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In the case of American Pie, more is less. As in less funny, less sexy, and much, much less enjoyable. This sequel, like so many that have preceded it this year, exists exclusively because its forerunner made a lot of money - and the lack of insp...

It's hard to believe that The American President was made by the same man responsible for the no-holds-barred satire of This Is Spinal Tap. Is there any element of American culture more ripe for the humorist's razor-sharp wit than presidential pol...

American Pie remains a touchstone of '90s comedies in particular and raunchy teen sex comedies in general. Viewed today, it has retained an element of its initial breezy freshness, although a progression of envelope-pushing comedies have made it ea...

American Sniper lifts director Clint Eastwood out of the doldrums that have plagued his last few films. Loosely based on the life of decorated Iraq War veteran Chris Kyle, the movie not only represents the best effort from Eastwood since his Oscar-wi...

Quentin Tarantino didn't originate the method of blending extreme violence with dark comedy but his early films (especially Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction) popularized it for today's generation. Since the early 1990s, many directors have att...

Although the 1980s were not kind to most traditional monsters - vampires, mummies, gargoyles, and the like - the first two years of the decade offered three prominent werewolf movies. The first to reach the screen was Joe Dante's The Howling, whic...

An American Werewolf in Paris is a failed attempt to recapture the humor and horror of John Landis' 1981 feature, An American Werewolf in London. Where the original had comedy, the sequel has the kind of revolting silliness that can be found in TV...

There are two kinds of thrillers - action-oriented endeavors such as those popularized by James Bond and Jason Bourne, and slow-burn motion pictures that rely less on pyrotechnics and gadgets and more on psychology. The American belongs in the lat...

Here's a word analogy: Amistad is to The Lost World as Schindler's List is to Jurassic Park. In 1993, after Steven Spielberg made the monster dino hit, many critics described Schindler's List as the director's "penance" (as if there was a need for...

Films can be tremendous vehicles for escapism - paths to freeing oneself from worldly concerns and considerations. They can also be a means of getting in touch with essential elements of humanity such as love, sacrifice, and mortality. Those three ...