Critics Paddle Balls of Fury

Jack Black comedy too experimental for its own good, critics say

(NEWSER) - The Jack Black comedy Be Kind Rewind isn't predictable, but at times it's not coherent either, critics say. The film—about a guy who inadvertently erases a video store's VHS inventory, then, using a camcorder, re-creates popular movies for the store to rent—"never stops experimenting, even when the experimentation works against the movie's best interests," writes James Berardinelli of ReelViews.com. More»

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.”

Prehistoric comedy aims low and hits the target

(NEWSER) - The jokes in caveman comedy Year One with Jack Black and Michael Cera are prehistoric, say critics, but it's still passable fun for anybody not expecting a comic masterpiece.

• Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: "More or less indefensible, but I'll gladly defend parts of it." It won't rank up there with director Harold Ramis' funniest films, but it does have "some pretty funny circumcision jokes."