November 2006 Archives
In the 3rd installment of the Ginger Crutches series we find bedraggled coping american responding to an unseen helpful friend's query "How are you doing with things?" Lost job, spiritual crises, struggling heart, a missing pet? He is dealing with whatever with the tools he has been given in this society.
CLARITY UPDATE: This series is all fictional or composite character based.
The wonderful Panic Corporation provided me with the very enjoyable experience of seeing the Borat movie with a whole bunch of friends for FREE.
This is not about the very important cultural and sociological relevance of the Borat film.
This is about the previews.
There were five previews shown before Borat.
"Let's Go To Prison"
"Balls of Fury"
"The Fountain"
"Reno 911: Miami">
"Night at the Museum">
4 comedies. 1 sci-fi drama cool movie.
But, wait, if you inspect all 4 of those comedies something strange and eerie comes to light. THEY WERE ALL WRITTEN BY THE SAME PEOPLE!!! Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon penned all 4 comedic movies that were previewed before the Borat movie. All 4 comedies are coming out soon. It seems very likely that no writer(s) have ever had 4 movies coming out at the same time.
So for those 10 minutes that those 4 previews lasted it was like watching an entire tv channel of Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant programming.
Who are Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant you might be asking. They were both members of the very awesome comedy troupe The State. They are both on Reno 911.
Lennon: 
Garant: 
The big question is why do Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant have 4 movies coming out at the same time? It appears that Lennon and Garant have become the new no. 1 source in Hollywood for cranking out TERRIBLE comedies. In the last few years they have written "Taxi" the chilling Jimmy Fallon and Queen Latifah vehicle, "The Pacifier" the heart warming Vin Diesel with children film, and "Herbie Fully Loaded" the high octane thrill o rama starring some redhead and Michael Keaton. Now, I haven't really seen any of these movies (except about 20 minutes of The Pacifier), but they seem like really bad excuses for entertainment. Maybe they were good scripts that were executed poorly, but now we have been presented with 4 more sweet ass movies, huh?
I don't want to give up on these guys too soon. "Let's Go To Prison" is actually directed by the always awesome Bob Odenkirk, and stars the criminally underrated Will Arnett (Gob from Arrested Development). "Reno 911: Miami" is the big project for Lennon and Garant, is based on the often funny Reno 911, features all members of The State, has a lot of other funny people in it. "Balls of Fury" is actually directed by Ben Garant, so we can't blame anyone else if that one is a stinker. "Night at the Museum" looks sorta cool because it takes place in a museum and has Steve Coogan and Owen Wilson in it, but the main character is played by Ben Stiller and it is directed by Shawn Levy (The Pink Panther, Cheaper by the Dozen). So there you go.
I respect that Lennon and Garant are making their fortune by turning out a lot of sweet Hollywood trash, but for some of these clunkers shouldn't they be working under some killer pseudonyms Mike Merrill and Steve Schroeder?