Trailer Tuesday Bonus: Rain of Madness

Wrap your head around this: Tropic Thunder was the faux movie being made inside the real Tropic Thunder that opened in theaters. Now Tropic Thunder's filmmaker Ben Stiller is making a mockumentary called Rain of Madness about the two Tropic Thunder films -- sort of. I couldn't resist this. On August 27, iTunes began offering an exclusive download of the 30-minute mockumentary Rain of Madness that spoofs Eleanor Coppola's famous documentary about her husband Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now. Rain of Madness feature Tropic Thunder's co-writer Justin Theroux as a Werner Herzog-esque German filmmaker Jan Jurgen who drily delivers such lines as "what is war?" and "It's as unflinchingly as possible a look at the making of a Hollywood nightmare." Steve Coogan, who played the ill-fated director of the faux Tropic Thunder, gets display more of his comic skill here. Most of the cast participates so you get more of Robert Downey, Jr.'s hilariously intense Aussie method actor. In some ways, Rain of Madness is is tighter, more successful spoof than Tropic Thunder. Enjoy the trailer or just download the entire movie for free.

Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?

Morgan Spurlock in search of Osama Bin Laden (The Weinstein Company)

Okay, with this review I will finally be caught up with the nearly dozen films that opened last Friday. Whew! So the last film to catch up with is Morgan Spurlock's Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? (opened April 18 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas). The filmmaker who took on fast food in Super Size Me has now decided that with a baby on the way he has to make the world a safer place. So what better way to start than to try and find the world's most notorious terrorist, Osama Bin Laden. Plus if he can actually catch the guy, the $25 million reward will go a long way to paying for baby Spurlock's education. (You can also listen to our discussion of the film on Film Club of the Air.)

The Grand

Werner Herzog plays it straight in The Grand (Anchor Bay)

In 1980, Werner Herzog appeared in a Les Blank short film called Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, in which he did precisely that. The new film The Grand (opened April 4 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas) should have been called Werner Herzog Steals the Show because that's precisely what he does in this mockumentary about a poker tournament.

A Hard Day’s Night

The Fab Four in Richard Lester's A Hard Day's Night screening February 2 at midnight (UA)

Back in 1963, many people thought the Beatles were just a passing fad. When United Artists suggested that a low budget comedy be made with the Fab Four, they were thinking of just two things: one, United Artists Records would get to release the soundtrack and two, cash in on the Beatles popularity before it faded. What they never considered was that Richard Lester's A Hard Day’s Night, a film shot in seven weeks for less than a half million dollars, would become a genuine classic and would define a hip new style of filmmaking. At the time of its release, critic Andrew Sarris proclaimed it as "the Citizen Kane of juke box musicals." A Hard Day's Night screens Saturday February 2 at midnight at Landmark Theatres' Ken Cinema.

Call it a “mockumentary” or a “rockumentary,” A Hard Day’s Night is really the first and one of the very best fake documentraies. This Is Spinal Tap owes an obvious debt of gratitude to the film. The idea for the film came about when Alun Owen, a Welsh writer the Beatles had suggested because he had grown up like they had in Liverpool, was asked to make a script based on an exaggerated day in the life of the Beatles. Since Owen had no idea what that was like, he was sent to spend a weekend with the lads. When he came back, he had the idea that “they were prisoners of their success. They go from the airport to the hotel to the theater or stadium or concert hall back to the hotel back to the airport. In any city it’s always the same.” Now the film needed a title. John Lennon mentioned that Ringo misused the English language and called an all night recording session “a hard day’s night.” That was all producer Walter Shenson had to hear and that’s how The Beatles' A Hard Day’s Night came to be.

Incident at Loss Ness

Incident at Loch Ness (20th Century Fox)

The infamous Nessie meets the notorious German director Werner Herzog in a documentary about things that are not what they seem, Incident at Loch Ness (playing for one week only at Landmark's Ken Cinema beginning November 19).

Incident at Loch Ness begins with a body floating in the water and then cuts to playful music as a narrator, documentary filmmaker John Bailey, explains that he's making a film about German filmmaker Werner Herzog called Herzog in Wonderland (Wonderland in this case referring to the street where the infamous Hollywood murders took place). Herzog is just beginning production on his own documentary, Enigma at Loch Ness that will explore "the origin and necessity of the monster" and not seek out Nessie herself.

The Independent

Remember Teenage Flag Burners, L.S.D.-Day and The Peace Zombies? How about Brothers Under the Covers, The Harlem Globetrotters Meet the Black Panthers and Nuclear Nun? Well you must have seen A Very Malcolm Xmas, Abra Cadaver, Christ for the Defense or Right to Live, Left to Die? No? Well if you've never heard of these or the 417 other films made by B-movie legend Morty Fineman then you need to check out the enlightening documentary The Independent (playing for one week only at the Ken Cinema beginning May 3).

Earlier this year, and in celebration of 30 years in the industry, Morty Fineman took out a full page ad in Variety imploring acquisition executives to invest in his catalog of 400-plus independent films. Shortly after the ad appeared, Variety ran a story explaining that Morty Fineman didn't exist. The ad, the catalog of films, an accompanying web site and Mr. Fineman himself are all the creation of filmmaker Steven Kessler. Not since Rob Reiner created the pseudo band in This is Spinal Tap and Peter Jackson duped unsuspecting New Zealanders with Forgotten Silver, has a filmmaker pulled off a hoax of such magnitude and with such deadpan panache as Steven Kessler has with The Independent. Kessler's "mockumentary" chronicles the life and times of fictional B-movie icon Morty Fineman. The film serves up a hilarious and loving tribute to filmmaking on the fringes of Hollywood. And as Kessler says in the press material: "part of the fun of marketing The Independent in general release will be treating Morty and his films as if they are real."

Irma Vep

Maggie Cheung stars in Irma Vep (Fox Lorber)

Critic turned filmmaker Olivier Assayas is one of France's hottest new talents. His latest film, Irma Vep, is a fake documentary about the making of a remake of an old French silent serial. The film stars Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung who plays herself.