Light on laughs, driven by a creaky plot and peppered with a plinky score, this leaves you little to do but ponder which of the annoying family members should be booted out of the car first. They’re sent barreling through contrived sitcom situations, most of which make National Lampoon’s Vacation look like an observant comedy

Like someone smacking the bottom of an empty ketchup bottle, American Wedding tries its best to force one last picture out of the American Pie series. For the marriage of Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), most of their friends and family – as well as the prevalent gross-out humor and occasional sweetness of

An uneasy mixture of self-love and self-loathing, this would-be Hollywood satire – about an estranged movie-star couple (John Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones) who try to remain civil while promoting their last joint project – wants to make fun of the celebrity characters even as it fawns over them. Nearly everyone in the top-heavy cast, which