This isn't the worst movie Warner Bros. has brought out this summer (Scooby-Doo, boo on you), but for it to work, you have to accept the irredeemable stupidity of almost every character. Time better spent: a Shaquille O'Neal film festival on video.

Sayles is clearly aiming to construct a multilevel character study and sociological portrait, but too often the film lapses into a lecture.

Stripped of all bravado, Cruise delivers a raw and probably detractor-proof performance. Spielberg does what he did right in creating a novel milieu for "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," but this time the writing is fresher and anything but unwieldy.

The soundtrack is mostly Elvis tunes, and Stitch even does an adorable impersonation of the King. As Elvis might put it, you can't help falling in love with Lilo & Stitch.

Capably made and certainly impresses by carrying its length, but it doesn't expand 60 years of World War II screen literature by very much.

Blisteringly fast, Bourne also has a strong or striking supporting actor around every corner: Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Julia Stiles and Clive Owen in roles that range from meaty to amazingly small.

It's unclear why the writers bothered to update the cartoon, unless it was to expand the possibilities for quips and jokey ideas. If so, they failed in their mission, as the movie elicits few laughs.

Leaves a bad taste, not only because of its bad-luck timing, but also the staleness of its script.

The only character we get to know fully as she evolves from child to older woman is Vivi. Too bad the movie didn't also trace the lives of her "sisters." That might have been divine.

Mediocre terrorist melodrama turned even punier by real-life events, and that's before we scratch our heads at its lead-actor choice.

The soundtrack (which includes James Brown, Michael Jackson and The Commodores) is better than a K-Tel "Best of the '70s" compilation, and the broad physical comedy is as reliable as a brick house.

Too much. The hackneyed story about an affluent damsel in distress who decides to fight her bully of a husband is simply too overdone.

A perfect fit between filmmaker (Memento's Christopher Nolan) and material (Norway's same-name psycho-chiller from 1997), this remake gets all there is to get out of a peculiar premise with promise.

A poetic and lovely tale, told as a silent picture with music and narration.

About a Boy is a rarity in many ways. It's a well-written, witty film whose memorable characters grapple with the nature of family, love, friendship and despair. Even its soundtrack, by Badly Drawn Boy, is perfectly pitched.

As for the breathless 45-minute climax, no screen fantasy adventure in memory can match the showmanship.

Unfaithful doesn't push the melodrama the way "Attraction" did, but it lingers in the mind as much.

Woody Allen is good for his funniest screen romp in a while, thanks to a few evenly spaced standout scenes of laugh-out-loud intensity.

This is a rare twisted crowd-pleaser for longtime fans as well as novices -- or for those that don't know an arachnid from an insect.

Life is a crock -- or something like it.

The film is, however, almost inevitably wistful for the past, and many of its emotional touches come from juxtaposed then-and-now footage of the participants.

A moviegoer's only defense against Jason is to avoid theaters showing this gruesome and derivative movie.

Wedding feels a bit anachronistic. Still, not every low-budget movie must be quirky or bleak, and a happy ending is no cinematic sin.

Of course, The Rock looks the part, though with a headband and buckskin, he'd also look like Tonto on steroids.

The result is two or three cuts above genre standard.

If you want a brain puzzler that will ensure a lively conversation on the way home, Nine Queens is the real deal.

If it's not conventionally speedy, it is almost always gripping.

The payoff isn't worth the time invested, but at least the actor-turned-filmmaker underplays an inherently queasy project that could have been over the top.

Aspires to be a cinematic "Sex and the City," but it's more like South Park Goes West.

It's no crime the movie has one or two endings too many, given that many thrillers of the past quarter-century have had the same. But Judd's latest is too harmless to be anything but a misdemeanor.

The script is consistently humorous, even if a few punch lines are predictable and the wit is neither highbrow nor split-a-gut funny.

Even by teen gross-out movie standards Van Wilder makes "Sorority Boys" look like "Some Like It Hot."

After "Chocolat" and this, how about a moratorium on candy-centered comedies?

Even when there are lulls, the emotions seem authentic.

Smoochy, like the cuddly character, tries to be loved and ends on an unrealistically upbeat note. But it's in better, wittier form just being vicious and biting.

Tries and winds up with a pleasant, if forgettable, romp of a film.

Things move fast enough to make it a movie to enjoy and then forget.

Snipes gives a looser, cooler performance this time around, though emotionally, it's closer to dead than undead. Blade II is for the horror faithful only; others will be grasping their crucifixes.

One of the best films of the year.

Evil's one strong presence is lead Milla Jovovich -- and not because the script gives her supercop/soldier anything interesting to say.

Can be taken on many levels, and that's why it works so completely.

De Niro's scowl and Murphy's sass are inherently funny, though in this case both actors are forced to call in moviegoers' long-established goodwill.

As far-fetched as it sometimes seems, the film resonates in the wake of the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

A minor delight but a delight just the same.

Drab as it is, the movie is not impossible to endure -- in part because the concept has a timeless appeal.

Such overkill might seem like an asset to teenage boys (and those who think like them). The rest of us are better off not wasting our Washingtons.

This also is the rare combat movie that deals substantially with mourning widows on the home front.

Within a certain narrow range, Hartnett shows some comic flair -- though not enough to carry the picture over its considerable rough spots.

If you're going because you want to see an entertaining horror movie, good luck.

Some of the movie's best scenes -- knockouts, in fact -- involve musical interludes.

When Kevin Costner goes into sensitive-guy mode, beware.

Less a movie than a mind-numbingly dull road trip.

One can excuse the movie's missteps and melodramatic moments in the greater interest of the strong statement it makes about our health care system.

This follow-up seems so similar to the 1953 Disney classic that it makes one long for a geriatric Peter.

What we get is simply another opportunity for Schwarzenegger -- who seems to be in perpetual Terminator mode -- to flex his muscles.

The word on Rollerball is "troubled," though troubled is what you call a high school junior with 50 snakes under his bed. Catastrophe is more like it.

Not so admirably, the film feels at times like a giant commercial for Universal Studios.

An uplifting but occasionally treacly tale of transcendent grief, opted to venture where angels go fearlessly.

The actress may get an Oscar nomination for the wrong movie -- "Moulin Rouge" over "The Others" -- but it would be a double misfortune for audiences to overlook a performance that boosts its movie from moderate to memorable.

There are laughs here, but easily as many groans.

Stands apart for its raw, quiet emotion and its shattering sense of truth.

For younger audiences drawn by the attractive actors, this might be their introduction to the Dumas epic. At least it's an effective and rousing version.

Compellingly watchable horror-spectacle.

Goo oozes without mercy in A Walk to Remember.

The best actor in Snow Dogs is a glowering Siberian husky named Demon. In fact, all the dogs in the movie do a better job than their human counterparts.

This charming but slight tale has warmth, wit and interesting characters compassionately portrayed.

Every performer puts vigor into an otherwise limp exercise, as if word were out that this would be the last comedy ever made about late-adolescent concerns.

Must we import the rubbish we export?

The only good thing about Impostor is the appropriateness of its title for a film posing as the first 2002 release.

Black Hawk turns nightmare into great cinema.

Displays so much promise with its beautiful cinematography and superb portrayal by Cate Blanchett that you scarcely notice (or even care) that the story is a bit thin.

Drawn out and dishonest in equal measure, Sam fights it out with "The Majestic" for the title of worst "important" movie of the year.

The movie is so fun that it wouldn't need the mystery to be top-notch entertainment.

Ali is no disgrace, but it's not much of a performer, especially considering that it is one of the few hyped year-end releases that coulda been a contender.

Watching the Pulitzer-prize winning novel by E. Annie Proulx on the big screen is like being on an ocean liner stuck on a glacier.

Lacking in originality.

After "Monsters, Inc.," this movie may be a bit of a letdown, but there are some scenes that will delight elementary-school-age children and older preschoolers -- notably the gross-out moments.

Enough low-grade laughs to entertain significantly more than some of the more prestigious year-end releases.

This is one inspiring movie despite extremely tricky subject matter -- better than "Shine" and among the most affecting ever made about co-existing with mental demons.

A pale imitation that challenges credulity and tries too hard to win our hearts with schmaltz.

A lot of this goes down surprisingly well, even if Panettiere, through no fault of her own, is saddled with phony precocious dialogue that makes her sound like an ancient sage.

Rings has moments of edge-of-the-seat excitement, too, such as when the dark riders come looking for Frodo. But it's occasionally tedious when it should be captivating.

Despite the sad denouement, it's still the love story of the year.

The film grows on you, but more substance and less calculated quirks would have been a royal treat.

What works in a quirky foreign film can look silly with expansive Hollywood treatment. Crowe is smart enough to know this, so it's baffling he chose Vanilla over richer cinematic tastes.

This tale is both redemptive and tragic, if occasionally melodramatic.

Majidi tells his simple story with dazzling vision.

Land has a lot of funny moments, which are no less serious for being so, especially when the script turns politically prickly.

Despite dashes of droll dialogue from screenwriter Ted Griffin, the remake aims for cool but instead gets chilly.

Incorporates a range of genres -- black comedy, thriller, psychological drama -- and emerges more powerful for it.

The affair may have raised eyebrows all over 18th century Paris, but it's not likely to elicit more than a shrug from 21st century moviegoers.

There's nothing very rockin' about seeing Gene Hackman give a rare indifferent performance as a Navy admiral trying to effect a rescue for which his hands are tied.

Bedroom succeeds with performances that get some of their power from imaginative casting.

Those who teach public speaking sometimes advocate telling your audience what you're going to tell them, then actually telling them, then telling them what you've told them. Sidewalks reproves this isn't a wise path for movies.

More than a quarter-century ago, Redford played a young CIA employee in "Three Days of the Condor." Someday, it will make a great living-room double bill with Spy Game -- the actor then and now.

We had hoped for just a funny movie, but instead we get some laughs and plenty of yawns.

Can't decide what direction it's going in. Some of the time it seems to be a standard teen sex comedy. Occasionally, it appears to be spoofing the genre. It concludes on a romantic, almost honorable note.

With Bonham Carter's been-there, done-that performance and a plot that spins out of control, we end up with a movie that you can't quite sink your teeth into.