Tips and tricks

Michael Myers’ mask is instantly recognizable with its ghostly Halloween fans Star Trek ’s . Advertisement The mask’s “makeover” (or shall we say make- under ) made the finished product look nothing like William Shatner —but after finding out that one of horror’s biggest killers is wearing his mask, the actor himself In a chat with Shatner for his YouTube channel Jakes Takes , Jake Hamilton asked, “Do you remember the first moment someone said, ‘Hey, do you know the Halloween mask is you?’” Shatner replied, “I don’t remember the exact moment but I thought ‘Is that a joke? Are they kidding?’ And then I saw—I don’t think I saw the movie, but I saw the mask probably in the picture and I recognized it as the death mask that they had made for me… Star Trek with clay so that I wouldn’t have to be available for the prosthetics that they would put on my face to look old or evil or whatever it was that they were making me look like.” …

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Whatever your story is for the worst/shortest job you’ve ever had, Zach Galifianakis ’ is probably better. In a recent interview with Off Camera With Sam Jones , the actor revealed how he was hired on a trial basis as an SNL writer in 2000 and how his short-term tenure ended with an allegedly unfunny sketch he wrote for host and musical guest Britney Spears . Oddly, Galifianakis initially thought he’d landed a spot in the cast, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. “I didn’t get it. Advertisement For the Spears episode that aired on May 13, 2000, he wrote a sketch in which Will Ferrell was to be the bodyguard to her bellybutton, which The entire SNL saga—if you can call a two-week employment that—bummed him out, but hey, we can confidently say he came out swinging. Galifianakis popped up in plenty of fare in the early ’00s, ran in the Reno 911 and Adult Swim circles, and eventually shot to fame with 2009’s The Hangover . Lately, he …

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Zach Galifianakis punches sideways. That’s always been the central, most thrilling tension of internet interview sensation Between Two Ferns —that even though we know, on an intellectual level, that every delicately constructed, casually cruel question Galifianakis lobs at his celebrity subjects has been vetted to some degree, the feeling of danger inherent in watching someone refuse to pull punches on their even-more-famous peers persists. Even more than its gamely awkward array of big-name stars, the series acts as a repeated attack on the Hollywood PR apparatus itself, with Galifianakis asking the bluntly rude questions people like to imagine that they’d ask a Bruce Willis or a Brad Pitt, given the opportunity—and if they were as good at writing carefully brutal one-liners as series writer, director, and co-creator Scott Aukerman so frequently is. Advertisement It’s also a magic trick with a potentially limited shelf life, something both Galifianakis and …

Continue Reading about The Between Two Ferns movie is funny, but a little defanged

Scott Aukerman could tell Between Two Ferns was catching on when Natalie Portman asked to spend some time with Zach Galifianakis and his houseplants. The talk-show parody, which began life as a segment in Aukerman and B.J. Porter’s Fox pilot The Right Now! Show , had garnered some attention on the fledgling Funny Or Die website in 2009 Between Two Ferns ’ battery of inappropriate questions and veiled faux-hostilities. Ten years and 18 episodes later—after playing host to a president , picking up a couple of Emmys, and running Brad Pitt , Charlize Theron , and Jerry Seinfeld through its deadpan gauntlet— Between Two Ferns has reached a new evolution: a feature-length spin-off, directed by Aukerman and debuting on Netflix Friday, September 20. How does a webseries with public-access production values, steeped in confrontational interviews and awkward pauses, become a movie? First step: Fill in the spaces around the ferns. Then: Build a water tank in which to …

Continue Reading about Scott Aukerman and Lauren Lapkus made up the Between Two Ferns movie as they went along

Advertisement Indiana Jones does impossible things. With a whip, a fedora, and an impressive grasp of ancient history, he faces down hordes of Nazis and terrifying supernatural forces on a regular basis. That’s part of his appeal, but that’s not all of his appeal, nor is it the reason he has lasted through a film series with considerable diminishing returns. Harrison Ford’s most consistent emotional response in the role is a mixture of unflagging determination and perpetual bewilderment. He’s like a golden retriever who somehow won World War II. The result is a hero with all the benefits narrative fiction can allow but who still remains human. He’ll survive getting shot, stabbed, drowned, and exploded, but because he winces, it’s easy to relate. Uncharted ’ s Nathan Drake, the hero of Naughty Dog’s National Treasure -meets- Rambo adventure series, is not a direct copy of Indiana Jones. He never wears a hat, for one, and the grappling hook he carries …

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I know better than to write the Dodgers’ eulogy now. We’re just where we’ve been before. The series should be over, and if it wasn’t for Cody Bellinger guessing right on a high fastball on Tuesday, it would be. The Braves’ 9-2 win in Game 4 only makes it 3-1, which is exactly where they were against the Dodgers last October. You may have forgotten, because it was such a weird set-up and we’re all trying to erase 2020 from our minds. This time around, the Dodgers would have to win two games on the road instead of three in a neutral venue, which is certainly not beyond them. But this one feels a bit different. The Braves have Max Fried lined up for Game 5, the Dodgers don’t have any idea who will start, and they’ve been burning through their pen already. Advertisement Once again, a starter that manager Dave Roberts just had to use out of the pen came back flaccid for his start the next time out. First it was Max Scherzer in Game 2, who willingly came out of the …

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