The Interview, A Most Violent Year, Cake

The Interview

Cake

A Most Violent Year

Capsule reviews on three of the last four films of 2014. Only “Leviathan” remains and I’ll see it tonight.

Penguins of Madagascar, Horrible Bosses 2

Penguins of Madagascar (my rating)

Penguins of Madagascar (Scruffies' rating)

Horrible Bosses 2

Quick capsules on Wednesday’s big Thanksgiving weekend releases:

We're the Millers

The fake-family comedy "We're the Millers," to the posters for which Warner Bros. has appended the very funny tag "(*if anybody asks)," is so schizophrenic it plays like two, sometimes three different movies.

Wanderlust

There is a world of difference between a movie that is both funny and vulgar, such as "Bridesmaids" or "The Hangover," and a movie that thinks it is funny because it is vulgar, such as this weekend's flop "Wanderlust." There are some clever ideas and even a few chuckles in this Jennifer Aniston-Paul Rudd vehicle about failed Manhattanites who find themselves (and then find themselves) at a free-loving, clothing-optional commune 30 miles from the nearest Red Roof Inn. Unfortunately, both the clever ideas and the many more insipid ones are repeated five, six, twenty times, until all the charm is suffocated out of the picture and what could have been a genial sleeper engenders surprising antipathy. The screenwriters have been told they're funny all their lives. Their response is to assume if you like the joke the first time, then by the tenth time, you'll love it.