Bad Lieutenant Is Terribly Fantastic

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."

Peter Hyams remake of Fritz Lang film is boring and inept

(NEWSER) - Peter Hyams' Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, a remake of Fritz Lang's noir classic, has a 0% aggregate rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Here's what critics are saying about the Michael Douglas vehicle:

• "Michael Douglas is the only life in this dull party," writes Peter Travers for Rolling Stone. "What I can’t figure out is how director Peter Hyams can remake a 1956 movie from the great Fritz Lang and not learn anything about suspense, pacing and storytelling in the process."

National Treasure: Book of Secrets keeps top spot as Alvin out-sings Legend

(NEWSER) - National Treasure: Book of Secrets shone in the top spot again this weekend as filmgoers kept flocking to the movies, Variety reports. Alvin and the Chipmunks crooned its way into second, humbling I Am Legend, as Mike Nichols-directed Charlie Wilson's War claimed fourth over Juno, an offbeat dramedy that nabbed fifth by soaring 201% over last weekend. 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."