The Naked Gun

"Just think; next time I shoot someone, I could be arrested."  Another classic from the Zucker, Abraham, and Zucker, The Naked Gun is sort of a spiritual successor to Airplane!  This time, Leslie Nielsen plays bungling cop Frank Drebin, who is on a mission to protect Queen Elizabeth II from an assassination plot.  Full of the same slapstick humor that makes the Stooges so much fun to watch, The Naked Gun was based off the short-lived television show Police Squad!  Just as funny as Airplane!, The Naked Gun is, in some ways, an even better film, with virtually the entire running time (just shy of an hour and a half) being packed with gags and pratfalls, many of which will give you a case of the giggles (at the very least).  Featuring an excellent supporting cast including O.J. Simpson, Priscilla Presley, George Kennedy, and Ricardo Montalban, this film strikes me as being one that would hold up well to repeat viewings.

Rating: 95/100

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2

"Not my daughter, you bitch!"  I remember when the first Harry Potter film came out in 2001.  I was so excited, being a big fan of the books, and I remember how I loved the first two films in the series.  Then, for whatever reason, I stopped going to the movies, viewing the books as sufficient.  After seeing this emotional conclusion, I have come to regret my decision.  Every bit as epic as the book (perhaps even more so), it is amazing just how much the actors and actresses have grown up from mere children to fully-fledged adults.  If you loved the book(s), you will absolutely LOVE the movie.  I must admit, I cried quite a bit as waves of nostalgia swept over me.  Bring some tissues, because you are gonna need 'em.

Rating: 82/100

Friends with Benefits

An adorable little romantic comedy, Friends with Benefits chronicles the lives of two emotionally-damaged (via relationships) people, Dylan (Justin Timberlake) and Jamie (Mila Kunis), who become best friends and decide to have sex together.  Obviously, humping your best friend won't create any sort of complications whatsoever, right?  Wrong.  It turns out that you run several risks, including falling in love, or worse - falling in love without realizing it.  Highly entertaining, this movie is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face, no matter how your day is going.  Charming, funny, and even somewhat sexy, Friends with Benefits benefits from a terrific cast, which includes Woody Harrelson in the small (but hilarious) role of Tommy, a gay sports writer for GQ (where Dylan works), and Shaun White, who appears as himself.  Jason Segel also makes a funny cameo in a movie within the movie.

Rating: 92/100

Dodgeball

"If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball."  Hilarious, highly-quotable, and sometimes heartwarming story of the gym known as Average Joe's.  Owner Peter La Fleur (Vince Vaughn) can't quite pay the rent, and he's in danger of losing his beloved gym to the large Globogym, run by the insane White Goodman (Ben Stiller, in what must be one of his best roles ever).  To come up with the money, La Fleur and the oddball members of his gym form a dodgeball team in order to win prize money in an upcoming tournament (in which they will have to face Globogym's fierce team).  With the help of a woman known as Kate Veatch (Christine Taylor) and aging former dodgeball champ Patches O'Houlihan (Rip Torn, who gets some of the best lines in the film), the group sets out to save Average Joe's from destruction.  Full of sight gags and one-liners, celebrity cameos (notably Lance Armstrong and Chuck Norris), and brilliant acting (from Vaughn's subtle, almost fatherly portrayal of La Fleur to Stiller's completely batsh*t crazy performance as Goodman), Dodgeball is one of my favorite movies of all time.

Rating: 94/100

Horrible Bosses

"Why would you put his whole bathroom in your ass?"  Hilarious film about three men (Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis) who, simply put, want their bosses gone.  Permanently.  You see, these bosses are not ordinary people, but are terrible, terrible assholes who make life a living Hell for their employees.  To off their bosses, the three hire a hit-man (Jamie Foxx) to help them do the job.  Instead, he becomes their "murder consultant," as the men decide to off each other's bosses.  What really makes this movie great is the cast (which also includes Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell, and, in a brilliant role, Jennifer Aniston), with a brief appearance by Donald Sutherland to top it all off.  The story seems rather fresh, and the gags aren't overly crude (my favorite is the "spilled cocaine" scene).  This is a must-see for everyone, especially people who, unlike me, hate their bosses.

Rating: 86/100

Bad Teacher

"Hold my ball sack."  Moderately amusing, albeit not completely intriguing film about a woman (Cameron Diaz) who wants what every girl wants: to be taken care of by a rich husband.  To pass the time, she becomes a middle school teacher.  Of course, she doesn't care about the job, only about getting surgery to make her breasts larger, and uses every dirty trick in the book (and then some) to get her way.  A likable cast (including Justin Timberlake and Jason Segel in excellent supporting roles) can't save this movie from being more than a few cheap laughs at the expense of one bitch or another (seriously, the women in this movie are incredible bitches).  This would be a good movie to watch if you have absolutely nothing better to do.  Still, it is charming in its own way, but it will never be more than a simple comedy.

Rating: 63/100

Just Go with It

"You know, I gotta say, last night, with the coconut in the ass, kind of a red flag." Sweet, and (surprisingly) charming romantic comedy, Just Go with It is a remake of the 1969 film Cactus Flower (which I have yet to see). Simply put, plastic surgeon Danny Maccabee (Adam Sandler, naturally) wants to woo totally gorgeous math teacher Palmer Dodge (played by one of my favorite supermodels, the voluptuous Brooklyn Decker), so he asks his assistant, divorced mother of two Katherine Murphy (Jennifer Aniston) to pose as his soon-to-be ex-wife (and her kids to pose as his kids) after Dodge discovers his wedding ring (a holdover from a cancelled marriage many years earlier). The plot really kicks off after the group (accompanied by Danny's cousin Eddie, posing as Murphy's lover) head to Hawaii for a vacation, leading to all sorts of mayhem (albeit a slightly more subtle mayhem than one would normally find in an Adam Sandler film), as everyone attempts to avoid blowing their cover. Surprisingly good, I really think this movie is a lot better than the (professional) critics have given it credit for (I personally think Adam Sandler is a good actor, albeit one who is always cast in average movies). Great fun, this seems like a good movie for date night.


Rating: 75/100

Zombieland

"Time to nut up or shut up."  Who would have thought that a straight-up horror flick could be a great comedy as well?  Zombieland is the story of a boy, a man, and two girls who try to survive against a horde of (surprisingly fast) zombies.  As they travel through a land littered with corpses, zombies, wreckage, abandoned autos (and the occasional tank, showing you just how bad things were), they come to learn to work together and (especially for the girls) trust each other, even if they piss each other off (royally).  Featuring some pretty awesome kills (solo "dueling banjo" and "Zombie Kill of the Week," anyone?), Bill Murray (see for yourself, why don't you?), useful tips for surviving the zombie apocalypse and a sh*tload of gore, Zombieland is pretty freakin' awesome.

Rating: 90/100

"Thank God for rednecks!"

Flight of the Intruder

"Seven hundred bucks damage, thirty men in the brig and... an alligator injured. And you got away?" Based on an excellent novel by former naval aviator Stephen Coonts, Flight of the Intruder is a mediocre film that features a mixed bag of actors, painfully obvious special effects (just look at the tracer rounds in the attack on Hanoi), and a depressing ending that did not feature in the source novel. Willem Dafoe, Danny Glover, and Brad Johnson give respectable performances, but they can't keep this movie afloat (pun intended). The only reason I consider it "great" is because it's just so awful that it's fairly entertaining (thanks to camp value).

Rating: 40/100

Wizards

"They've killed Fritz!"  Made by animation master Ralph Bakshi, this violent, bleak, but witty film is absolutely delightful to watch.  Not a good family movie (in spite of the PG rating), this is meant mostly for teenagers and adults, and for good reason: the plot involves good wizards and fairies using magic to fight against an evil wizard who had requisitioned old war machines long after a nuclear war wiped out humanity.  Of course, the evil wizard is the brother of Avatar, a wisecracking, hard-drinking, but ultimately good wizard.  The villains are clearly based on the Nazis (the bad guy even finds and uses an old Nazi propaganda film, and is referred to as the Fuhrer, among other references to Hitler's Germany), while the heroes are a ragtag bunch consisting of Avatar, the daughter of the murdered president, a warrior, and one of the evil robots (who has been turned good by Avatar).  The ending is simply awesome, to say the least.  Much of the battle footage was taken from war films and traced over, resulting in very psychedelic combat scenes that add an extra depth to this cheaply-animated film.  Listen closely for Mark Hamill's voice (his last name is misspelled in the credits though).

Rating: 90/100

Iron Eagle

This movie is terrible.   I recommend it profusely, because it is one of those movies that is just so bad that it's good.   The special effects are crappy, the plot is stupid and boring, and most (but not all) of the acting is second-rate.  It's good, campy fun, and Louis Gossett Jr. gives a good performance, which helps carry this movie (as does a kick-ass soundtrack).  Plus, it's about a 16-year-old stealing and F-16 to rescue his father (who was shot down over the Middle East), so it does get amusing at times.  There are 3 sequels, all of which are just as bad.

Rating: 30/100