American Pie 2 (2001)

Starring: Jason Biggs, Shannon Elizabeth
Director: J.B. Rogers
Synopsis: Lewd-but-good-natured comedy picks up one year after the events of the first Pie, where our four hormonally overactive heroes return for the summer from college and engage in various sexual misadventures. (Universal)
Runtime: 104 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Genre: Comedy

• 2 of 4 by James Berardinelli
  The "force" behind American Pie, brothers Paul and Chris Weitz, have only Executive Producer credits, indicating a low level of involvement. It's hard to say whether that has anything to do with how discouraging the sequel is. The screenwriter, Adam Herz, is the same for both installments, although this latest script was written on auto-pilot. The director is J.B. Rogers, who was the first assistant director for American Pie. This is his second feature; his debut was the hideously bad Say It Isn't So. Considering the quality of that outing, even the disappointment that is American Pie 2 represents a step in the right direction. more
• 3 of 4 by Roger Ebert
  That said, I had a good time at "American Pie 2," maybe because the characters are broad comic types, well played; the movie feels some sympathy for their dilemmas, and because it's obsessed with sex. Also because it has Jim's dad (Eugene Levy), the world's most understanding and supportive parent, who meets his son in the emergency room during the most embarrassing and humiliating evening of the kid's life (and remember, this is the kid who made love on the Internet), and tells him, "I'm proud of you, son." more

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)

Starring: Jason Mewes, Kevin Smith
Director: Kevin Smith
Synopsis: Offbeat road comedy follows two New Jersey stoners who travel cross-country to foil the Hollywood production of a film version of a comic book (based on them). Along the way, they stop in Kansas, meet some sultry jewel thieves, pick up a goofy orangutan, and infiltrate the Miramax studio lot. (Miramax)
Runtime: 95 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Genre: Comedy

• 2.5 of 4 by James Berardinelli
  There are perhaps a number of reasons why Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back doesn't strike the funny bone as often as expected. Although Smith seems to be aiming for a "Clerksish" approach, the result is closer to his sophomore entry, Mallrats. He's trying to do a genre picture (in this case, a road movie), but doesn't recognize that his particular strengths (snappy dialogue) aren't the best fit for that sort of film. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is at its best when it deviates from the expected rhythms. The parodies are on target, and, if not brilliant, at least very funny, and there are times when the character interaction contains some zingers. Unfortunately, there are also numerous dead spots, including an ill-advised, momentum-killing jewel heist. more
• 1 of 4 by Michael Elliot
  Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back can be best likened to a Hope/Crosby road picture... if Hope and Crosby were sex-crazed, vocabulary-challenged pot heads. Using the movie within a movie convention, Smith goofs on Hollywood using profanity, sex, drugs, and certain bodily functions to propel his humor. It is said that, following this film, Smith will be retiring these characters who have appeared in every Smith movie since Clerks. As a kind of swan song, he has decided to make this film primarily to reward his ever-faithful fans. more

Thir13en Ghosts (2001)

Starring: Shannon Elizabeth, Tony Shalhoub
Director: Steve Beck
Synopsis: An eccentric millionaire who devoted his life to catching ghosts leaves his sleek but spirit-infested glass mansion to his widowed nephew in this big-budget horror thriller. (Warner Bros.)
Runtime: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Genre: Horror

• 1.5 of 4 by James Berardinelli
  On some level, Thirteen Ghosts isn't trying to be a straight horror movie - it wants to fall into that nebulous genre labeled the "horror comedy". That's where blood, gore, and monsters are mixed in a witch's brew with self-parody and one-liners. The idea is that we're supposed to laugh one moment and shiver the next. Unfortunately, the average horror comedy causes more cringing than anything else. And, when I say "cringing", I mean from acute embarrassment, not from terror. That's the kind of movie that Thirteen Ghosts is. There are laughs to be had - some of them are even intentional (like the lawyer joke and the ongoing commentary from the "token" black character) - but not enough to overcome 90 minutes of tedium. more
• 1 of 4 by Roger Ebert
  The experience of watching the film is literally painful. It hurts the eyes and ears. Aware that their story was thin, that their characters were constantly retracing the same ground and repeating the same words, that the choppy editing is visually incoherent, maybe the filmmakers thought if they turned up the volume the audience might be deceived into thinking that something was happening. more

Tomcats (2001)

Starring: Shannon Elizabeth, Jerry O'Connell
Director: Gregory Poirer
Synopsis: Romantic comedy about group of college buddies who make a collective bet — the last one of them to marry takes home a pot of cash. Years later, the pot has gotten rather large and one of the two remaining bachelors tries every underhanded trick he can think of to get the other to marry. (SONY)
Runtime: 93 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Genre: Comedy

• 1.5 of 4 by James Beradinelli
  Sitting through Tomcats is a little like going to the dentist's office and experiencing a {dental procedure}. The thought of this {adjective} movie will engender paroxysms of {noun expressing an emotional reaction}. It {verb, a kind of transport by foot} from one {degree of humor} situation to the next, highlighting the comic {aptitude descriptor} of everyone involved. To say that Tomcats is painfully {noun, descriptor} is to understate matters. The sheer quantity of gross-out jokes is likely to have the average audience member {participle}. Of course, Tomcats' approach to the raunchy sex farce is nothing new - it just represents a new {part of a mountain} in taste. We are presented with a comedy whose humor level takes square aim at that lucrative market of R-rated movie-goers: {age group} males. If American Pie and its countless successors haven't {past participle, state of body} your appetite for this sort of motion picture, Tomcats tries hard to accomplish what they haven't: make you want to {action verb} the projectionist. Not since the heyday of {famous comedy actor} has the Hollywood comedy been this {expression of intelligence}. more
• 0 of 4 by Roger Ebert
  The movie belongs to an old and tired movie tradition, in which guys are terrified that wedding bells may be breaking up that old gang of theirs (only last week we had "The Brothers," an African-American version of the theme, but gentler and nicer). There is always one guy who is already (unhappily) married, one who is threatened with marriage, one who claims he will never marry and then the hero, who wants to marry off the unmarriagable one, to win a bet. This plot is engraved on a plaque in the men's room of the Old Writers' Retirement Home. more

Scary Movie (2000)

Starring: Shannon Elizabeth, Cheri Oteri
Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans
Synopsis: Slasher spoof follows group of silly pretty (or pretty silly, depending on your viewpoint) teens as they're messily hacked up by a masked maniac.
Runtime: 88 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Genres: Comedy, Horror

• 4 out of 10 by Scott Renshaw
  I'm not sure whether the entire concept of scattershot genre parody is beyond my appreciation at this point, or whether Scary Movie simply made me feel like that was the case. I do know that it ended up making me cringe more often than it made me laugh. The set-up involves a group of high school students reacting to the murder of one of their classmates (Carmen Electra). Virginal heroine Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) wonders whether the killing may be related to an accident the previous year, in which Cindy and several friends hit a pedestrian in their car and disposed of the body. Her friends pooh-pooh the idea, but one by one they begin dying terrible deaths with very familiar m.o.'s. Who will be next? Cindy's sexually frustrated boyfriend Bobby (Jon Abrahams)? Her best friends Brenda (Regina Hall) and Buffy (Shannon Elizabeth), and their boyfriends Ray (Shawn Wayans) and Greg (Lochlyn Munro)? Or maybe Buffy's "slow" brother and honorary deputy Doofy (Dave Sheridan). more
• 3 out of 4 by James Berardinelli
  It seems that every new comedy to arrive in theaters pushes the envelope further, daring the MPAA to give it an NC-17. Scary Movie, from the demented and very funny minds of the Wayans Brothers, becomes the latest motion picture to risk censure in the name of laughter - and gets away with it. Featuring scenes that make American Pie, There's Something About Mary, and Me, Myself and Irene seem almost tame, Scary Movie combines the raunchiness of '90s teen comedies with the single-movie spoof approach of Mel Brooks and the rapid-fire barrage of gags and jokes used in Airplane and The Naked Gun. With body fluids flowing almost as fast as the stream of often profane and off-color zingers, Scary Movie proves to be the kind of film that will shock the faint-of-heart and leave just about everyone else laughing until tears run down their cheeks. more

Seamless (2000)

Starring: Shannon Elizabeth, Peter Alexander
Director: Debrah Lemattre
Runtime: 91 minutes
MPAA Rating: R

• No reviews available

American Pie (1999)

Starring: Tara Reid, Jason Biggs
Directors: Paul Weitz, Chris Weitz
Synopsis: Raunchy comedy about four high school seniors trying to lose their virginity. Loaded with vulgarity and outrageous humor but ultimately sweet-natured, this should delight teens, fans of lowbrow humor.
Runtime: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: R/UR
Genre: Comedy

• 5 out of 10 by Scott Renshaw
• 3 out of 4 by James Berardinelli

Dish Dogs (1998)

Starring: Shannon Elizabeth, Matthew Lillard
Director: Robert Kubilos
Synopsis: Two young surfers travel up the California coast surfing, washing dishes and trying to stay away from the ladies.
Runtime: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Genres: Drama, Romance

• No reviews available

Jack Frost (1997)

Starring: Scott McDonald, Christopher Allport, Shannon Elizabeth
Director: Michael Cooney
Synopsis: Serial killer is genetically mutated in car wreck on the way to his execution. After which, he becomes a murdering snowman hell-bent on revenge for the sheriff who caught him.
Runtime: 89 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Genres: Comedy / Horror

• by Nathan Shumate
• 3 out of 5 by Sean Caszatt