Doubt is a shaggy-god story.

Written and directed by John Patrick Shanley from his successful Broadway play, it has all the grace of a high school debate.

Who is Frank Langella? His is not a name that would register at all with most moviegoers, unless you are a Dracula-phile.

Seven Pounds is an unexpected holiday powerhouse. Will Smith shakes off his familiar, comfortable persona, and cuts to the unsettled heart of humanity.

This inventive treatment will intrigue and fulfill some audience members. But not me. Despite general critical euphoria (90% favorable on Rottentomatoes), I found it a plodding tours de force.

Writer Charlie Kaufman is the pseudo-intellectuals' "intellectual." He's pompous, self-flagellating and pretentious. So they love him.

Kaufman makes Sarah Palin seem humble.

I give thanks for westerns.

Jonathan Demme and Barry Levinson are two veteran directors whose new films are small and personal. But being personal often leads to neurosis, and neurosis can be a pain, especially for the viewer.

Clint Eastwood is a vital force of nature. Born May 31, 1930, the unflappable 78-year old director is still creating powerful, unique movies. Changeling is remarkable evidence of that.

W is the October surprise.

The movie won't change anybody's ideas about the values of the last eight years. But it may make some of us think differently about their protagonist.

The Express is running on two rails at the same time. There's sentiment, which is true. And there's sentimentality, which is not.

At its best, "The Express" is a moving tribute; at its worst, it's conventional manipulation.

When Russell Crowe gives a lackluster performance, you know how meager a year it's been at the movies. In “Body of Lies,” Crowe is bogged down in a thankless role in a thankless movie.

Righteous Kill

Imagine this conversation

A phone call between actor Bob De Niro and director Marty Scorsese

Bobby: Hello, Marty. I've been calling and texting, but you never answer.

(Silence)

Please send Get Well cards to the Coen Brothers. After last year's "No Country for Old Men," for which they won the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year, Joel and Ethan Coen have had a relapse.

This has been the summer of my cinema discontent. I've felt like Sarah Palin killing caribou on a bridge to nowhere. There are carcasses all over the place.

Movie ads in the newspapers are a great barometer of … nothing. Except perhaps gullibility.

Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” is a really good movie.

“Step Brothers” is a rowdy, rambunctious, fitful, against-the-wall comedy. Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, and director writer Adam McKay heave comedy, like spaghetti, against the wall. About half sticks; the other half makes a real mess.

The Dark Knight is a good movie.

Robot romance - Pixar's new moneymaker may be the ultimate revenge of the nerds

WALL-E

Hulk fails, Mongol delivers

The Incredible Hulk

About halfway through The Incredible Hulk, Ed Norton (Bruce Banner) gets his hair cut. Hair is not the only thing that winds up on the cutting room floor.

Intriguing premise, but a laughable dud

There are some places men just don't belong:

1) In a pink Cadillac going to a shopping shindig -- yes, I know Clint was in a movie called "Pink Cadillac," but there was no Mary Kay decal in the window.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull-- the fourth movie about Henry Jones, Jr. -- is as comfortable as an old shoe. Or an old hat.

Actually it is old hat. It's comfortable, but it's also worn and slack.

Iron Man is an appealing superhero movie. It's also clunky. It's welded together out of disparate pieces that clank and ping. Though at times it's leaden, Iron Man also has enough moments of pizazz to intermittently soar.

"The Visitor" one of this year's best, "Redbelt" a slapdash carnival

Decency is a major theme in two new movies. Both "The Visitor" and "Redbelt" ask the question: How does one keep his decency in an indecent world?

Ok, I give up. The Slackers win.

In the last ten years, the Republican Party has had its revenge, the Nerds have had their revenge, and now the Slackers stand sloppy and tall.

I stand poleaxed.

Leatherheads tries to be a screwball comedy, but it's more The Eleven Stooges.

Both "Street Kings" and "Smart People" have opened to very tepid reviews, but both should please their target audiences. I can recommend both, and I particularly enjoyed "Street Kings."

When the movie "21" was announced with Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne, it sounded like a winner.

When everybody else involved in "21" was mentioned, it was doomed to be a loser.

Lou Dobbs will hate Under the Same Moon (la Misma Luna). In the past Dobbs has debunked his roots.

He said, "I have no idea who in the heck or where in the heck my grandparents came from. I don't even care."

People often complain, "they don't make movies like they used to." But on occasion a film is made for that audience.

The Bank Job is not just another slick caper film. It's robust, messy, cluttered, and a cut well above the average crime job.

Will Ferrell's Semi-Pro is a dreadful comedy. It's lazy and slipshod. On RottenTomatoes, it received 24 percent favorable from critics, and, even more notable, 49 percent of viewers thought it was rotten.

Vantage Point and U2-3D

The first two months of the movies of 2008 are over, and it was a dismal run. When National Treasure was the best 2008-release I could recommend, I know how feeble it was.

More than a month and a half into 2008, there hasn't been a single memorable movie released nationally. I can't remember a more lacklustre start to a year.

Rambo and Stallone

Do you want disembowelment and decapitation with your popcorn? Is gore glorious? Is brutality orgasmic? Is spurting blood the fountain of fun?

If so, Rambo is 4 U.

I think when they started filming Cloverfield, somebody accidentally dropped the camera. Someone else said, "Cool."

So they kept dropping the camera. And they threw it, and jerked it, and kicked it. And it went into terminal spasms.

Starting Out in the Evening and The Savages

According to a recent movie, growing old and dying in the west is a lark.

Few people know how our government works. Even fewer know how it is supposed to work.

Over the years I've received countless phone calls promoting a political candidate. I ask the caller: "Who is the Secretary of Agriculture?"