If only literary theory could always be this fun. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is one of those classic novels that few people have actually read, but director Michael Winterbottom has made it entertaining enough to get me to actually consider reading it. Or maybe I’ll just see this witty “adaptation” again

Another dumb, digitial-video exercise: It looks horrible, and the improvisatory, hand-held style only leads to pointless yammering. Paul Rudd and Romany Malco star as American mismatched brothers – the former is white and a slacker, the latter is black, all-business and adopted – who inherit a decrepit French chateau. Much forced comic banter and labored

A provocative if limited experiment, CSA purports to be a historical documentary – complete with alternative-universe commercial breaks – that encapsulates the history of the United States as if the Civil War had gone South. It’s a profane joke that doesn’t ruffle quite as many feathers as it should. At first, the shock of the

A good-natured movie that deserves a better title, a better script, a better effort from everyone behind the camera. Basically a gospel-themed remake of The Music Man, with Cuba Gooding, Jr. in the Harold Hill part, The Fighting Temptations has a few fun musical numbers but mostly goes through the motions. Audiences deserve better too.

This science-fiction comedy about two community college professors (David Duchovny and Orlando Jones) who discover an alien-infested meteorite sputters from one so-so gag to the next. Eventually, as the aliens evolve into more complicated creatures, even the occasional laughs are buried beneath relentless special effects. With Julianne Moore; from director Ivan Reitman.