With Peter Jackson’s heart-stoppingly stirring *The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,* it occurs to me that his filmed adaptation is like a rereading on behalf of us all, that he has found the new and different meanings in a story that we all know by heart, and that he has brought them to us in as transparent a way possible, so that it’s easy to imagine that movie audiences 50 and 100 years from now will still be able to find their own new and different meanings.

If you’re a True Fan, this will not deter you one bit from reveling in the suckitude that is the latest *Trek* movie.

This Cinderella for the 21st century is every bit as predictable as you think it is — save your $10 and run the scenario through in your head, and you’ll probably come up with something more entertaining that what’s on the screen here, or least one that’s easier on your wallet.

Alien Abduction Weblog 12.02.02 Episode 1: “Beyond the Sky” directed by Tobe Hooper Okay, creepy. Confusing, but creepy. It’s a bit hard to keep all the military guys with buzz cuts separate in my head, but I suspect they’re going to differentiate themselves very nicely in future episodes. There’s Captain Owen Crawford (Joel Gretsch: The … more…

Of the “curmudgeonly old woman learns the True Meaning of Life from an adorable child” variety, predictably stickily sentimental, and worse: It’s set, shockingly, in a fantasy retro American South in which rich old women play mah-jongg and sip mint-flavored iced tea while cheerful black servants work the plantation and dish out deep philosophy, and … more…

An extraordinary assemblage of filmmaking no-nos congeals into a movie that’s not as bad as it deserves to be, but one nowhere near entertaining, either. First-time writer/director Franc Reyes’s tale of a South Bronx drug dealer (John Leguizamo: Ice Age) who wants out is all clichéd plot twists, slo-mo gunplay, and a nonstop, distancing voiceover … more…

Half the people in North America have family stories like the one depicted in *The War Bride*: The grandparent who immigrated, leaving everything and everyone he or she knew behind. Often it’s not a family story that gets told beyond the broad strokes — no one wants to rehash hard, unhappy times; no one wants to recall memories they’ve tried hard to forget. And so the grandchildren only know that Grandma with her funny accent doesn’t like to talk about the old days, and extraordinary tales of emotional and physical journeys are lost forever.

When actors have only their own amusement in mind, it’s sometimes still amusing for us to eavesdrop on their fun. Watching Billy Crystal trying to crack up Robert DeNiro — and DeNiro just about letting him do it — is only sporadically diverting in Analyze That because that’s just about all they’re interesting in doing. … more…

For a movie about bad dreams, bad nights, and the bad things that can happen when you fall asleep, this is an awful snooze. As small children, Julia, Sam, and Terry (as portrayed by a bland crew of twentysomethings) suffered from powerful night terrors, the vivid and terrifying nightmares many kids endure. Now, though, as … more…