National Lampoon’s Van Wilder (2002)

Comedy Rated R

This dreadful piece of dreck, about a perpetual big man on campus (Ryan Reynolds) in his seventh academic year, arrived within two months of fellow collegiate comedies Slackers and Sorority Boys, meaning Hollywood was pumping out lame teen vehicles faster than I could dismiss them. Still, here goes: If you added up the good jokes

Transamerica (2005)

Comedy Rated PG-13

Transamerica stars Felicity Huffman as a man awaiting a sex-change operation who suddenly discovers he has a 17-year-old son. Once you get your bearings there is actually far less than meets the eye here. Everything about the movie feels gimmicky, including Huffman’s mannered performance. Less a woman than an awkward compilation of “womanly” affectations, Huffman’s

Broken Flowers (2005)

Comedy Rated R

Bill Murray continued his study of disillusioned men in dire need of jump-starts with this story of an aging ladies man on a road trip to visit four former flames. He would seem to have found the perfect pairing in director Jim Jarmusch, whose stone-faced comedies share with Murray what can only be called an

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004)

Comedy Rated PG-13

How appropriate that a comedy about the alleged sport of dodge ball is as mean-spirited as this hilarious farce. As one character says, dodge ball is a game of “violence, exclusion and degradation.” Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller face off as opposing team leaders – Vaughn’s is made up of fitness misfits, Stiller’s of fitness

Norbit (2007)

Comedy Rated PG-13

As a black comic, Eddie Murphy has the cultural green light to traffic in black stereotypes, but Norbit is rife with so many that it makes you wish his creative license could be revoked. Norbit (Murphy) is a nerd who is married to a boorish Big Momma type (Murphy again). They live in a small

Puccini for Beginners (2007)

Comedy Rated NR

If Woody Allen, at the height of his smugness, were to make yet another angst-ridden, New York romance and add a lesbian twist, it might look something like the insufferable Puccini for Beginners. Painfully pleased with its own cleverness, of which there isn’t much, the movie follows a romantic triangle involving an on-the-rocks New York

Last Shot, The (2004)

Comedy Rated R

Screenwriter and first-time director Jeff Nathanson gets his chance to call the shots with this Hollywood satire about a wide-eyed, aspiring director (Matthew Broderick) who thinks he’s been given his first chance to helm a movie but actually is serving as a front for an FBI operation targeting industry-related organized crime. Nathanson is so thrilled

Dogma (1999)

Comedy Rated R

Writer-director Kevin Smith is hell-bent on proving that God has a sense of humor with this self-described “comedic fantasy,” in which an abortion-clinic worker (Linda Fiorentino) tries to save the world from a pair of murderous angels (Matt Damon and Ben Affleck). There’s enough sharp, satirical humor here – and honest intention – to make

Year of the Dog (2007)

Comedy Rated PG-13

Treading lightly between bemused affection and outright derision, Year of the Dog infuses one of society’s standard wallflowers, the single dog-lady, with uncommon dignity. The lady in question is Peggy (Molly Shannon), a mousy cubicle worker whose life revolves around her beloved dog Pencil. Shannon’s face rarely reveals anything but a pleasant, benign smile, yet

Bedazzled (2000)

Comedy Rated PG-13

Director Harold Ramis’ Bedazzled relies on the same obvious humor that made his Analyze This feel like one of Jay Leno’s inane Tonight Show monologues. Here Brendan Fraser’s computer nerd trades his soul to the devil (Elizabeth Hurley) for seven wishes, each of which leads to gags that could be followed by a drummer’s rim