Annie Get Your Gun (1950)

Annie Get Your Gun (1950)

[6] This movie version of Irving Berlin's musical is chintzy fun kept afloat by cartoonish performances from leads Betty Hutton and Howard Keel. Watching the movie at this end of the feminist movement can be frustrating. While Annie Oakley is presented as…
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)

[5] Claude Rains is gold in all his scenes as the god-like Mr. Jordan, but I find the movie's playfully fatalistic view of love and self-purpose too saccharine to swallow. Robert Montgomery is also good as the deceased boxer who, due to…
Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

Lars and the Real Girl (2007)

[7] Ryan Gosling stars as Lars, a young man who begins seriously dating a life-size doll. His friends and family are instructed by a doctor to go along with it until they can figure out why he has engaged in this suspicious…
Red-Headed Woman (1932)

Red-Headed Woman (1932)

[5] Jean Harlow plays such a nasty little character in Red-Headed Woman, sleeping her way to the top of the workforce while ending marriages left and right. She's so cold and calculating, I almost wish the movie would have been like most…
Father Goose (1964)

Father Goose (1964)

[5] I like the premise of this one. Cary Grant plays a beach bum who relays Japanese radio messages to the military during WWII. His life is a solitary one until a plane crashes on the island, introducing him to a school…
Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)

Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)

[4] When I ask myself why I like so few Mel Brooks movies, I think the answer has to do with character investment. Even in a parody movie, I still need it. There just isn't much to latch onto here. Cary Elwes…
Airheads (1994)

Airheads (1994)

[4] Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, and Adam Sandler star as wannabe rock gods who take a small radio station in L.A. hostage until they play their demo over the airwaves. As serendipity permits, news of the siege hits the public and starts…
My Science Project (1985)

My Science Project (1985)

[6] John Stockwell (Christine) stars as a teenage motor head who steals a bizarre piece of alien technology from a local junk yard to try and pass off as his high school science project. Trouble is, the device keeps depleting its surrounding…
Grandma (2015)

Grandma (2015)

[8] Writer/director Paul Weitz (About a Boy, American Pie) creates a compelling star vehicle for Lily Tomlin with Grandma. Tomlin plays an irascible widower, who flits from girlfriend to girlfriend trying to fill the void left by her one true love that…
Hail, Caesar! (2016)

Hail, Caesar! (2016)

[6] The Coen Brothers are at it again, this time with a wonky tale of 1950s Hollywood studio politics mixed with political scandal. Hail, Caesar! is scattershot in its narrative. Josh Brolin's character is marginally the main protagonist. Brolin plays a gruff…