Movie 43

If you are going to make a movie like Kentucky Fried Movie, why not hire that film’s director, John Landis? He’s a guy who could turn in some solid/stupid comedy, and his slate seems pretty open these days. Instead, a bunch of directors try their hand at slob comedy and get very mixed results. Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts score the most points as a couple homeschooling their son and making sure he gets the complete, humiliating experience. Terrence Howard gets a good turn as a college basketball coach, and that’s about it for the OK stuff. Most of this film is big stars like Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet and Halle Berry embarrassing themselves. Hell, Jackman even does a good chunk of the film with a scrotum neck. Richard Gere takes part in the film’s lamest segment, involving an MP3 player that looks like a supermodel. A lot of dud jokes with some sporadic laughter. It’s not the disaster that a lot of critics are calling it, but it’s not all that good, either.