There are just some titles you shouldn’t use for your film, because you are really just inviting everyone to heap abuse on you. Just ask Mel Brooks about the reception his 1991 flop Life Stinks got.

It looks like no one ever gave this advice to Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the two people responsible for the laugh-free comedies Meet The Spartans, Epic Movie and Date Movie. Their latest spoof film appears to set its alleged comedic sites on bloated, end-of-the-world Hollywood blockbusters like The Day After Tomorrow. Surely, naming their film simply Disaster Movie pretty much lets you know what kind of film this will be. It’s a sad state of affairs when the poster, which originated over at Cinematical, will probably be the only thing about the film to elicit a chuckle.

Disaster Movie kicks moviegoers in the groin and expects them to laugh on August 29.

Can you walk and chew gum at the same time? Do you think you could do it while trying to stay out from underfoot giant robots?

If so, and you happen to live in the Philadelphia area, Michael Bay is looking for you!

Bay’s production of Transformers 2 is holding an extras cattle call tomorrow, Saturday June 31, at Bullies Bar at the Spectrum between 10am and 3 pm. Here’s the details from Heery Castings’ website-

Needed are union and Non-Union background men and women, ages 18-70, all ethnicities, for scenes set in Philadelphia PA, and Princeton NJ. Shooting will take place in June 2008.

Casting professionals will be seeing:

SAG actors from 10AM- 11AM (please bring your union card for admission)

Non-union men and women from 11AM to 3PM

College age men and women are especially needed. No acting experience necessary; both SAG and non-union talent will be considered. All roles are paid positions. Please bring a snapshot.

Who knows? Maybe this time next month you could be sharing a bagel with Shia LaBoeuf at the craft services table.

Writer/director Kevin Smith premiered an internet-only teaser trailer for his upcoming comedy Zack And Miri Make A Porno last night. If you are worried that it will be like most teasers and trailers and spoil much of the good stuff in the movie, don’t worry. As Smith explains on his blog-

Don’t call it a trailer, ’cause it’s not a trailer; it’s a teaser. There ain’t a frame of footage in this puppy that’s in the actual flick, so feel free to watch it without fear of “spoilers”. This is just a little something to give you a bit of a feel for the flick.

Caution- If you are at work, you might want to slip on some headphones, unless your boss encourages (as oppossed to inspires) foul language in the office.

1. Sex and the City (3,285 Theaters, 148 Minutes, Rated R): Carrie and the girls finally hit the big screen and all I can say is, eh.

Granted, I know that I am not the target for this audience, being that I have never spent more than $50 for a pair of shoes, have never spent more than half my lunch check on alcohol, and, well, have a penis.

But still, the story line–will Carrie marry Mr. Big or not–seem like the plot line for half the episodes of the TV show’s run. Why pay $10 to see that when I can see it at home as part of my basic cable package. Especially when you have to sit in the theater for over two hours.

But, like I said, I am not the target audience. The target audience is paying $19,000 for premiere tickets and then crying when they don’t get in. So there is a devoted fan base. But is it big enough to make a splash at the summer box office? And will any straight man see with out being forced to by his significant other? I guess we’ll see.

2. The Strangers (2,467 Theaters, 90 Minutes, Rated R): The “Rated R” film is a dying breed, quickly being replaced by the wider-audience-demographic friendly PG-13 as the rating studios shoot for. So it is odd that this week’s two major releases are rated R. There is some life left in that rating yet.

The plot of this movie is remarkably similar to the recent Funny Games. A couple is terrorized by a group of home invaders. The invaders force the couple to do heinous things just to survive.

Two movies in the same vein does not a genre make. But now that the straight up torture porn genre has lost a bit of its allure with horror fans, maybe this variation on that theme would be enough to take its place.

But don’t listen to me. I haven’t seen the movie. But Film Buff Online head honcho Rich Drees has. If you want to find out what he thinks of this film, click here.

Funnyman Harvey Korman passed away yesterday afternoon in Los Angeles after suffering complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm four months ago. He was 81.

Korman won four Emmys for his work on the long running Carol Burnett Show. But it was his role as the fiendishly plotting politician Hedley Lamarr in Mel Brooks western spoof Blazing Saddles that is probably best remembered by film fans. Saddled with keeping the running gag about his character’s name’s proximity to actress Hedy Lamarr alive through the film, Korman brought an energy to every joke given to him by the script, delivering laugh after laugh. It’s a shame that he didn’t receive the Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor that Lamarr thought he deserved.

Korman would go on to work with Brooks on several more films including the Hitchcock parody High Anxiety and History Of The World, Part 1.

Korman also had numerous television and animation voice over roles to his credit.

Two thrillers go into release this weekend that come off as a bit smarter than the average genre entry. Neither film relies on excessive gore to get deliver their thrills and they both have some commentary on today’s social and political climate.

The Strangers finds Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler fighting off a trio of masked home invaders in a film that plays on our own feelings of insecurity in a post 9/11 world. You can read our full review here.

Meanwhile, Stuck opens in a limited release that should expand in a few weeks, where both protagonist Stphene Rea and antognist Mena Suvari find themselves trapped in circumstances beyond their control. You can read our review here.

OK, I’ll admit that this is only movie based is the loosest possible terms, but I’m running with it anyway.

One of the best live theater experiences I’ve had in the past several years was seeing Evil Dead: The Musical twice during its 2006-2007 off-Broadway run at the New World Stages. Taking the best of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy and tossing it into a blender with some great tunes, the musical is a frothy milkshake of fun that leaves the stage and those in the first two rows covered in fake blood. If you don’t believe me, take a look at the promo video for the currently running production in Toronto over on the show’s website. Since its premier run in 2004 at the Toronto Just For Laughs Festival, the show has gained legions of fans and has even had a sell out run in Korea!

The folks behind the current Toronto production certainly seem to be having fun. Not only has the show had its run extended into June, but they have recently put out a series of posters spoofing recent, well known Broadway show advertisements.

Enjoy.

Via SlashFilm via Gawker via AdWeek.

Alexander Courage, the composer who wrote one of the most recognizable television theme songs ever for the series Star Trek has passed away in Palisades, California at the age of 88.

His passing on May 15th was reported late yesterday.

A composer whose career spanned radio, television and film, Courage’s eight note brass fanfare that heralded the voyages of the starship Enterprise, were reprised through virtually all television and film iterations of the popular science fiction franchise.

As a composer and orchestrator, Courage worked on numerous films from the 1950s through the 1990s including Pagan Love Story (1950), Shake, Rattle & Rock! (1956), The Left Handed Gun (1958), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Legend (1985), Hook (1991), Basic Instinct (1992), The Mummy (1999) and Hollow Man (2000). While working at MGM, he orchestrated numerous musicals including Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Show Boat (1951), Singin’ In The Rain (1952), Oklahoma (1955), Gigi (1958), Hello Dolly (1969) and Fiddler On The Roof (1971).

Courage received two Academy Award nominations for his his adaptation of scores for 1963′s The Pleasure Seekers and 1967′s Doctor Dolittle.

Via Film Music Society.

Turner Classic Movies will honor the recent passing of director Sydney Pollack on June 2, by preempting its evening schedule to present four of his films.

At 8pm, TCM will present Pollack’s first film, The Slender Thread (1965), with Sidney Poitier and Anne Bancroft. Following that will be two of Pollack’s seven collaborations with Robert Redford- Three Days Of The Condor (1975) at 10 pm and Jeremiah Johnson (1972) at 2 am. Nestled between the two at midnight is Pollack’s comedy Tootsie (1982), in which he also appeared as Dustin Hoffman’s agent.

Stuff like this is one of the reasons why I think movie fans should treasure Turner Classic Movies. Granted, they can’t preempt their programming to do retrospectives every time a Hollywood figure passes. But when they are able to, they make sure that they do it right.

Not content to further foul up the already bad idea of a comedic remake of the classic The Incredible Shrinking Man, Brett Ratner now has two other projects in the works that sound equally bad.

According to today’s Variety, Ratner is currently in negotiations to direct Beverly Hills Cop 4, a return of the 1980s-90s action comedy trilogy that cemented Eddie Murphy’s status as a box office star. Eddie Murphy is already attached to the project, but no writer has as of yet been hired. The studio hopes to have the picture in theaters for summer 2010. Ratner and Murphy are already working together on the Incredible Shrinking Man remake.

Meanwhile AdAge (via Cinematical) drops a mention that Ratner may be involved with an adaptation of the popular video game God Of War.

How much longer do we have to suffer?