Veronica Mars

Director: Rob Thomas
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 1.0

Cinematic follow-up to the cult TV show - and funded by Kickstarter (ugh) - catches up with professional busy-body and drama whore Ms. Mars (Kristen Bell) as she turns down a lucrative job as a lawyer in NYC to return home to California in order to solve a murder mystery involving old friends (and specifically her ex-boyfriend Logan, played by Jason Dohring). Though a big-screen project, this is little more than an extended television episode in which every other line is either self-consciously 'quirky' or a reference to pop culture and the developments made by Mars in 'solving' the case are pitifully unclear (plus, Mars is fond of endangering friends and family and herself): all you need to know is she got it all figured out and she does it with sass. There to make a cameo in this novelty is James Franco struggling to put on a pair of jeans ... it's only appropriate, since this cannot be taken seriously at all.