Who would have thought we needed a family-friendly cartoon paying homage to Sergio Leone and Akira Kurosawa?
Rango is a delightfully weird animated comedy about a neurotic chameleon who wanders into a dry desert town and stumbles into the role of sheriff, eventually going scaly head to scaly head with a rattlesnake gang leader. It's not just for kids, and its off-kilter visual style will surely pop when you're under the influence.
The Trip to Greece
THAT THING YOU DO! (1996)
Tom Hanks wrote and directed this buoyant comedy set in the era of Beatlemania, when a Pennsylvania rock band has a surprise hit single and blows up overnight. The movie is bright and colorful, boasts a cast of young up-and-comers (Steve Zahn, Tom Everett Scott, Liv Tyler, Charlize Theron) and the Oscar-nominated title tune by late Fountains of Wayne frontman Adam Schlesinger is a fake-pop gem.