The official trailer for Leslie’s upcoming animated film, “Rio” has been released. The Blue Sky Studios’ 3-D digital animated film “Rio” centers on a nerdy macaw who leaves the comforts of his cage in small-town Minnesota and heads to Rio de Janeiro. Also added to the gallery are movie stills from the film. Head over to the gallery for the latest additions.

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Movieweb.com compiled a list of the “Best Films of the Decade (2000-2009).” The list included both audience pick and critics pick.

Aught Blog Critic’s Pick for 2005? The Forty Year Old Virgin.
Directed by Judd Apatow, this R rated comedy went on to earn $109 million at the box office. With the PG-13 rating dominating the early part of the Aughts, Apatow created a smart and intelligent adult sitcom that revolved around real human themes and emotions. In one fail swoop, he proved that an R rated comedy could still cash in at the box office. This one flick kick-started far too many careers to count, including Paul Rudd’s, Steve Carell’s, Seth Rogen’s, and Jane Lynch’s. Not to mention creating a brand name out of the last name Apatow. While many similar films have followed in its footsteps, no other comedy has meant as much to this decade as The Forty Year Old Virgin.

Source/Complete List

I Love You Phillip Morris
Opens: February 5th 2010
Cast: Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro
Director: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Summary: A fact-based film about Steven Russell, a married father whose exploits landed him in the Texas criminal justice system. He fell madly in love with his male cellmate, who eventually was set free, which led Russell to escape from Texas prisons four times.

Analysis: Premiering last year at Sundance as one of the hot tickets of the festival, reviews proved good but mixed with some saying the film is an oddly conventional Hollywood rom-com, despite its gay and true story angles, and is tamer than expected considering it’s from the same guys who brought us “Bad Santa”.

Others however, most notably distributors, balked at the film’s inconsistent tone and unapologetic depiction of all-male love from Carrey & McGregor’s tender romantic kisses to comedically-toned graphic sex between Carrey and various one-night stands. Struggling for many months to find someone to open it, Consolidated Pictures Group was the indie group with the balls to step up and set a release for February in the US.

Still, despite scoring the best reviews of a Carrey comedy in years, it’s not expected to fly at all with audiences beyond a certain niche as mainstream audiences avoid ‘gay’-themed films out of hate, fear, or most commonly sheer disinterest. It reminds me of the sad testament that the notoriously homophobic “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry” took in twice as much money as Oscar nominee “Brokeback Mountain”.

Just wanted to remind everyone, Leslie’s latest film, Funny People was released on DVD and Blu-ray disc yesterday (November 24th). Head over to your video stores and purchase the latest Judd Apatow production. Also released November 24th was the Robert Rodriguez film, Shorts.

Leslie’s latest project, “Shorts” is being released on DVD and Blu-ray disc November 24th, 2009.

“Shorts” is a story told in shorts, centered on the neighborhood of Black Falls, where the residents all work for the evil Mr. Black (James Spader) creating the Black Box, a cell phone-like gadget that can shape-shift into any helpful, portable device. Dropping from the sky one day is a rainbow-colored wishing rock, which falls into the hands of dork Toe Thompson (Jimmy Bennett). Embarking on a series of wishes, Toe turns the town upside down, tempting others to steal the rock for their own purposes, including school bully Helvetica (Jolie Vanier). With pals Loogie (Trevor Gagnon) and Nose (Jake Short), parents (including Jon Cryer, Leslie Mann, and William H. Macy), and Toe’s sister (Kat Dennings) hunting around for the rock, it becomes a race against time once Mr. Black becomes aware of the stone’s powers, hoping to take over the land with his wicked wishes.

Assuming his customary stance as the all-in-one filmmaking machine, Rodriguez (who directs, scripts, shoots, edits, co-scores, and prepares daily lunches) aims to whip up a live-action cartoon with “Shorts,” breaking down the fantasy narrative into bite-sized pieces for easier consumption. The picture is five chapters of Black Falls shenanigans with the wonders of the wishing rock employed to tie it all together, permitting Rodriguez plenty of dead air to fashion his favorite cocktail of adolescent slapstick, aggressive scoring, and homegrown special effects.

Narrated by Toe (who also has the magical power to pause and fast-forward through the footage), “Shorts” is a purposely disjointed feature. Rodriguez is smart to rearrange story points, promoting a confusing swell of nervous energy to best backdrop the comedic disorder. There’s no off button to the picture, leaving those sensitive to noise at the mercy of Rodriguez and his inability to throttle his immature exuberance. “Shorts” barrels ahead with annoying, camera-mugging child actors (Bennett and Vanier are inexcusably insufferable) and screeching visual effects, creating a piercing explosion of sight gags and cartoon sound cues, including random fart noises during the chapter breaks. Why? Because Rodriguez can.

Kids will likely devour this fantasia of bug-eyed reactions, miniature alien invasions, thespian hyperactivity, and booger monsters (one of the many icky and oddly predictable wishing rock mishaps), and Rodriguez makes it clear he’s playing right to the nose-pickers. Still, the base sensibilities displayed here are covering for a decided lack of imagination. The man of a thousand jobs comes across as desperate to please, using every pandering device he can exploit to get the kids on his side.

Just a reminder:

Due out on DVD and Blu-ray on November 24th, Funny People stars Sandler, Seth Rogen and Leslie Mann and comes from the mind that brought you The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up.

Sandler plays a George Simmons, a popular comedian who is given a second chance at life. Rogen plays his trusty assistance in this sedate comedy. Funny People also stars Jonah, Eric Bana and Jason Schwartzman.

The film will be released in a single-disc edition, a two-disc Special Edition and, of course, a fancy two-disc Blu-ray edition. All versions will have both the theatrical and unrated versions.