Something New (2006)

Drama Rated PG-13

The engaging stars of this cross-cultural love story must bushwack through a thick tangle of romantic-comedy cliches before arriving at anything remotely genuine and true, but they do manage to get there. For Sanaa Lathan and Simon Baker, as an uptight black career woman and her laid-back white landscaper, respectively, it’s victory by perseverance more

Time Machine, The (2002)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

To truly enjoy The Time Machine – the latest adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic fantasy novel – would require a time machine itself. That way you could zip from scene to scene and pause only for the movie’s few worthwhile moments – namely some clever production design and a few elaborate special effects. Starring the

Clockstoppers (2002)

Action/Adventure Rated PG

This sci-fi adventure – about a high-schooler (Jesse Bradford) who discovers a secret government watch that allows him to move so fast everyone else seems to be standing still – wants to be Spy Kids for a slightly older set, but the witless result tries to coast on dated but carefully test-marketed elements such as

It Runs in the Family (2003)

Drama Rated PG-13

Watching It Runs in the Family, starring Kirk, Michael and Cameron Douglas, feels a little bit like getting stuck at someone else’s family reunion. The forced arguments and conveniently tragic plot developments in the contrived script are bad enough, but when the Douglases start hauling out pictures of their shared past, we just feel like

In-Laws, The (2003)

Comedy Rated PG-13

Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks, as mismatched fathers of the bride and groom, work up some comedic steam in this remake, but ludicrous spy shenanigans push the movie over the top. Instead of allowing the stars to deliver a small comedy of manners, The In-Laws packs them onto a Sea-Doo and sends them racing after

Life of David Gale, The (2003)

Drama Rated R

Don’t get caught up in the looney logic that governs this death row drama. Instead, appreciate it for its performances: occasionally Kevin Spacey’s as a professor convicted of murder, mostly Kate Winslet’s as a reporter who comes to interview him and above all that of Laura Linney as the murder victim. The Life of David

Laws of Attraction (2004)

Romantic Comedy Rated PG-13

Like the Coen brothers’ Intolerable Cruelty, this aims to recreate the witty glamour of classic screwball comedies by setting a romance within the world of divorce. Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore, as opposing divorce attorneys who fall for each other, work up only a television series’ level of chemistry, when a movie deserves stars who

New Best Friend (2002)

Drama Rated R

A hack’s Heathers, New Best Friend follows a college wallflower (Mia Kirshner) who is introduced by three party girls into a world of sex, drugs and bad dance music. Laughably amateurish, the movie boasts robotic performances, a barely there plot and sex scenes that give off more desperation than heat.

Man, The (2005)

Comedy Rated PG-13

The Man is a buddy comedy with a fatal misunderstanding of the concept of a comedic duo. Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy pair up as Derrick Vann (Jackson), a growling undercover ATF agent, and Andy Fidler (Levy), a cheery dental supplies salesman who is mistaken for an arms dealer. Rather than playing off of

P.S. (2004)

Drama Rated R

The deserving Laura Linney gets a chance to take center stage as a 30-something divorced woman succumbing to a life devoid of romantic love – until she meets a young graduate student (Topher Grace) at the university where she works. The film loses its focus as the complications arise, but whenever the camera is on