Comedy

The All-American Girls' Professional Baseball League was founded in 1943, when most of the men of baseball-playing age were far away in Europe and Asia fighting World War II. The league flourished until after World War II, when, with the men's return, the league was consigned to oblivion. Director Penny Marshall and screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel re-create the wartime era when women's baseball looked to stand a good chance of sweeping the country. The story begins as a candy-bar tycoon enlists agents to scour the country to find women who could play ball. In the backwoods of Oregon, two sisters -- Dottie (Geena Davis) and Kit (Lori Petty) -- are discovered. Dottie can hit and catch, while Kit can throw a mean fastball. The girls come to Chicago to try out for the team with other prospects that include their soon-to-be-teammates Mae Mordabito (Madonna), Doris Murphy (Rosie O'Donnell), and Marla Hooch (Megan Cavanagh). The team's owner, Walter Harvey (Gary Marshall) needs someone to coach his team and he picks one-time home-run champion Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks), who is now a broken-down alcoholic. After a few weeks of training, as Dugan sobers up, the team begins to show some promise. By the end of the season, the team has improved to the point where they are competing in the World Series (which is no big deal, since there are only four teams in the league). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A prudish college freshman finds her prim and proper reputation compromised after she's plied with alcohol by a deceptive classmate and caught baring it all for the popular video series "Chicks Go Crazy." Priscilla White (Jenna Dewan) is a college freshman on an abstinence scholarship. She'd never dream of giving up her virginity before marriage, but when local legend Natalie "The Naz" (Brianne Davis) tricks her into drinking alcohol, Prescilla's inhibitions fly out the window. After exposing herself for the "Girls Go Crazy" cameras, Prescilla realizes she risks losing it all for her one moment of bad judgment, and races to recover the tapes from sleazy producer Ed Kurtzman (Rob Schneider). Catching up with the "Girls Go Crazy" bus won't be easy, but with a little help from The Naz and handsome traveling companion Chuck, it's sure to be a trip Prescilla never forget. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Nora Ephron adapts Julie Powell's autobiographical book Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen with this Columbia Pictures production starring Amy Adams as an amateur chef who decides to cook every recipe in a cookbook from acclaimed celebrity chef Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep) in order to chronicle it in a blog over the course of a year. Streep's Devil Wears Prada co-star Stanley Tucci re-teams with the actress as Child's husband. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Ten years after graduation, a former high school musical superstar who insists on living in the past discovers that there's more to life than the bright lights of Broadway as his former teacher and mentor prepares for a particularly chaotic opening-night performance. Jason Schwartzman and Ben Stiller star in a comedy co-scripted by Jacob Koskoff and director Todd Louiso. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Ultimate manly man Arnold Schwarzenegger learns what it's like to be an expectant mother in director Ivan Reitman's high-concept comedy. Schwarzenegger plays Dr. Hess, a medical researcher working on a revolutionary drug to help mothers carry endangered infants to term. When government regulations prevent Dr. Hess from testing the drug through normal channels, his partner Dr. Arbogast (Danny DeVito) develops an unorthodox solution: they will steal a female egg and implant it in Hess, who will carry the child himself. Predictably, much of the subsequent humor centers on the incongruous sight of the muscular Schwarzenegger undergoing the trials and tribulations of pregnancy, from morning sickness to labor pains. Emma Thompson returns to her comic roots and provides romantic interest as an incorrigibly clumsy but intelligent scientist who catches on to Hess' deception. Reitman, Schwarzenegger, and DeVito had previously had a hit with Twins (1988), which revolved around a similarly ludicrous medical premise, but they failed to repeat that film's success here, as audiences largely ignored the film and reviewers criticized the humor as disappointingly obvious. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide