comment #1

Rapeface says ...

Steve Carell isn't in the frat pack.

And what about Will Ferrell?

comment #2

Josh Ehrnwald says ...

He's considered one of the "budding members" of the group, now...also check out the ditty he sang last October on SNL, where he named every one of the bunch, and included himself in their ranks.

comment #3

Josh Ehrnwald says ...

Shit...think something might be wrong with the e-mail entry-system. Feh.

comment #4

zoey says ...

I would like to know which of the frat pack is considered the best writers and "contributors" to a production, and which ones are considered the elephant in the room that forces the directors and producers to make changes, perhaps to a film's detriment. Just wondering if anyone has heard any comments on this?

comment #5

Jeffrey Wells says ...

WELLS TO EHRNWALD: Whaddaya mean "still something wrong with the e-mail entry system"? It works fine from this end....you're referring to the posting replies software, right?

comment #6

alex says ...

agreed. will ferrell. no ifs, ands, or buts

comment #7

lesterg says ...

Carell is definately in the pack. Sacha Baron Cohen and Seth Rogan are the next ones to move up...

comment #8

ArchiveGuy says ...

I don't think Jack Black should count as a Frat Pack member. Aside from a brief cameo in "Anchorman", what other FP film has he been in? (I'm not counting "Cable Guy", which is pre-FP, despite having a few usual suspects there).

comment #9

Colin says ...

Well, ArchiveGuy, these both list him:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frat_pack

www.the-frat-pack.com/

So, aside from the ones you noted, we have Envy, and the unaired Heat Vision and Jack, which I have to track down some time (Has anyone seen it).

comment #10

jesse says ...

I think the Frat Pack thing (troupe? That's kind of what it is, unoffcially) is a lot broader than some of you are giving it credit for. Jack Black is most definitely in it: he was also in ENVY with Stiller (not a very good movie, but funnier than most think), and works a lot with Mike White, who I consider one of that crew's big behind-the-scenes guys. Carell is totally in it, too. They don't all have to have be teaming constantly to belong! Here's the round-up:

THE MAIN GUYS:
Ben Stiller
Owen & Luke Wilson
Vince Vaughn
Jack Black
Will Ferrell
Steve Carell

SUPPORT:
Jason Bateman
Seth Rogen
Justin Long
Paul Rudd
Hank Azaria (a big Stiller pal)

BEHIND THE SCENES:
Judd Apatow
Mike White
Adam McKay
Jake Kasdan (maybe a stretch, but he worked on Frat Pack proving ground Freaks & Geeks, and has directed Black and Stiller)

LADIES:
Christine Taylor
Amy Poehler
... OK, they really need to build this area a bit.

I don't really get the logic about Ferrell being "over." By most accounts, Kicking & Screaming and Bewitched were lousy (I didn't really mind either of them; they're both a lot funnier than, say, Meet the Fockers). And they "only" made $50 mil and $60 mil, respectively. But hold on -- aren't those actually pretty decent numbers for movies so supposedly awful?? Obviously they could've/should've been higher, but given the circumstances, Ferrell opened (or helped open) a couple of moves nobody liked to $20-mil-plus numbers.

Also, I heard no one "groan" at his cameo in Wedding Crashers; not all ancedotal evidence counts as tea-leaf-reading. Some people like him and some don't. His Crashers bit was funny.

comment #11

Mike Schaefer says ...

Does anyone think "Talladega Nights" looks funny? The TV spots are painful, despite the admittedly humorous dig at Cruise. I'm guessing it's this summer's "Dukes of Hazzard", in that it will play to the NASCAR crowd, but it better be funnier than it looks right now.

comment #12

Colin says ...

It doesn't look funny at all to me. I'm betting that Ali G provides the only laughs.

comment #13

Chris Molanphy says ...

Saith jesse:
"Also, I heard no one 'groan' at his cameo in Wedding Crashers; not all ancedotal evidence counts as tea-leaf-reading. Some people like him and some don't. His Crashers bit was funny."

Word. Wells has been beating up on this since last year, but he's the only one groaning.

My wife and I actually thought he perked the movie up, right when the flick needed it – the sour part when Owen Wilson went through his long-dark-night-of-the-soul BS, which should have been one-fifth as long. Ferrell's lothario-still-mooching-off-mom character was memorable, funny and original.

Ferrell's made plenty of blah movies, but please, lay off him for that cameo.

comment #14

jesse says ...

Mike and Colin, this will out me as a huge Ferrell fan, but I do think Talladega Nights looks funny. Two things especially from the trailers and commercials:

*The driving-into-the-house shot. This is an old and easy gag, but keeping the wide shot during the car's impact makes all the difference to me -- and says that McKay knows what he's doing as a director.

*The cougar in the car. I'm not even going to explain.

I loved Anchorman; it doesn't look that funny, but I know with McKay and Ferrell steering it, it will be more goofball/surreal than quasi-red-state Dukes o' Hazzard crapola. I was initially disappointed that Ferrell was bothering with a NASCAR concept at all, but I've come around. Bring it on! Plus, it has Amy Adams.

comment #15

Colin says ...

My prediction is that people hate Talladege Nights and talk about Ferrell as being over. Then, Stranger than Fiction comes along, and people talk about how he's redefined himself as an actor. Then, Old School 2 comes out, and he's back to the popularity that he earned coming off of the original, Elf, and Anchorman. Then, he makes some more Bewitched/Kicking & Screaming quality movies and squanders it again.

comment #16

moises says ...

I KNOW EVERYTHING (show reference)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lWgXDOAJ5s

Heat Vision and Jack. The entire pilot, on YouTube.

comment #17

Josh Ehrnwald says ...

::WELLS TO EHRNWALD: Whaddaya mean "still something wrong with the e-mail entry system"? It works fine from this end....you're referring to the posting replies software, right?::

Yeah, it seemed to not be accepting my e-mail entry both times above...I'll give it another go, though.

Amy Poehler and Jason Bateman...good call.

Bateman's long overdue for the attention, and I might even throw Poehler's husband Will Arnett into that mix, too. His character of GOB automatically qualifies him for lifetime Frat Pack membership.

(...And Amy Adams was smokin' in "Psycho Beach Party.")

comment #18

Edward says ...

I go hot and cold with Will Ferrell, I think he has talent, but has mostly wasted it with crappy movies. He tends to play the same SNL characters over and over in his movies. I think "Talladege Nights" looks awful, but then I think NASCAR is boring, so I have no objectivity about this film.

comment #19

Nick says ...

"Talladega Nights" is interesting. It's been using NASCAR for months as an obvious promotional platform, but it, for all practical purposes, looks to be making fun of the race and the drivers. Ferrell has been quoted as saying it's the second installment in their "Mediocre American Man" trilogy (about cocky men who feel more important than they are). In this month's Esquire, John C. Reilly says NASCAR is fine with it as satire - a signifier of its national arrival. I dunno. To lure the raceheads, hey're selling it on the racing action, which has to be where the bigger budget came in. But I'm not necessarily sure that NASCAR fans = Will Ferrell fans. A huge opening weekend is pretty much guaranteed given the blanket advertising, but after that depends on whether NASCAR Nation feels laughed at or laughed with. Me? I think NASCAR is stupid, so I've been on board ever since I heard Ferrell's name was Ricky Bobby.

comment #20

NYCBusybody says ...

A quick Google search brings up countless interviews (including on the movie's main site) that show both Ferrell and John C. Reilly are both substantial NASCAR fans, and that the movie is meant as gentle ribbing towards something they both love.

comment #21

jesse says ...

NYCBusybody, that may well be completely true about Ferrell and Reilly. But even if it weren't, do you think they would be doing press for the movie and talking about how much they loathe NASCAR and want only to take it down a peg?

comment #22

Duck of Death says ...

If anyone thinks the studio execs,who are constantly moving the bar down as to what qualifies as 'low common denominator', would allow a movie to be released that goes hard at red-state attitudes is just smoking crack. This movie is gonna suck and Ferrel is over.

comment #23

Rich S. says ...

Don't underestimate the NASCAR audience. Cars is quietly moving towards passing X-Men 3 into the second slot for the summer.

If Talladega Nights is Anchorman in race cars, it could be really funny. If it's Kicking and Screaming in race cars, it could really suck. But Farrell's fans will come out, at least for the opening.

comment #24

NYCBusybody says ...

Simply for economic and logical reasons, I believe Ferrell and Reilly. Why would they make a movie about an audience they hate, about a subject they hate, and expect it to do any business? Who's the target audience for this, someone like Jeff Wells, or red-state NASCAR audiences? People on this site may have elitist, intolerant hatred for people from red states with "attitudes" that don't mesh with theirs, but would Ferrell really use that attitude to make a movie that really will appeal largely to that audience? If the movie comes off as making fun of those stupid rednecks...those "stupid rednecks" won't go. Ferrell and Reilly are smarter than that.

comment #25

Rich S. says ...

NYCBusybody,

The odd thing, though, is that "stupid rednecks" seem to honestly enjoy being made fun of (see: Blue Collar Comedy Tour, Hee Haw, The Waterboy). With one BIG caveat, though: the person has to be "one of them" or, at least, have some understanding and affection for them. I think that's where Ferrell and Reilly fall. They may rag mercilessly on the group, but they will obviously be doing so with a wink and a smile. No elitism there.

comment #26

NYCBusybody says ...

Well, all groups are open to being made fun of by one of their own; remember George Carlin's joke about how Richard Pryor can use the N-word...because he IS one, etc.

I think rednecks are open and humorous enough to accept even good-natured ribbing with a wink and a smile from Ferrell, as long as it doesn't seem outright hostile. After all, it's a culture that THRIVES on being looked down on. If the Yankee-boy elitist sumbitches ever started to grow interest in them, they'd resent it. So as long as it's just wink and smile, mixed with a bit of actual interest in Nascar (which Ferrell and Reilly both say they've had for years, whether that's true or not), I think it'll do well.

comment #27

NYCBusybody says ...

And, by the way, let's not forget, that Nascar is far and away the second most popular sporting attraction in the country, in both attendance and TV ratings - and that's primarily because the sport is hugely popular in non-red states now (even New York is opening a raceway soon).

That doesn't really pertain here, though, because Ferrell's portraying the main old-school base of the fans, and that's understandable.

comment #28

Frank says ...

I pretty much agree with most of this; however, it's slightly unfair to Stiller. If you look at what he's done, for some reason he always seems to have one year where several moves come out (maybe because of timing), so then it looks like he has years where he does absolutely nothing.

For instance, from november 2000 to novmeber to 2001 he had Meet the Parents, Zoolander and Royal Tennanbaums come out. But then, with exceptin to the stinkbomb that was Duplex, he had nothing come out until 2004 (starring role in 5 movies). However, it appears two or three movies will come out from november 2006 till probly november 2007 (agian a one year span).

It basically seems like he blows a load of movies out every few years, and so obviously then disappears for a while.