If you're looking for a pretty good Saturday afternoon sci-fi, action flick (like we were on a HOT July Saturday) BATTLE: LA fits the bill. It's like Independence Day light, focused on just a few platoons defending Santa Monica (I guess "Battle:Santa Monica" had more limited appeal...) and it gets a lot of things right. Aaron Eckhart is really good, as is Michael Pena as a brave dad caught up in the action. How many times can Michelle Rodriguez play this same character so well? ALIENS is one of my all time faves and she delivers that same character in a much quieter version here. Creature effects are good, early invasion scenes are really well done. Nothing too ground breaking or important here and lots of VERY CLICHE stock characters from a thousand other war movies, but an enjoyable Saturday matinee on the couch! B-

Their are a lot of great names behind 1987's *batteries not included, including Steven Spielberg as Executive Producer, Brad Bird (Toy Story 3, The Incredibles) who wrote the screenplay and director Matthew Robbins (the greatly underrated Dragonslayer). Perhaps too many cooks spoiled the kitchen on this one, because its just a confused, silly mess. Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy lead a cast of down on their luck, last tenants in a building slated for demolition. They all need help, which arrives in the form of miniature alien spaceships with the ability to repair anything...with the exception of a really dumb movie. I remember seeing this with Jess when she was about 4 and I don't remember her ever asking to watch it again. So I guess she has more sense than I did! *clever story and forward momentum not included.......Lots of A talent and a D movie.

About an hour and fifteen minutes (or about halfway) into BATMAN V SUPERMAN, I had one question that kept filling my head. "Remember when Superman movies used to be fun?" The late seventies and early 80's Richard Donner/Richard Lester films were exciting, thrilling and fun to watch. I couldn't wait to see them again and again. Once will be enough for Zack Snyder's ponderous, overlong serious epic, where smiles are as rare as a brightly lit scene and everyone's filled with angst, personal issues and a social burden heavier than a kryptonite boulder...but we'll get to that later. I'm not going to reveal any major plot points that haven't already been shown in the trailers, no spoiler alerts necessary. After a long title sequence in which you can feel Snyder straining (and failing) to bring something fresh to the story of Bruce Wayne's parents being killed outside a Gotham theatre, the film's best twenty minutes begin, with a different perspective of the finale of "Man of Steel". We see Bruce Wayne trying desperately to get to the towering Wayne office building, while Superman and General Zod's battle in the skies tears down building after building. As Wayne is enveloped in massive, billowing clouds of dust all too reminiscent of 9-11 footage, the film cleverly sets up an analysis of the physical and human impact of those alien invaders that we've watched in all those Avengers and Transformers, Batman and Superman films. Flashing forward, we see a Metropolis under construction, rebuilding while paying tribute to Superman. But Batman is filled with hate, determined to hold Supes accountable for all his friends and workers lost that day when the Wayne tower collapsed as collateral damage. And then.....the film begins to collapse under its own drab, dark weight. I don't mind dark. No one will ever accuse the Nolan Batman trilogy of being filled with laughs, but they were so well written, acted, designed and directed that you were flown through the darkness with a clear delineation between good and bad. In Snyder's film (and perhaps in today's world) no one is allowed to be good or bad, everyone has pain and angst and guilt and doubt, like some cosmic redistribution of happiness in which you must also feel guilt in equal measure. Blech. The Marvel movies know how to have fun. It appears the DC films are going to fall all over themselves to be bloated, serious epics and that wil not bode well for future films in the series. Let's hope someone gets Snyder out of the director chair like Star Wars did Lucas, so someone can mix in some entertainment along with the doom and gloom. Snyder's best film in my opinion was one of his smallest, his 2004 remake of "Dawn of the Dead". It was lean, fast, smart and oh yeah, FUN. His "Watchmen" was a very similar mess to this film. So what's good about this film? Ben Affleck is a very good Batman, probably a little better as Bruce Wayne than he is as the Caped Crusader, but damn good. Gil Gadot makes a great Wonder Woman and leaves you hungry to see more of the character in her upcoming stand alone film. Henry Cavill is very good as Superman, but is given surprisingly little to do for the first half of the film. There is also one dramatic plot twist on Capitol Hill that is ballsy, powerful and very well executed. It, for a moment, lifts the movie into unexpected territory, before Snyder crashes it back to ground with the much more predictable Lex Luthor making a monster subplot. Which takes us to what's NOT good in the film. Jesse Eisenberg is WAY over the top as Lex Luthor, all tics and no substance. The monster he creates is really silly and bad, like some angry dog turd Michelin Man, just ridiculous. Hanz Zimmer is phoning it in with the music score, with some surprisingly weak "help" from Junkie XL, who did great work on "Mad Max" Fury Road" and "Deadpool". XL's theme for Wonder Woman is so loud and bombastic it about knocks you out of your seat every time she comes on screen, screaming at you 'HEY! THERE'S WONDER WOMAN AGAIN!!!" uh yeah, we get it. This is supposed to be the film that paves the way for the Justice League films, with all of our heroes together on screen. If Snyder's directing them, I can't say I'll be excitedly waiting for any of them. Christopher Nolan produced this film. I wonder what his take was on the very final seconds of the film, which somehow manage to simultaneously honor and bastardize his final moments from "Inception". If he's like me, he just rolled his eyes and was excited that the dawn of justice was finally over.... Batman V Superman gets a predictable and boring C-.

In 1992, BASIC INSTINCT stirred up both controversy and big box office results with its blend of cop thriller, graphic sex and bloody violence. Michael Douglas is in great form as San Francisco police detective Nick Curran, called in to investigate the brutal ice pick murder of a former rock star/current philanthropist. When the trail leads to the rocker's girlfriend Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone) the mystery begins. Catherine is possessed of wealth beyond measure, success as a murder mystery novelist and an apparently voracious appetite for Nick. Douglas and Stone play well against each other, teasing every bit of tension and mystery out of the in-your-face screenplay by Joe Ezterhas (Flashdance, Showgirls). Jeannie Tripplehorn is good as Nick's therapist, who also happens to be his ex-lover, George Dzundza (The Deer Hunter, Crimson Tide) has fun as Nick's detective partner and Wayne Knight (Newman!) adds some humor as a policeman, especially during the now famous commando interrogation scene, set in the slickest post-modern room you've ever imagined at a police station. Jan deBont photographed the film and it looks fantastic, making the most of it's bay locations and the world of the entitled that Catherine plays within. deBont would soon move into the Director's chair with "Twister" and "Speed" and delivers here while working for director Paul Verhoeven, who made some of the best films of the 90's in "Robocop" and "Starship Troopers" while also slithering in with some of the worst, like "Showgirls", which I've never managed to survive more than 20 minutes of without bailing. The mystery serves him well in BASIC INSTINCT, with Catherine's books detailing the murders well before they happen, which either provides her the perfect alibi and points to a copycat killer, or sets her up as one of the most deviant and calculated killers in memory. It's for you to discover. The sex is far more graphic than what you'd see in films today, pushing the envelope in its frankness, but there's a lot more going on here than the sex scenes. It's a murder mystery more suited to film noir than its more lurid moments may suggest. Douglas has rarely been better and as the bodies pile up, we share his confusion on who the killer really is. Jerry Goldsmith tops it all off with one of his best music scores, almost always lingering beneath the blood, sweat and rich settings. BASIC INSTINCT still holds up as a clever and entertaining murder mystery for those of us not easily offended. Just don't ask Catherine to make you a drink with ice and you'll be fine. BASIC gets a B. Followed 14 years later (!) by "Basic Instinct 2".

Trying to catch up on all things Kubrick in 2012. This 1975 stately, slow (but never boring) historical film is beautiful to watch. I became fascinated with just how PROPER the world was then. Even dueling to the death was quite highbrow! The guys wear more makeup, wigs and tights than a glam rock fest, so glad we live in the 21st century! GREAT photography, set design, costumes and narration. Ryan O' Neal's Scottish accent comes and goes rather distractingly, but he is better than expected. Talk about the lives of the 1%....THIS depicts the one percent of the late 1700's! Barry gets a B.

1967's film adaption of the Broadway hit BAREFOOT IN THE PARK evokes another time in American comedy that now seems like ancient history in its style and themes. Robert Redford reprises his stage role as young, conservative lawyer Paul Bratter. As the film opens, he and his outgoing, brash new wife Corie (Jane Fonda) are taking a post-wedding Central Park horse carriage ride to the Plaza for a week long honeymoon. Sequestered in their suite for days, the maids talk about the hotel record for never leaving the room and newspapers pile up outside the door. After a week of self imposed bliss, they move to their tiny, half broken down apartment in the city and begin married life, where Corie's devil may care, no inhibitions style begins to clash with Paul's button up, shy approach. Their personalities are so gratingly opposite, it made me want to see the movie that happened before this one starts. How the hell did these two impossibly attractive people ever get together? It must be physical attraction, because Corie is borderline crazy and Paul is on the edge of boring. Neil Simon wrote some of the biggest comedy hits of the 60's and 70's but his style has not survived the passing decades intact. People just do not talk like this in real life, pattering with constant comedic set ups for the other's perfectly timed witty retort or punch line. It gets rather painful to watch. I think in the sixties and seventies, we were all more willing to take a leap and hear people speak like we wish we all could in the moment: fast, witty and impossibly urbane. Now, with reality TV beating us over the head 24/7, we see how thousands of people interact, not just the folks on the small and big screens available decades ago. It's killed our ability to accept the finely tuned rhythms of Simon's writing. Poor Fonda's Corie now comes across as a bi-polar goofy loon whose mood swings threaten to push Paul to drink & desperation. Redford comes off much better as the poor guy who seems to have married a crazy person and is just now waking up to the fact. Mildred Natwick, who guest starred in every 60's and 70's TV show you can imagine, is the best thing in the movie as Corie's conservative Mom, matched up on a blind date with the couples eccentric neighbor Victor Velasco. Velasco is like that "most interesting man in the world" guy from the beer commercials, played to the hilt by Charles Boyer (Gaslight, Algiers). Simon beats you over the head with a painfully repetitive gag about their being no elevator to the newlywed's fifth floor walk up, forces you to feel sorry for Redford, turns Fonda into a grating bride and then resolves the whole thing with the dramatic flair of the last five minutes of any Brady Bunch episode. I guess this was funny 50 years ago. Now, not so much. Barefoot gets a C-

A fast and funny little crime caper, 1974's BANK SHOT is certainly the only time in film history that George C. Scott and Robert Redford played the same character! In 1972's hit "The Hot Rock", Redford played a clever bank robber after a huge jewel. Two years later and based on a second book by hilarious crime author Donald Westlake, Scott plays thief Walter Ballentine. Sprung after 5 years by his shifty lawyer AG Karp (hilarious Sorrell Booke) and a big & ballsy prison break, Ballentine meets an eclectic team for a one-of-a-kind bank heist. The Mission Bell Bank is temporarily housed in a mobile home, setting up Ballentine and his crazy bunch with a chance to steal the whole damn bank in the middle of the night. A very young Bob Balaban (Close Encounters, Seinfeld) plays the young mastermind behind the heist, Joanna Cassidy is the sexy money behind the job and Clifton James riffs on his Southern Warden routine a couple years before becoming JW Pepper in OO7's "Live and Let Die". Scott has rarely been funnier on film, with the biggest eyebrows and the quietest lisp on record, trying to focus on the heist between a million interruptions. The last half of the film is the actual bank job and its funny, suspenseful and a blast. At less than 90 minutes, this is a quick, fun diversion with a talented cast that gets a B. (All you MAD Magazine fans will love that movie poster artwork from famed Mad artist, Jack Davis. No one filled those hilarious pages quite like Davis, with every square inch of the frame packed with action and fun. He delivers the same on this classic poster.)

A thoroughly enjoyable western with a first rate cast, 1968's BANDOLERO! is several ten gallon hats worth of fun. Dean Martin is at his laid back best as bank robber Dee Bishop, who finds himself and his gang in jail after a botched bank job. Quickly sentenced to hang under the watchful eye of classic sheriff July Johnson (George Kennedy at his best, the same year that "Cool Hand Luke" hit theatres) and his straight laced deputy Roscoe (Andrew Prine), Dee's in a tough spot. James Stewart (Mace Bishop) pretends to be the hangman, plans to breakout his brother and soon the whole gang is on the run into Mexico, with the sheriff and a posse on their trail. The boys kidnap the widow of their robbery murder, Maria Stoner and take her along with them, where she serves as a point of desire by every cowboy on the run AND the Sheriff. Let's give them a break, because Maria is played by Raquel Welch in all her 1968 glory (and she is glorious). Sure, her Latino accent is rather spotty, but her acting is fine and when Dean and Jimmy both fall in love with her, you can relate. Director Andrew MacLaglen (Shenandoah, Cahill US Marshall, Hellfighters) is a Western master. Martin and Stewart have a hell of a good time playing off each other and Jerry Goldsmith sets the whole film to an excellent, typically quirky music score that he composed between "Planet of the Apes" and "Patton". Banolero! is a blast to watch, less predictable than I would have ever guessed and a solid B.

This 1971 comedy is truly vintage Woody Allen. How he manages to squeeze his neurotic Jewish mensch character, a South American assassination and coup, tons of physical comedy, hilarious slams at organized religion and idolatry AND The Wide World of Sports & Howard Cosell into 88 minutes is a lot of fun to watch. Listen for a Marvin Hamlisch score written two years before he broke out with "The Sting". This one is B for Bananas!

If you're in the mood for a rude, adult comedy, dive right into BAD WORDS! A hilarious directorial debut for its star, Jason Bateman, it's fast, crude and very funny. Bateman stars as Guy Trilby, a man with no regard for anyone's feelings but his own and virtually no filter. For reasons only he knows, Guy finds a loophole in the rules for a national spelling bee and decides to enter as an adult. Guy brutalizes every child contestant on his journey to the finale and every confrontation is hilarious. Kathryn Hahn stars as a reporter writing a story on Guy's unusual quest, Philip Baker Hall and Allison Janney are terrific as the senior people running the bee and newcomer Rohan Chand is brilliant as Chaitanya Chopra, a young bee contestant who is on to Guy. From their first encounter Chopra and Guy antagonize the living hell out of each other. As they begin to bond, the relationship is genuine and truly funny. The boy can definitely hold his own. Bateman is very, very funny, pushing the envelope to create a character without any redeeming qualities that you grow to root for due to the single minded focus of his quest. Get ready to laugh, cringe and then laugh a whole lot more. As the title suggests, it's not for the easily offended, but if you like your comedies salty and hilarious and a little dark, you're going to love Bad Words. We give it a $%#@! A.

Maybe there should be a maximum time that you're able to wait between sequels, or maybe there should be an unwritten rule that the original writer or director should come back... Any of those factors might have helped the sequel BAD SANTA 2, which lazily limps to the finish line as a poor imitation of the original. The good news is that Billy Bob Thornton is back 13 years later as Willie Soke. He's game to make Willy even more pathetic and desperate than in the original film. When your opening scenes focus on failed suicide attempts, you're not leaving yourself much room to sink lower. Our fat little boy Thurman Merman is back, still played by Brett Kelly, but showing little gains in brain power since his childhood. Kathy Bates is pretty damn funny as Willie's mom, whose rounded Willie and his elf sidekick Marcus (Tony Cox) up for a major Christmas robbery of a huge charity whose owners match Willie and team for depravity. Some scenes are very funny, but its so lazy that it tries to create scenes from the original again with new characters, and they dont measure up. It should be against the law to waste Octavia Spencer (The Help, Hidden Figures) in a small role this underwritten and unfunny. Billy Bob is so good, there are moments where you actually feel emotion for his character, which is hard to imagine. Unfortunately the more Willie tries to find a better path, the less the film resembles the dark and twisted first film. Crude, mean and nasty just like the original, the humor's not for everyone. For me, its just disappointing. Audiences must have agreed, as it sunk quickly at the theatres. Suffice to say when Christmas rolls around every year and we need a break from the family holiday flicks, we will always find time for the original. BAD SANTA 2? It's one and done for me and I'll give it a D.

Back in 2003 when BAD SANTA first hit theatres, Tamara and I went to a late night show and about fell out of our chairs laughing. As someone who loves everything about Christmas, it was the perfect nasty, offensive, dirty holiday joke ever played on yuletide audiences expecting a holiday movie. Thankfully it holds up just as nastily as mandatory yearly late night viewing at home. Billy Bob Thornton is Willie, a profane, alcoholic safe cracker who poses each year as St Nick to gain access to department store safes stuffed with holiday cash. His partner in crime is the diminutive Marcus, who plays Elf to Willie's Santa and manages to slide through plenty of air ducts to get to security panels and alarm systems. Tony Cox plays Marcus with quick wit, fast fists and a never ending bag of one liners. As Christmas nears, our guys run into several hilarious obstacles. First is a VERY funny John Ritter as a department store manager very sensitive to profanity and suspicious of our duo. Ritter delivers a terrific performance, squirming as he repeats some of Willie's behaviors to his security chief Gin, played to perfection by Bernie Mac. Lauren Graham has a ton of fun (and backseat and Jacuzzi yuletide passion with Willie) as a bartender with a thing for Santa and young Brett Kelly is fearless as The Kid, a pudgy, snot-dripping, curly headed shy victim of bullies who finds a special bond with Willie, who soon finds himself living with The Kid and his half-there grandmother (Cloris Leachman) in their sprawling suburban Phoenix home. If that sounds like the film treads into "feel good" territory, fear not. Director Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World, Crumb) and writers Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (Crazy Stupid Love, Focus) have crafted a story that's decidedly more filled with attempted suicide, murder, fist fights and loud sex than sugar plums and brightly wrapped gifts. Bad Santa is a dark, decadent gift of jet black comedy with Thornton's all-in, nasty performance at its center. As usual, Thornton is brilliant. Does any American actor do sarcasm better than Billy Bob? I can't think of one. If you're looking for a family holiday treat, leave this one buried under the tree. If you need a nasty, twisted, dark and dirty holiday present, pull BAD SANTA out of Willie's dirty, puke-stained Santa bag. It gets an A every year! Followed in 2016 by Bad Santa 2.