M. E. Russell

The dialogue is dippy. And there's no real suspense: The filmmakers are so deadly earnest about the power of music and love and all that stuff, you just twiddle your thumbs waiting for the inevitable.

Fonda, playing grandmother to this clan of narcissists, is the only one who keeps her dignity. She's funny and low-key and deserves better comeback material than this and "Monster-in-Law." The other two actresses are humiliated.

It's not perfect or "Shining"-level inspired, but it's solid.

The all-description storytelling leads to other problems, too, the worst being that "Boleyn" suffers from the same affliction as "The Golden Compass," where you're told about interesting stuff happening elsewhere in another movie you'd much rather be watching.

Lumet blatantly, simplistically stacks the decks in favor of the defendants, pitting them against mean, stupid cops and a cartoonishly nasty prosecutor.

Might actually be the stupidest movie with good intentions that I've ever seen.

Eraser-dull.

Despite dancing between a story and a story within a story, something seems simple and effortless about Ten Canoes. Director Rolf de Heer and his all-Yolngu cast offer a take on tribal life that's warm, funny and powerfully alive.

This is a totally predictable exercise if you're not in the target market.

Where "United 93" was lean and merciless and got you thinking hard about how you might conduct yourself in a no-win situation, World Trade Center is reassuring.

Sneaks up on you. At first, it plays like it might be another in a long line of dullish legal thrillers. But then, in its modest, grown-up way, it keeps getting better and better.

This is a perfectly serviceable thriller. It's just not the New York family crime saga it clearly wants to be.

Never actively unfunny. The cast is far too smart for that. But it never quite pops like it would if it were whittled down to something just a little longer than an "SNL Digital Short."

Unpretentiously fantastic.

At what point does The Condemned turn from a stupid-fun action movie into something unpleasant and hypocritical?

Competently done and harmless enough to entertain the tots. It's just that the movie's kind of . . . sparse.

Funny and weird and surprising and action-packed and genuinely beautiful.

I could see people enjoying Dan in Real Life, I guess -- the scenery is nice and the people are pretty and the songs are cute little emotion substitutes. But Dan? Buddy? It's not all about you.

Good intentions and strong thespians aside, Seidelman's writing and filmmaking are bland, obvious and uninvolving.

If you enjoyed any of Frank's previous work, or thought "Brick" was the bomb, you'll love this.

When it works, it's decent family fun; the kids are incredibly sharp. But the script's not as sharp as they are, and not everyone brings his A-game.

Director Stefen Fangmeier, a well-regarded special-effects man and second-unit director ("Master and Commander," "Galaxy Quest") does a superb job visualizing the CGI dragon. But Fangmeier is working with a script without a single memorable line and far too many characters and creatures with silly names.

Often as not, the movie works. Here and there, it works kind of beautifully.

You end up with a movie that takes that real problem and makes it feel like an exploitation contrivance.

Kids will enjoy the experience overall: It's a little messy and undercooked, but still vastly more imaginative and entertaining than junk like "Fred Claus."

The writing, acting and filmmaking make Hustle & Flow nothing short of amazing.

Do yourself a favor. Rent "My Bodyguard" instead.

I can see how Mamma Mia! might be a fun stage musical. As a movie musical, it's a train wreck.