film criticism by maryann johanson | celebrating 25 years: 1997–2022
Raiders of the Lost Ark lite for kids, but juvenile humor and a derivative plot limit its appeal for adults. Teen Dora is really cool, though, and a great role model for girls and boys alike.
Teenaged girls behaving badly, depicted with a positive vibe. Progress? Turns out grossout movies don’t work even when they’re kind of feminist.
A tad dated and scattershot, but the messy package is inventively absurd… and unlike many Hollywood comedies, able to carry that absurdity to a silly end.
Color me absolutely astonished that this is genuinely sweet and wholly sex-positive. Unfortunately, it’s also completely unfunny.
A mess not by accident but by design. It’s meant to be a ton of stuff thrown against the wall in the hope that some of it will momentarily distract you into involuntary laughter.
Kermit the Frog takes on his biggest challenge yet: dual roles. And truly puts the villain in vaudevillian.
There simply never seems to be any reason why lovebirds Tom and Violet can’t just get married already. Unless the film is delivering an object lesson to uppity career ladies…
If you’ve been possessed of a burning desire to behold Jack Black’s belly flab in 3D, then I am delighted to announce that your moment has arrived. What’s that? You say it’s Black’s buttcrack you crave the sight of, rendered in three glorious dimensions? This, my friend, is your lucky day.
Russell Brand is still the best thing here, but at least he gets to be onscreen a helluva lot more than he was in *Sarah Marshall.* Alas that onscreen just as often is Jonah Hill…
I was just surfing around, minding my own business, when I accidentally stumbled across a post at The Film Stage (a site I’d never even heard of before) entited “New Muppet Movie Details Emerge.” And I’m all like, What? How is it possible that I’ve never ever heard about a new Muppet movie? I figured … more…
