JENNIFER’S BODY

I once made sugar cookies and completely forgot to add the sugar. Just like those damaged cookies, Jennifer’s Body is missing the sugar.

Unlikely best friends, the gorgeous Jennifer (played by Megan Fox) and the plain Anita (“Needy,” played by Amanda Seyfried) are off to see indie band Low Shoulder, whose lead singer (Adam Brody) is “totally salty.”

Several people are dead by the end of the night, and Jen shows up at Needy’s house dripping blood, possessed by a demon, throwing up what looks like oil and harboring a new found appetite for raw teenage boys. All it takes to set Jen off and stimulate her feeding frenzy is a few days of dull, lifeless hair. What high school girl doesn’t have a bad hair day or two?

Predictably, the friendship gets a little rocky, with Needy in a state of uncertain panic after Jen mauls one of her guy friends to death and then hones in on her boyfriend as a tasty pre-dance snack.

The friendship between the two teenage girls seems almost concrete before it’s severed. Each girl knows what’s expected of her, and it’s illustrated with flashbacks to literal sandbox days showing the devotion Needy has to Jen and Jen’s, well, need for Needy.

Fox does a decent job playing a role that fits her stereotype. Jen believes sex equals power, yet she is, in fact, completely powerless to change what she’s become and shows no real desire to do so anyway. She needs the teenage boys to survive while they merely want to her in a physical sense.

Needy, who comes across as the weaker of the two girls, is played convincingly by Seyfried as intelligent, stable and incredibly protective. She is portrayed as stronger compared to the “hopeless” Jennifer.

Zingy exchanges that occasionally border on witty and memorable one-liners are speckled throughout the entirely too long 103 minutes of the film, along with a huge helping of pop culture references and the traditional slumber party girl-girl kiss. It falls about a mile short of Diablo Cody’s first screenplay “Juno,” though there are certainly worse sophomore efforts to be found.

Surprisingly, my favorite role was Adam Brody’s; he makes a horrifying seductive villain. Despite being responsible for some of the cheesiest lines in the film, the way his character reflects human nature is harrowing.

VERDICT: “Jennifer’s Body” simply falls short of what it strives to recreate: campy ’80s horror-humor.

- Paige Parker

THE INFORMANT!

When it comes to corporate America, Hollywood usually comes out sternly against. We all know that those ultra-liberal hippie actors, despite their dependence on the Man for outrageous budgets, like to fondly recall their earlier starving actor days.

But in Steven Soderbergh’s new film “The Informant!” I’m not really sure who Hollywood is telling me to root for anymore.

The film (based on a nonfiction book by journalist Kurt Eichenwald) tells the story of Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), a corporate clone in a major agri-business company, and his questionably noble attempts to halt price fixing between his company and its competitors.

This flick has attracted a lot of hype, what with the commercials flashing questionable single-word reviews. Soderbergh has a pretty big-name background, most notably “Ocean’s Eleven” and its sequels. Plus, he has a good sense of comedy and a clear anti-”the Man” stance.

Then you’ve got Matt Damon, versatile actor – funny, but also good with action and thrill.

“The Informant!”, while seeming to reach for all of the good qualities above, didn’t really go anywhere. The comedy is a classic case of previews building up the funniest moments (which aren’t even that funny) and the rest of the film being comparatively dry.

As far as the action and thrill, everything was so complicated it was hard to get into. Damon’s character is constantly lying, to everyone, and while you’re given hints along the way that it will all come together in the end, it never really does.

Meanwhile, an extremely distracting inner dialogue is playing in Damon’s head that covers up what might be explanatory with more incoherent, confusing ramblings.

People who enjoy films should enjoy complex plots, but the overly complex characters and plot in this film proved detrimental to the comedy and action (which is hard enough to build up in a movie about a business that sells corn).

Maybe I’m making the point for the film by complaining about it. Maybe, in this day and age, we have to accept that even the good guys are screwed up, everyone is lying and all we can do is sort of poke fun and try and keep a sense of humor about it. Maybe.

That said: Sorry, Soderbergh, but the $7 I spent on this movie wasn’t worth that message.

VERDICT: Just as with corporate America, The Informant is confusing and disappointing.

- Chris Miller