Painful to watch, on just about every level imaginable. The bleary 3-D sequences induce headaches, as does the strained, after-school-special narrative. Then there is the fact that writer-director Robert Rodriguez created the movie with the help of his 8-year-old son. Not only did I have to suffer through the film, but reviewing it made me

The Haunted Mansion plays like a contest between Eddie Murphy’s popping eyes and his gaping mouth: Which one can more forcefully convey fright? Based on a Disney theme-park attraction, this features enough touches from the ride itself that it often feels like you’re visiting the theme park with Murphy in tow. Although in real life

Purists may scoff at the heavy special effects in the latest movie version of Peter Pan, but what story could make better use of computerized fairy dust? Director P.J. Hogan guides it all along at a furious pace, one matched by a fleet cast. Jason Isaacs plays Captain Hook as more bully than buffoon, while

Though adapted from J.M. Barrie’s play, this might as well be a parable about the eternal childhood of the cinema. Peter Pan refuses to grow up and so, for better and worse, do the movies. Peter is a delightfully unpolished figure: troublesome, impudent and with feral eyebrows that would never be found on the usual

This adaptation of the children’s television show has little to dislike – including unique animation and a clever premise, in which a pet dog masquerades as a boy while his young owner just wants to play fetch – but at 66 minutes long it’s still cheating. Watching it, I felt as if the theater had

I went into Garfield knowing little about the title feline aside from the fact that I held a vague hatred toward him. Garfield gave me specific reasons for such emotion. As inane and insipid as I always suspected the comic strip of being, Garfield follows somebody’s favorite fat, lazy cat – a computer-generated creature here

Little Secrets, an earnest and wholesome family film about a 14-year-old girl (Evan Rachel Wood) who listens to the confessions of her young neighbors, was quietly released during a summer when most 14-year-old girls were counting down the days until the arrival of Vin Diesel in XXX. To call it out-of-touch would be an understatement.

Blue Sky Studios made a delightful foray into feature animation with 2002’s Ice Age, but this follow-up – set in a completely mechanical world – is overprogrammed. Competing themes and a convoluted narrative combine with increasingly frantic set pieces. Robots ultimately looks like an assembly line – and feels like something made on one. With

Rebound, in which mugging Martin Lawrence plays a disgraced college basketball coach who offers to lead his former junior high’s miserable team as a form of penance, intermittently captures the pitiable nature of awkward kids learning a new sport, including a sad shot of a free-throw attempt lamely returning to earth halfway down the lane.