Our Flick of the Week is “The Odd Couple II,” not because it is the week’s most important film; it’s simply the week’s, and probably will end up being the year’s, biggest ripoff. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, who presumably are well-off financially, go for the gold in a sloppy, tired script by Neil Simon, reprising their classic characters of best enemies fastidious Felix Ungar (Lemmon) and slovenly Oscar Madison (Matthau). What reunites them in a cross-country trip full of hoary old jokes is that Oscar’s son and Felix’s daughter are getting married. Most of the jokes involved old-age infirmities, including a lot of toilet humor. This film could work only for the over-90 crowd with severe hearing loss. Rated PG-13. Zero stars
– THE BIG ONE. Social activist Michael Moore (“Roger and Me”) has made another documentary-style film of his efforts, during a national book tour, to expose more examples of American corporate greed that throws workers out of their jobs in the name of even greater profits. Moore’s confrontational approach with security guards and public relations types at corporate headquarters is less compelling the second time around, but the sincerity of his effort to ridicule bottom-line management is nonetheless effective, and we can’t help but question what is too much profit. Rated PG-13. (star) (star) (star)
– CITY OF ANGELS. Nicolas Cage plays an angel who falls in love with a human (Meg Ryan) and must choose to remain an angel or accept life with her as a human. Obviously this film would like to have some of the unrequited-love appeal as “Ghost,” but there simply aren’t enough moments of geniune passion between this couple, as opposed to Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze in “Ghost.” Rated PG-13. (star) (star)
– MY GIANT. Billy Crystal plays a desperate Hollywood agent on location in Romania who stumbles across a 7 1/2-foot-tall giant (NBA player Gheorghe Muresan) and lands him a one-scene role in an action picture there and then takes him to America to build his career. There’s nothing wrong with that comic premise, but Crystal goes for false sentiment over jokes, and the result is a bore. PG. (star) (star)
– NO LOOKING BACK. Independent filmmaker Edward Burns (“The Brothers McMullen”) in his third feature is less successful portraying the issues affecting the lives of Irish Catholic young women in a close-knit community where everybody knows everyone else’s business. Lauren Holly, Jon Bon Jovi and Burns co-star. R. (star) (star)
– THE PLAYERS CLUB. An embarrassing film that would have played as lame 20 years ago during the so-called “blaxploitation era.” In a “Girl N the Hood” story, the rap music star who calls himself Ice Cube displays no talent as either writer or director filming the tale of a young single mom (Lisa Raye) who wants to attend journalism school but takes a job in a strip club to pay her bills and naturally is exploited there by one cartoonish character after another. As a journalist, she displays more talent for T&A than Q&A. “Striptease” had a smarter screenplay. R. (star)
– = New this week