by Nat Almirall, Apr 8 2011 // 9:00 AM
Your Highness is the movie equivalent of Mongolian BBQ: You get your plate and come to the first station, the meat.
There are some things you feel comfortable with, like the chicken (James Franco) and the lamb (Natalie Portman), some things that, sure, you could go for, like the lovely push-up-bra-wearing mahi-mahi (Zooey Deschanel), and then there’s the weird stuff you’re not certain you’ve heard of, like the surimi (Justin Theroux) and the calamari (Danny McBride), which you nevertheless feel obligated to try because, hey, you’re at the Mongolian BBQ, and you wouldn’t be here unless you were trying to try new things.
Then you get to the veggies. You have no idea what combination works with what, so you toss in some of everything–water chestnuts (R-rated sight gags), bean sprouts (stoner humor), edamame (dirty puns), and then you decide “What the Hell?” and go full Mongoloid by cramming in a bunch of peppers and drenching it in spicy buffalo and Tzatzihi sauce (foul, foul language, boobies, five-headed dragons…) to make it (hopefully) interesting.
And after it’s all been worked up, you’re served with something that’s surprisingly tolerable at first, but tastes a little ickier with each successive bite.
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Posted in: Comedy · Movies · Reviews · Sony · Universal Pictures
Tagged: Ben Best, Comedy, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Rasmus Hardiker, Universal, Your Highness, Your Highness movie review, Zooey Deschanel
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by Matt Raub, Mar 30 2011 // 9:00 AM
Imagine a world where the characters from Pineapple Express and Lord of the Rings clashed. That’s exactly what Danny McBride and his writing partner Ben Best had in mind when they gave birth to the idea which became Your Highness.
The synopsis is just about what you’d think this team could come up with after getting really stoned and reading old Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks.
Thadeous (Danny McBride) is a lazy, arrogant prince with his brother, Fabious (James Franco) must go on an epic quest in order to save their father’s kingdom. Natalie Portman plays a warrior princess who is also the lazy prince’s love interest. Zooey Deschanel plays Belladonna, Fabious’ virginal bride. Justin Theroux plays Leezar, the evil wizard who kidnaps Belladonna. Michael Clarke Duncan plays the Giant Troll.
Pretty funny, right? That’s what we thought. We’ve got some pretty awesome clips for you this week so be sure to check out the first batch after the jump.
Catch Your Highness and all of its antics in theaters on April 8th.
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Posted in: Action · Comedy · Drama · Fantasy · Movies · News · Video
Tagged: Ben Best, Danny McBride, Eastbound and Down, James Franco, Justin Theroux, Michael Clarke Duncan, Natalie Portman, Pineapple Express, Your Highness, Zooey Deschanel
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by Nat Almirall, Nov 8 2010 // 1:15 PM
Another season of Eastbound & Down wrapped up, and this week we leave Mexico. Kenny, Stevie and his new wife Maria are headed back to North Carolina so Kenny can reclaim April, but a lot has changed since he’s been gone. April’s moved on, giving up her teaching job to become a real estate salesman with her partner, referred to by Kenny as simply “the black man.” And she’s pregnant.
Sensibly, April wants nothing to do with Kenny since he abandoned her at a random gas station last season. So Kenny does the only thing left: coke and pool, followed up by crashing Dustin and Cassie’s date night (white wine and Grace Slick—nice) for a little advice, which is pretty much leave her to live her life. And like many of the hard truths Kenny’s had to face this season, he accepts it, but as a last act of good will, gives the tapes of his book to April, so she can try to understand his reasons for leaving her.
And in a final grand gesture, she shows up just as Kenny’s about to leave for Myrtle Beach to make some kind of amends…and reveal that the baby’s his.
All I can say is, “Wow.” And, after a few seconds in awe of this show and its season, I’d go further and say that Season 2 is superior to EB&D’s powerhouse first. Kenny went from vulgar curiosity to halfway decent human being—and all without the aid of the first-season cast (save, of course, Stevie).
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Posted in: HBO · TV · TV Recaps
Tagged: Ben Best, Danny McBride, Eastbound & Down, HBO, Jody Hill, Kenny Powers, TV Recaps
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by Nat Almirall, Nov 1 2010 // 1:00 PM
At its heart, Eastbound & Down is about the redemption of Kenny Powers. On the surface he’s vulgar, crude, and clearly delusional. But deep down there is kind of a decent person Kenny can drag out when he needs to. And even though he can screw over others without looking back, he still deserves some sympathy—after all, he did used to be Kenny Powers!
Following last week’s first-rate (and my personal favorite of the series so far) episode, Chapter 12 has a lot to live up to…and it does, right in the first few minutes, which bring back Pat (guest star Adam Scott), the agent who screwed Kenny over in last season’s finale. Pat’s finishing up a 12-step program and is on whatever step has you make amends to all the people you’ve wronged (the most egregiously wronged being Pat’s sponsor, whose wife Pat slept with…while his sister watched).
Pat heads down to Mexico to seek out Kenny, the second-most-wronged on the list, who’s in the process of packing up his gear in preparation for his departure. But Pat’s arranged for a Mexican talent scout to stop by one of the Charros games and see if Kenny still has his stuff.
Meanwhile Kenny’s tying up loose ends, which includes severing ties with Vida (Kenny is, after all, a tit man, not an ass man), settling the score with Aaron, and apologizing to the Charros for his grandstanding antics. It’s heavily backhanded and full of rather strange expressions (George Washington is never gonna cut down that beanstalk), but, like the rest of the episode, there’s sweet sincerity to it. You can’t help but smile when Stevie asks Kenny’s permission to marry Maria.
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Posted in: FX · TV · TV Recaps
Tagged: Ben Best, Danny McBride, Eastbound & Down, HBO, Jody Hill, Kenny Powers, TV Recaps
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by Nat Almirall, Oct 25 2010 // 1:00 PM
Is there any show that stays as true to its principles as Eastbound & Down?
Last night we finally met Mr. Powers, Kenny’s dad, and he’s played by Don Johnson as pretty much the same trash-talking vulgarian as his son. I knew EB&D wouldn’t go in for cheap sentimentality when they reunited father and son, but I was in no way prepared for this one.
First off, this is easily the funniest episode of the season, which has been hitting hard all throughout. Johnson finds just the right note for Mr. “Eduardo Sanchez” Powers as a crude Jimmy-Buffet-like layabout, and right from the introductions, you know he and Kenny share blood. Likewise, I don’t remember the last time an episode had so many quotable lines (“She keeps me on time, and I keep her wet in her underpants” is just a sampling), and they flew by as Powers and Powers sling bullshit while everyone just sits back and watches.
Even the initial scene where the two are reunited, the conversation is all one-upmanship: “Yeah, I saved up all the money from playin’ ball and invested wisely in stocks and bonds and fine pieces of arts,” “Well, I store all my valuable stuff in holes around here, and only I know where they are,” “Well I know where this one’s buried,” “Nope, because it’s a false hole—I started diggin’ it when you drove up.” The outright obviousness of each man’s lies and their mutually adolescent maturity levels pay fantastically well off—it’s funny and totally convincing.
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Posted in: HBO · TV · TV Recaps
Tagged: Ben Best, Danny McBride, Eastbound & Down, HBO, Jody Hill, Kenny Powers, TV Recaps
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by Nat Almirall, Oct 5 2010 // 1:00 PM
Thanks to Eastbound for coming up with the most disturbing opening imaginable: Stevie having sex. He’s been on Kenny’s trail and hired a prostitute (one, presumably, among many) to, ha ha, pump her for information.
Kenny’s back to pitching fastballs with his new Mexican team (the Charros). He’s contacted by a mysterious man (whom Kenny believes to be the only rich man in Mexico, as well as the only Asian), and the two discuss buying a Mexican team. I’m guessing that since not much is made of this for the rest of the episode, it’s a setup for some of the subsequent episodes.
Anyway, Kenny returns home to find (in one of the funniest, darkest moments of the show) Stevie. I’m not going to describe all that occurs, but the sheer awkwardness, morbidity, then jarring tenderness of the sequence once again demonstrates why Eastbound & Down is one of the finest shows on television.
Stevie moves in with Kenny, who takes the opportunity to rob him blind and go through his grotesque cell phone photo album (warning: Newcomers to the show may find some of the pictures traumatizing). Stevie also fills Kenny in about the situation back home (“Your brother says I can’t come by and play with the boys when he’s not there anymore”), dealing the blow that after Kenny left, April got back together with Cutler, and the two are now married.
Though shaken, Kenny takes Stevie out for a night on the town (“This is me every night: staring at buttholes and gettin’ my buzz on”). Stevie gets beyond drunk, which was Kenny’s plan, and the next morning Stevie awakes in the back of dingy bandito-esque truck, bond for the States (or at least away from Kenny).
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Posted in: HBO · TV · TV Recaps
Tagged: Ben Best, Danny McBride, Eastbound & Down, HBO, Jody Hill, Kenny Powers, TV Recaps
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