Though probably well-intentioned, Radio comes off as manipulative of its audience and exploitative of the mentally challenged.

Goes overboard on the gruesome and scrimps on humor. Raimi's "Drag Me to Hell" was a much funnierchill-fest.

Alas, if you're someone who enjoys movies as, say, a two-hour escape, you may find this documentary on the death of film at digital's hands a bit too inside baseball.

For a movie with a star wrestler at the center of it, Legendary doesn't pack much of a punch.

Like a lot of meds, it loses its effectiveness over time, and you'll build a resistance to Effects eventually, particularly when it dissolves into a standard crime flick.

Though some scenes may be too intense for children, the action is slick, with robot clashes and airborne chases leaving the strongest impression.

This leaden teen comedy is meant to be lively, but it's curiously bland.

Fun at times and tedious at others, it's an action-adventure fantasy aimed particularly at gadget-loving boys.

The devil has a new spawn, but this one is not nearly as creepy as its progenitor.

The movie, though predictable and formulaic, is not that simple, although it might have been better off had it been so basic. It interweaves clichés from several other genres and ends up a mishmash of stories.

Contraband has a few moments of tension, but it adheres to a predictable heist formula hardly worth trafficking in.

The setting is vivid but the film is lifeless, despite many innuendos dropped about FDR's alleged infidelity.

Joyful Noise seems tailor-made for an audience of churchgoers and "Glee" devotees.

Seeing gawky Charlie Korsmo, one-time movie moppet, as a superbrain whose introduction to alcohol leads him to do a rip-roaring rendition of Guns N' Roses' Paradise City, is worth a smile or two. But even that can't save [the] film.

Perry must have felt it was high time for him to try his hand at playing a darker role. But starring in this badly directed, suspense-free film with its unintentionally laughable dialogue does Perry no favors.

Ultimately the story of Jay Moriarity, who died tragically in a diving accident at 22, is a moving one, and he deserved a better tribute than this film.

For a computer-animated movie about dancing penguins, it's surprisingly leaden. Not even the impressive voice talent can rev up this clumsy spectacle.

An intriguing and somber tale of disintegrating and disappointing relationships fused with a coming-of-age story.

Best scenes: Campbell pondering whether to squash her dismembered head in a vice, and a later quandary when he must shotgun his own dismembered hand. Moral: Pimples aren't the worst thing that can happen to your body. [11 Sept 1987, Life, p.3D]

There's the germ of a sexy idea in True Colors, which serves up a duplicitous friendship, Capitol Hill intrigue and even attractive scenery (indoors and out). Too bad some folks have disinfected it. [15 Mar 1991, p.4D]

Strange Magic is strange all right, but hardly magical.

The dashing Jackman plays his part well enough, but the script doesn't provide sufficient "Indiana Jones"-style bons mots to win us over.

These movies can't possibly be the best chance Neeson has got. Certainly he's offered more nuanced dramas that call on subtler acting skills and don't entail a mounting body count.

Cate Blanchett brings little but an arch toughness to the role of Marion, and, in a highly improbably climactic scene, proves herself a veritable knight. Crowe and Blanchett share a perfunctory romance, with few sparks.

Four is so cobbled with bits of other sci-fi and comic-book movies, there's little to distinguish it.

Just like the popular (and more graphically violent) video game it's spun from, kung-fooy and kartoony Kombat shoves plot and personality aside to focus on action cloaked in mystic mumbo-jumbo and gloomy mock-gothic graphics. [21 Aug 1995 Pg. 03.D]

Smurfs is utterly kid-friendly.

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