CAREER OPPORTUNITIES (1991)

In one scene thirty-minutes into John Hughes's CAREER OPPORTUNITIES, made during his career midlife crisis between teenage and adult comedies, gorgeous brunette dream girl Jennifer Connelly, standing in the central Target store location late at night, hours after closing, asks fast-talking star Frank Whalley: "What are you doing here?" Wherein he answers, "I work here." 

Probably the most coherently logical reply by a character so zany and over-confident, you can see how great Matthew Broderick was in Hughes's FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF just for not having to try so hard to be so likable... Whalley plays the rambling village idiot in a small town (Hughes's class envy spouted throughout), looked down upon by adults and "up upon" by three children who have no purpose but following Whalley around like puppy dogs, and it's impossible to understand what has them so captivated... The audience sure isn't, and wasn't: this was one of John's biggest bombs, and Whalley only played third or fourth bananas afterwards... However, there IS a purpose, a kind of exploitation element for CAREER, and it's twofold: the first being the mere casting of Connelly, who was truly gorgeous enough to put into a movie for being truly gorgeous enough to be IN that movie, especially the trailers (to get young men into the theaters)... but having no real plot-line doesn't help matters... Also, other than being NOT ONLY an endorsement for something that was pretty new at the time, the superstore experience... but it's a worthwhile location and somewhat of a dream job, working at a Target store, late at night and all alone, with literally everything at your fingertips... But there needed to be a better character besides "the town liar" to base a comedy romp on, beyond a stunning girl and final act keystone-criminal break-in trope that would have fared a lot more successfully in... well... HOME ALONE ring a bell? For John Hughes, who wrote and didn't direct either, this was an OPPORTUNITY for a big endorsement and to attempt making his FERRIS persona grown up... but that guy was a lot cooler, smarter, more mature and far more entertaining than this guy... Basically, watching Matthew Broderick wander around alone in a tiny dimestore would have beaten this turkey. Rating: **

ANACONDA (2025)

In the comedy Be Kind: Rewind, Jack Black and his sidekick make homemade movies to replace real ones, which is exactly what happens here, only in this case, the two comic actors are usually the comic leads: so each one is each other's equal sidekick, basically... or something...

While Jack does his usual thing, including singing beautifully as if he's making fun of beautiful singing because it's a surprise he sings so beautifully in the first place, Paul Rudd is basically playing Paul Rudd, only he looks older than usual, painted with a strange spray tan... perhaps intentional... And when they were kids they made Super 8 horror movies (trope city), and for nostalgia they go to the Amazon to film a remake of the cult classic Anaconda since Rudd, as a loser D-rate extra-actor, acquires the rights to the 1990's film, which makes no sense... What results is a semi-meta slog where one minute the group (including two ladies, of course, including young and hot Daniela Melchior) are trying to stay out of actual trouble (the usual THREE AMIGOS "this is real" device that most people credit to TROPIC THUNDER), and the next they're acting in their movie-within-a-movie that, who knows, might have turned out more interesting had the actual movie been their own fake movie... As in, it could have been worse, more fun to bag on, which this otherwise mediocre sendup of a sendup needs to be... To be anything at all, that is, if so-bad-it's-good movies like Anaconda are what they were really after anti-celebrating. Or something.

HARLEM NIGHTS (1989)

According to the trivia for Eddie Murphy's time-period gangster flick HARLEM NIGHTS, the humor on set between himself, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx and Della Reese were funnier than anything in the movie... That's more than trivia, it's an outright admission that NIGHTS suffers from being too complicated a plot for these comic actors to be able to pull off their characters while at the same time, being funny...

In BEVERLY HILLS COP, the fact that Eddie Murphy's best friend was murdered meant nothing during scenes when he would, for example, argue with a hotel manager about getting a room, or argue even harder with employees at a warehouse about why he's snooping around... There aren't many pockets within the rather cliche old-school gangster flick involving gangsters and crooked cops wanting to move in on the main characters (THE GODFATHER ring a bell?) for comedy geniuses like Pryor, Murphy or Foxx to do their thing... Being constantly stuck within the story, HARLEM NIGHTS is as claustrophobic to the audience as it was to the actors... a shame since there are some worthwhile moments and potential to be had... But Murphy was obviously over his head, mainly as director... His timing was off in both the performance and cadence/timing of the overall picture... So John Landis would have been a far better choice to put everyone else's pressure off Murphy so he can shine: see COMING TO AMERICA, another Eddie Murphy production, for all the proof you'll need...Or watch Ted Demme's LIFE, set during the same era only taking place in prison, and with a dream sequence involving a similar nightclub and you'll see that Murphy's juggling too many plates to serve-up a satisfying main course. Rates: **1/2

CHEERS SEASON 1 AND PILOT EPISODE

Season 1 of Cheers relies on more than  what wound up making the show a legendary fan-favorite series... when it first started gaining high ratings and opened up beyond a small handful of critics who hoped it would go beyond the initial season, which by now, everyone has seen, but mostly in reruns... When it first aired, Cheers was the kind of show only few knew about... Having been a fan of Taxi, produced and written by many of the same people, I was tuned in from the very beginning... Going back, I had forgotten that much of what drove this season is Sam and Diane, but not the neurotic (and yes, sometimes annoying) sexual relationship that begins in Season 2...

Rather, Diane seems to be on the sidelines, constantly reminding Sam that he's not so wonderful while she, at the same time, is more flawed than anyone... In a way, this first season is a lot like Laverne & Shirley... You have a confident, sexually-active leader who makes many mistakes while being constantly checked by a nervous counterpart who's afraid to really live, and both need each other to basically survive... Also different in the first season, Norm and Cliff aren't yet Norm and Cliff, or even Cliff and Norm... Like Happy Days took a little while before Potsie and Ralph became a team, Norm's more on his own here while Cliff shows up sporadically, not yet the full-blown equal-share character, and he isn't even billed in the opening credits... And to narrow it down, this pilot is one of the great openings of TV history... Everything is shaped from within the first fifteen minutes, the only difference is that Diane is the newcomer white-rabbit leading us into her accidentally newfound wonderland, soon becoming our own... Being dumped by her fiance, she winds up where we'd be for 11 seasons, six of those without the very person who brought us here...

Sure, Cheers would improve in many ways, when it became an almost equal ensemble instead of a romantic-situation-comedy with the barflies on the side, but, then again, there's nothing like these early Coach episodes (the first two seasons especially, before he got noticeably ill in season 3)... And best yet, there's nothing quite like Season 1, before everybody knew their name. Year: 1982 Rating: ****1/2

ANOTHER SIMPLE FAVOR

Blake Lively in ANOTHER SIMPLE FAVOR Year: 2025 Rating: **

Chalk this up as one of the most unnecessary sequels ever made. The original, Paul Feig's modern-film-noir-comedy-thriller, was a nice little surprise, and worked especially during the first half as single mommy/blogger Anna Kendrick begins an investigation... 

Turning into a kind of girl-crush/lightweight-obsession with older and downright beautiful Blake Lively, providing both intrigue and suspense, and even sensuality, the only drawback being the casting of Lively's husband, who Kendrick cheats with, an actor seeming more suited to a sitcom... 

Blake Lively in ANOTHER SIMPLE FAVOR

Well he's only briefly joined by the two returning leads on a tropical island paradise... in what's more like the Knives Out sequel setting than a locale providing a logical continuation of the first film's deliberately over-bright suburbs... which director Feig served-up with an equal amount of genuine-suspense and crime-genre-satire... 

Making this new balmy location and the entire film itself a distraction to the fact that nothing really happens, as in, there's no real investigation to pull in Kendrick or the audience this time around. 

Anna Kendrick in ANOTHER SIMPLE FAVOR

SATURDAY NIGHT (2024)

A more fitting title of this novelty biopic would be ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE BEGINNING OF SATURDAY NIGHT with all the seemingly deliberate fiction added... And the original working title was SNL 1975 except that Howard Cossell owned the name SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE for his failed prime time comedy/variety show...

Which is how Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtain, Laraine Newman, Gilda Radner and Garrett Morris became the NOT ready for prime time players.... which the cast members are STILL called, and all because a sportscaster made a bad comedy show on prime time... As everyone knows, the original cast are the best... or at least the most classic and endearing... and what this movie does is take PT Anderson's multi-layered Magnolia route funneled through that movie's muse in Robert Altman's quirky ensembles Nashville and Short Cuts... And a maddened running-around it is, in real time no less, of the cast and crew preparing for the first episode of the series... Meanwhile, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase and John Belushi look fantastic, and their acting is pretty good, going just a step beyond imitation... After all, it's not easy portraying a semi-modern actor (or actress) who would also star in classic movies... So basically, you have to imagine the Chevy Chase actor in Fletch, the Dan actor in Ghostbusters, the John Belushi actor in... Anyway, you get the point: but the main problem here are some of the hangups that either didn't exist or are overly exaggerated...

Garrett Morris had a problem with how he was stereotyped AFTER the show went of the air... It's doubtful he would have the same gripes BEFORE becoming famous... Also, Morris was one of the few actual actors when the show began, appearing in CAR WASH and COOLEY HIGH before the rest of them were given their own vehicles... Basically, Morris was the genuine character-actor of the show, and sadly, they turn him into an anachronism of modern politically-correct sensibilities... But he's not in the movie much, and either are the women (replaced with Lorne Michael's writer wife, who no one really knows or cares about)... And unlike some of the guys, the girls don't look anything like the originals (Jane Curtain was NOT a sexy bombshell while Newman and Radner are practically nonexistent)...

And back to the rudimentary ONCE UPON A TIME example: director Jason Reitman does to Jim Henson what Quentin Tarantino did to Bruce Lee: making him look like a dimwitted fool when he was actually very helpful and downright brilliant... Okay, so his Muppets didn't fit a late night show that was basically a grungy American barroom's version of Monty Python... more weird in its origins than outright hilarious... but that doesn't mean he would act like a total buffoon...

Andy Kaufman, meanwhile, was an offbeat guy but it's doubtful he acted like Latka Gravis from Taxi, three years before the show came out... Yes, he created the Foreign guy before, but it's doubtful he spoke that way backstage... But since the actor looks nothing like him, they probably just wanted people familiar with Taxi to know who he was in the first place... And why on earth would Milton Berle be in this movie? Just to get the otherwise great actor JK Simmons a chance to chew scenery and waste precious time? And by the third act, too much time's wasted on all the wrong characters... Berle hosted a later infamous episode that even the all-around-nice-guy and show creator Lorne Michaels has destroyed from the archives... and Michaels is one of the better characters/adaptions here...

Through Lorne we have an effective pawn to channel all the madness through... It's just too bad that that madness is so overwhelmingly hit and miss... There are some involving energetic scenes one minute, and dark dramatic brooding scenes that follow, killing any kind of character-developed momentum that would make SATURDAY NIGHT more than a smug biopic geared for mega-fan baby boomers or generation Xers... Which, thankfully, unlike the National Lampoon cable biopic A Futile and Stupid Gesture (and particularly when Michael O'Donoghue tries too hard to be condescending towards any non-hippies), this NIGHT isn't as smug as it could have been... And sometimes there's some real heart beating in here, it just needed to be a lot more steady (and meaningful) throughout. Rates: **1/2

CRAZY PEOPLE

Dudley Moore in CRAZY PEOPLE Year: 1990 Rating: ***1/2

What's basically Dudley Moore's final leading role in a mainstream (live-action) comedy, CRAZY PEOPLE is better than its reputation, which is hardly anything at all...

A shame since this parody of not just the advertising industry but of one man who decided to be brutally forthright with his ads (basically parodying his own job), including taglines about fat people, scary movies, plane crashes, boxy cars, sexy cars and having sex at luxury resorts...

Dudley Moore in CRAZY PEOPLE with Daryl Hannah

Mostly taking place in a mental institution with an endearingly semi-humorous ensemble of troubled patients liken to THE DREAM TEAM, the biggest problem is that CRAZY PEOPLE takes too many detours away from the ads (that his loony friends help him with) and into Moore's romance with older-man's-fantasy Daryl Hannah, always a good actress but their relationship is contrived and horribly unrealistic... 

From classics 10 to ARTHUR a decade earlier, Dudley Moore passed as an anti-sex-symbol sex-symbol... however, at this point he could be her uncle or father and yet, when CRAZY works it works pretty well, overall an enjoyable time-passing flick you can watch again and again... if only the director (Moore's buddy Tony Bill) stuck closer to the actual theme linking borderline insanity with complete and total honesty.

Title for CRAZY PEOPLE

Dudley Moore in CRAZY PEOPLE

Dudley Moore in CRAZY PEOPLE with Daryl Hannah and Bill Smitrovich

Dudley Moore in CRAZY PEOPLE with Daryl Hannah and Bill Smitrovich

John Terlesky in CRAZY PEOPLE with Daryl Hannah

David Paymer in CRAZY PEOPLE with Danton Stone and Bill Smitrovich

UNFROSTED (2024)

Even rabid fans of the sitcom SEINFELD are realizing that that joke about Jerry not being a good actor, built right into the classic show itself, is actually true... More noticeable here as he plays the fast-talking spokesman of Kellogg's cereal who winds up inventing Pop Tarts (NOT based on the real guy who ACTUALLY invented Pop Tarts)... And while it's an overboard performance, using his snappy build-to-the-punchline delivery while portraying a desperately hyper-active (and somewhat shallow) advertising man trying to save one cereal company (Kellogg's) from another (Post)... at least he's TRYING to act here... or rather, he's attempting to pull off a performance instead of just being Jerry... 

And Jerry's no stranger to letting an ensemble of more experienced actors shine around him... But UNFROSTED simply has too many cooks, ranging from Jim Gaffigan as one of the Kellogg's neurotic family members, seeming to imitate Jerry's verbal rhythm like a bad imitation... or Melissa McCarthy, playing, once again, Melissa McCarthy as... well... She's ALSO someone working for the same cereal company that's part of an all-star Made-for-Netflix movie that feels as if MAD MEN were being parodied on a hybrid of SNL and GLEE for 90-minutes... And as for deliberate acting-ringer Hugh Grant as the guy who voiced Tony the Tiger... a pretentious stage-actor sinking to the lowly depths of capitalism, he's just kinda... well... he's just kinda there... As a matter of fact, everything here (with all the frantically-eclectic running around) are just kinda there... even and especially Seinfeld himself, doing his best to make every... single... second.... matter... For either an intended slapdash laugh, or perhaps to cover up the fact that, as a novice director, he's bought into the old con-man's adage that... Using enough fast-flying information, they'll never figure out that you actually... don't know anything.. Grade: D

NICKELODEON (1976)

There's a scene in Peter Bogdanovich's tribute to early film-making when Ryan O'Neal, a goofy lawyer turned goofy director, has no idea what movie he's in the process of making: no plot, no real characters... which is ironic since director Bogdanovich might have felt the same way while making NICKELODEON... Or perhaps not... if the man who gave us brilliant classics like TARGETS and especially THE LAST PICTURE SHOW combined silent comedy slapstick with a romantic triangle with true Hollywood history in such a clumsy, uninteresting fashion... and Burt Reynolds has absolutely no chemistry as novice actor to O'Neal's novice director...

Ultimately, Bogdanovich blamed the studio for this catastrophe that basically ended his A-list career; but it's the IDEA that's flawed beyond the horribly uneven execution, not knowing which path to take in celebrating the first Hollywood independents war on the big studios (and vice versa), that, unlike PAPER MOON, is a road to absolutely nowhere... An irony because if anyone were to do a historic Hollywood piece it would be the man who began as a critic and wound up an overnight auteur sensation, but, perhaps Bogdanovich was simply too close to the material... Simply put, in doing a parody of old movie style he didn't center enough on the making of old movies. Grade: D

EASY MONEY (1983)

Hands down the best scene of EASY MONEY has Rodney Dangerfield insulting a fat kid and his family... where he seems like characters from superior flanking films CADDYSHACK and BACK TO SCHOOL, spouting quick barbs that roll right off the iconic comic's tongue... 

Which rarely happens here since Rodney's stuck in a movie with a limited and constricting plot-line: he has to quit all his vices, from gambling to smoking pot to drinking to overeating, to become as rich as his previous characters in those aforementioned classics...

But there aren't that many effective one-liners (Joe Pesci laughs so hard at a few decent ones, he steals the audience's laughter)... and witty insults are what cinematic Dangerfield is all about... Meanwhile, the b-story involving daughter Jennifer Jason Leigh avoiding sex with new husband Taylor Negron is not only horribly unfunny, but their scenes drag far too long... Getting in the way of a comedy that's more entertaining than funny... not a bad thing, but it's far from top-shelf Dangerfield, smoking pot and drinking beer more like a crude fan than what he himself can effectively (and hilariously) channel onto the big screen. Grade: C+

MIRACLE OF THE ORIGINAL 'GHOSTBUSTERS'

Dan Aykroyd wrote a totally farfetched film that would not have worked had Bill Murray not dissembled all the serious attributes along the way. His dry wit in not believing the things that happen right in front of his face made the original movie great, and made Dan Aykroyd funny despite playing the straightest of straight man roles. In that, any sequel (including THE HORRIBLE second movie) doesn't work because Murray's character is no longer a cynical and hilarious non-believer of the story itself. And Murray is the kind of presence that just cannot be replaced… not by female SNL stars (the infamous reboot) and not by children either (AFTERLIFE). Not even by Murray himself, who was completely lost in the second movie… and who never wanted to be in a third movie BECAUSE OF how bad the second movie was... 

Basically, the original GHOSTBUSTERS was a shocking success that no one saw coming (including all those who were THERE on opening night). Had John Belushi starred alongside Akyroyd as intended, it probably would have not worked since Belushi, as great as he was and always the craziest guy in the proverbial crazy train, didn't have the subtle skill of undoing all the work done by others. Murray was there all along to say, "This story is silly and I don't know why I'm here" which was needed given the insane premise and, without him OR Harold Ramis to make Dan's character that much more serious-minded about all the mind-boggling, fantastical science, there's simply no use of trying to trap the same lighting in the same bottle… which, as noted several times, wasn't even possible in 1989 for an unnecessary sequel attempting to tread the same ground that was miraculously successful to begin with.

SHADOWS AND FOG (WOODY ALLEN)

While SHADOWS AND FOG is a pretty good movie, and uses the titular elements that channel old British mystery novels, German Expressionism and American Film Noir, it's the second Woody Allen comedy after RADIO DAYS where the characters and dialogue, while fast-paced and clever as usual, are just a second... or perhaps a mere moment... off. And in that, since Woody only narrated DAYS, it's the first where the man himself seems a few years too old to play the same "nebbish" character... It's like he's doing an imitation of himself, and kind of peters out in the process (after all it takes a lot of youthful energy to be so doomed and neurotic)...

His films usually have no empty spaces wherein one forgots what they're watching. Even his best work, from ANNIE HALL to CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, leave the viewer exhausted, if only from laughing or smiling (or thinking) too much.... FOG however sporadically loses touch within its own story and at times the actors seem directionless. And as strong and infectious Woody is a writer, sometimes his "guest stars" here seem to be desperately improvising (especially Johns Cusack and Malkovich... although they're also doing Woody impressions); on the other hand, the fact it's not as downright hilarious as his 1970's films also means it's that much more laid-back and subtle. Not a bad thing. Despite being about a killer on the loose, it's one of his most relaxing features. And Mia Farrow steals the show by not seeming like she's acting at all.

HIGH ANXIETY

year: 1977

cast: Mel Brooks, Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Ron Carey

rating: ***

Mel Brooks sends-up all things Hitchcock in a film that's more entertaining than funny. You can't help but to get involved in the story of a new head shrink (Brooks) of a crooked insane asylum who has an extreme fear of heights. From one situation to the next, this parody encompasses "Vertigo", "Psycho", "The Birds", "Frenzy", and all the (other) Hitch-flicks that has the main character being falsely accused of murder. Homage-driven jabs at Alfred H's signature camera shots and dramatic musical scores are the funniest. Somewhere between "Blazing Saddles" (as the high-point) and "History of the World" (as a low-point), this movie has a cozy place within the Mel Brooks canon. Nothing gained, nothing lost. But you should enjoy the ride.

HERCULES IN NEW YORK

year: 1970

cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger

rating: ***1/2

Having grown up on the dubbed version... Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice replaced by a guy who sounds like he should be doing FM radio voice-overs... I was sort of thrown by this new DVD which has the REAL THING. We all know, Arnold is Arnold no matter what film he's in... so the fact he's actually speaking kind of takes away from the cheesiness of the original. But it's still quite fun seeing Arnold as Hercules, bored of Mount Olympus and his father Zeus throwing metallic lightning arrows, venturing to New York city where he takes up with nerdy Arnold Stang, who manages his pal "Herc" in a wrestling career, all the while befriending James Karen and his lovely daughter Deborah Loomis, punching-out burly sailors, battling a horribly-costumed bear in Central Park, and fighting not only the mob but the evil god Pluto. Like in all great/bad cult flicks, there's never glue on the feet: things go from one situation to the next without slowing down. And then, before you know it, the movie's done. And you're a much better person for having survived it.

LIFE OF THE PARTY

year: 2018
rating: **1/2

There are way too many remakes, especially of Eighties flicks, so Melissa McCarthy and actor/director husband Ben Falcone remade the Rodney Dangerfield classic Back To School and took all the credit — despite having the same basic premise: after a divorce, a parent decides to go to college with her kid. In that case it was a large funny dad and skinny serious son and here it's a fat (though skinny for her) almost-funny woman with a standard-size semi-cute daughter. But Melissa McCarthy trades in her usual blunt and gross self deprecation for a character much too optimistic and cheerful to relate to, or to feel for, providing absolutely no obstacles along the way. A much too easy/breezy comedy with no real laughs. On the plus side, it's a relaxing time-filler delivering 90-minutes of brainless entertainment. That's also what's wrong with LIFE OF THE PARTY, which does live up to its name, several times; party after party; sameness. More a divorced middle-aged mother's fantasy since McCarthy — taking one more year of Anthropology in the same college she dropped out of years earlier — hooks up with a handsome college kid. The only suspense is in the utter disbelief.

I FEEL PRETTY

Year: 2018
Cast: Amy Schumer, Lauren Hutton, Michelle Williams
Rating: **1/2

In SHALLOW HAL Jack Black saw all women as beautiful, even and especially ones who weren't. In this copycat, overweight and this time, not-so-proud-of-it Amy Schumer finds herself to be gorgeous, hence I FEEL PRETTY, and basically becomes as confident as a plain looking girl that a plain looking girl with confidence would be in a normal situation, and that Amy is in other movies, like TRAINWRECK. The only acting occurs when her character is so pathetically shy, it just doesn't seem natural so, when the transition occurs, it all seems contrived, forced. That said, it's not bad for a sick day movie to pass the time, and since all girls feel ugly deep down... hence Amy's fame as a younger, partying Melissa McCarthy... Amy's really teaching a two-hour lesson, one so obvious it repeats itself throughout the immensely predictable romantic comedy where the film's sensitive "sweater wearing" nice guy mars what the TRAINWRECK sensitive guy did there, slowing Amy down from the blunt persona that made her... semi-famous.

BLOCKERS (LESLIE MANN)

In BLOCKERS, three parents try messing up... or attempt to block... each daughter from partaking in the plot of almost every 80's sex comedy, especially LITTLE DARLINGS since this particular "lose our virginity by the end of the movie" movie is about the girls, who all act in what's usually the cinematic "guy minded mode," wanting it more than their dull, reluctant dates and especially (and of course) their parents: Never has a comic-relief-within-a-comedy been as horrendously ineffective as screwy-toothed Ike Barinholtz, whose five-o'clock shadow hardly covers up the fact he's also terribly miscast — resembling more of a college fraternity clown, which doesn't make it all that ironic when he crashes a high school prom, and then a few parties: Though he's not alone as muscular "White Dwayne Johnson" John Cena is a realistic looking parental, getting more emotional than expected of such a giant, while mom, played by the usually-hilarious Leslie Mann, leads this complete disaster where instead of cocks being blocked... due to an awkward pace, stilted one-liners and a horrible lack of chemistry between actors... the laughter is, again and again: So avoid this Rooster — it's a real Turkey!

HAUNTED HONEYMOON

title: HAUNTED HONEYMOON

year: 1986

cast: Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner, Dom Deluise, Peter Vaughan

director: Gene Wilder

rating: **

Gene Wilder unsuccessfully morphs YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN into the Wolfman genre, adding a Sherlock Holmes fog-shrouded mystery vibe and all taking place at a spooky castle. He plays a famous radio star (ala 1930's Orson Welles) who brings his fiancee, real life wife Gilda Radner, to his family's estate for their wedding and honeymoon. It's haunted, sure; not by ghosts but someone trying to scare him off by dressing as a werewolf. Unfunny, though not a complete howler.

COUPLES RETREAT

title: COUPLES RETREAT

year: 2009

cast: Vince Vaughan, Jon Farvareu, Jason Bateman, Jean Reno

rating: *

Four couples go to an island for fun and relaxation, which turns out to be a new age counseling nightmare. The only people having a worse time than the couples is the audience. There is the same problem that exists between screen and viewer that occurs in a bad relationship. No connections; at least none that count. And it's not funny. Vince Vaughan and Jon Farvareu should have stayed single doubling-down in Vegas. Both were relatable back then. But dealing with marriage, their dry, accidental wit seems uncomfortable and contrived. I want a divorce.

MAN OF THE YEAR

title: MAN OF THE YEAR

year: 2006

cast: Robin Williams, Laura Linney, Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum

writer/director: Barry Levinson

rating: *

Director Barry Levinson ran for president. Everything he believes in is here, and his mouthpiece is Robin Williams. Or is it the other way around? I know Barry wrote the script, but I'm still not sure how much was ad-libbed. Not enough to merit a good movie, or a decent premise, which builds shit-through-a-goose-quick during the opening credits: a Bill Maher/Jon Stewart type talk show host is told by an audience member he should run for President of the United States. He does, and wins. Kinda. Williams' hyperactive stand-up routines, one happening spontaneously during a planned Presidential debate, are nearly impossible to hear, and maybe that's good because what is audible isn't funny. A side-story involving a woman (and possible love-interest) who knows too much about a computer-voting glitch becomes the main focus, and Levinson juggles his dull documentarian-style comedy with a Redford-esque seventies-era political espionage drama, and fails miserably on both counts - at the same time.