After 35 years, “Wayne’s World” is the only real success story. (I don’t count “The Blues Brothers” because they appeared on “SNL” as a musical act.) Even with that ignominious track record, “MacGruber” was a flop of epic proportions.

Heck, “The Ladies’ Man” grossed more at the box office.

It’s not hard to see why. The TV sketches, which tended to run a minute or less, were modestly amusing parodies of 1980s show “MacGyver.” Trying to sustain that over a 90-minute film is a daunting enough challenge, and the creative team of Will Forte, Jorma Taccone and John Solomon are simply not up to the task.

Forte plays the title character, a ridiculously incompetent special-ops agent, with such over-the-top buffoonery that he’s essentially a one-joke character: The massive gulf between MacGruber’s inflated ego and his actual ability.

Strangely, the signature talent of MacGruber — using bits of everyday junk to whip up gizmos or defuse ticking time bombs — is only utilized a couple of times.

After this disastrous movie, I can think of a few people whose film careers have already counted down to zero.

Video extras, which are the same for Blu-ray and DVD formats, are nothing to brag about. There’s one 45-second deleted scene, an 8-minute blooper reel and a special “unrated” version that adds about four minutes to the film’s run time. Other than a few more f-bombs and extended shots of Forte’s frequently naked behind, there’s not much there.

An audio commentary by screenwriters Forte, Taccone (who also directed) and Solomon is telling. Taccone announces at the beginning that he’s playing a one-man drinking game, taking a hit every time the name “MacGruber” is said, and although we can’t see him Taccone’s blurry, unfocused commentary would seem to prove that he carried out his threat.

Solomon, meanwhile, appears intermittently by phone, having to be told by the other two what they’re seeing onscreen. Yes, that’s right, this is an audio commentary that is literally being phoned in!

Maybe this is why “It’s Pat” has a new rival for the title of “Worst SNL Movie.”

Movie: 1.5 Yaps
Extras: 3 Yaps

This weekend the fourth Resident Evil film is coming out, which has made millions of Americans wonder, “When in the world did they make four Resident Evil films?” Some sequels are big event movies like the welcoming of another Star Wars or Indiana Jones. Most sequels just arrive and are immediately forgotten like the taste of an individual chip. To hopefully prove my point, I’ve created a team of panelists to see if they can remember how many sequels a certain franchise actually has.

So this is my panel: Joe Shearer from this lovely site called The Film Yap; Keith Jackson and Kenny Jones from the immensely popular And the Nominees Are podcast; and Stephanie Bristow, the host of the Ball State entertainment news show called The Reel Deal.

Ernest

Joe: Ummm, let’s say 6.

Keith: This is a series? No don’t write that! STOP WRITING! 4.

Kenny: Oh s***. 12?

Stephanie: 6.

Real Answer: 9.

Final Destination

Joe: There are 4, currently with the fifth one coming.

Keith: Uhhh, there’s 4 right now but there is going to be five.

Kenny: Do they have…I remember three of them. 3.

Stephanie: 6.

Real Answer: 4 with 5nal Destination coming soon.

Friday the 13^th

Joe: If we’re counting Freddy vs. Jason there’s 11—not including the remake, which makes 12.

Keith: Arent there like, 8?

Kenny: Oh s***. Does that include the remake? (Yes). 11?

Stephanie: (Deep sigh) Three.

Real Answer: 12, including Freddy vs. Jason

Nanny McPhee

Joe: There’s two I think.

Keith: There’s two.

Kenny: 2!

Stephanie: 2.

Real Answer: 2.

Police Academy

Joe: (Laughs) Oh, let’s see. I want to say I think there’s 8.

Keith: 4.

Kenny: 4?

Stephanie: Oh I don’t even know. I’ve never even—I’m so ashamed. 2.

Real Answer: 7.

Rambo

Joe: There were 4, but my wife is saying five.

Keith: Oh, um, 5.

Kenny: (Flustered) 5.

Stephanie: Oh.. 4?

Real Answer: 4

Rocky

Joe: There were 6.

Keith: 6.

Kenny: 6 including Rocky Balboa!

Stephanie: Isn’t there just 3?

Real Answer: 6

Rugrats

Joe: Wow, Rugrats? I’ll say 3.

Keith: Like the cartoon? (Laughs) I think was at least the one. I mean duh. They went to Paris that one time. I don’t know if that’s the first one. I think that was the second one. I’m going to say 3.

Kenny: Movies? Ummmm, I saw the one. 4?

Stephanie: 3.

Real Answer: 3.

Saw

Joe: Saw is 7 coming out this year.

Keith: The next one is going to be the…seventh.

Kenny: 6! That one I’m pretty sure about.

Stephanie: There are 6.

Real Answer: 6 with the 7th coming out in October.

Star Trek

Joe: I better not get this wrong. Counting the remake is 11.

Keith: There’s 11.

Kenny: Oh Jesus Christ. 14! There’s a lot. That’s all I know.

Stephanie: Oh gosh. 7?

Real Answer: 11.

The Thin Man

Joe: I don’t know. I’ll say 3.

Keith: 6.

Kenny: 7. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Kenny apparently only said seven because he looked at my DVD shelf and saw 7 Thin Man boxes not realizing one was a documentary. If he hadn't looked at that he would have said six.] [ADDITIONAL EDITOR'S NOTE: This matters so much!]

Stephanie: Yeah no clue so I’m going to say 4.

Real Answer: 6.

Twilight

Joe: This was the third one out now so 3 to date.

Keith: There is going to be 5 films but four actual stories, right?

Kenny: There are going to be 4 with a two-part third one.

Stephanie: Obviously there have been four books so four but there have only been three so far or have there been two? No I’m just going to say 4.

Real Answer: 3 with two more on their way.

“Redbelt”
Rated R
2008

“Redbelt” threatened to be David Mamet’s most vainglorious misfire since forcing the (at best) dinner-theater talent of wife Rebecca Pidgeon into his films. A purple belt in the martial art of jiu-jitsu, Mamet could’ve slobbered out a superficial valentine to exotic culture.

Thankfully, Mamet sees cognitive cons all around him, and for-cash combat is an emotional shell game of the sort that has long fascinated and fueled him. A samurai noir dumped in summer 2008, “Redbelt” offered an eloquent, profane eulogy for the purity of discipline in the face of profit.

Can Chiwetel Ejiofor please get a piece of Denzel Washington’s meaty roles for black leading men? Never less than magnetic, Ejiofor can and has acted damn near every type of part and one-third of his 19 Zeroes movies reside on this list.

He’s immediately engaging as jiu-jitsu instructor Mike Terry, whose peaceful ethos emphasizes upper hands over uppercuts: Know the escape, let the other guy get tired, learn not to fight but prevail. High on principle and low on profit, Mike’s honor is tested after he befriends an action star (Tim Allen) he aided in a bar brawl and his ideology is exploited in a labyrinthine mixed martial-arts scheme.

Pidgeon excepted, Mamet’s cast —including Alice Braga, Joe Mantegna, Emily Mortimer and David Paymer — is perfectly suited to his reedy prose.

Raw, rugged and racing toward an unpredictably unceremonious finale, “Redbelt” offered yet more reasons to bow to Mamet as a sensei of duplicitous twists and devilish turns of phrase.

When it came out in 1939, “Five Came Back” was seen as a low-budget adventure flick about a group whose plane crash-lands in the Amazonian jungle. It was just another B movie from RKO, a studio famous for churning them out.

But in many ways, the film can be seen as a precursor to the modern disaster flicks that had their heyday in the 1970s, and then another one in the ’90s.

The main hallmark of the genre is there: A large, disparate cast of people from different walks of life who are brought together by their dire fate. Some of them grow closer, some ennoble themselves through their struggle, while others are tested and found wanting.

There’s no big-budget spectacle, but director John Farrow does what he can with a lot of model airplanes and shaking sets. One scene that is fairly horrifying is when the plane steward is sucked out the door.

I was fairly amused by the accommodations on the plane. Despite being a tiny craft, each passenger has their own mini-compartment complete with a fold-out bed and privacy curtain. Lately some high-end airlines have introduced private cubicles, at an extraordinary premium, to lure elite travelers. Back in 1939, this was considered standard seating arrangements.

One has to wonder about the expectations audiences had for a movie titled “Five Came Back.” Since a dozen people were on the plane when it took off, we can figure out on our own that more than half the passengers and crew will buy it.

The big dilemma, and the movie’s hook — Dalton Trumbo was among a quartet of writers — comes when they repair the plane and make to take off before the tribe of local cannibals arrive. The pilot informs them that the plane can only take the weight of five people. (Some math whiz, that pilot.)

Still, it’d be interesting to see other films try to get away with the same trick for their titles. Imagine if “The Bridge on the River Kwai” was instead called “The Bridge is Blown Up, the Train Crashes and Most Everybody Dies.”

“Five Came Back” features a few recognizable actors. There’s a young Lucille Ball as Peggy, a woman of ill repute. John Carradine, the beanpole character actor, plays Mr. Crimp, a detective hired to transport an anarchist back to Panama City for trial and hanging. Mr. Crimp’s not a particularly attentive guard: The prisoner, Vasquez (Joseph Calleia), steals his gun and nearly escapes before he’s even turned over to his charge.

There’s a rich young man eloping with his secretary, who catches the eye of Joe, the co-pilot. We also have an elderly professor (C. Aubrey Smith) and his fussbudget wife, a mob tough guarding the son of his boss, and Bill (Chester Morris), the stiff-necked but no-nonsense captain.

Most of the gang holds it together pretty well as the weeks go by. It’s notable that the lawman, Crimp, is depicted as the most selfish character, while the two criminals, Vasquez and the mafia triggerman, sacrifice themselves for the common good. The old professor rediscovers romance with his wife, and the secretary learns her rich fiance isn’t such a catch after all.

A couple of the men are seen with five o’clock shadow now and then, but it’s almost laughable how everyone’s hair and clothes remain neat as a button despite living in the jungle — they must’ve had a large stash of Brylcreem onboard. And I got quite a chuckle out of the women traipsing around the bush in their high heels.

“Five Came Back” was remade a couple of times in the 1950s, but the film it most reminded me of was 1965′s “Flight of the Phoenix,” about a group of soldiers who crash in the desert and have to scavenge together a makeshift plane out of the wreckage of their old one.

Again, the mark of the disaster flick is not the particular circumstances, but the motley collection of characters each affected by the disaster in their own way. “Five Came Back” may have been a low-budget quickie, but it set the pattern for decades of movies to come.

4 Yaps

“The Reader”
Rated R
2008

Haters argued that ubiquitous blowhards Harvey and Bob Weinstein bought a 2008 Best Picture nomination for their studio’s “The Reader” with campaigning and clout.

Truth is “The Reader” outdid its Oscar peers that year — a decades-spanning drama that, like “Downfall” before it, went beyond facts into slippery human nature of lust, manipulation, retribution and doubt.

And although Kate Winslet’s Oscar came for the wrong role that year, she stunned as a woman of aching sexuality and stubborn pride, whose forlorn fate may have been the only morally acceptable option.

In 1958 Germany, dowdy Hanna Schmitz (Winslet) initiates a summer affair with 15-year-old Michael (David Kross). Feeding his quivering schoolboy fantasies, she enforces a critical tradeoff: Only after he reads her literary classics will they make love.

Hanna’s disappearance ends their fling, and they’re unexpectedly reunited in a 1966 court where she again dictates emotional terms. As a defendant, Hanna defiantly withholds information that could absolve her, while Michael, struggling with deep ethical quandaries, can’t divulge a critical secret.

Stephen Daldry’s film forsakes either potboiler twists or snap judgments, instead focusing on dicey emotional reparations that eventually unfold between Michael and Hanna. (Ralph Fiennes plays Michael as a boy in a man’s body, never comfortable in his own skin after that summer.)

Michael atones for his silence with scads of speech, but ironically, even those words aren’t his own. “The Reader” told a phenomenally tragic story of people eternally connected, but never knowing whether that’s by true love or unshakable regret.

Spencer (Ashton Kutcher) and Jen (Katherine Heigl) were living in domestic bliss as husband and wife when Jen finds out her husband has been keeping a big secret. A former elite government assassin, Spencer left his life of danger when he fell in love with his wife but he left with a price on his head. Now, everyone the couple has ever known is suspect and the two must find Spencer’s killer before the hit on him is made.

Rated PG-13

MacGruber

After the death of his fiance, MacGruber a special operative hero swears off a life of fighting against the country’s most threatening enemies. That is until his longtime adversary makes an attempt to steal a nuclear warhead. The only man able to stop him, MacGruber goes back into the field.

Rated R

Solitary Man

Michael Douglas stars in this film about a man who may have just been handed a second chance. Once a highly successful owner of a string of car dealerships, Ben has lost his wife and his business thanks to his poor choices. Now, the father of his girlfriend, (Mary Louise Parker) is offering him help in a new business venture if he can chaperon the man’s granddaughter to college – without letting his tendency toward indiscretion get the best of him. Also starring Susan Sarandon.

Rated R

Also on DVD Sept. 7

Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (Demi Lovato, Joe Jonas, Not Rated)

American Cowslip (Val Kilmer, Rated R)

Ghosts Don’t Exist (Phillip Roebuck, Not Rated)

Kung Fu Master (Jackie Chan, Rated PG)

For a Fistful of Diamonds (Chuti Tiu, Not Rated)

Doc West (Paul Sorvino, Rated PG)

Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (Ellen Burstyn, Chris Evans, Rated PG-13)

That Evening Sun (Hal Holbrook, Rated PG-13)

The Office has always been in a tricky situation. It was a remake of one of the most critically acclaimed modern comedies. The American counterpart struggled to find its own voice initially while it was on the verge on being canceled. Then during Season Two, the popularity began to grow and its style was unique and not reliant on Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.

Now the sixth season is hitting DVD and Blu-Ray. This brings the total number of episodes up to 126 with at least one more season on its way. There are now almost 10 times as many American episodes as British ones. It’s an easy thing to say, but it really feels like this version has been on way too long.

Michael Scott (Steve Carell) has become so unacceptably childish that ignorance is no longer seen as humorous, but just mean. Every episode, I beg that he is fired because nothing he does is even close to reality anymore. In this season he has to confront a group of inner city students because he lied to them about paying for their college tuition. He throws a hissy fit because Phyllis wants to dress up as Santa instead of him. Also, as expected (?), he starts dancing in the middle of Jim and Pam’s wedding.

When I say the show has lost its reality, I’m not saying that it needs to abide in the world I live in. In the early seasons, the show set up its comedy reality and it has now lost its way. It has devolved instead of evolved. This is especially odd because one of the undeniable working parts of the show is the relationship between Jim and Pam. Instead of just playing with “will they, won’t they” they have let them move forward in a satisfying way. Their continued love, which grows with their wedding and child this season, has become one of the best TV romances. Then why is the show afraid to let anyone else do the same?

Every time something changes in the plot, it is reset a few episodes later. Even when Dunder Mifflin is danger of being bankrupt and bought by a new company, it still looks and feels like the exact same show.

Despite its dramatic decrease in quality, there are still fans of this show. I can easily see why. The cast is still very delightful. This season Jenna Fisher’s performance saved even the most lackluster of plots. Same goes for Ed Helms, Ellie Kemper, Craig Robinson, and Mindy Kaling.

The show works the best when the actors just get to play off each other over the smaller things. Not banding together to complain about the Employee of the Month or whether the Italian insurance guy is a member of the mafia. Those are stupid plots. Turn this show into a sketch show. Let each episode not have a 30-minute plot weighing it down, but just have 5-7 minute vignettes focused more on laughs and characters. Until then, at least we still have reruns.

For fans of the show, there are plenty of amusing things on the DVD. There are over two hours of deleted scenes, commentaries for select episodes by the cast and crew, and original material. Some of the smaller characters band together to create a podcast led by one of the new actors, In the Loop’s Zach Woods. There is also a fun blooper reel and a full episode of Parks and Recreation. The Blu-Ray exclusive BD-Live continues to question its existence and the Universal menus are stilly really ugly/annoying.

Season Six: 2 Yaps

Extras: 3 Yaps

“Read My Lips”
Rated R
2001

Crawling onto the razor’s edge with bare hands, Jacques Audiard’s “Read My Lips” generated daringly uncomfortable, psychologically dangerous heat rarely found in romance of any stripe.

This 2001 French film spun its characters’ manipulations, inhibitions and exploitations into complicated chemistry, dizzying thriller twists and deferred sexual tension between Vincent Cassel and Emmanuelle Devos.

Near-deafness has led to lonely complacence for Carla (Devos), a secretary who lip-reads coworkers’ insults and is constantly cut out of job-advancement opportunities.

Cleared to take an assistant for herself, Carla hires Paul (Cassel), a parolee with no discernible skill set beyond thievery and a shabby grooming sense that recalls the rooster-combed Nicolas Cage of “Raising Arizona.”

Sensing someone she can exploit for a change, Carla abuses Paul’s past to help her seize occupational power. Her plan turns treacherous after Paul seeks repaid favors in a scheme to rob a kingpin.

“Read My Lips” works not just as a sultry, sinister violation of the Golden Rule, but of most cinematic rules for such stories.

Paul and Carla are not synthetically made for each other, as they would be in the Hollywood version. Hapless saps alone and hostile jerks to each other, Paul and Cara initially enable each other’s worst qualities.

But they’re shared qualities of risk and reward, which makes them a perfect pair for this scam — and, if they can bypass their individual hang-ups, compatible far beyond criminality.

Exhilaratingly paced, cleverly suspenseful and tastefully erotic, “Read My Lips” plumbed passion’s pathological aspects in a puppet-master romance.

Film criticism is in a scary position right now. The shift has changed from the power of the informed few to the reception of a collective. Websites like Rotten Tomatoes and MetaCritic thrive because they attempt to boil down several opinions into one. Also with the power of blogs, everybody can be a movie critic. Why should people hire them anymore?

Because there is still something special about those who are truly informed. Perhaps the greatest source of movie criticism has been cancelled this month. It was a show called At the Movies. In the 80s Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert created a show where two critics simply discussing the movies of the weekend. They were not sound bites,  but actual discussions and back-to-back arguments. It became a phenomenon. The thumbs up/thumbs down critique is still in the pop culture lexicon. The whole show was popular because it was intelligent but still accessible. They were unique personalities who were well trained the art of analysis and film history.

In 1999, Gene Siskel died from complications during surgery for his brain tumor. His passing is still a very sad topic to those who grew up watching these reviews. Ebert continued the show with a series of guest hosts before eventually picking Richard Roeper. This ran for several years before Roger Ebert had to leave the show because of thyroid cancer. He recovered but he completely lost the use of his voice.

Roeper continued with a series of his own guest hosts, but then Disney decided to start anew. They hired Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz to be the new hosts. This was the lowest point in the shows history. Gone were the discussions and instead it was all about trying to be “hip.” Also Ben Lyons is a complete idiot and isn’t even a film critic. After one year this was scrapped but it returned better than ever. The new hosts were two of the most respected critics in the country: Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune and A.O. Scott of the New York Times. Once again the discussions were fascinating and articulate while still being fun. These guys even went on to discuss trends and were able to focus more on other directors.

Despite the return of quality, Disney canceled At the Movies a few weeks ago. This show has been a true staple of film criticism. It was respected among snobs and pedestrians. It is a true shame the studio doesn’t think there is place for it anymore. Roger Ebert says he plans on creating his own new show with this format and these hosts. I only hope it happens soon because this show is already sorely missed. I don’t want that balcony to be forever closed.

A variation of this was originally written by Austin on the Ball State show The Reel Deal when it was first announced At the Movies was going to be canceled.

“Ray”
Rated PG-13
2004

The last time Jamie Foxx offered to rock our world, it was via an eerie, cross-dressing come-hither as mannish Wanda on “In Living Color.” Reject his more recent invitation only if, for inexplicable reasons, you can’t stand Ray Charles or his music.

Foxx’s 2004 Oscar-winning inhabitance of Charles represented actor transformation that rocketed beyond weight gain, gender switching or ugly makeup. Charles’ familiar stagger, speech, sensibility, shakiness and, most of all, smile, come to life in an outstanding film that would’ve been powerful even if it hadn’t been posthumous.

Charles approved of the finished product before his 2004 death, and not because it’s a glossed-over greatest-hits treatment of his life.

As alive as “Ray” is with the prospect and power of Charles’ raw musical talent, it’s countered by the inappropriateness of extramarital affairs and concerns for a person for whom self-destruction through heroin abuse seemed as passively easy as taking a breath.

Intelligence and idiocy clashed within this man, and co-writer/director Taylor Hackford is unafraid to unnerve. Still, there are inspiring movie-music moments (such as the birth of “What’d I Say”) and Foxx isn’t the only star in the spotlight: Sharon Warren’s work as Charles’ mother, Aretha, is so intensely focused that it’s unbelievable she has no previous credits.

Foxx became one of only three black actors to win a Best Actor Oscar, for a performance that uncovered a bevy of fascinating new nuances to share about someone we all knew — whether it was from concerts or Diet Pepsi commercials.