Shipping News, The (2001)

Drama Rated R

The same problems I had with E. Annie Proulx’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel – an inert main character, an overdone sense of misery – aren’t solved in this adaptation, which stars Kevin Spacey as a dull doormat who starts a new life in his ancestral home of Newfoundland after the death of his poisonously vindictive wife.

Stealth (2005)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

Just when you’ve written this off as a tired retread of Top Gun – this time with the twist of an artificially intelligent fighter plane – director Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious) throws enough impressive action into the mix to offer some surprises. The rest mainly consists of Jamie Foxx, Jessica Biel and

Tadpole (2002)

Comedy Rated PG-13

Forced quirkiness built around a flimsy gimmick, this independent feature follows an outrageously cultured 15-year-old (Aaron Stanford) who goes about wooing his stepmother (Sigourney Weaver) by quoting Voltaire. While the precocious high-schooler of Wes Anderson’s Rushmore – this movie’s obvious model – existed in a carefully cultivated fairy-tale world, the hero here is all too

Torque (2004)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

Another silly hot-rod movie, with fewer thrills than unintentional laughs. Martin Henderson plays a biker who is caught between drug dealers and the FBI. His red-leather racing suit has “Carpe Diem” emblazoned on the front, but Dead Poets Society this is not.

Cheaper by the Dozen (2003)

Family Rated PG

If you find most sitcom kids to be thoroughly annoying, by all means avoid this remake of the 1950 family film, starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt as the overwhelmed parents of 12. Littered with poisonously precocious brats, the picture mostly consists of forced comic set pieces involving swinging from chandeliers and pet frogs jumping

Jackass: The Movie (2002)

Comedy Rated R

Its legion of teen male fans would be loathe to admit it, but this spinoff of the MTV reality series is the most blatant display of latent homosexuality since The Ambiguously Gay Duo on “Saturday Night Live.” Nearly every stunt eventually finds its way to the crotch, while two particular members of the gang might

Emperor’s Club, The (2002)

Drama Rated PG

A remedial-course version of Dead Poets Society, this manages just enough good will of its own to excuse any lack of innovation. Kevin Kline stars as William Hundert, one of those boarding-school instructors who spends so much time inspiring his students you wonder if he ever does any actual teaching. Watching him may feel a

My Dog Skip (2000)

Family Rated PG

This is less of a children’s movie than it is a series of stupid pet tricks, although there’s enough life lessons to make you feel like you should earn a merit badge just for watching it. Frankie Muniz stars as a 9-year-old boy whose Jack Russell terrier helps him face the challenges of growing up,

Glory Road (2006)

Drama Rated PG-13

Disney’s fact-based, sports-movie formula has become so drowsily familiar by now that watching another one of these films nearly serves as a sedative – if not outright anesthesia. The only thing wrong with Glory Road – a dramatization of the 1966 season of the Texas Western basketball team, which was the first to start five

Rock Star (2001)

Drama Rated R

When it’s not burdened by trying to be a cautionary parable about the dangers of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle, this fact-based drama makes some interesting observations about stardom – what it looks like, who has it and why everybody seems to want it. Mark Wahlberg certainly has it, which is why his performance as