Link round-up 7/26

Theoretically, I have been on vacation this week, so there's not a lot going on.

Movies

• Video segment on Coraline DVD

TV

• The Wendy Williams Show review

Link round-up 7/17

Movies

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince review
• Ghost Month DVD review
• Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast with Las Vegas Weekly Managing Editor Ken Miller
• Video segment on new DVD releases (mostly TV shows, actually)

TV

• Labor Pains review
• Michael and Michael Have Issues review

Link round-up 7/11

Movies

• Blood: The Last Vampire review
• Every Little Step review
• Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast with Roger Erik Tinch of CineVegas
• Video segment on DVD releases
• Video segment on Brüno and Moon

TV

• Drop Dead Diva review

Link round-up 7/5

Unfortunately, technical difficulties scrapped the video segment on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen that I was promising last week.

Movies

• Public Enemies review
• Food, Inc. review
• Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast with Brian Black
• Video segment on new DVD releases (this looks to be the beginning of a weekly thing)

TV

• Warehouse 13 review
• 10 Things I Hate About You review

Link round-up 6/28

There should be a video segment on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen posted soon, but it's not up yet.

Movies

• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen review
• Away We Go review
• Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast with Jeffrey K. Howard of Vegas Film Critic

TV

• Hung review
• List of five current summer shows to watch
• List of the best TV comedies of 2009 so far

Link round-up 6/18

Yeah, I haven't even kept up on these brief posts as I said I would, but in fairness, I was very busy with CineVegas this last week (as you can see). Here's what I've been up to for the last two weeks.

Movies

• The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 review
• The Proposal review

TV

• The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien review

CineVegas

• Profile of local filmmakers Jerry and Mike Thompson
• Interview with Vegas: Based on a True Story director Amir Naderi
• Story on The Revenant director Kerry Prior
• Saint John of Las Vegas review
• The Square review
• Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo review
• (500) Days of Summer review
• Daylight review
• Thor at the Bus Stop review
• The Revenant review
• Humpday review
• Godspeed review
• World's Greatest Dad review
• Shorts programs wrap-up
• Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast, CineVegas edition, with Las Vegas Weekly contributor Julie Seabaugh

Link round-up 6/4

Movies

• The Hangover review
• Land of the Lost review
• Interview with Hue Rhodes, director of CineVegas opening film Saint John of Las Vegas
• Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast with Las Vegas Weekly Managing Editor Ken Miller
• Video segment on The Hangover

TV

• Royal Pains review
• Nurse Jackie review

Link round-up 5/29

Movies

• Up review
• The Girlfriend Experience review
• Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast with filmmaker and comedian Jason Harris

Link round-up 5/22

Movies

• Terminator Salvation review
• Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian review
• Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast with Jeffrey K. Howard of Vegas Film Critic

TV

• The Goode Family review

Hiatus

As I once again missed the window to post about this week's movies, it's become clear to me that I no longer have the time to keep up with this blog in any useful fashion. Even the (mostly) weekly posts I've been managing have been sort of hurried and less informative than they should be. And I'd rather take a break than try to throw up some half-hearted content just to maintain a presence. I hope at some point to have the time to devote to writing some substantive posts here, since there are certainly things I'd like to comment on outside of the scope of my work for Las Vegas Weekly and About.com. But for now I'll just be posting weekly link round-ups to notable reviews and other pieces, so you can see what I've been up to. Check back for those, and then maybe in a few months for some sort of manageable restructuring.

Here's some stuff to check out this week:

Movies

• Tyson review
• Interview with Tyson director James Toback
• Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast with Tony Macklin
• Tyson video segment

TV

• Glee review

Movies opening this week

Hear me chat about these movies (well, mostly just about Star Trek) with Las Vegas Weekly Associate Editor T.R. Witcher in this week's Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast, and watch another wacky video segment, also about Star Trek.

Next Day Air (Wood Harris, Mike Epps, Donald Faison, dir. Benny Boom)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
As if this weren't sufficiently doomed to obscurity, it's going up against Star Trek, sure to obliterate it at the box office and in most people's minds. And for good reason, too: This is an entirely forgettable, pointless film, putting an "urban" twist on the self-consciously cool gangster template of old Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie movies (from which Tarantino has moved on, and Ritchie has not). It's also been mismarketed as a sort of stoner comedy, which it isn't; that's a very small part of the story, which at first seems like it could be sort of amusing, but quickly devolves into the lame crime plot, and the humor pretty much dries up. Totally the sort of thing that would go straight to video if not for a studio seeing an opportunity to siphon off a little money from people who are desperate for an alternative to Star Trek. Wide release

Paris 36 (Gerard Jugnot, Clovis Cornillac, Nora Arnezeder, dir. Christophe Barratier)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
This is another of those bland, well-intentioned foreign films that I just can't get excited about. It's sweetly nostalgic (probably overly so) and has one really entertaining musical number, but overall it's just dull and so devoid of any tension that it ends up arguing for its own lack of consequence. Opened limited April 3; in Las Vegas this week

Star Trek (Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Eric Bana, dir. J.J. Abrams)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I would classify my level of Star Trek fandom as moderate; I started watching Next Generation when I was in middle school, and was a fairly avid fan of it from around the third or fourth season. I loved Deep Space Nine, but I was never such a die-hard that I wasn't willing to give up on Voyager and Enterprise when they ceased to interest me (I watched about one season of each). I've only seen maybe a dozen original-series episodes, and about half the movies with the original cast, but I have a pretty good familiarity with the tone of the series, and the major continuity touchpoints. So I think I have a good perspective on this movie, as someone poised between ultra-geekdom and unfamiliarity. Really, though, I think it's largely pleasing both camps, although of course certain reactionary geeks won't accept any sort of alteration in their beloved franchise, and some non-fans will never go for Star Trek no matter how action-movie-ish it is. For everyone else, though, this is about as good as we could possibly hope for.

As I detailed in this post when Enterprise ended, I would have preferred a different take to bring the franchise into a new era; I still think that going back to retell the early days of the original crew was not the ideal approach. This is certainly a stellar execution, though, and if this is the concept Paramount is pushing, then they've done it justice. But I do hope that the inevitable massive success of this movie will lead to a bit of diversity in official Star Trek product; I still have a fondness for the original continuity, and as I say in this week's podcast, one of things I've always liked about Star Trek is its constant forward momentum. New Trek usually means new characters, new races, new worlds, a new piece of a constantly growing future history, and that's something we don't really get here. I can't imagine that Paramount isn't considering a new Trek TV series right now, and I'd love to see that follow up on the old continuity while striking out in a new direction, and still allowing the movie series to rewrite the tales of Kirk & Co. I do think they can have their cake (make money) and eat it too (appeal to fans), and I'm optimistic that something like that will happen. In the meantime, this movie is more than enough. Wide release

Movies opening this week

Hear me chat about these movies with Roger Erik Tinch of CineVegas on this week's Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast, and check out a very wacky video segment this week on X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Sugar (Algenis Perez Soto, Rayniel Rufino, Andre Holland, dir. Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck)
By the time I saw Boden and Fleck's narrative debut, Half Nelson, the hype had gotten so intense that I was a little underwhelmed. This one has flown much more under the radar, so I came in with fewer expectations, and I was really impressed. It's a quiet character study with a new take on both the sports movie and the immigrant narrative, and manages to subvert cliches almost the entire way. The supporting characters are a little underdeveloped, and the pacing in the final segment is a little off, but overall this is a lovely, affecting film that explores a completely under-represented aspect of sports in America, and does so in a respectful, honest and hopeful manner. Opened limited April 3; in Las Vegas this week

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, dir. Gavin Hood)
I had a bad feeling on this one from the announcement of Hood, a total hack, as director, through the trailer, the bad buzz from the online leak and the early reviews. And going in expecting such a train wreck, I suppose I was relieved that it wasn't the worst cynical cash-in blockbuster ever, but it certainly was one of the most pointless. Any comics reader knows that there is a mountain of awesome Wolverine material to draw from, but here we get the most pedestrian, connect-the-dots account of his early days that adds nothing to the flashbacks already seen in X2. The new characters are either unrecognizable from their comics incarnations, or severely underused, and the connections to already established back story are often tenuous. Even the action, which could excuse the bad writing and uninspired direction, is dull. There's so much more potential in the X-Men franchise and Wolverine in particular that I hope this movie doesn't kill it off; they just need to find a clear vision for one of these movies other than the chance to make more money. Wide release

Status updates

Alas, this isn't a post to announce more frequent entries, as I still have far too many things taking up my time to give this blog the attention it deserves. But I will be doing my best to post more here; as the TV season winds down, I hope to have a little more time.

In the meantime, if you just can't get enough of my smiling (or scowling, more likely) face or lovely voice, two important notes: My weekly appearances on Vegas' Xtreme Radio (107.5 FM) have been moved from afternoons to mornings; you can now catch me Fridays at 9:15 a.m. Pacific time on the station's new DAM morning show, featuring former Xtreme Disorder co-host Dave Farra. It's a touching reunion for Dave and me.

Also, the Jamie Kennedy documentary Heckler, for which I filmed an appearance a few years ago, is apparently airing quite frequently on Showtime these days. I haven't seen it, but others assure me that I only appear for about a minute, and come off fairly well. Thank goodness.

Movies opening this week

Hear me chat about these movies with Michael T. Toole, contributing writer for Turner Classic Movies, on this week's Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast. And check out this week's video segment, on The Soloist.

Earth (documentary, dir. Alastair Fothergill & Mark Linfield)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I know it's probably mean-spirited to cut down this well-meaning educational film, but I did find it extraordinarily dull, and mostly devoid of anything useful or new. For kids who've never seen anything like this, I suppose it's not bad, and it's more impressive to see these images on a big screen than on a TV (where you can catch similar stuff regularly on Discovery and Animal Planet). But this is still a cursory introduction and a scattershot portrayal of the animal kingdom. Disney seems set on pushing this nature-film brand, so I hope that the teased next outing, Oceans, to be released next year, will have better focus and more in-depth insights. Wide release

Fighting (Channing Tatum, Terrence Howard, Zulay Henao, dir. Dito Montiel)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I still expect good things from Montiel, whose debut feature, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, I liked quite a bit. Despite intermittent efforts to do something artistic here, though, this movie certainly doesn't qualify. Howard is apparently angling to be the new Nicolas Cage with his oddball line deliveries, and Tatum gives Paul Walker a run for his money as the least charismatic actor working today. Definitely a waste of somebody's talent. Wide release

Sin Nombre (Paulina Gaitan, Edgar Flores, Kristian Ferrer, dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
So much well-meaning mediocrity this week. This was a big hit at Sundance, and it's not hard to see why: It serious-minded and socially conscious, and sympathetic to poor immigrants. It's also fairly flat and predictable, with a silly melodramatic climax. Not as irritating as a bullshit indie-formula movie like Sunshine Cleaning, but also not worthy of the mountain of praise it's gotten. Opened limited March 20; in Las Vegas this week

The Soloist (Robert Downey Jr., Jamie Foxx, Catherine Keener, dir. Joe Wright)
I keep waiting for Joe Wright to make a transcendentally brilliant movie, because it's clear from his past work that he's a striking visual stylist. The first hour or so of Atonement was a stellar fusion of form and content, even if the movie lost its way in the second half. This movie is just all wrong for Wright, though; it's an inherently small, internal story about the friendship between two very different men, and a writer's frustration at being unable to magically cure the schizophrenic street musician he discovers and befriends. Wright jazzes things up excessively, Foxx gives a mannered, nearly "full retard" performance, and only Downey holds things together with his typical jaded awesomeness. Someone give Wright another period epic or a dense sci-fi thriller or something where his grandiose visions will serve the story. Wide release

Movies opening this week

(Apologies again for lateness. My hope for more free time in the last few weeks has obviously not come to fruition.) Hear me chat with Angela Abshier of the Las Vegas 48 Hour Film Project about these movies, as well as the Project itself, on this week's Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast. And this week's video, about State of Play, is much more straightforward than the last one. We're still working on that balance between informative and wacky.

Crank: High Voltage (Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Dwight Yoakam, dir. Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor)
I have mixed feelings about the Crank franchise. On one hand, it's definitely fun and visually inventive and unlike pretty much any other action movies out there. On the other hand, it's so misogynistic and crass that it's sometimes uncomfortable, and the relentless efforts to go over the top get pretty tiresome here. Like the first one, this is fun and exciting for 45 minutes or so, and then it's just exhausting. But rabid fans of the series will surely enjoy themselves, and I do understand why. Wide release

Gomorrah (Salvatore Cantalupo, Salvatore Abruzzese, Gianfelice Imparato, dir. Matteo Garrone)
I spent probably the first hour of this movie just trying to figure out who the characters were and how they related to each other, and even at the end I wasn't quite sure how the various organizations worked, or what was behind the main turf rivalry. Eventually, though, enough connections become clear that you can follow the action, and the second half is much more exciting and interesting. A lot of comparisons have been made to The Wire, but this movie reminded me more of something like City of God, with its focus on poor urban residents for whom crime is the only possible way of life. The police are little more than a spectral presence here, and there rarely seems to be a life beyond the confines of the neighborhood. This movie requires a little too much work to get into, and its characters sometimes seem a little like archetypes rather than people, but for the most part it's worth the effort. Opened limited Feb. 13; in Las Vegas this week

State of Play (Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck, dir. Kevin Macdonald)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I really do appreciate this movie's earnest efforts to bolster old-fashioned journalism, but unfortunately it's not actually nearly as exciting as what Russell Crowe practices here. Although they did effectively capture the questionable fashion sense of newspaper writers; I totally own the same calculator watch that Crowe's rotund colleague wears throughout the movie. Wide release

Movies opening this week

No podcast this week thanks to a scheduling mishap and a general lack of interesting things to discuss. There is, however, much wackiness in this week's video (possibly a little too much). Next week will probably be a little more straightforward.

Observe and Report (Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Ray Liotta, dir. Jody Hill)
This movie seems to be pretty divisive; the Weekly's own Mike D'Angelo professes a mix of respect and annoyance in his review, and I felt a little bit the same way, although I'm not quite as taken with Hill's integrity as Mike is. I had a similar reaction to this as I did to Eastbound & Down, which Hill created along with Danny McBride and Ben Best (both of whom appear in Observe). It's a bunch of assholes doing terrible things to each other for 90 minutes, and while it does have an uncompromising tone, it's unpleasant to watch and not funny. The narrative was also very limp; it felt episodic, like it could have been divided in thirds and functioned as an Eastbound spinoff. I give Rogen credit for playing against type and being willing to come off as completely unlikable, but I don't think the gamble really works out for him here. Wide release

Movies opening this week

Hear me chat about these movies with my most frequent guest, the man always willing to let me subject him to bad movies, Las Vegas Weekly Managing Editor Ken Miller, on this week's Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast. No video this week, as videographer Scott is out of town. Should return next week.

Adventureland (Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, dir. Greg Mottola)
I think some of my recent descriptions of this movie have made it sound not as good as it really is, but I honestly do recommend it, and I think it's a kind of sleeper that will appeal to a pretty broad audience. It is indeed familiar and largely predictable, but I don't think that's a huge problem. Part of the appeal is that this is a warm, heartfelt story that's easy to relate to, and that comes because of the familiarity, not in spite of it. Even though it's not hard to guess what the characters will do, they still feel like real people with real emotions, and you can easily get invested in what happens to them. Stewart does a much better job of portraying genuine romance than she did in Twilight, and Eisenberg is appealing as always. Like Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, this is a sweet, nostalgic movie about young love that recalls the John Hughes oeuvre (this one is even set in 1987). Call me a softie, but I wholeheartedly recommend it. Wide release

Fast & Furious (Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, dir. Justin Lin)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I stand by my assessment of the opening sequence as a bravura standalone set piece. It's no wonder they used a truncated version of it as the only footage in the trailer; the rest of the movie is repetitive and superfluous, a rehash of the other movies in the series (or at least the first two; I haven't seen the third). I don't think there's really anything more to say, although Karina Longworth does a pretty impressive job of bringing some rigorous analysis to this entirely disposable film (just ignore the boneheaded comments). Wide release

The Great Buck Howard (Colin Hanks, John Malkovich, Emily Blunt, dir. Sean McGinly)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I saw this movie at CineVegas nearly a year ago (a shortened version of my festival review is in this week's LVW), and I don't remember all that much about it except how utterly unremarkable it was. All of these famous faces, and yet no life to the movie. Malkovich, as always, hams things up admirably, but otherwise I can barely recall anything else worth mentioning. Opened limited March 20; in Las Vegas this week

Sunshine Cleaning (Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin, dir. Christine Jeffs)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
A big week for Emily Blunt movies in Vegas, and she's good in both of them even if neither of them is a very good movie. This is one that I liked less and less the more I thought about it; despite the strong performances from Blunt and Amy Adams, this movie is dour, self-serious, manipulative and full of heavy-handed symbolism. It's as phony as any special-effects extravaganza, but in a way more annoying because people will think it's meaningful. The actors deserve better. Opened limited March 13; in Las Vegas this week

Movies opening this week

Hear me chat about these movies with Anthony Del Valle of the Las Vegas Review-Journal in this week's Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast. And check out my latest video segment, on Monsters vs. Aliens (this one is a bit wacky; we are still trying different stuff to make these distinctive).

The Haunting in Connecticut (Virginia Madsen, Kyle Gallner, Elias Koteas, dir. Peter Cornwell)
A generic movie to go with its generic title, with absolutely nothing new to add to the haunted-house genre. It does skirt some interesting ideas, including positing that terminal illness can put people closer to the spirit world, but none of the characters are developed enough for their specific traits (the family patriarch has a drinking problem that only shows up when it's convenient for the plot) to have any bearing on the story. Also loses points for featuring another "bad things are happening, I think I will take a shower" moment, which should be banned from horror movies forever. Wide release

Monsters vs. Aliens (Voices of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, Hugh Laurie, dir. Rob Letterman & Conrad Vernon)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
My podcast guest this week brought up an interesting point this week that we often are more forgiving of unambitious movies that hit their mark than we are of ambitious failures, but I think there's room to praise both. To be clear, this is a movie with modest ambitions that mostly succeeds, and while I wouldn't urge adults to rush out to see it, if you end up having to go with kids, I think you'll be entertained and engaged at least most of the time. That's a big step up from a lot of animated kids' movies (including a number also from DreamWorks). Wide release

Movies opening this week

(Apologies for the general sparseness of posts lately. Things have been pretty busy with various new and old projects, but I hope for some extra time soon.)

Hear me chat about these movies with Las Vegas Weekly Associate Editor T.R. Witcher in this week's Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast. There will be a video segment this week, also, on Duplicity, but it isn't quite done yet.

The Class (Francois Bégaudeau, Esmérelda Ouertani, Rachel Regulier, Franck Keïta, dir. Laurent Cantet)
This seemed like a potential frontrunner for the foreign-language Oscar this year, although it lost out to Japanese movie Departures. I would have been happy to see it win; it's generally a clear-eyed, unsentimental take on schooling, not shying away from the difficulties inherent in teaching kids who don't want to learn, or don't respect their teachers/institutions, or are just across such an enormous cultural gulf that there's no way to reach them. It also doesn't vilify anyone specifically - the teacher is well-meaning but far from perfect, and makes mistakes; some of the students are bright and dedicated, but still moody and disrespectful; the administrators can be overly bureauratic, but they genuinely want to help. I could have gone for a little more of life outside the school grounds, although I understand why Cantet stays away from it; the teacher especially was a bit too much of an enigma especially given some of his emotional outbursts. Still, overall this movie was very effective, and it makes me curious to see Cantet's other films. Opened limited December 19; in Las Vegas this week

Duplicity (Clive Owen, Julia Roberts, Paul Giamatti, dir. Tony Gilroy)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I was really excited for this film: a sexy throwback caper movie starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen, from the guy who made Michael Clayton? Sounds like my favorite thing ever. But while Roberts and Owen have great chemistry, they don't get to show it off nearly enough, and the convoluted plot drags along slowly, and turns out to be sort of beside the point anyway. I still think Gilroy has a lot of talent, and look forward to what he does next, and I was surprised at how happy I was to see Roberts back onscreen (even though I apparently didn't even realize she'd been gone), but this turned out to be a serious disappointment. Wide release

I Love You, Man (Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Rashida Jones, dir. John Hamburg)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
This is a minor one in the canon of Apatow-adjacent comedies, certainly, but it's a perfectly entertaining way to spend 90 minutes (unfortunately, it's 110 minutes long). I laughed multiple times, and that's enough to excuse the predictable plotting, lack of insight and occasional overly vulgar bits. Rudd and Segel could save nearly anything, as they prove here with help from a formidable lineup of comedy all-stars. Wide release

Knowing (Nicolas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne, dir. Alex Proyas)
This is being read by some as a religious allegory of sorts, so I expected far more heavy-handed sermonizing than I ultimately got. Really, as my friend pointed out, it's as much a Close Encounters ripoff as anything else, in the end. But all the mystical, weird sci-fi stuff is completely unearned, and also pretty inconsistent with the first half of the movie, which is more of a conspiracy-minded thriller. Neither part works particularly well, thanks to Cage's typically awful acting (which infects the rest of the cast) and a jumble of incoherent plotting, but at least the first half has a couple of cool action sequences, one with a plane crash and another with a truly impressive train derailment. It's not enough to make the movie worthwhile, though, especially as it heads toward the totally nonsensical, New Age-y ending. Angels or aliens, either way it's a complete mess. Wide release

Movies opening this week

Hear me chat about these movies with Jeffrey K. Howard of Vegas Film Critic and KVBC Channel 3 on this week's Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast. And check out my latest video segment, about The Last House on the Left. (I think last week's was smoother, unfortunately. It's a learning process.)

The Last House on the Left (Tony Goldwyn, Monica Potter, Garret Dillahunt, Sara Paxton, dir. Dennis Iliadis)
My review in Las Vegas Weekly
I watched the original Wes Craven movie last week for the first time in a number of years, and it's clearly a very amateurish, rough production with a lot of elements that don't work. I love Craven, but of his most highly regarded films, it's definitely one of the worst. Still, part of the reason it's valuable at all is that roughness, that sense of its being a personal vision that comes across regardless of the limitations. Its political engagement may be a little overstated, but it's definitely there, and that lends the movie some weight and makes it seem less crass. This new version has the full power of Hollywood filmmaking behind it, but it thereby loses the personal touch, the sense of making a statement, and becomes another assembly-line horror movie, albeit with much nastier violence (Jeff, on the podcast, was extremely disgusted with the violence). It's very much like Watchmen in that it stays fairly faithful to the original narrative (although more things are changed here, some that seem pretty important) but completely misses the spirit and thus ends up meaningless. And that's even with Craven as producer (though he's probably just doing it to make some money and further extend his brand). Maybe it will point people toward the original, or Craven's films in general, though, and that wouldn't be a bad thing. Wide release

Miss March (Zach Cregger, Trevor Moore, Craig Robinson, Raquel Alessi, dir. Zach Cregger & Tervor Moore)
I really dislike Cregger and Moore's sketch-comedy show The Whitest Kids U' Know, so I suppose I was predisposed to dislike this movie. But it really is awful, and in a different way from the TV show, which is full of bizarre, absurd gags that stretch out interminably. Here, the gags are mostly conventional and obvious (although there are a handful of weird bits), and aren't quite flogged to death, but they're just as awful and unfunny and tone-deaf (perhaps even more so). Moore is one of the most grating screen presences I've ever experienced, and he basically is the movie, despite Cregger's straight man being the ostensible main character. File this one in the increasingly large pile of horrible movies of 2009, somewhere below Paul Blart but probably still above New in Town. Wide release