The actress and the aviatrix are a match made in heaven, but surrounding the soaring performance is a movie that's mostly earthbound.

Although it’s superficially grungy, this true story isn’t much more substantive than something that star Vanessa Hudgens might have made for the Disney Channel and considerably less shocking than her career gambit in “Spring Breakers.”

A would-be light thriller that's so deficient in the genre's essentials - such as witty dialogue, intriguing characters and surprising yet credible plot turns - that you're embarrassed for everyone involved.

Considerably better looking than its predecessor, but it's spewing the same old gibberish.

Except for the dynamite finale, The Long Ranger feels like a long, slow ride to the dump, to the dump, to the dump, dump, dump.

It's more like a shelved episode of "Touched by An Angel." The sappy script is a disservice to the naturally effervescent Efron, whose character is so mopey he makes Robert Pattinson seem like a song-and-dance man.

Strange hybrid of science lesson and Saturday-morning cartoon.

Annabelle is so lazily coat-tailing on Roman Polanski, they should have called it “Rosemary’s Barbie.”

And in spite of all that predictability, there is enough action, tension and Willis-like funny lines to earn this movie a passing grade. [2 Apr 1998, p.41]

Compared to most teen comedies these days, Fun Size is almost touchingly tame.

This dead-on-arrival ’toon is some of the worst p.r. for rodents since bubonic plague hit medieval Europe.

The so-so film isn't nearly as good as any of the movies that may have inspired it, or even its own knockout trailer.

When Child's Play 2 isn't dwelling on some atrocity being performed on a character nobody cares about anyway, it commits the ultimate horror genre transgression: It's really, really boring. [12 Nov 1990, p.3D]

It flows, but it never gets tense, and the climax just sort of passes unnoticed. The movie reaches too hard to push messages about human nature that are really right on the surface. Complicating things is the casting of Brando and Kilmer, who as usual, are not in the same movie as the rest of the cast. [23 Aug 1996, p.3E]

Like its predecessor, this film is noisy, fast and unrelenting — not one you watch so much as allow to lightly steamroll your senses. At least that’s a fairly swift and amusing enough process.

Cutthroat Island ranks up there with other ill-advised movies such as The Scarlet Letter and Waterworld. At least the Harlin-Davis opus is meant to be fun. [22 Dec 1995, p.12D]

It's hard to hate a movie that escorts us to such lovely locales, but instead of marking the territory as her own, Madonna has directed a potentially provocative story like a virgin.

FIVE WRITERS. Count 'em, five. Five men (I mourn for my gender) employed as writers of a screenplay. Five human minds. Five human imaginations. And the result is Turner and Hooch. Never have so many worked together to create so little. [1 Aug 1989, p.3D]

This summer's first really bad major movie has finally arrived, and it's time to celebrate. There's been a lot of mediocrity, but until Color of Night there'd been nothing deeply rotten on the grand scale of "Last Action Hero" or "Hudson Hawk." [19 Aug 1994, p.9F]

The comedy is so lame that the whole enterprise comes across as depressing.

With such a thin excuse for a leading man, Arthur is a dud.

EVERY TIME Loverboy veers toward the predictable or the situationally comedic, it rights itself. The film merits much more than a passing sigh as yet another flick for the teen audience. [2 May 1989, p.4D]

Moves along quite entertainingly for a while and then begins to get swallowed up by its own high (and high-tech) concepts. By the end, what had been a rather amusing, zany chase comedy starring Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn has turned into a bizarre and totally ridiculous free-for-all in a zoo, with crocodiles slithering and tigers roaring and piranhas chewing up people. [18 May 1990, p.3F]

Prince is a puzzle. Unfortunately, in Graffiti Bridge, he isn't a very interesting one. The main problem may be that most of the music in this sequel to Prince's 1984 musical Purple Rain is mediocre, mainly derived from rap and funk but without the energy those forms generate when they are presented raw. [06 Nov 1990, p.4D]

Yet notwithstanding its derivative dolefulness and PG-13 timidity, The Art of Getting By is smart and sweet enough to become the favorite film of some Midwestern adolescent who wrongly believes he's already seen the dark side.

Oyelowo and Mara achieve terrific chemistry. Perhaps they’ll work together again — in a better film.

Working from a screenplay by Jason Fuchs, director Joe Wright seems overwhelmed by the material, and he fails to make us care about any of the characters.

It is one thing to hit an audience over the head with a message, but Belly puts it in a big steel drum and drops it on you from a fourth-floor window. [04 Nov 1998, p.E3]

John Avildsen directs from Robert Mark Kamen's elementary script with the simple understanding of the ancient battle between good and evil where the victor is never doubted - for long. [03 July 1989, p.3D]

Based on an acclaimed novel by Ron Rash, Serena is like a towering tale that’s been fed into a woodchipper.

Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man is a terrible movie. For the first 20 minutes or so, it is so far over the top in its pseudo-mythic urban cowboy way that it is at least entertainingly terrible. [23 Aug 1991, p.3F]

TAKEN AS a Hollywood remake of Japanese movies based on Westerns, Road House assumes a certain style that makes the film not half bad. Of course, that leaves it still not half good. Without provenance, the film becomes just a way to provide work for the man who produces the sound of fist hitting flesh. Given its lineage, however, Road House makes sense. Everything is here but the dog at the end of "Yojimbo" walking out of town with a bloody arm gripped in its canines. [19 May 1989, p.3E]

If this movie wanders into your neighborhood, the only watch that will hold your attention is the timepiece on your wrist.

It's a pleasure to watch Ryan resurrect her trademark persona, a mix of perkiness and pique, as she flounces around the room. But it's shaded with a middle-age desperation that's half real and half chick-flick shtick.

The cheap, indifferent, teen-alien thriller I Am Number Four delivers none of the spectacle of a competent sci-fi film, none of the emotion of an effective teen romance and none of the giggles of a kitsch fiasco.

Doesn't break any new ground, but it is a decent way to spend a girls' night out.

Disney serves up a warmed-over tale that was never one of its best to begin with and mistakenly tries to substitute teen-angst-ridden Christina Ricci for the totally adorable Hayley Mills. It's a serious mistake. [14 Feb 1997, p.03E]

All in all, it's better than your average boy-meets-girl techno-thriller - but only just. [30 May 1995, p.5D]

There is nothing in Walas' directorial style to raise the movie above the level of a routine gross-out horror movie. Good makeup, though. [19 Feb 1989, p.14H]

The Nanny is special effects at their most vulgar, with a thin, silly plot line that is there only to give the special-effects folks a place to start. [30 Apr 1990, p.5D]

Here, the scattershot spoofery never rings true.

After watching Post Grad, you may wonder whether Hollywood will ever stop making generic comedies with zero tolerance for originality.

Suffering through this felonious farce could only inspire a prison riot.

The screenplay, by Jim Harrison and Jeffrey Fiskin, from Harrison's novella, might have made a good B movie, but Scott refused to let that happen. He was out to make another A movie, and made an F movie that also is excessively and unnecessarily violent. [19 Feb 1990, p.5D]

Once Upon a Crime could have been a boisterous slapstick comedy, but writing and direction reduce it to the status of the very ordinary. [12 March 1992, p.3E]

It does induce a few giggles like cheap champagne.

Ultimately it's sunk by the hole in the middle: Paul Campbell (presidential aide Billy on "Battlestar Galactica") who substitutes smarm for charm as the archetypal player who gets played.

Here, Dan Aykroyd mimics the original voice, but the three-dimensional CGI isn't loose and lively enough to compensate for the unimaginative story.

The baby sitter isn't the only thing dead in this movie - the plot also suffered a massive coronary while being scripted. In fact, the only life breathed into Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead is the light comedic performance of Christina Applegate (Married . . . With Children), with an assist from Keith Coogan. [13 June 1991, p.6E]

The matte work is awful, the lighting terrible. Many of the vehicles look like bumper cars, borrowed from the nearest amusement park and covered with plastic tops; the rest look like Disneyland rejects. Chase sequences are boring. [24 Jan 1992, p.3F]

With movies like this, Lopez might want to start leaving low-end romantic comedies alone and look at her movie career's backup plan.

Keeping Up With the Joneses is hardly worth the effort.

The Forest is flawed on so many levels. It’s a tiresome bore, and the story is filtered through white characters when an Asian lead could have carried the movie just fine.

This time, the results are only fair. [13 Jan 1989, p.5G]

This mess is guilty of being both racist and homophobic. And it’s as shamelessly lazy and crude as its title suggests.

A vigilante/torture-porn potpourri, is particularly toxic because it's scented with phony importance.

This film might have been more accurately titled Bungle All the Way because everything that can be wrong, is. Not only is the product miscast from top to bottom, it's also tedious and painfully not funny. [22 Nov 1996, p.3E]

Estevez couldn't decide what he wanted: a doofus comedy, a serious political statement, a mystery, a Bowery Boys' knock-off. The result is sophomoric. [27 Aug 1990, p.5D]

Technically proficient enough to keep us intrigued; but we shouldn't have to Google a movie to know if we were scared.

This gravely serious drama is as insular as a tomb with Muzak. It takes a particularly heavy hand to make us numb to the abduction of two children, but that's the effect of the wall-to-wall music and earnestly dour performances.

This amateurish action flick is so lacking in personality or punch, it ought to be titled "V for Video Store Discount Bin."

What might have seemed like a lively idea -- an all-star roundelay about love in Los Angeles -- is as fossilized as the wooly mammoths in the La Brea Tar Pits.

Hallstrom (“Chocolat”) makes the mishmash palatable, and romance mainstay Duhamel provides some sweet-and-salty charm, but there’s not much they can do with Sparks’ canned dialogue and Hough’s undercooked acting.

Is there really a need to make a 14-year-old the sexual object of adults' attention? A coming-of-age movie that tries to sympathize with a teen-ager can be enlightening. A movie that tries to tantalize us with a child is shameful. Second, the stereotype of the treacherous Lolita taking advantage of a man twice her age is not only sexist, it's misogynistic. Take The Crush and can it. [9 Apr 1993, p.3F]

The Glimmer Man starts out like Seven, but pretty soon it dwindles into nothing. [09 Oct 1996, p.5D]

Webb delivers a film that’s somewhat derivative, but succeeds as a welcome alternative to superhero extravaganzas.

'IF Lucy Fell" off the Brooklyn Bridge, as she threatens to do early in this movie, the rest of us would be spared 93 minutes of annoying drivel, save a few - very few - funny moments. [8 March 1996, p.3E]

The Son of the Pink Panther is little more than a mess. Roberto Benigni, a funny-looking Italian actor, has his moments. [31 Aug 1993, p.3D]

Loosely - very loosely - based on the classic Jonathan Swift story, "Gulliver's Travels" begins promisingly but quickly loses its way.

This movie bogs down under heavy-handed, simplistic preachings about the environment and numerous scenes of utterly gratuitous violence. [23 Feb 1994]

There Be Dragons is tethered to the earth by a tangled plot, wooden acting and the heavy burden of healing old wounds.

Although the film begins promisingly, it proves to be little more than a soap opera.

Elijah Wood Jr. is excellent as a boy who goes looking for a new father and mother. A fairly amusing, very light fantasy from Rob Reiner. [14 Aug 1994, p.14C]

Sadly, The Last Song is badly out of tune with real filmmaking.

Annie is not a great movie musical — but it’s a fun time at the movies.

Surprise — this bad dream is for real.

That can’t disguise the script’s complete lack of wit or originality, though, or the generally wooden acting.

The plot of Jade is so ridiculous, its dialogue so dreary, that nothing can save it - not seriously talented actors, not a revered director, not $ 40 million worth of movie-making muscle. [13 Oct 1995, p.3E]

In Hollywood, it’s all about the concept, and some studio executive must have thought it would be fun to watch Adams slogging around in the Irish mud. Unfortunately, there’s no accounting for taste.

On a scale of 1 ("Men in Tights") to 10 ("Naked Gun"), I'd give "Fatal Instinct" about a 5. [31 Oct 1993, p.9C]

Kevin Kline roars through The January Man as a character who is a mirror image of the one he played in A Fish Called Wanda. This time, he's uncommonly bright but still marches to a very different drummer. But while Wanda was bright and slick and very funny, January is as leaden as the month, and not very funny. [13 Jan 1989, p.5G]

Because the affable Wahlberg is making the sales pitch, you could kid yourself that this is just a high-tech vacuum cleaner, built to siphon loose change like popcorn. But our failure to understand the terrifying significance of the “Transformers” series is why we're in the age of extinction.

As cop comedies go, Ride Along 2 gets the job done.

Dream a Little Dream is so murky and convoluted that it just comes off as being tired. [10 March 1989, p.3F]

FOR ABOUT a half-hour, Troop Beverly Hills brings a lot of funny situations and funny lines. Then it's time to finish the popcorn and settle down for a nap. [24 March 1989, p.3F]

If Repo Men could have sustained its ghoulish humor, it might have been a guilty pleasure.

For the hour or so it’s on screen it’s a harmless, little chiller that doesn’t scare much but serves as a holdover until something truly scary comes along.

Even by the standards of light entertainment, This Means War is meaningless.

In matters of personal taste, there is no right or wrong, so if erasing brain cells is your idea of a good time, That's My Boy could be your cup of turpentine.

The story is inane, the characters generate little sympathy and director Howard Deutch never gets this movie up to a decent running speed. [22 Jun 1994, p.5F]

This world is divided between the makers and the takers, and after just a few minutes of Red Dawn, you'll realize there's not much more you can take.

Twenty or 25 minutes of good air-action sequences, otherwise dull. [17 Jun 1990, p.7F]

As usual for the comedies he produces, Sandler keeps pooping in the sandbox, and he expects the audience to give him a cookie for it. It’s a shame that he forces Barrymore to get soiled too.

This action comedy, with not much of either, was written and directed by George Gallo, who wrote a much better movie in "Midnight Run." It's an original, but it seems like a remake. [02 Dec 1994, p.3F]

Most. Depressing. Christmas. Movie. Ever.

The trailers for the Reese Witherspoon-Sofia Vergara comedy Hot Pursuit hint at a movie that’s unfunny, insufferable and obvious. You can’t say you weren’t warned.

While the plot is as flimsy as a hooker's halter top, it's buoyed by two actors with attitude and timing.

Formulaic serial-killer crapola.