Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.

So... just wanted to check in and see what your movie plans are for the weekend.

Pretty much everywhere (1500 screens coast-to-coast, anyway), you can finally check out Fox Searchlight’s hysterical SUPER TROOPERS this weekend. Broken Lizard is a group of incredibly talented guys, and they deserve to have a breakout hit with this Sundance discovery from last year. Seems strange that it’s been a full year since John Robie and I saw it. In the time since, Jay Chandrasekhar has been directing episodes of UNDECLARED, and I’ve been excited about other people seeing the film and reacting to it. In fact, I just got a review of it in from our own Steve Dallas the other day:

M.

I saw a great movie tonight. The good people at Chud.com got me into a screener of SUPER TROOPERS, and I can honestly say I haven't laughed this hard in YEARS. I'm not talking about little wimpy polite laughs, or a nice long series of chuckles. I'm talking about HARD laughs. The kind that HURT afterwards. At times, I had to force myself to look away from the screen -- I was laughing so hard, I couldn't breathe, and I was genuinely afraid I was going to black out. This film isn't Hamlet.. but DAMN, it's funny.

The plot isn't much -- Five New Hampshire State Troopers have way too much time on their hands. They spend their time goofing off, heckling motorists, and getting into pissing matches with municipal law enforcement. Their perfect world is threatened when the Governor threatens to shut down their State Trooper post because it's unnecessary. The five then set out to prove their worth. That's a gross simplification, but hey, that's ok. The plot doesn't matter anyway... it's only an excuse for the players to riff on the situation -- Five guys with authority, handguns, and WAY too much time on their hands.

This is really all the guys from Broken Lizard need it's the other guys standing around him that really sell it.

The acting outside of the Lizards is great. Brian Cox does a great Rip Torn impersonation as the Lizards superior officer. Marisa Coughlin holds her own as Ursula, a Lizard love interest, and municipal police officer. These guys even manage to make Lynda Carter look cool in a bit part.

But SUPER TROOPERS isn't a perfect film by a long shot. The Camerawork at times seems amateurish but for the most part, you're too busy laughing to let the flaws get to you.

The movie is saddled with a ridiculous storyline. Thankfully the players pay it little heed. There isn't any real hurry to move the story along you almost want them to get the story over with so they can get back to riffing on the characters. You're so busy laughing, you don't care about the story.

And NO review of this film would be complete without a nod to the soundtrack. It reminded me, for some odd reason, of FERRIS BUELLERS DAY OFF ˆ it just had that feel of being "right". Turns out, it was .38 special ' that's right ' .38 special Classic rock dinosaurs ("Hold on Loosely", "Rockin‚ into the Night", "Caught up in You") who apparently still have a few tricks up their sleeves. Amazing.

AICNers have been raving about this film like lunatics since Sundance. Quotes from Moriarty's and John Robie's reviews even grace the movie's poster. But I would warn you - walk into this film with low expectations. It's a film with indie roots, and it's not going to look like an AMERICAN PIE or ROAD TRIP. It might take you a few minutes to settle into it. But go with it, and let it take you for a ride. Trust me. It's worth it.

-Steve Dallas

Now, there are some specialty titles out there this weekend as well. For example, another Sundance gem has opened today in New York, and I’ll be doing an interview with the director of the film, Doug Pray, during the week next week. I’m speaking, of course, about SCRATCH, the amazing documentary on the turntablists movement in modern music. It’s great stuff, alive and vital, and actually ended up in the top five for the year on my Best Of List for 2001. I originally reviewed it HERE and John Robie’s great review for it can be found HERE. If you don’t want to take our word for it, though, you can read today’s rave in the NEW YORK TIMES, or you can just go visit THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE and see what other quotes have been written in the press. Get your ass out to the theater for this one and experience that Dolby 5.1 surround mix for yourself. It’s awesome.

Finally, there’s the special screening we’re hosting at the Egyptian Theater this coming Sunday, the 17th. I couldn’t be prouder about this series of screenings we’re doing this year, and I think we’ve got the perfect picture to kick things off with. Originally, we weren’t going to reveal the title, mainly because in the past, that’s how studios have wanted it. In this case, though, Castle Rock is delighted to let you know in advance that you’ll be able to see THE SALTON SEA, an exceptional feature debut by DJ Caruso.

CHECK OUT THE TRAILER HERE!!

Tickets can be purchased in advance by visiting the official AMERICAN CINEMATHEQUE site, or on the day of at the theater box-office. I can’t urge you strongly enough to come out and not only see the picture but also meet DJ Caruso and the film’s producer, Frank Darabont. The whole reason we wanted to start doing AICN screenings like this is to help promote smaller movies that are unusual, that might pose marketing challenges for studios. These days, it seems like anything that isn’t a guaranteed blockbuster a la HARRY POTTER just doesn’t register for the studios. They don’t know how to nurture these smaller films. That’s where we can help pick up the slack and do the thing that helps most: show the film to people and let them do all the work via word of mouth.

You can check out my ORIGINAL REVIEW of the film, but I’ll just give you the short version: it’s great. See it for yourself with a minimum of spoilers, and just let it take you for a crazy, bad-ass ride.

Sounds like there’re options for you no matter where you are this weekend. I hope you see some of these films or as many as you can, and I am sure you’ll enjoy them if you do.

See you on Sunday if you’re in LA. Until then...

"Moriarty" out.