Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted was an unexpectedly charming addition to the summer's kiddie flick franchise pile-up, better and stranger than, honestly, it needed to be in a subgenre that is, Pixar aside, usually just about merchandising potential and providing enough bright moving objects to occupy young attention spans for 80 minutes. People hoping for the same pleasant surprise when escorting offspring to Ice Age: Continental Drift might as well pre-crush those hopes in advance before donning their 3-D glasses — the film, the fourth in the series from Blue Sky Studios, is just a sugary jumble of goofy voices, hyperkinetic action scenes and rote plot elements that rolls forward just enough to get us to the de rigueur pop song that plays over the closing credits.
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The Daily Beast's Marlow Stern reports from Saturday night's hot ticket: "Aziz [Ansari], barely audible over the jabbering crowd and telling jokes skewering everything from the gay hookup app Grindr to the sanctity of marriage, is bombing terribly. He’s visibly annoyed. All of a sudden, Cuba Gooding Jr. bum-rushes the stage out of nowhere, snatches Aziz’s microphone, and yells, 'Everybody, shut the FUCK up! Have some respect for the black men onstage.' Aziz —who is Indian— looks baffled, and when Cuba exits, remarks, 'Y’all would be paying more attention if we were showing Boat Trip up here!' Aziz: 1, Cuba: 0." [Sundance Channel/Daily Beast]
Another summer week draws to a close today -- and not a bit too soon, after five days worth of catsuit drama, Dirty Dancing remake controversy, stoner-on-Santa Claus violence and Breaking Dawn sex talk. Let's take a look at some of our favorite stories from the past few days before kicking the weekend off with a Four Loko-related arrest. Just kidding! I think we all learned our lesson from that troublesome Twilight star.
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What do you get when you combine Jay-Z, Kanye West, pyrotechnics and an Otis Redding sample? Apparently, the new Spike Jonze-directed music video for "Otis," a track off of Jay-Z and Kanye West's collaborative album Watch the Throne inspired by Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness." Click through to take a look at the explosive fun and keep an eye out for a cameo by 30 Minutes or Less star Aziz Ansari.
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After contributing scene-stealing but all-too-brief supporting turns in films like Observe & Report, I Love You, Man, and Funny People ("Raaaaandy!"), Aziz Ansari finally gets a full-on leading role in this week's 30 Minutes or Less as Jesse Eisenberg's straitlaced BFF/partner in crime, Chet. What took Hollywood so long to give Ansari, who's currently between seasons stealing yet more scenes on Parks & Recreation, the screen time he deserves? According to Ansari, he's just been paying his dues.
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In Ruben Fleischer's upcoming comedy 30 Minutes or Less, Jesse Eisenberg plays a pizza delivery man coerced into robbing a bank by two thugs (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson) who strap a bomb to his chest and threaten to detonate him. Comedy ensues, of course, but the real-life 2003 event that loosely inspired the film didn't end so hilariously, as the family of late Pennsylvania pizza man Brian Wells would like to point out.
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When Movieline grabbed a few minutes with star Aziz Ansari at Comic-Con to discuss his upcoming comedy 30 Minutes or Less (more to come), the Parks & Recreation funny man described the two-man comedy he's developing with Funny People director Judd Apatow. Hit the jump to hear more about Spacemen.
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Fox's Ice Age franchise is getting some new voices for its fourth installment, next summer's Ice Age: Continental Drift. Among them: A hip-hop star, an American Idol judge, two comedians, and your future Bourne, who will mingle with the beloved returning heroes of the previous three Ice Age films in the July 2012 sequel. What adventures await in the fourth installment of the popular animated series?
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