Tick, Tick . . . Kablooey!

Nearly everyone is terrible except for Cumming, who just does what comes naturally and steals his every scene. In the film's best moment, Batista turns lounge lizard and sings a woozy "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," a glimpse of satiric madness and good timing that, unlike the rest of the film, is over too soon. Could there be a better movie in here somewhere? In the age of the director as auteur, that's not something you're meant to ask. "Forget their legal rights for a moment," Nora Ephron was quoted as saying around the time of McGrath and Askin's suit. "Let's just ask the question: 'Will they get a better movie by removing the people who created it and whose vision inspired everyone to come aboard, and replac[ing] them with people who are not writers or directors?' That's like replacing a pilot with a passenger." The thing is, for everyone who knows the Zucker brothers, losing the pilot isn't always a bad idea— especially when you're looking for laughs.

15 Minutes was written and directed by John Herzfeld; produced by David Blocker and Herzfeld; and stars Robert De Niro, Oleg Taktarov and Karel Roden. Now playing countywide;Company Man was written and directed by Doug McGrath and Peter Askin; produced by John Penotti, Rick Leed and James Scotchdopole; and stars McGrath, Anthony LaPaglia and John Turturr. Now playing countywide.