I get a lot of emails pushing the web based games and e-postcards and whatever else that are used to promote movies. I usually ignore them, but sometimes the movie is so good, or the game is so good (I try to play em all! It’s "work," doncha know) that I like to pass it on to the good and wise readership of CHUD.com.
One of these is the "Are you a Baxter?" quiz, which is promoting the new film The Baxter. I’ve seen the movie, which is written and directed by and starring Michael Showalter, from The State, Wet Hot American Summer and Stella, and I really loved the film. It’s got a classic premise: Every romantic comedy has the guy who the female lead almost ends up with, only to be rescued at the last moment by the male lead. That jilted guy, whose worst crime is often just being a little dull, is a Baxter. Romcoms never follow the Baxter once he’s been dumped – The Baxter does, though.
Warning to Showalter’s fans: this movie is nothing like his other work. It’s funny, but not overwhelmingly. I’ll talk about it more in my review next week, but I will say that The Baxter is a sweet, funny and very old fashioned film. And it has Paul Rudd.
So click over here to take the "Are you a Baxter?" quiz. Look for my interviews with Michael Showalter, David Wain and Michael Ian Black to run here next week. And look for my review of The Baxter.
The Baxter opens in New York on August 26th and Los Angeles on September 2nd.