People thought they were talking to a second-rate journalist from a sparsely populated country, and so they didn’t mind sharing their racism, misogyny, and anti-Semitism. After the movie became a box office sensation, Cohen thought he’d lost the element of surprise. He began to change his mind in 2018. First, the rise of white nationali...
Chris Rock to Release “Extended Cut” of Netflix Special Tamborine
When Chris Rock released his Netflix stand-up special Tamborine in 2018, he managed to garner a whopping 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes — a rare accomplishment for a film, never mind a comedy routine. Now, Rock is treating fans to even more of those critically lauded jokes with Chris Rock: Total Blackout, The Tamborine Extended Cut, which hits the streamer next week. The Tamborine Extended Cut boasts 27 minutes of previously unreleased footage from Rock’s original Grammy-nominated special. The new clips — which include never-before-seen jokes, behind-the-scenes footage, and various interviews — will touch on race, fatherhood, and politics. Because they’re interwoven throughout the stand-up special, Netflix is calling it a repackaged “remix” of the initial release. To hype up the extended cu...
Dave Chappelle to Turn Former Fire Station Into Comedy Club
They say the best jokes hit close to home, and now Dave Chappelle is taking that literally. According to Yellow Springs News, the famed comedian has purchased a former fire station in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and received approval to transform the space into a combination comedy club and restaurant. Chappelle’s roots in the area go back to his childhood, when his father worked as a professor at nearby Antioch College. Then, over the summer, he hosted a socially-distanced, outdoor standup series in the township’s Wirrig Pavilion. Now, he’s proving that the college town is more than just a place to ride out quarantine with the announcement of his new club. The price of the sale is not public, but the fire station was originally listed for $400,000, and the township of Yellow Springs has be...
Kristen Wiig’s SNL Return Stresses an Uncertain Future for Character Actors
When Kristen Wiig hit the stage to deliver her monologue this past weekend on Saturday Night Live, she said it felt like coming home. She reiterated this point at the end of the show, during the goodnights. In between, she backed up her statements by comfortably re-settling into the rhythms of the show, and reviving two of her many recurring characters: Sue, the woman who can’t handle surprises; and Mindy Gracin, the addled stage star who appears on the game show Secret Word. Wiig still stands among the most beloved centerpiece stars of SNL this millennium, and this week’s episode underlined a major reason why, at least in terms of the popular consciousness: She originated a lot of recurring characters on the show. So many, in fact, that she can reprise two second-string ones like Mindy Gr...
John Mulaney Enters Rehab for Cocaine and Alcohol Abuse
John Mulaney has checked into rehab for cocaine and alcohol abuse. According to Page Six and PEOPLE, the 38-year-old comedian entered a facility in Pennsylvania this past weekend. Mulaney has long been open about his history with substance abuse. In an interview with Esquire last year, he said he began drinking and experimenting with drugs at age 13. He first became sober at the age of 23. During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live earlier this month, Mulaney admitted that the quarantine had negatively impacted his mental well-being, and he sought to find structure by going to work for his friend Seth Meyers. “I really needed a job. I like having a boss and having assignments to do,” Mulaney explained to Kimmel. “When I’m in charge of something… not so much the best thing. I wanted to ...
