Kristen Schaal Movies
- 2009
- R
- Add The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard to QueueAdd The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard to top of Queue
A smooth-talking jack-of-all-trades attempts to save a struggling car dealership from certain bankruptcy in this comedy starring Jeremy Piven, directed by Chappelle's Show creator Neal Brennan, and produced by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's Gary Sanchez Productions. Don Ready (Piven) takes sales seriously; he's always up for a challenge, and he parties as hard as he works. Approached to help an ailing car dealership from falling into the red, Ready recruits a crew of his best men and descends upon the quiet town of Temecula determined to succeed. Before long the dealership is flourishing and Ready's crew are kings of the roost, but what happens when the man who made his mint by hustling cars meets the one woman who isn't charmed by his formidable skills as a salesman. Realizing this may be his one shot at true love, Ready starts working overtime to convince the woman of his dreams that he's the best bargain on the lot. Has the hustler finally found his soul, or is he so locked into his anything-goes lifestyle that there's no looking back? Ving Rhames, Ed Helms, James Brolin, and David Koechner co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeremy Piven, Ving Rhames, (more)
- 2009
- Add Flight of the Conchords: Season 02 to QueueAdd Flight of the Conchords: Season 02 to top of Queue
In their sophomore season, the guitar-playing Kiwis continue their quest to make it big in the Big Apple. Among the highlights: With Murray (Rhys Darby) preoccupied by another band, Bret (Bret McKenzie) and Jemaine (Jemaine Clement) take advantage of his absence and pen a commercial jingle; in the episode A New Cup, an impulse purchase sets off a tempest in a teacup that inspires the Roxanne spoof "You Don't Have to Be a Prostitute"; Dave (Arj Barker{) and other unlikely gangbangers watch Bret's back after he disparages A-list rappers (watch for the 'Chords to bust some rhymes about "Hurt Feelings"); and the band, unable to pay the rent, moves in with Mel (Kristen Schaal) and Doug (David Costabile). Season 2 guest stars include Lucy Lawless, Art Garfunkel, Greg Proops, Jim Gaffigan, Kristen Wiig, and Patton Oswalt. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie, (more)
Based on the popular series of books by Darren Shan, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant tells the story of a small-town teen who inadvertently shatters a 200-year-old truce between warring factions of vampires. Sixteen-year-old Darren (Chris Massoglia) is your typical adolescent; he spends most of his time with his best friend, Steve (Josh Hutcherson), earns decent grades, and generally manages to stay out of trouble. But trouble finds Darren when he and Steve make the acquaintance of a vampire named Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly) while attending a traveling freak show at a local theater. Transformed into a bloodsucker by Crepsley, Darren joins the Cirque Du Freak and quickly ingratiates himself with the unusual cast of characters who populate it, including Madame Truska the Bearded Lady (Salma Hayek) and the traveling sideshow's towering barker (Ken Watanabe). As Darren works to master his newfound powers as a budding member of the supernatural underworld, he becomes a valued pawn between the vampires and their deadlier rivals, the Vampaneze. With tensions between the two sects intensifying, Darren must figure out a means of keeping the coming war from destroying his last vestige of humanity. Patrick Fugit, Orlando Jones, Willem Dafoe, and Jane Krakowski co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John C. Reilly, Josh Hutcherson, (more)
- 2007
- Add Flight of the Conchords: Season 01 to QueueAdd Flight of the Conchords: Season 01 to top of Queue
This rollicking HBO offering chronicled the misadventures of Flight of the Conchords, a two-man "digi-folk" band from New Zealand. It could do nothing less -- starring in the half-hour series was Flight of the Conchords, a genuine two-man digi-folk band from New Zealand consisting of comedians Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, who created the property in concert (no pun intended) with James Bobin. The two protagonists, cleverly named Jemaine and Bret, had come all the way from their mother country to hit it big in New York City. There were only two things keeping them from skyrocketing to stardom: they never seemed to get any decent bookings, and they were bloody awful. Doing rather less than his best to make household names out of Jemaine (the one with the glasses) and Bret (the one with the beard) was their agent-manager Murray (Rhys Darby), whose day job as a cultural aide at the New Zealand Consulate's tourism division gave him plenty of free time -- if not plenty of money -- to arrange such gigs as a retro rock video in which the boys were dressed in ill-fitting cardboard robot suits, and an outdoor concert in Central Park (the wrong Central Park in the wrong city, worse luck). Evidently, Murray was one of only three people in Manhattan who even acknowledged the existence of Flight of the Conchords. The other two were the president -- and only member -- of the band's fan club, an overaged groupie named Mel (Kristen Schaal), who obsessively and lustfully dogged the boys' path, usually chauffeured by her unbelievably unflappable husband; and Dave (Arj Barker), who owned the pawnshop where Jemaine and Bret's instruments were habitually in hock. The series' semi-improvised dialogue and surrealistic storylines were counterpointed by fantasy musical sequences, which gaudily spoofed the music-videos of the past three decades; these vignettes were invariably better than Flight of the Conchords' actual performances, though not by much. Though probably best appreciated by "insiders" in the music business, Flight of the Conchords was broad enough in appeal to tickle the fancy of any comedy fan, while retaining just enough deadpan subtlety to induce quiet chuckles along with the belly laughs. The series debuted June 17, 2007. - Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bret McKenzie, Jemaine Clement, (more)
A meek and lovable milquetoast married to an overbearing, overweight tyrant finds his life turned upside down when he meets the woman of his dreams in this romantic comedy starring Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Eddie Griffin. His entire life, Norbit (Murphy) has been picked on and put down, and after being bullied into marrying the most obnoxious woman in town (also Murphy) it appears as if that's the way things will remain until the day he dies. Upon meeting the one woman who seems to accept him for who he is, Norbit is instilled with a newfound sense of hope for the future. In order to find true happiness, however, Norbit will first have to gather the courage to stand up to his monstrous spouse once and for all. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eddie Murphy
Filmmaker James Mangold follows his Oscar-winning drama Girl, Interrupted (1999) with this whimsical fantasy. Meg Ryan stars as Kate McKay, a modern female executive in New York City whose drive to succeed in the cutthroat corporate world has left little time for romance. When her genius ex-boyfriend Stuart (Liev Schreiber) opens a portal in time, the experiment transports Leopold (Hugh Jackman) from 1867 to the present day. A charming bachelor and the royal "Third Duke of Albany" in his own time, Leopold is fascinated by the 21st century. As the courtly Leopold and the decidedly liberated Kate tour the town, a mutual attraction develops into something deeper, a relationship that's threatened by Leopold's temporary chronological status. Kate & Leopold (2001) was originally developed by co-screenwriter Steve Rogers as a project for star/producer Sandra Bullock, who had a hit with his film Hope Floats (1998). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Meg Ryan, Hugh Jackman, (more)
