Richard Gere, Alfred Molina, and...MEATWAD!

It's true that there are a lot of awful movies out there, but the truth is that there are always plenty of varied options out there that are worth your time if you know where to look. Whether you're in the mood for a film about an obscure but fascinating piece of history, or a movie spun off of a TV series featuring a box of French fries, a milk shake, and a childish ball of meat who must stop an evil piece of ancient exercise equipment, you have choices.

The Hoax- In 1971 unpublished author Clifford Irving was a desperate man. Staying at a hotel one night, he is abruptly kicked out, along with hundreds of others to make room for one man: Leonardo DiCap- er, Howard Hughes. "That's power," Irving realizes, and with that the seed is planted for the great elaborate scam that was to follow. Irving (Richard Gere), with the aide of his best friend Dick Susskind (the always great Alfred Molina) and wife Edith ("Mystic River's" Marcia Gay Harden), cooks up a plan to write the autobiography of Hughes. I knew nothing of the true story prior to seeing this movie but it's told in such an entertaining way that it doesn't matter. Based on Irving's own re-telling of these events, screenwriter William Wheeler and director Lasse Hallstrom ("What's Eating Gilbert Grape"), give us a film that's a lot of fun, and like Irving himself, is light on its feet.
Gere is note perfect as Irving, a man who convincingly lies with the showmanship of a magician. The trouble he gets himself into and subsequently out of is proof of a master storyteller.
What's so fascinating about this story is that Irving and Susskind were able to sustain the lie for as long as they did. It was a remarkably long time before Hughes came out to tell the world (in what would be his final public appearance, by phone) that he had no idea who Clifford Irving was. If "The Hoax" had not been based on a true story it would be written off as not being believable. As it is though, it is a terrific and lively look at one of the greatest cons (and con artists) that almost worked. It also features great supporting performances from Hope Davis ("American Splendor") and Julie Delpy ("Before Sunset"). Oliver Stapleton's cinematography deserves special mention as well. 8.5/10

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters- In 2000, Cartoon Network's popular Adult Swim line-up introduced what was to become perhaps its tent pole title, "Aqua Teen Hunger Force." The concept, which is displayed in the first episode, involved Frylock (a brilliant talking box of fries), Master Shake (a lazy, snarky milk shake), and Meatwad (a dumb yet lovable meat ball who's never happier than when he hears "a good beat"), fighting crime and solving mysteries. Somewhere between the first and second episode it was determined by its creators, Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis, that a crime fighting show just wasn't that interesting. I can just see them sitting around and one saying to the other, "Ummm...let's not do that anymore."
"Yeah, no. Let's just have 'em like...hang out and stuff. And we can have some aliens maybe and umm,...yeah."
"Whatever. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds alright... Sooo, you wanna go to Taco Bell?"
"ATHF" went on to become a bizarre, ridiculous, thoroughly nonsensical, and absolutely hilarious show, introducing us to Plutonians, Mooninites (ya know, the guys who recently terrorized Boston), a mummy who just wants to be hugged, a depressed doll with "action bills," the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Future From the Past, and of course, their long suffering human neighbor Carl. The concern with "Colon" was would the formula of a meandering TV show with an average running time of 12 minutes be able to sustain a nearly 90 minute long movie film. The answer is surprisingly, it actually sort of does.
I will say if you've never watched the show then you're not going to get this movie. As it is it took me about two or three episodes to get on "Aqua Teen's" wavelength. It's very much a movie made for fans. It sports quite possibly the strangest plot of this, or any, decade, in which the Aqua Teens must stop a piece of evil exercise equipment from "turning the world as we know it into a world as we never imagined it." We are also given the origin story, about six or seven of them actually, each making less sense than the last. But no one ever watched "Aqua Teen" for coherence. Like "Reno 911!: Miami," the movie is less consistent than the show it spawned from, but also like "Miami," "Colon" works often enough that fans will have a great time. Besides, it has Bruce Campbell as Chicken Bittle, and that's really all one can ask of a movie.
Also, DO NOT be late. The funniest moment of the entire movie is at the very beginning. It features none of the characters we know and begins as a "Let's all go to the lobby"-style song and dance number. It is a crazy, screamingly funny warning to get the audience to shut up. It made me wish that it could run at the front of every movie. "YOUR MONEY IS OURRRR MONEY!!!" 7/10