The Screengrab : how to lose friends and alienante people

DVD Digest for February 17, 2009

Paul Clark — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:00:00 GMT

This week, if you’re lucky enough to be getting some stimulus money, read this column to figure how to use some of it to help build up your collection of movies on DVD and Blu-Ray. And if you’re not getting any money, you can at least see what you’ll be missing.

This week’s highest-profile recent release coming to DVD is the teen sensation High School Musical 3, available in a new “Extended Edition” from Disney on standard-definition and Blu-Ray. Other big-ticket releases this week include Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies (Warner, also Blu-Ray), Angelina Jolie in Clint Eastwood’s Changeling (Universal, also Blu-Ray), and the horror double feature Quarantine (Sony, also Blu-Ray) and The Midnight Meat Train (Lionsgate, also Blu-Ray). Also this week: Sam Rockwell in Choke (Fox); Greg Kinnear in Flash of Genius (Universal); Bill Maher pulling a Morgan Spurlock in Religulous (Lionsgate); Simon Pegg in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (MGM); and Jiri Menzel’s I Served the King of England (Sony).

In classics, this week brings Warner’s “The Paul Newman Series”, which includes five first-time DVD appearances of five Newman films- his directorial debut Rachel, Rachel, plus The Silver Chalice, The Helen Morgan Story, The Outrage, and When Time Ran Out…. Also this week, Criterion is releasing David Lean’s Hobson’s Choice, and single-film re-pressings of two more John Cassavetes films, Faces and Shadows. And let’s not forget the High School Musical Remix Edition (Disney), for those kids who can’t get enough High School Musical.

This week’s TV on DVD releases include a pair of basic cable rerun favorites, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Eighth Year (Universal), and Murder, She Wrote Season 9 (Universal).

Finally, this week’s Blu-Ray only releases include a trio from Sony of Oscar favorites: the Best Picture winning Gandhi and Kramer vs. Kramer, and a package deal that includes both Capote and In Cold Blood. Also this week, just in time for Lent- The Passion of the Christ Definitive Edition (Fox).

When British Comics Attack: Simon Pegg vs. Ricky Gervais

Scott Von Doviak — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:00:00 GMT

One item I didn’t mention in our box office roundup earlier today: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People starring Simon Pegg was a resounding flop, barely finishing in the Top 20. A couple of weeks ago it was Ricky Gervais in Ghost Town opening to disappointing results here in the colonies. America, why do you hate British funnymen? And more to the point, why do they hate each other?

OK, hate is overstating the case dramatically, but Pegg and Gervais did recently participate in…not so much a war of words as a skirmish. Via Defamer comes a piece from the U.K. Telegraph with the eye-catching headline “Simon Pegg brands Ricky Gervais a 'fat idiot'.” That’s not an exact quote – Pegg actually said of Gervais, “He said there'd been no good British films since 1950. What an idiot. If you go to LA, you can get sucked into that. I've seen people go there and suddenly become rake-thin because there is a slight pressure on you to be thin. I've seen a lot of fat people there.” When pressed, Pegg conceded that, yes, Gervais counts as one of the fat people.

Gervais responded briefly on his blog. “This, from the Daily Mail Online, is not so flattering... ‘Simon Pegg calls Gervais a fat idiot.’ Loads of journalists called for a response. This is what I gave them. ‘Simon is not only one of my favourite British comic actors but he is also quite astute, as according to my last medical, I am approximately 22lb over my ideal weight.’”

What choice did Pegg have at this point except to respond to the response via his Myspace page? “So apparently I have ‘slammed’ Ricky Gervais in the press as being a ‘fat idiot’. Oh dear. Ricky's comments about the British film industry were definitely a little unfair but whatever I said on Heart FM was intended in the spirit of mutual teasing that myself Ricky have always indulged in. I am not in a position to genuinely accuse anybody of being fat, or for that matter of being an idiot. Whatever public feud is subsequently encouraged/fueled/blown out of proportion as a result of this, it is entirely the doing of those gleefully stood around clapping their hands and shouting ‘fight’. It is true however that we used to be lovers.”

That’s not really an image I needed in my head, but at least the matter appears to be settled. This is no time for funny Brits to be feuding. In fact, I think the foundation has been laid for a hilarious buddy movie.

Related:
Trailer Review: "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People"
Truth or Dare with Ricky Gervais

Trailer Review: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

Paul Clark — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Continuing Memoir Week here at Trailer Review… today, it’s Simon Pegg’s turn. Here Pegg stars as a British journalist who finally gets his shot at the big time with a top-flight entertainment rag. I’m tempted to say that the story parallels my own experiences here at Screengrab, except that I don’t get to interact with the likes of Kirsten Dunst and Megan Fox on a daily basis. Besides, I’d like to think I don’t make a jackass of myself the way Pegg does here, invariably behaving in ways that are more befitting of a frat house than the offices of a widely-read periodical. Sadly, this looks like pretty dire stuff, which is unfortunate given how much I usually like Pegg. As with Ricky Gervais last week, perhaps Pegg’s screen persona is so specific that he doesn’t quite mesh with many filmmakers’ visions, and it takes a regular collaborator (in Pegg’s case, Edgar Wright) to use him properly. Or maybe, just maybe, the material just kind of sucks.