Kim Morgan

If the movie wasn't about an actor but instead about an insurance salesman or a plumber who looked like James Gandolfini, it might come off better. But then, who says a plumber would care either?

The film wears out its welcome by the halfway mark, becoming a silly spectacle.

Sometimes funny but mostly stupid film directed by Adam Shankman might have worked had it been made on TV by Norman Lear in the 1970s.

It's an odd, overly long picture, filled with too many pauses but dotted with just enough funky band sequences to keep you interested.

The film is weighed down by the decision of director David Atkins to throw too much into the mix. The result is a serious problem of consistency.

A sweet, loopy British comedy filled with good actors and funny moments.

In The Tuxedo, ridiculously, Chan's just a suit. A suit walking Jennifer Love Hewitt's breasts around. Chan deserves better.

An unsteady mixture of treacle and dark comedy that never feels as "dark" as it pretends. Though well-intentioned, it's not terribly compelling.

It's nice that Demme reveres the Hollywood classic, the French cinema and the glamour of his actors. But nice is all The Truth About Charlie is -- a nice mess.

Crowe understands what's interesting about Nash: He's not a feel-good figure. It's a pity the same can't be said for Howard.

It's still trite and a little too cutesy for its own good. Gay or straight, the cliches remain, but not to a stultifying degree.

'N Sync is bouncy, harmless fun. And so is this stupid movie.

The story sounds horrifying, but the film takes some unfortunate twists and never presents us with a multifaceted character in Paxton. Paxton just doesn't play the nice-but-nuts role with a modicum of terror.

Though not terrible, and blessed with some nice performances, this Irish-eyes-are-smiling-despite-the-rain-and-nasty-nuns story is Hallmark Hall of Fame material.

The picture is pinched and predictable. Even with the immensely talented Steve Zahn, an actor who's known to steal scenes and, sometimes, save pictures, the movie is a yawn.

Really, we'd rather just watch a good documentary about the subject. And as the camera flings around, we occasionally forget about what could help the teens and think more about what could help the director: How about a tripod?

A flawed fable but an intriguing one nonetheless. It's "Splash" gone existential. How many films can you name like that?

Pablo Berger's subtle satire Torremolinos 73 is almost there. Almost.

The best thing about 2 Fast 2 Furious is Tyrese (terrific in Singleton's "Baby Boy"), whose charisma, looks and charm supply the picture with much-needed spark. It's too bad he's stuck in this spotty video game.

Though filled with charm and led by three likable characters, the picture spreads its plot points and whimsy so thinly that we can never just relax.

A tepid disappointment that contains one mediocre chase scene and a lot of wasted talent.

Good, but, sadly, not good enough. Well-acted, beautifully shot and splendidly costumed, it's superior to the original in its looks, but not as potent or meaningful in its story line.

Terrific musical numbers and interesting premise.

This film might've worked better as a comedy.

Too sugary to be funny or offensive or even offensively funny, though any kind of funny would be welcome here.

Understated fun, but not much more.

This film disappointingly feels like a sometimes brilliantly acted, often gorgeously filmed re-enactment of the television show "Unsolved Mysteries."

Its cool, glib observations, delivered by good-looking creative people who live like the cast of "Friends" gone cynical, becomes forced and often stupid. The film goes off the track enough to make for an interesting train wreck.

Two-thirds of the way through, it falls apart into TV-movie-of-the-week land, even with the rhapsodic Nastassja Kinski in the lead.

Limps shallowly along.

With little cohesion and no respect for the editing process, Old School often feels like someone threw film clips on the floor and strung them together willy-nilly.

A movie that drags.

So what will happen? Sadly, some overacting and a bad "And Justice For All"-style speech at the end.

Though exploring, among other things, fallibility, homosexuality, injustice and loss, the picture seems afraid to really make any kind of strong statement, whether political or psychological.

Never maintains the spark necessary to sustain a feature film.

Though the acting in "Sidewalks" is uniformly fine, particularly among the female cast, it's hard to glimpse any meaningful vision, sly insights or cinematic flair.

Another Bond film that turns out to be an unspectacular spectacle, at times winking and fun but too often plodding and hackneyed. That said, as usual Brosnan is terrific, walking through dunderhead moments and a tedious plot with grace.

An unfortunate example of a small picture that feels small.

If you've recently watched that great skateboarding documentary "Dogtown and Z-Boys," Grind will play like a soft-pedaled Afterschool Special.

Marshall does such a good job re-creating the otherworldly energy of a temple of youth that the rest of the picture feels strained and sometimes trite. Nevertheless, parts can be absorbing, reflective and touching.

Quite simply, the "Tomb Raider" series has been flat-out boring, even with the talented and fun Jolie -- who needs to take off those harnesses and get back to real movies. She deserves better.

The clothes are worth it; nothing else is.

Accuracy and realism are terrific, but if your film becomes boring, and your dialogue isn't smart, then you need to use more poetic license.

A slight, smartly dressed bit of melodrama that thinks it's gritty when it's really a bit of puff.

Though no classic, the concept is a clever one.

Hollow, frequently boring picture.

Somewhere along the way, Stephen Herek's Rock Star decided to become a dippy, cliche-ridden drama and, worse, an odd indictment of metal music. Joy.

Not that Chan isn't lovable; he is. But he's making it harder to feel warm and fuzzy about him with films like The Medallion. It's OK to age, but Chan needs to broaden his horizons. He is a trained singer. Where's that musical he's always dreamed of making?

Sometimes complicated, sometimes incredibly simple, the film explicates or fawns over the human condition with occasional charm and poignancy but too often it's just cloying.

All guts, no glory and, worse, bad story.

Plot, comedy and characterization? It's absolutely anemic.

Westfeldt becomes irritating. That's one of the film's points, but it's made a little too well.

The film moves too slowly and dispassionately to resonate as it should.

Bad comedy.

Goes overboard in its presentation of supposed reality.

The performances are uniformly fine, with Perez showing a heavy amount of presence and complexity. It's no wonder the film works best when fixed on his face.

Feels more TV movie-of-the-week than Oscar contender.

Starts out dark, thrilling and inventive, then, regrettably, becomes sappy, mainstream and mundane.

It's an interesting effort (particularly for JFK conspiracy nuts), and Barry's cold-fish act makes the experience worthwhile.

There are many merits to the picture -- it's wonderfully shot and boasts a beautiful performance by Eul-Boom, who acts in gestures of subtle dignity and compassion. But it's questionable how we're to take actor Seung-Ho.

Lacks the perfect timing, luster and true vitality of its predecessors.

Lopez is fine, sometimes quite funny, but she's better playing the take-no-prisoners planner than a goofy, insecure dork.

But with a potentially fascinating study of ethics, of how cheating rich boys become cheating rich men while humble souls do more good in the world, The Emperor's Club doesn't take the audience anywhere smart.

Manages to feel both obvious and oblique: You feel the need to watch it twice but wonder if you would actually be up for it. It moves like a breezy techno-thriller but tangles itself with duplicities and metaphors. You get it, and then you don't get it, and then you wonder if you even care.

We're talking mediocre-to-bad. Still, the film has at least two bits that are funnier than anything in many better films and a fair amount of mild amusement in between.

On paper, it sounds like the start of a good film. Too bad McKee made such a lackluster thing of it. Though the horror comes from an interesting place, it's frequently forced, negating much of the humor and pathos the film attempts to instill.

There's nothing worse than a sub-par Woody Allen knockoff.

It's merely a by-the-numbers coming-of-age film

A little movie, fine, but a little movie with little in the way of character composition, cinematic panache or intelligent writing.

Jas some nice moments, a great soundtrack and some wonderful works by the dark-even-while-light Ricci.

It's something we might mildly enjoy on an airplane (well, not anymore) or on a lazy Sunday TV day when nothing else is on, but in theaters, it's a clunker.

One of the funniest things in Scary Movie 3 is Pamela Anderson. She makes us laugh. And not just at her (though she's game to poke fun at her image) but with her.

Needing the gristle of its title, the film should have been angrier.

Although amateurish, often poorly acted and containing dialogue and narration that comes off as pretentious and embarrassing, it's worth watching for the environment it envelops you in.

The film strives to be poetic, but it exposes nothing especially moving or relevant. Rather, the engaging leads wander around like actors lost in an ill-fated exercise in subtext.

Basic essentially is a fun movie, surprise ending and all. To take it too seriously is to miss the point. Travolta is charming, his performance recapturing the old charisma.

A slick disappointment -- though there's much unintentional humor to be enjoyed.

Filled with too many issues -- along with young motherhood, street gangs, city life, sex, peer pressure, grief and, oh yes, dancing, which is nearly lost in so many poorly written subplots.

Fails to be resonant and, more important, scary.

The film isn't so much a demanding character study as it is a lot of pretty parts pushed together.

Judging by the beautiful photography of Salvatore Totino, Howard knows what a Western should look like. But the thrills suggested by the trailers, in which the picture is presented almost like a frightening supernatural horror story, are nowhere to be seen.

So what is the picture saying? With its uneven tone, flat direction (on bad-looking digital video) and varied performances, very little.

Works as pure escapist entertainment, but it's on the cusp of being smarter -- making it all the more frustrating.

So action-packed from start to finish that the final result is grating rather than thrilling.

Scattered and silly. If it evokes any strong feelings from you, it will probably be hunger -- the food all looks so good.

Amusing, funny (intentionally and unintentionally -- it's dubbed, so many lines come out ludicrous) and, by the ending, exciting.

Watching Rocks shows, we know he's sharper than the average actor. But watching him flail and play funny in movies that aren't as smart as him is simply depressing. Someone give this man a good role. And please, let him do a few more takes -- these scenes can't be his best efforts.

Suffers from poor comic timing and defective romantic pacing.

Short on both life and laughs.

Does at least come bearing two gifts: the rolling beauty of Tuscany and the understated elegance of actress Diane Lane. The rest of the film is fit fodder for the Oxygen Network.

By a certain point The Heart of Me becomes pointlessly depressing and unlikable without offering insight.

You can't just rework a beloved Christmas classic, set it in reverse and expect it to run smoothly.

A flimsy film that's too clean and corn pone to be anything near rock 'n' roll.

Written and edited by Sayles, "Casa" is certainly the artist's baby, but he crams too much into a relatively brief running time. Worse, though it should be longer, we're not especially unhappy that it isn't, for being around these women gets tedious.

America's favorite romantic comedian is miscast in Kate & Leopold -- a disappointment with the warm and charming Jackman around.

The film isn't terrible, it's just trying too hard.

The dialogue is clipped and theatrical, and, aside from Harvey Keitel's German officer, accents are abandoned, which may distract viewers. For me it worked fine.

This is not a movie about actors. It's a movie about racing, chasing, chicks and adrenaline -- just what many theatergoers are dying for in a summer dominated by a sweet ogre and a dumbed-down historical tragedy.