Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, The (2002)

Action/Adventure Rated PG

A dim-witted and lazy spinoff of the Animal Planet documentary series, Crocodile Hunter is entertainment opportunism at its most glaring. Writer-director-producer John Stainton doesn’t even bother presenting the segments involving animal antagonizer Steve Irwin in 35 mm, leaving ugly black bars on either side of the theater screen.

Upside of Anger, The (2005)

Drama Rated R

Joan Allen acts up a storm as Terry, an abandoned wife and mother of four daughters, but thankfully it is of the authentic, rather than Oscar-baiting, variety. Kevin Costner also makes a welcome appearance as a retired baseball player who lives in the neighborhood and becomes Terry’s drinking buddy. The movie tiptoes between tragedy and

Elektra (2005)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

From its costumes to its weaponry to its production design, this Marvel Comics adaptation wants all of the surface style of an Asian martial-arts movie without any of the authenticity. A joyless Jennifer Garner reprises her role from Daredevil as a kung-fu trained assassin, but this is a rote Hollywood action flick through and through

Willard (2003)

Horror Rated PG-13

The reliably odd Crispin Glover – who played the fitfully nerdy George McFly in Back to the Future and the hair-sniffing assassin in Charlie’s Angels – gets neutralized by the overwhelming oddness of Willard, a remake of a 1971 horror flick about a social misfit who befriends a colony of rats. By the time the

Gosford Park (2001)

Drama Rated R

Director Robert Altman’s scathing, somewhat sterile look at the English aristocracy circa 1932, all filtered through the conventions of a murder mystery. As a collection of ladies and gentlemen gather for a hunting party on a lavish country estate, we follow them and their maids, valets and footmen through a weekend of pomp and circumstance

Woodsman, The (2004)

Drama Rated R

The Woodsman humanizes an inhuman problem – that of pedophilia – thanks mainly to a coiled performance by Kevin Bacon. As a convicted child molester just released from prison, Bacon taps into his character’s sickness and self-hatred with such intensity that he elicits something you would think impossible: sympathy.

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)

Comedy Rated R

A stoner comedy with a clear-headed sense of wit, this follows a pair of pot-loving roommates who spend an evening chasing sliders. Korean-American Harold (John Cho) and Indian-American Kumar (Kal Penn) have both a genial camaraderie and a subversive minority status, which turns this mindless pot trip into a new declaration of American independence. George

XXX: State of the Union (2005)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

Just as 2002’s XXX took aim at the extreme sports-loving, Mountain Dew-chugging teen demographic, so does this sequel patronize a stereotyped target market, making it little more than a cheap product cynically manufactured to pluck specific dollars. In tapping Ice Cube as the new secret agent and finding a supporting role for rapper turned Pimp

Hollywood Ending (2002)

Comedy Rated PG-13

A spoof of the auteur theory – the idea that a movie’s director is its primary author – by Woody Allen, one of America’s true auteurs. Here Allen writes, directs and stars as a once-lauded, two-time Oscar-winner who gets a chance to make a comeback when his ex-wife (Tea Leoni) convinces her studio-head husband (Treat

Insomnia (2002)

Thriller Rated R

Insomnia would be a perfect police noir except that it’s missing one crucial element: the night. Set in northern Alaska, where the midnight sun keeps the darkness at bay, this smart crime thriller stars Al Pacino as a Los Angeles police detective called north to track down a suspected murderer (Robin Williams). Considering this is