C+ "Bottle Shock"

Based on the true story of how the Napa wine boom began, profile of the proud and stubborn family in the '70s that battled for respect and earned it from the world's vintners. A little forced and sometimes too cute, the film retains a minor, amiable charm. With Bill Pullman, Alan Rickman. PG-13. 106 min. (Dan Bennett)

B "Brideshead Revisited"

Based on Evelyn Waugh's 1945 novel, this is the story of the young social climber Charles (Matthew Goode) in pre-WWII London, who places himself in the center of a wealthy family, torn between the affections of both the brother and sister in that family, the talky action taking place at the breathtaking country estate Brideshead. Story spans decades as the family struggles to get along, Charles ever at the center of things in good times and bad. Maintains a sort of sedate intrigue that earns interest. With Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon. PG-13. 121 min. (Dan Bennett)

B- "The Dark Knight"

The vigorous revival of Batman on screen continues with writer-director Christopher Nolan's bold, grim sequel to his excellent "Batman Begins." In this outing, the Joker, played at peak performance by the late Heath Ledger, runs amok and deadly on Gotham's streets, while Batman (Christian Bale), a crusading D.A. (Aaron Eckhart), the rock-steady policeman Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Batman gal pal Rachel (Maggie Gyllenhaal) fight to stop the mayhem. And there is mayhem aplenty in this sleek, electric summer-action vehicle, though too often the overload and onslaught outmans character development and cultural commentary -- the heart of Batman's origins on paper. Still, what a ride, if you can hang with the repetitive, if spectacular, action sequences. PG-13. 152 min. (Dan Bennett)

C- "Death Race"

Roger Corman should've stopped while he was ahead with this loud, unnecessary remake of his "Death Race 2000." Jason Statham and Joan Allen are wasted in the new, unimproved tale set in 2012 where fast-driving prisoners careen around Terminal Island causing horrific car crashes and plowing down their fellow convicts while pay-per-view audiences watch at home. The winner earns his freedom. Joan Allen is wasted as the wife of Jense Ames (Statham), an ex-car racer wrongly convicted of a crime. R. 95 min. (New York Times News Service)

B "Fly Me to the Moon"

Family-friendly, 3-D animation, the story of a group of adventurous young flies who manage to stowaway on Apollo 11, joining Neil Armstrong and crew, not without a little danger and excitement along the way. Mild stuff, mostly, though some confrontation at the end upsets the mood. Still, eager to teach and eager to please. G. 89 min. (Dan Bennett)

B+ "Frozen River"

Melissa Leo is superb in drama about a single mother compelled to smuggle illegal immigrants into the country via an upstate New York frozen river, as a means to keep her family fed. Often grim, but strong character drama. R. 97 min. (Dan Bennett)

C "Hamlet 2"

The play's the thing in "Hamlet" and it is here, as well. It's just about the only thing that makes this intentionally cringe-inducing theatrical parody worth watching. Sure, Steve Coogan has his hilarious moments as a delusional drama coach struggling to save the arts program at a Tucson, Ariz., high school, but that's all there is in the movie: moments. In between the individually funny parts, though, is a great morass of redundant, one-note slog, which we must endure while we wait for Dana's wild, wonderfully campy production, "Hamlet 2." It's a musical he hopes will revive not just the school's drama program but his life. Catherine Keener co-stars as his disdainful wife, with Amy Poehler playing the ACLU lawyer who fights to keep the totally inappropriate production -- and its jaunty, 1950s-style ditty, "Rock Me Sexy Jesus" -- from being shut down. R. 92 min. (Associated Press)

C+ "Henry Poole is Here"

Glumness specialist Luke Wilson plays the title sad sack in "Henry Poole is Here." After his depressed character buys a new house, a neighbor believes she sees the face of Christ in his new stucco -- leading to a parade of people to his house. The story is heart-warming and heartfelt, if sometimes overdone. PG. 100 min. (Los Angeles Daily News)

B- "House Bunny"

While there's not much new in this sendup of campus Greek life, it's a showcase for perky Anna Faris, star of the "Scary Movie" franchise. In all her ditsy glory, Faris makes this OK movie much better than its average script about a Playboy bunny who gets kicked out of Hef's mansion and takes a job as the house mother for a college sorority of misfits and transforms them all into hot young things. Emma Stone, Katherine McPhee and Rumer Willis co-star. PG-13. 98 min. (Associated Press)

B+ "Journey to the Center of the Earth"

Summer action-adventure for families, based on the Jules Verne classic. Brendan Fraser plays a scientist who joins his nephew and a hiking guide on a somewhat accidental trip to the center of the earth, where they encounter an endless series of thrill rides and dangerous situations, not to mention 125-degree temperatures and a rampaging dinosaur. In 3-D (where available), it's like a long amusement park ride. A fun, even semiscientific (however outlandish) escape. PG. 89 min. (Dan Bennett)

B "The Longshots"

Rah-rah football film, based loosely on the true story of the Illinois girl football quarterback who became the first female Pop Warner player and led her team to the national championships. Keke Palmer, star of "Akeelah and the Bee," plays the determined girl. Ice Cube plays the uncle, substituting for his long-absent brother, who talks the girl into playing and becomes her role model. Decent family film, not afraid to merge familial drama and trauma with some lighter comedy. Likely to appeal to slightly older children. PG. 91 minutes. (Dan Bennett)

C "Mamma Mia!"

The musical evil that is the song "Dancing Queen" inspired a hugely successful Broadway musical a decade ago and is now the basis for a big summer movie. Built around the music of ABBA, "Mamma Mia!" is a massive mess, but it's fun. The plot is wedged in among all the ABBA songs, and concerns a bride who wants to find out who her father was before she marries. Stars Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan. PG-13. 108 min. (Associated Press)

A- "Man on Wire"

Excellent documentary on the real-life exploits of a French acrobat who walked a thin wire strung from the two towers of the World Trade Center one day in the late '70s. The unauthorized feat earned him minor fame and a quick arrest, but captivated the world briefly. A look back at the how and why, though as we see and hear, the why is unimportant to the instigator. Fascinating stuff, with unexpected tension and humor. NR. 91 minutes. (Dan Bennett)

D "Mirrors"

A film the gore morons will lap up while the rest of us cringe in appalled disbelief, the story involves the hero's sister ripping her own jaw off, spurting blood everywhere. And there's lots of gore tied to sex. It's an old trick, this sex-and-death equation, but rarely deployed with such Pavlovian cynicism. A remake of a 2003 Korean film, "Mirrors" is directed by Alexandre Aja, a French enfant terrible who makes torture porn. He knows where to point the camera, but he still hasn't figured out why. Kiefer Sutherland, casting about for gainful employment between bouts of saving the world on "24," plays Ben Carson, a troubled ex-New York City detective who takes a job as a night security guard at a burned-out department store. A malevolent presence soon reveals itself on the other side of the building's many mirrors. Worst-case scenario: Your own reflection can kill you. R. 110 mins. (The Boston Globe)

B- "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor"

Armies that don't die, pithy one-liners and klutzy action heroes -- yes, the mummy has returned. Predictable in plot, but not in its antics, the third installment in "The Mummy" series features bigger guns, monsters and mummies than previous entries. Most notably, the action moves from North Africa to China, with Jet Li a resurrected Chinese emperor leading a stone army. Brendan Fraser returns as Rick O'Connell, with Luke Ford playing his now-grown-up son, Alex. Maria Bello replaces Rachel Weisz as O'Connell's wife. PG-13. 112 min. (Gina Giacopuzzi)

C+ "Pineapple Express"

At its best, Judd Apatow's latest weed-laced comedy "Pineapple Express" is an easygoing buddy tale starring always-reliable Seth Rogan as a marijuana-smoking process server and James Franco as his affable neighborhood pot dealer. But the comedy's tone goes off the rails when it turn into a predictable action thriller involving a dirty cop (Rosie Perez) and homicidal drug lord (Gary Cole) chasing after the heroic duo for the magical weed blend named Pineapple Express. R. 108 min. (Associated Press)

C "The Rocker"

This might really have rocked if it didn't feel like a cover of a couple of superior comedies. The first and most obvious is "School of Rock." As a shlumpy, 40ish drummer who missed his shot at heavy metal stardom, Rainn Wilson is pretty much channeling Jack Black here: the volatile man-child outbursts, the intensely pure feelings about rock music, even some of the crazy eyeball stuff feels way too familiar. Wilson has an engaging, goofy energy about him, as does the movie itself -- for the most part. Emma Stone, Teddy Geiger and the likable, nerdy Josh Gad play Fish's bandmates, with Christina Applegate, Jane Lynch and Jeff Garlin among the seasoned supporting cast. PG-13. 105 min. (Associated Press)

B "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2"

The four girls from the first film three years ago are now young women, enjoying -- and suffering through -- the associated growing pains, emotional aches and occasional joys of early adulthood. Each is on a new adventure, each trying to hold on to the important friendships that kept them together, also forging their own way through minefields of romance and career. No work of wonder, but a perfectly fine follow-up. PG-13. 108 minutes. (Dan Bennett)

A- "Space Chimps"

The name combined with the G rating might have parents thinking they should stay in the car while the kiddies go into the theater, but that would be a mistake. It would, among other things, cause them to miss one of the better one-liners of the summer. The story concerns a risky space flight, one too dangerous for humans -- so chimpanzees are sent instead. And if "Wall-E" pushes the boundaries of what can be done in an animated movie, "Space Chimps" proves that the old formula is still pretty effective when executed well. G. 82 min. (The New York Times)

C+ "Star Wars: The Clone Wars"

While anything remotely "Star Wars" is potentially a welcome trek for hard-core fans, this will be a mixed thrill, given that the saga returns to the big screen as a cartoon. George Lucas' prequel trilogy was so overloaded with computer-generated imagery that the digital animation of "Clone Wars" isn't that big a leap. The somber tone of those three movies -- chronicling the downfall of Anakin Skywalker from snotty teen to black-hearted Darth Vader -- is gone, replaced with a variation of the campy humor and camaraderie that characterized the original trilogy. Still, a "Star Wars" movie should be an event. Whether because of its cartoony format or its relatively lightweight story, "Clone Wars" definitely is not an event. It's a fairly fun if forgettable little adventure that hurls Anakin, his new young apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the rest of the gang into a kidnapping conspiracy and rescue amid a galactic civil war between clone soldiers and android troops. PG. 98 min. (Associated Press)

B+ "Step Brothers"

Anything-goes comedy reuniting "Talladega Nights" co-stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as middle-aged men still living at home who become step-brothers by marriage. Classic losers, the new siblings battle each other in every immature manner imaginable. Over-the-top comedy exploits the willingness of Ferrell and Reilly to behave like morons, and we are the victors, temporarily allowing our intelligence and common sense to take leave. R. 104 minutes. (Dan Bennett)

C "Swing Vote"

This comedy is guilty of being what so many political candidates accuse each other of being: a flip-flopper. The story of a presidential election that hinges on the vote of one guy does have its moments of hilarity. It works best when the two contenders are one-upping each other, contradicting themselves and their parties to win over this one average Joe (played by co-producer Kevin Costner . But by the end, it turns painfully serious -- and it takes itself too seriously, with swelling music and heavy-handed preaching to drive home some pretty obvious points. PG-13. 120 min. (Associated Press)

B+ "Tell No One"

This delicious contemporary thriller is "Vertigo" meets "The Fugitive" by way of "The Big Sleep." It's a French adaptation by the best-seller by Harlan Coben, and the plot is so twisty that by the middle of the movie you stop trying to figure it out. As a man tries to solve the murder of his wife and clear his own name, more bodies keep turning up. It's pure, nasty fun. Not rated. 125 mins. In French, with English subtitles. (The New York Times)

B- "Tropic Thunder"

Ben Stiller co-wrote the script with Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen, produced and stars as Tugg Speedman, an increasingly irrelevant action hero who now leads the ensemble cast of the Vietnam War epic "Tropic Thunder." When Tugg and his equally pampered castmates turn out to be too distracted to commit to the production, and costs start spiraling out of control, the first-time director (Steve Coogan) leads them into the jungle to bond and fend for themselves. But what they think is a carefully crafted exercise in make-believe turns out to be all too real. Jack Black is typically manic and a bit one-note as the drug-addicted comic star of the flatulent "Fatties" franchise. But it's Robert Downey Jr. who takes the humor to a daring, inspired level with his hilarious turn as an Australian method actor who undergoes skin-pigmentation surgery to play a black soldier. R. 106 min. (Associated Press)

B "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"

You should hate these people, really - these smug American yuppies chatting gaily about golf, tennis and boating over red wine on a sun-splashed Spanish afternoon. You're also free to abhor the painters, poets and musicians who populate Barcelona and spend their bohemian days idly debating the merits of love and art. Somehow, Woody Allen makes us not just tolerate these people but find ourselves engaged in their adventures in this, his strongest film in quite a while. It's a romantic comedy, yes, in his great tradition of absurdity and longing. And it's an easy European romp, though it's surely superior to Allen's recent trilogy of London-based movies. But it's also tinged with melancholy, letting us know Allen isn't just mocking his characters but feeling a certain amount of sympathy for them in their confusion, which inevitably evokes a similar response from his audience. PG-13. 97 min. (Associated Press)

A "WALL-E"

Slower to unfold, and even then slower than earlier Pixar films, "WALL-E" relies more on character development than the action scenes that drove such Pixar classics as "The Incredibles" and "Toy Story." Ironic in that the two main characters in "WALL-E" are robots who don't even talk -- but the artists at Pixar imbue their futuristic creations with so much personality that a half-closed "eye" or a shrug can convey as much as a sentence. And make sure you're on time -- the short film before "WALL-E" is another Pixar gem, "Presto," concerning a magician and his rabbit. G. 97 min. (Jim Trageser)