The TV Addict 

PATHOLOGY
Featuring a highly intriguing concept at its core (pathologists who kill people to see if their colleagues can guess how they did it), writers Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor never take PATHOLOGY further than that: a good idea. Instead they proceed to bury it in gratuitous sex, gore and nudity (which may be a selling point for some), as well shallow characters and story. Distracting is also their portrayal of women nothing more than as raging nymphomaniacs and targets of sexual objectification, which is something like a feminist’s nightmare (again, perhaps a selling point for some). Admittedly it’s not entirely unwatchable, especially thanks to an intense performance from Michael Weston, and scenes of characters puzzling out the mysteries presented by causes of death. Beyond that though you’ll spend most of the movie wondering what better filmmakers may have done with the same solid high concept.
Overall rating: C

FOOT FIST WAY
Heralded by current comedy royalty (the movie was backed by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay), and praised by numerous movie blogs, I was surprised to find FOOT FIST WAY to be not as funny as I had heard. Don’t get me wrong, it is funny at times (in an awkward, squirm inducing British “The Office” kind of way), but mostly I was caught off guard by the heart at the center of the movie. Watching Fred Simmons (Danny McBride) struggle after his wife cheats on him yields as much genuine heart (and heartbreak) as it does outrageous, David Brent behavior. It’s all the more surprising given that Simmons is inherently a jerk, and yet his outbursts are believable not only for his personality type, but even … well, us. Who hasn’t wanted to go a little nuts when their world has come unhinged? What’s more, watching him recover, slowly regain control of his life again, and even discover a strength in him he didn’t know he had before, proves to be an emotionally satisfying experience in the midst of the all the zany mayhem. You end up rooting for the very guy you first thought you should be rooting against. 

Overall rating: B

THE HAPPENING
From the original review: “By the time you get to the end of the film, you feel you’re sitting in a train that has not only been violently derailed, but is still barreling along with the force of its original momentum, and you’re just anxiously waiting for the moment when it finally stops and you can assess the damage. At least unlike Bruce Willis’ character in UNBREAKABLE you won’t be the only survivor, unfortunately you won’t be unscathed like he was.”
Overall rating: D+

THE VISITOR
From the original review: “Todd McCarthy apparently has never heard of the sophomore slump, as his second film THE VISITOR is just as good as his first, THE STATION AGENT, which means something coming from me as I consider the latter to be one of my favorite movies ever…It never strays from being a sweet, lingering, human story that involves watching Walter delicately emerge from the cocoon of his stagnant life with the gentle cajoling power of human compassion and friendship, and rediscover the long dormant pulse of his life and quicken it.”

Special note: This film was also my No. 2 choice for Best Films of the Year (So Far)
Overall rating: A