Hollywood's Comedy Shock and Awe: 'Horrible Bosses' and 'Zookeeper'

This week's movie post examines the Hollywood comedy in all two of its modern forms - the safe, PG-rated movie for children or the hard R-rated raunchfest in the vein of "The Hangover," "Bad Teacher," "No Strings Attached" and, most recently, "Horrible Bosses."

The jokes in Seth Gordon's film hit more than they miss, but just by a slim margin. There is, however, a great "Snow Falling on Cedars" joke (!?) in the picture. On the other hand, most of the sequences between Jennifer Aniston and Charlie Day are, well, a little uncomfortable.

On the PG side of the spectrum, there's "Zookeeper," a perfectly harmless, but nevertheless pretty bad, Kevin James picture that relies on the hilarity of talking animals, poop and people falling down for laughs. So, there you have it.

Click here for my reviews.

This coming weekend, I'll review "Harry Potter" and "Tabloid" as well as take part in the cult movie marathon I'd mentioned last week.

I got an early start last weekend by watching Mario Bava's "Rabid Dogs," which is known in the U.S. as "Kidnapped." I'd rank it among my favorite of the Italian horror maestro's pictures. It's a particularly grim piece of work, but it's also tense as hell and masterfully directed.

Last night's offering was the incredibly strange British curio "Goodbye Gemini." If you think that vaguely sexual brother/sister relationships are creepy, well, this could just be the movie for you. Love that score, though.