Comedy

The trap is set...for a wickedly funny who'll-do-it. If you were a famed mystery playwright with a devastating string of recent flops, what would you do for a can't-miss thriller script? Beg for it? Pay for it? Pray for it? Kill for it?

Mick and Sue continue where they left off in "Crocodile Dundee." New York gangsters are pursuing Sue, so for her safety, Mick takes her back to "Oz." When the gangsters follow them, Mick demonstrates his outback skills once more. Hogan's natural charm keeps the movie afloat and easy to stick with.

This 1986 comedy out of Australia is so old-fashioned in its romantic charm that one can't help but wonder what it would have looked like with Clark Gable and Carole Lombard in the leads. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine anyone besides Paul Hogan as the title character, a laid-back Aussie tracker who shows an American reporter (Linda Kozlowski) around bush country, then accompanies her to New York City.

When a stressed out ad exec (Moore) proposes a "truth in advertising" scheme, he is promptly shipped off to a mental institution. There he teams up with a kooky blonde (Hannah) and a slew of nutty patients. What happens next is absolutely crazy because the public goes absolutely nuts for the new way of advertising. You'll chortle over the advertising slogans you've always wished Madison Avenue would use!

The bright, glossy world of Doris Day and Rock Hudson sex comedies gets a self-aware brush-up in Down with Love. Pillow-lipped Rene Zellweger (Chicago) plays Barbara Novak, the author of a bestselling book called Down with Love that advises women to focus on their careers and have sex a la carte--just like a man would. Determined to prove that Novak is just as vulnerable to love as any woman, dashingly chauvinist magazine writer Catcher Block (ever-charming Ewan McGregor, Moulin Rouge) pretends to be a courtly astronaut who wouldn't dream of putting his hand on a woman's knee.

Ernie Souchak (John Belushi), a tough Chicago reporter, gets a little too close to the Mob, and his apartment is blown up. To take the heat off of him, his editor sends him to Colorado to investigate an eagle researcher (Blair Brown). Sparring partners at first, the pair eventually fall in love, but Souchak must return to Chicago when one of his sources is mysteriously killed. This is one of those movies that required repeated viewing to get all of the nuances.

It's not easy being the most popular and glamorous girl at Beverly Hills High. Especially when you're the envy of scheming Betties (female babes), persistent Barneys (unattractive guys), and teachers who go postal (freak out) when you turn your homework in late! Yet somehow 15-year-old Cher (Alicia Silverstone) keeps it all together, even finding time for extracurricular projects like finding a love match for her debate class teacher (Wallace Shawn), and giving a dowdy friend (Brittany Murphy) a fashion makeover.

Leonardo Di Caprio and Tom Hanks engage in a game of cat and mouse in the real-life crime drama Catch Me If You Can. Frank Abagnale, Jr. (Leonardo Di Caprio) worked as a doctor, a lawyer and as a co-pilot for a major airline - all before his 18th birthday. A master of deception, he was also a brilliant forger, whose skill gave him his first real claim to fame: at the age of 17, Frank Abagnale, Jr. became the most successful bank robber in the history of the United States.

A Christmas Story is on its way to becoming an annual holiday classic, one to keep on the shelf with It's a Wonderful Life, the puppet-animated Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and A Charlie Brown Christmas. It may have been directed by Bob Clark (responsible for the Porky's pictures), but it's based on the childhood memoirs of humorist Jean Shepherd (from his hilarious book In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash). And it is Shepherd's wry, deadly accurate, and gently nostalgic comic sensibility that shines through in this kid's-eye view of an all-American Christmas in the 1940s.

Steve Martin is funnier than ever in this hilarious sequel! Tom Baker (Steve Martin) and wife Kate (Bonnie Hunt) bring their clan together for a memorable summer getaway. But their dream vacation turns into an outrageous competition with the overachieving, overzealous family of Tom's long-time rival, Jimmy Murtaugh (Eugene Levy). Featuring all the original Baker kids, including Hilary Duff, Tom Welling and Piper Perabo, this super-sized comedy is fun for the whole family!