Wet Hot American Summer (2001)

Last day of summer camp, 1981, and the camp counselors get up to all sorts of mischief. Despite the title, this is far from softcore porn, it's just a very dumb parody of teen comedies in the vein of Meatballs. I did not care for this film the first time I saw it, but it's somewhat grown on me over the past 25 years. Some of my favorite jokes ended up being DVD extras which live on in my memory. It's known for being an early showcase of many comedic talents and has since grown a devoted cult following. As many times as I've seen this movie, I just can't get myself to love it, but I can't entirely dismiss it either.

Spawned two TV series 15 years later, both of which I liked more than the film.

2½ cans of vegetables out of 5

The Exorcism (2024)

An actor shoots a part in an Exorcist-like movie, where strange things begin happening on set that mirror the screenplay. Eventually they need to bring in their own exorcist in order to exorcise the supposed demons. It gets meta pretty quickly, but apparently this is all a metaphor for something or other. I don't know, this was really bad for the most part. Russell Crowe does his best to ground it in reality, but it goes off the rails before long. I'd recommend any number of "exorcism" movies before this one. Skip it unless you're hard up for content.

1 crucifix (how original) out of 5

Hellboy (2004)

Lots of good things are red. Fire trucks. Apples. Wine. Roses. Ballet shoes. Sports cars. Albino bunny eyes. Rivers of blood. Best of all is Hellboy.

A sketchy first ten minutes don’t mar the role Ron Perlman was born to play.

It's a comic book film for everyone, not just nerds.

4 kittens (safe) in a box out of 5