Screen Junkies already posted a picture of Julianne Moore after going through the HockeyMomulator 9000 to become Sarah Palin. Now get a peak at McCain below, wincing in front of his supporters, looking like a maverick. Fact: mavericks dress in ties and have up-tight posture. That’s what makes a man a maverick, friends. Also, let’s give a hand to hair and make-up. They did some good hair and make-upping here.

Game Change is directed by Jay Roach. Ron Livingston and Woody Harrelson also star. (EW)

Dark Shadows, a gothy new Tim Burton / Johnny Depp love-fest, opens May 11, 2012. Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green and Helena Bonham Carter also star in this 60′s cult TV show turned feature film. Get ready to see vampires, ghosts and ghouls during the scariest time of the year: mid-May. oooOOOooo.

Rivals, starring Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as two guys who I’m sure will not being competing against one another, opens Aug. 10, 2012. It’s the story of two rival political candidates, directed by Jay Roach. I would have hoped they’d be running together on the Frat Party ticket. Ah well.

However, before all that, you and Dwayne Johnson are going on a journey together. Specifically, a Journey 2: The Mysterious Island 3D journey. Michael Caine, Josh Hutcherson and Vanessa Hudgens will be along for your crazy ride come Jan. 27, 2012. It’s sure to be a journey… into pure cinematic genius. (Deadline)

Though he so totally would have made our prediction list if we knew his character existed, Harrelson will play McCain’s senior adviser, Steve Schmidt. Producers should note that if there are any roles available for a guy who dresses like Ted Nugent and yells a lot, he’s really good at those too. (Deadline)

HBO Films is adapting Game Change, the bestseller by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, into a feature film with Roach at the helm. Screenwriter Danny Strong will be screenwritering the screenplay. Strong and Roach made Recount for HBO about the 2000 election, so it makes sense to bring back the Emmy winning creative team for another political made-for-TV movie. I think the title might be a bit premature though. With unemployment still high and wars still going on, I don’t know that the game has been fully “changed.” More like: Game Changed Incrementally But Mostly Positively. (Hollywood Reporter)

In an effort to make frat guys care about voting, Jay Roach is hoping to direct Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis in a political comedy about two candidates in time for the 2012 presidential election. We don’t really know much more besides the news that the pitch went around town today and there’s said to be significant interest in the project. We’ll keep you posted when Jason Bateman joins as a political advisor.

I’d like to see Ferrell and Zach square off as rivals, but I really don’t know who my vote would go to. Then again, Galifianakis is all for legalizing it. Okay, yeah. I definitely know who I’d vote for. (Deadline)

Dinner for Schmucks
PG-13, 104m., 2010
Cast Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Bruce Greenwood, Ron Livingston, Stephanie Szostack, Lucy Punch, David Walliams with Jemaine Clement, and Zach Galifianakis
Directed by Jay Roach
Screenplay by David Guion and Michael Handleman based upon the film “Le Diner de Cons” by Francis Vendor

Dinner For Schmucks invites us to a meal with some of our favorite comedic people, but only servers about half the laughs prepared and sends us home hungry looking for the stale peanut butter jar in the cupboard.

The film is a remake of the popular French comedy “Le Diner de Cons," where a group of rich executives hold a dinner once a month and each brings the most idiotic guest to the table. A concept on its own that could only be funny for a sketch or two on "Saturday Night Live" but not an entire 104 minutes.

Yet this is the challenge for new executive Tim (Paul Rudd at his usual upper middle class leading self) to bring to the table, and boy does he find one in Barry (Steve Carell at his usual hyper-active best), who along with turning every normal conversation into complete disaster, also has a thing for making dead mice into art pieces – something that is funny for five minutes but goes on for far too long.

A major problem with Schmucks is the idiots dinner comes so late into the movie that it almost seems like an afterthought. We spend a good hour following Barry as he makes everything in Tim’s almost perfect life a living hell. As we are introduced to several different characters from Tim’s beautiful girlfriend (Stephanie Szotech), business partners (Ron Livingston and Bruce Greenwood), Swedish millionaire (David Walliams of "Little Britain") and a series of bizarre freakshow characters that are paper thin. 

The freakshows that stick out the most are avant-garde artist Kieran (Jemaine Clement from "Flight of The Concords" in a show stealing performance), psycho ex-girlfriend Darla (Lucy Punch) and douche tax boss Therman (Zach Galifianakis always doing his borderline ‘retard’ best). Only one becomes a guest at the idiots dinner, making many of their scenes funny, but not organic to any part of the actual story.

Director Jay Roach brings his specialty of making the best out of awkward dinner conversation as he tries to recreate his 2000 hit Meet the Parents here, but is bogged too far down in a script hashed together by scribing team David Guion and Michael Handleman, all of which should know how to kick up the heart and story up a notch.

The only one that seems to be break free from the formulaic script is Clement as artist Kieran, who kicks away the banality of these characters with his hilariously grotesque paintings and odd, spiritual love advice. This is the breakthrough performance for Clement just like Russell Brand in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Zach Galifinakis in The Hangover, for every time he comes on screen you wish the movie would follow his comedic adventures instead of this typical bromance.

Dinner for Schmucks has some good laughs to satisfy a summer plate full of failed acts, but it cannot compete with many of the other bromantic comedies being made today. It needs a lot more pepper and spice in its preparation to make it titillate your brain palette.

Grade: C+

There’s a new Dinner For Schmucks trailer that shows a few funny clips we haven’t seen yet. Mostly it highlights Rudd and Carell’s chemistry, but also introduces Lucy Punch, who play Paul Rudd’s spear-wielding stalker. The more I see of this movie, the more I like. Not only do they shine a light on beastiality and puppet sex, but now the filmmaker’s have trained their sights on diluted, pyschotic women. Makes me want to find a dangerous stalker of my very own. If anyone’s looking for me, I’ll be at that abandoned semi-trailer they turned into a strip club.

HAVE A LOOK AT RUDD’S STRANGE AFTER THE JUMP…

The trailer for the Steve Carell/Paul Rudd comedic romp Dinner for Schmucks has hit the Netz. It’s directed by Jay Roach of Meet the Parents/Fockers fame, and Austin Powers in Goldmember infamy. The film tells the story of a rising executive who “succeeds” in finding the perfect guest, an IRS employee, for his boss’s monthly event, a so-called “dinner for idiots,” which offers certain advantages to the exec who shows up with the biggest buffoon.

Dinner for Schmucks also stars Zach Galifianakis as a wannabe mind reader with a nicely groomed beard, and Bruce Greenwood as the boss/host of the degrading dinner party. I enjoy Rudd and Carell’s repoire from 40 Year Old Virgin, but something felt off in this trailer. The taxidermied mouse bit is the most intriguing aspect of the film right now. I’d see it just to get a glimpse of all the famous artwork Carell’s character recreates with dead rodent corpses. The Dali one is gonna be meeeeeessed up.

Check out the trailer below. Dinner for Schmucks gets served up July 23, 2010.

Dinner for Schmucks – Watch more Movie Trailers