Andy Dick

An improvement on 2006's The Reef, this underwater adventure doesn't hold a candle to big studio animation, but its deeply ridiculous plot is charmingly scruffy. Compared to Pixar or DreamWorks, the animation here is fairly ropey, mainly in the design stage as the artists place human faces on the fish, but the surprisingly deranged humour keeps us smiling.

In the first film, plucky little Pi (voiced by Bell) managed to banish nasty shark Troy (Logue) from the reef. But Troy has now escaped from his human captors, who beefed him up with bulking-up drugs. During low tide, he can't get into the reef, so he sends the tiny shark Ronny (Kennedy) in disguise to prepare for his grand return at high tide in four days. Ronny's main job is to prevent Pi from teaching the other fish how to harness the "power of the sea" to defeat Troy, so Ronny distracts them by staging an elaborate variety show. This disrupts Pi's bootcamp, sparking the hammy performer in his wife Cordelia (Philipps), so Pi turns to his guru, the wise turtle Narissa (Schneider), for help.

Clearly, Ronny's undersea stage show was conceived as a way for the animators to go completely wild with music and colour, and it works. These scenes are hilariously silly, packed with breakdancing prawns and jellyfish choreography. There are also movie references and watery puns (like a reference to "Buoyancé Knowles"), plus a stream of military gags, as everyone prepares for battle. Most of these jokes are funny in a way the imagery can't live up to. Animated in Korea, the direction is often awkward and the imagery sometimes plasticky.

Continue reading: The Reef 2: High Tide Review

Tracing its origins to vaudeville, this "comic's joke" is tantamount to a secret handshake among comedians and their friends. Although versions vary widely, it basically goes like this: A man seeking show biz representation walks into a talent agent's office and describes his family's act, which consists of various illegal and unspeakable activities including incest, bestiality, necrophilia, and an explosion of bodily fluids. After the man finishes, the appalled agent asks what this horrible act is called, to which the man responds, "The Aristocrats!"

Continue reading: The Aristocrats Review

He'd be right. If you're a 15-year old boy.

Continue reading: Road Trip Review

The last place I'd expect to see a Shakespearean adaptation of Macbeth to occur would be in a backwater town in the middle of Pennsylvania circa 1972. But it provides a dark and menacing backdrop to this loose - and do I mean loose - adaptation of Shakespeare's ever-popular tragedy of a incompetent husband and power-hungry wife weaving murderously toward power and riches.

Continue reading: Scotland, PA Review

Remember that great Z-grade 1969 protest picture "Brothers Divided," about the conjoined twins drafted to serve in Vietnam?

No? How about the blaxploitation classics "Venus De Mofo" and "The Foxy Chocolate Robot?" Or the tree-hugging girlie biker flick "The Eco-Angels"? Or the midget Gidget movie "Teenie Weenie Bikini Beach"?

Those don't ring a bell? Surely you've seen at least one of the 427 movies directed by schlock filmmaker Morty Fineman over the last 38 years, right?

Continue reading: The Independent Review