*** This adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic novel isn't exactly a great film. Zack Snyder's movie is gorgeous to look at and there are some choice performances. But it's more interesting than entertaining. It’s almost too reverent to the source material, making this dense and grim movie a LOT to take in. Despite his ambitions, the best one can say is that Snyder got this "un-filmable" comic made

*** The story is still a formulaic one and the final minutes seem odd and out of place, but this is horror at its most horrific. Credit that to director Dennis Iliadis and the cast. Sara Paxton, Tony Goldwyn, and Monica Potter are very good and Garret Dillahunt is genuinely chilling. The violence is vicseral and disturbing, and Iliadis never plays it for laughs. A satisfying horror film

*** This Werner Herzog film is a fascinating showcase for just how out-there Nicolas Cage can be. Herzog has remade Abel Ferrara's 1993 film, moving the setting from New York to post-Katrina New Orleans. His cinematography shows the city in a gritty light. The plot isn't compelling, and the film lacks a moral point. Still, this is worth enduring for Cage's spacey and unhinged performance

*** An over-long, over-stuffed disaster epic. Director Roland Emmerich serves up a "Disaster Movies Greatest Hits" movie. He follows many characters but can't do them all justice. There are moments of humor and pathos as the sturdy cast plays this thing as if their very careers were on the line. The effects are stunning, but this is not chilling or entertaining. It's downright depressing

*** An average summer comic-book extravaganza. Jackman is still cool in the role, but the film is short on heart and long on action. Liev Schreiber is a great, deliciously sadistic foe. The pace is brisk, but the set-pieces rarely deliver the thrills we seek. You can't help feeling that what started as an X-celent superhero movie franchise may have finally worn out its welcome

** Comedy's Frat Pack and Team Apatow try to make a modern 'Brian's Life' but come up short. Director Harold Ramis relies too heavily on poop jokes and over-the-top sex gags. Jack Black and Michael Cera land their laughs on and off. The supporting cast scores some guffaws. But Ramis makes us wait too long for the big laughs and the film becomes less funny as it moves toward it's end

** Director Ken Kwapis didn't have the guts to edit this into the breezy entertainment it should have been. There are too many characters and plotlines to follow. A few bits work and are funny, but the 129-minute running time is a real drag. The A-list cast can't make the most of the material, and there's a mildly offensive sexist tone for both sexes. Passable date movie fluff, nothing more

* Here it is: the worst film of the summer and of 2009 so far. It's so overblown there’s almost no pleasure to be found. Shia LaBeouf gives it his all, but the film around him fails to live up to his energy. Michael Bay's overindulgence sucks all the joy right out of the franchise. It's massively dumb, loud, and offensive. Once this hits rock bottom nothing can help 'The Fallen' get back up

* Here is a sex thriller without the sex, a slow-burn domestic drama with no heat, a glossy, generic dud that bores for most of its 105 minutes. Until the final catfight. Director Steve Shill never explores the racial-sexual minefield that could have given this some edge. The office milieu feels dated. It may work as a crowd-pleaser if you count the unintentional laughs but this is terrible stuff