It provides the first genuine laughs I've had at the movies in this young year.

A ridiculous poseur thriller that seems to be made up of the slow moments from Hong Kong action films and Euro-flashy stuff like "Run Lola Run."

Failure to Launch sounds like really bad Oscar Wilde, but it's not that good. You are not supposed to dislike anybody here.

Unfocused and shrill.

The full title of this animé import is WXIII (Patlabor the Movie 3), and if you think the name's confusing, you may want to spare yourself the work of figuring out the film itself.

Much talking, much sex, much to-do about nothing.

Once in a very long while, a truly memorable romantic teen comedy comes along. The Girl Next Door is one.

John Greyson and Jack Lewis' experimental drama, about two prisoners who have a dangerous affair, is a challenging, flawed look at a little-known slice of history.

There are big special effects, of course, but refreshingly, this third (and final?) movie in the franchise is like a pleasant stroll through familiar halls.

Yes, that's an impressive collection of actors. And yes, it's deflating to watch them wandering in and out of half-written scenes with no discernable direction.

Unless you're seriously into the post-"Matrix" culture, which includes books, games, animation and interactive Web sites, or you believe the Wachowskis have a philosophy worth wading through, the two-part sequel adds nothing indispensable to the first story.

Despite its desperate attempts to appeal to every possible age group, there is no obvious audience for this movie.

This movie has Chris Hemsworth, in between "Avengers" movies, and a lot of computer-generated sea life. It uses a lot of fancy lures, but it never hooks you.

Words and story are still the lifeblood of a movie, and Jennifer's Body is filled like a Twinkie with half-fleshed-out ideas.

There are some nice moments of camaraderie, as Feldman and Imperioli do their laid-back thing and Fisher is feisty and warmhearted. Still, the let’s-all-talk-at-once actorliness wears thin. It’s just not worth the mood swings.

Barely makes the grade in either humor or provocation.

Roth prefers sentimentality to subtlety and cutesiness to complexity. Fortunately, Molina balances Port's precocity, bringing a welcome gravitas to this simply told tale.

It’s all too much. Frankie & Alice has multiple problems it can’t get past.

Built on an amusing idea that can't quite support an entire movie, Wayne Price's comedic debut might have made a terrific short.

Christian infuses this familiar story with gentle empathy, which goes a long way in balancing out the more amateurish choices.

This tactic, and the film's valid but familiar arguments, might have been fleshed out with better results onstage.

The truth about Lies is that it's a case of art-house porn being more porn than art.

Heartbreakers is too long by a half-hour, and there are entire sketches (including a horrid nightclub sequence with Weaver trying to sing in Russian) that could be mercifully sacrificed.

Director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld ("Kissing Jessica Stein") misses several opportunities to go all out and be, as Elle would say, "superfun."

There's a lot of flashy acting going, notably by Travolta, who has not been more engaging on-screen in a decade, and by newcomer Barrett, a willowy Aussie who, as a woman living with the specter of death, gives the film's most complete performance.

So what's the point of doing it a second time if you can't make it more realistic?

There are too many characters undergoing life changes in the story for each to be properly developed in an 82-minute movie. But for the most part, the actors get the work done.

Sure, sometimes it's fun to be assaulted by sequins, wigs, corsets and retro homage. But Xtina's fans can find all that already - in videos ranging from "Lady Marmalade" to "Ain't No Other Man" - without having to sit through two hours of recycled plots and plastic acting.

The story submerges and drowns in preposterous gothic nonsense.

This overly twee, morbidly cute romance initially digs up the ageless "Harold and Maude" as a touchstone before it slips the coils of watchability.

With all the action movies that have come before, it's tough to make car chases and fist fights seem original and exciting, but fortunately, there's enough of a story to keep things interesting even when you might feel a sense of déjà vu.

Director Jake Paltrow’s stark sense of place fades as familiar genre elements are introduced. It winds up like “There Will Be Blood,” but with H2O, not oil. It’s food for thought, nothing more.

Uneven but fitfully entertaining.

A good-ol'-boy civics lesson that's too scattered to achieve its predictable goals.

Imagine that, instead of trying to solve his wife's murder, the amnesiac character in Christopher Nolan's "Memento" had gone on "50 First Dates." That comes close to describing French director Jean-Pierre Limosin's playfully sexy tale of memory lapse.

More mournful than alarmist, Arthus-Bertrand's film goes beyond global warming to look at life out of balance, through a lens darkly.

All In lays down some interesting hands but sometimes can't raise the stakes, though "Rounders" star Matt Damon lends a bit of celeb flash.

Egoyan's uncharacteristic bid for the mainstream flames out on many levels, but it's hard not to stare with fascination at the dying embers.

Posner paints in pretty broad strokes. The movie is studded with convenient coincidences and obvious observations. But he has also put together a nicely polished production that shines with an almost earnest charm.

A temple of enlightenment posing as a movie.

Belongs to an intellectually stimulating subgenre that examines the thin line between documentary maker and subject.

Here’s a double-scoop for conspiracy theorists.

The choice made by Kevin Spacey in taking on the role of Quoyle in the film adaptation of E. Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Shipping News nearly sinks it. But not quite.

But for that one bright, incongruous yuk-fest in the classroom, Luther is deadly material, full of self-righteousness and devoid of balance.

But there's no affection in this mean-spirited sendup of "the business" and nothing to mitigate its sour taste.

This is a "What were they thinking?"-size disaster, with the wrong actors in the wrong roles in a project that had no reason to be remade in the USA.

A long and uneventful snooze.

There is just no tension built prior to the murders.

Come to think of it, 84 minutes isn't much of a sacrifice for a few laughs, even if the material is almost as hit-or-miss as our heroes' shooting skills.

When an intensely emotional scene calls for the voice to break, call in Andy Garcia. He does the best voice-breaking, half-choked sob of anguish in the business, and he does it a lot in Lost City, his well-meaning directorial debut.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard is a movie for anyone who just wants to see Samuel L. Jackson curse, Ryan Reynolds smirk and Salma Hayek kick butt while looking absolutely incredible. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The voice performances are terrific, particularly those of Belushi and Garofalo, as the amorous squirrel and the giraffe he would like to have as his wife.

It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but Poltergeist is a solid, surprisingly effective chiller.

Really bad movies can be fun, and the dialogue here often attains a level of joyful inanity.

Fast-paced, funny, and packed with – to indulge in a bit of ad-speak — eye-popping action.

Friedlander offers a nicely subtle performance, but the other actors - including Alan Cumming, Deborah Harry and Amy Sedaris - appear to have turned up as a favor to the director. Don't feel obliged to follow their lead.

Though Inch’Allah — which translates to “God Willing” — has good performances and fine location photography, its irresponsible attitude towards terrorism goes too far.

Two hours of ludicrous action, forced humor and self-conscious romance.

Dullness, as well as hoary preachiness, neuters the family-and-their-war-dog drama Max.

Marsden's natural charisma is totally wasted in an unlikable role, while Burns doesn't even try to hide his boredom.

Like the homeless kids at its center, Alison Murray's feature debut is passionate, angry and suffering from a serious lack of discipline.

This movie was made by a bunch of hired guns who had their hearts elsewhere. Masterminds does center around a heist — one committed on ticket buyers.

The cozy sentimentality in The Time Traveler's Wife is the only thing that grounds it. Mostly it's just featherheaded.

Every generation gets the time travel it deserves. Project Almanac isn’t “Time After Time” (1979) or “Back to the Future” (1985) or “12 Monkeys” (1996), but the new release does turn out to be a surprisingly jaunty trip for jaded Gen-Y kids.

Pure hackwork.

Daylight sets a record for implausible scenarios and lack of character development. But let's face it if you're going to be stranded in a fireball, you might as well be stranded there with Sylvester Stallone. Twenty years after "Rocky" punched him into the limelight, Stallone presents a more human-scaled character, and he's charming, even gracious. His acting range may not span Manhattan to Jersey, but he inspires confidence even in material as pre-fab as this. [6 Dec 1996, p.59]

Underdeveloped and badly diluted by overlong -- and overly stylized -- forays into the drug use, street hustling and cultural alienation that mostly affects the boys' friends.

There's something deeper at play in the film, something psychologically foul, voyeuristic and personal.

To her credit, director Martha Coolidge has crafted a fairy-tale ending that is both old-fashioned and newfangled, allowing her heroine to have it all. But despite a few magic moments, the rest of the film feels stale.

Man on Fire, with a best-ever Denzel Washington, is the first (nonreligious) sure thing to hit the multiplex this year.

It comes off as a fairly straightforward assault on the kind of political corruption that has crossed party lines in movies since the dawn of the medium, and in books before that. The pleasure here is in the dialogue, the characters and the cast.

Just like the can-do VW Beetle of the title, Herbie: Fully Loaded succeeds adorably despite the obstacles in its path.

This poor man’s Norman Bates, though, doesn’t make us wonder what makes him tick; he makes us want to shut our eyes.

There's nothing in director Ryan Piers Williams' script that elevates this film above others with similar themes. But his heartfelt approach can be seen in the committed cast -- led by O'Nan but also including ­Valderrama, whose quietly ­authentic work is a nice surprise.

This heavy-handed movie is simply a sermon its makers think we all should hear.

The Giver was ahead of its time as a book. But as a movie, it’s too late.

The criterion couldn't be simpler: does a 20-minute martial arts battle featuring Thai superstar Tony Jaa sound like the ideal way to spend your time and money? If not, move on.

Despite the ominous feel, this is a mystery about losing or gaining lives and unknown detours.

An even bigger crime is that Blair Witch isn’t particularly scary, maybe because it’s hard to take any of it seriously when it’s just treading so much similar ground as the first movie.

The only thing to do, then, is settle back and appreciate Hudson's no-nonsense performance, an appealingly mature turn that makes you hope she has turned her back on second-rate romantic fluff. (Whether second-rate horror represents actual improvement is another matter.)

As a vampire might say, "Be- vaaare , all who enter here above the age of 7! What lies on the screen ... is not for you !"

Rock of Ages is an experience that will alternately leave you embarrassed and amused.

Writer-director Hannah Fidell’s somber drama of an illicit romance earns credit for being a serious discussion of a tabloid-rich topic, but the movie runs out of places to go.

The truth is, the mystery pales next to the best "X-Files" plots. But fans will appreciate sly references to past episodes, an unexpected appearance from an old friend and the still-poignant bond our heroes share.

Has something going for it that you wouldn't expect from the tired mechanics of the story — and that is the star-making appearance of 15-year-old rapper Shad Moss, who goes by the name Lil' Bow Wow.

A mediocre movie that will be wiped from its stars' résumés with head-spinning speed.

It's a humiliating comedown for Ford, and he looks creaky and grumpy, obviously aware that he is miscast and dreading every scene.

As delicious as this premise is, Cats & Dogs is about as funny as a hairball left on your pillow.

With so little action or even insight, Marathon is far too long at only 74 minutes. Perhaps for the sequel, we can come along as Gretchen watches paint dry.

Alamo buffs will be delighted, and everyone else will be treated to something that feels like Old Hollywood crossed with new sensibilities.

Tommy Lee Jones seems to have misplaced the flinty resolve, gruff charm and fatherly concern that defined his earlier outing. [6 March 1998, p. 48]

With its cash-flashing men and dirty-talking women, the movie already feels dated. But it wouldn't have been much fun five years ago, either.

Cold, dull, lifeless. [5 December 1998, p.3]

Although little Timothy does arrive in unusual circumstances, his story will feel familiar to anyone who's encountered Hollywood's particular brand of calculated sentimentality.

For die-hard Ferrell fans, this could be the ultimate test. He has been playing variations of "Elf" for five years, and his antics have grown as stale as Jackie's socks.

There's no one to root for but the loan shark, who makes an excellent point: It's no fun when somebody takes your cash and gives you nothing in return.

The same boring routine gets played out again.

Here, the actor (Di Niro) dials it down and wins us over.