Funny People Puts Serious Pressure on Sandler

(NEWSER) - Funny People laughed its way to the top of the box office this weekend with $23.4 million, USA Today reports. But that’s less than analysts predicted, and not enough to beef up this summer’s mediocre ticket sales. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came second with $17.7 million, while G-Force ($17 million), The Ugly Truth ($13 million), and family newcomer Aliens in the Attic ($7.8 million) rounded out the top five. 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»

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."

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.”