This sequel to the 2003 release takes us back to the Baker clan, but this time things have changed a bit. Tom Baker (Steve Martin) is presumably still at a small college, while wife Kate Baker (Bonnie Hunt) has still only written the one book (according to comments in the movie) – yet they are still in the massive house in the city that they purchased, so you have to wonder how they make ends meet.

Nonetheless, life moves on, and the third eldest Baker, Lorraine (Hilary Duff) is graduating high school. This is a time of change for Tom, and change isn’t always good.

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The Texas State University Fighting Armadillos just won another championship. Unfortunately, they were also caught cheating on a grand scale. Boosters were giving money to players, the players were using steroids, and just about every violation that could be a violation was found on campus. So the football program has been dismantled. They aren’t allowed any scholarships. The games are blacked out. Boosters aren’t allowed. Players must come from the student body and grades must be maintained. It will be a tough year.

About the only thing they can do is get the best person to run the program, and that’s just what they do. They hire Ed ‘Straight Arrow’ Gennero (Hector Elizondo) as the coach, because he’s widely regarded as not taking anything from anyone.

In fact, he was fired from his last job by the boosters because he wouldn’t allow players to take gifts, so it looks like he’s the perfect man for the job. He brings on his long-time assistant Wally Rig (the great Robert Loggia) to run the defense and they are off and running. At least, if they can put a team together, they are.

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When the United States military captures the leader of a terrorist group, it sparks a wave of terrorism in retaliation – notably against New York City. They send in Anthony ‘Hub’ Hubbard (Denzel Washington), the head of the FBI’s counter-intelligence task force, to try and find the source of the terrorist cells and stop the bombings before something more serious happens.

He’s teamed up with CIA agent Elise Kraft (Annette Bening) – a move that doesn’t make either of them particularly happy.

When they don’t seem to be making any progress, and the threat worsens, martial law is declared in Manhattan, and the authorities send in Major General William Devereaux (Bruce Willis), who has no concern for anyone. His job is simply to halt the terrorism with any means at his disposal, and this includes rounding up anyone of Arab descent and placing them into prisoner-of-war camps. As you may imagine, this doesn’t help matters.

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Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) lives a rather boring life. He has a monstrous house, and he comes home to it each night after he moves money around each day as an investment banker.

It appears that he’s done this for some time, running the family business since his father plunged to an early death by stepping off the roof of the family mansion (which seems to be the same one where Nicholas now lives). And that’s about all we know. Well, that and that today is Nicholas’ 48th birthday, the same age that his father was when he plunged to his death. It should be an interesting day.

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Young Jamie (Jake Lloyd) wants two things for Christmas. He’d like his dad, Howard (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to spend more time with him, and he’d also like to get a Turbo Man doll.

Howard would like to spend more time with Jamie, but his job keeps him so busy that he just can’t seem to find the time to do it. Luckily, his wife Liz (Rita Wilson) is on the ball. She asked him to get Turbo Man weeks ago. Now they’re sold out everywhere, so there’s no chance he’d be able to find one. Unfortunately, it seems that Howard forgot to actually pick up a Turbo Man doll when his wife asked him to, so it’s going to be a long day.

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Alan and Wendy have some marriage issues. Though they are never exactly explained, the need to have regularity makes it seem like they are trying to get pregnant. However, they have two kids already, and later dialogue makes it seem like they are instead simply trying to rekindle a spark. The sort of language that they use isn’t likely to do it (a fact which is pointed out in the movie). So what should they try next? Perhaps pick up a swinger magazine and answer someone’s ad!

No, that won’t do. It’s not going to help meeting a stranger for sex. Let’s look through our phone book and invite them over instead. No, it might be strange at work the next day. Instead, let’s just write our own ad and put it in the magazine and see what sort of responses we get. Yes, let’s do that!

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What starts off as a Christmas movie rapidly turns into something drastically different. A young boy and his father pull into a parking space outside a store, and the boy’s father tells him to stay in the car while he goes inside. Not long after, shots ring out and the father comes out, clutching cash in his hand, and then the boy sees his father killed when he is shot by the dying store owner. Then the boy vows to never do drugs or get involved in that kind of life.

Fast-forward twenty years to interviews in a police station, and we meet Russell Stevens, Jr. (Laurence Fishburne), all grown up and turned into a policeman, fighting the kind of thing that killed his father. Now he’s being given a deep cover job to live the kind of life that killed his old man. To do so, he’ll change his name to John Hull move to Los Angeles, get a shabby apartment and become a drug dealer to try and take down some of the most important pieces of an International operation. Getting involved isn’t difficult. Staying separate is.

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Just about any movie that involves the mob will get a look for me, which will often suck me into such bombs as this one. The problem isn’t that it’s about the mob, it’s that it moves so darn slow. Sure, there’s plenty of blood along the way, but ultimately, nothing happens until the final ten minutes or so. That last ten minutes isn’t bad – it’s the eighty minutes leading up to it that is so painful to get through that makes it simply unbearable to get to that it’s just not worth the investment.

Claire (Kyra Sedgwick) is loyal to a fault. Beyond a fault, probably. She’s loyal to The Boss (Robbie Coltrane). She’s loyal to her partner Nick (ultra-cool Stanley Tucci, probably the only reason to watch the movie). She’s even loyal to mob moll Kitty (Robin Tunney), after a fashion.

The problem is that she ultimately can’t make a decision on who to be loyal to, and since Nick is dying and he usually tells her what to do, she’s in a bit of a pickle.

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Long before The Santa Clause 2 (eight years, in fact), there was The Santa Clause. This movie introduced us to Scott Calvin (Tim Allen), who is basically a regular guy trying to come to grips with the fact that his ex-wife and her new husband have custody of his son, and he doesn’t get to see him very often.

Add to that the fact that his job is rather demanding, and even when he does get to see his son, such as on Christmas Eve, he’s usually running late, and his son doesn’t always want to see him, so things just aren’t going very well. All that is about to change.

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Washburn (Jimmy Fallon) has had some issues with driving, which is a problem, being a police officer, and it’s really a problem now because he’s got a lead on a robbery, but he needs a vehicle to follow them, since they are really good drivers.

That leaves him in a pinch, because he’s lost his driving privilege due to his problems, so he does what anyone in his situation will do – he takes a cab. He picks a good one. The driver, Belle (Queen Latifah) has issues of her own, but hers of an entirely different sort. She drives too fast, but she’s actually good at it.

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