Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost (2025)

Ben Stiller directs this film as a touching tribute to his showbiz parents who performed together as a double act for decades. While going through their personal belongings in preparation of selling their home, it becomes about Ben and his sister's story as much as it is about their parents, told through home movies, audio recordings and letters left behind. It's a deeply affecting and often uncomfortable look at growing up amidst fame and professional embitterments, told through the uniquely skewed perspective of being an actor. It's very much a family affair that soon becomes a healing project and a way of connecting with his own kids, who grew up with similar experiences.

3 contained emotions out of 5

Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man! (2026)

An informal sitdown with the director/writer/actor/producer extraordinaire, recounting his storied career through new interviews and a wealth of archival materials culled from his 75+ year career. Literally 99 at the time of release, Brooks remains a natural showman and a gifted storyteller, demonstrating a brilliant mind of quick wit and even quicker retorts, while exploring the many contradictory sides to the man; comedy icon, serious introspective, political provocateur. Yet he proves himself to be a real mensch. This extensive deep dive interweaves his body of work with his private life; his longtime marriage to Anne Bancroft and his lifelong friendship with Carl Reiner. And death. A lifetime of death and tragedy follow you when you're the 2000 Year Old Man.

All of this rare footage is so entertaining and engrossing that it's hard not to develop a ton of respect for someone who claims to be so tasteless and ribald, yet has contributed such a lasting legacy to film. I'm glad I saw it while he's still alive because I expect it would hit a lot differently after the fact.

4 more hits than flops out of 5

Note: Features the final on-screen interviews of David Lynch and Rob Reiner.

The Heartbreak Kid (2007)

A remake of the 1972 film about a shallow man who quickly courts and marries a beautiful woman, then realizes they have nothing in common and falls for another woman on their honeymoon. As always, Ben Stiller excels at playing the hapless sap, but this one has more of a mean streak than other romantic comedies. It's raunchy and offensive, which gets bonus points in my book, but this is not one of the Farrelly brothers' best. The original holds up much better.

2 cures for a jellyfish sting out of 5

There's Something About Mary (1998)

Poor lovestruck loser Ted (Ben Stiller) never got over the girl of his dreams after an incident in his youth left him scarred. Years later, he hires a shady investigator to track her down and that's when matters get complicated.

This remains one of my most memorable theater experiences. Full of broad belly laughs, you hardly ever see this type of "swing for the fences" comedy anymore. It's refreshing to visit all these years later because it still has the same effect on me. It's the perfect marriage between gross-out humor and heart that really sticks the landing and cements it as a modern comedy classic.

4½ squirts of hair gel out of 5

The Cable Guy (1996)

In a sharp turn from his earlier roles, Jim Carrey embraces the darkness in this satirical black comedy about a lonely cable guy who becomes obsessed when one of his customers (Matthew Broderick) bribes him for free cable, and inserts himself into his life, upturning it in every way. Critically reviled at the time of its release, it's since attained a cult following and showcases Carrey's unique ability to turn on a dime. It's much better than I gave it credit for at the time.

3½ CABLE GUBLAHS out of 5

Happy Gilmore 2 (2025)

Nostalgia can be dangerous. An overreliance on the past can be a handicap. There's no reason for some things to be revived except for purely sentimental reasons. This wasn't one of them.

This film features many callbacks accompanied by old clips cribbed from the first movie to make you remember how much you enjoyed that one and desperately try to recreate those old feelings. Most of the time, it falls flat.

My other complaint is that comedies are too long nowadays. It's completely self-indulgent for this to be two hours. Clip it at 90 minutes and leave out all the fluff. It ages better that way. 

I sound like an old fuddy-duddy now. I didn't hate everything about it, I just wish it tried to do something different. For some people, same-old will be perfectly acceptable. It just feels sadder when these people are in their 50s.

1½ gratuitous cameos out of 5

Happy Gilmore (1996)

Demonstrating he has range, Sandler's next headlining role had him portraying a failed hockey player with anger issues who channels his rage into his golf game in order to save his grandmother's house from foreclosure. He sparks a rivalry with the villainous Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald), while learning the skills of the game from the one-armed Chubbs (Carl Weathers). The humor in this movie is all over the map, but there are enough memorable moments to cement this as a classic and one of The Sandman's defining roles.

3 fores out of 5

Robbie the Reindeer in Legend of the Lost Tribe (2002)

The first one wasn't great, but the limitations of the story begin to show in this follow-up to Hooves of Fire. I admire it more for its creativity and visual style, but I found myself bored and my attention span wavering. This special again involves the villainous Blitzen seeking to sabotage the other reindeer, while Robbie discovers an underground tribe of Vikings named Magnus and rows with his girlfriend Donner. It all just feels a bit pointless.

2½ rabbit masks out of 5

Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves of Fire (1999)

Robbie (son of Rudolph) wants to become one of Santa's reindeer, so he must compete in the Reindeer Games, an Olympics-like event, to prove his worth. Blitzen tries to sabotage him, while Robbie has eyes on his girlfriend, Vixen.

Created by Richard Curtis and with a distinctive Aardman-esque claymation style, it's the first of three Christmas specials that aired on BBC One across 1999-2007.

3 sexy reindeer with tits out of 5

Note: This special was released both in its original British format, and also an American dub, weirdly enough. I was only able to find the original language version, so I can't comment on the quality of the latter, but I have listed the US voice cast alongside the UK version for consistency.

Nutcrackers (2024)

After his estranged sister dies, a man temporarily takes custody of her four feral children, attempting to curb their unruly ways all the while trying to find them a permanent home. I'll give you two guesses as to how it all ends.

Despite the predictability of the plot, there is something strangely irresistible and charming about the raw, low-key nature of the film and its performances, as long as you're feeling in a generous mood. The kids here weirdly reminded me of the Herdmans from that other Christmas movie.

2 boobies + privates = babies out of 5

Dear Santa (2024)

A dyslexic kid writes a letter to Satan, and he comes a-calling, tricking the boy into making three wishes in exchange for his soul. I would have thought this was a novel concept had I not seen Letters to Satan Claus a couple of years back which had this exact same premise. With the Farrelly Brothers and Jack Black involved, I was expecting this to be a hard R-rated raunchfest, but it's more like a PG movie that tries so hard not to be offensive that it's actually offensive. Anyway, there are a couple of gags that got me, but this is a far cry from the Farrellys' best work. You're better off watching Krampus instead.

2 "every time a grown man sharts himself, a demon earns its horns" out of 5

BEING CANADIAN [2015]

TV writer Robert Cohen travels across his homeland in order to find out what it actually means to be a Canadian, which up until now seemed to be a pretty much a mish-mash of everything and nothing, in this humorous documentary, Being Canadian.

Starting his journey from the East coast and ending up on the West coast, Cohen interviews a gaggle of Canadian celebrities (and curiously, Ben Stiller) to see what their thought on the matter is.  As it turns out, all our exports are funnier than hell and don't really have a straight answer either.  Besides being the politest folks who drop f-bombs left, right & center, drink beer by the gallons and are fully aware they're an odd hybrid of Pip-pips & Americans, nothing is really answered here.  Instead it's merely a light, funny good time that is serves a crash course in Canadian history, geography and bad '80's TV I'd rather forget ever existed.

3 beachcombers out of 5

WHILE WE'RE YOUNG [2014]

Director Noah Baumbach channels his midlife crisis into the light-hearted drama While We're Young.
Ben Stiller & Naomi Watts play a middle-aged technology savvy couple who strike up a friendship with a younger hipster couple (Adam Driver & Amanda Seyfried) who use typewriters, love VHS and have no idea how to navigate Facebook.  Baumbach loves his observant witty dialogue and he's really at some of his best here, with it's dry humour, scathing remarks at the different ages and all around charming realism.  While it nestles itself comfortably in mild comedy, occasionally the events get a tad silly and out of place but never enough to really break character.  When it all comes down to it, this is Noah Baumbach's Neighbors and basically his cinematic way of telling off all you damned kids.

3½ Beastie Boys out of 5

HARMONTOWN [2014]

Director Neil Berkeley, who documented the life of oddball artist Wayne White in Beauty Is Embarrassing, focuses his attention on another creative misfit, Community creator Dan Harmon, in Harmontown.
After being fired from his own television series, Harmon took his experimental podcast series on the road to meet his adoring fans, all the while learning many painful things about himself.   The film makes no attempt to candy coat the man's boorishness, alcoholism and constant need to clash with everybody (including himself) but that's the part that makes him all the more interesting and easy to relate.  I went in expecting to dislike Harmon a bit more while still adoring his rapid-fire wit and creativity, instead I came out astonished by the emotional punches it pulled.  Fans of Harmon will most likely get the most out of this film but there's still some characteristics and moments I think everyone could learn from.

3½ human hand grenades out of 5

THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY [2013]

Taking inspiration from James Thurber's classic short story, director Ben Stiller radically changes the finer details of The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty.
As different as it is from it's source material, the message is still there quite clearly beneath all the beautiful visuals and wonderful music.  As nice looking and sounding as the film is it gets hurt by a lot of flat-lining awkward dialogue that can't must muster up the inspirational heights that the story aims for.  Stiller knows funny but doesn't always get the timing right which makes for some distracting moments of laughter that might have been better on the cutting room floor.  It's a fine film with a character that's more than easy to relate to but somehow doesn't quite hit what it's aiming for.

2½ snow cats out of 5