The second installment in Walden Media's adaptation of C.S. Lewis' classic fantasy series is just as epic and pretty as the first, but Walden is reaching the point where all its movies look and feel the same; apart from pedigree, there's nothing much to distinguish The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Disney) from, say, Walden's The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Water Horse, or Bridge To Terabithia: They're all slick, wholesome special-effects films, good for a family diversion, but bland and same-y. Caspian expands on Lewis' book, for a longer story with more romantic overtones and more morals, but what it could really use is a more distinct visual and textural personality…
Pick your adjective to describe the Angelina Jolie/James McAvoy super-assassin movie Wanted (Universal): stylish, slick, Matrix-y, Fight Club-y, misanthropic. Our favorite combination: "brainlessly memorable"…
The pairing of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly paid off so well in Adam McKay's Talladega Nights that another Ferrell/Reilly/McKay collaboration seemed like a sure thing, especially given the comedic possibilities inherent in the actors playing middle-aged men still living with their parents. But Step Brothers (Sony) is a major disappointment, suggesting that the Judd Apatow line of movies about arrested development may have reached its creative breaking point. It's loud, vulgar, and so conflict-filled that it's more painful psychodrama than laugh-a-minute comedy…
For the love of God, why? That was the question on the minds of many X-Files fans when Fox decided to revive its long-dormant, once-vital franchise for The X-Files: I Want To Believe, a perversely anticlimactic snoozer that never comes close to justifying its existence…
Ice Cube gives a nicely lived-in performance as a down-and-out former high-school football star who gets his groove back while mentoring his gifted niece to gridiron greatness in The Longshots (Weinstein), a likeable but undistinguished crowd-pleaser directed by a thankfully reined-in Fred Durst. With this, Cube and Durst have officially strayed about as far from their music-world personas as possible.