Scruffy Rogen Rising Star of 'Comedy Mafia'

Movie may be Sandler's worst ever, prompts call for his retirement

(NEWSER) - Adam Sandler’s latest comedy, in which he plays his own twin sister, is mind-numbingly bad, reviewers say—so poor, in fact, that it languished at a remarkable 0% on Rotten Tomatoes , which calls it “impossible to recommend on any level whatsoever," for most of the morning:

• “More than 24 hours has passed since I watched the new Adam Sandler movie Jack and Jill and I am still dead inside,” writes Mary Pols in Time . “It made me feel as if comedy itself were a dirty thing, mainly practiced by people eager to express ugly feelings toward everyone from homely women to Mexican immigrants.”

Seth Rogen movie manages to be both funny and poignant

(NEWSER) - With a current 92% rating at Rotten Tomatoes , 50/50 gets praise for its blend of comedy and drama about a young man diagnosed with cancer.

• In Salon , Mary Elizabeth Williams calls the movie “poignant, funny and profane”: It “understands the woozy terror of a life or death crisis,” she notes—though “unsurprisingly,” Seth Rogen et al., “like true students of the Judd Apatow school of filmmaking, never quite get a grip on their female characters.”

But war movies aren't

(NEWSER) - To give your heart a boost, turn on The Hangover—but make sure you avoid Halloween. Movies that make you chuckle are good for your vascular function, while stressful war and horror movies hurt your system, a study finds. Researchers showed bits of funny movies one day and the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan another day. When subjects viewed the comedies, the lining of their vessels expanded. More»

'The silly is slowly being leeched out of him'

(NEWSER) - Paul Rudd is Hollywood’s next big thing —but not in the way he should be, writes Elbert Ventura in a Slate piece arguing that Tinseltown is squandering the actor’s comedic talents. “Rudd's rise is well-deserved,” considering his body of work “is one of the funniest—and most underrated—in recent American comedy.” But Rudd, “an absurdist at heart,” has gone from “unhinged, even surreal” movies like Wet Hot American Summer and Anchorman to bland, conventional fare. More»

Alleged assailant in Harry Potter T-shirt may face serious charges

(NEWSER) - A dispute before a Comic-Con panel discussion ended with one attendee in police custody and another in the hospital being treated for a stab wound near the eye, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. The alleged assailant was armed with a pen and wearing—look away, kids—a Harry Potter T-shirt. "The room was very crowded and the males argued over one male sitting too close to the other," a police officer told CNN . More»