Stanzler's ideas about the psychic legacy of 9/11 are so confused -- that by the time he unveils the final plot twist, his film has lost every shred of credibility.

As sequels go, Critters 2: The Main Course is particularly bereft of imagination. Save for the opening 20 or 30 minutes, the film is pretty much a clone of the original.

At the end of the day, people who want to see this movie aren't looking for something original. There's a certain familiarity that makes the romantic comedy a perennial favorite among audiences.

The film does, however, feature revealing performances from its leads, authentic production design, and atmospheric photography by Sven Nykvist.

With its thumping soundtrack, absence of body hair and a camera that practically pants over every bulge, curve and crack of the male form, the film is really closer to porn than a serious critique of what's wrong with this increasingly pervasive aspect of gay culture.

But for those jonesing for a loosely connected string of comedy sketches, heavy on the scatological humor, this is the fix.

This convoluted, time and continent-tripping tale is heavy on the adolescent angst and swoony romanticism.

Team M-I knows its way around James and ignores the lazy stereotype of Americans as gauche rubes bumbling around Paris like barbarians at the ballet in favor of sly digs at French and American mores alike.

An exciting, although pointless, race through the dark and menacing streets of Chicago's West Side.

The basic flaw in Falling in Love, however, is that no one in the film--including the lovers--seems to be in love.

It is a small film, with small, and at times cliched, ideas about rural life, but there is a sweetness about it that is an appealing and refreshing change from the usual roller-coaster films that bombard audiences in the summer.

After Bruce Lee's death, a gaping hole plagued the martial arts genre, but former karate champ Norris helped close that gap.

One of the most downright sleazy major films in recent memory, 52 PICK-UP works mainly because of its vivid villains, who are more intriguing than the hero. Glover is superb as the totally amoral blackmailer who uses his superior intelligence to keep his dimmer comrades in check.

Brian Robbins (Varsity Blues) actually has a clear sense of the way 21st-century teenagers behave, and his sleek style keeps the film moving briskly.

This one is superior in almost every respect to the first, with slam-bang action, many humorous moments, and an excellent performance by Steve James.

Slight, genial documentary portrait of a man and his dream.

Satanic silliness undermines this gloomy horror picture.

The film makes no real impression; it's amiable, occasionally funny and indistinguishable from dozens of other romantic comedies just like it.

Clearly Phish's appeal is fundamentally experiential, and the experience doesn't lend itself to being captured on film.

The whole thing whizzes by in such a panicked rush that there's no time for anything so immaterial as character, but what little we do learn about Chev works against the film.

Twenty-five years on, hardcore continues to be the soundtrack of choice for extreme, white-supremacist groups hoping to tap into teenage rage. With no one on hand to counter the argument, this may go down as hardcore's lasting legacy.

A tricky thriller, Malice begins well but betrays its coolly calculating premise and degenerates into a silly horror story.

There's no point to any of this other than simply having fun. It's like a comic book come to life, complete with colorful villains, mindless violence, nifty gadgets, sparse logic, and some wonderfully silly dialog.

Most of the cast of accomplished actors are wasted in these roles, although two do manage to stand out: Ryder as the innocent-savvy Myra and John Doe, in an underplayed performance, as her father. The musical sequences are entertaining and energetic.

The only surprise here is how a film with so much promise could ultimately settle for so little.

Be sure to stay for the coda, a damning piece of newsreel that casts much of what went before in a whole new light.

In this quartet of scary tales, two stories work and two don't.

Sweet-natured and as inconsequential as can be, shored up by smooth, low-key ensemble performances.