Meet the Fockers (2004)

Comedy Rated PG-13

Dustin Hoffman, joining the Meet the Parents franchise for this sequel to that 2000 family farce, actually puts forth an effort, and his eager amiability only makes coasting castmates Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro and Barbra Streisand look all the more uninspired. He’s like the one kid in gym class who takes Frisbee golf seriously.

Below (2002)

Horror Rated R

“It’s just the wind,” goes the attempt at reassurance in your average haunted-house story. In Below, a clever horror flick set aboard a World War II submarine, the men tell each other, “It’s just the water.” Ably directed by genre specialist David Twohy (Pitch Black), Below combines the paranoid claustrophobia of a submarine movie with

Men in Black II (2002)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

When a movie’s strongest quality is a fantastic, original concept, a sequel can be something of a self-defeating proposition. And so Men in Black II – in which mysterious government agents Kay and Jay (Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith) reunite to monitor the extraterrestrials secretly living among us – is occasionally fun but never

Darkness Falls (2003)

Horror Rated PG-13

Though it never lives up to the ghost story that serves as its prologue – about a vengeful spirit who attacks kids the night they lose their last baby tooth – Darkness Falls remains serviceably creepy throughout. The main story follows one of the ghost’s former victims – now a predictably disheveled adult – as

One, The (2001)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

In a generic science-fiction future – you know, the kind full of stark fluorescent lighting and bulky armored cars – a cop (Jet Li) fights his evil double from a parallel universe. Li’s a man of considerable martial arts talent, but you won’t see much of it here. The One has the stiff, dingy look

Dark Water (2005)

Horror Rated PG-13

Another Americanized version of a horror film from the Japanese Ring factory, this is one of those unsettling thrillers that could be taking place entirely within the main character’s head. Jennifer Connelly stars as a recently divorced mother trying to prove that she can raise her young daughter on her own. When a few highly

Remember the Titans (2000)

Drama Rated PG

As a “respectable” picture from bullets-and-babes producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Con Air, Coyote Ugly), this fact-based story about the 1971 integration of a high school football team calculatedly hits all the right notes for a socially conscious drama, but it also contains a strong performance by Denzel Washington and a few moments of feel-good truth. All

Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2006)

Documentary Rated R

The perfect venue for Chappelle’s ironic blend of inflammatory yet inclusive comedy. In staging “the concert I’ve always wanted to see” in Brooklyn, Chappelle brings together mostly black hip-hop artists (Kanye West, Mos Def, Erykah Badu), a college marching band and two ancient hippies who live on the block, among others. It’s not exactly a

Scary Movie 2 (2001)

Comedy Rated R

This flimsy horror movie spoof offers more infantile humor, lazily delivered. Considering three early gags involve urinating, defecating and vomiting, you could save yourself $8 and find equal entertainment by spending an evening in a public restroom (and this is coming from a guy who found redeeming qualities in Tom Green’s Freddy Got Fingered).

Banger Sisters, The (2002)

Drama Rated R

Overcoming an icky concept and title – Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon star as former rock groupies who reunite decades later – The Banger Sisters uses genuine humor to explore the ways we deal with our former selves. Both Hawn, as the barmaid still living in the past, and Sarandon, as the uptight suburban mom