Writer/director Adam Rifkin tackled classic OJ elements with The Chase starring Charlie Sheen and Kristy Swanson. Sheen plays an convicted felon who happens to be innocent and Swanson is his unwilling victim in pursuit by almost every cop in southern California. The majority of the movie takes place inside the car but the growing relationship between the two leads, the television crew with the pursuing officers (including Henry Rollins), and the pervasive punk-rock music keep things moving nicely. For good measure there is some stinging commentary on the vapidness of the media but a fun ride is in store regardless.

The Goods reminded me a lot of Hot Tub Time Machine in that it should have been much funnier than it was. It was not a bad movie though with decent performances from Jeremy Piven, Ed Helms, and Kathyrn Hahn notably but far too much fell flat as dirty old men, statutory rape, and dildos only go so far to make an R-rated comedy stand out from the pack. There were simply too many good comedic actors wasted here that all the characters were one-dimensional and cliched without any compelling traits. Not even Alan Thicke or Will Ferrell cameos could close the sale.

Broken Lizard’s first film, Puddle Cruiser is just not very good. It isn’t funny and less silly than the later films. It’s quite sloppily put together, the acting is deplorable and it’s very uninteresting. Some of the conversations last way too long and a lot of the jokes are quite long winded and just unfunny. You can see the beginning of the troupe’s rapport with each other start to form, but it isn’t strong enough yet to pull the film off.

As a young Puck, watching Friday was a bi-weekly tradition to vicariously experience life in an urban environment filled with guns, drugs, and crazy-ass Chris Tucker. I am convinced that Tucker was created to play Smokey as he steals the show with his irresponsible, over-the-top mannerisms. Writer, producer, and star Ice Cube is no slouch either as the laid-back, unemployed foil to Smokey. Director F. Gary Gray takes the ordinary occurrences and extraordinary characters of the neighborhood and constructs them in way that come across in a perfect combination of wacky fun and cautionary tale with the issues of drugs and violence.

Duncan Jones’ Moon is a science fiction story in the purest sense of the term. It concerns the plight of Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) working alone on the moon running a facility that mines Helium-3 for an energy company back on Earth. Inside of the first scene the audience is crushed by the sense of isolation shown to us as Sam has only GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey) the station Artificial Intelligence with whom to communicate. Through the simple premise of a man alone on the moon, this film explores speculative technology that leads Sam and the viewer on an emotional and introspective journey of what it really means to be human.

I had never actually seen the entirety of Team America: World Police until today. From the creators of South Park is an absolutely hilarious, offensive, politically themed action movie parody, complete with their song “Montage” in which the lyrics describe what a montage is during a montage. Also included is “America, Fuck Yeah!” and quotable lines like “Derka derka derka.” Also, the film includes perhaps one of the most disturbing sex scenes, ever. Did I mention that there are only voice actors, because everyone is a puppet? Completely over the top, but not without a valid message.

If ever there was a case of an entire film being sabotaged by its final act, it is Martyrs. It begins ever so forcifully like a deleted scene from High Tension, Inside, or other French survival films and quickly ratchets up a good amount of scenes between the two lead girls. However at the one hour mark, an odd detour and shoehorned exposition turn a great horror film into random scenes of senseless violence. I have nothing against violence if it serves a purpose in a film. Here it just destroys the previous sixty minutes’ good work.

You would think I would like Let’s Go to Prison. Directed by Bob Odenkirk. Features Will Arnett, David Keochner, Chi McBride and Dylan Baker. Written by Thomas Lennon. But I don’t. Perhaps it’s because it is a comedy that I laughed at once. Maybe it’s because Dax Shepard is in the majority of it. Maybe because it is incredibly boring. Whatever it is, it sucks. Yet, Comedy Central insists on cramming it down my throat 4 times a day, like they do with Idiocracy (also featuring Dax Shepard).

Welcome to a new series on Movie Scum aptly titled Mini Scum. Here, we discuss and review a movie in 100 words or less because it does not warrant a normal random review.

I’m not adverse to a movie that takes the slow approach toward its resolution. What I am not a fan of is movies that ride along for two hours (!) before a hastily written ending which does not make a lick of sense. Syriana has the star power with Clooney and Damon especially but they are fairly dull and just small pieces of the boring cog of the story. This screams to be an important Oscar movie and with two awards it succeeded. But being acclaimed does not make it a good movie. Stick with Jack Ryan instead for political espionage.