THE ANNIVERSARY PARTY -- (Grade: A) What happens when you trust a pair of hyphenates (actor/writer/first-time director) to make a film? If the pair in question is Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming, you sit back and enjoy the show.

Their Party focuses on the recent reconciliation of a British novelist about to direct a film adapted from one of his books and his early thirty-something Hollywood actress wife as they host a celebration marking their sixth anniversary.

Much can be made of the stellar supporting cast including Kevin Kline, Parker Posey and Gwyneth Paltrow, who are friends of the filmmaking duo. But the true impact of their work comes from the sense that this is more than simply an inside look at the lifestyles of Hollywood couples and the 21st century bohemian set. These are actors, yes, but once you join their party, you might feel the need to cry and share your own foibles with them. -- t.t. clinkscales (Rated R.)

ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE--(Grade: B) The geeky hero in Disney's rousing animated adventure is Milo Thatch (voice of Michael J. Fox), a museum mapmaker who discovers a long-lost book that leads him and a team of quirky adventurers to the lost continent of Atlantis. The latest cartoon extravaganza from directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale sidesteps the Disney canon and follows in the free-wheeling footsteps of Japanese anime legend Hayao Miyazaki's 1980 comic-book adventure, The Castle of Cagliostro. The result is a wide-screen spectacle that captures the exotic world of Atlantis: The Lost Empire in wondrous fashion.

From the film's explosive opening with Atlantis's catastrophic descent to the ocean floor, it's clear there are no cute and furry animals in this Disney adventure. Instead, Wise and Trousdale deliver a high-flying adventure that combines the adventurous spirit of a super-hero comic book with Industrial Age imagery of a Jules Verne novel. -- SR (Rated PG.)

THE ANIMAL -- (Grade: D) Not-so-funny Rob Schneider bumbles and fumbles his way through another uninspired slapstick comedy. Schneider plays Marvin, a shaggy-haired loser who dreams of ditching his file clerk job at the small-town police department and becoming a real cop. After undergoing emergency surgery with animal transplants, Marvin uses his newfound "animal" abilities to become a super-cop. The slapstick question is whether Marvin will lose control of his beastly instincts. The Animal's lack of comic worth ultimately rests on Schneider's leading-man deficiencies. His Jerry Lewis-inspired shenanigans aside, Schneider's shaggy loser turns out to be nothing more than a Barney Fife wannabe. Schneider is enthusiastic. But The Animal would be more worthwhile if it could claim one ounce of cleverness. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

BABY BOY -- (Grade: B) Writer/director John Singleton strikes a surprisingly melodramatic tone for his companion piece to Boyz N the Hood. A cinematic return to the gritty streets of South Central, Los Angeles, Singleton's Baby Boy hits levels of high-drama that equal the histrionics found in a typical soap opera. Thankfully, the film has more than its share of searing family drama to compensate for any over-the-top storytelling.

Singer and MTV VJ Tyrese plays the 20-year-old Jody, a jobless womanizer who refuses to accept responsibility for the two babies he's father by two different women. Tyrese elevates Baby Boy with natural charisma and youthful verve. While most on-screen Romeos appear trite and cliché, Tyrese makes "baby boy" Jody into something complex and real. For Singleton, after last year's commercial success over his forgettable remake of Shaft, returning to the confines of South Central proves to be the best creative decision he could ever make. -- SR (Rated R)

BLOW -- (Grade: B) Blow is based on the true story of George Jung (Johnny Depp), the American behind the introduction of Colombian cocaine into the U.S. during the late '70s and early '80s. The film has its share of the wild signs of the times that politicians and other moral pundits will eagerly denounce without paying attention to the human lessons. Blow has the spirit of Boogie Nights and the substance of Traffic. But Demme's film comes to life in the flesh-and-bone story of its doomed man. It's Depp who makes Jung as compelling as his story. -- ttc (Rated R.)

BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY-- (Grade: C) Bridget Jones's Diary is based on the best-selling book by Helen Fielding. Renée Zellweger gamely takes on a Brit accent and some well-publicized extra weight to bring this thirty-something "singleton" to life. Bridget Jones's Diary is full of supposedly adult, professional girls hooking up with the wrong guys at work, listening to the same Van Morrison song, and making embarrassing, public declarations of love.

To its credit, Bridget Jones's Diary doesn't stop there. Bridget fumbles into a bit of success on the job and observes her parents working through their own relationship issues. These real-life moments elevate a film that, like its heroine, desperately wants to be loved. Zellweger's efforts aren't entirely wasted, but I don't fall in love so easily. -- ttc (Rated R.)

CATS & DOGS-- (Grade: D) In director Lawrence Guterman's Cats & Dogs, Goldblum plays an absent-minded professor on the verge of discovering a cure for people allergic to dogs. The core joke is that a team of evil cats will do anything to destroy Goldblum's serum. In their eyes, such a cure will give dogs an unfair advantage. Of course, some secret spy dogs stand ready to defeat the cat menace.Live action, animatronics and computer-generated special effects are the real draw in this high-concept adventure. It's the effects that enable the dogs and cats to battle each other like a bunch of four-legged James Bonds. But no amount of digital effects can sustain a tale as threadbare as Cats & Dogs. By its anti-climactic finish, its clear that the film has wasted its cute premise -- SR (Rated PG.)

CRAZY/BEAUTIFUL-- (Grade: D) A pouty Kirsten Dunst fails to jolt any much-needed credibility into director John Stockwell's all-too-slick coming-of-age drama about an upper-class rebellious teen (Dunst) and her Hispanic Romeo (Jay Hernandez) from the wrong side of Los Angeles. Dunst is intent on making crazy/beautiful the rare film that's willing to tackle teen issues without resorting to comedy. Her effort to appear credibly distraught is impressive. But crazy/beautiful's over reliance on arty photography and an alternative soundtrack fails to compensate for its sappy melodrama. crazy/beautiful aims to be a serious drama about teen angst. Instead, beneath its gritty veneer, Stockwell has made the same type of teen fluff we've seen for years. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

DR. DOLITTLE 2 -- (Grade: C) In this sequel from Steve Carr (Next Friday), Eddie Murphy, that master of multiple personalities, transforms himself into Bill Cosby. Over a decade ago, Eddie's raw brand of humor was deemed too harsh for young audiences by Cos himself. Now, older and wiser, Eddie speaks fluently with animals as well as children.

The film is nothing more than a sketchy collection of family sitcom moments. Dr. Dolittle 2 launches fart jokes and pop culture references with far less sophistication than Shrek or Sky Kids. One typically uninspired gag involves Dolittle receiving an offer he can't refuse from the animal kingdom's underworld leader, the Beaver. Unfortunately, since this isn't the Farrelly brothers or Keenen Ivory Wayans, there are no heads in the bed. -- ttc (Rated PG.)

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS -- (Grade: D) The paper I wrote in sixth grade on Abraham Lincoln, the one that I copied verbatim out of the encyclopedia, was less plagiaristic than The Fast and the Furious. Certainly, there are movie formulas. You come to expect that in Hollywood. But the blatant copying of an entire script is out of control. The Fast and the Furious is Point Break. Substitute surfing for street racing, bank-robbing for electronics heists and the Zen-like misunderstood gang leader played by Patrick Swayze for the Zen-like misunderstood gang leader played by Vin Diesel. Otherwise it's the same film.

Campy bad actor Paul Walker takes Keanu Reeves's role as the dreamy agent who infiltrates the underworld and then gets caught up in it. It's amazing how both actors' line readings manage to sound exactly the same.

Furious does have a few thrilling moments but you'll be too distracted, wondering why it all seems familiar, to really enjoy them. -- RP (Rated PG-13)

FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRITS WITHIN-- (Grade: B) Aki Ross (voice of Ming-Na), the film's heroine is a computer generated image. She is what Lara Croft should have been and maybe still is to the displeased legion of gamers who have retreated back to their computer screens.Final Fantasy offers many distractions. Voices that don't match faces in the ways audiences have come to expect. Photo-realism that is something less than lifelike. The film has the darkness of a graphic novel animated by Dr. Frankenstein. But that's also part of its charm. This is closer in spirit to the film Kubrick would have made if he had combined A.I. and Tomb Raider without casting Angelina Jolie. Who needs the real when virtual can be so right? This is the video generation's version of pulp fiction. -- tt clinkscales (Rated PG-13.)

JOURNEY INTO AMAZING CAVES -- (Grade: B) Cavers Nancy Aulenbach and Hazel Barton put an adventurous face on microbiology in the rousing OMNIMAX film Journey Into Amazing Caves. All the OMNIMAX tricks are tossed into this family-friendly nature documentary about exploring the Earth's underground frontiers. Actor Liam Neeson provides celebrity narration. The Moody Blues supply a soundtrack appropriate for aging baby boomers. Endless tracking shots take audiences over canyons, rain forests and icy tundra in dizzying fashion. Anything less stomach-churning would be considered a disappointment. -- SR (Unrated.)

KISS OF THE DRAGON -- (Grade: C) The key to a good fight movie is the ability to reinvent the fight. Throw plausibility out the window. You just need to be creative, finding a fresh take on a simple hand-to-hand action sequence.

Chris Nahon's Kiss of the Dragon manages several of these moments, including a wonderful scene where Liu Jian (Jet Li) flees from a few cops in a French police station, only to lock himself in a room full of karate trainees. If you find yourself giggling in the moment, that is a good thing.

The problem is, the movie doesn't rely on this fun-loving tone. It dabbles in melodrama at the expense of the action. Kiss of the Dragon can't decide if it wants to be a cool, art house martial arts film or a Hollywood, Jackie Chan-sellout action film. By not deciding, it ends up as mush. -- RP (Rated R.)

MEMENTO -- (Grade: A) Director Christopher Nolan's stylish thriller is a moviemade puzzle that keeps getting better each time I watch the film. What's astounding is how Nolan makes sense out of a narrative whirlwind of friends, foes and shadowy locales. Guy Pearce is riveting as Leonard Shelby, a man desperate to avenge his wife's brutal murder. But there is something odd about Shelby. He wears expensive suits and drives a Jaguar. Yet, he also lives in fleabag motels and pays for everything with a thick wad of cash. Shelby's problem is that he suffers from a rare affliction of short-term memory loss. Basically, Shelby is incapable of remembering what happened 15 minutes ago. With the help of photographs, charts, notes and tattoos across his body, Shelby tries to find his wife's murderer.

Watched earlier at festivals in Toronto and Sundance, it's clear that Memento ultimately belongs to Pearce and his obsessive habits. He's the intense soul of Nolan's clever memory thriller. -- SR (Rated R.)

MOULIN ROUGE -- (Grade: A) Right from the start, it's evident that Moulin Rouge sets out to push cinema's storytelling boundaries. For director Baz Luhrmann, Moulin Rouge is a triumphant reinterpretation of Golden Age Hollywood musicals. Lurhmann combines old-fashioned melodrama, operatic staging and a Pop-influenced soundtrack into a hip and frenetic package that's appealing to today's techno-influenced moviegoers.

Moulin Rouge offers audiences a roller-coaster perspective of its colorful Parisian nightclub. The cameras never stop moving. Ewan McGregor, playing Christian, a young writer who has come to Paris to experience the bohemian revolution, captures the shyness and emotional clumsiness that's appropriate for a love-struck poet. As the film's whirling dervish in red curls, Nicole Kidman is equally sexy and funny as the vamping Satine. There's no doubt that her comic sass is the spark that keeps Moulin Rouge running at full speed. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

THE MUMMY RETURNS -- (Grade: D) Everybody runs in writer/director Stephen Sommers' silly update of Boris Karloff's archaeological villain. Adventurer Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) runs from giant bugs and mummified warriors. O'Connell's Egyptologist wife, Evelyn (Rachel Weisz), dodges a 3,000-year-old reincarnated royal (Patricia Velasquez). All of them run from a supernatural creepie called The Scorpion King (played by WWF Wrestling Champion Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson). The Mummy Returns is one of those computer-generated blockbusters disinterested in taking the time to develop characters, build dramatic suspense or tell a substantial story. Sommers tosses out every computer-generated trick in a desperate attempt to compensate for his film's threadbare storytelling. Granted, some of the effects in The Mummy Returns are spectacular. But the best moment in The Mummy Returns arrives early in the movie. O'Connell and friends ride a speeding double-decker bus through the London streets in a desperate attempt to escape a pack of reanimated mummies. If the rest of The Mummy Returns only matched that early scene's intensity, Sommers could claim a film that's as entertaining as it is box-office friendly. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

PEARL HARBOR -- (Grade: D) Director Michael Bay pushes the special-effects envelope with this ultra-budget look at the day that lives in infamy. Yet, despite all the money, time and effort, Bay has made an over-the-top failure we've seen before. Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale and Josh Hartnett are the young faces who add a romantic triangle to the explosive histrionics. It's to Affleck's acting credit that he stands equal to the film's frequent explosions. By comparison, Beckinsale and Hartnett are transparent.

It's clear that Bay and screenwriter Randall Wallace emphasize wartime spectacle over romance and human drama. But Pearl Harbor is even disappointing as an action blockbuster.-- SR (Rated PG-13.)

SCARY MOVIE 2 -- (Grade: C) The Wayans Brothers (writers-actors Shawn and Marlon along with director Keenen Ivory) are back and ready to show how well-versed they are in the latest releases on video and DVD. Every gag in Scary Movie 2 has been appropriated from a recent movie. Blockbuster Video should sue for an executive producer credit. The original Scary Movie had as its inspiration the Scream series. Scary Movie 2 lacks this focus. The movie leans on the remake of The Haunting with more gags targeting Hollow Man, Charlie's Angels, What Lies Beneath, Mission: Impossible 2, Hannibal, and even Nike basketball commercials. I just pray these guys didn't spend too much time watching all those awful movies to prepare for Scary Movie 2. That would be a really scary idea. --ttc (Rated R.)

SEXY BEAST -- (Grade: A) The first image of Cockney gangster Don Logan (Ben Kingsley) is of the back of his shaven head. Tattoos adorn his muscular arms. A neatly trimmed goatee gives Logan's face a devilish air. Everything about him looks terrifying. It's unnerving how Kingsley captures Logan's animalistic behavior. Long after Sexy Beast has ended, you still feel the gaze of his piercing eyes.

Director Jonathan Glazer's thrilling crime drama Sexy Beast literally leaps from the screen. Every image packs an emotional wallop. Like many heist movies, the bloodletting in Sexy Beast splatters frequently. But it's high-energy storytelling from writers Louis Mellis and David Scinto, paired with smartly drawn characters and unexpected moral center, that boost Sexy Beast above its pulp movie peers. -- SR (Rated R.)

SHREK -- (Grade: A) In directors Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson's Shrek, the role of the handsome prince is switched to something ugly and green. Everything about Shrek (voice of Mike Myers) screams, "Blech!" It's what one expects from a Scottish ogre. In the school of animated heroes, Shrek is intentionally unorthodox. The adventure starts when the laughable villain Lord Farquaad (voice of John Lithgow) sends Shrek and his unlikely friend, a talking donkey (voice of Eddie Murphy), to rescue Princess Fiona (voice of Cameron Diaz) to bring her back to be Farquaad's bride. Of course, Shrek doesn't realize Fiona is cursed with a magic spell.

Fractured or otherwise, Shrek is still a fairy tale at heart. That matters end "happily ever after" is a dramatic given. Shrek just happens to give the time-honored phrase a playful jab in the ribs. -- SR (Rated PG.)

SONGCATCHER -- (Grade: B) Independent filmmaker Maggie Greenwald makes a dramatic return with a compelling tale about a musicologist (Janet McTeer) discovering a newfound passion for life while researching folk songs in 1907 Appalachia.

McTeer delivers a heartfelt performance as the tenacious Lily Penleric. After being denied a promotion at the university where she teaches, Penleric strikes back at the male--dominated world around her by heading to Appalachia with a recording device and some writing tools. Penleric is intent on completing her research, no matter what her male colleagues do or say.

First watched at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, Songcatcher is another quality indie film that has struggled to find its way into theaters. For a film that displays the ongoing struggle between rural lifestyles and modern progress with heartfelt integrity, Songcatcher deserves a better shot at reaching audiences -- SR (Rated R)

SWORDFISH -- (Grade: D) As corrupt C.I.A. agent Gabriel Shear, John Travolta begins the caper film Swordfish with a rambling monologue. "You know what the problem with Hollywood is?" Shear says, speaking matter-of-factly into the camera. "They make shit." The unintended irony is that Shear could be talking about his own awful movie.

At least Swordfish director Dominic Sena knows how to grab an audience's attention. Early in the film, a bank heist explosion, filmed from a whirling 360-degree, digitized vantage point, jolts Swordfish to life. It's an astounding effect. But soon afterwards, Swordfish becomes just another threadbare actioner filled with redundant pyrotechnics and car chases. -- SR (Rated R.)

TOMB RAIDER -- (Grade: B)Tomb Raider, starring bad girl Angelina Jolie, goes toe-to-toe with Raiders of the Lost Ark on all counts, except one. Whereas Tomb Raider is a blast to watch, full of envelope-pushing action and the strongest adventurer since Indy, it lacks heart. Mind you, it's still entertaining, but it seems like hollow entertainment.

Nevertheless, Angelina Jolie helps make you forget any quibbles you might have with the film. On her chutzpah alone, Tomb Raider shines. She has the uncanny ability to be tough and sexy simultaneously. Tomb Raider nails Jolie's unique blend of erotic toughness. And while his script lacks depth, West manages to make a fine movie independent of its video game origins -- RP (Rated PG-13.)

WHAT'S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? -- (Grade: C)This caper comedy from director Sam Weisman generally clicks. The clever plot about a double-crossed thief and the jokes it sets out to make both hit their marks. The only real criticism is that the gags aren't anything special. They keep you smiling, but I saw no rolling in the aisles during the screening.

Martin Lawrence stars as a professional thief who gets crossed by a multibillionaire SOB, played by Danny DeVito. The game of revenge between them escalates after DeVito swipes Lawrence's good-luck ring during a botched robbery. It's not long before both their lives are turned upside down. Lawrence and DeVito play off each other well, but have too few scenes together to really bill this as a comedic pairing.

About three-quarters of the way through, the film's meager plausibility is thrown out the window in favor of inanity. It's right then that the comedy fizzles. -- RP (Rated PG-13.)

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