Tropic Thunder is a biting satire on the state of Hollywood filmmaking and prima donna status if big name actors in the industry, and amid all the controversy you would expect the film to have little more edge to it. Not to sell Ben Stiller’s writing-directing-producing work short, the film is very well done, and nearly every joke hits its mark, but you wonder if more than a few punches were pulled at the last minute to guarantee all those involved would actually be able to work in the industry they were skewering again.

Stiller stars as Tugg Speedman, a lagging action star responsible for the ubiquitous Scorcher series of films now in its sixth installment as the pre-movie faux trailers tell us. Speedman took a disastrous turn as a “full retard” in Simple Jack an award-fishing expedition lambasted as one of the worst films ever made. Speedman signs on to Tropic Thunder (also the name of the movie within the movie) to rejuvenate his career alongside one-joke comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) who farts a lot and Australian method actor Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey, Jr.) who dons blackface and a clichéd African-American persona. The internal film’s director, Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) receives and ultimatum from studio head Les Grossman (scene stealing Tom Cruise) leading Cockburn to drop his actors in the middle of a drug warfare zone and shoot the film guerilla style.

All of the leads bring their A-game but it’s the roles by Downey, Jr., Cruise, and supporting roles of Jay Baruchel and Danny McBride that really propel the movie to the next level. Cruise’s involvement was meant to be kept a secret to surprise the audience, and even with pictures on the net and syndicated reporting, you could still hear “That’s Tom Cruise!” exclaimed throughout the theater when he first appears litter the room with profanities. Coming off Iron Man, Robert Downey, Jr. look to continue his career high with an excellent portrayal of method actors and the extreme lengths they go through to preserve the illusion on and off camera. Baruchel, late of Knocked Up and TV’s Undeclared, plays the straight man in the ensemble and McBride, seen only last week in Pineapple Express brings the pyro-obsessed FX-master Cody to life.

The opening segments of the film are the most rewarding with the trailers highlighting the careers of each of the three leads and the in-movie filming of the big finale of Tropic Thunder complete with a $4 million dollar explosion (in which the camera wasn’t rolling) offer up the most laughs. As the film progresses and the characters become aware that they are no longer actors in a guerilla style war film, but civilians being captured by drug runners the movie loses a little bit of the spark that initially drew you in, the satire is gone as the film devolves into your basic war-time comedy.

One of the problems is the characters are never really developed beyond their eccentricities, Speedman is the classic action star looking for a serious role and recognition and respect, Lazarus is the quirky Australian who excels at acting naturally, and Portnoy is basically a combination of Belushi and Farley rolled into the flatulent stylings of Eddie Murphy. The secondary characters play one note throughout, and while these notes are funny, it only lends to the belief that so much more could have been done with this picture.

Just like the beginning the ending also brings a host of laughs as a mock Oscar ceremony finds our heroes sometime after the completion of the film and a final dancing scene presents the credits to you in one of the most disturbing manners possible.

The hype that has preceded Tropic Thunder may be its biggest enemy as its almost impossible to live up to the expectations of being a razor-sharp satire on movie making. At the core this is what Stiller and company were going for, but in reality the audience is treated to a fair amount of satire before just settling for what we get.

There’s no easy way to review Scary Movie 4. On one hand it’s a disjointed, plot-lacking film held together with a series of jokes that may or may not be funny depending on your sense of humor. On the other, the jokes are usually pretty damn funny and the spoofs they gravitate towards may not be comedy gems in the eyes of most professional critics, but lose looking for a laugh on a Saturday afternoon, Scary Movie 4 fits the bill.

Returning for her fourth outing is Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) who once again has to deal with a set of unusual circumstances involving an alien plot to invade the earth. Joining her is a cast of many including cameos and holdovers from Scary Movie 3. In fact, the fourth installment in the series does an adequate job of bridging the gap between the two films by showing us where characters are only a few years later.

The main movie being spoofed here is The War of the Worlds in which Tom Ryan (Craig Bierko) takes on the role played by Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg’s underwhelming original. Complete with kids that hate him, Ryan must save his family from an alien attack after a ‘TriPod’ erupts from the street and begins to vaporize the curious human beings. There really isn’t any need for spoiler warnings, but the puppet from Saw and the dead kid from The Grudge play an important part in moving the story along.

This is really a love-it or hate-it movie, but comedy veterans David Zucker and Jim Abrahams have put together a film that is funny consistently through with enough jokes and gross out moments to keep you chuckling all the way though. Although the belly laughs aren’t as constant as you would imagine, re-watching Scary Movie 3 on cable proved that the series can remain consistently funny even years after their release.

In an auspicious bit of cameo casting Charlie Sheen reprises his role from Scary Movie 3 only to be a tormented man sleeping with three women and wanting to end his life. How he chooses to do this is one of the most awkwardly funny suicides in movie history. We also get a cameo from Carmen Electra in a bowel-moving episode guaranteed to make you vomit a little bit in your mouth. Finally, Leslie Nielson returning as the President is a welcome addition to the cast and his speech to the United Nations is priceless once his clothes are zapped off.

The series still has its edge, even though the fourth installment does show a little bit of aging. Still, with so many movies released every year, there’s plenty of material abound for the creators to pull more material for the series guaranteed fifth installment. With such worthy candidates as The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible III, and X-Men: The Last Stand all opening this summer, the next Scary Movie is one sequel I can’t wait to see.

With all the hoopla surrounding political films this year, who would have thought that the most powerful political statement would come from the twisted, yet funny, minds of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park? Their latest film, Team America: World Police is a satirical look at US Foreign Policy while poking fun at the liberal media, liberal members of Hollywood, and a certain leader of a country North of South Korea. In fact, the only people that were spared from Parker and Stones biting wit were those lambasted in Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 which debuted earlier this year.

The premise of the film is just about as insane as you can get, but here it goes. In order to infiltrate a terrorist group operating in possession of WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction), a Charlie’s Angels like organization called Team America calls upon the services of an actor to go under disguise and find the WMDs. The group is lead by Spottswoode, who rides around in a mechanical chair while watching the action from Headquarters (this leads to one of the movies funniest jokes). The team finally figures out that North Korea is behind the planned attack on the world, and that countries leader, Kim Jong Il enlists the Film Actors Guild in a trick to destroy Team America.

Along the way, there will be puppet sex, loads of violence, singing, dancing, cocktails, and certain “favors.” The film has been labeled an equal opportunity offender, and those with who are portrayed in the movie may not like the way they come across. The fact that Parker and Stone don’t seem to fall into the camp of either Republicans or Democrats leaves the door wide open for both sides to be torn to shreds.

Taking the full brunt of the comedic lambasting are the members of the Film Actors Guild (whose abbreviation leads to many of the movies jokes). One actor, in particular, is reamed again and again, this actor is Alec Baldwin. Joining him in the Guild are Helen Hunt, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, George Clooney, Samuel L. Jackson, and a host of other celebrities who have been outspoken against the war in Iraq. Most are done away with at the hands of Team America, with Robbins, Michael Moore, and Sean Penn getting the worst demises.

Like Parker and Stone’s previous film, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, Team America hosts more than a few musical numbers, which are easily the highlight of the film. I found it curious that the soundtrack won’t be released for another two weeks, but that already comes highly recommended. The Team America theme song, simply titled “America, F**K Yeah!” is one of the funniest things you will hear all year. Most of the songs are performed by Trey Parker (or DVDA if you prefer) and show the comic might that both he and Stone possess. Also, remember that freedom costs about $1.05.

Finally, the center piece of the film was the sex scene between two marionette puppets that are no where near anatomically correct. The scene initially caused the film to receive an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, but after some cuts, an R-rating was finally awarded. Most scenes in films that receive such hype are usually a let down in their final form, but not this one. The two puppets engage in what can only be described as one of the funniest scenes in film all year as they switch positions a number of times and caused the audience to be in tears upon conclusion. Unfortunately, the scene is over much sooner than you would like to be, but the shock and awe of it has you rolling.

The use of marionette puppets may be questioned by some, but moving from cardboard cut-outs and computer animation isn’t that big of a step. Now, if the film looked like garbage, I may have a different story to tell, but the settings and miniatures used are beautiful, to say the least. And if you ever wanted to see a puppet spew 78 gallons of puke and then pass out in it, you needn’t wait any longer.

Team America may very well be the funniest movie of the year. While it lacks the same hard wit that Parker and Stone deliver to public figures on their TV show, it certainly makes up for it in being an original film that spoofs and offends evenly across the board. It’s certainly not for those who are easily offended, but if you enjoy the creator’s previous work, you’ll feel right at home watching puppets blow the brains out of other puppets.

Those crazy Brits have got to be doing something right across the pond. After the success of 28 Days Later in their homeland the film stormed American cinemas and made my top 10 list last year, now another zombie film tried to make it big in the US, but can a romantic comedy with zombies really work? You bet your ass it can.

What Shaun of the Dead (taking its title as an homage to George Romero’s perennial Dawn of the Dead) does really well is be an entertaining film that successfully merges many genres of filmmaking into one, creating a hodgepodge of side-bursting comedy and horror and mixes it all together, with a few scoops of brains, and melds one of the best films of the year. Realistically, I haven’t had a better time at the movies in a very long time. Aside from the “groundbreaking” dramas and the “funniest movies of the year” comedies you rarely get to go to a film that is so enjoyable, you actually don’t want it to end, because you know the real world, with its “real” movies will be waiting just around the corner.

Shaun of the Dead centers around the title character, Shaun (Simon Pegg), and his everyday activities, which are leading him down the road of an eternal loser, and how his seemingly normal life is impacted by the zombie threat. One of the most clever portions of the film’s script is we never get a real cause for the arrival of the zombies. While characters are flipping through channels we get bits and pieces of how the virus might have first come in contact with humans, but a solid explanation is never given. Shaun is struggling to keep his girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield), interested, and after he recommends his favorite tavern for a romantic dinner things are through. Just as it seems as though things can’t get any worse it does, and the zombies arrive on the scene (although calling them that is bad luck). Shaun is totally oblivious to this fact until a close encounter puts him in the spotlight to save his friends, and escape the undead.

First and foremost think about what a melding of the comedy and horror genres would be like with a dry British wit and none of the Wayan’s brothers within 5000 miles, and this is what you would expect. The jokes are funny, the visual cues are funnier, and the dialog is the best. Shaun of the Dead has a smart, witty, fast script that doesn’t sit around with one joke too long and has life to make even the undead…well…pretty damn lively. Whereas Dawn of the Dead had the underscore of consumerism in our society, Shaun of the Dead follows the same trend in making the everyday, working man look like a mindless fiend bent on getting through the day alive only to plod through another. This joke is alluded to earlier in the film before it is blatantly summarized in the closing montage.

Towards the climax the comedy routine seems to taper off as the horror aspect clearly makes its mark. For a comedy you may not find a more gruesome 90 minutes as far as dismemberment and bloodshed, and no, sitting through Along Came Polly doesn’t count as gruesome, only retarded. For the squeamish there are a few instances they might want to avoid, including the vivid dismemberment of a human at the hands of a gang of zombies. Unlike the walking undead of 28 Days Later and the Dawn of the Dead remake, these are your standard slow zombies, who are so transfixed on their next helping of brains that they are easy enough to get by in small numbers.

Shaun of the Dead has sleeper hit written all over it, and it would be one if it didn’t shatter the British box office earlier this year. The film is ripe with social commentary, gore, violence, language, and a bit of a relationship troubles for the ladies out there. While the plot itself isn’t anything particularly new, the execution and writing make the film one of the very best of the year and a must see for anyone who has grown tired of traditional cinema and is looking for something that is 99.9% pure entertainment.

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.

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.

Undercover Brother may be the funniest movie of the year, or the second funniest considering we have Austin Powers waiting in the wings, but for the first part of summer, Undercover Brother is the funniest movie of the year.

The film’s plot, while approaching the line of ludicrous and offensive, centers around a secret conspiracy in the world to undermine the influence of African-American culture. The group headed by “The Man” is out to tame the farthest reaches of black culture in order to keep things the way there are in the world. Out to stop them is the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. (don’t even ask me what it stands for) a group of freedom fighters looking to take out “The Man.” Even for a comedy the plot is paper thin (I call them Kate Moss Plots!). The Brotherhood recruits Undercover Brother to help infiltrate “The Man’s” business practices and uncover the dirt that is going down.

It seems that a prominent African-American general may be running for President and that is the last thing “The Man” wants to see, so they use a mind controlling substance to take over the general’s thoughts and make him open a chain of Fried Chicken Restaurants (get it Colonel, General, see it’s poking fun at KFC!). The Conspirators plan is to use the Fried Chicken to spread the substance to every African-American citizen of the US and successfully purge the political and cultural influences from the United States in whole.

Eddie Griffin stars as Undercover Brother with a great supporting cast in the form of Denise Richards as White She Devil and Chris Kattan as Mr. Feather who, himself, seems to have an overdoes of influence from the hip-hop community. Richards excels as her character and looks as hot as ever in her tight little….uh…err Kattan, who is expected to leave SNL soon after the departure of Will Ferrell, is utterly hilarious as Mr. Feather and shows that even though he doesn’t get lots of screen time on Saturday Night Live, Chris sure is a funny guy.

The movie is funny, there is no doubt about that one. With the playful humor on the differences between the different races, and the types of stereotypically characters portrayed. While everyone in the movie has their moments no one is funnier than Dave Chappelle, he steals the show as Conspiracy Brother and rightfully so, the man is h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s.

While never winning any awards for originality, acting, plot, or anything those stuck-up blue-hairs at the Academy look for, the movie is funnier than anything else to come out in a long time, and should only be outshined by New Line’s upcoming entry into the Austin Power’s franchise.

Not Another Teen Movie is not going to win any awards in anyone’s book. The movie is cliché, the characters lack anything resemble character (and therefore a brain), and the acting is sub par at best, but that is what makes this movie so much fun to watch.