Adam Markovitz

An indistinct romantic-dramedy-ish something or other about the rekindled romance of an actress (Rachel Bilson) and her childhood best friend (Tom Sturridge).

At best, his poker-faced vignettes nail the icy comedy of war: A man chats on his cell phone, unworried about a tank targeting him a few feet away. At worst, they're totally opaque and unmoving.

There's nothing particularly inventive in the plot or grade-school humor, but the movie skates by on the timeless, undemanding charm of watching a tie-wearing bear try to steal people's lunches.

Faster grafts that genre's style onto a deadbeat script and leaves it to Johnson - as deadly focused as a gunsight - to make it all believable.

There isn't a shred of subtlety in their clowning - or in any part of the movie, which clumsily shoots for operatic highs and lows. But with so many borrowed bits and pieces, the only feeling it successfully evokes is déjà vu.

The cooking scenes are fun, but Samir's reawakening and romance with a co-worker (Jess Weixler) hold about as many surprises as a prix fixe meal.

Basically a nifty VFX reel in search of a plot.

The exception is newcomer Jenn Proske, who spoofs Twilight star Kristen Stewart's flustered, hair-tugging angst with hilarious precision.

No movie -- whether aimed at adults or kids or canines themselves -- has the right to be as tiresome and unoriginal as this action-comedy mutt.

What Halloween II does have, though, is Zombie’s claustrophobic visual style; he half-drowns his actors in shadow, then tracks them through windows and around corners like a focused predator. If only we cared about the prey.

A well-meaning dud.

Worse, he (Reiner) vacuum-seals it all in a patronizingly wholesome package, like an extended episode of "The Wonder Years" with all the wonder sucked out.

Wes Craven's first new movie in five years is a brainless, joyless, and yes, you might even say, soulless teen slasher.

A pocket-size supernatural thriller that plays a bit like Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians" retold by an unstable Sunday School teacher.

At least they do look sharp in those suits.