Miracle positions itself as one of those uplifting, patriotic movies you could get thrown into jail for disliking. The film, which follows the Cinderella U.S. hockey team at the 1980 Olympics, models itself after Remember the Titans and The Rookie, but those pictures earned their tones of triumph by grounding themselves in genuine emotion, something

This drama directed by Robert Redford stars Matt Damon as a disenchanted professional golfer in 1930s Georgia who’s rejuvenated by a mysterious caddy (Will Smith). Both stars are good, but the story is a limp and contrived bore that vaguely grasps at spiritual uplift. I realize a lot of people take golf seriously, but Bagger

An Oscar-angling vanity project for John Travolta, this is one of those glamorous portraits of would-be losers in which a run-down shack appears to have benefited from a chic interior decorator. Travolta plays a disgraced professor drinking his life away untilhis past comes back in the form of a mysterious young woman (Scarlett Johansson). The

Screenwriter Nicholas Meyer and director Robert Benton plow through this adaptation of Philip Roth’s The Human Stain – about a disgraced college professor (Anthony Hopkins) who has an affair with a troubled local woman (Nicole Kidman) – but the novel proves unmanageable. They give it staid respect when it needs cinematic invention.

Igby Goes Down is another independent feature chronicling the wayward ways of the young, restless and rich in the Big Apple. This doesn’t have much to say, as it follows 16-year-old Igby (Kieran Culkin) swearing and smoking in the usual, rebellious manner before rejecting his life of luxury in a last-minute stab at redemption.

Just what we need in today’s celebrity-crazed age: a movie that celebrate’s fame for fame’s sake. Bette Midler stars as Valley of the Dolls author Jacqueline Susann, one of the first people to help turn stardom into the new American dream. Unfortunately, Isn’t She Greatblows a congratulatory kiss to Susann for being an untalented hack

A dramatization of life inside the Catholic Church’s now-closed Magdalene Asylums, this import catalogs the abuses heaped upon young women whose only crimes were flirting, getting pregnant out of wedlock or being raped. Director Peter Mullan repeatedly rails against such injustices, and if his indignation eventually wears thin, the performances from his three lead actresses

It would be easier to like Poolhall Junkies – a serviceable rehash of every other billiards movie ever made, courtesy of writer-director-star Mars Callahan – if Callahan didn’t like himself so much. As a hustler looking to go legit, the lanky, cocky actor has a lively presence, yet he’s not enough to make the movie

An ungainly book adaptation, the kind whose awkward scene transitions and clunky story lines are in dire need of chapter headings. Flashes of the film suggest there’s a good story here, about the reconciliation of a New York City playwright (Sandra Bullock) and her boozing, Southern belle of a mother (Ellen Burstyn), but the filmmakers

This anti-American Pie, a relatively wholesome teen romance about down-on-their-luck college students in New York City, is so dull that it had me longing for another Road Trip. Jason Biggs and Mena Suvari star as humdrum lovers-to-be with humdrum problems standing in their way. Writer-director Amy Heckerling has made movies that are far better (Clueless,