Danny McBride

[7] Jamie Lee Curtis returns to the franchise that launched her career in Halloween (same title, 40 years apart). This new film ignores every single sequel in the franchise and serves as a direct follow-up to John Carpenter’s original 1978 film. And it’s just as well, because the Halloween ‘franchise’ is shaky at best. Curtis’ teenaged babysitter from ’78 is now a gun-toting grandma whose …

[8] Pineapple Express is Quentin Tarantino meets Cheech and Chong, a hyperviolent action flick crashed into a buddy comedy. The mish-mash may be an acquired taste, but it’s a winning combination for me. Seth Rogen and James Franco carry this movie to victory as a process server and pot dealer on the run from a hitman (Gary Cole) and a crooked cop (Rosie Perez). Rogen …

[4] Saturday Night Live‘s Andy Samberg stars in this comedy about an aspiring stunt man trying to raise money for his step-father’s heart transplant. I like Samberg, but he isn’t quite charismatic or funny enough to carry this particular movie over the finish line. He gets assistance from the always reliable Bill Hader and Danny McBride, but it’s not enough to make Hot Rod memorable. …

[7] Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg co-wrote and co-produced this R-rated animated satire about a grocery store hot dog (voiced by Rogen) that discovers the truth about life outside the store’s sliding glass doors. But it’s an uphill battle to convince the rest of the grocery denizens that their idea of ‘heaven’ is actually the gnashing teeth of human beings! Sausage Party delivers all the naughty sexual …

[5] Working from a stale script that comes too late in the Tarantino wake, this dark, violent ‘who’s conning who’ comedy is made tolerable by its flavor-of-the-week casting. If you like Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, and Aziz Ansari (like I do), you’ll find it worth your while. If you don’t, you won’t.

[7] Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and Danny McBride play themselves, trapped in Franco’s swanky pad during the Apocalypse in this weird little horror comedy written and directed by Rogen and Evan Goldberg (who also collaborated on the scripts for Pineapple Express and Superbad. As far as I’m concerned, these actors are the closest thing to a sure bet in …