Casper (1995)
[7] Beneath the cutesy veneer of this big-budget family spectacle is a surprisingly morose Ghost and Mrs. Muir subplot. The screenplay is a bit scattershot in its aim, but I have to give this flick major kudos for tackling the…
Animal Crackers (1930)
[4] Groucho, Chico, Zeppo, and Harpo are back for their second big-screen soire. This one hangs loosely on a stolen painting plot, with Groucho playing a returning safari hunter at a rich aristocrat woman's house where all the action takes…
Go (1999)
[7] Of all the edgy, non-linear pretenders to the throne that came in the wake of Pulp Fiction, Doug Liman's Go may be among the best. The story weaves in and around a handful of disparate characters that interact at…
Team America: World Police (2004)
[4] I enjoyed Trey Parker and Matt Stone's South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut because it lampooned many things. It was like a greatest hits collection of the South Park TV show, and the songs were all far more amusing…
Bernie (2011)
[7] Jack Black stars in this quirky comedy about a beloved Texan mortician who begins a relationship with one of the town's wealthiest widows and becomes prime suspect in her murder. Writer/director Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Dazed and Confused) adapts from…
The Green Inferno (2015)
[3] I enjoyed the blend of dark humor and horror that Eli Roth brought to his first film, Cabin Fever. And even though it was pretty much torture porn, I thought Hostel had merit, too. But The Green Inferno is…
The D Train (2015)
[6] On one hand, The D Train is a conventional buddy comedy of sorts, about a loser who tries to redeem himself by convincing a popular former classmate to come to their twenty-year high school reunion. On the other hand,…
American Ultra (2015)
[7] Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart star in this edgy action comedy about a stoner convenience clerk who discovers he's a sleeper agent and deadly assassin for the CIA. Together with his devoted girlfriend, he dodges CIA operatives ordered to…
Role Models (2008)
[8] Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott star as disillusioned men sentenced to community service via some sort of Big Brother program. Scott may be a one-note actor, but there's nothing wrong with that as long as he plays his…
The Interview (2014)
[6] James Franco and Seth Rogen star as famous tabloid news producers who snag the interview of the century with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Before they leave to snag the highest ratings of their careers, though, the CIA shows…