There is a lean, mean, violent action movie buried in here somewhere, that is like a cross between Aliens and Universal Soldier. However, there is too much fat on the bone for it to be let loose.

It is a wild, midnight movie kind of experience, meant to be seen with a raucous crowd in the mood for something weird.

Idiots is only about ¾ as nasty and stupid as it needed to be to be consistently funny.

The performances are fine, but it has nothing new to add to the genre or its themes. It is boring, circling the same ideas repeatedly.

It is funny, uses the classic characters well and contains lots of silly in-jokes for fans.

It is a fascinating deconstruction of the genre, picked apart to serve the filmmaker’s themes. Jane Schoenbrun’s films are alive and exciting because they go wherever they want.

It is well-made, honest and entertaining. It feels like other biopics, except in the way it takes on the personality of its subject. That is its strength.

It is summer entertainment as it used to be; grounded spectacle, with basic, small-scale stakes, likable heroes and a high-concept plot that is easy to follow. It is the exact type of movie that caused some of us to fall in love with the medium in the first place.

I enjoy Thorny, Mac, Farva, Foster and Rabbit as much as the next guy, but it’s probably time they went into retirement.

The fact that it mostly works is a testament to the writing, which never pushes the concept any further than the basic premise, and the chemistry between the two leads. It is just pleasant, with some genuinely funny moments.