Each character weighs the dilemma, and each has at least one breast-beating soliloquy on the subject, as COCOON II goes for poignancy in attempting to deal with the weighty issues raised in its funnier, more-upbeat predecessor. It's a commendable effort, but the result is a pretty dreary movie.

Basically a formula film with all the usual car chases, knock-downs, booby traps, etc. If you like John Wayne, you'll love Brannigan. If you just think he is...well, only all right, you'll be better off reading a book. This is not one of the Duke's best.

A stew of silliness that's so ridiculous it's almost entertaining. Almost.

This is a surprisingly heartfelt film from Marin, miles away from the mindless drug humor that infected his efforts with Tommy Chong. The film offers some genuinely tender moments as Marin uses Robles situation to explore the plight of Mexicans who long for a better life.

Bordering on parody, but too sleazy to be very funny, this mad slasher film involves a cleaver-wielding psycho who lurks in the halls of a Boston university.

This film is pure, empty (if gorgeous) spectacle, and the decision to loose the tongues of the ape planet's humans (they were mute in the original) undermines the contrast that lies at the heart of the story's power.

Fun without ever being particularly funny, this one-joke comedy-of-bad-manners features a hero who will either tickle your funny bone or make you vaguely uncomfortable.

Mitchum gives a surprisingly strong performance as a character-type he normally steered away from.

Ukraine-born, American-based filmmaker Andrei Zagdansky's deeply frustrating "documentary essay" examines the Orange Revolution.

This modest picture is distinguished by some marvelously bitchy dialogue.

What makes the film more interesting than it might have been, however, is the warm relationship between Glenn and Peter.

A much gentler follow-up to the original film, Any Which Way You Can takes the time to humanize the characters, and shows them as passionate human beings instead of the fighting machines they were in the first film. Among the film's many funny moments is a parallel seduction sequence showing Philo and Lynne in one motel room, while Clyde puts the moves on a female orangutan next door.

A must-see for martial arts enthusiasts.

Only McKellan seems to understand the profound silliness of the film in which he finds himself, and he camps it up accordingly.

The picture is very talky, and the gags all fall flat. Director Gilbert Cates was responsible for a number of fine and sensitive films, including I Never Sang for my Father, but stumbles here.

First and foremost a showcase for the latest developments in motion-capture and 3-D technology.

Undeniably entertaining.

Although director Bob Radler gums up the fight scenes with lots of unnecessary slo-mo, and the film follows its formula mechanically, this is a moderately serviceable action yarn.

Carpenter's first directorial effort, an intermittently hilarious satire on 2001--A SPACE ODYSSEY. Carpenter's spaceship is piloted by four goofy astronauts who live like slobs and are bored out of their skulls by their long, uneventful mission.

Feels soft without being especially affectionate, and only sporadically funny.

It's undone by a murky palette, silly horror-movie cliches, dumb dialogue and a confusing climactic sequence.

So low-key that it verges on unconsciousness.

The impulses that produced this project, which brings together three short, English-language films by African female filmmakers into a feature-film package introduced by rap icon Queen Latifah, are commendable, but the results are uneven.

Has a certain weird charm, but it's too seamy for children and too simplistic played for adults.

While Jones' direction is nothing special, the script by Brown does have its share of male ego-deflating laughs--mainly some obvious Freudian jokes--and actually takes some time to develop the victims as characters instead of mere gore-fodder.

There's tons of professionalism in He's Just Not That Into You, but it lacks passion -- they should have called it "Like, Actually."

The politics get pretty short shrift, but cigarettes and liquor are everywhere.

Fans of unashamedly low-brow comedies may well be amused by the eccentricities of Cabin Boy, but more conventional viewers should probably beware.