CAPSULE REVIEWS AND SUMMARIES By TT CLINKSCALES, RODGER PILLE AND STEVE RAMOS

ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS -- (Grade: C) It's all about Ice Cube. As the writer/producer/star of this purely escapist fantasy, Ice Cube has made a film that reminds audiences of a highlight reel of gangsta videos and off-color comedy. Director Kevin Bray's All About the Benjamins is a routinely amusing, downscaled version of the Will Smith/Martin Lawrence actioner Bad Boys. Bounty hunter Bucum Jackson (Cube) is on the hunt for scam artist Reggie Wright (Mike Epps). Along the way, they cross paths with an Eurotrash, diamond-heisting villain (Tommy Flanagan), over $20 million in stones and Wright's $60 million lottery ticket. Despite all its bling-bling dreams, All About the Benjamins only manages to deliver cheap thrills. -- ttc (Rated R.)

AMÉLIE -- (Grade: A) The most magical film this year is French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet's playful fantasy Amélie. This eye-popping tale follows the adventures of a pixyish waitress named Amélie (Audrey Tautou) in Paris' Montmartre neighborhood. Amélie watches movies with wide--eyed amazement, oblivious to the packed Parisian theater audience around her. She catches small details that ordinary moviegoers would ordinarily miss. She loves movies, and the movies seem to love Amélie right back. Dizzy photography and slapstick comedy keep the film moving. Amélie has more than enough trick shots to keep Jeunet's long-time fans happy. -- SR (Rated R.)

A BEAUTIFUL MIND -- (Grade: A) Russell Crowe's characters have heretofore been manly men. He's played tough men of loyalty who'd rather fight than have their honor questioned. In A Beautiful Mind, Crowe plays troubled John Forbes Nash Jr., a man who wants to be a strong intellect. A Beautiful Mind is a loose biopic that follows Nash's journey from his break-though mathematical discovery and acceptance into top-secret government work to his eventual breakdown. Jennifer Connelly continues her comeback with a fine performance as Nash's unfailing wife. In this Oscar hopeful season, A Beautiful Mind is one film that completely deserves its accolades. -- RP (Rated PG-13.)

BIG FAT LIAR -- (Grade: D) Hollywood producer Marty Wolf (Paul Giamatti) and 14-year-old Jason Shepherd (Frankie Muniz) are the two truth-impaired guys who cross paths when Shepard's school assignment turns into Wolf's pitch for a summer blockbuster. By the end of Big Fat Liar, Wolf receives his comeuppance for stealing Shepherd's paper, and Shepherd experiences redemption. Big Fat Liar springs from Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids mold, but TV director Shawn Levy (The Adventures of Jett Jackson) is no Rodriguez. It's too bad the film ends up feeling like a reunion special for a show that never was, thanks to a supporting role from Lee Majors (Six Million Dollar Man). -- ttc (Rated PG.)

BLACK HAWK DOWN -- (Grade: A) Mogadishu. October 1993. U.S. Rangers and Deltas embark on what was supposed to be an hour-and-a-half infiltration mission to capture two lieutenants of a renegade warlord. Seventeen hours later, two Black Hawk helicopters have been destroyed and the U.S. forces have lost 18 men in the most intense and sustained firefight since the Vietnam War. Black Hawk Down honors its subject with a sense that's both relentless and direct without being a polemic or a Hollywood version of the events. -- ttc (Rated R.)

BLADE ii -- (Grade: A) The vampire world is threatened by a dangerous strain of über-vampires known as Reapers. Our bloodsucking hero, the "Daywalker" named Blade (Wesley Snipes) is on a quest to find his mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) who may be batting for the other team, if he's batting at all. The fight sequences effectively combine just a dash of the Matrix-inspired wire-fu techniques with old school martial artistry and a little WWF smackdown frenzy for fun. Queen of the Damned meets Aliens is how some Hollywood types might describe Blade II. The Aliens franchise would do well to have del Toro added to its directors' club, although it looks like he's going to be busy getting ready for another Blade installment. -- ttc (Rated R.)

THE CAT'S MEOW -- (Grade: D) In director Peter Bogdanovich's period mystery, Kirsten Dunst plays Marion Davies, golden age actress and girlfriend to newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst, with a zest equal to Davies' best comic performances. Dunst is the best thing about The Cat's Meow. Writer Steven Peros adapted his screenplay of an unsolved murder aboard Hearst's (Edward Herrmann) private yacht in November 1924 into a successful stage play before Bogdanovich finally turned his Hollywood scandal tale into a movie. Eddie Izzard makes little impact as Charlie Chaplin, despite appearing in many of the film's key scenes. Jennifer Tilly is grating as newspaper columnist Louella Parsons. What's lacking is the sufficient drama and suspense necessary to make an engaging murder mystery. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

CHANGING LANES -- (Grade:D) Imagine a Charles Bronson revenge fantasy with Samuel L. Jackson as the fiery ball of righteous fury. Add Ben Affleck as a Tom Cruise stand-in caught up in a legal/moral logjam a la The Firm. Doyle Gipson (Jackson) finalizes a loan to purchase a house to keep his ex-wife and sons from leaving him as part of a custody plan he has prepared to present. Hotshot Wall Street lawyer Gavin Banek (Affleck) seeks to wrestle sole control of a multimillion dollar philanthropic fund from a community board. An accident on the freeway between Gipson and Banek alters their plans and uncorks their all-too-human rage. In an attempt to restrain it's own lust for revenge, the story succumbs to its own highly implausible pretzel logic. This day-on-the-road-to-hell is too full of good intentions for its own good. --- ttc (Rated R.)

CLOCKSTOPPERS -- (Grade:D) Like a proverbial team of monkeys, screenwriters Rob Hedden, J. David Stem and David N. Weiss concoct a half-baked story that doesn't even qualify as a good outtake reel. Clockstoppers is one part teen romancer and two parts growing pains drama, spliced with sci-fi adventure. A blandly cool teen named Zak (Jesse Bradford) accidentally discovers a watch which seemingly allows its wearer to stop time. The clockstopping tricks prove fun initially as he uses them to woo the new girl on campus (Paula Garces). That is, until a covert government group seeks the watch for its own evil plans. The story is tired, familiar and saddled with a simplistic message. It seems teens in today's movies are either sex-crazed or faceless cardboard cut-outs. Where the hell is John Hughes? Watching Clockstoppers makes me miss Duckie from Pretty in Pink. -- ttc (Rated PG.)

DEATH TO SMOOCHY -- (Grade: C) It's like Robin Williams logged onto the Internet Movie Database, saw the spate of saccharin films he'd made in the last 10 years and decided it was time to do something adult. Death to Smoochy is exactly that: a dark revenge comedy with decidedly adult themes and language. The only problem is, it's not very funny. Yet Edward Norton, as Smoochy, is brilliant. His kids' sing-along "Your Step-Father's Not Mean (He's Adjusting)" is a side-splitter, as is Norton's ever-so-subtle Woody Harrelson imitation. If only Adam Resnick's script was as consistent as Norton. It falls flat several times. Perhaps this entertaining concept should have been developed as a short film. -- RP (Rated R.)

DEUCES WILD -- (Grade: F) Director Scott Kalvert regurgitates past gang films like The Warriors and The Blackboard Jungle with a lulling tale that's derivative during its best moments and laughably melodramatic at its worst. Stephen Dorff is earnest as Leon, the young leader of a 1950s Brooklyn street gang called the Deuces. I give Dorff credit for maintaining a straight face through the film, but his serious performance is battered by Brad Renfro's hammy portrayal as Leon's younger brother Bobby. The normally reliable Fairuza Balk is shrill as the girlfriend from the opposing gang who stirs up trouble for Leon and Bobby. Screenwriters Paul Kimatian and Christopher Gambale overload Deuces Wild with clichés and plot devices that audiences have seen countless times. Its poor storytelling is bound to make any actress -- even one as talented as Balk -- look shrill. -- SR (Rated R.)

ENIGMA -- (Grade: A) The egghead cometh! Modern cinema is all about trends, and it looks like we're in the age of the brooding genius. We thought only A Beautiful Mind's Russell Crowe could make a troubled mathematician sexy, but Dougray Scott (Mission: Impossible 2) joins his rank in Enigma.Scott plays Tom Jericho, a code-breaker for England during WWII, whose fling with a mysterious compatriot indicts him in a sticky web of treason and murder. Jericho must crack the German code to win the war and solve his lover's disappearance to save himself. Kate Winslet is along for the ride as the homely Hester Wallace, Jericho's only friend. Enigma is a whip-smart mystery and perfect counter-programming to the whiz-bang summer blockbuster. It's a film built on a snappy script by the brilliant Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love) and able direction from Michael Apted (Enough). Watching the war plotline escalate just as Jericho's personal mystery becomes unraveled is one of the more engaging moments in film this year. -- RP (Rated R.)

E.T. -- THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL -- (Grade: A) Director Steven Spielberg's 1982 sci-fi fable, arguably his greatest film, returns to theaters with enhanced effects, new footage and a re-mastered soundtrack. Screenwriter Melissa Mathison's tale of a 10-year-old boy (Henry Thomas) who discovers and befriends an alien stranded on Earth remains as heartfelt and engaging as ever. Spielberg says he examined the entire film to "spot" shots that he wanted to boost with additional computer graphics. This 20th anniversary reissue is being billed as a new edition and there are scenes, most noticeably, much of E.T.'s close-up footage, that appears dramatically enhanced. Still, spotting digital enhancements is not the reason to re-watch E.T. in theaters. E.T.'s timeless qualities rest on its quaint depiction of suburban life and childlike themes of friendship, family and sacrifice more than flashy special effects. -- SR (Rated PG.)

THE FLUFFER -- (Grade: B) Co-directors Richard Glatzer and Wash West tell a Boogie Nights tale about Johnny Rebel (Scott Gurney), a hot-blooded heterosexual who makes his living as a popular porn star. Everything changes when Johnny befriends his fluffer, the crew member who provides the stimulation necessary for him to perform. Most filmmakers would tell Johnny and Sean's story as a comedy, but Glatzer and West make a bigger impact by telling a humanistic story that replaces the expected irony with a substantial tale about unbalanced relationships and homophobia. -- SR (Unrated.)

FRAILTY -- (Grade: B) Veteran actor Bill Paxton does an admirable job recreating a Hitchcock thriller for his directing debut, Frailty. The fact that Paxton also plays the film lead, a Bible thumper dad (Paxton) who's convinced that demons are taking over the world and that God wants him to stop them, makes his effort all the more impressive. Written by Brent Hanley, Frailty tells the story of the "God's Hand" murders, a bloody killing spree perpetrated by the Meiks boys, 12-year-old Fenton (Matthew O'Leary), 9-year-old Adam (Jeremy Sumpter) and their blood-soaked dad (Paxton). The best surprise in Frailty is its twisting last act. I can't remember the last time a film fooled me so completely. -- SR (Rated R.)

GOSFORD PARK -- (Grade: B) On paper, Robert Altman's Gosford Park sounds like an Agatha Christie remake. Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) and his young wife, Lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas), have invited family and assorted friends to their country estate for a genteel shooting party. When a murder disrupts the elegant gathering, it's Constance's maid, Mary Maceachran (Kelly Macdonald), who begins to unravel the source of the foul play. Altman's smug and cynical film stands on its own merits. -- SR (Rated PG.)

HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE -- (Grade: D) Little humor, fun or feeling finds its way into director Chris Columbus' adaptation of J.K. Rowling's popular children's book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The story follows an 11-year-old orphan named Harry Potter, who lives with his cruel aunt and uncle. Harry's dreams of escaping his hard-knock life are answered when he is accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Despite an entertaining ensemble of supporting roles, the film's young star, Daniel Radcliffe, manages only to succeed in looking like Potter. Harry Potter is just Hollywood's latest manufactured extravaganza, void of emotional honesty and storytelling. -- SR (Rated PG.)

HIGH CRIMES -- (Grade: D) High Crimes marks the emergence of a new Hollywood power couple. Actors Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd team up for a follow-up to their 1997 suspense film Kiss the Girls. Their collaboration is a major disappointment. Adapted from Joseph Finder's novel, High Crimes tells the story of high-powered lawyer Claire Kubik (Judd), who discovers that her husband Tom (Jim Caviezel) was a covert military operative in El Salvador back in 1988. Claire seeks the assistance of wild card military lawyer Charles Grimes (Freeman) to clear Tom's name. Freeman and Judd's lead performances are little more than exercises on the rules of attraction. One more project together and they'll be ready to be spoofed by National Lampoon or the Wayans Brothers. -- ttc (Rated PG-13.)

HOLLYWOOD ENDING -- (Grade: B) Woody Wllen creates a showbiz jab that's every bit as ludicrous and silly as Broadway's The Producers. Allen plays washed-up director, Val Waxman. Desperate for a hit, Waxman accepts a directing offer from his ex-wife Ellie (Tea Leoni) and the studio chief (Treat Williams) who stole her away. Everything comes to a crashing halt after Waxman is stricken with psychosomatic blindness. Of course, he refuses to let blindness stop him from making his comeback film. Allen's extreme personality matches perfectly with the film's style of farcical comedy. Still, it's Leoni's screwball performance that makes the film. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

ICE AGE -- (Grade: A) Of all the contemporary movie types, the animated feature is the one that's enjoying the biggest heyday. Director Chris Wedge continues the trend with the laugh-out-loud funny Ice Age, a tale of a woolly mammoth (voice of Ray Romano), an annoying sloth (voice of John Leguizamo) and a saber-toothed tiger (voice of Denis Leary) who team up to return a human baby to its tribe. Ice Age is that rare movie which captures the physical language of silent comedy. What's even more impressive is how it captures the clownish slapstick of silent comedy's bygone era. -- SR

JASON X -- (Grade: D) If you've seen the ads for this ill-conceived installment in the Friday the 13th franchise, you might know the film better as "Jason in Space!" Sad but true, the hockey-masked killer from the '80s finds himself cryogenically frozen and then thawed out in the 25th century. So what does he do? Wield his primitive machete on the crew of his space transport. (Think of the kick-butt crew from Aliens mixed with a whole host of horny interns.)

Jason X is bad for all the reasons you expect, but -- toward the end -- its campiness and over-the-top bravado are too overwhelming to ignore. It becomes laughably bad, a small step up from just plain sucky. Take the scene when Jason is stuck in a hologram and he encounters loose 1980s co-eds. Sure he's going to kill them -- but it's the way he does it that almost redeems the movie. Almost.

But we're still talking about a crummy B-movie with poor direction and some of the worst throw-away lines in horror film history. But when the filmmakers acknowledge their own absurdity, I tend to have an easier time laughing at them. -- RP (Rated R.)

JOHN Q. -- (Grade: F) The first half of John Q. is an enjoyable blue-collar drama. The second half of John Q. is so relentless in its attempts to generate audience tears that you can't help but laugh out loud. Denzel Washington is John Q. Archibald, a factory worker struggling to make ends meet for his family on his downsized salary. When his son Michael (Daniel E. Smith) becomes ill, John discovers that his insurance won't cover the bills. John Q. packs some appealing messages about the country's health care system. Unfortunately, these messages are soon washed over by the film's unintentional comedy. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

KISSING JESSICA STEIN -- (Grade: B) Meet Jessica (Jennifer Westfeldt). She's very single, very Jewish and very unfulfilled with her life. As those around her tell her, she just needs a man. But the merry-go-round of available men in New York offers jerks and not-yet-out gay men. Enter Helen (Heather Juergensen). Jessica reads her woman-seeking-woman personals ad and feels that spark. They meet, they click, they become great friends -- and then they try to be lovers. Kissing Jessica Stein is an odd little lark, a good old-fashioned story-driven flick that manages to entertain and challenge its audience at the same time. Both actresses, who also wrote the film together, sparkle with real-life charm. Their sass and easygoing personalities keep Kissing Jessica Stein from turning into a cheap When Sally Meets Sally. -- RP (Rated R.)

LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT -- (Grade: D) As Seattle TV reporter Lanie Kerrigan, actress Angelina Jolie has all the marks of a classic comic heroine. On looks alone, Jolie's Life or Something Like It character inhabits a universe populated by past comediennes like Judy Holliday and Jayne Mansfield. Jolie's screwball potential is squashed by Life or Something Like It's haphazard storytelling. Desperate to get a network job, Kerrigan's career plans go amuck after a homeless prophet (Tony Shalhoub) tells Kerrigan that she only has one week to live. Too foolish to be taken seriously, and without enough laughs to be considered a winning comedy, Life or Something Like It dissolves into a muddled mess. Based on Life or Something Like It, I'm not convinced that Jolie has a knack for comedy. On this occasion, I'm willing to blame the filmmaker. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING -- (Grade: A) Director Peter Jackson tackles J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy books set in Middle-earth with a creative force. The results are extraordinary. The film tells the story of hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and the powerful Ruling Ring he inherits from his Uncle Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm). There is plenty of showmanship in Fellowship, but there is also substantive storytelling. Fellowship of the Ring is so good that I imagine high-brow audiences who normally avoid these types of films will find themselves having a great time if they give the film a chance. ­ SR (Rated PG-13.)

MONSOON WEDDING -- (Grade: A) The chaotic planning of a Punjabi wedding is the colorful backdrop for director Mira Nair's (Salaam Bombay, Mississippi Masala) joyful drama. Aditi (pop singer Vasundhara Das) is the daughter of Lalit (Naseeruddin Shah) and Pimmi (Lillete Dubey), who hastily agrees to marry Hemant (Parvin Dabas), an engineer from Houston. Despite the culture clashes between Aditi's New Delhi family and her Americanized groom, Pimmi manages to keep his mind focused on the extravagant reception. A soundtrack of traditional music and contemporary Pop songs helps Nair portray Aditi's struggle to embrace her Punjabi past as well look towards her future. Comparisons to Robert Altman's The Wedding are unfair. Monsoon Wedding is too joyful to be considered an Altman-inspired film. In Nair's heartfelt tale, the monsoon rains may threaten, but love conquers just the same. -- SR (Rated R.)

MONSTER'S BALL -- (Grade: A) Halle Berry throws fashionable wardrobes out the window in the stark drama Monster's Ball. As Leticia Musgrove, a Southern widow who falls for the death-row prison guard (Billy Bob Thornton) who executed her convicted-killer husband (Rapper Sean Combs), Berry looks intentionally drab. Monster's Ball is a love story, although it focuses on race, telling its story in a deliberately black-and-white manner. While a movie like Monster's Ball is considered low-budget, its performances outshine most of this year's large-scale movies. ­ SR (Rated R.)

MURDER BY NUMBERS -- (Grade: D) Sandra Bullock is dreadfully miscast as a forensics detective on the trail of two teen-age murderers (Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt) in director Barbet Schroeder's lumbering mystery. Exchanging her playful personality for something decidedly dark and somber, Bullock is never believable or engaging as the film's troubled lead. Gosling is the only thing worth recommending in the film. His performance, playing a smart-ass teen with bedroom eyes, is a worthy companion to his lead role in the under-seen drama, The Believer. As a follow up to Schroeder's brilliant Columbian drama, Our Lady of the Assassins, Murder By Numbers is a huge disappointment. -- SR (Rated R.)

OCEAN'S ELEVEN -- (Grade: C) Steven Soderbergh has said that Ocean's 11 is an old-fashioned heist movie with lots of stars. Soderbergh's remake isn't much of an improvement from the 1960 original. Just released from prison, unreformed thief Danny Ocean (George Clooney) corrals 11 retired criminals to rob three Las Vegas casinos, all owned by a Vegas tycoon (Andy Garcia) who's romantically involved with Ocean's ex-wife (Julia Roberts). The beginning of Ocean's 11 crisscrosses America as Ocean builds his criminal dream team. The second half shows the heist. But instead of building to an exciting climax, it is content to be an affable, buddy tale. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

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. 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.)

PANIC ROOM -- (Grade: A) Dark shadows and the sound of heavy breathing help Panic Room tell its crime story well. An old Manhattan townhouse provides the perfect setting for director David Fincher's suspense film. A stormy night seals the creepy mood. Jodie Foster is sweaty and determined as Meg Altman, a recently divorced mom intent on protecting herself and her teenage daughter, Sarah (Kristen Stewart), from a trio of criminals (Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker and Dwight Yoakam) who've broken into their new house in the dead of night. In interviews, Fincher compares Panic Room with another claustrophobic thriller, Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. It's a fair comparison. Panic Room is the type of violent thriller Hitchcock would make if he were alive in these angry, cynical times. More importantly, with the exception of adding drama between Meg and her teen-age daughter, I can't imagine how Hitchcock could have made Panic Room any more enjoyable. -- SR (Rated R.)

PAULINE ET PAULETTE -- (Grade: B) Director Lieven Debrauwer tells the story of four sisters, Martha (Julienne De Bruyn), Cécile (Rosemarie Bergmans), Pauline (Dora van der Groen) and Paulette (Ann Petersen), whose lives in a small Flemish town change after Martha's death. Pauline is ill and requires the care of Cécile and Paulette, but neither of them are interested in caring for her. Pauline et Paulette's classical music soundtrack and colorful photography breathes additional life into Debrauwer's women's story (a story he co-wrote with Jaak Boon). It's beautiful to watch. Still, Pauline et Paulette's greatest asset is a credible story that manages to avoid melodramatic clichés. -- SR (Rated G.)

RETURN TO NEVERLAND -- (Grade: D) Disney animators create a dull Peter Pan adventure that's not half as fun as the 1953 original movie. Return to Neverland reunites Pan (voice of Blayne Weaver) with his fairy companion Tinkerbell and colorful nemesis Captain Hook (voice of Corey Burton). It's World War II and Pan's old friend Wendy is grown-up now, with children. Wendy's young daughter, Jane (voice of Harriet Owen), doesn't believe in Neverland's fantasies. So it's up to Pan to convince Jane to resume acting like a child. It's too bad Disney marred his return with a lackluster movie.-- SR (Rated G.)

THE ROOKIE -- (Grade: C) Dennis Quaid's easygoing performance as Jim Morris, a high-school science teacher and baseball coach who tries out for the Majors as part of a bet with his team, is the best thing about director John Lee Hancock's baseball drama. Told in a matter-of-fact style, The Rookie drapes its heartfelt themes about fathers, sons and second chances around Texas Big Sky country. The Rookie never manages to tug hard on the heartstrings, despite Hancock's melodramatic effort. As the middle-aged rookie, Quaid is looking weathered and more handsome than ever. Watching him in his worn boots and Wrangler jeans makes you wish Hollywood still made Westerns. -- SR (Rated G.)

THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS -- (Grade: A) Everything comes together perfectly in filmmaker Wes Anderson's playful comedy, The Royal Tenenbaums. The film's story, co-written by Anderson and Owen Wilson, is about a family of Upper East Side geniuses reunited after 20 years of betrayals. Gwyneth Paltrow is wonderfully pouty as Margot Tenenbaum, a somber playwright who hasn't written anything in seven years. Gene Hackman gives one of the best performances of his career as cranky Royal Tenenbaum. Tenenbaums is a comic celebration of dysfunctional behavior. They're eccentrics struggling through daily life, and nothing is richer than that. -- SR (Rated R.)

THE SCORPION KING -- (Grade: D) The Scorpion King is ready to take center stage, rewarding wrestling actor The Rock for his popular walk-on role in The Mummy Returns. Too bad there's not enough heat in The Scorpion King to get things cooking. Mathayus (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) is the last of a tribe of assassins charged to dispatch the sorceress Cassandra (Kelly Hu), whose advice has allowed the warlord Memnon (Steven Brand) to conquer the scattered tribal nations. Although King is full of anachronistic quips and goofy buddy banter, the movie doesn't feel like a breezy romp because it bears the weight of its big-time, action film expectations. Still, Johnson's on-screen appeal forecasts a real Smackdown somewhere in his film acting future, but that future is not now. -- ttc (Rated PG-13.)

SHACKLETON'S ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE -- (Grade: C) One of the greatest tales of human courage and adventure is shrunk down to a 45-minute, routine OMNIMAX film. Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure, a documentary about Sir Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated 1914 journey to Antarctica, replaces interviews with descendents of Shackleton's crew with dramatizations of Shackleton's struggle to rescue his men. Compared to the archival film footage and still photography shot by Frank Hurley, a Shackleton crewmember, the dramatizations are amateurish and uninteresting. -- SR (Unrated.)

SNOW DOGS -- (Grade: D) The closing credits of Snow Dogs reveal that the story was suggested by the book Winterdance by Gary Paulsen. Snow Dogs presents animals manipulated into exhibiting more human characteristics. I'm sure the kids might get something out of the good messages, but Snow Dogs offers far less than animated features like Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Monsters, Inc. I might have been far more inclined to go along with the hokey black guy from Florida inherits a dog sled team in Alaska" story if the producers had gone the animated route. -- ttc (Rated PG.)

SPIDER-MAN --(Grade: C) As Spider-Man's costumed nemesis, the Green Goblin, Willem Dafoe's creepy grin is more entertaining than all of Spider-Man's explosions and digital effects. Tobey Maguire is given the body-hugging Spider-Man costume, and it looks good on him. As the boy hero of director Sam Raimi's sloppy blockbuster, Maguire is getting all the attention. Still, actioners like Spider-Man are all about its villains, and Dafoe is the best thing in an otherwise disappointing film.

Spider-Man's best scene occurs early in the movie, when Parker loses control of his newfound super powers in his high school cafeteria. Later in the film, Spider-Man's origin story breaks down while Raimi crams in as much action as possible. Stylish images turn cluttered. The action becomes chaotic instead of engaging. Making dramatic matters worse, Maguire's emotional depth plummets every time he puts on his Spider-Man mask. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

THE SWEETEST THING -- (Grade: D) The idea is fine: Women can do comedy just as well as men. The problem is, they can also do comedy just as poorly as men. So if you don't like it when men hit rock bottom in gross-outs like There's Something About Mary and Whipped, then, you certainly will not like it in a woman's version, The Sweetest Thing. Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate star as a couple of in-control singles who play men like toys, until they meet that special someone. That much is nice to see. But the plot detours into Monica-dress territory and oral sex lockjaw and, well, you get the idea. Thomas Jane (61*) plays that special someone, and he's probably the most likeable performer in the bunch. Applegate is surprisingly good though, confident and obviously at home in the potty-humor after all those years on Married ... With Children. -- RP (Rated R.)

THE TIME MACHINE -- (Grade: C) Like the time machine itself, a gilded contraption made of brass, wood and leather, director Simon Wells' (great-grandson of author H.G. Wells) adaptation of H.G. Wells' 1885 fantasy, is a quaint and old-fashioned tale. Cleaned of the social politics that drove his great-grandfather's story, Simon Wells' Time Machine update is nothing more than a child-friendly comic book. Guy Pearce is likable as Alexander Hartdegen, the absent-minded inventor who builds a machine that transports him 800,000 years into the future in search of a way to undo past events. Still, Pearce's twitchy charisma fails to keep the film moving. Only Jeremy Irons, playing a monstrous villain who confronts Hartdegen in the future, makes the most of the film's comic book spirit. (Rated PG-13.) -- SR (Rated R.)

Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN -- (Grade: A) Mexican-born director Alfonso Cuarón makes a heady impact on American cinema with his fast-moving road movie Y Tu Mamá También. Y Tu Mamá También follows the roadside adventures of two teen-age friends, Tenoch (Diago Luna) and Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Tenoch's cousin, Luisa (Maribel Verdu), as they leave Mexico City in search for the perfect beach on the Oaxacan coast. Luna and Bernal are heartfelt as the friends who find themselves starry-eyed over the beautiful Luisa. But it's Verdu's passionate performance that ultimately sends Y Tu Mamá También spinning. As engaging as it is erotic, Y Tu Mamá También became the highest grossing film in Mexican history. One viewing and it's easy to understand why. -- SR (Rated R.)

TRIUMPH OF LOVE -- (Grade: C) In director Clare Peploe's adaptation of Marivaux's 1732 comic play, Le Triomphe de l'amour, Mira Sorvino makes the most of her false identities performance. Sorvino plays Princess Leonide, who wants to restore the royal crown to its rightful owner, her sworn enemy, a handsome prince named Agis (Jay Rodan) who lives with the philosopher Hermocrates (Ben Kingsley) and his sister Leontine (Fiona Shaw). In order to reach Agis, Leonide and her maid disguise themselves as male students. It's not long before everything turns upside-down. Sorvino is just as good-looking as a man as she is as a woman. Still, her comic spark pales compared to the clownish antics of Kingsley and Shaw. Despite their spirited performances and the film's beautiful Tuscany backdrop, Triumph of Love never breaks the stuffy confines of a filmed stage play. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

UNFAITHFUL -- (Grade: C) Everything about Unfaithful has been done before, and better. Adrian Lyne's new adultery drama, about a wife who goes astray, fails to match the dramatic intensity of his 1987 film, Fatal Attraction. As an English-language remake to Claude Chabrol's 1968 film La Femme Infidèle, Lyne makes no improvements on Chabrol's orginal movie. Diane Lane plays Connie (Diane Lane), the suburban New York City housewife who stumbles into an affair with a younger man (Olivier Martinez). Lane is believable as the pretty infidel, but it's a role she played better in A Walk on the Moon. Richard Gere, as Edward Sumner, a Manhattan businessman and loving father who discovers his wife's deceit, is saddled with the task of turning the movie from a family drama to a revenge tale. Lyne creates a slick veneer for the movie, but without an engaging story, it's not long before Unfaithful's characters cease to matter. -- SR (Rated R.)

CAPSULE REVIEWS AND SUMMARIES By TT CLINKSCALES, RODGER PILLE AND STEVE RAMOS

ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS -- (Grade: C) It's all about Ice Cube. As the writer/producer/star of this purely escapist fantasy, Ice Cube has made a film that reminds audiences of a highlight reel of gangsta videos and off-color comedy. Director Kevin Bray's All About the Benjamins is a routinely amusing, downscaled version of the Will Smith/Martin Lawrence actioner Bad Boys. Bounty hunter Bucum Jackson (Cube) is on the hunt for scam artist Reggie Wright (Mike Epps). Along the way, they cross paths with an Eurotrash, diamond-heisting villain (Tommy Flanagan), over $20 million in stones and Wright's $60 million lottery ticket. Despite all its bling-bling dreams, All About the Benjamins only manages to deliver cheap thrills. -- ttc (Rated R.)

AMÉLIE -- (Grade: A) The most magical film this year is French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet's playful fantasy Amélie. This eye-popping tale follows the adventures of a pixyish waitress named Amélie (Audrey Tautou) in Paris' Montmartre neighborhood. Amélie watches movies with wide--eyed amazement, oblivious to the packed Parisian theater audience around her. She catches small details that ordinary moviegoers would ordinarily miss. She loves movies, and the movies seem to love Amélie right back. Dizzy photography and slapstick comedy keep the film moving. Amélie has more than enough trick shots to keep Jeunet's long-time fans happy. -- SR (Rated R.)

A BEAUTIFUL MIND -- (Grade: A) Russell Crowe's characters have heretofore been manly men. He's played tough men of loyalty who'd rather fight than have their honor questioned. In A Beautiful Mind, Crowe plays troubled John Forbes Nash Jr., a man who wants to be a strong intellect. A Beautiful Mind is a loose biopic that follows Nash's journey from his break-though mathematical discovery and acceptance into top-secret government work to his eventual breakdown. Jennifer Connelly continues her comeback with a fine performance as Nash's unfailing wife. In this Oscar hopeful season, A Beautiful Mind is one film that completely deserves its accolades. -- RP (Rated PG-13.)

BIG FAT LIAR -- (Grade: D) Hollywood producer Marty Wolf (Paul Giamatti) and 14-year-old Jason Shepherd (Frankie Muniz) are the two truth-impaired guys who cross paths when Shepard's school assignment turns into Wolf's pitch for a summer blockbuster. By the end of Big Fat Liar, Wolf receives his comeuppance for stealing Shepherd's paper, and Shepherd experiences redemption. Big Fat Liar springs from Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids mold, but TV director Shawn Levy (The Adventures of Jett Jackson) is no Rodriguez. It's too bad the film ends up feeling like a reunion special for a show that never was, thanks to a supporting role from Lee Majors (Six Million Dollar Man). -- ttc (Rated PG.)

BLACK HAWK DOWN -- (Grade: A) Mogadishu. October 1993. U.S. Rangers and Deltas embark on what was supposed to be an hour-and-a-half infiltration mission to capture two lieutenants of a renegade warlord. Seventeen hours later, two Black Hawk helicopters have been destroyed and the U.S. forces have lost 18 men in the most intense and sustained firefight since the Vietnam War. Black Hawk Down honors its subject with a sense that's both relentless and direct without being a polemic or a Hollywood version of the events. -- ttc (Rated R.)

BLADE ii -- (Grade: A) The vampire world is threatened by a dangerous strain of über-vampires known as Reapers. Our bloodsucking hero, the "Daywalker" named Blade (Wesley Snipes) is on a quest to find his mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) who may be batting for the other team, if he's batting at all. The fight sequences effectively combine just a dash of the Matrix-inspired wire-fu techniques with old school martial artistry and a little WWF smackdown frenzy for fun. Queen of the Damned meets Aliens is how some Hollywood types might describe Blade II. The Aliens franchise would do well to have del Toro added to its directors' club, although it looks like he's going to be busy getting ready for another Blade installment. -- ttc (Rated R.)

THE CAT'S MEOW -- (Grade: D) In director Peter Bogdanovich's period mystery, Kirsten Dunst plays Marion Davies, golden age actress and girlfriend to newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst, with a zest equal to Davies' best comic performances. Dunst is the best thing about The Cat's Meow. Writer Steven Peros adapted his screenplay of an unsolved murder aboard Hearst's (Edward Herrmann) private yacht in November 1924 into a successful stage play before Bogdanovich finally turned his Hollywood scandal tale into a movie. Eddie Izzard makes little impact as Charlie Chaplin, despite appearing in many of the film's key scenes. Jennifer Tilly is grating as newspaper columnist Louella Parsons. What's lacking is the sufficient drama and suspense necessary to make an engaging murder mystery. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

CHANGING LANES -- (Grade:D) Imagine a Charles Bronson revenge fantasy with Samuel L. Jackson as the fiery ball of righteous fury. Add Ben Affleck as a Tom Cruise stand-in caught up in a legal/moral logjam a la The Firm. Doyle Gipson (Jackson) finalizes a loan to purchase a house to keep his ex-wife and sons from leaving him as part of a custody plan he has prepared to present. Hotshot Wall Street lawyer Gavin Banek (Affleck) seeks to wrestle sole control of a multimillion dollar philanthropic fund from a community board. An accident on the freeway between Gipson and Banek alters their plans and uncorks their all-too-human rage. In an attempt to restrain it's own lust for revenge, the story succumbs to its own highly implausible pretzel logic. This day-on-the-road-to-hell is too full of good intentions for its own good. --- ttc (Rated R.)

CLOCKSTOPPERS -- (Grade:D) Like a proverbial team of monkeys, screenwriters Rob Hedden, J. David Stem and David N. Weiss concoct a half-baked story that doesn't even qualify as a good outtake reel. Clockstoppers is one part teen romancer and two parts growing pains drama, spliced with sci-fi adventure. A blandly cool teen named Zak (Jesse Bradford) accidentally discovers a watch which seemingly allows its wearer to stop time. The clockstopping tricks prove fun initially as he uses them to woo the new girl on campus (Paula Garces). That is, until a covert government group seeks the watch for its own evil plans. The story is tired, familiar and saddled with a simplistic message. It seems teens in today's movies are either sex-crazed or faceless cardboard cut-outs. Where the hell is John Hughes? Watching Clockstoppers makes me miss Duckie from Pretty in Pink. -- ttc (Rated PG.)

DEATH TO SMOOCHY -- (Grade: C) It's like Robin Williams logged onto the Internet Movie Database, saw the spate of saccharin films he'd made in the last 10 years and decided it was time to do something adult. Death to Smoochy is exactly that: a dark revenge comedy with decidedly adult themes and language. The only problem is, it's not very funny. Yet Edward Norton, as Smoochy, is brilliant. His kids' sing-along "Your Step-Father's Not Mean (He's Adjusting)" is a side-splitter, as is Norton's ever-so-subtle Woody Harrelson imitation. If only Adam Resnick's script was as consistent as Norton. It falls flat several times. Perhaps this entertaining concept should have been developed as a short film. -- RP (Rated R.)

DEUCES WILD -- (Grade: F) Director Scott Kalvert regurgitates past gang films like The Warriors and The Blackboard Jungle with a lulling tale that's derivative during its best moments and laughably melodramatic at its worst. Stephen Dorff is earnest as Leon, the young leader of a 1950s Brooklyn street gang called the Deuces. I give Dorff credit for maintaining a straight face through the film, but his serious performance is battered by Brad Renfro's hammy portrayal as Leon's younger brother Bobby. The normally reliable Fairuza Balk is shrill as the girlfriend from the opposing gang who stirs up trouble for Leon and Bobby. Screenwriters Paul Kimatian and Christopher Gambale overload Deuces Wild with clichés and plot devices that audiences have seen countless times. Its poor storytelling is bound to make any actress -- even one as talented as Balk -- look shrill. -- SR (Rated R.)

ENIGMA -- (Grade: A) The egghead cometh! Modern cinema is all about trends, and it looks like we're in the age of the brooding genius. We thought only A Beautiful Mind's Russell Crowe could make a troubled mathematician sexy, but Dougray Scott (Mission: Impossible 2) joins his rank in Enigma.Scott plays Tom Jericho, a code-breaker for England during WWII, whose fling with a mysterious compatriot indicts him in a sticky web of treason and murder. Jericho must crack the German code to win the war and solve his lover's disappearance to save himself. Kate Winslet is along for the ride as the homely Hester Wallace, Jericho's only friend. Enigma is a whip-smart mystery and perfect counter-programming to the whiz-bang summer blockbuster. It's a film built on a snappy script by the brilliant Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love) and able direction from Michael Apted (Enough). Watching the war plotline escalate just as Jericho's personal mystery becomes unraveled is one of the more engaging moments in film this year. -- RP (Rated R.)

E.T. -- THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL -- (Grade: A) Director Steven Spielberg's 1982 sci-fi fable, arguably his greatest film, returns to theaters with enhanced effects, new footage and a re-mastered soundtrack. Screenwriter Melissa Mathison's tale of a 10-year-old boy (Henry Thomas) who discovers and befriends an alien stranded on Earth remains as heartfelt and engaging as ever. Spielberg says he examined the entire film to "spot" shots that he wanted to boost with additional computer graphics. This 20th anniversary reissue is being billed as a new edition and there are scenes, most noticeably, much of E.T.'s close-up footage, that appears dramatically enhanced. Still, spotting digital enhancements is not the reason to re-watch E.T. in theaters. E.T.'s timeless qualities rest on its quaint depiction of suburban life and childlike themes of friendship, family and sacrifice more than flashy special effects. -- SR (Rated PG.)

THE FLUFFER -- (Grade: B) Co-directors Richard Glatzer and Wash West tell a Boogie Nights tale about Johnny Rebel (Scott Gurney), a hot-blooded heterosexual who makes his living as a popular porn star. Everything changes when Johnny befriends his fluffer, the crew member who provides the stimulation necessary for him to perform. Most filmmakers would tell Johnny and Sean's story as a comedy, but Glatzer and West make a bigger impact by telling a humanistic story that replaces the expected irony with a substantial tale about unbalanced relationships and homophobia. -- SR (Unrated.)

FRAILTY -- (Grade: B) Veteran actor Bill Paxton does an admirable job recreating a Hitchcock thriller for his directing debut, Frailty. The fact that Paxton also plays the film lead, a Bible thumper dad (Paxton) who's convinced that demons are taking over the world and that God wants him to stop them, makes his effort all the more impressive. Written by Brent Hanley, Frailty tells the story of the "God's Hand" murders, a bloody killing spree perpetrated by the Meiks boys, 12-year-old Fenton (Matthew O'Leary), 9-year-old Adam (Jeremy Sumpter) and their blood-soaked dad (Paxton). The best surprise in Frailty is its twisting last act. I can't remember the last time a film fooled me so completely. -- SR (Rated R.)

GOSFORD PARK -- (Grade: B) On paper, Robert Altman's Gosford Park sounds like an Agatha Christie remake. Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) and his young wife, Lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas), have invited family and assorted friends to their country estate for a genteel shooting party. When a murder disrupts the elegant gathering, it's Constance's maid, Mary Maceachran (Kelly Macdonald), who begins to unravel the source of the foul play. Altman's smug and cynical film stands on its own merits. -- SR (Rated PG.)

HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE -- (Grade: D) Little humor, fun or feeling finds its way into director Chris Columbus' adaptation of J.K. Rowling's popular children's book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The story follows an 11-year-old orphan named Harry Potter, who lives with his cruel aunt and uncle. Harry's dreams of escaping his hard-knock life are answered when he is accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Despite an entertaining ensemble of supporting roles, the film's young star, Daniel Radcliffe, manages only to succeed in looking like Potter. Harry Potter is just Hollywood's latest manufactured extravaganza, void of emotional honesty and storytelling. -- SR (Rated PG.)

HIGH CRIMES -- (Grade: D) High Crimes marks the emergence of a new Hollywood power couple. Actors Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd team up for a follow-up to their 1997 suspense film Kiss the Girls. Their collaboration is a major disappointment. Adapted from Joseph Finder's novel, High Crimes tells the story of high-powered lawyer Claire Kubik (Judd), who discovers that her husband Tom (Jim Caviezel) was a covert military operative in El Salvador back in 1988. Claire seeks the assistance of wild card military lawyer Charles Grimes (Freeman) to clear Tom's name. Freeman and Judd's lead performances are little more than exercises on the rules of attraction. One more project together and they'll be ready to be spoofed by National Lampoon or the Wayans Brothers. -- ttc (Rated PG-13.)

HOLLYWOOD ENDING -- (Grade: B) Woody Wllen creates a showbiz jab that's every bit as ludicrous and silly as Broadway's The Producers. Allen plays washed-up director, Val Waxman. Desperate for a hit, Waxman accepts a directing offer from his ex-wife Ellie (Tea Leoni) and the studio chief (Treat Williams) who stole her away. Everything comes to a crashing halt after Waxman is stricken with psychosomatic blindness. Of course, he refuses to let blindness stop him from making his comeback film. Allen's extreme personality matches perfectly with the film's style of farcical comedy. Still, it's Leoni's screwball performance that makes the film. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

ICE AGE -- (Grade: A) Of all the contemporary movie types, the animated feature is the one that's enjoying the biggest heyday. Director Chris Wedge continues the trend with the laugh-out-loud funny Ice Age, a tale of a woolly mammoth (voice of Ray Romano), an annoying sloth (voice of John Leguizamo) and a saber-toothed tiger (voice of Denis Leary) who team up to return a human baby to its tribe. Ice Age is that rare movie which captures the physical language of silent comedy. What's even more impressive is how it captures the clownish slapstick of silent comedy's bygone era. -- SR

JASON X -- (Grade: D) If you've seen the ads for this ill-conceived installment in the Friday the 13th franchise, you might know the film better as "Jason in Space!" Sad but true, the hockey-masked killer from the '80s finds himself cryogenically frozen and then thawed out in the 25th century. So what does he do? Wield his primitive machete on the crew of his space transport. (Think of the kick-butt crew from Aliens mixed with a whole host of horny interns.)

Jason X is bad for all the reasons you expect, but -- toward the end -- its campiness and over-the-top bravado are too overwhelming to ignore. It becomes laughably bad, a small step up from just plain sucky. Take the scene when Jason is stuck in a hologram and he encounters loose 1980s co-eds. Sure he's going to kill them -- but it's the way he does it that almost redeems the movie. Almost.

But we're still talking about a crummy B-movie with poor direction and some of the worst throw-away lines in horror film history. But when the filmmakers acknowledge their own absurdity, I tend to have an easier time laughing at them. -- RP (Rated R.)

JOHN Q. -- (Grade: F) The first half of John Q. is an enjoyable blue-collar drama. The second half of John Q. is so relentless in its attempts to generate audience tears that you can't help but laugh out loud. Denzel Washington is John Q. Archibald, a factory worker struggling to make ends meet for his family on his downsized salary. When his son Michael (Daniel E. Smith) becomes ill, John discovers that his insurance won't cover the bills. John Q. packs some appealing messages about the country's health care system. Unfortunately, these messages are soon washed over by the film's unintentional comedy. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

KISSING JESSICA STEIN -- (Grade: B) Meet Jessica (Jennifer Westfeldt). She's very single, very Jewish and very unfulfilled with her life. As those around her tell her, she just needs a man. But the merry-go-round of available men in New York offers jerks and not-yet-out gay men. Enter Helen (Heather Juergensen). Jessica reads her woman-seeking-woman personals ad and feels that spark. They meet, they click, they become great friends -- and then they try to be lovers. Kissing Jessica Stein is an odd little lark, a good old-fashioned story-driven flick that manages to entertain and challenge its audience at the same time. Both actresses, who also wrote the film together, sparkle with real-life charm. Their sass and easygoing personalities keep Kissing Jessica Stein from turning into a cheap When Sally Meets Sally. -- RP (Rated R.)

LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT -- (Grade: D) As Seattle TV reporter Lanie Kerrigan, actress Angelina Jolie has all the marks of a classic comic heroine. On looks alone, Jolie's Life or Something Like It character inhabits a universe populated by past comediennes like Judy Holliday and Jayne Mansfield. Jolie's screwball potential is squashed by Life or Something Like It's haphazard storytelling. Desperate to get a network job, Kerrigan's career plans go amuck after a homeless prophet (Tony Shalhoub) tells Kerrigan that she only has one week to live. Too foolish to be taken seriously, and without enough laughs to be considered a winning comedy, Life or Something Like It dissolves into a muddled mess. Based on Life or Something Like It, I'm not convinced that Jolie has a knack for comedy. On this occasion, I'm willing to blame the filmmaker. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING -- (Grade: A) Director Peter Jackson tackles J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy books set in Middle-earth with a creative force. The results are extraordinary. The film tells the story of hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and the powerful Ruling Ring he inherits from his Uncle Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm). There is plenty of showmanship in Fellowship, but there is also substantive storytelling. Fellowship of the Ring is so good that I imagine high-brow audiences who normally avoid these types of films will find themselves having a great time if they give the film a chance. ­ SR (Rated PG-13.)

MONSOON WEDDING -- (Grade: A) The chaotic planning of a Punjabi wedding is the colorful backdrop for director Mira Nair's (Salaam Bombay, Mississippi Masala) joyful drama. Aditi (pop singer Vasundhara Das) is the daughter of Lalit (Naseeruddin Shah) and Pimmi (Lillete Dubey), who hastily agrees to marry Hemant (Parvin Dabas), an engineer from Houston. Despite the culture clashes between Aditi's New Delhi family and her Americanized groom, Pimmi manages to keep his mind focused on the extravagant reception. A soundtrack of traditional music and contemporary Pop songs helps Nair portray Aditi's struggle to embrace her Punjabi past as well look towards her future. Comparisons to Robert Altman's The Wedding are unfair. Monsoon Wedding is too joyful to be considered an Altman-inspired film. In Nair's heartfelt tale, the monsoon rains may threaten, but love conquers just the same. -- SR (Rated R.)

MONSTER'S BALL -- (Grade: A) Halle Berry throws fashionable wardrobes out the window in the stark drama Monster's Ball. As Leticia Musgrove, a Southern widow who falls for the death-row prison guard (Billy Bob Thornton) who executed her convicted-killer husband (Rapper Sean Combs), Berry looks intentionally drab. Monster's Ball is a love story, although it focuses on race, telling its story in a deliberately black-and-white manner. While a movie like Monster's Ball is considered low-budget, its performances outshine most of this year's large-scale movies. ­ SR (Rated R.)

MURDER BY NUMBERS -- (Grade: D) Sandra Bullock is dreadfully miscast as a forensics detective on the trail of two teen-age murderers (Ryan Gosling and Michael Pitt) in director Barbet Schroeder's lumbering mystery. Exchanging her playful personality for something decidedly dark and somber, Bullock is never believable or engaging as the film's troubled lead. Gosling is the only thing worth recommending in the film. His performance, playing a smart-ass teen with bedroom eyes, is a worthy companion to his lead role in the under-seen drama, The Believer. As a follow up to Schroeder's brilliant Columbian drama, Our Lady of the Assassins, Murder By Numbers is a huge disappointment. -- SR (Rated R.)

OCEAN'S ELEVEN -- (Grade: C) Steven Soderbergh has said that Ocean's 11 is an old-fashioned heist movie with lots of stars. Soderbergh's remake isn't much of an improvement from the 1960 original. Just released from prison, unreformed thief Danny Ocean (George Clooney) corrals 11 retired criminals to rob three Las Vegas casinos, all owned by a Vegas tycoon (Andy Garcia) who's romantically involved with Ocean's ex-wife (Julia Roberts). The beginning of Ocean's 11 crisscrosses America as Ocean builds his criminal dream team. The second half shows the heist. But instead of building to an exciting climax, it is content to be an affable, buddy tale. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

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. 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.)

PANIC ROOM -- (Grade: A) Dark shadows and the sound of heavy breathing help Panic Room tell its crime story well. An old Manhattan townhouse provides the perfect setting for director David Fincher's suspense film. A stormy night seals the creepy mood. Jodie Foster is sweaty and determined as Meg Altman, a recently divorced mom intent on protecting herself and her teenage daughter, Sarah (Kristen Stewart), from a trio of criminals (Jared Leto, Forest Whitaker and Dwight Yoakam) who've broken into their new house in the dead of night. In interviews, Fincher compares Panic Room with another claustrophobic thriller, Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. It's a fair comparison. Panic Room is the type of violent thriller Hitchcock would make if he were alive in these angry, cynical times. More importantly, with the exception of adding drama between Meg and her teen-age daughter, I can't imagine how Hitchcock could have made Panic Room any more enjoyable. -- SR (Rated R.)

PAULINE ET PAULETTE -- (Grade: B) Director Lieven Debrauwer tells the story of four sisters, Martha (Julienne De Bruyn), Cécile (Rosemarie Bergmans), Pauline (Dora van der Groen) and Paulette (Ann Petersen), whose lives in a small Flemish town change after Martha's death. Pauline is ill and requires the care of Cécile and Paulette, but neither of them are interested in caring for her. Pauline et Paulette's classical music soundtrack and colorful photography breathes additional life into Debrauwer's women's story (a story he co-wrote with Jaak Boon). It's beautiful to watch. Still, Pauline et Paulette's greatest asset is a credible story that manages to avoid melodramatic clichés. -- SR (Rated G.)

RETURN TO NEVERLAND -- (Grade: D) Disney animators create a dull Peter Pan adventure that's not half as fun as the 1953 original movie. Return to Neverland reunites Pan (voice of Blayne Weaver) with his fairy companion Tinkerbell and colorful nemesis Captain Hook (voice of Corey Burton). It's World War II and Pan's old friend Wendy is grown-up now, with children. Wendy's young daughter, Jane (voice of Harriet Owen), doesn't believe in Neverland's fantasies. So it's up to Pan to convince Jane to resume acting like a child. It's too bad Disney marred his return with a lackluster movie.-- SR (Rated G.)

THE ROOKIE -- (Grade: C) Dennis Quaid's easygoing performance as Jim Morris, a high-school science teacher and baseball coach who tries out for the Majors as part of a bet with his team, is the best thing about director John Lee Hancock's baseball drama. Told in a matter-of-fact style, The Rookie drapes its heartfelt themes about fathers, sons and second chances around Texas Big Sky country. The Rookie never manages to tug hard on the heartstrings, despite Hancock's melodramatic effort. As the middle-aged rookie, Quaid is looking weathered and more handsome than ever. Watching him in his worn boots and Wrangler jeans makes you wish Hollywood still made Westerns. -- SR (Rated G.)

THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS -- (Grade: A) Everything comes together perfectly in filmmaker Wes Anderson's playful comedy, The Royal Tenenbaums. The film's story, co-written by Anderson and Owen Wilson, is about a family of Upper East Side geniuses reunited after 20 years of betrayals. Gwyneth Paltrow is wonderfully pouty as Margot Tenenbaum, a somber playwright who hasn't written anything in seven years. Gene Hackman gives one of the best performances of his career as cranky Royal Tenenbaum. Tenenbaums is a comic celebration of dysfunctional behavior. They're eccentrics struggling through daily life, and nothing is richer than that. -- SR (Rated R.)

THE SCORPION KING -- (Grade: D) The Scorpion King is ready to take center stage, rewarding wrestling actor The Rock for his popular walk-on role in The Mummy Returns. Too bad there's not enough heat in The Scorpion King to get things cooking. Mathayus (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) is the last of a tribe of assassins charged to dispatch the sorceress Cassandra (Kelly Hu), whose advice has allowed the warlord Memnon (Steven Brand) to conquer the scattered tribal nations. Although King is full of anachronistic quips and goofy buddy banter, the movie doesn't feel like a breezy romp because it bears the weight of its big-time, action film expectations. Still, Johnson's on-screen appeal forecasts a real Smackdown somewhere in his film acting future, but that future is not now. -- ttc (Rated PG-13.)

SHACKLETON'S ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE -- (Grade: C) One of the greatest tales of human courage and adventure is shrunk down to a 45-minute, routine OMNIMAX film. Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure, a documentary about Sir Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated 1914 journey to Antarctica, replaces interviews with descendents of Shackleton's crew with dramatizations of Shackleton's struggle to rescue his men. Compared to the archival film footage and still photography shot by Frank Hurley, a Shackleton crewmember, the dramatizations are amateurish and uninteresting. -- SR (Unrated.)

SNOW DOGS -- (Grade: D) The closing credits of Snow Dogs reveal that the story was suggested by the book Winterdance by Gary Paulsen. Snow Dogs presents animals manipulated into exhibiting more human characteristics. I'm sure the kids might get something out of the good messages, but Snow Dogs offers far less than animated features like Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Monsters, Inc. I might have been far more inclined to go along with the hokey black guy from Florida inherits a dog sled team in Alaska" story if the producers had gone the animated route. -- ttc (Rated PG.)

SPIDER-MAN --(Grade: C) As Spider-Man's costumed nemesis, the Green Goblin, Willem Dafoe's creepy grin is more entertaining than all of Spider-Man's explosions and digital effects. Tobey Maguire is given the body-hugging Spider-Man costume, and it looks good on him. As the boy hero of director Sam Raimi's sloppy blockbuster, Maguire is getting all the attention. Still, actioners like Spider-Man are all about its villains, and Dafoe is the best thing in an otherwise disappointing film.

Spider-Man's best scene occurs early in the movie, when Parker loses control of his newfound super powers in his high school cafeteria. Later in the film, Spider-Man's origin story breaks down while Raimi crams in as much action as possible. Stylish images turn cluttered. The action becomes chaotic instead of engaging. Making dramatic matters worse, Maguire's emotional depth plummets every time he puts on his Spider-Man mask. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

THE SWEETEST THING -- (Grade: D) The idea is fine: Women can do comedy just as well as men. The problem is, they can also do comedy just as poorly as men. So if you don't like it when men hit rock bottom in gross-outs like There's Something About Mary and Whipped, then, you certainly will not like it in a woman's version, The Sweetest Thing. Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate star as a couple of in-control singles who play men like toys, until they meet that special someone. That much is nice to see. But the plot detours into Monica-dress territory and oral sex lockjaw and, well, you get the idea. Thomas Jane (61*) plays that special someone, and he's probably the most likeable performer in the bunch. Applegate is surprisingly good though, confident and obviously at home in the potty-humor after all those years on Married ... With Children. -- RP (Rated R.)

THE TIME MACHINE -- (Grade: C) Like the time machine itself, a gilded contraption made of brass, wood and leather, director Simon Wells' (great-grandson of author H.G. Wells) adaptation of H.G. Wells' 1885 fantasy, is a quaint and old-fashioned tale. Cleaned of the social politics that drove his great-grandfather's story, Simon Wells' Time Machine update is nothing more than a child-friendly comic book. Guy Pearce is likable as Alexander Hartdegen, the absent-minded inventor who builds a machine that transports him 800,000 years into the future in search of a way to undo past events. Still, Pearce's twitchy charisma fails to keep the film moving. Only Jeremy Irons, playing a monstrous villain who confronts Hartdegen in the future, makes the most of the film's comic book spirit. (Rated PG-13.) -- SR (Rated R.)

Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN -- (Grade: A) Mexican-born director Alfonso Cuarón makes a heady impact on American cinema with his fast-moving road movie Y Tu Mamá También. Y Tu Mamá También follows the roadside adventures of two teen-age friends, Tenoch (Diago Luna) and Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Tenoch's cousin, Luisa (Maribel Verdu), as they leave Mexico City in search for the perfect beach on the Oaxacan coast. Luna and Bernal are heartfelt as the friends who find themselves starry-eyed over the beautiful Luisa. But it's Verdu's passionate performance that ultimately sends Y Tu Mamá También spinning. As engaging as it is erotic, Y Tu Mamá También became the highest grossing film in Mexican history. One viewing and it's easy to understand why. -- SR (Rated R.)

TRIUMPH OF LOVE -- (Grade: C) In director Clare Peploe's adaptation of Marivaux's 1732 comic play, Le Triomphe de l'amour, Mira Sorvino makes the most of her false identities performance. Sorvino plays Princess Leonide, who wants to restore the royal crown to its rightful owner, her sworn enemy, a handsome prince named Agis (Jay Rodan) who lives with the philosopher Hermocrates (Ben Kingsley) and his sister Leontine (Fiona Shaw). In order to reach Agis, Leonide and her maid disguise themselves as male students. It's not long before everything turns upside-down. Sorvino is just as good-looking as a man as she is as a woman. Still, her comic spark pales compared to the clownish antics of Kingsley and Shaw. Despite their spirited performances and the film's beautiful Tuscany backdrop, Triumph of Love never breaks the stuffy confines of a filmed stage play. -- SR (Rated PG-13.)

UNFAITHFUL -- (Grade: C) Everything about Unfaithful has been done before, and better. Adrian Lyne's new adultery drama, about a wife who goes astray, fails to match the dramatic intensity of his 1987 film, Fatal Attraction. As an English-language remake to Claude Chabrol's 1968 film La Femme Infidèle, Lyne makes no improvements on Chabrol's orginal movie. Diane Lane plays Connie (Diane Lane), the suburban New York City housewife who stumbles into an affair with a younger man (Olivier Martinez). Lane is believable as the pretty infidel, but it's a role she played better in A Walk on the Moon. Richard Gere, as Edward Sumner, a Manhattan businessman and loving father who discovers his wife's deceit, is saddled with the task of turning the movie from a family drama to a revenge tale. Lyne creates a slick veneer for the movie, but without an engaging story, it's not long before Unfaithful's characters cease to matter. -- SR (Rated R.)

personals | classifieds | cover | news | columns | music | movies | arts | dining | listings | classifieds | mediakit | home