Sean Anders and Daryl Wein: That's My Boy and Lola Versus

Adam Sandler, That's My Boy, Columbia Pictures, 2012.

You know the Summer's here when another shitty Adam Sandler comedy is unleashed on the populace. And you really know the Summer's here when there's an equally unbearable indie comedy to go with it. Stinking up the cinemas and taking up room where more important films could be playing, flaccid directors Sean Anders and Daryl Wein confuse humor with boredom.

Anders, director of the idiotic Sex Drive, delves into Sandler's shit storm head first, but without any sign of a pulse. The script sucks to begin with, but the director has no sense of comic timing or rhythm in the actual structure of the film. So its all left to Sandler, shamelessly mugging, and Samberg, looking embarrassed half the time, to carry the film. Last year's Jack and Jill was a guilty pleasure, rare for Sandler's mainstream fare. Aside from a few admittedly hilarious scenes involving Sandler and Samberg (whose chemistry really isn't half bad), this year's Sandler is a major dud.

Greta Gerwig, Lola Versus, Fox Searchlight, 2012.

Wein, director of the good AIDS documentary Sex Positive, delves into a nauseatingly "cute" indie "chick" flick starring the estimable Greta Gerwig. As the whiny Lola, surrounded by bland characters played by bland actors complaining about their love lives, she's less fetching. A crappy script and mediocre everything else strands the flick on Gerwig's poor shoulders, and, bless her, she just can't carry it. Her brilliant turn in Whit Stillman's Damsels in Distress earlier this year comes to mind, which only reiters the fact that this one is so unmemorably written and directed.