Hearing the police knock on your door never gives anyone the warm fuzzies. It’s nerve-wracking. But imagine opening your door to a police officer who’s come to take away a member of your family. They’ll be locked in confinement until a) you can permanently relocate him or her, or b) time runs out and your loved one is killed.

That’s been the harsh reality for many pit bull owners in breed-discriminatory cities, as depicted in Beyond the Myth: A Film About Pit Bulls and Breed Discrimination by filmmaker Libby R. Sherrill.

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So I recently tried to force myself to buy a ticket to The Three Stooges, but in the end my better judgment prevailed. Standing at the box office trying to convince myself that the Stooges wouldn’t be that bad was a near impossible task. There are just so many things wrong with the Stooges movie — mainly that there is one out there and the fact The Jersey Shore cast fist pumped its way into the plot. In the end I kept myself from the train wreck and saw the Jason Segel film, Jeff, Who Lives at Home.

If you haven’t heard of Jeff, Who Lives at Home that's probably because it wasn’t widely advertised and only saw a limited release in theaters. It was a stroke of luck that the AMC at Newport on the Levee was showing it that night, or, as Jeff would put it, “a sign."

Segel plays Jeff, a thirtysomething man living in his mom’s basement. The film starts like a stoner comedy with Jeff sitting on the couch watching infomercials while smoking weed. We are introduced to his belief that everything is connected somehow like in the 2002 M. Night Shyamalan movie Signs. A simple wrong number phone call leads Jeff into an eventful day.

Ed Helms plays Jeff’s older brother, Pat. Helms is a little out of his wheelhouse here, playing an all-around jerk who is trying too hard to be a successful guy, but he pulls it off nicely. Jeff and Pat don’t get along but through series of synchronistic events end up helping one another.

Susan Sarandon plays Sharon, Jeff and Pat’s mom. There is a subplot involving a secret admirer that gives the audience a break from the two brothers. But every character seems to come together randomly at the climax on a stretch of highway.

Jason Segel tends to play lovable characters that a good number of people can relate to. Jeff isn’t any different. Sporting unkempt hair, a scruffy five o’clock shadow and an old hoodie through the majority of the movie, Jeff is a guy you could find walking down the street right now, although maybe not as big — Pat calls him sasquatch at one point.

The same can said about each of the main characters, really. Mothers are upset with their children for lying around not doing anything, while husbands make stupid decisions like buy expensive sports cars without talking it over with their wives — Pat buys a Porsche in the early going of the movie.

This was the first Indie-type film that I have seen in a theater and I was impressed. This was also the first Duplass brothers movie I’ve seen. Their last film, Cyrus, featured a son way too attached to his mother and had the same charm that Jeff, Who Lives at Home does.

Jeff, Who Lives at Home is a man-boy comedy but it feels more real than others in the category. Maybe it is the close up camera work or down-to-earth characters; either way Jeff, Who Lives at Home is a breath of fresh air amidst the spring time blockbusters.

Brian DePalma's Scarface hits Blu-ray for the first time on Sept. 6. In celebration of its release, Universal Studios is screening the movie 7:30 tonight in selected multiplexes across the country, including locally at AMC, Springdale 18 and Regal Deerfield.

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If you’re puzzled as to why or how we continue to let our national debt skyrocket out of control, the new documentary I.O.U.S.A is worth checking out as a 90-minute primer on a topic that gets woefully little attention given its impact on the future of our nation.

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The fall movie season gets a much-needed kick in the ass this week, as no fewer than a half-dozen worthwhile (or at least intriguing) films in a variety of genres hit movie houses.

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The annual MusicNOW festival, which runs Friday-Sunday at Memorial and Music halls in Over-the-Rhine, will also have a film component this year. Summer Lovin' Torture Party, a documentary about Brooklyn-based Cincinnati natives and MusicNOW headliners The National, directed by singer Matt Berninger's bother Tom, will have a pair of free “work-in-progress” screenings 1 and 3 p.m. Sunday at the Contemporary Arts Center.

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According to The New York Times recent “Holiday Movies” calendar, 12 films are scheduled to open in New York City today. In contrast, just two new films are set play in a Cincinnati movie house: Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York and the latest Bond flick, Quantum of Solace.

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After months mediocre movie options, recent weeks have give us a plethora of worthwhile offerings in a variety of genres — from art-house-leaning fare like Margin Call, Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Skin I Live In, Like Crazy, Take Shelter,The Interruptors,Senna,The WayandThe Guard to higher-profile multiplexers like Moneyball, Drive, 50/50andThe Ides of March.

The winning streak continues this week. In fact, it's shaping up to be the best slate of opening films in recent memory.

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The Academy Awards didn’t suck. Yes, the 81st annual industry wank-fest had its share of indelible moments, none more affecting than the graceful speeches by the two Milk-related winners: screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and actor Sean Penn.

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The first disappointment of the holiday movie season has reared its head — Baz Luhrmann’s much-anticipated Australia fails to deliver on its high expectations. The Aussie director's long-gestating follow-up to Moulin Rouge founders despite the presence of bona-fide movie stars who can also act — fellow Aussies Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman — both whom deserve better than this well-meaning but bloated pastiche of numerous old-school genre epics.

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