Bueller, Er, Bartlett Is a Pill

Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones return for alien flick

(NEWSER) - Sure, no one was that desperate for a Men in Black 3—but it's actually a pretty good summer movie. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back defending the planet from aliens, and this time, Josh Brolin's along for the ride as a young Jones.

• The movie "turns out to be so much fun," writes AO Scott in the New York Times . While it "carefully fulfills its blockbuster imperatives—with chases and explosions and elaborately contrived plot twists—it swerves into some marvelously silly, unexpectedly witty, and genuinely fresh territory."

Joss Whedon directs Robert Downey Jr. in superhero blowout

(NEWSER) - Sure, it's an effective moneymaking scheme: release movies about individual superheroes, then one about all of them. But with Joss Whedon at the helm, The Avengers really works. What critics are saying:

• "Even if you don't particularly like comic-book adaptations, this film just might make a believer of you," writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times . "Whedon is the key reason why this $220 million behemoth of a movie is smartly thought out and executed with verve and precision."

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.”