Aviator, The (2004)

Drama Rated PG-13

Take away director Martin Scorsese’s name, and what do you have with this portrait of industrialist/pilot/filmmaker/weirdo Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio)? Yet another movie biography angling for end-of-year honors, albeit one a bit more sensitively handled and artfully done. The picture certainly has its rewards, including DiCaprio’s laser-like focus, but it pins Scorsese in the past.

West Side Story (1961)

Musical Rated NR

“An entertaining, exuberant experience…”

Bad Santa (2003)

Comedy Rated R

A crude and hilarious riff on the drunken Santa routine – by now as much of a Christmas cliche as Rudolph’s red nose – Bad Santa also has a surprisingly empathetic heart. Billy Bob Thornton, in the title role, and director Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World) share the fatalistic worldview of an outcast loser, and it

Wild, The (2006)

Family Rated G

This has a plot nearly identical to that of 2005’s Madagascar, even though Disney’s press notes claimed the concept was first pitched to the studio nine years earlier. Once again, a pack of mismatched zoo animals plan an escape, only to find themselves poorly equipped to survive in an actual jungle. The visuals certainly have

Pirates of the Caribbean:
Dead Man’s Chest (2006)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

Once it dispenses with the convoluted logistics of reteaming its three leads – earnest sailor Will Turner (Orlando Bloom); his spirited fiance Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley); and Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow, still delightfully in search of his sea legs – this sequel works as wonderfully as the original. The secret is the way returning

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Family Rated G

Roald Dahl’s 1964 children’s book, about an eccentric, reclusive candy maker who invites five children to tour his factory, as envisioned in the psychedelic 1970s. From the trippy musical numbers – those Oompa-Loompas are the stuff that nightmares, or at least bad trips, are made of – to the screaming color design, this enchants kids

Superman Returns (2006)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

X-Men director Bryan Singer’s attempt to jump-start the franchise is virtually identical to 1978’s Superman. Singer may have wanted to give his film a quaint, retro feel, but trotting out the same corny humor, simplistic characters and even John Williams theme music makes Superman Returns feel out of touch, especially in this era of angst-ridden,

XXX (2002)

Action/Adventure Rated PG-13

A spy thriller feverishly pitched to the extreme-sports generation, XXX is such a hack job the filmmakers might as well have given guns to those mountain-biking, sky-diving buddies from the Mountain Dew ads of the same era. Vin Diesel, a smart actor in a dumb star’s body, plays a newfangled Evel Knievel who’s recruited by

Waist Deep (2006)

Action/Adventure Rated R

Even as a contemporary blaxploitation picture, Waist Deep strikes an awkward balance between its pandering violence and its supposed social message. Tyrese Gibson stars as 02, an ex-con whose son is kidnapped, leading to a vengeful trip through the South Los Angeles underworld. Director Vondie Curtis-Hall seems oblivious to some ironies while unwisely playing up

Angela’s Ashes (1999)

Drama Rated R

Despite what some critics claimed, this adaptation of Frank McCourt’s memoir about growing up destitute in Ireland retains the sly humor that enabled the author to survive his childhood (you’ll find it staring right at you when you look into the frowning face of Joe Breen, who plays McCourt as a little boy). At once