Mainly will appeal to devotees, but even nonfans might want to appreciate its visual splendors on the big screen.

Attaining somewhat of a bad parody of a comedy, screenwriters Andrew Fleming and Pam Brady have slapped together a string of gags in a hit-and-miss dither. Some of it is quite brainy.

Bangkok won't be making any appearances at the Oscars, but it is executed with skill and -- a severed limb or two notwithstanding -- without too much bloody excess.

Insistent, sometimes conspicuously one-sided, the film's concerns are difficult to dismiss, considering that a water-starved planet isn't ultimately viable.

Eventually the conventions of romantic comedy take hold, with the humor declining precipitously.

While hardly sophisticated in its approach and certainly not polished in its technical elements, the film does get its heartfelt message across with undeniable sincerity.

An old-fashioned doc about a sailboat race is well produced but lacks urgency and true insight

Despite shortcomings and implausibility linked to their roles as written, Rogen and Banks come off with surprising charm and grace.

The film's Italian director does achieve in his second American outing a pleasing blend of Hollywood professional sheen and European sensitivity to character details and nuances.

The flatly generic results certainly appear at odds with the picture's stirring visual style, which pays homage to the great Flemish artists.

Imagine Paddy Chayefsky's "Marty" saddled with more sentimentality and sprinkled with a few more laughs and you pretty much have Last Chance Harvey.

A warm and fuzzy family movie, but you do wish that at least once someone would upstage the dog.

That butting of heads, as performed by actors as strong and soulful as Craig and Schreiber, lends Defiance an emotional charge, even as the film itself struggles dramatically to find its way out of those woods.

The 3-D effects come fast and furious, rendered with a technical skill and humor that gives this otherwise strictly formulaic slasher picture whatever entertainment value it possesses.

Certainly their musicianship and onstage professionalism are smooth, though maybe a bit too smooth. There is little spontaneity in anything they do.

The story is certainly predictable, but it contains just enough conflict and drama to engage the viewer.

The film belongs to the women, with Knightley going from strength to strength (and showing she can sing!) and Miller again proving that she has everything it takes to be a major movie star.

Haunting tweaks familiar tropes enough to make them interesting. Just not so interesting as to inspire many nightmares after the credits roll.

All of this mayhem keeps us watching, but it would be hard to describe the experience as pleasurable.

There are sufficient pratfalls and Miley/Hannah quick-changes to satisfy the fans, while Cyrus retains that natural, unforced likability that made her a star in the first place.

In Channing Tatum, who also starred in "Saints," the film has a good-looking, magnetic hunk to draw a crowd. Terrence Howard lends the pedigree of great screen acting, and Zulay Henao adds charm and glamour.

Ultimately delivers the goods, even if the goods aren't very fresh.

Curiously, despite the ever-energetic Tony Scott at the throttle, the sleek new edition isn't as transporting as it should have been.

Some of that frenetic running around has been replaced by inspired effects sequences and amusing riffs by the talented cast, especially new arrivals Hank Azaria and Amy Adams.

The culinary setting gives this familiar formula an appetizing twist.

While there's an awful lot to like about this infectious celebration of a remarkable event featuring some superb, larger-than-life performers at the top of their game, the enterprise comes across as a bit of a missed opportunity.

If Weather Girl were to furnish its own forecast, it would be something along the lines of "Warm and breezy before becoming overcast and muggy late in the day."

A "hybrid documentary" that bemusedly blurs the line between fact and fiction.

Documentaries are a hard sell these days, and despite the timely, pertinent subject, the film simply doesn't have enough entertainment value to draw an audience to the multiplex.

Paris is a bittersweet film containing rare moments of comedy.

The story often appears a little unreal.

Although Trucker doesn't have the social import that made "Norma Rae" a hit, it's an affecting, small film that could catch on with sophisticated audiences as well as more down-home types.

The most affecting scenes, however, involve the class of Israeli teenagers visiting Auschwitz.

The film is impeccable but distant, lacking in spontaneity and not very original.

Tales of cynical curmudgeons rediscovering their humanity have long been a cinematic staple, but Wonderful World brings a refreshing lack of sentimentality to its take.

Dwayne Johnson's energetic performance enlivens an otherwise by-the-numbers family comedy.

The filmmaker presents a portrait of the emotional and physical effects of aging and maturity that is occasionally poignant but not particularly deep.

Veers wildly from slapstick comedy to melodrama, but writer-director Rahul Bose, making his feature debut, handles the transitions more effectively than is usual, and the film is generally entertaining even when it's being utterly ridiculous (or maybe especially when it's so).

Style takes precedence over content in this fourth installment of Strand Releasing's popular series of gay-themed short-film compilations.

Will best be appreciated by those already familiar with the fashion world in general and Saint Laurent in particular.

The technique adds little in the way of illumination and a lot in terms of inducing a migraine.

Enough goodwill has been built up in the early sections that most viewers will not take offense when the movie abandons its plot and characters.

Predictable, cutesy and surprisingly short on genuine humor, Legally Blonde gets by thanks to the magnetic presence of Witherspoon.

Has some moments of excitement and is certainly uncompromising.

The episodes are uninteresting and the characters one-dimensional. Unlike the multicharacter tapestries of such filmmakers as Robert Altman and Paul Thomas Anderson, the pretentious whole here is ultimately less than the sum of the parts.

This murky, thriller-tinged Western has the terrain down cold -- from the wide-open spaces to the rocky vistas -- but beneath all the requisite genre trappings there's a vast, empty gulch where the affecting dramatic element should have been found.

Although it offers no new angles on the story engines of loyalty and revenge, the French film boasts an intriguing milieu and the off-center, hair-trigger intensity of Samy Naceri as a crime boss.

The surprising lack of humor in So Close, and long, trying stretches between combat sequences aren't likely to attract new converts to the genre.

Works better than one might think, thanks to the group's modus operandi, which combines a fundamental reverence for the target material and a sly irreverence that's key to their skewering technique.

Cross "Body Heat" with "No Way Out" and you wind up with Out of Time, a slick crime melodrama with more style than substance.

A dramatic thriller with a large cast playing the hell out of some very juicy roles. Nieman's script shuffles nimbly among an array of colorful characters and offers unexpected twists that keep you off-balance.

Writer-director Larry Blamire has clearly done his homework, and his playful cast nails the requisite acting-so-bad-it's-good pitch.

An eye-opening sociological examination that is alternately moving and tedious.

Lacks the urgency and significance of a great docu but still offers a diverting entertainment.

The 3-D footage of Titanic does speak volumes, and sometimes the sheer fussiness of all the ghosts and archival images get in the way. As huge as the Imax screen is, when six different images vie for one's attention, it looks cluttered.

Achieves a rare depth and intimacy in its portrait of dreams fulfilled and shattered.

It contains terrific sequences, and Nicholson and Sandler team up better than one might expect. But the film plays like two characters in search of a story and runs a good 15 minutes too long.

Chases romance and comedy across Europe for nearly two hours without ever quite catching either. Essentially a teenage rendition of William Wyler's immortal "Roman Holiday."

This particular reconceptualization actually does an impressive job of capturing the nasty dread of the original. It certainly is a vast improvement over those previous remakes/sequels.

The movie telegraphs its intentions too early and relies too much on a single actor, Johnny Depp, to achieve its emotional force.

Despite the high piffle of the psychology and the arched abstraction of the story line, Reconstruction is well crafted. Under director Christoffer Boe's cagey hand, the pacing is sleek and the cinematography evocative. Claro's compositions are vigorously stylish.

Clearly, much care and intelligence have been lavished on discouraging, routine material.

Taking satiric aim at a familiar target, conformity, Australian playwright Tony McNamara's film debut is by turns incisive and broad.

Packed high with explosive action and loaded with high-stakes jeopardy, Con Air charts a generally sound narrative course, although it hits some story turbulence before it hits its climactic jackpot.

Although Criminal retains its source material's cleverness and intricate plotting, something seems to have been lost in the translation.

Despite the sterling performances by the two main actors, the movie tends to lose pace in the second half and needs more secondary characters. But for a first time in the director's chair, Samuell shows a deftness of touch that bodes well for the future.

In the midst of this didactic, self-conscious movie about a high school shooting comes an extraordinary and intense performance by a young actress named Busy Philipps, which elevates the whole picture.

It's too loose and casual, all too willing to trade the writer's trademark wit and literary mischief for slapstick comedy.

The film would make a better fit on television or at one of Disney's theme parks. In cinemas, Heart & Soul is an odd duck, out of sync with the current generation of documentarians whose films dig deep into stories and issues the media generally overlooks.

Incident at Loch Ness manages to cross "Project Greenlight" with "The Blair Witch Project" in a way that makes one pine for the originals.

A meticulously rendered romantic drama, very well acted and featuring solid production values and location work that makes New York feel like one of the movie's characters. The only problem is the story is rather flat.

While it has its moments of pure Farrelly inspiration and swell performances from Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear...the patented blend of the outrageous and the sweet that has become the brothers' trademark struggles to find the desired balance here.

This comedic jape delivers some sharp jabs at obvious targets, namely the boosterish excesses of American religiosity.

The familiar formula feels significantly watered-down the third time around.

Resembling a short story more than a narrative feature, the film tells its slender story in leisurely fashion, relying more on mood and atmosphere than dialogue or character development.

Suspect Zero has enough going for it to eventually develop a cult following. But compared to "Silence of the Lambs" and "Seven," it's still the minor leagues.

Tambini and Sandoval lived in the community for a year and present the story with great immediacy. The film could have benefited from some deeper analysis of why these people feel their way of life is so threatened.

Where the best Coen brothers comedy is a matter of finely tuned tone, diction, attitude and visual rhythms, everything in The Ladykillers feels out of kilter. With Tom Hanks delivering -- arguably -- one of the most perplexing performances of his career.

Cruises along agreeably on the easy chemistry between Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, who step in where Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul left off.

The film will still prove a tonic to those holding left-of-center views.

Pleasant and atmospheric family romp, offering enough mildly chilling thrills to keep everyone entertained during its brief running time.

As drama the film mostly serves to illustrate the two sides of this crucial social debate in Africa.

A respectable and at times an exciting film that should appeal to males of all ages, history buffs and -- yes, it's inevitable -- patriots.

The plot, of course, is merely an excuse for an endless series of gags, and the percentage of them that score is fairly high. But since the jokes are based over and over on the fact that Lloyd and Harry are really, really dumb, a certain repetitive factor sets in.

Ending with neither a bang nor a whimper, the finale falls somewhere in between. It's an improvement over its concurrently shot, babbling predecessor, but it ultimately fails to capture any of that jaw-dropping sense of exhilaration that made the original such a must-see event.

While far too much of the film is staged discussion and smug political jousting, there is savage and lethal black irony.

Character eccentricities and off-kilter group dynamics play out with a comic vengeance.

The film is an initially insightful portrait of modern corporate society that unfortunately lapses into melodrama.

Rue plays her with just the right combination of sweetness, sexuality and sass.

The film becomes markedly more entertaining with every appearance by Walter Hagen (Jeremy Northam), Jones' archrival, a raconteur and bon vivant who, though fiercely competitive, enjoyed playing while drunk and clad in a tuxedo.

May not be for all tastes, but it's an up close and personal look at a true rock 'n' roll animal.

Unlike "The Matrix," all fights and stunts -- including a 14-minute freeway chase -- have a disturbing tendency to repeat intricately choreographed action. Thus, computer technology and overkill supplant the ingenuity of the original film's action.

Daniel Craig, in his meatiest film role to date, delivers his usual incisive performance, even if this intimate drama of contemporary Londoners pushes the boundaries of credibility.

A decidedly upbeat number, centered on a good-hearted character.

The large cast, costumed and made up as filthy scalawags and sinister buccaneers, gives tremendous energy to every scene.

The real problem is that Brugge and Haythe fail to satisfactorily pull off either the thriller or the marital deconstruction.

Although a number of the gags fall flatter than a crepe, the accent is on the charmingly juvenile as opposed to the purely puerile, with a fresh-faced cast of amiable young performers on hand to make the trek relatively painless.

Comes off as an overly jokey but often quite entertaining spoof that should please families everywhere.