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Now Playing: BROKEN LIZARD'S CLUB DREAD and DIRTY DANCING: HAVANA NIGHTS
CLUB DREAD (2004, Jay Chandrasekhar)- this one is pretty darn funny in spots, but doesn't quite make it into the "good" category. Much of this comes from the filmmakers' uncertainty over whether the film is spoofing slasher movies or if the guys want to play the formula for laughs (the difference lying mostly in how much or little the filmmakers consdecend to the material). In the end, it becomes more of a spoof- once the requisite killer-that-doesn't-die ending rears its ugly head- which was kind of a shame since the idea of Broken Lizard making a funny slasher movie with very little pretense of scaring anybody was pretty cool. Still, incidental pleasures abound- not just the gratuitous nudity, but also a hilarious supporting turn by Bill Paxton as a Jimmy Buffett knockoff (his "Naughty Cal" nonsense song is a riot). Also nice to see that the guys are equal-opportunity, since while in SUPER TROOPERS most of the jokes were at the expense of Kevin Heffernan's Farva, here Heffernan gets the play a much more heroic role, while everyone else becomes more of a dufus by comparison.
Rating: **.

DIRTY DANCING: HAVANA NIGHTS (2004, Guy Ferland)- I guess I missed the iconic status of the original to my generation, but since I'm a guy I suppose that's understandable. This one repeats the broad outline of the original, but with marginally better music (though the Cuban-flavored pop here is certainly not in the same league as, say, the Buena Vista Social Club, not that it's exactly aiming to be). It also has Diego Luna, who gives an amiable and easygoing star performance here that's much more interesting than either of the previous film's stars had to offer (Jennifer Grey's simpering Baby being especially awful). Luna's presence gets worked overtime by the dopey plotting here, with its sanitized portrayal of Batista's ouster (only slightly less laughable than the abortion subplot in the original), to say nothing of his pedestrian co-star Romola Garai, who is so out of her depth here that Luna pretty much has to carry the love story singlehandedly. Just when I didn't think the movie could get any more lame, there was a Patrick Swayze cameo, which caused me to laugh so much that I wasn't sure if I was laughing because he looked so old or because of his role in DONNIE DARKO. Needless to say, if the title "Dirty Dancing" still holds magic for you, see this, since hardly anyone else will.
Rating: *.