question: The initial set-up is unbelievable, the plotting is predictable and stale, and the comedy depends on repetitive pratfalls that soon get old.

numbered reviews: 1. True to its Nickelodeon roots, each scene oozes with sight gags, oddly astute pets, and gallons of goo. For adults, the films offers a bloated Brady Bunch covered in slop.
2. Needless remake of a tepid original.
3. It's terrible.
4. [A] shrill family comedy.
5. ... it loses a good deal of humour along with its social relevance.
6. He's got eight kids, she's got 10 and Yours, Mine & Ours is completely by the numbers.
7. The script is not nearly clever or original enough and Gosnell's direction goes into panic mode each time he stages the chaos.
8. The director, Raja Gosnell, is the auteur responsible for the Scooby-Doo movies, Big Momma's House and Home Alone 3. Enough said.
9. Watching Dennis Quaid falling face down into vats of goop, getting kissed by a pig and talking baby talk in Yours, Mine and Ours is one of those experiences that causes you to question your faith in Hollywood's motives.
10. The remake of the 1968 hit comedy 'Yours, Mine & Ours' is pretty much the same movie as the 2003 remake of 'Cheaper by the Dozen,' with Dennis Quaid taking Steve Martin's place as the family patriarch and butt of several painfully unfunny, slapstick gags.


question: One of the better Planet of the Apes sequels, Escape is more character-driven than the previous films, and more touching as a result.

numbered reviews: 1. Regarded by some as the best of the Planet of the Apes sequels, maybe even on a par with the 1968 Charlton Heston original itself, this third Apes movie breathes fresh air into [the] series.
2. Brings just enough of a twist to the series' conventions.
3. The best of the all of the sequels.
4. It works fairly well as the central movie of the franchise but will have little to offer non-devotees.
5. This second sequel serves as little more than a light appetizer with a memorable and poignant ending.
6. The last of the "Ape" sequels that's worth watching.
7. Possibly the least of the series, but certainly not a predictable sequel.
8. the film is a highly satisfying mix of satire and suspense
9. One of the better new movies in town, and better in a genre -- science-fiction -- that at the crucial middle level where the history of movies is made, if not written, has recently been not so much bad as invisible.
10. Passable entertainment, but it's no fun watching the likable, witty Cornelius and Zira become hairy martyrs.


question: It has a charming sweetness about it, but Take Me Home Tonight is neither funny nor original enough to live up to the comedies it evokes.

numbered reviews: 1. One imagines that only a snort-along screening could possibly lend to the film the energy that it so desperately needs. (With that said, no, we do not endorse the use of cocaine.)
2. A romantic comedy set in California in 1988 that loses its focus.
3. It seems content to poke fun at the clothes and to package some of the more listenable (if inconsequential) music of the era around a joke-challenged romantic story.
4. The screenplay hangs a lampshade on the trope of people who are stuck in time.
5. After the gimmick begins to fade, what remains is less than likable characters inhabiting an all-too-familiar plot.
6. A dirge of a comedy...
7. They speak entirely in plot points and punchlines and seem to be motivated only by lust, greed and ego. Well, we all are, but few bring to this motivation so little intelligence and wit.
8. It tries hard, but it always falls short.
9. Its abuse of nostalgia is more frustrating than entertaining and the same can be said for Dan Fogler.
10. It pretends to be hungry like the wolf, yet it ends up doing the safety dance.


question: The ending may be less than satisfying, but Denzel Washington reminds us why he's such a great actor in this taut and brutal police drama.

numbered reviews:
1. Director Fuqua keeps it slick and sleazy and stokes up the race some, but this only accelerates the movie's deafening rush toward the top and ever over.
2. Thumbs up, without question. Unfortunately, Training Day could have been so much more than it is.
3. This isn't a serious movie, despite Denzel Washington in full eruption and giving his calloused lines more weight and authority than they deserve.
4. My guess is that the conceit was meant to be that Denzel's a bad guy, and that's fun to watch. Instead, this just adds another to his list of bad film's he's acted in...
5. Cast against type as a corrupt cop, Denzel Washington, usually seen in noble and heroic roles, is nothing short of brilliant; with some luck, he should earn an Oscar nomination.
6. Marred slightly by an unsatisfactory climax, this is a cracking cop drama anchored by great performances and intelligent direction from Fuqua.
7. Great performances, but for adults only.
8. A surprisingly excellent movie with Incredible performances...
9. The movie moves rapidly, is extremely violent and not entirely plausible.
10. If he makes it through the trial by fire -- and a blandly twisting plot with no meaningful revelations or substantial themes -- Hawke will get a promotion, but there's nothing in it for us.