Title: Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star Director: Tom Brady Starring: Nick Swardson, Christina Ricci, Don Johnson, Stepen Dorff, Kevin Nealon Look folks; it’s a Happy Madison production (in-case you didn’t see & hear the annoying TV spots). Adam Sandler and his writer friends got together and came up with Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star. The only notable appearances from the Sandler stable are his good buddy Kevin Nealon and the usual cameos from his writing partners and friends. You’ll recognize the faces even though they seem to keep putting on weight every year. Nick Swardson – who also co-wrote this – plays the titular character who…

Title: Burke and Hare Director: John Landis Starring: Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis, Tom Wilkinson, Tim Curry, Isla Fisher, Ronnie Corbett, Bill Bailey The opening moments set the tone for Burke and Hare; a satire on the infamous crime that took place during the late 1820′s in Edinburgh, Scotland. It feels like a Mel Brooks’ spoof where the characters are playfully keeping straight faces. Based on the story, the movie actually follows the reported events fairly well. The only difference is the realistic characters are sarcastically putting on a lively show. Edinburgh is the home of two prestigious medical schools, whose research is on the cutting-edge. Leading the way at each…

Title: Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy Director: Christopher Sun Starring: Hiro Hayama, Leni Lan, Saori Hara, Yukiko Suho, Vonnie Lui, Tony Ho A hit in its native Hong Kong, and sure to be trimmed heavily or banned outright in mainland China, “Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy” is getting a boutique release across the rest of the world, including major metropolitan areas of the United States. And why not, really? Screening in both 3-D and 2-D, the slickly produced film is a lurid, wild and weird attempt to reboot the 1990s’ “Sex and Zen” softcore franchise, in which outlandish sex and borderline gnarly-cartoonish violence were commingled. The end product lives up to…

Title: Swinging With the Finkels Director: Jonathan Newman Starring: Mandy Moore, Martin Freeman, Jonathan Silverman, Melissa George, Daisy Beaumount, Angus Deayton, Jerry Stiller The idea of sexual swinging, or committed couples swapping partners, opens up all sorts of rich avenues for exploration of feeling, but the London-set comedy “Swinging With the Finkels” does so little of substance or sincerity with the subject that one starts to yearn for the comparative honesty of a lonely hearts drama with a forlorn guy swigging a beer and staring at a computer screen. In fact, the movie evinces no particular reason for existing other than to seemingly provide its pleasant but half-heartedly invested cast with paychecks, and perhaps…

Director Craig Gillespie has had an interesting career. After making his debut with “Lars and the Real Girl,” episodic television work ensued, followed by a contretemps over the comedy “Mr. Woodcock,” starring Seann William Scott, Susan Sarandon and Billy Bob Thornton that saw him removed from the project. His latest film is the adaptation/reboot of 1985′s horror-comedy “Fright Night,” starring Anton Yelchin as a Las Vegas high school kid who finds out his new neighbor (Colin Farrell) is actually a vampire. ShockYa recently had the chance to talk to Gillespie one-on-one about what attracted him to “Fright Night,” what he thought about shooting the movie in 3-D, and his next film, the genre…

Science-fiction is often so terribly difficult to get right on screen because its makers get bogged down in minutiae, trying to craft expansive, futuristic and/or alien worlds, or over-explain the processes that differentiate and separate their plane of reality from that of the present day. “Source Code “, thankfully, is not one of those movies. It grooves, it pulses, it entertains — deftly balancing smarts with a streamlined aim to please. The sophomore effort of director Duncan Jones ( “Moon “), the high-concept techno-thriller is kind of amusingly impatient with some of the nitty-gritty specifics of its own conceit (“Every second explaining things puts more lives at risk!” one character…

The crushing ambivalence of young adulthood is often lost under the thick glaze of hormonal revelry typically applied to teenage and twentysomething coming-of-age tales. But “Take Me Home Tonight” — an in many respects pedestrian comedy that otherwise coasts along on its energy and the winning appeal of its cast — gets this crucial detail of feeling right, which helps mitigate direction that often lacks a sense of snappishness, and a second and third act that don’t emotionally resonate as much as they could or should. The film, co-written by director Michael Dowse, from a story co-conceived by star Topher Grace, unfolds in 1988 and centers on a recent MIT…

Title: Salvation Boulevard Director: George Ratliff Starring: Greg Kinnear, Pierce Brosnan, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Yul Vazquez, Marisa Tomei, Jim Gaffigan, Isabelle Fuhrman, Ciaran Hinds, Howard Hesseman Its title awash in suburban metaphorical significance, Salvation Boulevard sounds like one of those dramas where some already stressed-out parents suffer and cope with the unexpected loss of a child, or maybe reconcile after decades of emotional drift and infidelity. After an hour with plenty of chilly exchanges, someone flips their lid in the kitchen and starts yelling, maybe smashing a glass or turning over a dining set for effect. Well, histrionics do indeed eventually take center stage here, but Salvation Boulevard‘s putative area of focus is instead a…

Title: Zookeeper Director: Frank Coraci Starring: Kevin James, Rosario Dawson, Leslie Bibb, Ken Jeong, Donnie Wahlberg, Adam Sandler (voice), Sylvester Stallone (voice), Nick Nolte (voice), Cher (voice), Judd Apatow (voice) It’s been a while since a movie encompassing humans and animals interacting with each other hit theaters (insert sarcasm). This formula is as tiresome as 3D. And then there’s “Zookeeper” boasting that same animal shtick. Yet despite its flaws and cliches, the 100 minute flick acts as a mild relief to the monotonous products that have been packed into the fam-friendly genre as of late. Sure the concept blatantly rips off the entire arc of say a Night of the…

Title: The Best and the Brightest Director: Josh Shelov Starring: Neil Patrick Harris, Bonnie Somerville, Amy Sedaris, Jenna Stern, Peter Serafinowicz, Christopher McDonald, Kate Mulgrew, Bridget Regan, John Hodgman, Stephen Park, Kelly Coffield Park Most big screen comedies — even a lot of independently mounted affairs — trade in the familiar, at least on a narrative level, operating under the assumption that audiences want to see witty banter and outlandish comeuppance visited upon recognizable scenarios that are easily transposed to a viewer’s own life, whether that’s workplace misery or the fickle nature of love. It’s unusual, then, to see something like The Best and the Brightest, a movie which eschews a more…