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It's clear right off the bat that The Big Thing has been designed to appeal solely to those with a very specific sense of humor, as the film is rife with over-the-top bits of comedy that might amuse certain folks but will undoubtedly leave the majority of viewers stone-faced. Writer/director Aleks Horvat has populated the proceedings with a number of egregiously broad characters and essentially let them loose in an atmosphere that is absolutely devoid of anything even resembling authenticity. The wafer-thin plot follows a pair of aging hippies - played by Van Quattro and Bari Buckner - as they arrive a week too late for the marriage of Roberto (Bryan Cranston) and Canada (Alexandra Boyd), with wackiness ensuing as the four characters start to complicate each others' lives. There's little doubt, however, that Horvat means for the comedic elements to keep The Big Thing afloat, as there's not much going on here storywise or in terms of character development (the lack of such things would be relatively easy to overlook if any of this were funny, but alas). While none of the performances are particularly impressive, Cranston's decision to mug and shout his way through the entire film proves to be disastrous - as The Big Thing ultimately comes off as a dull and flat-out tedious piece of work.

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Prior to Matthew McConaughey's entrance at around the 20-minute mark, We Are Marshall possesses the feel of a slick yet agreeable inspirational sports drama that appears to be establishing itself as something along the lines of a Hoosiers or a Rudy. And the film undoubtedly would have come off that way were it not for McConaughey's disastrously idiosyncratic work; the actor, who delivers the majority of his lines through the corner of his mouth, offers up a performance that's overflowing with precisely the sort of quirks and tics that he's come to be associated with over the years. There's consequently little doubt that We Are Marshall works best in the few scenes not revolving around McConaughey's character, as the rest of the film is teeming with superb and downright compelling performances by folks like Matthew Fox, David Strathairn, and Ian McShane. The inherently compelling storyline - the movie documents the true-life efforts of West Virginia's Marshall University to rebuild their football team following a tragic plane crash - does ensure that there are a number of genuinely moving moments contained within the overlong running time, while the admittedly rousing finale leaves the proceedings on precisely the sort of uplifting note that's sorely missing from the rest of the film. Director McG generally does an effective job of toning down his over-the-top stylistic tendencies, although the almost relentless emphasis on inspirational speeches eventually becomes oppressive. There's ultimately no denying that We Are Marshall would've benefited from the presence of virtually any other actor in the central role, although - to be fair - it's just as clear that the movie does suffer from an almost insurmountable cavalcade of faults (including a disastrously overlong running time).

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It really is astonishing just how awful The Condemned quickly reveals itself to be, as the film boasts a high-concept, seemingly foolproof premise that should've resulted in an '80s style guilty pleasure. But Scott Wiper's hopelessly inept directorial choices - coupled with an overall vibe of ugliness - ensures that the movie ultimately fares about as well as its straight-to-video action brethren, though star Steve Austin proves to be far less capable a performer than compatriots Jean-Claude Van Damme and Wesley Snipes (he's right on the same level as Steven Seagal, however). The story follows ten death-row convicts - including Austin's Conrad and Vinnie Jones' McStarley - as they're dropped onto a desolate island and forced to kill one another for the amusement of web viewers across the globe. There's little doubt that the complete lack of compelling characters within The Condemned ultimately makes it extremely difficult to care who lives and who dies, with Austin's decidedly uncharismatic screen presence surely not doing the movie any favors (the supporting cast is, likewise, uniformly just as ineffective). Wiper's inability to stage a coherent action sequence is undoubtedly the film's most overt failing, however, as the director infuses such moments with precisely the sort of in-your-face, relentlessly shaky camerawork that's unfortunately become de rigueur among movies of this ilk. The final straw comes with the absurdly preachy third act, in which Wiper and co-screenwriter Rob Hedden ineptly (and hilariously) attempt to make some kind of a statement regarding society's increasing obsession with violence. It's a laughable development that comes off as hypocritical and artless, and there's consequently no denying that The Condemned has little to offer even the most fervent action junkie.

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As complex as a garden-variety sitcom, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry suffers from precisely the same sort of problems that have been plaguing most of Adam Sandler's recent comedies - with the overlong running time and emphasis on sentiment just two of the film's more egregious faults. This inclusion of a few genuinely funny moments - as well as the presence of several familiar faces within the supporting cast - simply isn't enough to disguise the stale and inherently predictable nature of the movie's premise, which follows Sandler's Chuck as he reluctantly agrees to "marry" Kevin James' Larry in an effort to ensure that Larry's kids will receive benefits if he dies. Director Dennis Dugan - working from Barry Fanaro, Alexander Payne, and Jim Taylor's screenplay - has infused I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry with a predictable, downright familiar sensibility that ensures there are few surprises to be had over the course of the movie's 110 minutes, with the prejudice that Chuck and Larry encounter among colleagues and friends certainly the most overt example of this. The inclusion of several eye-rollingly hackneyed elements - ie a trying-on-clothes montage set to "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" - doesn't do the film any favors, nor does the astonishingly offensive casting of Rob Schneider as an antiquated Asian caricature (complete with buck teeth and thick glasses!) Sandler and James' affable work is ultimately negated by the movie's many deficiencies, with the drawn-out finale (in which Chuck denounces homophobia as "bad") only cementing I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry's status as an effort that's been artlessly geared towards the lowest common denominator.

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