Kirk Honeycutt

The loggerhead turtle's journey is indeed incredible. But you would rather the narration, delivered intelligently by Miranda Richardson, didn't feel a need to remind you of this fact so frequently.

By focusing so narrowly on religious fundamentalists and bigots while ignoring any spiritual dimension to religion, the film is not only being disingenuous but limits its audience to non-believers.

A wedding comedy that grows increasingly unfunny with each passing minute.

A sensitive but not sentimental story about a romance involving a mentally challenged young man never makes a misstep.

Snyder and writers David Hayter and Alex Tse never find a reason for those unfamiliar with the graphic novel to care about any of this nonsense. And it is nonsense.

Director-cinematographer Ryan Little neatly ratchets up the suspense while throwing emotional spotlights on the inner struggles of each combatant trapped in this hostile, frozen wilderness.

A likable movie for kids that will make adults chuckle as well because of the movie's key ingredient -- wit.

There are so many guilty pleasures here that it's amazing the film is as good as it is. The passions feel real, the roles are fully inhabited and the art speaks for itself.

Boys will be happy at the mild grossness; parents will tolerate anything that entertains their hyperkinetic boys; and sisters will agree with the film's lone girl.

Clooney, the film's director and star, can't make up his mind how to approach the story. One minute it's a romantic comedy. Then it switches to slapstick, then to screwball comedy before sliding into Frank Capra territory.

Singer has crafted a fine film. One just wishes for greater details -- and a different ending.

The result is a scary movie that is genuinely scary in parts, although an adult can't help noticing this is set in the very worn and tattered territory of the haunted-house genre. Then when you get a glimpse of the CGI critters causing all the mayhem, the scares completely vanish.

For the most part, the acting is shrill and cartoonish. Indeed, most of the actors appear to be, in the finest desi filmmaking tradition, from the filmmakers' close circle of friends and family.

This Mexican action flick from director-writer Beto Gómez has all the makings of a great comedy only no one told the filmmakers.

A sweet-natured holiday comedy that derives no small amount of specialness and energy from the fact that the movie offers a glimpse of contemporary American Indian life.

The film never is less than intriguing, right from its tour de force opening sequence, and often full of insights into why people long for answers, sometimes with great urgency.

Where the best Coen brothers comedy is a matter of finely tuned tone, diction, attitude and visual rhythms, everything in The Ladykillers feels out of kilter. With Tom Hanks delivering -- arguably -- one of the most perplexing performances of his career.

A protracted and uninvolving affair in which men battle over issues that audiences may struggle to find compelling, and no central figure emerges to take command of the film.

The film's dramatic moments are small but exquisitely rendered so that you feel the emotions experienced so many years ago. The film lingers afterward in your mind like a favorite vacation that triggered moments of sheer intensity.

This odd collection of oddballs doesn't quite play out as a satisfying movie.

There is a nice mix of action with tender moments -- especially among the misfit monsters

It's a gutsy movie but not necessarily a good one. Its greatest strength is that it wants to talk about what's on our minds right now and not wait for historians.

Despite shortcomings and implausibility linked to their roles as written, Rogen and Banks come off with surprising charm and grace.

An underwhelming vampire romance long on camp but short on emotional insight

A biographical documentary doesn't get any better than this.

The film would make a better fit on television or at one of Disney's theme parks. In cinemas, Heart & Soul is an odd duck, out of sync with the current generation of documentarians whose films dig deep into stories and issues the media generally overlooks.

In a summer of remakes, sequels and movies swollen with effects, The Terminal stands out as a strikingly original comedy.

Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol is, in its essence, a product reel, a showy, exuberant demonstration of the glories of motion capture, computer animation and 3D technology. On that level, it's a wow. On any emotional level, it's as cold as Marley's Ghost.

The movie strands you in two miserable flats with these cliche-ridden characters and a static love story that is as predictable as it is pedestrian.

It's a low-wattage film about a high-wattage event. Which is somewhat disappointing, though you do get a thoughtful, playful, often amusing film about what happened backstage at one of the '60s' great happenings.

A couple of rather Dickensian supporting roles by Robbie Coltrane and Maximilian Schell fall embarrassingly flat as they are more creations of costumes and makeup than actual flesh-and-blood. But then the same can be said for the entire movie.

An enjoyable spoof of Mexican soap operas and the entertainment business itself. The film doesn't ask to be taken seriously but if you absolutely insist, there is pointed commentary about the deep divisions within that society over skin color, gender politics and social backgrounds.

Paints itself into a corner, creating a static situation in which everyone is either stymied or wracked by indecision, leaving the movie free for its two male leads to wallow in self-pity, remorse and bad behavior.

As an introduction to this mind-spinning festival, the film gets the job done.

"Kings" covers familiar territory but does so with ruthless efficiency, intense performances and a densely packed plot designed to highlight the moral issues that most concern Ayer and Ellroy.

"Iron Man" has more wit and style, but Hulk is a neat thrill ride with an intelligent script by Zak Penn and smart, well-paced direction by the French director of "The Transporter" series, Louis Leterrier.

The result is something like an old-fashioned Costa-Gavras film but without the leftist sentimentality.

A meticulously rendered romantic drama, very well acted and featuring solid production values and location work that makes New York feel like one of the movie's characters. The only problem is the story is rather flat.

Easily one of the most dynamic cinematic portraits of that decaying, vibrant, impossible city ever made; it treats the city itself as a character.

Don't Come Knocking expresses itself with deadpan humor, striking imagery, Western iconography and outbursts of strong emotions.

The only thing that can explain middle-aged men acting like 6-year-olds is mental retardation, and there's nothing funny about that. The idea of middle-aged actors playing adolescents isn't much funnier. Put it this way: Such an idea does not make for an inexhaustible source of comedy.

This family comedy adventure from Walden Media is likable in a scruffy way. Its characters, especially the youngest one, are engaging, and few adults are immune to childhood fantasies about secluded tropical isles.

Stalls at the intersection of fantasy and science fiction.

Reminds you of an elaborate Christmas card that tumbles apart with pop-up figures, silly/charming greetings and perhaps even a jingle. It probably cost more than the gift it heralds, and you can't help but laugh at the audacity of such an aggressively cheerful card.

Casa feels like a miss. The digging into each of these women's lives stays shallow and seldom uncovers anything unexpected.

Rendition tackles the concern in a heavy-handed thriller with simplistic characters and manipulative story lines.

In the end, this is a smart movie that could have been smarter. The script feels like it was a draft or so away from total clarity and focus. But the energy of the cast and a dive into an unfamiliar world make the movie rather addictive.

A must for Doors fans as the film attempts to disentangle the facts from the myths surrounding the legendary band.

Hugely satisfying entertainment that will attract a broad spectrum of audiences around the world. Zwick fully exploits the star power at his disposal, pairing off Cruise and Japanese star Ken Watanabe as two larger-than-life warriors.

Terrence Howard delivers another solid lead performance and competition swimming is a new arena for such films. Nonetheless, Pride is just plain trite.

In outline, the story is pretty funny, and the film's outlandish takes on sports-movie conventions deliver some laughs. But Thurber chooses the low road to those laughs so often that he undermines his own satirical design. His actors certainly deliver amusing, spirited performances, but again, they get done in by relentless adolescent humor.

An entertaining mess. It blends together musical styles and dances, historical periods with howling anachronisms, coy, almost childish gimmicks with R-rated sex and violence.

Green has chosen for his focus to fall on Enrique, in many ways the least interesting character in his story, rather than the son or even the mother who is surprisingly protective and understanding.

Alda actually is kind of interesting as the mentally unstable uncle, but Broderick appears to be sleepwalking. Madsen has little to do, and everyone else plays things far too broadly.

Hits on all cylinders -- a smart blend of acting, direction, editing, design, costumes and effects.

More than delivers on the excitement and terror of this existential flirtation with one's own mortality. Where it falters is trying to link this event to Nazi-era politics and a feeble love story.

The mental and physical landscape would do justice to an Atom Egoyan film, but in this film, the key dramatic moments feel as forced as they are predictable.

The result is a much more playable film than recent efforts, though Murphy will have to share the applause with young Yara Shahidi.

The film is chock-a-block with extraordinary performances and no one will fault the filmmaking either. This is a well-made movie, make no mistake. It just suffers from a dysfunctional hero.

Yelchin delivers one of those performances that pop eyes... It's a breakthrough role.

Writer-director Richard Shepard assembles all the elements for a dark suspense comedy only to lose his way in a surfeit of plot mechanics and unlikely behavior.

Ultimately, its success may depend on how emotionally satisfying audiences find this flirtation with Jewish mysticism.

While it makes no bones about where its sympathies lie, these fictional stories show a genuine fascination with the role politics plays on both sides of such confrontations and how things can spin out of control with no single person to blame.

Here is a film about Japan made by Americans, shot mostly in the U.S. and, of course, in English. Once you accept these compromises in the name of international filmmaking, none is a real deterrent to enjoying this lush period film.

The animation is splendid on what must have been, since this is not a studio film, a modest budget.

There is enough compelling adventure, awesome cinematography and dynamic stunt work involving horses to keep one entertained by Hidalgo.

The CG animation is nothing special, but the characters are surprisingly fun and the story is full of enough puns, wordplay and slapstick to elicit laughs from across the age spectrum.

Bruno is only intermittently funny and all too often the "ambushes" of celebrities and civilians look staged. The movie is even a tad -- dare we say it? -- tedious.

The movie takes on the quality of a first-rate detective story.

This is a slap-dash effort whose producers threw money and stunts onscreen instead of the satirical gags and one-liners that made the old spy spoof so memorable.

The average age of the band's members is 62. They don't even bother to disguise that fact. These men look like your grandfather, right up until the downbeat. Then the magnificence of their playing sweeps away all concepts of age. Rock on.

The project is not without insights into Hancock's career and musical philosophy and holds moments of inspiration with these stars. Yet the result does feel a bit promotional as the focus is on a particular CD and not on the sum and substance of this keyboard legend's extraordinary career.

Unfortunately, bees just aren't that funny...Nor is the odd story Seinfeld and his collaborators dreamed up very inspired.

While the sadism doesn't stoop -- rise? -- to the level of the "Saw" horror-thrillers, Vacancy does have a name cast.

Adult actors pretty much let the youngsters upstage them. The two leads, Bennett and Vanier, do a nice job holding the center of gravity while the film goes nuts around them. Best of all, Shorts is short, finishing before you can truly get tired of all those wishes gone wrong.

Livingston and director Steven Sawalich keep the character in constant motion, his dialogue sprinkled with humor and his energy contagious. The film also is surrounded by a crew of ferociously individualistic characters.

Nothing un-beguiles a fairy tale more than forced whimsy and labored magic, which is precisely what plagues Ella Enchanted.

A true story of courage, determination and guts that deserves a more exciting approach.

While it aspires to draw the same audiences who admired "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero," The Promise is but a pale imitation of those landmark films.

The film is stylish as hell with sharp dialogue, a tongue-in-cheek plot and visual and editing razzle-dazzle.

If the movie only lavished as much thought and care on its characters as it does on each intricate set piece, Shooter might have been a classic.

Scott has an eye -- and it's a very good one -- for sieges of castles, charging horsemen, hand-to-hand combat, glistening swords arcing through the air and deadly arrows whistling toward helpless targets.

There is something really nasty about this cold, calculating exercise in mob psychology and human venality.

It's all here: the ingenious, obscenity-laced language, the double crosses that turn into triple crosses, the swaggering characters so in love with themselves. GottaLove RocknRolla!

Amusing dark English comedy produces its share of chuckles.

The spirit of that most modern of 19th century heroines, Becky Sharp, remains intact, and Nair's Indian touches make for an intriguing, fresh approach.

A sprightly musical revue built around Cole Porter songs and a few biographical tidbits culled from his extraordinary life.

The story itself is silly and exaggerated.

What should have been an inspirational story about fortitude and courage in the face of mind-numbing tragedy becomes a compendium of sports cliches.

Among the girls, Emma Roberts has solid scenes with Rockwell.

One of the best film musicals in years -- exuberant, sexy and life affirming in equal measure.

The six penguins cast in this amiable family comedy steal the movie -- along with any fish they can find -- although the film's star, Jim Carrey, does manage to hold his own. Barely.

Things are too predictable. Perhaps the viewpoint is to blame.

The Hughes Brothers' measured, well-paced direction complements the comic-book simplicity of this narrative.

More character study than sports movie, the people in this film come across very much as flesh-and-blood personalities despite the script's tendency to indulge in cliches and let characters deliver highly emotional speeches.

The one-gag camp-athon has gone over big at gay film festivals, but in theatrical release this debut feature from theater/TV veteran Richard Day has limited appeal. Its best bet will be as a rental item.

Plays like a pilot for a TV sitcom. It sets up enough story threads for an entire season yet nothing much actually happens during the 105-minute running time.

Depp is the comic gel that holds the whole enterprise together. The performance is a total delight that somehow combines Bugs Bunny, Peter Pan and Charlie Chaplin.

A warm and fuzzy family movie, but you do wish that at least once someone would upstage the dog.

Challenges audiences with an unrelieved portrait of self-destruction and horrific violence. American movies don't get much grimmer than this.

Unfolds in a scrupulously accurate historical adventure story that depicts the world of Jesus' birth with an exciting you-are-there verisimilitude.

It contains terrific sequences, and Nicholson and Sandler team up better than one might expect. But the film plays like two characters in search of a story and runs a good 15 minutes too long.

It's formulaic but with a big heart.

The blues music in "Moan" is superfine, but my oh my, what to make of the ripe Southern cliches and this absurd story. The film is so jaw-dropping awful that it just might become a boxoffice hit.

Who Do You Love, directed by Broadway veteran Jerry Zaks, pays attention to the music but to its credit pays even more attention to the actors and story.

Despite a virtually unplayable premise, The Switch overcomes this handicap to turn itself into a friendly, offbeat romantic comedy.

James Newton Howard's music picks up its comic cues perhaps a bit too swiftly and loudly, but little of this detracts from the movie's many pleasures.

In a sense, this is not a financial thriller so much as a financial mystery. Which gets a bit lost in the movie's stylized presentation.

It's an exuberant, fanciful fable set amid the scruffy outskirts of American society, where people's need for escapism coincides with their desire to participate in its creation.

In epic battle scenes where he combines breathtaking and fluid choreography, gorgeous 3-D drawings and hundreds of visual effects, director Zack Snyder puts onscreen the seemingly impossible heroism and gore of which Homer sang in "The Iliad."

It's entertaining with a crafty mixture of action, humor and drama.

Below-the-line credits are terrific, which only increases an overwhelming sense of disappointment with the film's failed ambitions.

The best two performances belong to Uma Thurman and Will Ferrell. For the film to work, though, the two best roles should belong to Tony-winning Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the title roles.

Ironically, what the comedy lacks is the sly imagination and satirical underpinnings of the best sex comedies from that (Doris Day) era. Instead, exposition is poorly executed, genuine laughs come infrequently and you quickly lose confidence that the filmmakers even understand what their basic joke is.

A "soft" epic, a film touching on childhood fantasies with sturdy, unwavering characters driven to evil or good. More "Harry Potter," in other words, than "Beowulf."

Skateland is every coming-of-age-after-high-school movie you've ever seen with a formulaic plot and well-worn characters.

It's refreshing to witness a superhero with doubts. Maguire and Dunst again display the depth of talent they bring to these roles by injecting such everydayness into larger-than-life characters.

If one thinks of "Babel" minus the melodrama and histrionics, you get a clearer picture of what Moodysson has done here.

Hugely ambitious but often failing to live up to those ambitions, Terry Gilliam's long-awaited The Brothers Grimm emerges as a folkloric adventure that intermittently entertains.

The movie ends just when complications start to set in, which makes you wonder how invested Allen really is in the little melodramas within this comedy.

A wheel-spinner. The more the film stresses and strains to be funny, the unfunnier it gets.

But nothing taps his own particular talents to unsettle audiences with truly edgy material. Funeral gets no more edgy than a potty joke and a corpse tumbling out of a coffin. This is nothing more than juvenile slapstick.

A psychological thriller without bothering much with psychology. Come to think of it, the thrills are pretty much missing, as well.

Utterly charming and not without those subtle insights into character and culture that mark their (Merchant Ivory) best films.

Indeed a wary viewer must get past the film's infatuation with celebrity culture to enjoy this movie's charms. But charms it has.

A tweener but not necessarily a good one. It falls into the gap between good intentions and faulty storytelling.

While it can be labeled a thriller or a murder mystery, the film is talky, unhurried, contains little action and shows more interest in how characters think and behave than in its plot.

Lame sketch comedy, an uninspired performance from Will Ferrell and an overall failure of the imagination turn Brad Silberling's Land of the Lost into a lethargic meander through a wilderness of misfiring gags.

One of the unfunniest comedies ever. Punch lines are lifeless. Characters are borderline catatonic. Running gags can't even walk.

Only one of the three episodes of the anthology film Eros delivers on the title's promise.

The story is a sketchy, dramatically muddled rumination on familiar Williams themes about the Old South and its brave, beautiful, rebellion women always on the brink of love, suicide or madness.

The director is chasing a mood here -- a mood, an atmosphere and feelings -- much as he did in "In the Mood for Love."

It's a pretty lazy film in the creativity department save for the dogs.

An old-fashioned doc about a sailboat race is well produced but lacks urgency and true insight

Designed to maximize the visual opportunities for Imax's cameras even as it minimizes the dramatic conflicts that make for a satisfying moviegoing experience.

Glorious so-bad-it's-good entertainment.

Going the Distance is, in a way, a remarkable film: It's hard to imagine any romantic comedy going wrong in so many different ways.

In his second feature as a director, Gallo acts as writer, director, producer, star, cinematographer, production designer and editor. Thus, the failure is all his.

This time, tedium sets in early and never loosens its grip. The gags are obvious, predictable and dull.

Plays like an Alfred Hitchcock thriller but is nevertheless a movie of ideas. It bristles with intriguing thoughts about the realm of fiction, how one loves, issues of identity and questions concerning how one transfers a real-life incident into big-screen fiction. This is a film that can crawl inside your skin.

If you're going to make a weepy, there's no reason you can't make it with intelligence and insight as the makers of My Sister's Keeper have done.

The film grabs at historical facts, mangles them into a plot worthy of a John le Carré spy novel and takes the viewer on a breathtaking ride through ye olde London.

Whatever one's view of Christian evangelical beliefs, from strictly a horror-film standpoint the movie needs a better villain.

The cast is fine, but the roles are superficial and too concentrated on the film's theme.

To borrow from TV terminology, the series hasn't jumped the shark yet, but the strain of inventing bizarre deaths is beginning to show.

(Perry) style is too crude and stagy for Shange's transformative evocation of black female life, and his moralizing strikes exactly the wrong notes to express the pain and longing that cries out from her heated poetry.

The film never ventures, even once, into a situation that does not reek of comfy familiarity.

The film feels miscast. Neither Zeta-Jones nor Eckhart look the least bit comfortable in a restaurant kitchen. More troubling, they look downright uncomfortable with each other.

Goldberger mistakes deadness for deadpan and mere oddness for that touch of genius that allows a first-rate filmmaker to get laughs out of the contrast between gruesome acts and mundane social concerns.

The movie has a cheerful good nature and a solid cast of youngsters - including Aimee Teegarden and Thomas McDonell - but any resemblance between this and real high school is, of course, purely coincidental.

Last Night is a sex tease, but that makes it sound more exciting than it ever becomes.

A muddled melodrama about the shady and questionable though not quite illegal world of "sports advisers."

The situations tend toward contrivance, but the atmosphere is easygoing and the actors seem relaxed even when everyone at the family table is yelling.

This is a movie not built for subtlety, but it does tackle a subject American movies have mostly avoided -- that of racial profiling and the plight of Muslim-Americans.

For all its staleness, the melodramatic main story does contain enough good acting and resonant scenes.

Fur is a misfire by the talented people who four years ago gave us "Secretary," whose tongue-in-cheek approach might have served this film better, taking the edge off much of its pretensions.

Starts off an aggressively derivative sci-fi thriller, then morphs into an above-average chase melodrama.

No one on the creative side has his eyes on the characters, so they flounder in a sea of misguided energy.

The movie never overcomes the triteness of its premise.

Yuzna appears to be searching for jokes in every scene. The high-key lighting and bright sets also seem geared to comedy. But since he lacks a true comic script, he comes up with mostly dead air. [28 Feb 1992]

The key to its success lies in the determination by everyone involved to play the damn thing straight. Even the slightest goofiness, the tiniest touch of camp, and the whole thing would blow sky high. But it doesn't.

Alas, this is a remake without a reason. Alfie can no longer shock us.

The movie does say a lot about female athletes and the changing role of women in American society, but in aggressively pursuing the formula, writer-director-producer Tim Chambers is prone to exaggeration and a moralizing tone.

As convincing as the manipulated footage of the President's death in Chicago in October 2007 is, the movie itself cannot be more unconvincing in its approach.

Poker has proven itself a popular spectator sport on television -- at least in the short run -- but as scripted drama, where you can pretty much guess the winner of a given hand, it's dull, dull, dull.

Blanchett gets everything right -- the accent, her German dialogue, the weary sexuality (deliberately reminiscent of Marlene Dietrich) and the amorality her character has embraced.

The movie is fast, funny and light on its feet, dipping less into politics or religion than into cultural quirks and characteristics.

Stiller manages his movie nicely so that all actors get their share of the comic spotlight. Seldom does an ensemble comedy not contain a single weak character or performance as does this one.

A slick enough thriller about a presidential assassination attempt. It is also a rather mechanical, soulless affair that avoids politics or anything else that might clearly define who these characters are and why we should care.

Watching Gerrymandering is like taking a course on a subject you keenly want to learn about only to discover the lecturer is a boring, old windbag.

Mostly, Good Boy! exists for the middle section where youngsters and dogs speak the same language. These escapades, all taking place under the adults' radar, generate many sound laughs.

Benji is back, which is good news for youngsters and pet-loving families. Film lovers perhaps should steer clear, however, as hokey melodrama and sloppy comedy fill the gaps between neat dog tricks.

If you take any of this seriously, you are not going to enjoy the movie very much. But as an absurd riff on baadasssss gangsta movies, Four Brothers has an undeniable visceral kick.

The three most important things in movies are story, story, story so the movie never comes off as the considerable achievement it truly is.

A feeble medieval epic with a lackluster romance at its center.

In I Think I Love My Wife, Chris Rock does something entirely unexpected. He isn't funny.

Any resemblance between Jules Verne's marvelous science fiction novel or Mike Todd's enjoyable 1956 movie is pure happenstance. This is simply a Jackie Chan movie pitched to youngsters who enjoy slapstick fights and goofy caricatures.

The second half feels heavy and unfulfilled, potential greatness reduced to a good movie plagued with problems.

The film never realizes its dramatic potential, choosing to take predictable story paths with obvious characters.

There is a fine idea for a romantic comedy in Jake Paltrow's The Good Night but the writer-director, in his debut feature, never develops it much beyond the idea stage.

Call this one "Brother Act." Instead of Whoopi Goldberg's Reno lounge singer in "Sister Act," Preaching to the Choir has a hip-hop star hiding out from a gangsta record producer in his estranged brother-minister's Harlem church.

The disappointments here are many, from a starry cast the film ill-uses to flat musical numbers that never fully integrate into the dramatic story. The only easy prediction is that Nine is not going to revive the slumbering musical-film genre.

Fleischer stages one chase scene with a bit of comic flair but otherwise never locates that mix of macabre action and comedy that at least made "Zombieland" amusing.

Inkheart goes crazy with fairy tale characters popping in and out, all sorts of fantastical creatures materializing and so many rescues one loses count. Yet the movie fails to involve the key constituent: the audience.

A light-hearted if ghostly murder mystery that for all the contemporary English locations feels like a 1930s studio film including a plot that bears little scrutiny. Along with the delectable Johansson, the film offers fun roles for Allen, Hugh Jackman and Ian McShane.

This is a hand-me-(dumbed)-down chick flick that is counting on Kutcher's tabloid popularity and Peet's unmistakable though here underutilized talents to cover up for rote characterizations, tired plot devices and a general lack of inspiration.

What fans of the original movie, "Charlie's Angels," which was fun and good-natured, will make of this sloppy mess is hard to guess.

A playful movie that celebrates nature and the spirit world with striking imagery and a smooth blend of drama and comedy.

The film leaves any opponent of the current administration with a discouraging ambivalence: On one hand, one wants to vehemently decry such tactics in American politics. On the other, one wants to know where the hell is the Democrats' Karl Rove?

Brooks is solidly in charge of this feel-good fairy tale as he gets terrific performances from everyone including two super-talented child actors.

The hundreds of animation artists on this three-year project made enormous contributions to the final film. There is not an off-kilter moment nor awkward effect in the entire movie.

A well-intentioned but unconvincing fable about a young boy struggling to overcome his fear of mortality.

The cast sparkles especially Simon Baker, a sturdy leading-man type, who is primed to break through any day now, and Paz Vega, already a star in Latin market.

Danish director Lone Scherfig skillfully adapts David Nicholls' best-selling romantic novel to the screen.

The result is an entertaining comedy for young girls and older girls who still like a good romantic fable.

Works better than you might imagine at times but stumbles awkwardly other times. The unevenness in the writing is matched by directorial overkill in certain comic sequences.

It contains all the elements from the original film...But that's the problem: It's virtually the same movie with new locations. Oh, plus Helen Mirren. Not a bad addition, but the popcorn fun is gone.

Comes off as an overly jokey but often quite entertaining spoof that should please families everywhere.

Weinstock takes you down a well-trod path in romantic comedy, but her characters are smart and funny, the twists are unexpected.

You sense in every frame the strain to be lighthearted. Consequently, A Good Year is at times downright clumsy. You know what the filmmakers are trying to achieve and see the labor going into the attempt, but for them to fall so short is unsettling.

An artistic fiasco that cuts across genre lines and all logic to become, perhaps, an instant midnight movie.

McConaughey and Parker get stranded with thanklessly predictable scenes, while Zooey Deschanel, Kathy Bates and Terry Bradshaw garner the film's few laughs.

An artistically arresting yet narratively lame and strangely unfocused cartoon aimed at older children and young adults.

All of this results in way too much relationship chatter and not nearly enough comedy, romance or even dysfunctional relationships. We want to laugh -- but at what?

A campy pastiche of horror and high-school movie cliches, the film only rises above standard-issue scare fare by dint of Cody's sneaky sense of humor.

Legally bland.

The film is less of a drama than a tribute -- an ode, even -- to the spirit and tenacity of firefighters. Its makers hardly bother to explore the lives or motives behind their actions.

Women will love this, and men won't mind the eye candy either, so it looks like this Screen Gems release can't help becoming a hit.

Paints a surprisingly sour portrait of nearly all its characters, so much so that even the final-reel redemption rings hollow and forced.

As usual, Zombie has added an element of camp fun to the proceedings with his clever casting of B-movie icons in small roles, including Dee Wallace, Brad Dourif, Danny Trejo and Sid Haig.

Obviously, Munro is reaching for something about how people allow themselves to get mired in the past. But his characters and situations are so exaggerated and dreary that his point gets quickly lost.

Turning "Zorro" into a family movie with domestic squabbles and sitcom situations takes some of the luster off the romantic adventure of Old California.

German-born director Robert Schwentke ("Flightplan") keep things moving briskly enough so that the leaps in time mostly obscure the leaps in logic.

An unremarkable romantic comedy that gives short shrift to both romance and comedy.

The film is always watchable, and the confrontations contain undeniable edgy excitement. But even if this weren't a remake, it would be a remake. Hollywood filmmakers have fished these waters so thoroughly that it's virtually impossible to land a big catch.

It's a cracking good detective yarn with hints of "Chinatown" and Raymond Chandler, and it's a sharp political lampoon of things we're all reading about on today's front pages.

Herbie: Fully Loaded is, pure and simple, a children's film.

The Game of Their Lives has a great sports story to tell, yet the filmmakers fumble it away.

A respectable and at times an exciting film that should appeal to males of all ages, history buffs and -- yes, it's inevitable -- patriots.

The comedy is sloppy, crude and contains far too many misfires, but the film does capture the old ABA spirit in its ungainly struggles to wrestle laughs from seriously mediocre material.

A cloyingly sentimental story that rings false in every moment.

Amusing cinematic buffoonery by a man poking fun at movie conventions and the movie business itself.

Benjamin Brand's script never levels with a viewer.

The film seems nearly writer-free. Absolutely no time gets wasted on story, character development or logic.

Gibson's intense concentration on the scourging and whipping of the physical body virtually denies any metaphysical significance to the most famous half-day in history.

Just lousy.

Earns an A for effort but a much lower grade in the entertainment department.

The Dilemma is so tone deaf to its themes that it thinks it's a light and slightly rude Vince Vaughn movie. It's not.

The comedy has several inspired moments and a genuine flair for the satiric, but overall the film leaves you cold.

Kevin Spacey, both as star and director, has created a hugely entertaining, highly empathetic portrait of a man for whom music was literally the thing that kept him alive.

"Apprentice" lurches from one been-there-done-that sequence to another.

The comedy is obvious and flat while the drama is stale. They did do one thing right, however: They attracted a stellar cast.

Nothing von Trier presents here, whether real or imagined, is fresh or new.

Christian Slater and Selma Blair head a solid cast that Harvey Kahn directs with cool efficiency as the tension steadily rises with every passing minute.

An engrossing, highly intelligent reimagining of the legend of Arthur.

The movie telegraphs its intentions too early and relies too much on a single actor, Johnny Depp, to achieve its emotional force.

Fast & Furious is the first film since the original to be smart about how far to stretch logic without sacrificing the desired macho swagger and revved-up emotions.

Da Vinci never rises to the level of a guilty pleasure. Too much guilt. Not enough pleasure.

Where the first film was something of a teen horror film, the follow-up, again from writer-director Stefan Ruzowitzky, is more of an unintentional comedy.

The acting is overly broad, so even the dimmest light bulb in the audience gets the gags.

Beerfest is tedious and, at 112 minutes, too long to sustain a sophomoric, one-joke comedy even for the presumed target audience of older male teens and the college-age crowd.

What makes the film so much fun is an ingenious plot device embedded in Rashid's sharply observed screenplay.

Laziness permeates the film from the inexplicable escapes to the neglected romance.

Unfortunately, the music is as irresistible as the tired story of a musician succumbing to substance abuse is resistible.

Farrelly brothers films are looking better and better, but aren't nearly as funny as their grungy early films that hit with the stealth and vigor of guerrilla commandos. Maybe there is a kind of heartbreak here after all.

Chases romance and comedy across Europe for nearly two hours without ever quite catching either. Essentially a teenage rendition of William Wyler's immortal "Roman Holiday."

Fails to exploit the myriad comedic possibilities, settling instead for broad, unconvincing slapstick aimed at 12-year-olds and gags Shakespeare would have rejected as ancient.

Reiner again demonstrates compassion and insight into young people's battles to acquire self-knowledge, but in his new film, too many clearly fictional characters and contrived situations bog down his story.

Keith Gordon's brave attempt to make cinematic sense of Potter's 1986 BBC mini "The Singing Detective" at least has the advantage of a screenplay finished by Potter before his death. But problems of style and tone bedevil the earnest effort.

Rote characterizations and a trite, even condescending, attitude toward that era's misguided mores robs the film of the satiric punch Todd Haynes delivered in "Far From Heaven."

What a cast but what a disappointment.

It might even live up to that title: When it ends, you wouldn't mind a bit more, please.

When under water, the action-adventure Into the Blue has genuine thrills. Above water or on dry land, this is one dead fish.

The film, well made in every way, smartly focuses on an unlikely friendship between Gretel and the athlete who ultimately replaced her -- a high jumper who was later revealed to be a man!

An involving sci-fi action-thriller, probably longer on chase sequences than the original director wanted and shorter on the "ick" factor than the studio wanted.

The saving grace to the utter predictability in Christina Mengert and Joseph Muszynski's screenplay is reasonably personable characters and spirited acting by director Bruce Beresford's cast.

For all its biographical truth, Get Rich's journey into a ghetto of hustlers, gangstas and mindless violence is all too familiar.

The amount of enjoyment one gets out of the Harrison Ford crime-action thriller Firewall depends on one's tolerance for watching thugs terrify an innocent family for most of the movie.

Everyone's comments are thoughtful and articulate but everyone stays "on message" so steadfastly that no dialogue ever ensues. It's 20 people giving the same lecture.

The film feels sleazy and nasty --- but without the pulp kick of filmmakers who know how to do sleazy and nasty.

The movie is gag-filled, as you would expect of a Sandler movie, but the filmmakers realize they have hit upon an idea that is both clever and good, so they edge their comedy into some darker areas of human behavior.

Blindness is provocative cinema. But it also is predictable cinema: It startles but does not surprise.

It's not much of a movie, but a hell of a ride. So what if the movie dumbs down Japanese culture to a bad yakuza movie and features Japanese characters who can barely speak Japanese? The cars are the stars here. Everything else is lost in translation.

Has the hallmarks of a top-notch Jewison production -- splendid performances, especially from leads Michael Caine, Tilda Swinton and Jeremy Northam, a pulse-quickening pace and production values that establish story and character within a distinct environment.

A mechanical sci-fi'er absent of logic or emotions. It functions as an expensive place-filler on the Disney release schedule and, as such, will be welcomed by only the least discriminating thriller fans.

Given how insultingly fanboys are portrayed, even the fan base could be put off.

While the film bristles with cinematic verve, it also is as second-hand as an antique store.

Feste, who has one previous effort as a writer-director, last year's "The Greatest," fails here to do the most basic thing -- give an audience a rooting interest, or any interest at all, in these four troubled people.

One ticket buys you cowboys, samurais, gangsters, ninjas, spaghetti Westerns, Hong Kong martial artists, knife throwers and even Fellini-esque circus performers. But like kimchi pasta, some things aren't meant to mix.

Noisy, standard-issue cop actioner.

Certainly their musicianship and onstage professionalism are smooth, though maybe a bit too smooth. There is little spontaneity in anything they do.

The charisma and hard work by his two leads allows Boorman to succeed beyond all expectations.

As the central character in this musical melodrama about step dancing in black fraternities, Short displays an uncanny dramatic sensibility to go with the eye-catching athleticism of his dance moves.

The biggest hole in this picture is not so much whether an audience will buy its miracles but whether an audience will care about Henry Poole. Wilson hits the same notes in virtually every scene without any change to his physical rhythms or moods.

It's overblown and extravagant business as usual.

Stripped for action without a moment wasted on unnecessary dialogue, exposition or nuances.

In the end, the gimmick is too risible and its effects on the characters too forced to sustain either suspense or horror.

A throwback to the days when Disney would recruit second- and third-tier stars to stroll through indifferently written, modestly produced comic fluff that served as family entertainment.

Might be a lame, formulaic comedy, but it sets up entertaining sequences cleverly designed for the talents of three of its stars and has the good sense to get out of the way and let audiences enjoy their performances.

While nearly every shock comes at predictable moments, there is genuine ingenuity behind many, and the movie is surprisingly fresh for one made by a guy on his third go-round with the same material.

Veteran TV director Michael Lembeck slides the movie into a sitcom mode that only further deadens the thin material. While Vardalos and Collette shine in the musical numbers, why didn't he bother to give the musical sequences a bit of pizzazz?

Unlike "The Sixth Sense," the film's key revelation might be too mild to jolt audiences. Some may even feel cheated.

Begins by repeating many gags from the previous film. Only now they feel lame and routine.

The film never is boring, but it's never engaging, either, because its heroes hit every target in sight, while the villains, despite holstering much greater weaponry, never hit anybody. So forget about suspense.

No best in show but a decent family comedy.

At best, Racing Stripes should play nicely to youngsters with the cutoff for enjoyment extending no further than midteens.

Smith stumbles setting up dramatic confrontations and strains credibility a time or two with implausible moments.

Only in the loosest sense is X Games 3D: The Movie an actual movie. It is essentially a promotional film for extreme action sports and ESPN.

A nifty science-fiction twist on the old amnesia plot where a guy spends most of a movie trying to remember what he did and why everyone is after him.

The film, while heartfelt and directed by multiple-Oscar nominee Lasse Hallstrom, is dramatically stillborn.

La Ronde 2011-style is simply a game and its makers expert gamesmen. The film is never less than intriguing. But the artifice shows all too clearly.

In the midst of this didactic, self-conscious movie about a high school shooting comes an extraordinary and intense performance by a young actress named Busy Philipps, which elevates the whole picture.

It’s a film that doesn’t always work but when it does you almost hear an audible click. Violet & Daisy has its share of these ah-ha moments.

The film gives vivid reality to those photos of disappeared children on milk cartons by letting us peek into the lives of two abducted children subjected to sexual abuse and then prostitution.

Poor writing, an indifferent production and sincere but often wooden acting make "Season" one big strikeout.