Is this movie over yet? That's what I was asking myself after about 15 minutes of its relentless unfunniness. A remake of Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, it features Ice Cube as a clueless buffoon who's suckered into buying a crumbling house, Nia Long as his pregnant and idiotic wife, and John C. McGinley as the smiling, overeager real estate agent. On all counts, a painfully bad movie. (ES) Rated PG
BLADES OF GLORY
Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell) and Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder) play figure skating rivals who get in a fistfight, earn lifetime bans, then must team up as the world's first all-male pair to continue skating. A movie about freakish effeminacy and close proximity between male testicles and male faces, Blades of Glory succeeds because it relies on situational discomfort, not homophobia, and because it doesn't take up too much of our time. (LB) Rated PG-13
THE CONDEMNED
Pro wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin, in his first screen outing, is actually pretty convincing as a death-row killer who's bought by a remorseless TV producer, along with nine other killers, then told he's participating in a Survivor-like Internet broadcast in which the last person alive gets freedom and a pile of money. Violent but not gory, and a dark, but entertaining take on TV viewers' bloodlust. (ES) Rated R
DISTURBIA
Kale (Shia LeBeouf), under house arrest, without his broadband Xbox connection and totally iTunes-less, finds alternate ways of spending his summer. Like spying on his neighbors, one of whom seems to be a serial murderer. An initially clever, intriguing remake of Hitchcock's Rear Window for teen audiences becomes a listless slasher flick. (LB) Rated PG-13
FRACTURE
Poor big-screen courtroom thrillers: Law and Order has eaten up every conceivable murder angle, cat-and-mouse game and cross-examination conceit. Fracture gets by on pure ego. Anthony Hopkins plays a genius aircraft designer who shoots his wife in the face. Ryan Gosling is the cocky DA who has one foot in the private sector. He's drawn into Hopkins' case when the old fart goads him at the arraignment. What should have been a clock-punching exercise totally unravels Gosling's life. This is an excellent, tense clash of personas. (LB) Rated R
HOT FUZZ
The boys who gave us Shaun of the Dead are back in town, this time hilariously spoofing cop-buddy films. Simon Pegg plays a London cop who's so good at the job, he's sent away to a small village so other city cops won't look bad. When villagers start getting knocked off -- and authorities are convinced they're all accidents -- our hero, and his well-meaning oaf of a partner (Nick Frost) literally leap into action. As violent as it is funny. (ES) Rated R
HURRICANE ON THE BAYOU
Katrina can be discussed in human, social and political terms in forums ranging from political roundtables to Spike Lee films. But Hurricane on the Bayou examines the hurricane as an ecological issue. Beginning as a documentary about the Mississippi Delta, the filmmakers end up turning their IMAX cameras on Katrina as an example of a worst-case scenario. The human and economic costs of ecological mismanagement are laid bare in 45 minutes. (MD) Not Rated; no deaths are depicted
IN THE LAND OF WOMEN
A softcore porn scribe moves back to Michigan from L.A. after being dumped by his hot French girlfriend. There he meets a woman and her daughter. Both kinda fall for him. Unfortunately, one has a lump on her breast and the other is like 16 (creepy). Is this supposed to be about cancer survival or Adam Brody's impish charm? Tries to be both, fails on all counts. (LB) Rated PG-13
THE INVISIBLE
A high school loner -- the artsy type, not the murderous type -- runs afoul of some fellow students and ends up way dead. Or, at least, mostly dead. His ghost leaves his body, returns to school and, amidst recontextualizing the world and attempting to communicate with his girlfriend (a la Patrick Swayze), realizes that he can totally still save his own life. (LB) Rated PG-13
KICKIN' IT OLD SKOOL
The best break dancer at his elementary school in the mid-'80s, Justin Schumacher had it all. Until, that is, he did a back flip off the school's stage and right into a 20-year coma. Now he's old as hell, out of the coma, and forced to break dance for the woman he loves. (LB) Rated PG-13
LUCKY YOU
Here is the entirety of IMDb plot summary: "A hotshot poker player tries to win a tournament in Vegas, but is fighting a losing battle with his personal problems. Eric Bana, who plays the gambler Huck Cheever, was excellent in Blackhawk Down and as Brad Pitt's nemesis, Hector, in Troy. And, the role of his dad is played by Robert Duvall, who is in my pantheon of movie gods for his acting in Tender Mercies and The Great Santini. Wanna bet Lucky You may be shallow on plot and deep on character? (KT) Rated PG-13
MEET THE ROBINSONS
Lewis is an orphan who wants to be an inventor. A shadowy figure lurking at his science fair, though, puts that desire in choppy waters and sends Lewis hurtling forward in time to confront his future. A cute, incoherent story about perseverance and self-confidence, Meet The Robinsons will convince you that, no matter how big a loser you've been previously, you can achieve anything. Something the filmmakers will want to remember as they go looking for their next project. (LB) Rated G
NEXT
A guy who can see two minutes into the future is pegged by the FBI to help them stop a nuclear detonation. Problem is, there's this girl he likes and... well, it's pretty obvious. It ain't rocket science, but as sci-fi action flicks go, Next is tense and likeable. (LB) Rated PG-13
ROVING MARS
The sound alone is deafening, and juxtaposed with Phillip Glass' crystalline musical score, the roar of a rocket pushing the rovers into space is impressive, as are the sights and sounds of the parachute test in a giant wind hangar. But this short IMAX film loses focus -- is it trying to recreate the surface of Mars with the help of CGI animation, or is it examining the space program? (MD) Rated G
SPIDER-MAN 3
The first film was pretty good, the second was great, this one ups the action and the angst (and the effects budget) and is the best of the series. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) and Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) have everything going for them, till a black blob of goo drops from the sky, just about the same time a bunch of different people turn into villainous monsters -- with Spidey in their sights. Multi-leveled storytelling zips along at a frantic pace, but director Sam Raimi, despite leaving questions about the power of the goo, maintains masterful control. Dark, but lots of fun. (ES) Rated PG-13
300
The Greek-versus-Persian battle of Thermopylae comes to bloody, eye-popping life in the CGI celebration of the Frank Miller graphic novel. Fierce and noble King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and his band of 300 men face off against the uncountable hordes of the bratty King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro). Themes of diplomacy versus war arise, but once the swords come out, there's no escaping the cartoonish violence. (ES) Rated R
VACANCY
Motel Thrillers are where moderately attractive nice-guy actors sometimes go to get edgy. It never works (peep John Cusack in Identity if you don't believe me), but the compulsion persists. Here Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale seek refuge in a sketchy hotel after a rainstorm, where they unwittingly become the stars of a snuff film. Oops. (LB) Rated R
WILD HOGS
Four middle-aged friends, sick of their jobs, bored with their lives and generally having nothing to look forward to, take a cross-country motorcycle trip. Four essentially backboneless suburbanite dudes frequenting biker bars? You can be sure there'll be a little love and a whole lot uh learnin'. (LB) Rated PG-13
YEAR OF THE DOG
Having written offbeat faves like Chuck & amp; Buck, Mike White is a low-grade indie hero. Not surprisingly, his directorial debut -- a story about a spinster's struggles to grieve her dead dog -- is similarly low-grade, an indie pastiche of Todd Solondz, Wes Anderson and the Napoleon Dynamite guy. Molly Shannon, John C. Reilly and Peter Sarsgaard have nothing at all to work with, though Sarsgaard manages a moment or two of genuine humanity. (LB) Rated PG-13
