Nick Swardson

There was nothing remotely notable about 2010's Grown Ups, and now we have a sequel that's even lazier. Without any actual plot to speak of, the movie merely strings together a series of unfunny scenes that include cheap gags and childish vulgarity but never a punchline. Sure, the scattershot approach might occasionally touch on recognisable situations, but there isn't a genuine laugh in the whole film.

After the reunion in the original movie, Lenny (Sandler) has moved back to his hometown with pals Eric, Kurt and Marcus (James, Rock and Spade). They're planning a big party just like in the old days, complete with a 1980s theme. But their children are getting older and have their own issues, including first dates and driving tests. And in Marcus' case, the kid is a teen thug (Ludwig) he only just discovered he had. But the real problem is that the guys have just sparked a turf war with a gang of idiotic fratboys from the nearby university. And now they have to prove once and for all who's really cool.

As with the first movie, you get the feeling that everyone on screen has somewhere better to be. There's no character development at all, since there are so many people spread across so many short scenes. Hayek, Bello and Rudolph are back as the guys' wives, but get exactly one thankless thing to do each. And it's not much better for the supporting cast of A-list cameo players like Buscemi (as a driving instructor), Lautner (as the fraternity leader) and so many more recognisable actors that you begin to wonder what dirt Sandler has on all of them.

Continue reading: Grown Ups 2 Review

Yet another spoof from Wayans and Alvarez, this movie isn't nearly as bad as it could have been (they also produced the resolutely unfunny Scary Movie 2 and Dance Flick). There's the germ of a clever idea here, mainly satirising the Paranormal Activity series in the context of a new relationship. But of course, they can't resist resorting to random pastiche and silly gross-out jokes instead of actually clever comedy.

Wayans plays Malcolm, a cheeky guy who is far too thrilled that his girlfriend Kisha (Atkins) is moving in with him. She's a little more reticent about it all, especially because she thinks there's a ghost creeping around the house. So Malcolm installs a security camera system, secretly hoping to videotape their sex life. As the paranormal shenanigans increase, their friends (Ubach and Daly) introduce them to a psychic (Swardson) and then a priest (Cedric). And it turns out that Kisha has a history with evil spirits.

Filmmaker Tiddes plays merrily with the found footage genre, shooting everything as if through a video camera, webcam or CCTV, while indulging in the format's voyeuristic possibilities. This gives the premise, of a couple moving in together, a smart kick. So it's very frustrating when some genuinely amusing scenes are interrupted for cheap toilet gags and only weakly comical set pieces. After setting things up, the screenwriters just get lazy and stop bothering to make scenes funny or engaging at all.

Continue reading: A Haunted House Review

Slackers Dwayne and Travis (McBride and Swardson) are fed up with pressure from Dwayne's militaristic father (Ward), and decide to bump him off to get his money. They hire a hitman (Pena), but need cash to pay him, so they kidnap pizza delivery boy Nick (Eisenberg), strap a bomb to his chest and force him to rob a bank in the next 10 hours. He enlists his pal Chet (Ansari) and, with little time to spare, off they go. But of course nothing goes as planned.

Continue reading: 30 Minutes Or Less Review

There are exactly two funny performances in "Malibu's Most Wanted" -- a one-joke comedy about an over-privileged white-boy wannabe rapper -- and neither of them are by top-liner and co-writer Jamie Kennedy.

Expanding on a two-bit sketch character from his self-titled WB network variety show, Kennedy plays B-Rad G (nee Brad Gluckman), a pathetic poser "from the 'Bu," where "everybody's strapped with a nine" (nine-iron, that is) and "most of the time the police won't even come through" (because the town is pretty much crime-free).

Being from a straight-laced political family, Brad has become such an embarrassment to his father's gubernatorial campaign that daddy (Ryan O'Neal) hires two Juilliard theater graduates to play gangstaz, kidnap the brat and drop him in Compton to scare the imaginary "ghetto" out of him.

Continue reading: Malibu's Most Wanted Review