As the film's overall narrator, Jimmy Smits is the perfect voice of the culture of California cool. California's diverse landscapes provide an inspirational setting. But it's the collection of stories from some of the region's daring souls that capture the mystique that initially lured thrill seekers westward. Prepare to join sky, mountain and water surfers riding the unimaginable. Scientists and nature lovers seek to discover and preserve some of life's most wonderful and unfathomable secrets. That California can leave even its most articulate natives disoriented and utterly speechless is uniquely rendered in breathtaking detail. Adventures in Wild California seeks to inspire the audience to go beyond what is familiar and safe. And thanks to the Robert D. Linder Family Omnimax Theatre at the Cincinnati Museum Center, Queen City residents get to experience the myriad of California attractions on the wild side. -- ttc (Unrated.)

ALL OVER THE GUY -- (Grade: D) A group of friends find unexpected love in director Julie Davis' fast-paced, frothy and utterly forgettable boy-meets-boy comedy. Dan Bucatinsky gives All Over the Guy some emotional substance as the angsty Eli. He's the only credible character in the entire film.

Richard Ruccolo is uninteresting as Eli's jockish boyfriend Tom. Adam Goldberg makes little contribution as Eli's best friend Brett. Sasha Alexander never manages to rise above the cliché characteristics of Tom's sassy "girlfriend" Jackie. Cameo appearances by Lisa Kudrow and Christina Ricci fail to give All Over the Guy any much-needed energy.

All Over the Guy never sustains our interest in whether Eli or Tom will remain together. It's a devastating setback for a film that's essentially about people connecting with each other. -- SR (Unrated.)

AMERICAN PIE 2 -- (Grade: D) It's one year later in the life of lovable loser Jim (Jason Biggs) and his pack of buds, who've returned for a surprisingly lackluster sequel to 1999's American Pie. Despite the fact that they're now college freshmen, these guys are just as sexually obsessed as they were in high school. Jim is still a klutz in the bedroom, which ultimately drives the plot of American Pie 2, writer Adam Herz's hit-and-miss follow-up screenplay. In a clumsy attempt to reunite the entire American Pie cast, Pie 2 has Jim and his friends Oz (Chris Klein), Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) and Stifler (Seann William Scott) share a beachfront house for a summer-long getaway. Past girlfriends (Tara Reid, Alyson Hannigan and Natasha Lyonne) are nearby. Oz's girlfriend Heather (Mena Suvari) mostly reconnects by phone. Jim's priority is to remake himself into a lover-boy worthy of his high school dream girl, the curvy Czech exchange student Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth). Nadia is coming to the boys' beach house, and Jim wants to be ready.

Herz and director James Rogers never manage to recapture the sweet-natured innocence and shameless gross-out humor that made the first Pie such a likable comedy. With Pie 2, the tangled sub-plots necessary for uniting the cast seem forced and clumsy. The youthful spirit and likable coming-of-age message from the first film are gone. More importantly, Pie 2's few funny gags -- involving masturbation, urination and a dorm room fiasco best described as coitus interruptus -- fail to sustain the film's haphazard storytelling. -- SR (Rated R.)

APOCALPYSE NOW REDUX -- (Grade: A) This reedited version of Francis Ford Coppola's original 1979 film places additional emphasis on its hallucinatory and spiritual intentions. The result is a humanistic tale that serves as a welcome companion piece to Coppola's frequently misunderstood war movie. Of course, someone who has never seen Apocalpyse Now before won't recognize the addition footage. Still, like everyone, they'll simply be dazzled by a brilliant film. -- SR (Rated R.)

CATS & DOGS-- (Grade: D) In director Lawrence Guterman's Cats & Dogs, Jeff 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.)

THE DEEP END -- (Grade: C) An astonishing performance from Scottish actress Tilda Swinton is the best thing about directors/screenwriters Scott McGehee and David Siegel's overly slick melodrama. Swinton is completely believable as a conflicted mother who's pulled into a blackmail plot by her teen-age son's clandestine relationship with a shifty club owner. It's a difficult role that Swinton performs spectacularly. Dazzling photography emphasizes the film's lush Lake Tahoe setting. But The Deep End's best visual effect belongs to Swinton's anguished face. -- SR (Rated R.)

DON'T SAY A WORD -- (Grade: D) Don't Say A Word is not about a remarkable criminal mastermind. Granted, the film's villain, Sean Bean's Euro-thug, has an array of technological tools at his disposal and a fairly competent team of professionals supporting him. But it's no surprise when they come up short. I feel the same way about director Gary Fleder (Kiss the Girls). Don't Say A Word has the slick commercial sheen and what must have seemed like a high concept story on paper. But the film just lays on the screen instead of coming at us. It doesn't attack our senses, which means it won't leave a lasting impression.

I could do without sassy, hip black henchmen, although Guy Torry does come off as the only baddie with any real personality, Bean included.

Michael Douglas, playing the film's father-figure hero, presents the latest in his designer line of white male-in-moral jeopardy roles. This time, Douglas solicits the help of a young mental patient (Brittany Murphy) to recover his kidnapped daughter.

In Don't Say A Word, Douglas' desperation is that of a parent doing whatever it takes to save their child. That works better for me than him being morally questionable in order to save himself. When I walk away I'm never sure the guy is worth redeeming. He gets the benefit of the doubt this time, but I'm not sure the movie earns that. -- ttc (Rated R.)

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.)

GHOST WORLD -- (Grade: A) If the nerdy record collector Seymour (Steve Buscemi) was the only character in the teen comedy Ghost World, the film would still be worth watching. But Seymour is just one of many colorful supporting characters in director Terry Zwigoff's smart teen comedy. Ghost World's comical heroes are 18-year-old best friends and recent high-school graduates, Enid (Thora Birch) and Becky (Scarlett Johansson). These bored and cynical girls will do anything to avoid the world around them.

Brought to life by believable performances from Birch and Johansson, Enid and Becky are the most honest of recent teen-age characters found in films like crazy/beautiful, Save the Last Dance and American Pie 2.

Based on the underground comic by Daniel Clowes, Ghost World finds rich satire and heartfelt comedy in a story where nothing seems to happen. With a screenplay co-written by Clowes and Zwigoff, Ghost World focuses on the disappointments in the lives of its insecure and disconnected characters. Every word of dialogue in Zwigoff's talkative movie rings with emotional familiarity. There were times when I felt like Enid was staring at me from behind her clunky black glasses. The result is that Ghost World is the one film this year that made me feel an emotional connection. -- SR (Rated R.)

THE GLASS HOUSE -- (Grade: C) Veteren TV director Daniel Sackheim (Harsh Realm, Judging Amy) makes his feature film debut with this lurid, contemporary, Grimm-like tale scripted by Wesley Strick (Cape Fear, Wolf). Solid efforts from the strong cast carry the predictably twisting plot.

The Glass House strives to put a human face on the big bad wolf. Terry Glass (Stellan Skarsgard), a businessman deeply in debt, and his wife, Erin (Diane Lane), a drug-addicted doctor, become the guardians of two orphaned teens (Leelee Sobieski, Trevor Morgan) with a $4 million estate. Once the teens are relocated to their glass house in Malibu, the peril begins in earnest.

Despite an early nod to the slasher film genre, The Glass House finds its chills and thrills in seek, home interiors. But Sackheim fails to make the most of the film's ominous reflective structure. Full of dark and stormy nights, this glass house could have become a larger character in the story. Instead, Sackheim's tale would rather stare at the wolf. Its creepy predator feels no need to wear any clothing other than its own. Thanks to the leer in Skarsgard's eye, we can't miss his desire to lay with his young lamb. In Hollywood, The Glass House is just the latest version of the same old story. -- ttc (Rated PG-13.)

GREENFINGERS -- (Grade: C) Clive Owen delivers a heartfelt performance as a prison inmate whose life is changed by cultivating a prison yard garden in writer/director Joel Hershman's likable comedy. A solemn murderer like Colin Briggs (Owen) is the last man you'd expect to possess a green thumb. But Briggs' gardening skills are discovered after fellow inmate Fergus Wilks (David Kelly) gives him some violet seeds. Before long, the warden enlists Briggs, Wilks and three other inmates to cultivate the prison's first garden. Their handiwork soon attracts the attention of a horticulturist (Helen Mirren) who hires the inmates to rehab the gardens at an English country estate. For Briggs, gardening unexpectedly offers him a chance at a better life.

Greenfingers has more than its fair share of trite sentimentality. Midway into the film, it's clear that Hershman will push dramatic credibility aside for a chance to pull audiences' heartstrings. Luckily, Owens' steady performance continually pulls Greenfingers from the brink of melodramatic hokum. -- SR (Unrated.)

HARDBALL -- (Grade: B) It's time to bury the hatchet, at least partially. Finally, Keanu Reeves' career moves show some forethought.

Hardball is a case in point. Reeves begins to shed his surfer dude image to create a flawed protagonist, Conor O'Neill, a gambling junkie whose debt has his life in danger. An old friend proposes to help him if he agrees to coach a Chicago inner-city boys baseball team.

Think Bad News Bears 'n the Hood. The film finds some nice, warm moments when the boys come together as a team and rise above their problems. It also has some deadly serious moments characterizing the quality of life for inner-city school children who live in continual fear. Still, Hardball stumbles as it rounds third and heads for home by foregoing plot and character conclusions with over-sentimentality and heavy-handed emotional manipulation. And you can't blame that on Keanu. -- RP (Rated PG-13.)

HEARTS IN ATLANTIS -- (Grade: D) Anthony Hopkins' weathered face, steely gaze, and resonating voice were made for storytelling. But for a movie essentially about the magic of storytelling, Hicks' Hearts in Atlantis fails to take advantage of Hopkins' spirited presence.

The tale begins when photographer Robert Garfield (David Morse) attends the funeral of a childhood friend. Memory lane leads him back to his childhood growing up in a small town in 1960 New England.

The 11-year-old Bobby's (Anton Yelchin) life is forever changed when a mysterious stranger, Ted Brautigan (Hopkins), moves into the attic of the large house he shares with his aloof, single mother (Hope Davis). An unlikely friendship ensues between man and boy, but too much is unexplained for the relationship to be compelling.

When Yelchin isn't stumbling around the screen as the kindhearted Bobby, Hopkins is mesmerizing. But it's a sad predicament when so earnest an actor finds himself cast adrift in an aimless movie. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH -- (Grade: A) John Cameron Mitchell's Off-Broadway hit finds new life on the big screen. Thankfully, its punky attitude, Rock soundtrack and sexual double entendres remain intact.

A botched sex change operation forces young Hansel (Mitchell) to leave something behind in his Communist East Berlin home. What he's left with is an "angry inch" and the tenacity to form a Rock band after his American GI lover dumps him in a Kansas trailer park. Under a blonde wig and glittery makeup, Hedwig is truly reborn.

Like the rousing Moulin Rouge earlier this summer, Hedwig and the Angry Inch proves that Rock attitudes are capable of rejuvenating the movie musical. -- SR (Rated R.)

INTO THE DEEP -- (Grade: A) A screen that's six stories high by eight stories wide plunges audiences into an undersea forest of kelp that sways and teems with far more life than could be imagined in still photos or in other televised media. Two huge projectors achieve the 3D effect. And thanks to Newport IMAX Theaters' stadium seating, the images stream along above the heads of those in front of you. Curiously, as the beautifully exotic ecosystem expands before your eyes, the sensation is similar to being suspended in a deep-sea diving tank with your face pressed close to the glass. It may take supreme exertion of will power to not reach out to touch the fish or plant life that passes before you. Submit to the visual pleasures first. The commentary can be informative, but Into The Deep is, foremost, a feast for the eyes. -- ttc (Not Rated.)

JEEPERS CREEPERS -- (Grade: C) Writer/director Victor Salva has crafted an old school horror film that wears its many influences like a warm patchwork jacket. The pacing lacks the weird feel of Night of the Living Dead or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but the landscape has all the creepy details in right places. Thankfully, Salva refrains from using the post-modern references that have dominated the Scream clones. Initially, the blank stares and slow reactions to the impossible situations may have audiences talking back to the screen like a Mystery Science Theater 3000 revival. The banter between siblings-in-trouble Trish (Gina Phillips) and Darius (Justin Long) is annoyingly realistic and worth every comment.

About halfway through, Jeepers Creepers tips its hand. The story's true inspiration is not necessarily past horror films at all. Instead, Salva pays homage to the early horror novels of Steven King. There are creepy black crows and cats aplenty, prescient black folks trying to save doomed souls, and old songs that hint at the timeless quality of the evil diligently gathering itself. Unfortunately, like even the best King novel, there is no big bang at the end of Jeepers Creepers. The sound audiences will hear is the huge rush of their deflating hopes for a true guilty pleasure. The body of evil is still incomplete and just plain silly looking. -- ttc (Rated R.)

JOY RIDE -- (Grade: C) Director John Dahl pays homage to the 1971 Steven Spielberg thriller Duel with this highway suspenser about two brothers (Paul Walker and Steve Zahn) who find themselves the targets of a mysterious trucker named Rusty Nail.

An agreeable mix of jokes and jolts keeps the storytelling moving briskly in Joy Ride. Granted, its story is a bit too familiar: College freshman Lewis (Walker) and his girlfriend Venna (Leelee Sobieski) are on a cross-country road trip back home. Lewis' troublesome older brother (Zahn) is along for comic relief. The chills begin after the brothers play a CB prank on a lonely trucker who is intent on getting his revenge.

Joy Ride won't make Dahl's long-time fans forget his early films like Kill Me Again, Red Rock West and The Last Seduction. But there are enough of Dahl's noirish trademarks to make Joy Ride a worthwhile ride. -- SR (Rated R.)

JURASSIC PARK III -- (Grade: D) Director Joe Johnston's installment of Steven Spielberg's popular monster-dinosaur-movie franchise turns out to be the worst entry in the three-film series. Granted, Jurassic Park III does stretch its visual-effects resources by adding two more dinosaur villains to its arsenal. But as a full-fledged monster movie, Jurassic Park III offers few shocks. Its tale of renowned paleontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill from Jurassic Park) leading a bunch of clueless civilians (Téa Leoni, William H. Macy and Michael Jeter) off a second dinosaur-infested island is fairly redundant. When Grant sprints through the jungle, trying to escape from a rampaging T-Rex, Jurasic Park III repeats the same thrills seen in the first two movies. Jurassic Park III is thoroughly unoriginal, and that's the worst thing you can say about any movie sequel. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

MAX KEEBLE'S BIG MOVE -- (Grade: D) Attention parents: The first family-friendly movie in two months is a real loser. Director Tim Hill replaces storytelling for a barrage of redundant slapstick in the forgettable Max Keeble's Big Move. Alex D. Linz is likable as the film's title character. He's an average Joey who seeks revenge on his junior high bullies after his dad announces plans to relocate to distant Chicago. But Linz's easygoing manner is overwhelmed by all the goop and gooey gags Hill tries to squeeze into the film. Max Keeble's Big Move is the type of kid's movie that gross-out comic Tom Green might someday make, and that's not a good thing. -- SR (Rated PG.)

THE OTHERS -- (Grade: B) Strange noises takes preference over spoken dialogue in a traditional English Gothic like The Others. Unseen people converse behind closed doors. A girl (Alakina Mann) and her younger brother (James Bentley) insist they've seen ghosts. The trick that keeps writer/director Alejandro Amenábar's psychological drama humming is guessing whether these ghosts are real or imagined.

The children's irritable mother (Nicole Kidman) is not convinced by their supernatural stories. Still, it's not long before she realizes that something otherworldly is inhabiting their country house.

Amenábar walks in the footsteps of Henry James' 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw and its 1961 film adaptation The Innocents when it comes to the haunted house storytelling behind The Others. Its core mystery -- who are the Others? -- is somewhat of a movie cliché. But I'm hard-pressed to remember the last film that made me squirm in my seat as much as The Others. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

PLANET OF THE APES -- (Grade: D) Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake turns out to be one of those extravagant Hollywood movies that never should have been made in the first place. Because the original movie is so entertaining, it's inevitable that Burton's Apes would be a terrible letdown. As it stands, Apes is an action blockbuster that doesn't seem to know what to do or where to go.

Burton claims that his version of Planet of the Apes will stay close to the cynical spirit of Pierre Boulle's original novel, Monkey Planet. But none of Boulle's political commentary about ecology, colonialism and social justice is evident in Burton's Apes. Stripped of the racial metaphors found in Boulle's novel and the 1968 film, Burton's Apes is content to be a typical adventure movie. The last must-see blockbuster of the summer has turned out to be a familiar story lost amid a vast desert location and an army of gorilla extras. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

THE PRINCESS DIARIES -- (Grade: D) Young Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway) is a real princess who just doesn't know about her birthright. Her grandmother, Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews) comes to set her straight and brings along the dutiful Joe (Hector Elizondo) to assist with Mia's grooming. The film even has a real-life young teen queen in co-star Mandy Moore, who plays a popular high schooler getting her comeuppance. I'm exposing myself to charges of redundancy by noting that The Princess Diaries is a rehashing of Pygmalion and not a very good one at that. Such negativity will only show my age. The young girls in the audience will love the movie. -- ttc (Rated G.)

RAT RACE -- (Grade: C) Director Jerry Zucker and writer Andy Breckman update Stanley Kramer's 1963 screwball epic It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World into a slapstick farce about a group of people in a race to Silver City, N.M., for a $2 million prize. Rat Race isn't an authorized remake of Kramer's Cinerama comedy. Still, the idea of a bunch of people running around wildly in pursuit of money is not a terribly original idea.

Zucker does his best to keep the sight gags coming in Rat Race. Monty Python alum John Cleese enjoys the biggest laughs as the man behind the goofy scheme. The rest of the comic ensemble -- Cuba Gooding Jr., Whoopi Goldberg, Rowan Atkinson and Jon Lovitz -- enjoy equal shares of comic hits and misses. That's often the case with these types of slapstick comedies: Without credible characters or a substantial story, Rat Race comes to pieces once its gags run out. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

THE ROAD HOME -- (Grade: B) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Zhang Ziyi plays a young country girl who experiences love and romance in director Zhang Yimou's poetic drama. Told through an extended flashback, The Road Home tells a simple story about the lives of rural families in long-ago China. The reminiscing begins when a Chinese businessman reteurns to his native village for his father's funeral. While his mother weaves her late husband's funeral blanket, she remembers the time when they first met.

Of all the films I watched at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Yimou's heartfelt drama remains one of my favorites. Boosted by the natural performances of its mostly-non-professional ensemble, The Road Home thrives on its easygoing pace and real-life subject matter. Far removed from the spectacle of Yimou's earlier films (Raise the Red Lantern, Shanghai Triad), The Road Home makes the most of its humanistic spirit. -- SR (Rated G.)

RUSH HOUR 2 -- (Grade: C) Like all of Jackie Chan's movies, Rush Hour 2 has plenty of acrobatic kung fu, synchronized fighting and daredevil stunts. Punches are delivered with comic-book gusto. Kicks occur with childlike glee. The action is consistently outrageous. When the bathrobe-clad heroes confront the gang lord's thugs in a massage parlor, it's clear Rush Hour 2 is not to be taken too seriously.

But the disappointing truth is that Rush Hour 2 suffers from the same uninspired storytelling found in most of this summer's big-budget movies. In fact, Rush Hour 2 struggles just to connect its kung fu sequences in a believably dramatic manner. The movie slows every time Chan pauses to catch his breath and practice his English. Chan's gravity-defying stunts have a way of compensating for a film's dramatic shortcomings, but Rush Hour 2 never stops feeling like a movie that was made without a script. -- 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.)

SPY KIDS -- (Grade: B) There is a valuable lesson tucked alongside the chases, explosions and gadgetry of writer/director Robert Rodriguez's rousing family adventure Spy Kids. Beneath the surface of a tranquil family life, a child can discover great adventure. He'll also find the hero inside himself.

Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara) and his big sister Carmen (Alexa Vega) can't get enough of their mother's (Carla Gugino) bedtime stories about how she met and fell in love with their father (Antonio Banderas). The difference is Gregorio Cortez (Banderas) and his wife Ingrid (Gugino) are secret agents.

Gregorio and Ingrid's first assignment in nine years places them in the clutches of evil genius Fegan Floop (Alan Cumming). It's up to Juni and Carmen to become junior James Bonds and save their parents from mutated secret agents, giant robot thumbs and cyborg children. With a little bit of luck, Juni and Carmen might very well save the world.

Banderas and Gugino make an attractive pair of secret agents. But Spy Kids ultimately succeeds thanks to the bravery of its pint-sized heroes, Sabara and Vega.

In fact, the only letdown is that a junior agent adventure like Spy Kids proves incapable of producing a Bond-like finale of over-the-top explosions and outrageous stunts. Still, Spy Kids did borrow one important detail from the Bond movie handbook. Its closing scene sets up the next Spy Kids adventure. -- SR (Rated PG.)

THE SCORE -- (Grade: D) A three-way dramatic punch of Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro and Edward Norton fails to breathe some much-needed life into director Frank Oz's pastiche of 1970s crime dramas. De Niro looks tired as the gentleman thief who promises his girlfriend (Angela Bassett) he'll retire after one last job. Norton is surprisingly one-dimensional as the egotistic hot-shot who partners with De Niro for the heist. Only Brando, as the heavyset mastermind behind the crime -- the theft of a priceless scepter from the Montreal Customs House --gives the film a charismatic jolt. Brando energizes The Score every time he appears on screen. If Brando wasn't confined by his supporting role status, The Score might have become the taut crime drama it aspires to be. Instead, it's an uninspired heist tale that we've seen countless times before. -- 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.)

SERENDIPITY -- (Grade: A)The New York City skyline shots we've grown so used to in run-of-the-mill romantic comedies like When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle suddenly don't have us in the whimsical, lovey-dovey mood. Can a simple, little film like Serendipity remain relevant in the wake of Sept. 11?

Yes and No.

Director Peter Chelsom blends a witty script with breezy pacing and a top-notch cast to concoct a please-everyone love story. What he doesn't do is make us forget what happened in the city that never sleeps.

After a chance encounter in Bloomingdale's, Sara (Kate Beckinsale) and Jonathan (John Cusack) flirtatiously agree that the spark between them exists, but Sara insists that fate be tested. He puts his name on a five-dollar bill and she puts hers in a book. They part and let destiny run its course. Ten years later, Jonathan and Sara are separately engaged and living slightly unfulfilled lives. As Jonathan's wedding day approaches, he renews his search for Sara with vigor.

Serendipity isn't groundbreaking. But the film manages to find magic during its course. Chalk that up to great chemistry between Beckinsale and Cusack. It's a shame filmmakers felt the need to tweak the final version by digitally removing the twin towers from the film's opening Manhattan shot. Serendipity is a love story to New York, at a time when the city desperately needs one. -- RP (Rated PG-13.)

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.)

TRAINING DAY -- (Grade: B) Director Antoine Fuqua follows up his forgettable features The Replacement Killers (1998) and Bait (2000) with the taut police corruption thriller Training Day. Ethan Hawke gives a surprisingly gritty performance as a rookie beat cop assigned to a Los Angeles Police Department anti-drug squad. Denzel Washington is the squad's shady leader, Sgt. Alonzo Harris, a cop who fights as dirty as the drug dealers he's trying to catch.

Fuqua directs Training Day with the visual panache we've come to expect from all his films. It's impressive how he makes dirt and grit look so slick.

But the film's greatest attribute is Washington's high-energy performance as the corrupt Harris. Washington balances charm and creepiness with pinpoint agility. The result is a believable performance that makes Harris into a character too complex to be discarded as a cliché bad guy. Late in the film, when Training Day dissolves into routine car chases and shootouts, it's Washington's exuberant performance that keeps the storytelling believable. -- SR (Rated R.)

TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME -- (Grade: B) It's the age-old game of cat and mouse. When two people are linked romantically, they will stop at nothing to get upper-hand on the other. All's fair in love, right?

Two Can Play that Game is a fine retelling of this overdone (but still universally relevant) tale. A fresh cast, a smart script and a break-out lead performance from Vivica A. Fox ultimately redeem the film from its trite premise.

Shante (Fox) has love all figured out, and is quick to mentor her girlfriends on the matter, until she finds her man Keith (Morris Chestnut) with another woman. What follows is Shante's personal textbook on how to get her man back. By film's end, everyone will learn a little lesson on love.

Most of the film's laughs come from Anthony Anderson as Keith's pal Tony. It's as if Tony read "The Rules" and figured out how men can get around them. Better still is Fox. Her no-holds-barred performance and sass lead the film. It takes the right character and smart actor to pull off the talking-to-the-camera trick (see "Bueller, Ferris.") Fox manages the task and the film is better for it. Because in love, you really only know what's going on when you can step inside someone's head. -- RP (Rated R.)

ZOOLANDER -- (Grade: B) An unapologetically silly romp, Zoolander is essentially Ben Stiller's version of a Saturday Night Live movie. Take a paper-thin sketch character and put a feature film around him. Some times it works (Wayne's World) and some times it doesn't (It's Pat).

Let's be frank: This is one dumb film. Stupid beyond reproach. And yet you frequently laugh. Mostly, the jokes and foolish gags are giggle-worthy, but there are a few deep belly laughs in the mix.

Derek Zoolander (Stiller) was the top male model working the fashion industry, but up-and-comer Hansel (Owen Wilson) knocks him off the throne. In depression, Zoolander is the perfect patsy for a group of fashion conspirators who intend to assassinate a world leader.

What Zoolander lacks is the dark edge of Stiller's earlier directorial effort, The Cable Guy. This film has as much edge as a super ball.

Where was Janeane Garofalo to save the day? Oh well. Brilliant Owen Wilson pulls his weight and then some, and Stiller has some great moments. Personal note: Will Farrell should take a vacation. I'm sick of seeing him. -- RP (Rated PG-13.)

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