Lust on the Grand Prix circuit. [30 Sep 2007, p.N34]

An entertaining film for kids and young teens. It's also a product of the era in which we're living, and weird times make for weird movies.

Why is Breakfast With Scot in theaters instead of set for broadcast on the Lifetime, Hallmark or ABC Family channels?

A perfect example of an Intelligent Bad Movie.

It works primarily because of the chemistry between Chan and Tucker, which is at its combustible best this time out.

A dark, unsettling drama from Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone.

After sitting through Takers with my stomach rearranged by hyperactive camera spazzing, I hereby formally request all directors and cinematographers to just get a grip already and STOP. WIGGLING. THE CAMERA.

Even though the movie’s engine sputters at the end, it’s beautifully shot, the actors are fun to watch, and the story is decent in fits and starts.

Even as it stands, Fish Tank is a valuable movie, though it aspires to a social insight it doesn't attain and a psychological penetration it won't maintain.

Part of what’s missing in The House of Tomorrow is the acerbic punk spirit that inspires its two heroes, which could have been remedied by a sharper script.

It's all pleasant but fairly unimportant, and then -- POW -- comes the great scene, almost out of nowhere.

The Olsens' precociousness and sitcom-style mugging grate at first, but I found myself warming to their movie in its last half - thanks mostly to Alley, a crackerjack physical comic who's incapable of a flat or colorless note.

Theater Camp, a mockumentary about a summer workshop for thespian adolescents, offers plenty of theater and plenty of camp, to the point that it often plays like one, big inside joke. But the film offsets its drama class insularity with a rousing message that the stage will always be a magical place for children to dream — and to discover themselves.

The movie is never much more than fluff. But, like director Donald Petrie's previous film, "Grumpy Old Men," it has an honest core that enables it to keep its balance. [29 Apr 1994]

Has a made-for-television style.

A stupid movie -- but a deliriously stupid movie, which gives it a certain grandeur.

An odd duck, a Southern melodrama that aspires to be a sensitive coming-of-age story, with some humor mixed in. Sometimes it doesn’t soar the way it should, though it remains engaging most of the way.

The narratively challenged film seems conflicted: It critiques our obsession with models and beauty and style, even as it obsesses about those very same things. There is a lot of flash, but little substance.

It's a sumptuously mounted melodrama that aims to make a big statement about big themes, but a stilted quality in the filmmaking drags it down.

Don't fault Thirlby, who does as much as she can with the material. Krasinski is pretty good, and DeWitt and Ennenga are outstanding. The direction is decent, and the film is handsome. But it's finally frustrating, enigmatic in a way that suggests emptiness more than mystery.

It’s amusing to see what Ozon is up to, but the central character and her problems remain simply matters of curiosity mixed with indifference.

Lacks, a story that makes it feel personal.

Mayron, who directed a remake of the Disney comedy Freaky Friday for TV, took on a lot with The Baby-Sitters Club, and the strain shows. She's got too many characters to establish -- several adults besides the girls -- and her movie feels under-rehearsed, as if she hadn't been given the benefit of preparation and wasn't allowed to get as many takes as she needed of most scenes.

If you can get past the impossibilities it is a fun time at the movies.

Qualifies as a mild success. It's an easy picture to like, even if it's not exactly satisfying.

Infused with a dark charm that will appeal to some girls, A Little Princess, based on the classic novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, is as near to a mannered, lushly photographed Merchant/Ivory-style film as you'll get in a kids' movie.

That's a lot of talent and star power at play here, made all the more conspicuous in that they don't really get much to work with. Not only is the movie just so-so, but the parts themselves aren't much.

Despite its many virtues, Interstellar feels as if it doesn’t quite hit the target.