Fighting Temptations, The (2003)

Comedy Rated PG-13

A good-natured movie that deserves a better title, a better script, a better effort from everyone behind the camera. Basically a gospel-themed remake of The Music Man, with Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the Harold Hill part, The Fighting Temptations has a few fun musical numbers but mostly goes through the motions. Audiences deserve better too.

Find Me Guilty (2006)

Drama Rated R

Director Sidney Lumet (Serpico) wants to combine the gritty organized crime of “The Sopranos” with the wacky Mob yucks of Analyze This – and he has chosen none other than Vin Diesel to bridge that cavernous gap. The movie is based on the landmark trial of a New Jersey crime family, but it focuses mainly

Hardball (2001)

Drama Rated PG-13

Hardball, about a Chicago gambler (Keanu Reeves) who turns his life around by coaching an inner-city kids’ baseball team, has little more in mind than playing with your heartstrings, but it does so with gentle tugs. It’s a movie for softies that uses a surprisingly soft sell.

Hey Arnold! The Movie (2002)

Family Rated PG

I’ve never seen the Nickelodeon animated series on which this is based, so I was hoping it would help explain the show’s appeal. But aside from some visual wit – including the way Arnold’s mouth is always placed in the far corner of his football-shaped face – there’s little imagination on display, especially in the

Just Like Heaven (2005)

Romantic Comedy Rated PG-13

Mark Ruffalo’s scruffy irritability makes for just the right tonic to Reese Witherspoon’s latest romantic comedy, which otherwise consists of as much cotton-candy fluff as might be expected. She plays a dear, departed emergency room doctor who haunts her former apartment – and the sad sack (Ruffalo) who has moved in. When these two team

Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat (2002)

Documentary Rated R

An embarrassing vanity project, this was an attempt by Martin Lawrence to re-establish his credibility after various run-ins with the law. Opening with a shameless career tribute and consisting mainly of a crude, witless standup routine, the whole thing eventually becomes so self-pitying I almost expected there to be a collection taken for the comedian

Loser (2000)

Drama Rated PG-13

This anti-American Pie, a relatively wholesome teen romance about down-on-their-luck college students in New York City, is so dull that it had me longing for another Road Trip. Jason Biggs and Mena Suvari star as humdrum lovers-to-be with humdrum problems standing in their way. Writer-director Amy Heckerling has made movies that are far better (Clueless,

Poolhall Junkies (2002)

Drama Rated R

It would be easier to like Poolhall Junkies – a serviceable rehash of every other billiards movie ever made, courtesy of writer-director-star Mars Callahan – if Callahan didn’t like himself so much. As a hustler looking to go legit, the lanky, cocky actor has a lively presence, yet he’s not enough to make the movie

Master of Disguise, The (2002)

Comedy Rated PG

Dana Carvey stars as an Italian waiter who discovers he has the magical power of disguise. This mainly involves a lot of mugging for the camera, but Carvey doesn’t have the comic invention to pull it off – most of his “disguises” feel like ideas that were rejected during his days at “Saturday Night Live.”

28 Weeks Later (2007)

Horror Rated R

“… the political points arise naturally out of the terror.”