Documentaries have been coming down on humanity so hard in recent years -- from "An Inconvenient Truth" to the latest Oscar winner, "Inside Job" -- that it's refreshing to bask in a bit of optimism coming from a nonfictional film.

As it thuds along from one wolf attack to the next, Catherine Hardwicke's first film since taking leave of Bella and her toothy friends adamantly refuses to provide any wit, humor or fun.

The deadening and sometimes laughable litany of shouted military-style dialogue eventually pummels into submission any hope for fresh creative angles on this well-worn format.

The film is only "superior" though, not great. The themes feel shopworn and devotee of crime fiction can point to the any number of antecedents for these characters.

Horror film buffs like to giggle as much as scream but there're no giggles here.

The three most important things in movies are story, story, story so the movie never comes off as the considerable achievement it truly is.

A pedestrian chronicle of an eventful true story.

The most illuminating nuggets come from playwrights, authors and journalists, including Tony Kushner, Terrence McNally, Larry Kramer, Michael Cunningham, Paul Rudnick, Dan Savageand the late Dominick Dunne, who helped get the movie version made.

Monogamy doesn't manage to find anything particularly new to say, and says it very, very slowly.

Binoche has a chance to display her noteworthy gifts as a comedienne, switching effortlessly from English to French and Italian to build a character that is resentful, manipulative and seductive all at once.

Smartly observed and precisely visualized, 3 Backyards is nonetheless a bore: We never care for any of the characters and their lives of "quiet desperation."

Fassbender cuts a more prosaic, realistic figure as the tormented, romantic Rochester than did the screen's most celebrated performer of the role, Orson Welles, in the effective 1944 version.

Affectionate, funny and action-packed sci-fi spoof.

Think "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Little Miss Sunshine." In many ways, Win Win fits that mold, which should make it McCarthy's most broadly appealing movie to date.

Rarely do films from Hollywood emerge in such an inane manner. Its rote characters are inevitably in predictable situations with no subtext or subtlety to any of their predicaments.

Michael Dowse's aggressively unfunny film which seeks the lowest common denominator in nearly every scene.

The film is fresh and funny, but it is also meandering, at times vague and defiantly uncommercial.

It might even live up to that title: When it ends, you wouldn't mind a bit more, please.

On any number of levels, "Devil" is troublesome at best, offensive at worst.

Most exceptional is the visual style, which makes even the best animated 3D look like a poor cousin.

Director Patrick Lussier and his co-screenwriter Todd Farmer string together smash-up car chases, hyper-violent physical clashes, flying viscera and a dollop of sex and nudity with ludicrous dialogue and only a passing concern for logic in this high-octane trash.

The Grace Card is a surprisingly hard-edged, faith-based drama.

George Nofi pulls off a relative rarity in his feature film debut by creating a genuinely romantic fantasy suspense thriller.

The slapstick and action comedy interludes are haphazardly executed at best, and matters aren't helped by the film's incredibly ugly look.

Skateland is every coming-of-age-after-high-school movie you've ever seen with a formulaic plot and well-worn characters.

Militantly superficial and revels overmuch in its campy gay sensibility, but is sporadically fun if not taken too seriously.

There are eight individual decisions to be made here, yet Beauvois never humanizes any of his monks. The film instead consumes itself with songs, communal prayers and nightly meals.

Levesque, soon to be seen in an action movie, "Inside Out," that is probably more suited to his talents, is a reasonably engaging and likeable screen presence.