“Now that doesn’t make a whole lotta sense,” says child-at-heart toy lover Ralph (Stephen Lee) at the end of Dolls. Ain’t that the truth. In Stuart Gordon’s (Re-Animator) flabbergasting film, an abusive father (Ian Patrick Williams), his manly second wife (Caroline Purdy-Gordon), and his precocious daughter Judy (Carrie Lorraine) find themselves stranded in the middle…

A hit at this year’s Sundance, Craig Brewer’s Hustle & Flow is a Southern remix of 8 Mile, a rags-to-riches fairy tale in which a struggling Memphis pimp named DJay (Terrence Howard) uses his street smarts and stable of loyal whores – as well as an aspiring music producer (Anthony Anderson) and his white deejay…

Clint Eastwood and his orangutan sidekick return for more boozing and street brawling in Any Which Way You Can, a redundant Buddy Van Horn-helmed sequel in which Philo Beddoe (Eastwood) and pet monkey Clyde find themselves embroiled in a high-stakes fight against legendary fisticuffer Jack Wilson (William Smith). A slightly sloppier rehash of Any Which…

Until its phony finale undoes everything exhilarating that’s come before, Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds proves to be not only a thrilling apocalyptic adventure haunted by the specter of 9/11, but also a summer spectacular in which human relationships and emotions refuse to be overwhelmed by (admittedly awesome) computer-generated mayhem. As with countless Spielberg…

Tabloid darlings Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie play house in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Doug Liman’s conjugal action/comedy in which the regular US Weekly cover couple play disaffected spouses who are shocked to discover that the other is a deadly assassin. Pitt and Jolie’s rapport during the household-set first half – which is sprinkled with…

It’s amazing to think that Michael Sembello’s 1983 hit “Maniac” from Flashdance was originally written as the title track to William Lustig’s splatterfest Maniac. Then again, the film’s serial killer protagonist Frank Zito (Joe Spinell) would no doubt have loved to get his hands on Jennifer Beals’ private dancer. A Son of Sam-ish madman with…

If J-horror derives its primary chills from the irrational and inexplicable, then it’s no wonder that Hideo Nakata’s literal-minded ghost story Dark Water is about as frightening as a soggy diaper. Unemployed mother Yoshimi (Hitomi Kuroki) is engaged in a bitter custody dispute over six year-old daughter Ikuko (a superb Rio Kanno), and her anxiety…

Remember all those nerds, geeks, freaks, dorks, and weirdoes from Trekkies, Roger Nygard’s condescending 1997 portrait of Star Trek fanatics? Well, they’re back in Trekkies 2, which revisits some of its predecessor’s most infamous characters – such as Barbara Adams, who wore her Space Federation uniform while serving on the Whitewater jury, or Gabe Köerner,…