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GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES is the sparkling 1953 musical comedy based on the Broadway musical that made Carol Channing a star and here does the same thing for another blonde...namely Marilyn Monroe. Monroe shines in the ultimate dumb blonde role: Lorelei Lee, who along with best pal Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell) are a couple of showgirls being tailed by a private detective hired by the father of Lorelai's latest beau, to get the goods on her.

The razor-thin plot is so not the issue here. The issue is the performances by the film's stars that absolutely light up the screen. Monroe, in particular, found the role of a lifetime here as Lorelei Lee, the seemingly dim-witted gold digger with a nose for diamonds and rich men, who has no shame about using her obvious physical assets to get what she wants. This is the role that most people look to when they say that Monroe was just a "dumb blonde", but if you watch closely, Monroe is just playing a "dumb blonde" and doing it better than probably anyone ever did. And never was there a clearer example of why the camera just loved Monroe.

Though the film is clearly Monroe's showcase, Jane Russell never allows herself to be blown off the screen and performs impressively alongside Monroe as the wisecracking Dorothy Shaw. Russell proves to have the same skill with a wisecrack that actresses like Thelma Ritter and Eve Arden did.

Elliott Reed, Tommy Noonan, Charles Coburn, and young George Winslow offer solid support in supporting roles as the various men (and boys) involved in the misadventures of Lorelei and Dorothy.

Musical highlights include the ladies' opening number, "Two Little Girls from Little Rock", "Bye Bye Baby", "Ain't Anybody Here for Love?", and Monroe's iconic "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend", a number that has become a permanent part of cinema pop culture.

Aided by breezy direction from Howard Hawks, this is a delightful musical comedy classic which features two beautiful and talented ladies front and center at the peak of their charm.

Will Ferrell and his growing rep company provide some of their biggest laughs ever in TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE LEGEND OF RICKY BOBBY, another of Ferrell's sports-oriented comedies that takes a popular American sport and turns it on its ears.

Ferrell plays the title character, an arrogant and dim-witted stock car driver, whose winning philosophy was based on something his father said to him as a child, whose life is altered forever when he has a serious accident and after a lengthy rehab, tries to resume his life and learns that his best friend has moved in with his wife and kids, taken over his career, and has to depend on his long lost father to take his life back.

Ferrell and Adam McKay have concocted one of the smartest and funniest screenplays in comedy history which takes effective pot shots at the stock car driving industry as well as the advertising industry as well. McKay's energized direction is also a big plus, but its Ferrell and his winning cast that really make this one shine.

Ferrell is hysterical, as always, and gets solid comic support from the always reliable John C. Reilly as Cal Naughton, Ricky's best friend who finally takes advantage of his chance to move out of Ricky's shadow, Leslie Bibb as Ricky's gold-digging wife, David Keocher and Michael Clarke Duncan as members of Ricky's pit crew, Jane Lynch as Ricky's mom, and in a performance that comes as close as I have seen anyone to steal a movie from Will Ferrell, Gary Cole as Ricky's derelict Dad, whose training sessions to get Ricky back on the track are hysterical. Sascha Baron Cohen provides some giggles as well in a sexually androgynous variation of his BORAT character.

The film provides solid laughs from beginning to end, especially for Ferrell fans. Check out this comic gem.

LICENSE TO WED is a sophomoric and offensive "romantic comedy" that centers around Ben Murphy and Sadie Jones (THE OFFICE's John Krasinski and Mandy Moore), a recently engaged couple who, prior to taking their vows, agree to take a course on marriage being conducted by Jones family friend, Father Frank (Robin Williams), which includes things like classes on carrying the bridge across the thresh hold, role playing, animatronic babies, and blindfolded driving lessons. Pedestrian direction and a screenplay that offends at every turn provide further twists of the knife in this childish and predictable comedy that is an embarrassment to all involved. They lost me when Father Frank actually planted electronic listening devices in Ben and Sadie's home and it just goes downhill from there. John Krasinki's easy going charm almost makes the film worth sitting through, but not quite. Even Williams looks embarrassed to be trapped in this debacle.