Ruthe Stein

I'm not denying that a 40-year- old woman might be self-conscious about going around with someone this young. But the subject isn't interesting or provocative enough to sustain an entire movie.

With the aid of a charmingly offbeat story and a jolly good dialect coach, the stars leave you thinking, well done. Their spirited performances help cover up glaring holes in the plot.

Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard are incredibly compelling and hold your attention despite Jordan's deliberately slow pacing.

The new movie shrieks of motherhood - raising hot-button issues like biological clocks running down, the rights of birth mothers and whether to adopt or give artificial insemination a shot.

Only intermittently funny.

The message is muddled.

An amusing melodrama.

The film will have to settle for a bogey rather than a par. Still, some hyperbole is warranted, like "Safest Movie to Take the Entire Family To."

Pretentious drama.

Exhilarating and enchanting family picture. It's the best I've seen this year and highly recommended for girls and for boys, too.

Sam Garbarski's use of slow-motion shots is pretentious, and he paces the film too slowly. But he captures the seedy side of London, giving you a feel for Soho during the day when sunshine exposes a cheap gaudiness.

From watching this meandering, stilted movie, anyone unfamiliar with Charles Dickens' novel would be not only disinclined to pick it up but also clueless as to why it's considered great.

An energetic young cast, consisting of a mix of professional dancers and actors who do convincing imitations of Arthur Murray graduates, is positively inspired in numbers combining traditional ballroom steps with hip-hop.

The Astronaut Farmer's goofy quality makes it totally endearing. It's also super entertaining. Critics are fond of referring to movies as a "great ride." With this one, the words couldn't be more apt.

Attempts something startlingly original by melding light opera with soap opera.

That Pride ultimately gets to you is more of a surprise than the outcome because it's not very well-constructed.

The attempt to be clever is transparent.

Well-intentioned but lifeless.

Intermittently funny.

Art School Confidential exudes confidence as long as it is satirizing a questionable, at least according to Clowes, institution of higher learning. But the film loses its way with multiple subplots, becoming a hodgepodge that isn't particularly hard to follow, but, far worse, provides no compelling reason to bother.

Proceeds at that pace to an ending that is as inevitable as it is poignant.

Like its low-key star, Hamlet 2 is more likely to elicit quiet chuckles than raucous laughter.

It is crystal clear who screwed up this tortuously slow-moving romantic drama.

An old-fashioned and occasionally schmaltzy movie that delivers an emotional wallop

Becomes tiresome.

May be too convincing for its own good.

The whole thing is dizzying, like "Moulin Rouge" without songs and dances extolling love.

The movie doesn't aspire to be art, merely to entertain adolescent girls, which is practically guaranteed by the luminous presence of Anne Hathaway.

The mystery of Nancy Drew' is how a movie can get so many things right -- particularly the inspired casting of Emma Roberts as the spunky teenage sleuth -- yet ultimately disappoint.

The prologue sets a simpleton tone that, distressingly, continues throughout.

The problem with this one may be that it just isn't British enough.

A mishmash of a musical. The movie never gels -- despite Kline's nuanced performance, the stars' exquisite period clothes, designed by Armani, and, of course, Porter's great songs.

The humor is all over the place, veering from light to dark and from broad to subtle -- as if an "I Love Lucy" episode had been retooled by Woody Allen.

Columbus' schizoid approach works more often than not.

Often is on the verge of spilling over into melodrama, but that doesn't bother me because life is the same way.

At its warmhearted center, Beauty Shop is a workshop in how to walk around like Oprah with a feeling of confidence and entitlement.

If the formula seems a little tired, it still has more sophistication and pizzazz than most action films.

That the would-be buddies are played by Harrison Ford and Brad Pitt ensures enough star power to keep things moving even during the sluggish early scenes that set up their relationship.

Don't Tell often has the eerie feel of a Hitchcock film -- "Vertigo" in particular -- where you're not always sure if what you're seeing is really happening.

This is familiar territory for writer-director Nancy Meyers, Hollywood's queen of the chick flick. Her latest has charming moments and a hopeful message for despondent singles, but it lacks the emotional resonance of Meyers' "Something's Gotta Give" and the zaniness of "What Women Want."

Black Snake Moan' is a trip to that unfamiliar territory well worth tagging along on.

Worth seeing just to admire how Argentine writer-director Marcos Carnevale avoids so much as a whiff of condescension.

Surprisingly robust.

A wildly erratic, often annoying but never boring endeavor.

This harmless bit of fluff lacks the element of surprise but is not without random charming moments supplied by its incandescent star.

Leaves you feeling buoyed, but you must endure a level of overacting more suitable for the soaps.

Much of that appeal comes from compelling performances by the two main actors.

The movie has a sweetness and innocence that makes it near perfect entertainment for its target audience.

It's amusing in a trashy sort of way.

The Fountain' never comes together. Like the time traveler at its center, it's all over the map.

Visually, the film is a stunner, dotted with psychedelic colors and many shades of red -- one battle is fought with red laser-gun sights -- some looking realistically like blood. When gangsters open fire, their falls are choreographed like a ballet. The problem comes when the cast opens its mouth and Elizabethan dialogue tumbles out.

Sad yet offering glimpses of hope.

Among the many strengths of the sweetly touching Introducing the Dwights, a small gem from Australia unearthed at the Sundance Film Festival, is that Jean never becomes Godzilla.

Like a Christmas present you didn't know you wanted but are delighted to receive.

It's as if a trumped-up biopic of Andy Warhol were to appear titled "Soup.''

The movie is unable to achieve lift-off and transcend the formulaic stuff coming out of Hollywood, despite the perfect casting of Uma Thurman.

A sequel arrives for Valentine's Day with the unwieldy title Step Up 2 the Streets. If it performs as well, watch for "Step Up 3: the Sprained Ankle."

Sweet and deeply moving.

As a romantic comedy, Cease Fire is more annoying than amusing.

Given his built-in appeal, Perry has the opportunity to broaden the subject matter of so-called black movies. He takes a stab at it in "Girls," but he could do so much better.

Karyo -- a big star in France but little known in this country -- has Steve Martin's knack for keeping his dignity while doing outrageous slapstick.

Out to Sea has an emotional pull that is much stronger because it is so unexpected. You come for the laughs and find yourself wiping away tears.

Shoot 'Em Up is not only the title of Hollywood's latest descent into nonsensical mayhem but pretty much sums up the entire inane plot as well.

This movie borders on the ridiculous, but is pulled back by an aesthetic portrayal of the supernatural and by its stars.

Sleuth"is that rare film that would have been better longer. You're not through looking at Caine and Law when the final credits roll.

As uneven as I Think I Love My Wife often is, it still has an emotional resonance lacking in most films about relationships. By dealing with temptation in even a quasi-realistic way, it affirms that, like comedy, monogamy is hard.

You can be 100 percent in favor of rescuing adorable orphans from war-torn zones and still find The Children of Huang Shi a tough haul.

Worth seeing.

Filled with moments that will make you smile.

An unfortunate casting decision, however, comes close to sabotaging a witty script.

The star's amusingly inventive performance keeps your attention through predictable early scenes when "Ohio" repeats familiar material on women's sexuality. It's like a continuation of "The Vagina Monologues" to see Liza Minnelli, as a New Age orgasm coach.

A noble try that disappoints.

The dreary teen drama Step Up appears to be cobbled together from bits and pieces of successful movies.

For all its dazzling computer-generated sequences, "Museum'' wouldn't be nearly the delight it is without the talents of some of the best comedians in the business.

A tearjerker that earns its sobs with heartfelt emotions.

Unfortunately, Hotel de Love also has all the originality of an all-purpose valentine. First- time filmmaker Craig Rosenberg appears to have seen every relationship movie ever made. To his credit, he borrowed only from the best.

Still feels stagebound, inert when it needs to be cinematic.

While still trumpeting human ingenuity, the new movie lacks the subtlety, character development and exceptional ensemble acting of the 1965 version.

An annoying little film that attempts to be lascivious but is merely ludicrous.

High-gloss trash but compulsively watchable.

Considering the talent on both sides of the camera and a story that worked beautifully the first time around, Shall We Dance? should have been a lot better than OK.

Wildly uneven, with long stretches as dull as Dickie.

The last half is so superior to the first that you wish they'd rethought the whole thing and devised a way to make it more of a one piece.

For all the precision shooting, Autumn is a colossal misfire, a tedious film noir wannabe. It doesn't even qualify as film gris.

Another romantic comedy about a career woman who has everything except a man, is Jennifer Aniston's attempt to break out of her TV role. But she doesn't have the magic on the big screen to make us forget where she came from.

A bigger mess than the gas crisis.

Fun to watch although falling short of a real hoot, this latest in a barrage of family movies largely succeeds at keeping the kiddies entertained and their parents from nodding off.

Feels like a personal vendetta.

Vanessa Redgrave makes a regal if too-brief appearance.

Has a certain charm and is sure to appeal to tweens, at least the female variety.

If you enjoy gross humor -- elevated by an occasional witty line -- and looking at babes, and don't mind a little blood and gore, do I have a date movie for you.

A Christian-themed film about redemption with almost no redeeming qualities as entertainment.

Has to be one of the least charming French romances to find American distribution in recent years.

An enticingly risque saga of the 16th century monarch.

Compelling and deeply disturbing.

A disappointing sequel to the far funnier "Diary of a Mad Black Woman."

Extremely bleak but occasionally compelling debut feature.

Chock-full of holes.