David Hiltbrand

It would be inaccurate to say there are plots in New Year's Eve. There are a number of setups, and these get shuffled through faster than a card dealer in Atlantic City.

Part of Glee's charm has always been its innocent amateurishness, its just-folks aura. The live show clings to that conceit - with some pyrotechnics thrown in.

This is a straight-up gangsta film, yo. Spare us the phony redemption.

The film would be a moth-eaten mess without the wisecracking animals. Not that it's funny with them.

Brannaman is a fascinating character, but Buck is so tightly focused that only avid horse lovers will find it appealing.

Judy Moody has some enjoyable ingredients. The cast, for instance, rocks it, especially young Aussie actress Jordana Beatty as the title character, a bottle rocket with unruly red hair.

Hemsworth looks a good deal more like NFL receiver Jeremy Shockey than he does the immortal Avenger.

When remaking a popular film, you must remember this: First, do no harm to the original. Arthur accomplishes this, with Russell Brand slurring his way neatly through the title role.

The aquatic and surf scenes are spectacular. The story, a clichéed climb to inspiration. Soul Surfer is more parable than plot.

Gyllenhaal is particularly unsuited to this role, his saucer eyes flashing from calm to crazed.

A formulaic and fuzzy feel-good movie.

Dopey but resourceful yukfest.

You want to cut Cop Out some slack because it's just so darn eager to please. So let's grant that it will make a reliably fun companion when it's on cable 10 times a week.

As a cinematic experience, it's like being locked in a coffin for an hour and a half.

Get the soundtrack; wait for the movie to come to CMT.

BMH2 is a harmless, genial outing, a comedy that is amusing without ever rising to the level of funny. You sit through the film with a smile on your face, waiting for the laughs that never come.

Freeman and Hoskins lend the film a level of artistry it doesn't really deserve. Unleashed has a vivid concept, but savagery and sentimentality make strange costars.

This one is so bad that even Ed Norton couldn't get this mess to move through the sewer.

Appalling sequel.

Can be described as whatever is the opposite of a Christmas classic.

An engaging if transparent tearjerker of the first water.

This remake is about half of a very likable film. But in movies (as in auto races) it isn't how you start, it's how you finish. And Herbie should have kept something in the tank for the late going.

This hotly anticipated film delivers on the premise of its celebrated title. But it offers little more in terms of suspense, originality or enjoyment. Mostly, it lays there on the screen like a big lazy boa.

Succeeds because the action is supercharged in a style that recalls Mel Gibson's apocalyptic classic, "The Road Warrior." The characters are more than cartoonish, and the plot grips the road. But it's Diesel who provides the nitro injection

An unusually atmospheric outing. Splatter fans may be disappointed, because Nakata isn't interested in a body count.

Thanks to director Roger Kumble's breathless pacing, Just Friends manages to outrun most of its flaws. And its likable leads - the coolly clownish Reynolds and the feline-faced Smart - fill this empty Christmas stocking with glee.

Oddly enough, though Land of the Dead is more clever and grand than Romero's early classics, it is not as haunting.

Like "Man on Fire," the previous collaboration between Washington and Scott, Déjà Vu is stunning but poorly paced, a film that manages to be both captivating and frustrating.