This hyperactive adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg’s children’s book is not content to echo the gentle beauty of the original illustrations (though some of the images do that wonderfully). Instead, director Robert Zemeckis and his team of computer animators kick things up several notches with frantic action filler. If there is any conceivable way a

Writer/director Carroll Ballard (The Black Stallion) once again explores the enchanting bond between children and animals with this initially clunky but eventually graceful story about a South African boy (Alexander Michaeletos) and his pet cheetah. After some contrivances, including a confrontation between the cat and the requisite school bullies, the movie finally settles into its

Genre-hopping director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) makes this family drama something they rarely are: tough, funny and delightfully strange. When two British brothers find a bag full of money, they grapple with the issues of charity and guilt that ensue. Acting newcomer Alex Etel, as a 7-year-old who receives regular visits from various

It will take a lot of affection for the Benji films of the 1970s and ’80s to endure this belated entry, once again involving endless close-ups of cute pups, repeated chase scenes with inept animal-control wardens and a PETA-friendly story and theme. It’s all fairly innocuous, but you’ve likely had more fun hanging out at

There’s a difference between a pop-culture touchstone and a pop-culture curiosity, and the original “Scooby-Doo” cartoon – an unremarkable series that’s gained notoriety only because we’ve sat through decades worth of reruns – qualifies as the latter. Even so, the endless miscalculations on the filmmakers’ parts have turned the movie version into more of a