Beverly Hills Chihuahua Has Little Bite

De Niro the best part about predictable holiday treacle

(NEWSER) - Critics are divided on Everybody’s Fine: Some think the family drama is okay because of Robert De Niro, and others think it’s awful despite him. What they’re saying:

• It’s “a thoroughly fake movie that is about, of all things, the need for truthfulness,” writes Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter . “Characters have no depth, and all emotions get ladled on via a syrupy score and De Niro's strenuous acting.”
• Rooting for these characters “requires saintly moviegoing patience I clearly don't have,” says Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly , adding that the script was written “under guidance, apparently, from Dr. Phil.”

Barrymore is a revelation—as a director

(NEWSER) - Drew Barrymore's Whip It isn't a revelation, but fans of the aspirational sports comedy/drama probably won't do better this season, critics forecast:

• The film is "hard to mock and easy to like." Though it won't "change the way you think about movies, roller derby or the relations between teenage girls and their mothers, friends or dreams," AO Scott writes in the New York Times, "it does invite you to stop and appreciate all those things."

Latest incarnation has its 'flaws'

(NEWSER) - The riches-to-rags story of an eccentric mother and daughter—relatives of Jackie O, no less—who gained fame for their destitute existence in a 1975 documentary gets another retelling in HBO's Grey Gardens. Critics aren't overly excited:

• The movie "fills in bittersweet blanks” left by the original documentary, writes Joy Press in Salon, forcing fans “into a trade-off: Our curiosity is sated, but we lose some of the most haunting shades of gray."

'Good looks,' 'slick lines' can't save film

(NEWSER) - Critics are unimpressed with He’s Just Not That Into You, a romantic comedy based on the self-help book of the same name, which itself was based on a throwaway line from a Sex and the City episode. The film’s got “nothing more than good looks and a few slick lines,” writes Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News. “Okay, Hollywood, we get it. Women want a wedding. Men don't like commitment. Can we please move on?” More»

But Nicolas Cage seems to get it: critics

(NEWSER) - Critics agree: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is ridiculous. But they're divided over whether the silliness of the sequel, once again starring Nicolas Cage as the devilish superhero, is funny or just bad.

• In the Merced Sun-Star , Roger Moore calls the movie "a profoundly silly mash-up of comic book and quasi-religious 'prophecy' about a motorcyclist who sold his soul to the devil." It beats the original: "This time around, Cage and everybody else on board are in on the joke," and that makes it "almost a great bad movie."