Bueller, Er, Bartlett Is a Pill

Low-ball comedy splits the critics

(NEWSER) - The latest big-screen foray by Saturday Night Live cast members has split critics, with some loving and others despising MacGruber's raunchy satire:

• SNL movies tend to suck, “but MacGruber breaks the jinx,” writes Peter Travers of Rolling Stone . It sends up '80s action flicks “with a sense of style and unabashed affection.” Star Will Forte “is having a ball, and the feeling is contagious.”
• Kyle Smith isn't catching it. You can tell it came from TV, he writes in the New York Post : “ It features the pacing of C-SPAN, the production values of the public-access channel, the writing acumen of Home Shopping Network.”

No new tricks in Travolta-Williams turkey

(NEWSER) - Don't expect new tricks, funny jokes, or much else from the new John Travolta-Robin Williams comedy Old Dogs, say critics in reviews that range from scathing to indifferent.

• "It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a turkey," writes Ty Burr at the Boston Globe , and this "pitiful family comedy about two aging buddies forced to play daddy" is the season's "blue-ribbon gobbler."

(NEWSER) - Woody Allen! Larry David! It sounds like a match made in comedy heaven, but the results are more like purgatory, according to the critics. Here’s what they’re saying:

• Whatever Works is one of Allen’s worst movies, writes Claudia Puig of USA Today. David’s Boris “is aptly named: He bores us. At least when Allen plays the part of the older man lusted after by gorgeous twentysomethings, he has some modicum of charm.”

High School Musical star adds life to age-old body-swap concept

(NEWSER) - The doing-your-life-over-again movie 17 Again does what its many predecessors have done over and over again, say critics, but Zac Efron runs through the clichés with charismatic charm.

• Claudia Puig, USA Today: "Though not as clever as 13 Going on 30 or Freaky Friday, it's also not as hokey as Hannah. For a swoon-fest aimed at tweens, 17 Again has a lot going for it."

Retro coming-of-age movie will touch nostalgic hearts

(NEWSER) - Coming-of-age romance Adventureland isn't a rollercoaster of surprises, critics say, but it's still honest and poignant enough to be touching—especially if you grew up in the '80s.

• Todd McCarthy, Variety: "A rather ordinary account of youthful summer misadventures that goes down easily thanks to a sparky cast, more than 40 pop tunes that anchor the action in the late '80s, and characters who get high both on and off their jobs at a tacky amusement park."