Tag Archives: Matt Walsh

May 21, 2020 · 1:12 pm

The Set of 400: #75 – My Favorite Bathroom Tiger

Today! Because I didn’t know they gave out rings at the Holocaust –

The Hangover (2009)

Directed by Todd Phillips (x3)

Starring Bradley Cooper (x2), Ed Helms (x4), Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Heather Graham (x3), Ken Jeong (x2), Mike Tyson, Rachael Harris (x2), Sasha Barrese, Jeffrey Tambor (x2), Mike Epps, Bryan Callen (x3), Rob Riggle, Cleo King (x2), Matt Walsh (x7), Jernard Burks

So again, as mentioned somewhere earlier, I’m not saying we got married at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas because of The Hangover – that’s completely insane – however, we never looked at their wedding facilities in person, booking thanks to YouTube videos of the gardens and whatnot. This was after we made a trip to Vegas expressly to check out venues. So either this should tell you how lackluster the matrimonial facilities are at the MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, and the Bellagio (among others – we looked at a load of places), or that maybe we were more influenced by the epic search for Doug than we care to admit.

Not that Doug! The other Doug!

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Movies

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 6, 2019 · 2:12 pm

The Set of 400: #194 – My Favorite Pink Elephant

Today! Because your soul is dog shit. Every single fucking thing about you is ugly –

Bad Santa (2003)

Directed by Terry Zwigoff

Starring Billy Bob Thornton (x2), Tony Cox (x2), Lauren Graham (x2), Bernie Mac (x2), John Ritter, Cloris Leachman (x2), Brett Kelly, Ajay Naidu, Alex Borstein, Billy Gardell, Bryan Callen (x2), Tom McGowan, Octavia Spencer (x3), Matt Walsh (x6)

A bit of the shimmering, yuletide luster of Bad Santa has worn off over the years, I’ll admit. While Billy Bob Thornton was always a fair bet to effectively embody a comic asshole prior to this, he made it his stock in trade for some years to come afterward, knocking the novelty off this film ever so much. Bad News Bears, School for Scoundrels, Mr. Woodcock – it would take a bit for Thornton to get back to portraying wise, snide hillbillies again. And I’ll admit – I’ve never seen Bad Santa 2. I know! The original is in the top 200, and I just never got around to the sequel. How the hell does he team back up with Marcus, after what happened in the first movie? That idea alone put me off bothering to watch it. But hey, someday. Maybe by the time you’re reading this, who knows?

Seriously, just how does this happen?

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Movies

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

November 22, 2019 · 2:21 pm

The Set of 400: #204 – My Favorite Free Corn Dogs Promotion

Today! Because there’s a bear loose in the coliseum! There will be no refunds! Your refund will be escaping this deathtrap with your life!

Semi-Pro (2008)

Directed by Kent Alterman

Starring Will Ferrell (x3), Woody Harrelson (x5), Andre Benjamin, Maura Tierney (x2), Will Arnett, Andrew Daly, David Koechner, Rob Corddry (x3), Andy Richter, Matt Walsh (x5), DeRay Davis, Josh Braaten, Jay Phillips, Peter Cornell, Jackie Earle Haley (x3), Tim Meadows (x2), Patti LaBelle, Ian Roberts (x2), Ed Helms (x3), Jerry Minor, Jason Sudeikis, Kristen Wiig (x3)

The most underrated sports comedy in recent memory, Semi-Pro is basically a beat-for-beat basketball-based remake of #213 Slap Shot. I’ll admit that. Instead of the team on the verge of folding because of hometown financial distress, here it’s that the very real ABA is being acquired by the NBA, bringing the top four of its teams into the big league. Trying to fight their way into this select group is Jackie Moon’s Flint Tropics (the only fictional franchise in the movie), which needs to get their attendance number up to even compete, and that requires some gimmicks.

So, okay, is it the 70% knock-off of Slap Shot that bothers people? Because this is still a really funny movie. Sure, it does have the feeling of two different scripts slammed together into one movie – the wacky, Will Ferrell Jackie plot, along with Woody Harrelson’s over-the-hill former NBA player trying to get his old love life sorted out story. And they don’t mesh together terrible well, but neither is particularly bad. Plus it has that fun ’70s setting and a ton of great comedians filling out the cast – highlights including Will Arnett and Andrew Daly’s broadcast team of Lou Redwood and Dick Pepperfield, Matt Walsh’s ref and source of major abuse Father Pat, Jackie Earle Haley’s burnout winner of the halftime shooting contest Dukes, and Kristen Wiig as the bear handler. Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Movies

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

October 24, 2019 · 1:14 pm

The Set of 400: #225 – My Favorite Quad Streaking

Today! Because the Godfather himself has decided to grace us with his presence. This is his damn house, he sleeps twenty feet away –

Old School (2003)

Directed by Todd Phillips (x2)

Starring Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, Jeremy Piven, Leah Remini, Seann William Scott (x4), Ellen Pompeo, Juliette Lewis (x2), Craig Kilborn, Perrey Reeves, Elisha Cuthbert, Artie Lange, Matt Walsh (x4), Sara Tanaka, Sarah Shahi, Bryan Callen, Patrick Cranshaw, Jerod Mixon (x2), Simon Helberg (x3), Eddie Pepitone, Rob Corddry (x2), Andy Dick (x2), Terry O’Quinn (x2), Snoop Dogg, Warren G

Okay, so I was out of college at this point – well, between college would be a better way of framing it – but I was hardly the stable, mature grown-up my Twitter account would currently indicate I’ve evolved into. But I was also never particularly one for big raging parties – it’s pretty hard to throw epic, Animal House style shindigs when you live at home and commute to college – so my continued affinity of these sort of movies probably stems from a vicariously longing for lost times. I mean, I still hung out and drank my face off periodically, but I didn’t feel like I really had the true college experience, pretty much ever.

Sure, I’m fairly well hammered in these pictures (featuring sister-in-law Onion and American hero Mike Walsh), but I’m also fully 30 years old

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Movies

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

June 11, 2019 · 1:25 pm

The Set of 400: #322 – My Favorite Mythological Creature Based Energy Drink

Today! Because if you white, then you Ben Affleck –

Role Models (2008)

Directed by David Wain

Starring Paul Rudd (x3), Seann William Scott (x2), Bobb’e J. Thompson (x2), Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Elizabeth Banks (x2), Jane Lynch (x2), Ken Jeong, Ken Marino, Kerri Kenney, Joe Lo Truglio (x2), Matt Walsh (x3), Jorma Taccone, David Wain (x2), Louis C.K., Keegan-Michael Key, Alexandra Stamler, Nicole Randall Johnson

Another film from what I in my infinite late ’00s hubris referred to as the Golden Age of Comedy (okay, if it’s not ’07 to ’11, when the hell is it? Weigh-in!), Role Models is vulgar hilarity at its finest. It’s a stacked group of world-class comedians raucously trading insults and awkwardness with at-risk youths. A dynamite comedy premise if ever I heard one!

Not as random and esoteric as this group’s The State or Wet Hot American Summer, Wain and company got the best out of Rudd and Scott playing the worst versions of their comedic personas. Okay, Scott’s Wheeler might just be a slightly older Stifler, and Rudd’s Danny is a more realistic WHAS Andy, but combined and bouncing off the terrific line deliveries of Bobb’e J. Thompson and the infinite McLovin-ness of Mintz-Plasse, you end up with a movie with as many laughs as any from this glittering golden age (Seriously, when else? Okay, 1934-38, I’ll grant you, was terrific, but none of those movies – none! – feature a gag like Jane Lynch and that hot dog).

“What does that look like?”

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Movies

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

May 6, 2019 · 1:23 pm

The Set of 400: #348 – My Favorite French Toast

Today! Because I could teach Japanese to a monkey in 46 hours –

Road Trip (2000)

Directed by Todd Phillips

Starring Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott, DJ Qualls, Tom Green, Amy Smart, Paulo Costanzo, Rachel Blanchard, Anthony Rapp, Horatio Sanz, Fred Ward, Andy Dick, Ethan Suplee (x2), Ellen Albertini Dow (x2), Mary Lynn Rajskub, Todd Barry, Matt Walsh (x2)

This stupid load of gross-out jokes and sex gags came along at just the right time to still find itself on this list. Summer 2000 figures smack dab in the middle of my epic baccalaureate run (Keystone Giants shoutout!), and this bullshit nonsense about a bunch of dudes driving from Ithaca to Austin to recover some hastily made sex tape (relateable premise!) features just enough mind relaxing elements so as to not harsh the party atmosphere of ’00 in my life. Sure, it was marketed as a Tom Green flick, even though he doesn’t factor into the main plot at all, and the commercials emphasized the boobs over almost anything, but there is actually a lot of solid comedy to be found here. Even today, as I rapidly approach middle age and have less in common with every character in this film than I ever did before. Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Movies

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

March 26, 2019 · 1:13 pm

The Set of 400: #377 – My Favorite Real Estate Ads

Today! Because I’m slappa da bass, mon!

I Love You, Man (2009)

Directed by John Hamburg

Starring Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, Jaime Pressly, Jane Curtin, J.K. Simmons, Jon Favreau, Andy Samberg, Rob Huebel, Aziz Ansari, Nick Kroll, Jay Chandrasekhar, Joe Lo Truglio, Thomas Lennon, Ping Wu, Matt Walsh, Lou Ferrigno, Melissa Rauch, David Wain

There was a stretch in the late ’00s that I in my infinite Epinions hubris referred to as The Golden Age of Comedy (Epinions.com, gone but not forgotten!). And while in retrospect this may be overselling the half dozen bro-centric chucklefests that were released between ’07 and ’10, some are proving to give the test of time a go. Thus, the eminently quotable I Love You, Man, featuring just a ton of TV comedians supporting the ageless Paul Rudd in his search to find a male friend as an adult. The random smattering of glorified cameos include cast members of SNL (Curtin, Samberg), The State (Lo Truglio, Lennon, Wain), Human Giant (Huebel, Ansari), Broken Lizard (Chandrasekhar), and UCB (Walsh, Kroll), and I’m certainly overlooking some folks who belong in those groups. Rudd and Segel make a terrific combo, finally sharing a lot of screen time in the third of five films they appeared in from ’07 to ’13 (and the only one on this list). Also, Lou Ferrigno! And Rush! The holy trinity! Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under Movies

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,