The surest way to ruin a great, original comedy is to give it a sequel. Fortunately, in all the ways that “Pitch Perfect 2” is pointless, it’s equally harmless. The movie knows it’s a studio cash-grab, and the effort behind it shows, but the care-free attitude from the onset also appropriately lowers expectations.

The battle for equal rights for women is far from over well into the 20th century, but it’s hard to imagine anything happening today that would make a spectacle of it like the  Battle of the Sexes did.

With this next Tom Hanks archive review, I have to admit that I’m cheating. I have watched “Splash” before, but never reviewed it; in fact, I don’t have reviews of any 1980s Hanks films, and I wanted to get something posted from his earlier work. So last weekend I watched “Splash,” which enchanted me when […]

There are some classic Hollywood storytelling molds out there — frameworks that with the right story and the right talents applied, result in a feel-good, crowd-pleasing movie — the popcorn and Coca-Cola of cinema. “Hidden Figures” perfectly encapsulates that type of film. It balances upon a combination of a witty script both humorous and dramatic, […]

The big question heading into “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping” was whether The Lonely Island trio of Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer could make their brand of pop music humor work in a format that lasts longer than three minutes. Not surprisingly, it’s in different three-minute clips that “Popstar” works best.

“St. Vincent” sticks to the script. You know, the story about the cantankerous grouch who forms an unlikely bond with a younger, usually troubled child with his opposite temperament. A tried and true formula. Despite lacking in originality, however, this classic storyline plays out in enjoyable fashion in “St. Vincent” thanks in large part to […]

The premise of “Neighbors,” a comedy about a couple with a baby getting into a prank war with a bunch of fraternity guys, seems unlikely to yield one good film, let alone two. Well, although “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” is made mostly of recycled materials, it’s shockingly one of the better comedy sequels in recent […]

In tackling Hollywood’s Golden Age, the Coen Brothers have made their glitziest film to date in “Hail, Caesar!”

The man behind “Anchorman” and “Step Brothers” brings you … one of the best films of the year …? Seems ridiculous, but you could make a case for it to be true. Adam McKay’s “The Big Short,” based on the book by Michael Lewis (also of “The Blinds Side” and “Moneyball”), is a comical tragedy […]

Amy Schumer has made the jump to the big screen in a big way with “Trainwreck.” The comedian whose Comedy Central show has gathered a well-deserved fan base couldn’t have made a better choice than to team up with Judd Apatow to bring her self-deprecating and shameless sense of humor to a movie genre in […]

When major theater chains decided not to show “The Interview” because of terrorism threats from North Korean hackers, Hollywood saw an unparalleled degree of hype surrounding a film that otherwise would’ve received a moderate spotlight at best. But while news buzz for this comedy about a TV host and his producer being recruited to assassinate […]

New parents take on frat boys in “Neighbors,” the latest dirty R-rated comedy from director Nicholas Stoller (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Get Him to the Greek”) and produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Point Grey Pictures. Yet what separates “Neighbors” from the heap has a lot to do with the script, written by novices Andrew […]

The mystery of making a great comedy sequel has been solved. The catch? Now that it’s been done, it can never be done again.

Even an outrageous stoner comedy can successfully appeal to a wide audience with a little ingenuity. “This Is the End” could’ve stopped at being a comedy in which a bunch of friends are faced with the apocalypse, but what really makes Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen’s film work is that there’s a big glass window […]

The most effective comedies tend to be the ones you swear you’ve seen before yet you can’t name any other just like it. “We’re the Millers” has lots of familiar pieces but puts them together in a new-ish package. Often funny, sometimes hilarious and always amusing, “Millers” doesn’t raise the bar for R-rated comedy, but […]