With all the family fare at the box office this month its nice to see a studio go up against the droves of people heading off to the movies over Thanksgiving and giving them a film so anti-family I smiled with glee knowing I wasn’t going to be in a crowded theater surrounded by screaming kids. Instead I got old women who had to read the credits out loud to each other to make sure they saw them, and a group of people who don’t know the first thing about theater edict. Still, all of that wasn’t going to ruin a good time, and Bad Santa shows us that even Jolly Ol’ St. Nick can have a wild, drunken side.

Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) and Marcus (Tony Cox) have a good thing going. They get a mall to hire them on as Santa and his elf, respectably, scope out the security system, and break into a department store safe. This year’s scam is in Arizona (albeit a fake mall), of all places, but this time stealing Santa will have to deal with an up-tight manager (the late John Ritter), and a nosey security guard (Bernie Mac). Through all of this Willie eventually begins shacking up with a kid (Brett Kelly) and banging a bartender (Lauren Graham) who has a “thing” for Santa Claus.

The story, by no means, is the movie’s strongest suit, but Thornton’s portrayal of an alcoholic, over-sexed old man who hates kids and just wants his money is, by far, the highest point of the film. There is just something about a guy dressed up as Santa vomiting, pissing himself, and having unconventional sex with big & tall women that makes you laugh out loud. Not succumbing to the lowest denominator, the film isn’t a gross out comedy, even though it does contain a great many gags that could be attributed to such a genre film. Rather the delivery of lines makes this film funny as Willie has to cope with living with a kid who idolizes him and keep himself from destroying himself.

There are a few running gags throughout the film such as a clueless grandma who takes great pleasure in making sandwiches and the many trials Willie’s drinking brings on. Some of the best jokes are given away in the trailers (like always) but there is still a great deal in this film to get you laughing.

Many may be offended by how the filmmakers portray the image of Santa Claus, but only at one time does Willie have on the “full” Santa suit to the point where it might hide his persona, throughout the rest of the film he slowly looses interest and the desire to look anything like the jolly, fat one. This film may be the reason Santa and Satan are so close together in spelling.

As mentioned before the story isn’t anywhere near the quality you would expect from the winter’s awards hopefuls, but its nice to see somewhat write down a semi-intelligent, funny script that raises the middle finger to award fishing and comes away on a higher horse than it rode in on. Bad Santa is the very definition of what can happen when a few guys get together and decide to release some pent up anger on the present-bearer, but I couldn’t think of a more funny way to see a guy in a red suit toss empty whiskey bottles at $70,000 sports cars.

It’s not PC, and I couldn’t think of any other way I would want it to be. If you are looking for a funny, dark comedy this holiday season this should hold you over till the epic that is The Return of the King hits theaters in a few short weeks.

If there ever was a review proof genre, the spoof would take number one prize for simply being what it is. As American’s we like to see things be dramatic and compelling, then we like to see some sick, funny guy come back through and do a, “What if,” with the script. Like, “What if Morpheus was a cow,” or “What if I make the aliens kick you in the nuts?” All of these questions, well at least some of them, can be answered in a well written, cleverly composed spoof, and it doesn’t matter what the critics think, the American people will wonder to these films like candy.

Enter Scary Movie 3, the third film in the horror/spoof franchise developed by the Wayans brothers. Scary Movie set new records for distributor Miramax (something Scary Movie 3 topped in its first weekend) and showed that the spoof comedy-sub-genre was still alive and kicking after being beaten to death during the 1980’s, in part by David Zucker, SC3‘s directory. After the Wayans decided not to pursue the third (and possible fourth) installments of the series, Miramax turned to comedy veteran Zucker (Airplane, The Naked Gun) and a cast of new and returning characters to ream such high profile movies as Signs and The Ring.

Scary Movie 3‘s choice to go after such films seems to be a better choice than the tongue-in-cheek Scream (Scary Movie 1) and the disappointingly lackluster House on Haunted Hill (Scary Movie 2). The story boils down to two seemingly incompatible storylines that begin to intertwine and shed the light on why aliens may be readying an attack on earth, and what key a mysterious tape holds.

Breaking away from the R-rating helped Scary Movie 3 more than it hurt it. The film is now much more accessible to the common teenager and it prevented then from going crazy with penises again (something the Wayans brothers had a particular fascination for). Don’t count out the gross out jokes though. The film still features its fair share of going over the top in both visuals and taste. There are more than a few scenes that should get a few people’s panties in a bunch, but it is all in good fun.

The ensemble cast includes Charlie Sheen, Anna Faris, Anthony Anderson, Simon Rex, and Leslie Nielson with cameos by Jenny McCarthy, Eddie Griffin, Queen Latifah, and Pamela Anderson. There are other cameos throughout but half the fun is finding them for yourself, especially a dead-on interpretation of what we all heard during a certain, confusing sequence of The Matrix Reloaded.

Like I said, this film is review proof simply from the fact that it throws so many jokes at the wall and gets you to laugh at the ones that stick, or at least appear to. There are times when gags fall immediately flat, but then you are treated to some true crown jewels that will stand out in comedy history for ever. Charlie Sheen stands out as a spoof of Mel Gibson’s character in Signs and literally steals the entire movie when he finds out his wife (Denise Richards) has been pinned to a tree by a car.

Regardless of my qualms and quips with the movie, you aren’t going to cinematic glory in it’s finest for, you are going to see the man responsible for some of the funniest spoofs ever craft the Scary Movie franchise into a new form and makes Scary Movie 3 the best film in the franchise to date. We can only hope Scary Movie 4 will become a reality, sooner than later.

The Rock has arrived, pure and simple. The Rundown may be a simple movie, with a simple storyline that wouldn’t normally be considered a star-making film, but for the wrestler turned actor, the movie represents a coming of age and a succession to the throne.

Please note, The Rundown would be nothing without the performances of the main actors, in fact I’m betting that they were specifically written, for the most part, for the thespians that step into their shoes. The film starts off in a night club where Beck (The Rock) confronts a football player on some past bets he placed, and his lack of payment. After a hilariously awkward first confrontation, and a one-liner from The Terminator himself, Beck returns to collect what he came for and opens the film with a very well choreographed, entertaining fight sequence. The film has style and this is evident in the way the director approaches the fighting in the film, as well as the dialog. It sounds simple and trivial, but the added ESPN-like character introductions in the beginning were very, very cool and never overused.

After Beck gets the short end of the stick from his bookie employer he is sent on one last job to Brazil where Travis (Seann William Scott), his boss’ son, is hiding out from some people he shouldn’t have crossed. Once Beck meets up with Travis the movie really begins. But where would a movie be without a quirky, twisted antagonist in the form of Christopher Walken’s Hatcher? Walken brings to the screen the hilarity we usually only get to see on his guest stints on SNL. Scott, brining himself away from the peanut-brained Stifler from American Wedding also delivers his usual charismatic performance as a novice-archeologist hunting for a rare find in the jungle.

The film is just one of those movies that comes along, usually out of no where, and broadsides you as a fun, witty, enjoyable piece of filmmaking that isn’t fishing for an Oscar, but isn’t settling for the lowest common denominator either. What you get is a cleverly put together buddy/action comedy (sans the buddy part) that features two of the hottest stars in Hollywood trekking through the Brazilian jungle. Being strung up in trees and violated by monkeys just adds to the fun.

The action scenes are what you pay for, and action is what you get. Beck, in the beginning, refuses to use guns, opting to only punish his victims with his fists, but in a hairy situation two shotguns make their appearance and the crowd went nuts. As I explained in my review of Underworld, it is rare that you see an audience get so involved in a movie that they cheer along with every gun blast, but it happened here.

The best reason I can determine for this interaction is The Rundown is an extremely fun movie. It won’t win any awards, it won’t even be nominated for them, but anyone who makes it to the movies this weekend, or next, to see this film will be pleasantly surprised they ever doubted the acting abilities and uber-coolness of Dwayne Johnson after his no-line portrayal of The Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns and his staring role in the film named after that character.

Truth be told The Rock makes this film enjoyable, and even if you aren’t one to watch wrestling (which I am not) you will still have fun with such a pop-culture icon as The Rock. The Rundown is one of the best reasons to go to the movies this fall.

David Spade will have a lot more time on his hands now that his sitcom, Just Shoot Me, has meet the wrath of the cancellation man. Still, Spade has a sharp tongue and a friend, Adam Sandler, who has ties all over the place with his Happy Madison production company

Dickie Roberts is a former child actor starring in a show called The Glimmer Gang and is best known for his infamous catch phrase, “This is nucking futs!”, but after his show is canceled he is left high and dry without his mother who left him. Now 30 years later Dickie hears about a role in a new Rob Reiner film from his poker buddies (composed of various former child stars). Dickie goes to meet Reiner, who says he would be perfect for the role, but having never experienced childhood he doesn’t believe Dickie has the emotional capacity (and baggage) to do well in the role. So Dickie gets the great idea of hiring a family and treating him like a kid for a month so he can get the research material he needs to land the role.

The family he moves in with is comprised of a neglectful husband, George, who wants to use Dickie to help promote his used car dealership, Grace, the mom who can’t stick up for herself. They also have two children who want nothing to do with Dickie. Things get interesting when Dickie’s girlfriend NAME (Alyssa Milano) comes back after being “kidnapped” hitchhiking in the beginning of the film to add a new foil to the normal life he has settled in to.

Dickie Roberts suffers from the same genre curse that most of Sandler’s movies had, they slowly wane in the jokes halfway through and then become focuses on the story elements from then on. The problem here is the story elements are never nearly enough to support the entire film, as they are paper thin to begin with. Although Jon Lovitz does kick up the humor a bit as Sidney, Dickie’s agent.

The story itself is by the book as well. Dickie moves in, faces opposition from the kids, who label him “stranger danger,” and ends up earning the respect of the kids and helping them out in their personal lives. Dickie also helps Grace stick up for herself against prudish, bible-thumping neighbors who you would just like to punch and kick to the curb, but they move out because of a “hare” raising incident with a rabbit. (Sorry)

As a comedy the film is lacking in the laughs, as described above, but as a fun little movie that tells a thin story that actually has you intrigued, and makes you laugh every couple of minutes, Dickie Roberts is a great little film. Spade is in no way up to par with his hilarious antics seen in Tommy Boy and Black Sheep, or on Saturday Night Live, but he does bring personality to the film and his sharp wit is unparalleled once he gets going. It won’t win any Oscars, but do you think they were trying to?

Regardless of Johnny English‘s box office take in the United States the movie is already a certifiable hit overseas. The film broke $100 million dollars across the pond and now enters the US market to add a bit of padding to that number. The film stars Rowan “Mr. Bean” Atkinson as Johnny English a lower level agent in a top secret military organization called MI-7. MI-7 is similar to MI-6 in the James Bond series which English does a heavy job in spoofing.

Many may wonder if another spy spoof was need so long after the abysmal I Spy and the so-so Leslie Nelson flop Spy Hard, but where those movies failed to do nothing more than present visual jokes akin to the likes of Bond’s endeavors, Johnny English doesn’t just copy the stunts and action of the series it makes fun of, it has it’s own off-the-wall story to follow and presents some very funny moments.

The film starts out with, oddly enough, the entire staff of MI-7 being killed in an explosion at the funeral of Agent One, the best agent there ever was, and the man Johnny English strives to be. Since all of the other agents are killed in action, and then seemingly forgot about, English is promoted to find out who stole the Queen’s royal jewels and to get them back along with his much-more-intelligent sidekick Bough (Ben Miller). The character of English is based off of a television commercial spokesman, also played by Atkinson, and where you would think the transition would be hard for a commercial character to make it on the big screen, it seems to work perfectly. Along the way Johnny and Bough run into the stunning Lorna Campbell (singer turned actress Natalie Imbruglia) and the crazy Frenchman Pascal Sauvage (John Malkovich).

Johnny English‘s script was penned by the man responsible for the last two Bond movies, The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day, so the spy/action genre is nothing new to them. They present English with many opportunities to seal the deal on this case, and have him messing each one of them up, some more humorous than others. The problem with most of the jokes, and this has been noted by fellow critics abroad, is everything is staged so blatantly that you can figure out a joke minutes before it is suppose to happen. When it ultimately does, it is still funny, but doesn’t have the same laugh factor as if it was sprung upon you.

Atkinson does a great job as the bumbling English, who doesn’t quite get how to be a spy, but does deliver us some funny moments. Most you have already seen in the trailer but an inadvertent visit to a funeral, and his sports car suspended above London traffic both are rewarding scenes. The movie even jumps into some of the bodily fluid humor more akin to American Pie with a trip up a suspicious looking pipe and plenty of man-ass. Imbruglia as INTERPOL agent Campbell also does a great job in one of her first feature film acting roles. It doesn’t hurt her case in any way that she is impossibly beautiful. Malkovich’s Sauvage, who is trying to be crowned King of England, is a bit over dramatic but opens the door for a wealth of French jokes and the English driven movie makes good on each one of them.

Aside from the customary lame-brained script and jokes you can see a mile away; Johnny English provides the next best thing to Austin Powers in the spy spoof genre. While it seems we may not get another Austin Powers movie we can only hope that Working Title and Universal step up and turn Johnny English into a surprisingly funny franchise. The film won’t blow your socks off, but you couldn’t ask for a more fun 90 minute diversion on a hot summer day.

Weird Al Yankovic, the Prince of Parody, returns with his latest studio album, Poodle Hat, and it sure to please any Al fan as well as anyone who loves a good laugh. Poodle Hat is filled with 12 tracks that poke fun at everything from constipation to the selling of pure crap on online auction site eBay. While some of the songs Al chooses to parody are rather old (the Backstreet Boys namely) they never fail to hit their mark and bring a smile to your face. Be warned, listening to this CD in the car is liable to cause an accident.

If more than anything Al’s last three CDs have been his best, in my opinion. While the stuff from the 1980s was more heavy on parody, Bad Hair Day, Running with Scissors, and Poodle Hat have opened the door wider to Al’s original works. With songs like the 11 minute “Albuquerque” (which Editor entopia_john can do from memory) and “Hardware Store” we begin to see, not only does Yankovic have the ability to make fun of other people, he can write some independently funny stuff as well.

The disc starts off with the highly publicized “Couch Potato” which parodies Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” from his 2002 hit, 8 Mile. While Em gave instructions to not record the song as a single, or release a video, he did allow Al to include it on his CD. Some tend to believe this is for the better as “Couch Potato” doesn’t compare to the likes of “Amish Paradise” or “The Saga Begins.” What really stands out are the Avril Lavigne parody “A Complicated Song” and Nelly stab “Trash Day.” Both feature laugh-out-loud new lyrics which really show how talented Al is as a song writer. “Ode to a Superhero,” set to the tune of “Piano Man” reflects on the recent blockbuster Spider-Man and features some genuinely funny lyrics.

Some might be disappointed with Poodle Hat’s polka entitled “Angry White Boy Polka” as Al takes to singing songs from the likes of Disturbed, Papa Roach, and The Vines. Maybe nothing can stand up against Bad Hair Day’s awesome “The Alternative Polka.” Rounding out the last of the parodies is the previously mentioned Backstreet Boys inspired “eBay” which may contain some of the album’s funniest lyrics.

All in all the disc offers a wide variety of humor including “Bob” which is a song made up entirely of palindromes. People out there believe writing a song with lots of “power” in the lyrics is true workmanship, try writing a song where every line is the same backwards and forwards.

If you actually decide to purchase the CD you get some extra content hosted by Al who greets, and thanks, you for not downloading it off the internet. While Poodle Hat may not be on the same level as a classic like Bad Hair Day it still offers the intriguingly witty humor and general “poking-fun-at” we have come to know and love from Weird Al and we couldn’t ask for anything else.

Hollywood Homicide will forever be billed as a new millennium Lethal Weapon, and Sony seems to be keen on that fact looking over the films recent television campaign. Not that being a Lethal Weapon clone is a bad thing, but would it totally kill the screenwriter to include something original?

Homicide as a film feels as though it is lost finding a voice to speak above and beyond that of other buddy comedies that have come and gone over the years. Rush Hour, Shanghai Noon, Rush Hour 2, Shanghai Knights, oh hell anything with Jackie Chan and some other guy can qualify for this distinction. The pairing of Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett provides some good onscreen chemistry, and plenty of laughs, but as the film progresses you absolutely loose sight of where it is going.

Joe Gavilan (Harrison Ford) is a detective by day and real estate agent by night who gets the call to investigate the shooting of an up and coming hip-hop group, H20 Klick, with his young partner K.C. Calden who moonlights as a Yoga instructor, when not solving murders. The majority of the movie is based on finding one witness who saw the shooters and may have some information on Sartain, the record label executive who may or may not have been involved in the shooting. Realistically the movie plays out as an extended episode of Law & Order with more humor and needless “romance” scenes.

The film seems merely content with just cracking an extreme line of jokes about certain aspects of Hollywood culture while straying away from anything relating to the plot. In fact, if it wasn’t for the trailer and the initial killing in the beginning you couldn’t even assume there was a script for this movie. Granted, the jokes almost always hit their mark and are funny, but then the audience is thrown a curve ball in the form of Gavilan being investigated by Internal Affairs because the head honcho over there has an axe to grind. Then we learn about a certain ex-cop who killed his partner, conveniently Calden’s father, who is working for Sartain’s record company. It’s leaps like this that really sheds light on the fact that actors were chosen first and the script was worried about later.

Not all is bad in Hollywood though. There is a very cool car chase scene towards the end of the film with an Escalade and a Saleen Mustang (which is horrifying to watch as it gets smashed) and a particularly funny foot pursuit over a series of bridges also adds to the fun. Also, as stated before the jokes do manage to hit their mark with surprising accuracy and you do have fun watching the film, but as a whole you are left to wonder what in the hell is going on before you are able to understand anything.

Hollywood Homicide is your standard summer fare, and a semi-worthy diversion to the norm, but it isn’t something that couldn’t wait till DVD or even cable to spend your money on to rent or view. The relationship between the two characters works well enough that the film just screams “sequel” but hopefully they won’t forget to write a script next time.