Ryan Hansen

The 2003 comedy Bad Santa is a holiday classic that skilfully mixes gross-out humour with resolutely unsentimental emotion. So it's very disappointing that this 13-years-later sequel reassembles the cast then merely coasts on the vulgarity, never bothering to develop the characters or plot. It's just as rude, and it provides some solid laughs along the way, but the story never engages the audience, which leaves the movie feeling naughty but never nice.

Over these years, Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) has continued his slacker lifestyle into his early 60s. He still lives in Phoenix, and has continued to try to ignore the attentions of the sweetly naive Thurman (Brett Kelly), who has just turned 21. Then Willie's treacherous ex-cohort Marcus (Tony Cox) gets out of prison and approaches him with a big heist. Against his better judgement, Willie accompanies him to Chicago, where two nasty surprises await: the plan is to steal millions from a children's charity, and Willie's estranged mother Sunny (Kathy Bates) is organising the robbery. Annoyed, Willie instantly falls for the sexy Diane (Christina Hendricks), who is married to the charity's shifty boss (Ryan Hansen). Meanwhile, Marcus tries to seduce a security guard (Jenny Zigrino). And Thurman turns up unannounced.

It's depressing that, after years of talk about a sequel, this haphazard plot is the best the writers could come up with. Every element of the narrative is deeply contrived to merely string together a series of filthy jokes, rude insults, noisy sex and criminal slapstick. All of this would have been welcome if the comedy sprang from the messy relationships or personalities. But everything is so static and pointless that there's nothing to hold the audience's attention, aside from a number of witty gags that pop up out of nowhere. So at least there are a few solid laughs.

Continue reading: Bad Santa 2 Review

After teaming up with Will Ferrell for Get Hard and Ice Cube for two Ride Along movies, Kevin Hart takes on The Rock in this entertaining action-comedy bromance. They make a great couple, as Dwayne Johnson's bulk cleverly contrasts with Hart's tightly wound intensity. Even more enjoyable is that they've essentially swapped roles, with Hart as the straight guy opposite Johnson's awkward goofball.

They play characters who knew each other in high school, when Calvin (Hart) was the king of the campus, captain of every sports team, star of every theatre production, top student and boyfriend of the sexiest cheerleader (Danielle Nicolet), whom he went on to marry. On the other hand, Bob (Johnson) was a badly bullied, overweight kid, who now turns up in town for their 20th reunion as a beefy muscleman. Clearly a little unhinged, Bob is also a rogue CIA operative, hunted by his boss Pam (Amy Ryan) for killing his partner (Aaron Paul) and other crimes he insists he didn't commit. So he ropes Calvin in to help clear his name, but Calvin finds this situation so insane that he's not sure who to believe.

While all of this plays out in a blissfully silly way, there's also a bit of an edge to the movie as it explores the issue of bullying with some gentle nuance that includes racism, sexism and homophobia. So even when it's rude or mindlessly corny, the movie is making a point. That said, the message might have been more convincing without the over-the-top violence that fills all of the action sequences. Thankfully, that never drowns out the terrific chemistry between Johnson and Hart, who bounce hilariously off each other as two men who have been emasculated in very different ways and need to prove themselves. This vulnerability makes both of them easy to identify with, especially as they play with their usual on-screen personas.

Continue reading: Central Intelligence Review

Funded by fans, this follow-up to the cult TV show feels a lot like an extended reunion episode. But even those unfamiliar with the series will enjoy the twisty plot and smart dialog, plus the sparky Kristen Bell in the title role. And while there are rather too many characters for a stand-alone movie, they all feed nicely into the central mystery.

After escaping from the run-down seaside town of Neptune, California, nine years ago, Veronica (Bell) has become a New York lawyer. But just as she's on the verge of landing her first proper job, an old friend is murdered back home, waking her investigatory instincts. The worst of it is that her ex Logan (Dohring) is the prime suspect, so Veronica heads home to help him clear his name. Her private eye dad (Colantoni) just rolls his eyes when she slips back into her old mystery-solving role, working with her pals Mac, Weevil and Wallace (Majorino, Capra and Daggs). But three other classmates - Gia, Cobb and Dick (Ritter, Starr and Hansen) - are also involved. And the fact that she keeps putting off her return to New York annoys her boyfriend Piz (Lowell).

The most refreshing thing about this film is the way filmmaker Thomas refuses to play by the usual rules. Bell may have been offered a dream job, but we fully understand why she's blowing it off to help her friends. And the whodunit plot is just intriguing enough to hold our interest: we don't really care who the villain really is, but it's fun to watch Veronica dig through the clues and challenge every level of authority. And the script gleefully stirs in red herrings, side-plots and lots of suspicious-looking characters.

Continue reading: Veronica Mars Review