Longest Yard, The (2005)

Comedy Rated PG-13

The Longest Yard is inexplicably faithful to its inspiration, the buffoonish 1974 Burt Reynolds comedy. It’s pandering, puzzling and downright idiotic. Adam Sandler takes over the Reynolds role of Paul Crewe, a former professional quarterback who is sent to prison, where he leads a team of Neanderthal convicts in a game against their guards (Reynolds,

Red Eye (2005)

Thriller Rated PG-13

Remember that photo of Richard Reid, in which the would-be terrorist looked like he wouldn’t be able to light a cigarette, let alone a shoe bomb? Those are the kind of bad guys who drive the plot of Red Eye, in which a woman on a plane falls victim to an imbecilic hostage/blackmail/assassination scheme. Going

Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, The (2001)

Comedy Rated PG

Shot in black and white, with laborious dialogue and wooden acting, this straight-faced tribute to the sci-fi horror flicks of the 1960s is fun for a while, but it soon turns dull, then stale. These are actors trying to be bad, which is far less entertaining than genuinely bad acting. In the end, Skeleton is

Shark Tale (2004)

Family Rated PG

Shark Tale takes pains to give its cast of fish specific cultural characteristics, so that Will Smith spouts hip-hop lingo and sports a skewed baseball cap as a colorful cleaner wrasse who gets himself into trouble when he claims to have killed a shark. Only the painfully politically correct might complain, but such a narrow

Lucky Number Slevin (2006)

Action/Adventure Rated R

This twisting, turning con movie is so pleased with its own cleverness that an audience isn’t even necessary. Nobody could like the film as much as it likes itself. That sense of self-satisfaction considerably dampens whatever genuine pleasures the picture holds, including a flirty pair of performances from Lucy Liu and Josh Hartnett. Hartnett has

S.W.A.T. (2003)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

S.W.A.T., starring Colin Farrell and Samuel L. Jackson as members of an elite police force, dissolves before your very eyes. What begins as a terse, disciplined look at the procedures of a S.W.A.T. unit gets slowly eaten away by summer-movie conventions, with all the silliness and bombast the genre implies. By the end, you’ll think

Runaway Jury (2003)

Thriller Rated PG-13

Runaway Jury depicts jurors as puppets – the drama lies not in their final decision regarding the case before them, but in who will win the battle to pull their strings. As a case study in manipulation, the movie fascinates. If unnecessary thriller elements take over in the end – this is a John Grisham

Together (2000)

Drama Rated PG

A genial if syrupy crowd pleaser from China, Together follows a rural father (Liu Peiqi) and son (Tang Yun) who move to Beijing to further the boy’s violin education. Much of this is broad, from the father’s clownish behavior to a finale that overflows with tears. Yet director Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine) manages some

Shattered Glass (2003)

Drama Rated PG-13

A riveting dramatization of a story that mainly made waves in journalism circles: the exposure of the fraudulent career of New Republic magazine writer Stephen Glass, who made up a good chunk of his stories. Thanks to a revelatory performance by Hayden Christensen (Star Wars: Episode II and III), this becomes an engrossing study of

Undertow (2004)

Drama Rated R

As in his little-known, independent efforts George Washington and All the Real Girls, director David Gordon Green specializes in capturing the idiosyncratic flickers in life that never leave us. Undertow traces the legacy of violence handed down from one generation of men to another when an ex-con (Josh Lucas) pays a visit to his brother