Beach

Don't listen to the critics. "The Stupids" is one of my favorite movies, and I've seen close to 800 in the last few years. It's full of scenes that deserve to be classic, like the "I'm My Own Grandpa" musical number, the Stupids' encounter with The Lloyd, and "to be a bush, you've got to think like a bush..." It's worth watching more than once, for sure. It's tragically underappreciated. The plot has Stanley Stupid investigating the conspiracy to steal his garbage and accidentally blunders into an illegal arms deal, while also tracking down the evil Mr. Sender.

Two 18-year old girls vacation to Thailand since it "you can spend the summer there for $500" (never mind the plane tickets, I guess). They both are seduced by an Australian who plants drugs in their carry-on luggage. The drugs are discovered at the airport and the girls go to a Thai prison, which is beautifully photographed and is brutal to the extent that there are roaches in the latrine (gasp). The rest (bulk) of the movie is predictable and pointless bickering over whose fault things are, how far each was romantically involved with the Australian boy, etc., oh, and "like, this is so unjust. we're innocent". The grating valley girl dramatics get worse as things get weepy and we find out what good friends the two are. zzzzzzzzzz. It would have been a far cry better if it had any sort of edge. The pacing is so slow I would have fallen asleep had the theater not been so loud. Plot points that could have been summed up in a line of dialogue go on for long, long scenes. The soundtrack is embarrassing- every now and then the movie pauses to turn into a sort of VH-1 music video: wispy vocals, shots of the sunset, the girls laughing or brooding (as the occasion warrants). No doubt teenybopper types will like this but I would have been upset if I had paid to see it.

This one is worth watching just to see Craig T. Nelson's encounter with "The Vomit Creature", a truly classic moment in trashy cinema. The rest of the movie isn't the greatest but it's at least entertaining with an evil Julian Beck stealing the show.