The Family Stone, which follows an extended clan over the Christmas holiday, is all over the place in terms of tone, though I guess you could say the same of most actual family gatherings, where laughs and tears often mix. Yet the movie – for all its farce, melodrama and tragedy – never manages any

Vulgar but inventive, Osmosis Jones alternates between live-action scenes detailing the poor health habits of a zoo employee (Bill Murray) and animated segments depicting the resulting trauma inside his body. Drawn with vivid imagination and fueled by a rapid-fire wit, Osmosis Jones becomes the funkiest, funniest instructional health video you have ever seen. Featuring the

A messy, confused remake of the 1975 feminist horror comedy, in which the housewife-as-automaton metaphor is stretched almost unbearably thin. Nicole Kidman is the headstrong heroine this time around, while director Frank Oz and screenwriter Paul Rudnick stumble updating the material. Kidman plays a ruthless career woman who gets sent to Stepford as her comeuppance,

A touching ode to teen angst. As Enid, an 18-year-old who greets life with a withering sarcasm (she rolls her eyes the way other people breathe), Thora Birch paints a vivid portrait of a disaffected teen. But Ghost World offers more than witty putdowns, especially when Enid finally drops her armor of cynicism with the

Ray Romano plays another everyday schmo who’s nice enough but something of a wallflower – at least until a former U.S. president (Gene Hackman) runs against him for mayor. Comedy comfort food, this is never quite as funny as it should have been – its insistence on geniality holds it back – but the movie

The mugging comedic duo of Cuba Gooding Jr. and Horatio Sanz are just two of the many problems in this tone-deaf comedy, which follows two heterosexual buddies who mistakenly book themselves on a gay cruise. Of course the heroes eventually learn to overcome their homophobia – enabling the movie to safely revel in its own.

Not only is this yet another teen movie, but it’s the kind that give teen movies a bad name. Driven primarily by gross-out sex gags, this self-satisfied tale of three goofballs who cheat their way through college is made by the sort of guys who are pushing 30 and still brag about that awesome time

Another laughless affair from Martin Lawrence, who stars as a Renaissance theme-park employee who is transported to actual medieval times. Lawrence pulls out his usual bag of tired tricks – bugging his eyes out, screaming dated hip-hop slang until his voice is hoarse – with the usual, uninspired results.