Sex Tape

Review by Grace Snyder

It's easy to guess that a film titled SEX TAPE will contain a lot of sex, and in fact director Jase Kasdan's film is centered around the sacred act of passion. Annie (Cameron Diaz) and Jay (Jason Segel- who also co-penned the film) met in college. Their time at school was spent getting busy anywhere they could: the library, the car, even the middle of campus. Their spark never seems to dim. That is until Jay gets Annie pregnant.

Fast-forward ten years and Annie is writing about her past sex-capades, and lack of recent, in her blog. Jay and Annie now have two children and to-do lists that have no end. It is safe to say that the sexual antics of their youth have died down substantially. With Jay working long hours, Annie taking care of the kids, and her potential new blogging job; there simply isn't time or energy.

The Counselor

Review by Pamela Zoslov

How do you account for a movie like THE COUNSELOR? It has a starry cast, a famous director (albeit Ridley Scott), and an original screenplay by Cormac McCarthy, the literary novelist who has been called – not by me — “America's greatest living writer.” One of McCarthy's novels was the basis of the Coen Brothers' NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. I didn't much care for that film, but compared to THE COUNSELOR, it was a damn masterpiece.

What to Expect When You're Expecting

Review by Bob Ignizio

Even if you've never had a baby yourself, chances are you're aware of What to Expect When You're Expecting. You can't even go to a garage sale without stumbling across a used copy, so ubiquitous is Heidi Murkoff's best-selling book for expectant parents. Of course there's not really a plot, this being a self-help book, but with brand recognition like that, Hollywood figured they'd turn it into a movie, anyway. Hey, it worked for Woody Allen when he made EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX (BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK). Who's to say that director Kirk Jones and his cast and crew can't succeed, too?

Although nowhere close to being on the same level as Allen's film, WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU'RE EXPECTING does deliver a few laughs, even some big ones. The majority of those come from a group of dads marginally led by Chris Rock who, along with their babies, hang out together in the park. There they can speak freely about the ups and downs of parenting without fear of judgment or having anything they say get back to their wives. I didn't quite get the weird bromance thing these guys had going on with uber jock Davis (Joe Manganiello), but otherwise this was the most relatable and funny part of the film. Unfortunately it accounts for only about 20 minutes of WHAT TO EXPECT's nearly two hour running time.

Bad Teacher

Review by Pamela Zoslov

As if to fill the void in summer raunch left by the disappointing HANGOVER sequel, BAD TEACHER, directed by Jake Kasdan, brings us Cameron Diaz as the sleaziest middle-school teacher in the history of education.

There is a certain wicked pleasure in beholding Diaz’s unregenerate misanthrope, whose character is mildly reminiscent of Billy Bob Thornton’s BAD SANTA in its twisting of traditional expectations. How, and why, did this woman ever become a teacher? The character, Elizabeth Halsey, edging over the hill but still gorgeous, stalks the corridors of the Illinois school where she scarcely works, wearing five-inch slides and tight skirts, hung over from booze and bonging, dozing while she feeds her students – whose names she can’t be bothered to learn — a pedagogical diet of school-themed movies (STAND AND DELIVER, LEAN ON ME). She is crass, mean, profane and callous to other people who aren’t wealthy, eligible men. Her plans to leave her hated job for marriage are foiled when her oblivious, opera-obsessed fiancé dumps her after his mother discovers she’s spent tens of thousands of his dollars.