Aubrey Plaza Film Career in Fits and Starts with The To Do List

Aubrey Plaza is one of the main reasons I have continued watching Parks and Recreation all these years. She's now making the leap to movies and it seemed like the first place I should start is The To Do List, which got fairly positive reviews.

She plays Brandy Clarke, a high-school valedictorian who is inexperienced in many ways. Based on all the things her more experienced sister and mother tell her, she creates a to-do list of sex moves to perform during the summer before college, culminating in going all the way with cheeseball hottie and lifeguard rocker Rusty Waters, played pretty hilariously by Scott Porter of Jason Street fame in TV's Friday Night Lights. Her conservative, Rush Limbaugh-leaning judge dad is also pretty funny, although nowhere near the league of Ted Knight's high-bar-setting Judge Smails in Caddyshack.

Despite the all-star cast, including Bill Hader, Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Connie Britton, and Andy Samburg, not many laughs stick, and some bits, like the Beaches song and Caddyshack poop-in-the-pool take-offs, are plain painful to watch.

Plaza's movie career is starting in fits and starts. Safety Not Guaranteed was good but not great. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World was pretty average, and I don't think I can even consider watching Life After Beth.

Get it together April Ludgate. Parks and Recreation is about to end.

**1/2 out of ***** stars

Funny Email Chain: Worst Movie Sequels

I don't drag my friends and family onto my blog too often, but this little conversation between some of my oldest friends is noteworthy. What do you think are the worst movie sequels?

Dewey: My list of worst sequels of all time…….feel free to add your own…..i know it's endless, but these came to me quickly.

1. Caddyshack 2………..awful
2. Transformers 2…….first was good, this was way bad
3. Godfather 3…….maybe only cuz the first 2 are PHENOMENAL, and nothing could live up to those
4. Young guns 2……..just had fun typing it
5. Blair witch 2 ……..hard to follow the premise of #1
6. Honorable mention: Halloween 3, only cuz it has nothing to do with first 2, but I still kind of like it, and I know Mackie does too.

ET: Caddyshack 2 is horrible. Agree with your list and add the following:

Pet Semetary 2

Star Wars episode 1

All Jaws sequels

Weekend at Bernies 2

Scoots: Coal Miner’s Daughter part deux.

Dewey: Is that actually true, there was a 2….?

Scoots: The second “Hooper” was pretty bad, not to mention “Smoky and the Bandit” III.

Me: I can't really add anything to this list. Maybe Godfather 2 (or was it 3 that was really bad?), Basic Instinct 2, Weekend at Bernies 2 (should there have even been a 1?). Porky's 2 was pretty disposable if I recall correctly. I can't confirm that there actually was a coal miner's daughter 2, from a quick internet search. Don't mess with Halloween 3, Mathews!

Dewey: Porky’s was great……….Porky’s two was like retelling the story of Porky’s 1 to a friend who wasn’t there, and he just doesn’t get how funny it was to be there……

ET: Godfather 2 was awesome - 3 sucked.

Also, predator 2 and while most of the Friday the 13ths were bad, part 8 (Jason takes Manhattan) stands out - kills an entire river boat of high school kids and then dies in the NY sewers after toxic waste runs through it and turns him back into a child.