Men At Work
from MGM (Video & DVD)
Proving that a little success can be a dangerous thing, Emilio Estevez parlayed his early-'80s "brat-pack" fame into a dubious directorial career, beginning with 1986's Wisdom (in which Estevez costarred with then-fiancée Demi Moore), and resuming with this sophomore-effort 1990 comedy that benefits most from Emilio's teaming with brother Charlie Sheen. (Close your eyes and listen: their voices sound like their dad Martin Sheen after inhaling helium.) The brothers play a pair of garbage collectors who discover a body on their daily rounds, and the corpse draws them into a scheme involving corrupt politics, illegal hazardous-waste dumping, and a lovely neighbor (Leslie Hope) with connections to the dead guy. Add a wacko Vietnam vet (Keith David), an unsuspecting pizza deliverer (Dean Cameron), and a pair of overzealous cops, and you've got a comedy that lazily rambles from one lightweight scene to another. It's way too loose to have any noteworthy quality, but that's also part of the movie's low-brow appeal: Estevez and Sheen play well together, and this is just their way of goofing off with Hollywood money. With a sharper script and an experienced director, Men at Work could have paid off handsomely. As it is, these sibling antics are amiable enough, and the early-'90s fashion crimes (like Charlie's "dork knob" ponytail) offer an amusing diversion from the lamest gags. --Jeff Shannon
It's up to a pair of trash-hauling heroes to clean up the city in this action-comedy starring real-life brothers Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez. Garbage men James (Estevez) and Carl (Sheen) dream of opening a surf shop, but often land in hot water due to their practical jokes. When they discover the body of a murdered politician on their route, they attempt to sniff out the killer themselves a bad idea that rapidly ensnares them in a toxic waste scandal. Soon, they're thrown headlong into a manic escapade involving a deranged veteran, an attractive campaign manager, a kidnapped pizza deliveryman and a greedy polluter who wants them hauledoff to a landfill for good!
Kicking & Screaming - Criterion Collection
from Criterion
Paralyzed with post-graduation ennui, a group of college friends remain on campus, patching together a community for themselves in order to deny the real-world futures awaiting them. Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Noah Baumbach's hilarious and touching directorial debut was one of the highlights of the American independent film scene of the nineties, speaking directly to a generation of adults-to-be unable to reconcile their hermetic education experience with workaday responsibility, and posing the eternal question, "Where do we go from here?" Stingingly funny and incisive, Baumbach's breakthrough features endlessly quotable dialogue delivered by a stellar ensemble cast.
Summer School (Life's a Beach Edition)
from Paramount
A weak, lazy comedy about an easygoing teacher (Mark Harmon, whose movie career never had the kind of trajectory that his TV work did) who is forced to teach--you guessed it--summer school. What's worse, he gets exactly the kind of kids you'd expect: the losers and slackers who are forced to make up the work they didn't complete during the year. He tries to duck work and let them fend for themselves. But in this mushy Carl Reiner film, the teacher offers some life lessons to his band of delinquents and--surprise, surprise--the kids impart a lesson or two to their teacher, as well. Harmon coasts through the film on his good looks, which are considerable. --Marshall Fine
Ski School 2
by David Mitchell
from Universal Studios
Extreme sports meets extreme comedy when David, a fun-loving, commitment-phobic ex-ski school instructor learns that his ex-girlfriend is about to marry. With the aid of a motley crew, including a hunk who drives women wild, David bumbles through one uproarious obstacle after another in a quest to prove that he is the better man and to win her back before it's too late. Riotously funny, sexy and exciting, this zany comedy about competition is sure to win you over.
Summer School
from Paramount
Not nearly as raunchy as some of the other teen exploitation films that came out around the same time, Summer School is a feel-good movie in which all the characters are clueless, but also kind of likeable for some inexplicable reason. Mark Harmon stars as Freddy Shoop, a lazy physical education instructor who is forced by his nemesis (aka The Principal) to teach summer school. He's not lucky enough to get the overachiever kids who attend summer school because they want to; Shoop gets the students who have to attend becau