The Worst One-Note Actors

Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy star in Brett Ratner film

(NEWSER) - Tower Heist is a recession comedy, telling the story of a group of men stealing their own money back from a rich swindler. Critics say it’s worth a watch:

• “Here is a comedy that doesn't go heavy on the excremental, the masturbatory, and symphonies of four-letter words. It's funny in an innocent screwball kind of way,” writes Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times .

...before dropping it on the floor

(NEWSER) - Last year, it was Tina Fey ; this year, Will Ferrell rocked the Kennedy Center as he won the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor last night. The star-studded gala saw speeches from celebrities as diverse as Ben Stiller, Ed Asner, Molly Shannon, and Gwen Ifill, the Washington Post reports. It was a low-stress night for comedians, quipped Conan O’Brien: “Tonight, we only need to be PBS funny.” (The award ceremony airs on the channel next Monday.) Some highlights: More»

Jasons Bateman, Sudeikis star in Seth Gordon's comedy

(NEWSER) - Horrible Bosses is shockingly crude and a bit “uneven,” but it’s also amusing, critics say—because we can all identify with such workplace horrors. (Except maybe Jennifer Aniston as a crude, harassing dentist.)

• The film is “frequently very funny,” writes AO Scott in the New York Times . For one thing, it “does not bother to cut its coarseness with a hypocritical dose of sweetness or respectability,” he notes. “The laughter is mean but also oddly pure: it expels shame and leaves you feeling dizzy, a little embarrassed and also exhilarated.”

It's a forgettable movie, but Aniston, Sandler make it entertaining

(NEWSER) - Critics think Just Go With It isn’t too memorable—a 23% rating on Rotten Tomatoes , though fans are much kinder at 79%—but they say stars Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler turn in solid performances:

• To AO Scott, it will forever be just “‘that one with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston in Hawaii,’” he writes in the New York Times . “Which pretty much sums up both the appeal and the limitations of this passive-aggressive, naughty but nice, sometimes obnoxious and occasionally quite funny late-winter romantic comedy."

Michael Cera and original storytelling make this a winner

(NEWSER) - Critics generally love the inventive storytelling of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a very modern romance that stars Michael Cera. It's based on a graphic novel, and it shows.

• Joe Neumaier, Daily News : "Plugged into some kind of mental electrical socket by director Edgar Wright, this is a romantic adventure for the ADD age, a pop poem for Millennials that could just as well be titled Scott Pilgrim vs. the Old Ways of Storytelling."
• Eric D. Snider, Film.com : It's "an exuberant mixture of comic books, video games, and hipster romance," tied together with "unconventional filmmaking techniques." It might be the norm in 10 years, but "for now it's almost revolutionary."