Dewey Cox Rocks!

And that one trick is in Spanish

(NEWSER) - Will Ferrell made a movie in Spanish? Yep. Ferrell's latest flick Casa de Mi Padre is an entirely subtitled affair, sending up low-budget telenovelas. Critics are lukewarm on the results—some appreciate its zaniness, but many liken it to an overlong sketch.

• "As tickled as I was by the slaphappy one-joke silliness of Casa de Mi Padre, I’d be a lot less amused if I’d paid $23 for a pair of tickets," writes Ty Burr of the Boston Globe . It's "very much a 'Funny or Die' meme that somehow escaped the corral and is roaming free in (some of) the nation’s movie theaters. It’s a solid short film stretched to Silly Putty thinness."

Jonah Hill and Russell Brand score with Apatow formula

(NEWSER) - Jonah Hill and Russell Brand keep the critics largely amused in Get Him to the Greek, another Judd Apatow-produced flick that has a nervous record exec (Hill) trying to get a troublesome rock star (Brand) from London to NYC to LA's Greek Theatre:

• Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle : "The golden age of comedy—this new golden age, which will only be apparent years from now, when it's over—continues with the release of Get Him to the Greek, which is so comically fertile and yet so grounded in the reality of its characters that it's really a kind of marvel."
• Andrew O'Hehir, Salon : "An awkward, intermittently hilarious and mostly enjoyable mishmash."

(NEWSER) - Judd Apatow doesn't dispense entirely with his raunchy humor in Funny People, but his venture into more serious themes meets mixed success with critics. Most, however, love Adam Sandler as a gravely ill comedian confronting the emptiness of his life.

• Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: "Apatow scores by crafting the film equivalent of a stand-up routine that encompasses the joy, pain, anger, loneliness and aching doubt that go into making an audience laugh."
• Manohla Dargis, New York Times: "There’s something irritatingly self-satisfied about (it), which explains why, though it glances on the perils of fame, it mostly affirms its pleasures."

But don't expect too much from the 'infantile' flick

(NEWSER) - Step Brothers is not exactly comedy gold, but it does have some redeeming moments, critics say. While the story of two man-boys forced to live together isn’t always amusing, there are some “funny-gut-busting” scenes spawned from “the comic chemistry of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly,” writes Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. And while it’s “infantile,” “the movie is too good-natured to drown in raunch.” More»

Critics describe high-school comedy as aimless, 'listless'

(NEWSER) - Combine the talents of the creative team behind Superbad and Knocked Up with the considerable charms of actor Owen Wilson and what have you got? The "dispiritingly mediocre tweener comedy" Drillbit Taylor, writes Marc Savlov of the Austin Chronicle. He's far from alone in his assessment of the movie, about three dorky freshmen who hire a homeless Army deserter (Wilson) to protect them from a bully. More»