Political correctness is the bane of the artistic community, or so it would seem. It appears as though you can’t do anything in this world without upsetting anyone, and once they’re upset you must do backflips to appease them. Well, I’m here to say: fuck the blind. Just kidding, I’ve got nothing against the blind. But a recent news articledoes have me up in a furor. Aardman Animation, the company behind Wallace and Gromit and the upcoming feature The Pirates! Band of Misfits, are ditching already completed work on a joke about lepers because some people might feel bad. Are you serious?

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr hunkers down and braces for award season. He also prepares for an onslaught of celebrity guest stars in New Year’s Eve, which features a poster that looks like a “Friends available to chat” sidebar on Facebook. In order to watch all the movies for the week, Kevin hires the only babysitter available… Jonah Hill. What could possibly go wrong with that? Fortunately this frees him up to see some of the smaller releases, like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, W.E. and I Melt with You. And he wraps up the week wondering why everyone needs to talk about him.

College kids are very much focused on and engaged with the present. They know the hippest music that came out this month, they’re passionate as hell about whatever social issue was being talked about on the cable news channels this morning. Talk about something new, and a nineteen-year-old’s eyes light up. But talk about their dad’s favorite music or the social issues the world was going through twenty years ago, and they glaze over. So why can you go in any dorm in the country today and still find someone watching John Landis’s 1978 comedy Animal House? This film is an everlasting staple of college life. The Deer Hunter won Best Picture in 1978, but good luck walking into a college party and trying to get anybody to watch that. But if you tell them you’re popping in a copy of Animal House, they’d be totally cool with it. To a college kid 1994 seems like ancient history. Yet, comparatively, the stuff that was made in 1994 feels much more contemporary than stuff from 1978. So why is it that if you asked a college kid what his favorite line from Animal House is he would probably have an answer, but if you asked him what his favorite line from the 1994 college comedy PCU is, he would look back at you with a blank stare (trust me, I manage college-aged employees at my day job, I do these tests)? PCU resembles current comedies much more than Animal House does [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, Ben Solovey explains why he’s personally restoring a 16mm print of Manos: The Hands of Fate, one of the worst movies ever made. Plus, I Melt With You director Mark Pellington talks drugs and demons, and it’s Fat Guy Kevin Carr versus Geek Tyrant editor-in-chief Jim Napier in a Movie News Pop Quiz that will change everything forever and ever. Download This Episode

What happens when four grown men get together for a weekend away from their families and jobs? They turn into drugged-up, sexed-up frat guys! (Naturally?) College buddies Richard (Thomas Jane), Jonathan (Rob Lowe), Ron (Jeremy Piven), and Tim (Christian McKay) come together for a weekend not just away from their lives, but apparently also away from their own minds. As soon as Doctor Jon shows up with his medical bag full of enough pills, powders, and injections to make you the most popular person at an NA meeting, the boys jump down the rabbit hole of excess and never look back. Mark Pellington‘s I Melt With You will make you thankful that most frats (or guys that age) do not have access to expensive toys like cars, boats, cliffside vacation homes, and more drugs than Michael Jackson would even know what to do with (sorry, MJ). I understand escapism and wanting to indulge every so often, but I Melt With You crosses the line from self-destruction into just plain destruction so quickly that it will leave you feeling as if you are reeling from your own all-night bender.

Sundance trainwrecks are of particular interest to me. You would think that a film being accepted into Sundance would somehow guarantee that it would be of of a certain quality – yet, sometimes, that “certain” quality just means “bad.” Or, at least in the case of Mark Pellington‘s I Melt With You, it means divisive and different. At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, a few films became infamous almost immediately, thanks to mass walkouts during screenings - the two most publicized examples were The Son of No One and I Melt With You. Pellington’s film reportedly saw a large number of walkouts during its first press screening at the fest (the number bandied about said to include fifty people, and I can vouch for knowing a number of people who did walk out, though not nearly fifty). I didn’t catch the film at Sundance, but our own music guru Allison Loring did, and said of the film, “it’s like a really long, really fucked up music video, just lots of fast cuts – booze, sex, drugs, booze, craziness, drugs, LOUD MUSIC.” The film centers on four middle-aged buds (Thomas Jane, Jeremy Piven, Christian McKay, and Rob Lowe) who go on a boys’ weekend at Big Sur to blow off some major steam. But there’s a twist. Check out the new red band trailer for I Melt With You after the break. Be ready to prove your age (by way of a very sophisticated drop-down menu).

I remember back in 2008 I had only heard of Entourage in passing. While growing up in Long Island, some of my High School classmates were obsessed with it, and when I got to college my roommate wouldn’t stop talking about it. So in December of 2008 I finally watched the series… I went through the first five seasons in one week, the third season in one day… I was almost immediately (minus that awful pilot) consumed by the show. Vinny’s strive to always provide, Johnny’s constant need for fame without understanding how good he has it compared to most actors in the business, Turtle’s drive to be his own man, E’s desire for a normal life and of course Ari’s need for total control. All these things, despite what some may snark at, served to make something that was more than the glamour-filled exterior that the show sat within.

In the immediate wake of high-school graduation from Generic High-School Hoops McCann, an aspiring cartoon artist, is searching for a subject for his love story. Believing he’ll never find inspiration in Generic he decides to take his best friend up on his offer to spend the summer in Nantucket. On their way to the island Hoops helps save a small-time musician, Cassandra, from some motorcycle thugs and begins a friendship that soon develops into a romance. When his new summer love interest’s home gets threatened by a rich family looking to expand their estate Hoops, along with his newfound nerd compatriots on the island, come up with a plan to save Cassandra’s home and exact revenge on their tormentors.

While probably not as well known as writer/director “Savage” Steve Holland’s other ‘80s teen comedy Better Off Dead I will be bold and state that this follow up is funnier. It makes me laugh harder. Better Off Dead is one of the most imaginative teen comedies ever and holds up extremely well to repeat viewings without ever losing any of its potency, but if I’m going to pick one off my dvd shelf to watch seven times out of ten I’ll grab One Crazy Summer for one simple reason. Better Off Dead does not have Bobcat Goldthwait anywhere in the movie whereas One Crazy Summer has him almost everywhere in the movie, and if he’s in the scene at all that scene will be funny – and I will laugh until I feel like I’m about to throw up. He invokes involuntary bulimia in me.

The past few years have seen some of the most anticipated cinematic pairings finally come to fruition: Aronofsky with Portman, the Coen Brother reuniting with Jeff Bridges, Jeff Bridges reuniting with Young Jeff Bridges. However, all of them stand to be trumped when Jeremy Piven co-stars with Miley Cyrus. We’ve already reported on So Undercover (even though you most likely learned about it while reading your daughter’s texts over her shoulder and wondering what FJD means), but the news of Piven’s involvement is a real wrench in the works that usually pump out pure, clean sarcasm. It’s impossible to know what to think about this. Still, Piven seems to be continuing his family-friendly roles (with this and Spy Kids 4 forthcoming), and his performance here stands to rival the time Paul Giamatti agreed to appear head to toe in blue paint for a children’s film. The movie will also feature Mike O’Malley (a legitimate actor forever in the shadow of the Aggrocrag) and Kelly Osbourne, securing the fact that I am definitely not the target audience for this.

After initially enjoying the quiet dramatic concept of I Melt With You as well as the directorial work of Mark Pellington, it was inevitable that we’d keep a close eye on any news that came out about the project. After all, four college friends reuniting because of a death/murder pact is interesting territory, and Tom Jane, Jeremy Piven, Rob Lowe, and who we’ve heard is playing the fourth friend are all names to keep on the radar. Now here’s another. Sort of. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sasha Grey is in close talks to co-star in the film as a “free spirit who helps one of the men realize that nirvana can only be achieved by death.” I’ll have to assume that the article meant “interracial gang bang” instead of “death.” This will be a second shot at an acting world that doesn’t involve double penetration, but Grey didn’t exactly wow the pants off of me when she starred in The Girlfriend Experience. She had some moments, but overall her acting skills leave a lot to be desired. The production has also gained television’s Zander Eckhouse as Grey’s character’s writer boyfriend, Abhi Sinha from The Social Network, and Arielle Kebbel.

If you got a chance to see Henry Poole is Here, then you know how talented director Mark Pellington is and you know how dangerous he is with a low budget. He’ll get a chance to put those talents on display now that Jeremy Piven and Thomas Jane have both signed on to co-star in his latest film, I Melt With You. According to the director, the film is “about four guys and deals with mortality, aging and friendship. It is very dark and very low budget.” Clearly, it sounds like he’s rebooting Grownups. Both actors will be spending time between successful television shows where they use their mouth and member (respectively) to take care of business in order to shoot what looks disappointingly not like a Modern English biopic. Judging by past work and the first cast announcement, I’ll stop the world and go see this one. [Deadline Ft. Lauderdale]

The director and producer behind The Goods discuss 19th-century American bearded philosophy, the joy of telling jokes at funerals, and talk about the dangers of doing comedy.

Neil is whisked away for an “emergency” surgery in the Netherlands, so Kevin welcomes guest host Emily McFadden. Together, they take a trip to District 9 and galavant with The Time Traveler’s Wife. Kevin and Emily also talk Bandslam and Vanessa Hudgens in pictures.

Paramount Pictures has provided Film School Rejects with a few cool exclusive new posters this morning for their upcoming release The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard. One is of Ving Rhames, the other is of an alligator.

Jeremy Piven, Ed Helms and Ving Rhames prepare themselves to sell used cars in a late-summer comedy from Paramount Pictures.

Universal Studios’ prequel to the underwhelming Joe Carnahan action crime thriller Smokin’ Aces now boasts actress Sofia Vergara, who made the announcement while conducting interviews for her latest film, Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail.

Vince takes Verner’s criticisms from last week to heart, but the director ends up firing Vince on the spot.

Vince gets humiliated on the set of Smokejumpers with a shrinking number of lines and a passive-aggressive director. Eric gets humiliated by Seth Green while trying to close a deal for another client.

Vince’s first day on the set of Smokejumpers starts with a dickish Drama, includes feelings of nervousness, and ends with a realization that Vince’s career has sunk so low that Jason Patric actually carries more weight.

The gang returns from last week’s surprise vacation, and Turtle scores a first class seat next to Jamie Lynn Sigler, star of HBO’s The Sopranos. He makes a mile-high claim to the guys, which no one believes.