Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

/career

Prince Avalanche

"George Washington" director David Gordon Green - who's lately been slumming it with such swill as "The Sitter" and "Your Highness" - has made a one-off picture with the inexplicable (and box office fatal) title "Prince Avalanche," about a two-man crew charged with painting lines down a lonely Texas highway near the site of a recent deadly wildfire.

This is the End

I have no problem with in-jokes, or humor about how fabulous it is to be a Hollywood celebrity and not one of the poor saps in the paying audience.

Admission

Some television celebrities, no matter how talented, simply lack the stature to fit the big screen. Upon the basis of 2010's "Date Night" and her new picture "Admission," I'm afraid Tina Fey falls into the category. I know, there are those who believe she can do no wrong, but she looks undersized up there in a way that only serves to underline the sitcom-y, watch-'em-at-home production values and quality of these movies.

This is 40

There are enough big laughs in “This is 40” that Judd Apatow could have had another “Bridesmaids” on his hands if he’d mustered the self-control to trim the fat – the trite family drama we’ve seen a million times before that detracts from the insightful, sometimes hilarious situational comedy involving parenting and the vicissitudes of marriage. Adorable Paul Rudd plays Pete, a struggling indie record-label owner, and Apatow’s wife Leslie Mann his wife Debbie, not doing any better with her small clothing boutique. They’re perfectly good company, but you wonder what more gifted comedians could do with these parts. As it is, the money woes aren’t treated seriously enough to do anything but bring down the proceedings. And yet, every so often, Albert Brooks or Melissa McCarthy comes onto the scene, and you simply sit up in your seat and watch genius at work.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Author Stephen Chbosky steps behind the camera for the first time to adapt his popular novel "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," about a troubled Pittsburgh high school freshman named Charlie (Logan Lerman) who, desperate for friends, gets himself adopted by a clique of misfit seniors: flamboyantly gay Patrick (Ezra Miller), sweet, easy, unselfconfident Sam (Emma Watson), misanthropic Buddhist Mary Elizabeth (Mae Whitman), rich kleptomaniac Alice (Erin Wilhelmi). It was a mistake not to hand the project to a more experienced director. There's some good material trying to get out here, but Chbosky paces the action so that each line of dialogue gets its moment in the sun. That's not the way life works. People - especially teenagers - talk over one another. It's as simple as a scene in which the kids go home after a party. "Goodbye, Charlie," says Patrick. Pause. "Goodbye, Charlie," says Sam. Unh uh.

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.