Jim Field Smith’s Butter has been packaged and sold as its own consumable commodity – as some sort of smart, politically-minded satire. Butter is certainly funny in spats, but smart satire it is not, as there are no hard lessons taught or learned within the film. It may be too easy to say that Butter goes soft by its end – but the wording works here, both in terms of a mildly clever food pun and as an actual critique of how the film flip-flops with its tone and message before settling on an easy conclusion. The world of competitive butter-carving is hilarious and bizarre, a fine setting for a straight comedy that culminates with a character incredulously summing up its ridiculousness – “you put it on toast!” – but everything in Smith’s film is just too obvious to transcend basic laughs.

Earlier today, the international trailer for We Need to Talk About Kevin showed us that a child raised in a seemingly normal environment could still end up a horrifying, dead-eyed sociopath with a panache for porn. Lynne Ramsay’s Cannes film swiftly removed any hope that human spawn could be charming or cuddly – so let’s chuck ‘em all and turn to something a bit more organic. After all, there’s nothing more hip than locally grown produce, so why not some locally grown kids? You liked the Cabbage Patch Kids when you were younger, right? Enter Disney’s The Odd Life of Timothy Green. The film is billed as “an inspiring, magical story about a happily married couple who bury a box in their backyard, containing all of their wishes for an infant. Soon, their child is born, though Timothy Green is not all that he appears.” That’s right, in this film, Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton can’t have children, so they write down everything they’d want for the kid they can never have, toss those wishes into a box, bury it in their garden, and act like it’s totally normal when a mud-covered elementary schooler shows up in their house during a hefty rainstorm. I know we’re doing great things with soybeans right now, but this is too much – there’s a big difference between a tofu burger and a garden-grown kid. Cue some stuff that looks like Powder fell in with some slow food hippies, and boom! there’s The Odd [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Even though the DVD and Blu-ray of Arthur came out at a weird time (last Friday, to be exact), we couldn’t let it go by without giving it a drinking game. After all, how many movies are released each year that portray alcoholism in such a charming and carefree fashion? (We were also really drunk last week, from all of the other drinking games on the site.) So whether you’re being forced to marry a beautiful woman like Jennifer Garner or if you live in the gutter like the rest of us, you might have some fun watching Arthur when you’re drinking as much as Arthur is.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr spends a long day in the multiplex, checking out a variety of films from alcoholic romantic comedies to nature documentaries with elephants and orangutans. He drinks himself silly and hits on Greta Gerwig in Arthur, narrowly escapes being killed by ass-kicking teen assassin Hanna, narrowly escapes getting his arm bitten off by a tiger shark in Soul Surfer and peeps in on Natalie Portman undressing for a swim in Your Highness. Too bad she’s pregnant now, ‘cause Kevin just ain’t into that scene.

Cliches like the headline shouldn’t be taken lightly. They should be avoided at all cost, except when they are so accurate that it would make your nose bleed. In the case of Russell Brand slurping hooch and pitching woo in the remake of Arthur, we may need to recheck the records to see if Dudley Moore died in the same hospital on the same day Brand was born. The strength of Arthur rests solely on its actors. The sequences are more than interwoven sketch comedy, but they aren’t much more, and without the humor and absurdity inherent in the all-too-popular new character of the man child, this thing would have been as flat as if a giant magnet bed fell on it. Russell Brand is Arthur. And what Arthur is, is hilarious and heartfelt.

This is the poorly-worded question on my mind ever since reading that Jennifer Garner wants to produce and star in a movie that sees Agatha Christie’s famously elderly detective Miss Marple aged down by half. For most characters, that’s an interesting prospect (think Young Indiana Jones), but Miss Marple is a character defined mainly by her age. She’s old, feeble-looking, and people take for granted that the can solve a murder before sundown. Changing her age changes her most striking surface-level characteristic. So is it even Miss Marple anymore? Or is it just some young private investigator with a knack for success who’s wearing Miss Marple’s name tag?

Winick, who was 49, passed away Sunday after a battle with brain cancer. He first became known in Hollywood for producing independent films through his production company InDigEnt, including his own 2002 picture Tadpole. He later became more widely famous for directing mainstream romantic comedies such as 13 Going on 30 and his last film Letters to Juliet, the stars of which talked to The Hollywood Reporter about their memories of the man. 13 Going on 30 star Jennifer Garner said of Winick, “I think everybody who was a friend of Gary’s considered him one of their best friends. He had a hundred best friends. He just was unafraid of being intimate. And that spilled over into his directing. His whole company, InDigEnt, was based on trying to find a way to fold everyone in, being 100 percent invested in the movie, because they were going to profit from it if the movie was successful.” Creating jobs in Hollywood and giving young filmmakers a means of expressing themselves is certainly a fine way to be remembered, but Garner had even more to say about the man and his career.

From the vampire-ridden woods of Forks to a small town in the midwest, Twilight supporting star Ashley Greene is on the move. Here in the south at Reject HQ, we’re doing our best to avoid the “churning butter” jokes that came to mind when this story first broke. We’re trying out professionalism.

Jennifer Garner and Anna Faris may be teaming up soon, in a way that may remind you of the team of Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis. In the wake of the success of The Hangover, 20th Century Fox appears to be dusting off the Karen McCullah Lutz (The House Bunny) written comedy The Bachelorette Party.

Kevin Carr sits his chubbiness down and sees if The Wolfman, Valentine’s Day and Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief can make the grade.

The good Dr. Abaius is known widely for his correspondence with Hollywood. And in his most recent letter, he lets director Garry Marshall — a man who has directed his fair share of romantic comedy gems — know what he thinks of his latest film, Valentine’s Day.

This week’s drinking game teaches us to lie with The Invention of Lying and how to murder people in a show storm with Whiteout… or it’ll just get you drunk.

As Martin Campbell’s Green Lantern film steams toward production, lists are being made for who will star alongside Ryan Reynolds. First up: who will play Hal Jordan’s girlfriend?

Ricky Gervais’ new movie is funny, for sure, but most notable for its genuine sweetness.

‘Ghosts of Girlfriends Past’ is a bad movie that nonetheless interestingly (and most likely unintentionally) dissects Matthew McConaughey’s archetypal onscreen persona.

Kevin Carr reviews this week’s new movies: X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Battle for Terra.

The Fat Guys ring in the summer movie season with a Fat Guy Five – The Most Anticipated Films of Summer, while Kevin risks a backlash of political correctness by explaining why he thinks Obsessed with Beyonkadonk did so well last week.

I’m happy to report that I won’t be getting into any fistfights with critics about Juno — at least, not with too many of them.

This is still, in my opinion, the best action film of the year. It’s an intense, riveting cinematic experience I won’t soon forget.