Wayne's World (1992)

I don't really feel the need to justify why this is a fun comedy, but it's a great example of being a product of its time and one of the best representations of the early '90s. Mike Myers and Dana Carvey bring their basement dwelling metalheads from Saturday Night Live to the big screen in a meta plot that involves adapting their public-access show for mainstream audiences. It's mostly an excuse for funny one-liners and catchphrases, but there's a lot of clever plot devices being employed here. Between this and Austin Powers, Myers dominated the '90s comedy scene. If you were a weird, grungy '90s kid, stuff like this and Beavis & Butt-Head were peak. No need to overthink it.

4 Schwings! out of 5

Note: You ever notice how many comedy posters have cloudy blue skies?

Mother, Couch (2023)

Some movies are so inscrutable, sometimes you just have to tackle it head on. Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans and Lara Flynn Boyle play estranged siblings whose mother (Ellen Burstyn) refuses to get up off the couch at a furniture store. No, this isn't some body horror/fusion-type deal. It's a 'thinker.'

If you sit to the end, the answers don't become much clearer. Its logic is ripped straight out of a fever dream. If I had to take a stab, I'd say this movie is about the process of letting go, moving on, or something or other. It just doesn't do a very good job of keeping its audience invested throughout. The performances are compelling, which is all that saves it from getting a much lower score.

2 dressers out of 5

Poltergeist III (1988)

By the time Part III came along Heather O'Rourke had made the transition from a kid in a movie doing what adults asked of her into a fully-fledged young actress acting. She's accompanied by a stand-in big sister because Carol Anne's parents are nowhere to be seen.
There are creepy happenings from the very beginning that get more and more bizarre as the story nears the end.
Like the first film it takes place almost entirely inside an enclosed space; it's a bigger space but it's still confined. In many ways it feels more like an Elm Street story with slight script revisions than a Poltergeist one.

2½ cracked mirrors out of 5

MEN IN BLACK II [2002]

Tommy Lee Jones & Will Smith reprise their roles as Agents J & K in this dismal 2002 sequel to the sci-fi comedy Men In Black.  

All the same elements of the first film are here only this time it simply just doesn't work.  What was a perfect blend of silly, bizarre and creative, is all pulverized into an uneven pile of mush in the second film.  Set in New York,  MIB II fell victim to heavy edits because of 9/11 and the Two Towers originally being featured quite heavily in the original cut, so that might have a lot to do with the sloppy mess that it is. 

...and Lara Flynn Boyle just plain sucks.

2 Rick Fuck Yeah Baker is the STAR out of 5