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Every Thing You Always Wanted to Know About Ricky Gervais But Were Afraid to Google

Graham — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 20:07:13 +0000

So Ricky Gervais Week is over, until next year right? Well no, because I don’t think a week goes past here in the City of Films where we don’t post some bit of news from the world of Ricky, so rejoice! Please visit Ricky’s honest and hilarious blog daily for updates otherwise. Below I have compiled most if not all the top stories we have on Gervais, it might take up most of your afternoon if you’re not careful:

Every Thing You Always Wanted to Know About Ricky Gervais But Were Afraid to Google

Graham — Sun, 16 May 2010 19:00:27 +0000

RICKY GERVAIS WEEK is over, gutted. I hope you had fun catching up with Ricky Gervais and the gang as much as I have. Please visit Ricky’s honest and hilarious blog daily for updates. The City of Films has dedicated a lot of time to Gervais, and it never gets boring. There are many resources out there to get your Ricky fix, may I recommend a few? The Office, Extras, The Ricky Gervais Show (podcast and HBO series), Ghost Town and Cemetery Junction. Need more? He was in an episode of Alias you could watch.

Ricky Gervais is an idol of mine, someone I look up to and who inspires me. He is one of the smartest people I have come across in a long time – I would love to one day just have a chat with him about life. The man has an extensive knowledge of the world whose ideas I find often reflect my own, it’s a great feeling. As a fan I can only do my best to share with you the reasons that you too should appreciate the work of Ricky Gervais, his sense of humor and honesty above are often hard to come by with “celebrities”. He makes it look easy.

He created, wrote, directed and starred in The Office, Extras. Guest starred in Alias and 24. Wrote and starred in The Simpson. Lent his voice to GTA 4, SpongeBob and popped up in both Night at the Museum films and Stardust with Robert De Niro (his hero). He starred in Ghost Town, made his directorial debut with The Invention of lying. He finished his work on his collaboration with long time friend Stephen Merchant on their film Cemetery Junction – these just off the top of my head. He makes his rounds doesn’t he? Enjoy…

In The Beginning…Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais’ 80s Band, Seona Dancing

XFM & The Podfather: Ricky Gervais Week

Ricky Grervais’ The Office And Extras, Good Innit?

Ricky Gervais LIVE

Ricky Gervais In The Movies

Gervias’ Flanimals

Ricky Gervais & The Simpsons, A Love Story

Ricky Gervais On TV, Present And Future

My Favorite Blog, Obviously

Ricky Gervais: New Hero of Comedy

Ricky Gervais On Inside The Actor’s Studio

BONUS:

Ricky Gervais meets Larry David (part 1 of 6)

Ricky Gervais on The Hour

Ricky Gervais In The Movies

Graham — Sun, 16 May 2010 08:19:44 +0000

As a writer, director, producer and actor Ricky Gervais showcases his effortless talent as one of the hardest working blokes around. One of the most interesting transitions to watch has been his growth when it comes to feature films. He came to North American audiences in a quiet underrated picture called Ghost Town (2008), his first leading role where he played the misanthropic dentist, Bertram Pincus. The film has a quiet dignity about it that almost makes you think it could have been James Stewart playing the part of Pincus.

The Invention of lying (2009) soon came along which put Gervais in the writer/director chair. In this high concept comedy, in which the gene for lying never evolved in humans, Gervais plays the first man that can lie, Mark. The film still left me wanting more honesty from Gervais, I know there had to be another script somewhere underneath the safety net of this Hollywood film; and we finally got it.

Alas, Cemetery Junction (2010) (formerly titled The Man from the Pru). The film just from the trailers, soundtrack and interviews with Gervais will show that it has all lead up to this. His honest portrayal of an earlier time in England with so many autobiographical references it’s hard to keep up. Listening and watching Ricky after all these years has led me to a point where it’s almost like I’ve been studying him and Cemetery Junction is the final exam. I will go on at length with Cemetery Junction in an official “preview” post, so get ready for that.

Before the big 3 films mentioned above we can also look at earlier works; Gervais’ first film role was in 2005 in the animated feature Valiant where he did the voice for the character Bugsy. In 2006 Gervais appeared briefly in the Christopher Guest film For Your Consideration as Martin Gibb, a slick studio executive for the film within a film, Home for Thanksgiving. Gervais also had a small role in the film Night at the Museum in 2006, where he played the museum director, Dr. McPhee, opposite Ben Stiller. Gervais rounded out his small cameo roles in 2007 when he appeared in the film Stardust as Ferdy the Fence with Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer. Gervais also made a cameo appearance in Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian in 2009. Gervais is also working on an animated version of Flanimals which is currently announced, but yet to begin pre-production.

Let us watch some trailers:

Review: The Invention of Lying (2009)

Graham — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:36:27 +0000

Director: Ricky Gervais, Matthew Robinson.
Screenwriter: Ricky Gervais, Matthew Robinson.
Starring: Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Rob Lowe, Louis C.K., Tina Fey, Christopher Guest, Jeffrey Tambor, John Hodgman, Jonah Hill, Stephen Merchant.
IMDB TRAILER

Synopsis: The Invention of Lying takes place in an alternate reality in which lying—even the concept of a lie—does not even exist. Everyone—from politicians to advertisers to the man and woman on the street—speaks the truth and nothing but the truth with no thought of the consequences. But when a down-on-his-luck loser named Mark (Ricky Gervais) suddenly develops the ability to lie, he finds that dishonesty has its rewards. In a world where every word is assumed to be the absolute truth, Mark easily lies his way to fame and fortune.

In a world where no one lies, Ricky Gervais just did. He does it again and again and bares the consequences. Small white lies to put a smile on people’s faces, to give them hope, to more selfish lies in order to earn a few more dollars or a bigger house. Sound familiar? Yes, that is today’s world. In this world that Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson created, there is no religion. Not everyone wanted to give the movie a pass with that concept, so of course without really understanding what the film is saying, people hate it for that reason, see here and here.

The film has a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, shocking even. Jennifer Garner’s best role to date, she even steal the movie early on with a line that she apparently improvised. Gervais is on top form with him uncomfortable mannerisms that make us love him so. For the time spent with Louis C.K and Jonah Hill, it left me wanting more. I enjoyed the cameos (bar scene, police officer).

I hate to do this, but the film has its flaws. This is supposed to be a parallel universe where lying had not been invented until Gervais invents it, if that’s the case why does Gervais look shocked half the time when people insult him by telling the truth about him? He didn’t just land there. Also, why does each character need to blurt out exactly what they’re thinking? This is not the same as having to speak the truth. Maybe it should have been called “The Invention of not constantly talking and sharing thoughts”.

The end result is an entertaining and thought provoking movie ultimately urges the viewer to consider how important the truth is and where lies fit in to our lives. Despite its flaws, The Invention of Lying is Gervais’ best film outing to date. It shows that he has the intelligence to go for invention and originality. I can’t wait for Cemetery Junction (trailer here) to arrive, a less Hollywood outing; something I think made Gervais so popular in the first place.

3 Jesus Gervais' out of 4

The Invention Of Lying – Karl’s Review

Graham — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:22:42 +0000

Fans of Ricky Gervais’ Podcast will know who Karl Pilkington is. In short, head like a fu*king orange. Here is his review of THE INVENTION OF LYING which opens October 2nd. Oh and if you didn’t see Ricky being Ricky at the Emmy’s, here you go. Jump for his review.

Click here to view the embedded video.

gervais lying with this poster

Graham — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:36:34 +0000

He can look as fabulous as he wants, but there is no way his is the actual poster for THE INVENTION OF LYING. Is it? At first when I heard of the film I thought — Liar Liar prequel? Then I heard some more things about the cast and making of the picture, then came the the trailer and it now looks pretty fantastic and original actually. That’s all I got. The film is set in a world where everyone tells the truth and Ricky plays a writer who turns to lying to get what he wants. The film is released on October 2.

Click for more glee

the invention of lying trailer

Graham — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:18:26 +0000

Ricky Gervais’ upcoming THE INVENTION OF LYING (formerly known as THIS SIDE OF THE TRUTH) starring Jennifer Garner, Stephen Merchant, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, Louis CK, Rob Lowe, Jason Bateman (Teen Wolf Too), Patrick Stewart, Christopher Guest, Jeffrey Tambor, and Gervais himself has a trailer.

A man discovers how to lie and uses it to become rich and famous. I have been following this movie for over a year and from what I read in the script to people’s reviews thus far (like J.J. Abrams), it’s going to the Oscars by the sounds of it. Gervais deserves a little more gold anyways for being so awesome.

See Gervais lie September 25th.
Vist his BLOG.