In this so-so comedy, already nicknamed “Freaky Friday with dudes,” Jason Bateman plays Dave Lockwood, over-worked lawyer/family man and Ryan Reynolds plays his childhood pal Mitch Planko, unemployed actor/ladies man. Throw in a drunken night, a magical water fountain that our heroes pee in (ah, the charms of the modern-day fairy tale), and, presto-chango, they swap lives.

Most of the laughs here come from the Mitch-as-Dave side of the equation. In one politically incorrect scene, Mitch essentially demonstrates how not to feed a pair of twin one-year-olds (sharp knives and electric sockets are involved). It will play well to the Go the F**k to Sleep crowd.

Another scene, where Mitch thinks Dave’s hot wife (Leslie Mann, quite amusing here) is disrobing for sexytimes, when in fact, she’s about to go to the bathroom in front of him (egad!), is a clever commentary on the sometimes neutered state of the modern marriage.

But the scenes of Dave-as-Mitch embracing the single life don’t play as well, partly because the film is so intent on reassuring us that Dave’s a stand-up guy, they don’t really let him enjoy his vacation in Ryan Reynolds’ body. (And really, what...

I had a major movie crush on the Crazy, Stupid, Love trailer, so when I say the film disappointed me, you should take that with a grain of salt. No, I won’t be ripping its posters off my bedroom wall, but I may have to reconsider that fan website.

If you’ve seen the trailer you already know that the film has one of the best rom-com casts, well, ever: The thinking woman’s hottie Ryan Gosling, plus It Girl extraordinaire Emma Stone—not to mention Julianne Moore, Steve Carell, and Kevin Bacon. (When Marisa Tomei has little more than a glorified cameo as a particularly eager woman that Carell has a one-night-stand with, you know your cast is stacked.)

Plus, those jokes: “Seriously, your abs look photoshopped!” says Stone’s Hannah when she sees the hot bod on Gosling’s womanizing Jacob.

“Thank God, we thought it was cancer” a relieved colleague says to Carrel’s Cal, upon discovering that it’s “only” Cal’s marriage that is falling apart.

“I went to see the new Twilight movie by myself,” moans Moore’s Emily, demonstrating the true depths of her midlife ennui. “And it was soooo bad.”

That’s some funny stuff, people.

The problem with Crazy,...

Take away the (frankly lame) 3-D and a few CGI bells and whistles, and Captain America: The First Avenger feels like the  kind of movie a little tyke might’ve sprung 10 cents for in 1945 and caught as part of a double-feature matinee.

And that’s exactly what director Joe Johnston is going for.

This is an old-fashioned movie, set during WWII and based on the popular Marvel comic book, with a 98 pound weakling named Steve (even the name Steve feels so charmingly square, doesn’t it?) who just wants to fight bullies (read: Nazis) overseas. He keeps trying to enlist, but gets rejected because he’s too frail.

But a German scientist (Stanley Tucci), with loyalties to the Allies, recognizes Steve’s true strength (of character, that is) and recruits him for a secret project: He’s going to turn into a Steve a super soldier.

So Steve goes into this sci-fi-ish looking metal chamber, surrounded by men in white lab coats, and emerges looking like, well, Chris Evans. The CGI here is great—for the film’s first half hour, they managed to plausibly shrink the buff Evans into a cute wimp (using a body double whose face is replaced by Evans’—Winklevoss-twin-style). Steve’s newly rippled...

As I watched the juicy and satisfying Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, it occurred to me how patient the series has been.

Here we were at the eighth and final film of the series (based on seven books) and we still didn’t know Harry’s exact link to the evil Lord Voldemort, still didn’t know if the brooding Severus Snape (the indispensable Alan Rickman) was good or bad (or both), still hadn’t seen Harry’s loyal sidekicks Hermione and Ron consummate their unspoken love with a kiss, and, most stunningly, still hadn’t witnessed Harry and Voldemort in any kind of epic showdown.

And yet, none of the previous films seemed like filler—each had its own internal rhythm and narrative, its own demons to slay (real and metaphorical), its own talismans to collect, its own pieces of the Harry Potter/Voldemort puzzle to be revealed. We’ve grown to love and care about these characters and we’ve been too happily ensconced in JK Rowling’s lavishly orchestrated world of muggles and wizards and enchantments to be restless.

Our patience has been rewarded: Unlike some finales that don’t quite satisfy (*cough* Lost), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 gives us...