Fired Up! (2009)

Simultaneously pokes fun at a lot of the cheer-leading movies while being one itself. Periodic funny scenes prevent this from becoming a real stinker. If you need to kill an hour and a half, there are worse ways to do it.

Rating: C-

Youth In Revolt (2009)

Michael Cera's dry delivery is hilarious. He gets away with saying the most vulgar stuff, simply because he sounds so innocent when saying it. This is not a mainstream comedy at all.

Rating: B-

Up In The Air (2009)

Delightful, funny, smart, and even a little sexy. This made me think back to Clooney's character in Out of Sight—a good thing. Great writing, which we can thank the source material for. Solid acting and competent direction. Hard to find much wrong with this film. I'm a sucker for happy endings, so had things turned out differently, I may have moved this into the "A" range.

Rating: B

Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009)

I made a point of not seeing this film once I heard it was produced by Happy Madison. They crank out movies dumb enough that you'll literally lose IQ points by seeing them. I still haven't recovered from the god-awful "Don't Mess With The Zohan". But, the fates aligned to have Paul Blart be the star of a Movie Night, so I gave it a viewing.

Pretty bad, but not grotesque. Acting was terrible across the board. Plot was cliché, filled with holes, and cheap. Jokes and gags were sub par, especially having seen them in the previews like 20 times.  Hmmm… maybe it was grotesque.

Rating: D-