George Clooney must be the title character in the new film "The American" because the action takes place in Sweden and Italy, homelands of the other half-dozen characters.

John Lussenhop's movie "Takers" is a contemporary heist picture told from two and a half points of view, as are most heist movies anymore.

As is the pattern with horror movies presented as fake documentaries ("The Blair Witch Project," for example, and "Paranormal Activity"), most of the horror in the new film "The Last Exorcism" is packed into the last twenty minutes of the running time.

There aren't going to be any protests by movie ticketholders, and nobody is going to boo as the credits run.

Sequels aren't usually very surprising.

One hears the new Ice Cube movie, Erik White's "The Lottery Ticket," referred to as a "'Friday' for a new generation."

There are a lot of things that work in the new monster movie "Piranha in 3D."

So he took to making parodies of sets of movies. "Young Frankenstein" satirized horror films including the Universal series from the 1950s. "Blazing Saddles" sent-up movie westerns. There was "Silent Movie" and "High Anxiety" (kidding around about Hitchcock films), "Spaceballs" ("Star Wars") and "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" and "Dracula: Dead and Loving It."

Entertainment business professionals have all sorts of reasons for not being able to imagine what their audiences will like.

  In the last three years, Michael Cera has starred in the much-loved "Superbad," "Year One," "Youth in Revolt," the much-admired "Juno," "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," and a couple of other movies, all without putting on a pound or changing a personality.