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The Joneses
Pretty Bad 83 Points 2009

A hypocritical indictment of conspicuous consumption, this bargain-basement satire never strikes beyond the obvious. Nominally attempting to bury the cult of brands, The Joneses instead praises them – name dropping and extolling cars, fragrances, golf clubs and all the effluvia touted in the a…

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WikChip Image Amber Heard: Generic hottie, generic ...
The Incredible ...
Barely OK 66 Points 2013

Magic is making the incredible seem real, per The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. Comedy magic is making the recognizable irresistibly funny, per me. Alas, this movie lacks comedy magic.

One wry smile, but no LOLs and no guffaws get triggered by its strenuous jokes. Pity too, because the cas…

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WikChip Image Try screwing this up. They did.
The Addams Family
Barely OK 67 Points 1991

The Addams Family does the impossible. This big-budget, big-screen adaptation of the much-beloved ‘60s TV series makes banal the sophisticated quackery of the original, both the TV Land classic and Charles Addams’ seminal New Yorker cartoons. Sadly, the jokes – too on the nose – are blindingly …

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WikChip Video They're creepy and they're kooky.
Johnny Dangerously
OK 66 Points 1984

Michael Keaton and a WTF cast couldn’t rescue Amy Heckerling’s mob parody Johnny Dangerously. About that cast, guys like Dick Butkus, Alan Hale Jr. and Ray Walston pop up in like three scenes each. What The Fuck?

Unfortunately the bad screenplay falls flat, with nary a joke that works.
*…

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WikChip Image They were cast for height.
Anchorman 2: Th...
Good 66 Points 2013

The Legend Continues and so do the laughs. Unfortunately so do the gaffes, which way outnumber the LOLs, driving the gaffe-to-laugh ratio well above 1. That’s far from great, even if some of the bits are truly great. Yes, you’ll laugh YAO early & often enough, so one can say The Legend C…

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WikChip Video Good, Bad & Ugly: Carell, Ferrell, Team
The Death of St...
Good 66 Points 2018

Cults of personality hit peak absurdity when their object dies, as vividly satired in The Death of Stalin. Unfortunately, this political comedy is more smart than funny. Hence, its LOLs are few and far between.

Stalin funny? Yeah, even though he stands nearly alone in megalomaniacal evil, be…

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WikChip Video The Banality of Evil, Satired
High Anxiety
Good 69 Points 1977

Mel Brooks parodied Alfred Hitchcock movies in High Anxiety with middling results, though perhaps the movie simply hasn’t aged well over time. It remains modestly funny all these decades later, with the added value of now being a time capsule from the late 70s, back when Hyatt Regency atriums w…

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WikChip Video Those who are tardy do not get fruit ...
Popstar: Never ...
Very Good 66 Points 2016

Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island confreres Akiva & Jorma go big in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Justin Bieber big. The Biebs and other hip white popstars from Ringo Star to Adam Levine are the target of this big budget satire. A couple dozen celebrity cameos goose the Grammy Quotient, …

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WikChip Video All The Good Stuff
The Family
Very Good 66 Points 2013

Less an LOL comedy than one that keeps you in a semi-sustained semi-grin, The Family has lots to like if not enough to love. Luc Besson’s Mafia satire does score easily and often, with major stars delivering most of its best lines. They each shine brightly, though not in the order you might e…

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WikChip Video Dickhead boys get taught a lesson.
Long Shot
Very Good 66 Points 2019

Long Shot is often downright hilarious while also being unintentionally revealing about the state of Left Wing America, making it a very good movie, if a sad one at the same time. So it goes in our 2019 world.

The unlikely couple at the center of this post-rom romcom are Charlize Theron’s su…

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WikChip Image Long shot? Moon shot.