Orphanage a Cut Above

Alien-abduction mock-doc delivers lame premise with laughable framing device

(NEWSER) - The Fourth Kind attempts to combine dramatization of true events and fake-documentary alien abductions in Alaska, and falls horribly flat. Here's what critics are saying:

• The ludicrousness of the grainy archival footage, presented as "real," and a lousy performance by Milla Jovovich, whose "notion of serious acting seems to be speaking very slowly in a halting monotone," make it hard to suspend your disbelief, writes Stephen Holden for the New York Times.

Critics yawn over Rob Zombie's horror remake

(NEWSER) - Dimension Films refused to screen Rob Zombie's Halloween II for critics—which is looking like a wise move based on the reviews coming out:

• "Creatively comatose, even by the standards of a sequel to a remake," writes Rob Nelson in Variety. "Zombie's hatchet job on the series he revived so artfully two years ago plays like a violent act of euthanasia upon the huge, brain-dead body of work inspired by the 30-year-old Halloween."

Red-hot sequel showcases del Toro's dazzling imagination

(NEWSER) - Hades' greatest hero is back in Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and most critics agree it's a hell of a ride. Director Guillermo del Toro returns with comic book creator Mike Mignola, ensuring the dynamic sequel is "shot through with the franchise's signature goofiness, sarcasm and good heart," writes Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post. More»

Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones return for alien flick

(NEWSER) - Sure, no one was that desperate for a Men in Black 3—but it's actually a pretty good summer movie. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back defending the planet from aliens, and this time, Josh Brolin's along for the ride as a young Jones.

• The movie "turns out to be so much fun," writes AO Scott in the New York Times . While it "carefully fulfills its blockbuster imperatives—with chases and explosions and elaborately contrived plot twists—it swerves into some marvelously silly, unexpectedly witty, and genuinely fresh territory."

Johnny Depp stars in Tim Burton film

(NEWSER) - Critics aren't thrilled with Tim Burton's latest offering, inspired by the late-1960s cult TV show of the same name and starring Johnny Depp as an 18th-century vampire who is buried alive, only to be accidentally dug up in 1972. The film isn't sure what it wants to be:

• Dark Shadows "tries to serve too many masters," writes Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News . "Initially it’s an epic valentine to the show. Then it’s a vamp-out-of-water story. Soon it’s a gung-ho comedy. Finally it's a monster flick." Still, it "unearths enough fun."