I was a big fan of Bridesmaids, and one of the main reasons was the out-of-control, wacky performance of Melissa McCarthy. When she’s on, she’s hilarious. When she’s off, you get something like Identity Thief. It’s strange that I’ve now discovered a movie where McCarthy fires on all cylinders and the movie still comes out […]

Sandra Bullock as an FBI agent and Melissa McCarthy as a Boston cop begrudgingly work together on a case that pushes them to turn up The Heat. Bullock plays FBI agent Sarah Ashburn — an agent with a personality as subtle as a brick and an ego to match. When a big promotion looms, she’s told […]

The unoriginal plot meandered its way along like a stoned senior looking for a snack.

I avoided the fraternities and sororities in college except for the parties. Some of those were quite wild and involved all kinds of drinking stunts and things I wouldn’t even consider today. That kind of spirit infuses Monsters University, but the emphasis is on scares instead of drinking. This is the first prequel to a […]

Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel head to a party at James Franco‘s new house and and up smack in the middle of Armageddon in the irreverent comedy This Is The End. Seth Rogen and friends have a long history of over-the-top films that revel in the most base levels of juvenile male humor. This Is […]

When the Apocalypse comes, I want to stay as far away as possible from the Hollywood mansion of James Franco. It’s one thing to watch it up on the silver screen, but it’s another thing entirely to live it. Fortunately, I had the luxury of sitting in a movie theater in which the worst thing […]

If assassins ever come to my house to kill me, I hope that they do it quickly and without me knowing about it in advance. I’d rather be surprised and moving on to the next world — where I hopefully have plenty of time to watch movies and play games — than stuck here dealing with an […]

Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson team up once again to play two laid-off watch salesmen desperate to find a meaningful job in The Internship. Billy McMahon (Vaughn) and Nick Campbell (Wilson) were riding high as top sales reps for a big-ticket watch company when they suddenly find themselves without a job, without a market and […]

Three 15-year-olds spend their summer building a makeshift house in the woods and find themselves along the way in the coming-of-age tale The Kings of Summer. Back in 1979, my closest friends and I scoured the landscape to collect every type of building material we could get our hands on. The goal was to build […]

I’m annoyed when talented people destroy the essence of that which they created. You see it time and time again with books, films and computer/video games. I don’t just mean a sequel or new creation that doesn’t surpass the previous entry in a creative person’s resume. I mean such a product that strays too far […]

The quirky song that virtually everyone in America has experienced at one time or another is uncovered in the documentary Hava Nagila (The Movie). The Electric Slide, The Hokey Pokey and even YMCA have nothing on this age-old Jewish standard. We all know it. We’ve all experienced it — or soon will (for younger readers) — and yet almost […]

I know nothing about Scotch whisky. I’ve had it three or four times in my life, and I think I had really good brands based on the assessments of the friends who brought the bottles. Of course, there are many enthusiasts around the world who spend huge amounts of money on the spirits. Whether you […]