You’re in for a treat this summer: Star Trek is poised to be a popular success on the level of Iron Man.  It’s exciting, funny, and entertaining in ways that are accessible both to die-hard Trekkies and average movie lovers… except for the parts where it sucks.

I had a chance to see Trek at an advance screening last week, and yes, I liked it a lot.  But the critics have already started over-praising it Dark Knight-style, and I know everybody else is going to join in soon too.  So allow me, just for a moment, to counterbalance the raves with some sanity and present to you the reasons Star Trek might not be the best thing ever.  (Be warned that there are spoilers in this article.) (more…)

Religion tends to bring out the best and the worst of people.  After watching Bill Maher’s new documentary Religulous this weekend, this fact has never been more obvious.  In the film Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor praises religion for it’s ability to soften the edges of humanity.  But with the good comes the bad, and in some cases the most horrifying insanity imaginable.

With snake-handling preachers and tear-stained children speaking in tongues, the soft edges can become a bit hard to recognize.  But as you will see in these five video clips, evangelical craziness can be  gruesomely exciting to watch and cause you to shrill with terror.

The Top 5 Most Terrifying Religu-licious Freakshows After the Jump (more…)

Rottentomatoes.com is a marvelous website, but I recently found out that it may be lying to all of us. If you don’t know what this website does, I’ll give you a brief overview: It reports on movies that are currently playing in theatres around the U.S. by providing links to pictures, videos and plot summaries.

It also collects hundreds of reviews written in newspapers, magazines and on the internet and gives the movie a rating based on the number of positive reviews divided by the total (for those non-math majors, this is called a percentage). Any movie with a rating higher than 60 percent is said to be fresh and is probably worth seeing, anything under 60 percent is rotten. (more…)

Throw comedy everyman Will Ferrell into a zany project that deals with the rise and fall of a lovable idiot and the outcome will be golden – that seems to be the thought process behind Semi-Pro, Ferrell’s first official bomb (even if it does well in theaters, which it will).

In Semi-Pro Will plays Jackie Moon, a loud-mouthed Lothario who owns, coaches and plays for the Flint Tropics, an absolutely terrible ABA basketball team on the verge of losing what little audience and respect they have. Luckily for Moon, the NBA wants to absorb a few teams from the ABA, giving his squad a chance to hit the big time. Of course, his ego gets in the way, trotting out lavish (on a budget) half time shows where the team dresses up in Seahorse and Flamingo costumes while getting down to “Love Sexy,” Moon’s disco excursion that gave him his one and only hit.

Going to any length to get his team some recognition, Moon makes a questionable trade involving an important team player (no spoilers here!) for Monix (Woody Harrelson), the Washed Up Legend Out to Prove His Worth. Let us not forget to mention Clarence ‘Coffee’ Black (Andre Benjamin) the Competent and Honest Basketball Player Out to Make His Mama Proud. The stereotypes run amok in Semi-Pro, but that’s expected. The problem here is the lack of original comedy. (more…)

Ben Stiller is looking old these days. He looks and acts like he could be Jason Biggs‘ dad.

Even before seeing the Farrelly brothers’ latest romp, The Heartbreak Kid, I was a bit worried. The trailers depicted the flick to be a below-average attempt at updating the 1972 cult classic of the same name. Slapstick, teenage gross-outs and love – the Farrelly brothers have traveled down this road countless other times, and each one was better than this painfully-lacking retread.

Stiller, tired but game, plays Eddie Cantrow, a 40-year-old unmarried man (and sporting goods owner) who’s under the constant pressure of his eternal wingman Mac (Rob Corddry) and his father (Jerry Stiller, natch) to get hitched ASAP.

Cantrow, jaded and lonely, does exactly that: upon meeting the bubbly blonde Lila (Malin Akerman) he gets on the fast track to holy matrimony. As expected – and seen in the tell-tale trailer – things don’t work out between Cantrow and his mystery wife. (more…)

I am completely baffled whenever I hear anybody say they find Dane Cook funny. Every time. Without fail. Am I being too critical or are the standards for comedy lower than ever?

What has Cook ever done that’s even remotely funny? He’s a third-rate Adam Sandler man-boy out to please vapid sorority chicks and pre-teen boys who haven’t learned how to use their cocks yet – and I guess that’s funny in itself (at his expense).

Tall-glass of Haterade aside, everybody deserves a second chance, and that’s what Good Luck Chuck is out to prove. Unfortunately for Cook, it fails miserably in every possible way.
(more…)