"The Switch"

Richard's Review: 3 1/2 stars

Just when I was ready to declare the romantic comedy genre dead along comes a movie that makes believe that there is some life left in the old boy-meets-girl storyline. "The Switch", a new rom com starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman as best friends who -- now here's a surprise -- might have unresolved feelings for one another doesn't exactly cover new ground, but it covers the old ground in a pleasing, interesting way. Dear friends, it's not time to write that eulogy just yet.

At the beginning of the movie Wally (Bateman) is described as a beady eyed manboy. That's a pretty apt description, although it leaves out insecure, hypochondriac and loner.

His best friend Kassie (Aniston) is a network television producer with "gorgeous cervical mucus" desperate to have a baby, even though she is single with no prospects of a boyfriend, let alone husband.

Wally offers his "services" but she declines. "She wouldn't know good sperm if it slapped her in the face," offers Jeff Goldblum, Wally's pal from work. She eventually settles on Roland, a married, but genetically blessed donor. On the night of the artificial insemination Wally, who doesn't approve of the whole thing gets black out drunk and makes a switch. Cut to seven years later. Kassie and son Sebastian (Thomas Robinson) return to New York after living in Minnesota.

Wally's memories of that night are foggy at best, but the more time he spends with Sebastian the more he is convinced he is the father. The problem is Kassie is more interested in striking up a relationship with Roland, the man she believes is the boy's biological or "seed" dad.

"The Switch" has much in common with other romantic comedies. It shares same kind of predictable plot, the New York setting so crucial to rom coms and the convention of the wacky friend -- Jeff Goldblum is a wild eccentric presence here, but makes it worth staying to the end to hear a snippet of his bebop piano version of Happy Birthday.

What's missing is the shiny gloss of most other romantic comedies. Despite the kind of outlandish plot "The Switch" feels like maybe there are actually real emotions involved instead of the usual rom com faux feelings.

For instance in the final reveal -- no spoilers here, but you can likely guess what it is -- there is no sappy music trying to manipulate us into feeling a certain way. Instead there are believable characters in a slightly unreal situation behaving the way real people might. The tears look genuine and unlike most romantic comedies, they aren't always tears of joy.

 Call it an art house rom com if you like but if all romantic comedies were this good the idea of going to see people fall in love at the movies wouldn't be so odious.

This is considerably more charming than say, "The Back Up Plan," the JLo movie from earlier this year that covered some of the same ground as "The Switch" and it is mostly because of the actors. Aniston and Bateman are compelling and watchable but it is Sebastian (played at different ages by brothers Thomas and Bryce Robinson) who is the bow on the package. His (their?) deadpan performance is both hilarious and touching.

"The Switch" is much better than it has to be and gives me hope that romance isn't dead in Hollywood.

"Nanny McPhee Returns"

Richard's Review: 3 1/2 stars

Imagine Mary Poppins with a W.C. Field's nose, a fanglike front tooth and earlobes big enough to land a 747 on and you have Nanny McPhee, the magical babysitter who shows up only "when you need her but do not want her."

She teaches each of her families five lessons and with each lesson learned one of her facial markings disappears until she ends up looking like Emma Thompson (who also wrote and produced the film) by the time the credits roll.

Set in wartime Britain, "Nanny McPhee Returns" revolves around Isabel Green (Maggie Gyllenhaal) a young mother of three trying to raise her kids and run the family farm while her husband is off at war. She's also trying to keep the farm out of the hands of her scheming brother-in-law (Rhys Ifans) who will stop at nothing to convince her to sign over her half of the land so he can pay off gambling debts. Add to the mix two snotty cousins from London, some acrobatic pigs, an unexploded German bomb and you have a family primed for spinster Nanny McPhee's unique brand of care giving.

"Nanny McPhee Returns" is a fantasy for kids that is more about the life lessons than it is about the title character. The kids learn about good behavior and co-operation while McPhee lurks in the background, almost disappearing completely from the movie for a long stretch in the middle. Which is just as well. As wonderful as Thompson is, a little of the Nanny goes a long way, but luckily the movie is brimming with appealing character and winning performances.

As Isabel, Gyllenhaal proves she has a Gwyneth Paltrow-like facility with English accents. She's wonderful as the kind hearted but frazzled mother, but really delivers in the movie's emotional moments. She brings a realism to certain scenes that isn't often found in kid's entertainment.

At the other end of the scale is Ifans who, as the villain, seems to have lurched off the stage from the local Christmas pantomime. He plays Uncle Phil as broadly as possible, but somehow it works. The subtlety and nuance of his recent work in movies like "Greenberg" is absent, replaced with a delicious sense of fun. If this was a live show the audience would boo every time he stepped on stage.

The real draw, however, is the kids. As Cyril, a pompous little twit who learns to be... well, less of a pompous little twit, Eros Vlahos is a mini Benny Hill in the making, with great comic timing and a way with a line. The other kids, Vincent (Oscar Steer), Norman (Asa Butterfield), Megsie (Lil Woods), and Celia (Rose Taylor-Ritson) more than capably hold the screen, playing against Oscar winners and heavy weights like Ralph Fiennes and Maggie Smith.

Even though "Nanny McPhee Returns" gets a little CGI silly near the end it is a crowd pleasing mix of gentle humor, fantasy—check out the pigs as they take a page from the Esther Williams playbook—and family fun.

"Vampires Suck"

Richard's Review: 0 stars… drive a stake through the heart of this one

"Vampires Suck" asks the question: If you go see a comedy and nobody laughs, can it still be called a comedy? The latest in a long string of parody movies -- including "Epic Movie" and "Disaster Movie" -- from writers-turned-directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, takes on their easiest target yet, the "Twilight" films, and botches it completely. This is the kind of bad movie that gives other bad movies a bad name.

Using the first two "Twilight" films for fodder "Vampires Suck" tells a story that will be familiar to Twihards. Becca Crane (newcomer Jenn Proske) is a brooding teenager involved in a supernatural love triangle with vampire Edward Sullen ("90210's" Matt Lanter) and werewolf (although he never actually transforms into a werewolf; he turns into a Chihuahua instead. Insert Taco Bell joke here.) Jacob White (Gossip Girl's Chris Riggi).

The movie climaxes at a Vampire themed high school prom and a showdown between Team Edward, Team Jacob and the Volturi.

Any movie with the word "suck" in the title is really asking for it, but "Vampires Suck" earns every bad review it is going to receive. Filled to bursting with bad puns -- "Once you go bat, you never go back" -- and even worse jokes -- when the vampires attack a Chinese food delivery guy Becca is told that they'll get hungry again in half and hour -- the movie has five punch lines every minute, too bad none of them land. The Chinese food gag was old when Don Rickles told it on the stage of The Sands in 1956 and my eight-year-old nieces could come up with more clever puns than changing the name of Forks, Washington to Sporks.

Supremely unfunny though the script may be it should be noted that the filmmakers (oh, it irks me to use that word in reference to Friedberg and Seltzer) did a good job of recreating the look of the "Twilight" films and, in Proske, found an actress more than capable of mimicking the hair twirling, mumbling and teen angst that made Kristen Stewart famous. Too bad they waste the genuinely funny people in the cast like Deidrich Bader, Dave Foley and Ken "The Hangover" Jeong.

The only thing "Vampires Suck" gets right is the title. Technically vampires do suck, and so does this movie. Truth in advertising.