On Friday I reported that Universal had cut a scene from Brüno featuring LaToya Jackson a few hours before the Brüno premiere in LA.  At the time it was unclear whether the scene would make it into the theatrical version.  They’ve since confirmed that it won’t be.

The studio confirmed the scene would be out of the theatrical version of the movie, and said removing it won’t be expensive because the prints have not yet been made or shipped.

Sacha Baron Cohen interviews an unsuspecting LaToya Jackson about a number of topics, including her brother. Among the gags is a joke about the King of Pop’s high-pitched voice, as well as a reference to his trademark white glove, all done in Baron Cohen’s characteristically absurdist tone. [THR]

Oh no, not his voice or his glove!  Too far, you guys. That’s the Ronald Reagan of pop you’re talking about.  Lot of people think you can make fun of dead people, but really, that’s the best time to make fun of them.  For one they can’t chase you and for another you can dress them in silly outfits.  Haha, why you hittin yourself, Billy Mays?

(Transformers 2: You Can’t Even Tell Who’s Fighting)

Five days after opening in the U.S., Transformers 2 has earned $387.2 million dollars worldwide.  Domestically, it earned $201.2 million, becoming the second-highest five-day gross ever behind The Dark Knight ($203.8).  And keep in mind it opened on a Wednesday.

The five-day opening gross of $201.2 million from 4,234 theaters domestically easily eclipsed the $152.4 million earned by “Spider-Man 2,” which previously held the five-day record for a Wednesday launch.  Overseas, the action tentpole opened to an estimated $162 million, the fourth best international opening of all time, after “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” ($216.3 million), “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” ($193 million) and “Spider-Man 3″ ($164.9 million).

Despite negative reviews, more than 90% of those polled as they left theaters said the sequel was as good as, or better than, the first. [Variety]

I find that poll hard to believe, but knowing the audience for this film I’m not sure those polled were capable of understanding the question.  I saw Transformers on Saturday afternoon.  Before the movie started, the groups of kids directly in front of me and behind me were both playing video games (with the sound on) on their PSPs.  Then throughout the movie, of the three white kids sitting in front of me, two were texting the entire movie and one actually answered his phone during.  The two black dudes to my left yelled at the screen the whole time, and on my right, there was a Hispanic woman translating everything into Spanish for her husband.  Everywhere children were crying or yelling or whining about going to the bathroom, and I was convinced that at any second, a kid with a propeller beanie and giant lollypop would run down the aisle smearing everyone’s face with chocolate.  Long story short, I thought the film was pretty terrible, but given the atmosphere I might not have been the best audience for a movie about saving humanity.

Read the rest of this entry »

God willing, someday I will own a car that allows a horse to ride in the front seat. I heard these guys have also worked on a few Sarah Jessica Parker films.

And now, your Daily Circle Jerk links:

• Michael Bay chooses breakfast, a flowchart. |ScreenJunkies|
• Brandon Jacobs (he’s a football player!) has Napoleon Dynamite-like taste in t-shirts. |KSK|
• And now, a video compilation of “the most awesome backyard explosions.”  Know what video you’d never see?  “The least awesome backyard explosions.”  |HolyTaco|
• The Punisher: No Mercy launch trailer.  |G4|
• The flower kid yet again missed his chance to meet with Megan Fox, even after Kodak flew him to New York. At this rate he’ll never get deflowered. |DailyFill|
• Time to play Sci-Fi Author or Crazy Person. |CollegeHumor|
• Sex in the copy room, a video. |Atom|

How best to sum up this week in the comments section?  We laughed, we cried, we came up with 459 imaginary Zac Efron movie titles.  And for that I thank you. I love you, commenters, as much as this guy <=== loves dolls (though probably not as much as he loves crapping in a diaper).

The way COMMENTS OF THE WEEK works is: at any time this week, when you read a comment you think worthy of recognition, YOU nominate it by copy and pasting it in the comments section below.  I pick the winner from among the nominees the following Sunday/Monday. (To help you find it more easily, the nomination thread is always linked in the ABOUT section).

Now for the fun part. We begin in MICHAEL BAY HATES BLACK PEOPLE, SUBTLETY:

SmokeEmIfYouGotEm says: Michael Bay doesn’t just burn crosses. He wraps them in Semtex and firing gel and rigs them with a remote timer.

Read the rest of this entry »

Opening this weekend:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
What’s all this, then?  I haven’t heard anything about it.

My Sister’s Keeper
Oh yeah, this movie is jerking my tears so good.  Haha, seriously though, this looks like an epic sh*tpile.  It’s about a little girl with cancer and littler girl created to provide her with new organs.  And Cameron Diaz.  Gets extra points for putting the line “From the moment we decided to genetically conceive I suppose it was our fault,” in the trailer.  Classic.

The Hurt Locker
Haven’t seen this yet, myself, but I’ve heard almost universally good things about it.  It’s running 96% recommended on RottenTomatoes and sounds like an all-around ass-puckering war flick.  Plus the title makes a great all-purpose euphemism.  “Show us on the doll where daddy touched you, did he put it in your hurt locker?”  Or “Shut up, you little sh*ts or else you’re going in the hurt locker again.  Yeah, yeah, that’s what I thought.”