If you've ever dreamed of seeing Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin together in the same movie, well... keep on dreaming. Because whatever deranged feature your mind conjures up while you're sleeping will almost certainly be better than Stand Up Guys the painfully bad crime comedy that finally unites these three acting legends under the guidance of director Fisher Stevens. (Yes... that Fisher Stevens). Not since Pacino squared off against Robert De Niro in Righteous Kill has a single movie so thoroughly blasphemed a set of Acting Gods.

Despite the participation of a galaxy of stars (Emma Stone! Chris Pratt! Richard Gere! Halle Berry!) and several big-name directors (Peter Farrelly! James Gunn! Brett Ratner!), the feature-length assemblage of skits that's billing itself as Movie 43 arrives in theaters this weekend unscreened for critics. (Imagine spending 90 minutes surfing Funny or Die and you've got the general gist of what it has to offer.) That's almost certainly a terrible sign, but I can't help but hold out hope that maybe, just maybe Movie 43 will be as stupidly enjoyable as the all-star sketch comedy revue it's clearly inspired by. I'm speaking, of course, about 1987's Amazon Women on the Moon, where such then-famous actors as Steve Guttenberg, Rosanna Arquette and Ed Begley Jr. popped up in spoofs of TV commercials, shows and one very bad '50s sci-fi movie.

Judd Apatow's newest comedy This Is 40 is billing itself as the "sort-of sequel to Knocked Up," which is technically true in that the film does feature Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann (the real-life Mrs. Apatow) reprising their roles as married couple Pete and Debbie from Apatow's 2007 mega-hit. But in spirit, This Is 40 is actually a sort-of sequel to the second half of the writer/director's more divisive 2009 effort, Funny People. That movie marked a notable transition for Apatow, with the first hour-and-change following the same kind of high-concept comic premise that fueled his previous movies. i.e. "What if a 40 year old virgin finally found a girlfriend?" or "What if a total slob knocked up a total hottie after a one night stand?" In the case of Funny People, the initial hook was "What if a major movie star discovered he was dying?" and Apatow explored that scenario with the same raunchy, but warm-hearted (not to mention, celebrity cameo-filled) sense of humor that had propelled him to the throne as Hollywood's reigning King of Comedy.

Eighteen years and five films into his career, writer/director David O. Russell has yet to make a bad movie, but in the first 15 minutes of his sixth completed feature Silver Linings Playbook (which is based on the book by Matthew Quick), he comes pretty damn close. The film begins with the not-so-triumphant homecoming of Pat Solatano (Bradley Cooper), a Philly-based high-school history teacher recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder. For the past eight months, Pat's been cooling his heels in an institution, where he was sentenced after beating the guy his wife was sleeping with to a pulp. Convinced that being in familiar surroundings would aid in his recovery, his mother Delores (Jacki Weaver) secures his release under the proviso that he'll move back in with her and his father Pat Sr. (Robert De Niro). It's a nice thought, but the Solatano household isn't what you'd call a stress-free atmosphere; Dad's got a gambling habit (and a touch of OCD) while Mom is mostly an enabler. Both also have a penchant for bellowing at the top of their lungs, a trait that their son shares. Indeed, the opening act of Silver Linings Playbook is filled with so much yelling and screaming and carrying-on, it's like being trapped at a particularly noxious Thanksgiving dinner... the kind that makes the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade seem like a model of peace and quiet.

Ever had that experience where you've seen a comedy that made you laugh an awful lot, but you leave the theater not certain how much you actually liked it? That's the reaction I had coming out of Seven Psychopaths, the sophomore feature from acclaimed Irish playwright and filmmaker, Martin McDonagh. It was a strange feeling, because I enjoyed McDonagh's first film, the Colin Farrell/Brendan Gleeson hitman picture In Bruges, unreservedly. It was wonderfully written, impeccably acted and precise to the last gunshot and profanity-laced one-liner. Seven Psychopaths, in contrast, is almost deliberately messier -- a sprawling, intensely self-aware movie that is constantly commenting on its own narrative gamesmanship and even, to a certain extent, its shortcomings. The movie's meta-ness is a reliable source of laughs, but it's also somewhat exhausting; after a while, you kind of wish that McDonagh and his band of gun-toting psychopaths would stop being so cheeky about everything and just shoot straight.

The eternal battle of the sexes spills over into the multiplex this weekend, as two raunchy comedies -- one female-driven and one distinctly for the boys -- compete for moviegoers' attention. In one corner, you've got Bachelorette, the Bridesmaids-like ensemble piece about a trio of bridesmaids (triple threats Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan and Isla Fisher) who get up to a whole lot of trouble the night before their best friend's wedding. And in the other corner stands The Inbetweeners, the feature film version of the hit British sitcom about four horny high-school kids (Simon Bird, James Buckley, Joe Thomas and Blake Harrison, reprising their small-screen roles) who celebrate their graduation by going on an alcohol-fueled holiday to a sunny Mediterranean party town. So which movie does its gender proudest? Here's how they stack up in a few key areas.

You can count the number of current real-life couples who make believable big-screen lovers on one hand. There's The Amazing Spider-Man's Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield (although they started dating well after the movie wrapped), Vicky Christina Barcelona's Penénolpe Cruz and Javier Bardem and, until recently anyway, Twilight teammates Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. To this extremely short list you can now add Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, the affianced duo at the center of the new action comedy Hit & Run, which Shepard also wrote and co-directed with David Palmer.

First things first: if you like Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, you'll enjoy The Campaign, in which they play rival North Carolina candidates competing for a congressional seat in the nation's capital. Going in, the big fear was that the movie would essentially be Ferrell's George W. Bush fighting with Alan from The Hangover for 90 minutes, but Cam Brady (Ferrell) and Marty Huggins (Galifianakis) are their own men for the most part. The two stars clearly have comic chemistry together and they each have shining moments that show off their individual brands of humor.

Who says the summer movie season is exclusively home to superheroes, super spies and talking teddy bears? As formidable as Jeremy Renner looks in this week's token action picture The Bourne Legacy, I'd put my money on the dynamic duo of Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones, the stars of the new AARP-approved marital comedy Hope Springs, to take him out. (Actually, Streep could probably put him down entirely on her own. Have you ever seen The River Wild? That chick will mess you up.) I'm sure you have plenty of questions about the movie, so let's get right to it.

Laugh it up at this weekend with four indie comedies, including The Babymakers and Celeste and Jesse Forever.