When was the last time that we were given a really good sketch-comedy film, packed with big names and famous faces each taking just a few minutes to put us in hysterics and then pass the screen to the next wacky cameo? Remember The Kentucky Fried Movie, the 1977 masterpiece of tastelessness that shocked audiences all the way into risque comedy history? What about Monty Python’s The Meaning Of Life? Even Weird Al Yankovic’s brilliantly absurd UHF is considered a classic in its own right these days. So why the significant lack of sketch films in the modern age? They seem like such a perfect vehicle for studios to load with stars and rake in the returns. You’d think more people in Hollywood would be jumping at the chance to revive the genre.

Luckily, there’s a whole slew of names to the sketch-comedy rescue!

Relativity Media has gathered an impressive array of talent for a new sketch movie that’s set to hit production by May. So far, we know that different segments will be directed by Brett Ratner, Peter Farrelly, Bob Odenkirk, Griffin Dunne, and even Zach and Miri Make A Porno actress Elizabeth Banks making her debut behind the camera.

The list of actors signed on for the as-yet-untitled laugh-fest is even more noteworthy. Gerard Butler, Kieran Culkin, Hugh Jackman, Johnny Knoxville, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, Liev Schreiber, Sean William Scott, Tony Shalhoub, Emma Stone, Matt Walsh, Patrick Warburton, Naomi Watts, and Kate Winslet are all expected to make appearances, most of them probably pretty brief.

So in honor of this news, Atomic Popcorn wants to know: What’s your favorite sketch-comedy movie?

Brody's one of the other Dicks.

Kevin Smith, popular director of films from Clerks to Zack & Miri Make A Porno, got himself some dicks for his latest movie. Properly titled A Couple of Dicks, this flick is a comedy about two cops whose adventures include locating a stolen baseball card, rescuing a woman, and dealing with gangsters and their laundered money. Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan are both already locked on top play the two main cops, while Adam Brody (In The Land of Women) is set to be another detective none too pleased working alongside the two. Sean William Scott (Role Models) plays the ‘Shit Bandit’, a thief who’s well known for leaving ‘souvenirs’ at the scene of his crimes.

All tied up within the obvious View Askew Pictures, Marc Platt Productions & Warner Bros Pictures who seems to be attached to every other decent picture out nowadays, A Couple of Dicks will come out in theaters everywhere on February 26th 2010. Filming is already slated to begin at the start of next week.

Sean William Scott and Paul Rudd star in this over the top comedy about two salesman that have to server either 30 days in jail or do community service with kids. It seems like the 30 days in jail may of left them better off.

Role Models looks to be the runner up for Comedy of the Year right behind the outrageous and over the top Tropic Thunder. The movie stars other up and coming stars such as “McLovin” from Superbad fame, along with the ever beautiful Elizabeth Banks.

You can click here to see the trailer.

Role Models comes to a theater near you on November 7th

If you work in any sort of service to the public, your fate is not your own. And our characters in this film, The Promotion, have very little control over their own fate. The film opens with the main character, Doug (Sean William Scott, or “Stifler”, for some of you), seems really slow. And I don’t mean in the “special needs” way, I just mean… well, almost sedated. He works in a grocery store (the fictional Donaldson’s), where everything is quiet, slow, and almost sterile-looking, except for the occasional employee helping himself to store products (picture a 400-pound guy lifting up his shirt to use deodorant from the shelf, and then returning it). And, after an introduction, you get the impression that the environment created by the store has browbeaten Doug to the point of becoming a drone with a Donaldson’s-brand drooling grin on his face. The daily brunt of confrontations Doug has no chance of ever winning have defeated him: rude customers, kids in the parking lot who intimidate everyone, bitchy customer comment cards, and on and on. But Doug finds a light at the end of the tunnel that seems to wake him up – the promise of a new store opening that has an opening for manager. And even Doug’s current boss claims Doug is a shoo-in for it.

That is, until, Doug is given another win-less confrontation: Richard, a seemingly golden employee from a sister store in Canada. And that shoo-in has become a question mark. Doug already had his heart set on a home, which he can’t afford without the promotion. Richard seems like the new shoo-in when he easily schmoozes the higher-ups, steals chat time with a representative from Pepsi, and begins offering advice to co-workers. But then, we see that Richard is at the mercy of the store just as much as Doug is. Richard falls for jokes played on him by Hispanic co-workers, is blamed for misunderstandings, and generally has a gift for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. And so a sort of war starts between the two to get the upper hand for the promotion. But, by war, I mean a sort of slow-moving, petty, immature back and forth limp-wristed slap fest. And it works.

The Promotion is a very dry, dark comedy that moves very thoughtfully and deliberately. And that’s a good thing. I definitely walked in expecting a DUH DUH comedy after associating Scott with Dukes of Hazzard and American Pie, and associating Reilly with Walk Hard and Talladega Nights – and it wasn’t. Ads and reviews suggested the film was a smart, clever, comedy – and it wasn’t. And I liked it.

For the first time I can remember, I just went out of my way to fill out a customer comment card to leave positive feedback. Because, really, most of us fill one out when something royally pisses us off. They’re less comment cards than they are bitch cards. But I figured, after seeing this movie, my karma could stand to have some good vibes sent my way.

Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆