Moms Gone Wild

Motherhood is hard, y’all.

All kidding aside, it really is. It must be. It looks it.

But motherhood is also funny. And when moms go rogue and wild, that’s some gold right there.

Or, at the very least, box office money.

So here come Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, and Kathryn Hahn (Amazon’s Transparent), ready to cash in as a trio of loving but fed-up mamas that basically decide to take some Fukitol and have some fun in Bad Moms, which is coming out on July 29. Check out the comedy’s red-band-trailer, and save the date, kids:

Unapologetic Bitch

The things that propel us to success are so often...a mystery.

Not for Michelle Darnell, the anti-heroine CEO that Academy Award-nominated comedy superstar Melissa McCarthy plays with zeal and aplomb in The Boss.

An indelible character that McCarthy developed during her time at The Groundlings, the famous L.A.-based comedy club, Michelle is the wealthiest woman in America, a self-made titan of industry with a penchant for theatrics, whose brand and empire were built on a signature off-putting no-holds-barred approach to business and the art of the deal. She’s Oprah by way of Suze (y’ know...Orman), with a hearty splash of Trump and a soupçon of Paula Deen; large and in charge, and larger than life; and about to learn a big lesson for life – one that won’t come without plenty o’ the funny.

Soon after making a grand entrance you’ve sort of already seen in the trailers (an intro that had me in stitches, because I kept picturing Madonna doing it in real life), Michelle is arrested on an insider-trading charge painstakingly orchestrated by the conniving Renault (Peter Dinklage). Renault is a revenge-seeking old flame she once wronged, who also has re-invented himself, with affectation, as a giant corporate rival (with a personal assistant/hysterical walking visual gag portrayed by tall Timothy Simons, from HBO’s Veep).

Where Renault’s drive comes from indignant heartbreak, though, hers stems from a deep-seated desire to avoid hurt. Michelle has spent the better part of her life and her entire career making herself impervious to abandonment (her childhood was not a happy one; there was a lot of shuttling between the convent that took her in as a young girl and the transient families who didn’t know how to love her). As you can guess, that is why she is so super-rough around the edges.

The hard time she spends – ha! – fending for her life at a Camp Cupcake-type prison, leads her once again to make something of herself. Easier said than done when everyone who only used to put up with her s--- when she was at the helm, because it was convenient for ’em, has forsaken her.

Well, not everyone. Kristen Bell’s Claire, Michelle’s old assistant, is still there – but simply to teach her young daughter, Rachel (Ella Anderson), an important lesson in (reluctant) compassion.

Her straight man in place, Michelle is free and well supported to reenter the scene meaner and hungrier than ever, by taking Claire’s winning recipe for brownies and combining it with the untapped global resources of the Dandelions (standing in for dem male-gazed Girl Scouts). Her impressively repacked Darnell’s Darlings are an empowered money-making machine that teaches girls how to be bad bitches. No useless, ultimately meaningless badges for them, thankyouverymuch.

Directed by McCarthy’s husband, Ben Falcone (Tammy), and co-written by the couple, The Boss is quite the thematically ambitious offering – feminism! celebrity! competition among and within the sexes! – as well as a flawed movie. While a cool showcase of McCarthy’s ability for throwback-y screwball and physical comedy (thanks to an extended bit involving a teeth-withener mouth guard, the actress reaches new Jim Carrey-like highs with this one), a lot of Falcone’s set-ups and the script’s punchlines are so seamless they almost morph into one and another, which delivers an uneasy, yet sustained amusement. It’s almost like a threat: You’re about to laugh, we promise – you are about to laugh.

Laugh we do because the boss of The Boss is deeply committed to her creation. This woman that McCarthy has imagined is fully realized from the get-go. She is dark, but fully capable of it all, including love, and the movie goes out of its way to allow for incredible situations that demonstrate her complexity. I mean it: One moment we’re served a West Side Story-esque street showdown between Darlings and Dandelions, the next we’re boldly taken into Mission: Impossible territory for a hilarious break-in followed by an extravagant katana fight.

Clever as it all is (the Bechdel test is refreshingly passed with flying colors), like for the embattled Michelle Darnell, it all proves just a bit too much.

My Rating ***

Photo: Universal Pictures.

A Changing Bitch

Kristen Bell to NBC’s rescue!

Well, kinda sorta.

The Showtime star (House of Lies) has been cast opposite Ted Danson on Good Place, a new straight-to-series 13-ep comedy that the Peacock has commissioned from Mike Schur, the co-creator of Parks and Recreation. Fret not, though, House of Lies fans: The actress will remain a part of that show.

Phew.

On Good Place, though, Bell will play a woman from New Jersey – look who’s having a moment, America! – who realizes that she pretty much has been sucking as a person all her life. The funny comes from her trying to change by finally learning the difference between good and bad.

Danson will play her reluctant mentor during this journey toward self-betterment.

Sounds earnest enough to work.

Photo: Slate.com.

Wonder What She Knew...

Kristen Bell is going to follow in Melissa McCarthy’s footsteps.

Meaning she is going to play a part in the funny lady’s next movie.

Bell is joining the Tammy star – and Kathy Bates and Peter Dinklage – in Michelle Darnell, the story of a fallen titan of industry (the titular character, created and to be portrayer by McCarthy, natch) who is sent to prison after she gets caught with her hand in the insider-trading jar and who, post-hard time, wants to rebrand herself as America’s latest sweetheart (only to learn that that’s easier said than done).

Bell will take on the role of McCarthy’s mousy former assistant.

Photo: RedCarpet-FashionAwards.com.

Hollywood Hair

Last year, it was Chicago.

And this year, it’s gonna be – say it like you would say Cher’s name – Hair!

Director Adam Shankman is directing a staging of the ’60s Broadway musical at the Hollywood Bowl, with Kristen Bell leading a cast that includes Benjamin Walker, Hunter Parrish, Glee stars Jenna Ushkowitz and Amber Riley, Beth Behrs (TV’s 2 Broke Girls), and Mario.

Hair will open at the Bowl on Aug. 1 and run through Aug. 3.

Photo: Instagram.com/adamshankman.

Forever a Spy Girl

Veronica Mars cusses now.

Yeah, girlfriend is all grown up. And on the big screen.

The Veronica Mars movie arrived in theaters last week, much to the delight of fans of the Kristen Bell-led 2004-2007 Rob Thomas-created UPN CW show.

I, unfortch, had to settle for watching it on my laptop, for my friendly neighborhood Regal Cinema is not an AMC Theater, which evidently got the exclusive right to show the darn thing.

That, I am saddened to say, only added to the dullness of the movie.

Yes, Veronica Mars is dull in feature length. Or, rather, her trademark spunkiness, the thing that set the Neptune, Calif., high school detective apart from her brethren of small-screen heroine-sisters, has been dulled.

By the time that has transpired since we last saw her. By age, too, perhaps. Definitely by a downer of a metaphor to addiction (nine years after leaving Neptune and literally on the eve of becoming a big-time New York City lawyer, Veronica Mars can’t quite quit Neptune’s call, and like a good junkie...as she literally says in the movie...she’s gotta answer that call when her old bad-boy-bf Logan, played by Jason Dohring, rings her up asking for help in beating a murder rap).

Veronica Mars the TV show worked as effective escapist fun on the tube because her adventures often were larger than life. And because it – in spite of its challenges with mass viewership – had a consistent budget that afforded it certain liberties that its Kickstarter-funded movie incarnation lacks. Like a peppier, poppier score to level the silly stakes Veronica Mars the character had to face.

Feel free to go down memory lane with Thomas, Bell & Co., including fan favorites Tina Majorino, Max Greenfrield, and Krysten Ritter, and, of course, Enrico Colantoni, who is back as Papa Mars – but don’t expect the movie to live up to your memories. A long time ago is a long time ago for a reason. And while it was swell to see Ms. Mars make her way back to us, her homecoming is bittersweet.

Which, now that I think about it, was always gonna be given the expectations, and the fact that Thomas decided to go with the worst metaphor on Earth for it.

My Rating **

Photo: Warner Bros.

Veronica Mars’…New Old Song

Eleven more days!

That’s just how long we gotta wait to finally see the Veronica Mars movie.

You should see just how big I’m smiling right now.

So how about we get pumped for this major movie event by listening to a new version of the Dandy Warhols’ “We Used to Be Friends,” as reworked by some dude named Alejandro Escovedo.

Mmm…oody!

Now click here to read about the Kristen Bell-led, Kickstarter-funded blockbuster.

Btw, the movie’s soundtrack is dropping mañana.

Photo: FilmMusicReporter.com.

Back on the Case

This made me :) so hard I had to take a few days week to digest the movie to my heart’s content.

The Kristen Bell-led Veronica Mars movie is opening on…March 14.

Come on now, honey. Come on now, sugar.

Come on now, fun!

Photo: SHOWRENITY.com.

Veronica Mars Is Here

It’s really, really happening: The Veronica Mars movie is on its way.

And it is looking like a lot of fun.

Some footage of the Kristen Bell-starring movie was teased – and then some – at Comic-Con yesterday, so without further ado:



Pretty cool, huh!

Veronica Mars arrives in theaters some time next year.

:)!

A Cute Case of LBS

“Lincoln Bell Shepard is here.”

And just like that, Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard announced the happy arrival of their first daughter yesterday.

“She has mom’s beauty and dad’s obsession with breasts. Hooray!!!”

Could the House of Lies and Parenthood be any more adorable?

Photo: People.com.

Veronica Mars Lives!

Pope news, schmope news: We are headed back to Neptune, Veronica Mars fans!

OMG, how long have we waited to hear those words?

Well, the wait is over.

Evidently, a Kickstarter campaign to fund the long-gestating Veronica Mars movie was launched today, and people have responded som’in’ fierce – to the tune of more than $2 million in half a day!

The goal was to raise $2 million...in 30 days, so the powers that be are way ahead.

Awesome!

“My mind is blown,” said Rob Thomas, who first created the show upon which the movie will be based for The WB late in the oughts. “Today has exceeded the wildest pipe dream I let myself entertain.

“Holy cow. We better make a good movie. We better deliver.”

Well, yeah. As if you weren’t, anyway.

Echoes Veronica Mars herself, Ms. Kristen Bell, “I knew Veronica Mars fans were cool, but I had no idea they could rally with such power. They are unstoppable – just like Veronica. I will have a permanent blush on my face, feeling so lucky to be associated with this entire thing.”

And you know who else is gonna get his association on with the young sleuth’s movie, which will shoot this summer for release during the first quarter of 2014?

This guy.

As soon as I figure out how much my underemployed ass can part with at the moment.

Photo: EW.com.

Indeed, the Time Is Right Now

I know, I know – having celebs tell us what to do is as much fun as getting elephant poop slung our way, but this time, the rich and famous have a point: It has been enough.

Last week’s shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut was a new low in America’s struggle to get its s--- together and come up with a plan for better gun control.

I call it a struggle because, obviously, some people understand that, while guns may not kill people (people kill people), it doesn’t mean guns should be readily available because it’s a right to bear them. We gotta ensure the right people get access to guns.

The latest shooter was a 20-year-old with a reported history of mental problems (which is its own issue, one that needs to be addressed ASAP). That kid needed to be around guns as much as those children and adults he shot needed to have their lives cut short. Not at all!

The Sandy Hook incident was an all-around tragedy and a travesty, and it is enough.

I hope all Americans, even the pro-guns-everwhere folks, realized that in the wake of this sad chapter, and are finally ready to take a look at what needs to be done.

If bearing arms must be a right, then it had better be a regulated one.

That’s all Beyoncé, Jon Hamm, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jason Bateman, Peter Dinklage, Julianne Moore, Amy Poehler, Selena Gomez, Jennifer Aniston, and Chris Rock, among countless others, are demanding.

So demand a plan, too. It is time for that gross NRA mentality to stop its pervasive influence.

Totally XOXO This

She’s been heard, and, now she. Will. Be seen.

Oh, yes, indeed – Kristen Bell, the voice of Gossip Girl on the CW guilty pleasure, reportedly has shot a cameo for the show’s series finale airing next month.

So, maybe, she is the little troublemaker, after all....

Not like it could – or should – have been someone else.

Photo: TVLine.com.

Update: Oh, snap. The Gossip Girl powers that be are said to be planning a look-see into the future of our favorite Upper East Siders in the shows finale.

Circling the Pool

Ooh, Kristen Bell – you naughty.

The actress is going to star in The Lifeguard, the story of an almost-30 New York City reporter who leaves it all behind to go back home, takes back her job as a high school lifeguard, and starts a dangerous dalliance with a 16-year-old.

Mmm...so...not a comedy?

Up next for Bell is a laugher, though: Hit & Run, the one by her bf Dax Shepard.

Photo: NYPost.com.

...And then Girl Learns That Boy Used to Rob Banks

A little while ago, I shared one of the first images that made it onto the Web of Hit & Run, a new comedy by Dax Shepard (the dude had a hand on just about everything on the caper road comedy, on top of his Emmy-worthy gig on TV’s Parenthood).

The reason I was so keen on the comedy was Kristen Bell, who plays a young woman who finds out, while on the road, that her bf used to drive getaway cars.

Now that I have seen the red-band-trailer for the upcoming Aug. 24 release, which also features Bradley Cooper describing what a “c--- in your a---” feels like and a blue-talkin’ Kristin Chenoweth, I am totally sold.

This one looks like a raunchy good time, folks. Mark your calendars now. Get!

Photo: FlicksAndBits.com.

She Will Make It Shine

A long winter will end thanks to Kristen Bell in Frozen, Disney’s animated, musical-ish take on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen.

The actress has signed on to lend her voice to the role of a young girl who sets out to find the Snow Queen who has made it perpetually cold and difficult for her kingdom.

Idina Menzel is doing the pipe work for the evil regal part.

Photo: HawtCelebs.com.

The Couple That Hits Together

That Kristen Bell and that Dax Shepard are just adorable.

When he’s not surprising her with a sloth for her birthday, the guy’s like, writing a movie for him to co-direct and co-star with her.

Now, that’s the sign of true Hollywood love right there.

The Parenthood breakout did just that when he thought up Hit and Run, a caper road comedy that has him playing a former getaway driver (Ryan Gosling, you sure started a trend, dude) who comes out of witness protection to drive his longtime gf (Bell) to L.A. so she can make it to her dream job.

Hilarity and complications arise once his past stars to want to catch up with him, though.

See how it all shakes when Hit and Run arrives in theaters on Aug. 24.

Photo: EW.com.

Tax Day with the Teen Sleuth

Veronica Mars is back, bitches.

Well...ish.

The much-missed Kristen Bell star-making vehicle is set to launch its SOAPnet run with an 11-hour marathon on April 15 beginning at 8 a.m.

From there, the show will move to its regular slot and air Monday through Friday, from 5-7 p.m.

This is the first time that the intrepid detective will be back on the air since the show got the boot in 2007. I am happy.

Photo: DollyMix.tv.

Not Just Any Girl

Kristen Bell can’t help it if men won’t get over her.

The actress and sloth fan is going to play an ex of Adam Brody’s in the film adaptation of the play Some Girls.

Bell’s character is described as a young woman that Brody’s unceremoniously dumped some time ago, leaving her with no lost love for they guy.

Bet she won’t be making things too easy for him, huh.

Not that she should.

Photo: HollywoodReporter.com.