The reality is this: If Tenacious D is going to go through the trouble of making these viral videos for their much-anticipated new album, and to put Bob Odenkirk and Rudy Sarzo (!!!) in them, we are going to post them immediately and get the hell out of the way. You are either with The D or you are against the world.
That this is also a 100 percent medically valid PSA for the scourge of tinnitus is just a bonus. (RIP Pete Townshend; the D were too late to help.)
Tenacious D's The Pick of Destiny wasn't what most people would describe as a "success," though you'd be hard-pressed to get us to admit that any movie culminating in a musical standoff with a Satanic Dave Grohl is anything less than an artistic triumph. The D have taken that perceived failure to heart, however, and after the expected amount of interpersonal turmoil, are right back training for the upcoming Rize of the Fenix...you know what? Just watch it. Too much talk, not enough Val Kilmer getting shot up in here.
Grace of Monaco, a spec script by Arash Amel, has been purchased by the Stone Angel production firm. The movie won't be a biopic, focusing instead on a six-month period 1962 when Grace Kelly - the Hollywood star turned princess - helped negotiate behind the scenes when Monaco got in a tax-haven scrap with France. That mixture of a personal story with a political one is being compared to The King's Speech by its backers, which is understandable, but perhaps a bit bold considering that movie won Best Picture just last year. While you're at it, why not throw in The Hurt Locker, Slumdog Millionaire, and, oh, No Country For Old Men? Grade: A- [HR]
In August, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks dropped the Beck-produced Mirror Traffic, Malkmus' fifth post-Pavement album. Today, thanks to the folks at Matador Records, Grantland is proud to premiere the new video for "Senator," starring Jack Black as a cattle-prod-wielding, reelection-seeking senator and Office Space's Gary Cole as his Stetson-wearing, guitar-soloing hype man. Directed by Bob's Burgers writer Scott Jacobson, "Senator" also features appearances from UCB's DC Pierson, Conan's Brian Stack, and a llama. Enjoy!
“When it comes to comedy, go big or go home,” intones the voiceover towards the end of this first glimpse at The Big Year, a mid-life crisis buddy picture starring unlikely buddies Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, and Jack Black. Except to judge from the trailer director David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada) has done neither, choosing instead to camp out in the schmaltzy, half-smiling desert between hard-R soft-brow gags (fat man fall down! Old man miss plane!) and fourth-quarter release feel-goodisms (learning, laughing, long-distance phone calls to the eternally patient Rashida Jones). The movie is adapted from a book of the same name that isn’t about budding bromance exactly — it’s about birding. And not Owen Wilson’s usualcatting around either — actual bird-watching, the kind that keeps Jonathan Franzen up at night. We’re guessing 20th Century Fox made the right call that general audiences are more into dudes behaving (semi) badly in an around-the-world adventure than ornithology, but the first impression is decidedly less impressive than, say, an Asian Crested Ibis. We can’t help but peruse the castlist and think that the stellar group of women gathered to roll their eyes and generally support their misbehaving mates — including Jones, the outstanding Rosamund Pike, and the underutilized JoBeth Williams — would have made better travelling companions.
