Sarah Lilly Movies

Gary Marshall's ensemble romantic comedy Valentine's Day follows nearly two dozen people as they find and lose love in all its many forms over the course of the title holiday. The numerous characters include a very busy florist (Ashton Kutcher) and his schoolteacher best friend (Jennifer Garner). She's having an affair with a married doctor (Patrick Dempsey). Meanwhile, a businessman (Bradley Cooper) and a military captain (Julia Roberts) on leave share a long conversation during an international flight. There's also an elderly couple (Hector Elizondo and Shirley MacLaine) who are caring for their elementary school-age grandson, who is pining for a classmate and missing his mother. The huge cast also includes Jamie Foxx as a local TV personality, Topher Grace, Queen Latifah, and Anne Hathaway. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Though representing a slight step upward in budget from the previous two Ghoulies installments, this is still a rather silly exercise in childish fart jokes and rubbery monster effects. The title critters are mini-demons summoned forth from a demonic chamber pot (seriously!) by the occult-obsessed Dean of Glazier University. However, the ancient vessel is currently being used by the Beta Theta Zeta fraternity for a more (ahem) practical purpose. The ghoulies eventually cut loose on campus, and the surrounding frat-boy bacchanalia seems to have made them even more obnoxious than usual. The creatures' Satanic antics are first thought to be creative Hell Week pranks, but they are eventually discovered and defeated by the nominal hero and heroine. One of Vestron's last productions before the company went belly-up, this languished in distribution limbo for several years. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

Where the original Gremlins was a horror film spiked with comedy, Gremlins 2: The New Batch is essentially a black comedy, with a couple of horrifying touches. As the film starts, the fantastical trinket shop in Chinatown, which sold the Mogwai in the first film, is demolished by a crazed multi-media businessman called Daniel Clamp (John Glover). The heroes from the first movie, Billy (Zach Galligan) and Kate (Phoebe Cates), happen to work for Clamp in his huge high-rise. They find the Mogwai within Clamp's building, but not before he has accidentally spawned legions of mischievous, lizard-like Gremlins. Soon, the Gremlins are wreaking havoc throughout the building. In the original film, their misdeeds were violent, but here they're also goofy and satirical. Director Joe Dante has filled the film with quick verbal and visual jokes, which, for many, makes Gremlins 2: The New Batch a satire and inversion of the typical horror film. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

The "boys next door" are Roy Alston (Maxwell Caulfield) and Bo Richards (Charlie Sheen), typical California teens freshly graduated from high school. Daunted by the prospect of the real world, the boys decide to go on one last fling in L.A. But it's not all clean, wholesome fun; in fact, Caulfield and Sheen launch their weekend bash by beating up a gas-station attendant, throwing a glass bottle at an old woman, and murdering gay-bar patron Chris (Paul C. Dancer). Somewhere along the line, Bo becomes repelled by their violence spree, but Roy seems to be sexually aroused by all the misery he's causing. And so it goes, without real rhyme or reason, until the bloody denouement. Director Penelope Spheeris later helmed Wayne's World, The Little Rascals, and The Beverly Hillbillies. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi