Years ago director Seth Gordon made a big impression with his critical doc darling, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. The film made our own best 30 films of the decade and you’d be on a fool’s mission to find someone who doesn’t enjoy that unique story. To no surprise, the heavily pirated documentary kicked down a lot of doors for Gordon. Just recently he’s been attached to direct the WarGames remake, so it’s obvious he’s come quite a long way in a quick amount of time. His latest comedy, Horrible Bosses, also represents how rapid the filmmaker is rising. The greatest surprise of the film is that, tonally, the film isn’t all that mean. The story’s about three guys plotting to murder their respective bosses, but even with that dark concept and some bastardly antagonists it never goes to the extreme. Gordon flirts with some darkness and satire, but it stays relatively safe. Here’s what director Seth Gordon had to say about the doors The King of Kong opened up for him, going with a lighter version of Horrible Bosses, and the nature of comedic filmmaking:

Horrible Bosses features some of the most inspired casting you’ll find in any big studio comedy this year, with three actors playing against type with exceptional success. Unfortunately, those three performers — Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell and Jennifer Aniston — are the supporting acts here, the titular vile bosses of three of the most boring white guys imaginable. Sure, they’re played by Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day, funny men all, but the stars lack the charisma, the comic energy and the overall appeal of the aforementioned A-listers, who go to some truly whacked-out places. It’s a fundamental miscalculation that filmmaker Seth Gordon can’t overcome.

This red-band trailer probably gives away too much. Unlike most red-band trailers, though, it doesn’t giveaway all the best gags. I’ve seen Horrible Bosses, and it’s awesome. What the fellow ensemble summer comedy The Hangover II got wrong, Seth Gordon’s (director behind the incredible The King of King: A Fistful of Quarters) comedy got right. The leads aren’t annoying morons, the jokes feel fresh, and there’s at least some sense of reality.

Have you ever had a horrible boss? Got a good story about that? If you tell us your horrible boss story, and we like it, you can win a pass to an early VIP screening of New Line Cinema’s new flick Horrible Bosses in Columbus, Ohio, hosted by FSR’s resident Fat Guy Kevin Carr. (Please note… former employees of Donald Trump are excluded from this contest because that’d be just too easy. You too, Rob Hunter.) Here’s how you can get in to see Horrible Bosses before it opens and enjoy a VIP reception before the film. Search your brain for your best (and hopefully true) story about a horrible boss you’ve had in the past. Recount your story in the comments section of this post. Please remember to change the names of people and businesses to protect the guilty. Or not. Either way.

Seth Gordon’s new comedy Horrible Bosses has a trailer. If you don’t know who Seth Gordon is, he’s not only the guy who directed the amazing Donkey Kong documentary King of Kong, but he’s also directed episodes of pretty much every amazingly funny comedy that’s on TV right now. So, I imagine his movie is going to be pretty great, and while this trailer isn’t exactly revolutionary, it does its job of making this look like a barrel of laughs. Horrible Bosses tells the story of three guys, played by Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis, who have three exceptionally evil bosses, played by Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, and Kevin Spacey, and who get together and decide to have them killed. Of course, they’re just a couple of working class dweebs, what do they know about killing people? Problem solved; just hire Jamie Foxx as your “murder consultant” Motherfucker Jones. Doesn’t sound like enough for you to check out this movie already? Just wait; there’s more. Aniston eats hotdogs, Popsicles, and bananas while wearing lingerie, Day seems to be just about as stupid as he is on Always Sunny, Colin Farrell is looking super creepy with a balding comb over and a finely manicured beard, Modern Family’s Julie Bowen is somewhere in this movie being pretty and funny, and when they guys get arrested for speeding who is their arresting officer but Bunk from The Wire. Plus there’s car crashes, discrimination against the handicapped, comedic cocaine use, and white [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]

I can’t speak for the rest of the world, but the biggest thing I use the instant streaming feature on Netflix for is to catch up on TV episodes from days past. In a mere two hours I can knock out three episodes of an hour long drama, and six of a half hour sitcom. It’s very enjoyable to watch these programs with ZERO advertising, even the kind that is seen through services like Hulu. This year alone, Netflix signed a major deal with CBS to begin streaming classic, and is currently airing programs on the service, but today news came out of what is quite possibly their boldest move in their TV game. According to Deadline, the service is going to begin airing 100% original content. And I don’t mean airing programs twenty four hours after they air like they do with all the Starz programming, I mean brand new programing will air exclusively on Netflix and only Netflix. The first series that will be featured is reportedly the upcoming David Fincher and Kevin Spacey produced remake of the British television series House of Cards.

The year was 1998 and Michael Bay’s Armageddon was in the middle of sweeping the box office and Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan was just hitting it. But in a cluster of giant blockbusters sat a film from acclaimed music video director F. Gary Gray. It was his third feature and starred Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey. Yes, I’m talking about that amazing action/thriller known as The Negotiator. Danny Roman is the Chicago Police Department’s best hostage negotiator, and seems to be on an unstoppable reign of high profile cases. But things do a complete one eighty when his partner Nate is found dead in his car. Danny is now the prime suspect in a case that goes all the way to the top. His only recourse is to take over the CPD’s internal affairs headquarters in an attempt to unravel the mystery of his frame job. His only demand? A fellow hostage negotiator named Chris Sabian.

With as many romantic comedies featuring speeches about stealing the moon for a loved one (and at least one where the main character, as God, actually does pull that big rock closer to the Earth), Thad Roberts had a pretty great idea. He’s the former NASA scientist who worked up a scheme to sell pieces of the moon. Apparently if you walk down the street with your left pant leg rolled, it means your holding. According to the LA Times, Sony has purchased the rights to the forthcoming novel from Ben Mezrich (author of “The Accidental Billionaires”), and he’ll be reteaming with Scott Rudin, Michael De Luca, Dana Brunetti (all producers of The Social Network) and Kevin Spacey (who worked with Mezrich previously on 21). The story here is similar to the founding of facebook. Huge ambition, a crazy scheme vaulted into reality by young love. However, the success is a bit less questionable considering Roberts failed and failed hard. Sex on the Moon sounds like a typical heist film with the stakes raised just enough to steal away an entire planet. It’s unclear where the sex comes in (maybe they place some moon rocks under the bed?), but with the right director and cast, this could be another winner.

Barry Pepper seems to be having one of the best years of his career. He’s got two films in theaters right now: the Coen brothers’ True Grit and the Jack Abramoff rise and fall story, Casino Jack. One being a near-masterpiece, guess which one, and the other being a fun satire. In True Grit, he plays a logical and almost likable lead antagonist, but as Michael Scanlon in George Hickenlooper‘s final film, he couldn’t be further from playing logical. Barry Pepper seems to be very comfortable at playing slimy. He did the perfect type of sympathetic slimy in the 25th Hour, and in Casino Jack, he does the same. And to top off having two films in the cineplex at one time, he also recently got to work with Terrence Malick… ever heard of him? Well, Pepper couldn’t talk at great length about that untitled project, but he did open up about the experience of working with Malick. As always, Malick is described as the type he always is labeled as: the genius kind. Pepper and I started off discussing True Grit, even though we were really on the phone to talk about Casino Jack. But Pepper seemed more than happy to talk about his experience with the Coens and his reaction to the film.

Today, the fine folks at ATO Pictures have blessed you all with the chances of winning a fairly cool prize pack. So stop thinking about what you’re getting your fat little hands on for Christmas, and start thinking hard about how you’re going to win this. Really, shouldn’t be that difficult. This giveaway includes three DVDs and a poster for Casino Jack signed by the cast. And thankfully, those DVDs are of Spacey’s early, great work. That’s right, none of his early 2000s fluff. So apologies in advance, Pay It Forward and K-PAX fans.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr enters the grid (which is what he likes to call his local IMAX theater) to try and find an old and hairy Jeff Bridges amidst a bunch of young-looking sexy-time people in tight body suits. Afterwards, he has a pic-i-nic at Jellystone Park and faces a bear attack. It’s a good thing he had his hunting rifle with him… but he still wonders why that grizzly he shot was wearing a hat and tie. Finally, he hands out some grades on two limited release award flicks that really don’t jazz him as much as a big, dumb IMAX 3D movie.

There’s a scene (video below) midway through the Doris Day-Rock Hudson romantic comedy Pillow Talk (1959) that has always fascinated me. Through the benefit of hindsight, it’s impossible to watch the scene as it was viewed contemporaneous to its release.

Bob Wilton is having a mid-life crisis of the marital strife brand so he sets out to prove himself as a journalist by leaving his small desk at the local newspaper and heading for Iraq. There, he runs into Lyn Cassady a man claiming to have been trained as a psychic spy by the U.S. military.

George Clooney returns to the Middle East but this time he’s not looking for Saddam’s gold or getting wrapped up in a global conspiracy. No, this time he’s killing goats with his mind (and sexy mustache no doubt).

Kevin Carr reviews this week’s new movies: Brüno, I Love You Beth Cooper and Moon.

In this edition of ‘Neil’s Lazy Sundance Capsule Reviews,’ we take a look at a Hollywood insider comedy, a neo-noir detective story and a wild ride through the mind of Britain’s most famous (and dangerous) prisoners of all-time…

The fine gentlemen over at Bloody Disgusting have published a gallery of first look photos of Sam Rockwell in the very under-the-radar sci-fi flick Moon, from freshman director Duncan Jones.

A recent interview with former Lex Luthor Kevin Spacey on the set of the HBO series Recount made an interesting, but questionable mention of his involvement in another Superman movie.

George Clooney is currently in theaters with Burn After Reading, a comedy that pokes fun at greed, stupidity, and the CIA. One of his upcoming projects, The Men Who Stare at Goats, looks to do the same thing but with the benefit of being based on a supposedly true story.

21 galvanizes you from frame one and never lets go. It’s the most entertaining movie about Sin City in recent memory; right up there with Ocean’s Thirteen.