First, WHAS: So this is one of those parody movies, doing to ‘80s teen camp movies (none of which I can actually name offhand, and yet the elements all seemed familiar, so I must have seen some) what Scream did to horror movies. Unlike most of the recent batch of parody movies, it’s supposed to be funny, a point it backs up with its indie darling cast – Janeane Garofalo, Michael Ian Black, Paul Rudd, Niles Frasier, etc.

And is it funny? Sorta. At times. It’s very uneven, really. The biggest thing I can’t help but notice is that while the movies it’s parodying had lots of sex in them, and while this movie is deeply salacious, there’s not an ounce of nudity anywhere in it. I am trying to decide if this is just how movies are these days, or if they did that as a deliberate metacommentary about how American teen sex romp comedies got way more salacious over time while simultaneously getting weirdly prudish.

At any rate, see it if you want, but keep low expectations if you do so.

Next up, I Love You, Phillip Morris. This movie has one of the worst goddamn titles of any movie I have ever seen in my life. Because what do you think it is about? You think it is about smoking, right? That it’s some kind of “Thank You For Smoking” documentary thing, or about a tobacco farmer, or SOMETHING, right?

IT IS NOT! IT IS A LIE! The movie is named that because it has a character named Phillip Morris, who is named that for NO REASON WHATSOEVER (other than that it’s an actual person’s real name). Which is actually GOOD for the movie, because instead of being some heavy-handed anti-smoking propaganda, it is a light fun romp about a con artist (Jim Carrey, being surprisingly non-Jim Carrey-ian and not at all annoying) who falls in love with an innocent prisoner (Ewan McGregor playing the titular Mr. Morris), and their travails together.

Do you like movies about con artists? Like that Leonardo DiCaprio Catch Me If You Can one? And, to a lesser extent, Ocean’s Eleven? Well, if you do, then you should like this, because it has the same feel to it, to a high degree.

Also, apparently it is based on a real dude, and I thought for sure they were making shit up with some of the extravagantly implausible stuff he does, but Wikipedia says: Nope, that’s real!