Peter Hartlaub

Children will enjoy the physical humor, but discerning adults are advised to pawn their sons and daughters off on some other unsuspecting chaperone -- preferably one who doesn't read movie reviews.

The mockumentary-style delivery of a serious subject proves to be an unworkable mash-up.

There's little illumination.

It's surprising how dated some of the humor is.

There are some nice moments and beautiful scenery, but the film is often slow and the dialogue is overwrought.

At the heart of The Return is a murder that even the most bumbling homicide investigator could have solved in about 12 seconds.

There are more over-the-top moments, but they never last long. And after every groan-inducing piece of footage, a spectacular near-crash or daring motorcycle chase comes along to leave the movie's shortcomings in a cloud of dust.

The filmmaking is unremarkable, but the obsessiveness of the lead character is infectious enough to make this drama passable entertainment.

If you like gore, this is the movie for you.

As the camera follows four campers in a Portland, Ore., rock school for girls, the result is less a journey than a collage of random thoughts, circumstances and events. There's plenty of telling, but not enough showing.

Not since "An American Werewolf in London" in 1981 reset the standard for man-to-wolf transformations has anyone tried to get away with special effects as pitiful as the ones in this movie.

While the documentary isn't as compelling as its source material, Abbas tells an interesting story about his incarceration.

The sexual tension is thick between the woodland creatures in Alpha and Omega, an animated children's film with a plot that has more in common with "The Blue Lagoon" than "Bambi."

Compelling and frequently entertaining.

The Providence Effect" is flawed, but it's still a moving film.

Basically, this is a really good movie until the last part, where director and co-writer Darren Lynn Bousman ruins so much so fast that you'll wonder if his actions are deliberate -- or if the studio interfered.

There's no attempt at humor in Dead Silence, but the biggest sin in the film is the lack of scares.

One of Miyazaki's most kid-accessible movies, but still an unnerving film.

The result is an interesting but often frustrating effort by the director of "The Sea Inside," who proves that ambition and talent aren't enough to ensure a compelling drama.

If you can get past a few swear words, the film's simplicity makes Glory Road a good starting point to get young kids to talk about racism.

Just funny enough.

Throwing your $10.25 down a storm drain is a better idea; at least that way you won't feel the added self-loathing of wasting more than an hour and a half of your life watching Eva Mendes in the worst acting job of her career.

This isn't just a good throwback satanic thriller - it looks as if it was made during the era of satanist paranoia.

If you want to see Li and Statham in an underwhelming martial arts film, rent "The One" instead. Li talks considerably more in that movie, but at least he punches a lot of people out.

Has beautiful scenery and some enjoyable moments but leaves the viewer feeling the need to find the book to get the rest of the story.

Although intriguing to look at, Renaissance -- the latest animated film geared to adult audiences -- is undone by a plot that is ridiculously hard to follow and hackneyed.

An acquired taste.

Plays like two films in one, and succeeds on both levels.

Unfortunately, the writing has become so bad that it becomes impossible to keep your head in the game - even as your toes continue to tap to the beat.

The movie's onslaught of psychobabble is the annoyance most likely to ruin your evening. Imagine getting stuck on a ski lift with Dr. Phil for nearly two hours.

Most audience members will probably want more.

A movie for people who value heart and earnestness over technical filmmaking skill, and consider unpredictable plot turns a betrayal.

May be a good tactical move for the artist's career, but it's a bad movie.

While it's filled with quality actors, this James Bond tale for tweens feels like something you should be getting for free on television.

The picture eventually collapses under the weight of its own gimmickry, but it's still an entertaining distraction for cerebral horror fans who want an appetizer before the B-horror feast that is "Diary of the Dead."

Robots never stays in the same gear for long, and the abrupt shifts in tone kill the movie's chances of becoming a classic.

Feels like a streamlined improvement on the original.

A love story that gets the single male culture down so honestly and unapologetically that it can't help but push the boundaries of political correctness.

Despite the fact that the movie covers some new cinematic territory, much of the humor feels recycled, mostly from the "Seinfeld" episodes "The Boyfriend" (the one where Jerry has a man crush on Keith Hernandez) and "The Outing."

An ill-advised and severely wussified remake.

Most of the time, the movie is appropriately gritty and plenty engaging.

It's a pleasant and well-intentioned end of summer diversion that doesn't possess the imagination-stoking qualities of a premier children's movie.

Produced by "Lost" and "Alias" mastermind J.J. Abrams, Cloverfield has been one of the more interesting experiments in large-scale guerrilla filmmaking.

The result is an incredibly disorganized movie with a few funny scenes -- most of which are revealed in the commercials.

Definitely worth your time, if not your $9.50. In other words, wait a few months and definitely check it out as a rental.

While the sequel to "Night Watch" is an imperfect film, it's always interesting.

When Danny takes off his collar for the last time, Besson's plan becomes clear: You may have paid for an hour and a half of escapist entertainment, but he just provided something much better.

The movie is too lethargic for its own good, and many of the events and minor characters don't quite ring true.

Much of the action onscreen doesn't ring true. Seasoned independent film director Henry Jaglom doesn't just explore the subject - he smothers the audience with it.

Has plenty to satisfy fans and bring in new admirers.

The biggest sin of 28 Weeks Later is that it's not in the same league as the near-perfect movie that came before it.

Ponderous, repetitive and lacking a single rousing action sequence.

Rough around the edges, but once you get used to the laconic pace, the plot grooves along nicely.

It's a kids' movie from a better time, with a few small concessions to modern audiences.

It's an achingly beautiful movie and a triumph of location scouting, with more cosmopolitan spectacle than the past three Indiana Jones and James Bond movies combined.

Much of the honest dialogue has the same feel as John Hughes' and Cameron Crowe's movies during their best years, while there's a half-serious hipness that recalls the first eight episodes of "The O.C."

For a movie that takes place mostly in the bowels of a sewer, Flushed Away has some surprisingly charming moments.

Bridge to Terabithia is a good movie, but it could become truly great with a director's cut that leaves the fantastic elements a little more vague.

It's a funny, mostly harmless and entertaining film with a bad case of dry mouth.

This movie isn't horrible, but it seems like a waste for Zombie to keep revisiting someone else's world.

If you can lighten up for an hour and a half, the film delivers one good laugh after another.

A mindless comedy where the blatant racial stereotypes are outnumbered only by the flatulence jokes. The best thing that can be said about this movie is it falls just short of being an international incident.

Screenwriters Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith may not have any original ideas, but they write some good lines and have a great actress to deliver them.

Contains so many insults to the audience's intelligence.

The action sequences are just as ridiculous as the romance parts, but at least James seems comfortable with the pratfalls and gross-out scenarios.

A movie that doesn't quite have enough romance, thriller or revenge-fantasy elements to qualify for any of those genres. More than anything, it's a celebration of uncomfortable silences. The awkward moments in this movie far outweigh the joyful or tragic ones.

A thoroughly enjoyable three-or four-gimmick comedy.

The remake of The Last House on the Left breaks the template, taking the 1972 original into an interesting new direction, with bold camera angles, good actors and a script that heaps on just as much character development as carnage.

Ghost Rider has everything you don't want from your superhero movie, including lack of logic, boring action scenes, bad acting in the supporting performances, a brutally slow 114-minute running time and cringe-worthy dialogue.

The predictable script feels as if it were filmed right off the cocktail napkin it was jotted on, but at least the movie has an "Ocean's 11" sequel's worth of good actors, including Alfred Molina, Jeremy Irons and Jean Reno.

Never very frightening, but it's clever and fun, with a memorable amount of humor and gore.

Anvil lives somewhere in that thoroughly entertaining gray area between self-parody and the triumph of human spirit.

Less an original product than a shoddy tribute to other mediocre cop movies.

While "Saw" and "Saw II" were pretty good splatter films hampered by spectacularly unbelievable endings, Saw III is annoying for almost the duration of the movie.

Favoring precision filmmaking over cheap thrills, with a vibe more Alfred Hitchcock than Freddy Krueger, Red Eye establishes two intelligent characters and lets audiences sit back and enjoy an entertaining battle of brains and wills.

If you're the type who doesn't go to art-house films , Murderball should be your exception. It's hard to imagine anyone could walk away from this movie disappointed.

A funny and twisted movie from beginning to end, closing with an emotional payoff.

When You're Strange is a remedial Doors class, taught by a professor who sounds as if he's doing voiceovers for car commercials.

Plodding and unfunny.

The Cave is National Geographic mixed with Roger Corman, and by the end you'll probably be wishing you saw "Red Eye" instead.

It's that constant weirdness, coupled with Nicolas Cage's best performance in pretty much forever, that makes this depraved, sexually charged, over-the-top drama so much fun to watch.

The movie is laugh-until-your-stomach-hurts hilarious.

The final message is a strong one: Even when the starting forward is one of the best high school players ever, basketball is still a team sport.

First, and perhaps most important, it should be disclosed that my 4-year-old laughed pretty much nonstop throughout Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. This was his "Citizen Kane."

This is an extremely violent movie, with one long gory scene that's particularly hard to stomach. The great majority of Triad Election is about political maneuvering, but when the conversations end, the blood flows mightily.

The soul of the film is the relationship between mountain-obsessed Mallory and his wife, Ruth, who corresponded in beautifully written letters brought to life by Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson.

The movie is occasionally clever, but still inferior to last year's "Twilight" film, mostly because the story is so muddled.

You'll feel so much better just sending your $9.50 to the Red Cross then catching "I Know What You Did Last Summer" one more time on television.

This movie is so horrible that it actually spends some time in "so bad it's good" territory, before getting significantly worse.

Had a lot of promise, but ultimately isn't very funny.

It isn't smart or even very scary.

The film has a little too much of the "new adventures" feel, but it's still fun.

Hawke is half-assed throughout, showing passion only when he's screaming like a little girl when something scary happens. The visuals have a dingy, unfocused quality, especially in the muddy visual-effects-enhanced backdrops. And some of the plot turns are awful. The vampire "cure" is so stupid, you'll want to walk out of the theater, even if you normally like this kind of movie.

The master is back, and there's no shortage of exploding brain matter -- or fun -- to be had in the theaters this weekend.

There are fun distractions, but it's easy to focus on the flaws.

Besson is a pro when it comes to action movies, but this part live, part animation effort is a mess, highlighted by creepy animation, derivative plot points and a child star who speaks way too fast.

In a genre where too many films are all brawn and no brain, Fighting is a contender.

A well-paced and entertaining horror debut.