Martin Lawrence has had an interesting road, going from a bit of the wild side to this relatively tame film that’s perhaps even a little too sappy even for the Disney crowd.

Here he plays Coach Roy McCormick, who seems to be famous for nothing much more than having a lot of endorsement deals, but apparently once upon a time he was actually a good basketball coach. Now he just throws tantrums, and his latest one has nearly cost him his lucrative lifestyle.

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When family has an unexpected health problem (like a heart attack) in the middle of the night, and you need to check on them, you may need family to help out. You can’t just leave the kids with neighbors, or call someone to watch them. Enter Uncle Buck.

Buck Russell (John Candy) is the relative that no one likes to admit they have, and he just happens to be the one who might happen to come through when you need someone the most. Sure, he’s a bit rough around the edges, but no one can make pancakes like Uncle Buck.

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This remake of the 1972 classic The Poseidon Adventure is better than most remakes. It’s certainly better than the 2005 made-for-television version that had terrorists wanting to sink the ship, instead of the rogue wave capsizing the luxury ocean liner.

Don’t get me wrong – the original is still better by a longshot. But this one at least does it justice. Where the classic had a good tale to tell, this one perhaps falls a bit short. But where it at least made up for that shortcoming, it definitely had some action all the way through, and one thing that impressed me was that people died. Who would have thought?

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Back when Drew Barrymore was trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life, she made this movie about being a bad girl – only she wasn’t that bad. She did it mostly with mental games, and though there is a certain sexual overtone to the movie, there’s actually very little sex in it. Perhaps that means she was over her bad girl phase, since she hit at such a young age.

Or perhaps she was just in need of a paycheck, so she took the opportunity to jump at whatever came along. After all, this was probably the best of all the Poison Ivy movies that were made, so it’s certainly good that she picked the first, rather than one of the others, but you can’t really give her credit for thinking ahead, when there was no guarantee that they would have ever made another one, so who knows?

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Andy Stitzer (Steve Carell) doesn’t have too many friends. He lives alone in an apartment filled with all sorts of collectible dolls and comic books and video games and all the sorts of things you might have if you lived on your own until you were 40. He tries to pass himself off as one of the guys, but they all suspect something just isn’t right, and they just can’t put their finger on it. They suspect he is gay or a serial killer. But it’s something much worse.

You see, Andy is a virgin. So the guys at the store make a pact to try and take care of Andy’s little “problem”. In fact, everyone tries to take care of Andy’s problem.

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Before Denzel Washington became a household name he starred in this film about an up-and-coming LA district attorney who is being haunted by a criminal who he put away a number of years before (and who, coincidentally, started his rise up the political ladder).

The criminal, Earl Talbott Blake (John Lithgow), recently escaped from prison, and in a brilliant move, shot one of his escape buddies and burned the body to pass him off as himself, so that he could operate under-the radar. What better than to have people think you are dead?

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Diane Lane stars as lovesick Sarah Nolan, who just can’t seem to get her life on track after her husband left her for a (significantly) younger woman. Now her sister is pushing her to try dating via the Internet, and her first try nets her a date… with her dad.

Meanwhile, her dad actually seems to be doing pretty well at this Internet dating thing – at least, he typically seems to have a number of women who he is hanging out with, which doesn’t help Sarah feel better at all. As it turns out, he’s just trying to pass the time, because after spending more than 40 years with the love of his life, he knows he cannot hope to compete.

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The second installment of the Pirates franchise clocks in just a few minutes longer than the first movie, but in some ways it seems quite a bit longer. Perhaps we’ve become used to Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp, in the role he was born to play), or perhaps it just went on too long. One thing is sure, and that’s that the visuals are superb.

From the opening sounds of the lonely pirate singing, you are whisked off to a world of adventure with Captain Jack. Unfortunately it gets a bit bogged down after that. There’s an adventure on an island which, while fun, could probably be dropped in its entirety without affecting the rest of the movie one bit. The movie then drags for a while before another fun bit that goes on and on and on. And then it goes on some more.

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Robin Williams is back on the big screen in this story about a family on what might be their last leg (and that’s before they start their trip).

What he has told them is that he’s canceled their trip to Hawaii so that they could spend some time together in an RV, going across the country in order to get to know each other again. What he hasn’t told them is that he has to be at the other end of the trip in a few days for a presentation, and this gives him time to put it together.

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Who would expect a movie with Ice Cube to be a family movie? Is this the same guy? As it turns out, it is. And there is certainly some edge to his character, but he turns it out.

His character is a sports collector, with all sorts of memorabilia, including a bobblehead doll of Satchel Paige who tries to talk him out of one thing or another (and often seems to get him into more trouble). In order to get in good with a new girl, he agrees to bring her kids to meet her. Perhaps not the best idea.

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