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.

Fatal Instinct (1993)

Carl Reiner's pastiche of 1940s film noir and the erotic thriller genre smashes together spoofs of Double Indemnity, Body Heat, Cape Fear, Sleeping with the Enemy, Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct. A lot of the reason this works for me is because Armand Assante completely commits to the bit as a completely oblivious buffoon (he plays both a cop and a lawyer here). As with all parodies, it's exhausting if you're not in a receptive mood, but at just under 90 minutes, these films tend not to overstay their welcome. While some of the gags are hysterical, it seems to work better in smaller doses, and it's a bit uneven as a whole. This type of genre has to take big swings, even when it's batting 1 for 2.

2½ traumatized skunks out of 5

The Man with Two Brains (1983)

This hilarious parody of mad scientist movies stars Steve Martin as a renowned brain surgeon and Kathleen Turner as his lying, cheating gold-digger scum queen wife. As his wife cons and plots his early demise, he begins having an intellectual affair with a disembodied brain in a jar, when he comes across the notion to transplant the brain into his wife’s body. Features plenty of gags that will leave fans of The Jerk in stitches.

4 boners that cut glass out of 5

Ocean's Eleven (2001)

Star-filled Hollywood heist movie. They talk some shit. They plan some shit. They steal some shit. Then it ends. Thank shit.
Brad Pitt and George Clooney have good chemistry, and the script has a few clever moments, but it’s all so predictable with zero surprises. It's competent but dull... not unlike the girl on the checkout of my local Tescos, except she has better tits than any of these guys.

2 rats have left the building out of 5