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Elizabeth Banks
The Baxter (2005)
Conceptually...
The Baxter
is hobbled, and all Showalter has is his concept.
Invincible (2006)
Loses possession early on and has trouble holding onto the ball.
Meet Dave (2008)
Eddie, it's time to start thinking big again.
Fred Claus (2007)
Though the film teases questions that would spark a child’s imagination, they’re all dropped like hot potatoes in favor of cheap infusions of dancing, slapstick, and...cartoon sound effects.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)
Americans shouldn't have to feel comfortable with the thought of kicking back and having a beer with their President, but it's not a bad criterion for a comedy filmmaker, and Smith is that guy.
W. (2008)
Equal parts comedy (inevitably only-in-America satire) and Oedipal psycho-drama...[from] the bard of American political cinema.
The Uninvited (2009)
Unlike the rest of the Class of '09 thus far,
The Uninvited
marches to an off-beat, and thank goodness for small favors.
Our Idiot Brother (2011)
Unmistakably
Little Miss Sunshine
-y...a sunny sitcom of family dysfunction...
The Hunger Games (2012)
If
The Hunger Games
on screen doesn't exactly catch fire (as does its hero Katniss Everdeen), its savvy pop culture mash-up and the charge of teens in life-and-death peril remain intact.
Modern Family: The Complete Fourth Season (2012)
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
A competent sequel...
The Hunger Games
could be fairly accused of being what it satirizes, but it's not without a thought in its deadly little head.
The Lego Movie (2014)
Zany episodes...provide a clothesline on which to hang social satire and an overriding message that an individual's imagination can trump social and cultural oppression. Throw out the instructions, and make what you want of the world. Plus butt jokes.
Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)
Though the thrill of invention is gone, there's enough comic fertility and accumulated goodwill to sustain
Pitch Perfect 2
through to its splashy and socially optimistic finale...
Love & Mercy (2015)
Honorable...deeply moving...takes a considered approach to Wilson, sound in dramatic and editorial construction and insightful in its psychological subtexts.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2 (2015)
If the franchise continues to feel a bit dull—heavy on the drama and light on the excitement, with pageantry long in the rear-view—there’s a respectable purity in the films’ political cynicism and populist fervor.
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)
While adults will probably find somewhat diminishing returns in
The Second Part
, its cheeky variations on all the constructions that worked so well the first time also work pretty darn well, and to a good end.
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