Michael Patrick Jann Movies
The bumbling cops of Comedy Central's hit television series take a trip to Miami Beach for a national police convention. After the trip there turns out to be much more difficult than anticipated, the bumbling crew must leap into action when the convention center becomes the target of a biological terrorist attack. Lieutenant Jim Dangle (Thomas Lennon) must keep together his motley and inept crew in order to save everyone from the disaster, and keep peace on the streets of the popular Florida city. The film features the same cast from the popular Comedy Central series of the same name. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lennie Loftin, Danny DeVito, (more)
- 2006
Heather Graham starred in this ABC sitcom as Emily Sanders, a successful young businesswoman engaged in the business of publishing self-help books. In order to keep her friends, her values, and her head on straight, Emily rigidly adhered to her own inner set of "Reasons" why to do certain things, and why not to do certain others (for example, she maintained five reasons why or why not to date a guy). Alas, our heroine's self-imposed guidelines flew out the window when she fell in love with a philandering author, forcing her to do some serious mental retrenching to get herself back on track. Helping Emily get back on her emotional feet were her cynical best female friend Reilly (Nadia Dajani) and her gay best male friend/severest critic Josh (Khary Payton). Created by former TV publicist Carrie Gerlach, Emily's Reasons Why Not was dismissed by several critics as a PG-rated Sex and the City (complete with voiceover narration), with undertones of Ally McBeal, notably in the characterization of Emily's former assistant and bête-noire Glitter Cho (Smith Cho), a bitch-on-wheels whose entrances were accompanied by the musical theme from Jaws (similar to the Wicked Witch of the West music heard whenever Ally McBeal's Lucy Liu stormed into view). After innumerable production-personnel changes, Emily's Reasons Why Not premiered January 9, 2006, as a companion piece to ABC's recently revitalized Jake in Progress. Although six episodes were filmed before the debut date, Emily's Reasons Why Not was cancelled after only one telecast, having been pummeled in the ratings by rival series Two and a Half Men. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heather Graham, Nadia Dajani, (more)
Bob Odenkirk's jail comedy Let's Go to Prison, stars Will Arnett as Nelson Biederman IV, the son of a judge who ends up being sentenced to serve time in Rossmore State Penitentiary. During one of his rare stints out of incarceration, career criminal John Lyshitski (Dax Shepard) learns of the conviction. John holds a grudge against Nelson's father and decides to get his revenge by going back to jail and making Nelson's stay there as horrible as possible. Chi McBride co-stars as a fellow inmate. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dax Shepard, Will Arnett, (more)
- 2003
A group of talented improv players were seen on this Comedy Central weekly, which mercilessly spoofed such reality series as Cops. Heading the Washoe County Sheriff's Department in Reno, NV, was Lt. Jim Dangle (played by Thomas Lennon, who also co-produced), a sexually ambivalent lawman who preferred to show up at a crime scene wearing the shortest of shorts. Dangle's team included the silent but deadly Travis Junior (Robert Ben Garant, another co-producer); the nerdish, heavily medicated Trudy Weigel (Keri Kenney, likewise a member of the production team); flamboyantly streetwise Williams (Niecy Nash); and sexpot Clementine Johnson (Wendi McLendon-Covey). On the off chance that anyone would take the lampoonish hand-held photography and ad-libbed dialogue seriously, the producers served up such nonsensical episodes as the opener, in which the squad went after a pervert who molested department-store mannequins. Assembled by the same gang responsible for the Latino variety-series satire Viva Variety!, Reno 911! debuted July 23, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
So how far would you go to win a beauty pageant? That's the burning question of Drop Dead Gorgeous, in which the citizens of Mount Rose, Minnesota gear up for the year's biggest event, the Sarah Rose Miss Teen Princess America Pageant, in which Becky Leeman (Denise Richards) and Amber Atkins (Kirsten Dunst) are the contestants to beat. Becky's mother Gladys (Kirstie Alley), a former beauty queen herself, has instilled in her daughter a drive to succeed at any cost. And Gladys will do anything to help Becky's chances of success. Amber's mother Annette (Ellen Barkin) is devoted to her daughter but drinks, smokes, and swears like a sailor. And while Amber is ambitious and a skilled beautician (a talent that she uses in her part-time job at the local mortuary), her view of the pageant is pragmatic: while boys can get sports scholarships, this pageant may be her only ticket out of town. However, Amber and the other contestants may have underestimated just how badly Becky wants to win -- or just how good she is with a gun. Drop Dead Gorgeous was directed by Michael Patrick Jann, a founding member of the sketch comedy group The State (who had their own series on MTV), and written by Lorna Williams, a veteran of the beauty pageant circuit who claims that nearly everything in the film is based on an actual incident. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirsten Dunst, Ellen Barkin, (more)
