Movies directed by Jake Kasdan

Bad Teacher takes a delicious premise and leaves a sour aftertaste. Despite the promise of something nasty and cutting, the film turns out to be as edgy as a dull razor with limp "raunchy" comedy and an unwillingness to push envelopes. The concept ...

Perhaps there are interesting directions in which the filmmakers could have taken the Jumanji series – after all, the 2017 reboot, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, was vast improvement over the mid-1990s original. Unfortunately, driven by Hol...

Every year, there are a handful of pleasant and unpleasant surprises in multiplexes. Count Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle among the former. A tremendous improvement over the tepid 1995 original, this quasi-sequel brings humor, fun performances,...

Most parents, on at least a subconscious level, would be happy if their children, when grown, followed in their footsteps. Such a career choice by one's offspring, is, after all, a kind of validation of one's own decisions. So it must be with som...

Some Christmas films are designed as family-friendly romps that can be enjoyed by all as a holiday confection. (Perfect example: A Christmas Story.) Others are adult-oriented fare that might make the Grinch blush. (Perfect example: Bad Santa.) Then...

Two fundamental problems afflict Sex Tape (aside from the fact that it's not consistently funny): a shocking ignorance about the state of modern technology and a mistaken belief that the subject matter is inherently edgy. The screenplay is disappoi...

If nothing else, at least it can be said that Walk Hard is not just another lame, humorless attempt at lampooning a popular genre. Perhaps due to the co-authorship of Judd Apatow or perhaps because Jake Kasdan aspires to be more than this generatio...

Zero Effect is a perfect example of how the medium in which a story is told can affect one's opinion of it. As a made-for-TV movie/series pilot, Zero Effect would hold a great deal of promise: it introduces offbeat characters like Daryl Zero (Bil...