Will Ferrell

The go-for-broke yuletide musical Spirited is an overstretched and not particularly funny updating of a seasonal classic, despite the game involvement of a talented cast.

A misguided, aimless, and frequently irritating send-up of tinseltown egotism from the late 1960s until the early 1980s, director and star James Franco’s Zeroville feels like the work of a feverish cinema studies student on death’s door after overdosing on caffeine pills, everclear, Iggy and the Stooges records, and Martin Amis novels.

Nowhere near as inspired, zany, or hilarious as one would expect from its cast and premise, Homes & Watson (which wasn’t screened in advance of its Christmas Day release for reviewing press) has a few light chuckles and an overwhelming and frustrating amount of missed potential.

Lazy Friday News is a weekly round-up of stories from across the spectrum of entertainment, or whatever happens to tickle my funny bone. This week: the first demo from The Beatles has resurfaced after 50 years; Emma Stone may have a sex tape out there somewhere; Judd Apatow’s 22-year-old Simpsons script is finally being made; $299 could earn you a celebrity voicemail message; Chevy Chase is walking away from Community; and expect the next Riddick film to come with a hard-R rating.

New this week on Blu-ray and DVD: Will Ferrell and Tina Fey star in the animated Megamind; Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis take a wild ride together in Due Date; plus a look at Get Low and Total Recall 2070.

New this week at a theatre near you: Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis star in the odd-couple comedy, Due Date; Will Ferrell plays the winningly bad bad-guy in the animated comedy, Megamind; and a look at the political thriller, Fair Game, starring Naomi Watts.

This week, opening at a theatre near you: Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg play mismatched partners in the action-comedy, The Other Guys; the dancers are back again in Step Up 3, which also debuts in 3D; and opening in select theatres, Robert Duvall stars in Get Low as a hermit who wants to attend his own funeral.

Opening in theatres this week, a group of guys throw the wildest bachelor party ever and now they just have to remember what happened and where the groom went in The Hangover. Also out this week, Will Ferrell stars in the action comedy Land of the Lost, and Nia Vardalos stars in the romantic comedy, My Life In Ruins.

Get your chuckle on this week with two spoofy comedies arriving on DVD. On the brighter side there is Will Ferrell‘s retro basketball comedy, Semi-Pro, while Meet the Spartans is the definite lame joke of the week. Other new releases include The Eye, The Good Shepherd, Mama’s Boy, and Control.

Get into a theatre this week and jump between the covers as King Henry VIII must decide between two sisters in The Other Boleyn Girl, or catch up with Penelope and her piggish snout while she tries to break her curse and find true love. Also opening this weekend, City of Men takes us inside a gang war as two friends try to make sense of their lives, and Will Ferrell takes on another sports comedy.