A comic farce that should surprise anyone who knows Alec Guinness only as the sage Ben Kenobi of the early Star Wars films. Here he plays eight roles – all pitch-perfect exercises in dry humor. Indeed, Kind Hearts and Coronets is so dry you have to pay close attention to realize it’s actually a comedy.

Alec Guinness minces through The Ladykillers as if it were his own personal playground, as well it should be. As the toothy, grinning leader of a gang of bumbling crooks – he only looks like a half-wit because the rest of them have no wits at all – he’s a loony treat, a comic bright

Woody Allen’s mind-numbingly inconsequential comedy represents another of his narcissistic lows. The writer-director hands the starring role over to Jason Biggs, a neurotic comedy writer stuck in an emotionally abusive relationship with a flighty actress (Christina Ricci), and reduces him to doing a lame Woody Allen impression. If imitation is the most sincere form of

It’s fitting that Ozzy Osbourne and his family have a cameo in this third installment in Mike Myers’ spy-spoof franchise. Like the comedian’s randy hero, they went from being a highly entertaining curiosity to haunting my every waking moment. The frequently flat Goldmember showcases little of the original film’s scattershot brilliance, existing only as further

To say that Steve Martin does justice to the Pink Panther film series here is not to say that you should drop everything and watch Martin’s update. Director Blake Edwards’ original films, with Peter Sellers defining the role of inept French police officer Inspector Clouseau, aimed for inspired silliness but were more often than not

I don’t think Vince Vaughn stops talking at any point throughout Wedding Crashers – and that includes the scenes he isn’t even in. Thank goodness, otherwise this would be just another romantic comedy piffle. Vaughn and Owen Wilson play friends who crash nuptial events to take advantage of women who are “aroused by the very

Another inconsequential comedy from “Friends” star Matthew Perry, this time with Bruce Willis as a hit man who moves next door to Perry’s uptight dentist. Only the boundless enthusiasm of then-newcomer Amanda Peet, as the dentist’s assistant and an aspiring assassin, makes the movie bearable.

Consider this to be 2004’s Heathers, the 1989 touchstone for all movies about high school cliques. It’s not a rip-off but a timely variation – so attuned to the nuances of the teenage world of its time, for girls in particular, that its emotional accuracy qualifies as brilliance. Lindsay Lohan stars as a homeschooled girl