BLADE II With arteries being punctured left and right and vampires disintegrating after getting blasted by silver bullets, it's clear that Blade II may be as disreputable a genre film as recent entries Queen of the Damned and Resident Evil -- but it's also a helluva lot more fun. It also manages to top its 1998 predecessor, thanks in no small part to the decision to hire a real director (Guillermo Del Toro of Mimic and The Devil's Backbone) as opposed to the usual MTV-weaned hack. In this outing, the taciturn Blade (Wesley Snipes), a half-human, half-vampire renegade who's made it his mission to wipe out all bloodsuckers, finds himself reluctantly teaming up with his sworn enemies in an effort to take down an army of creatures (known as Reapers) who enjoy snacking on both humans and vampires. Snipes' Blade continues to rank as a rather dull superhero -- the character periodically takes serum injections to control his inner vampire, but he needs to consider switching to personality infusions -- but the action sequences have some bite, Kris Kristofferson adds some welcome sass as Blade's cantankerous mentor, and the Reapers (seemingly patterned after Reggie Nalder's grotesque vampire in the Salem's Lot mini-series) make formidable foes. 1/2

E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL The 20th Anniversary re-issue of this Steven Spielberg masterpiece features never before seen footage (appreciated) and enhanced visual effects (not so appreciated), but ultimately, these additional bells and whistles neither elevate nor denigrate what was already a near-perfect study of friendship and fantasy as filtered through the eyes of a young boy desperately in need of a companion. Spielberg has made at least three films I would rate higher than E.T., but in terms of emotional investment, this one is peerless in his canon, invoking laughter, tears and everything in between as we follow little E.T.'s odyssey to return home (a popular kid flick motif also found in, among others, The Wizard of Oz and Lassie Come Home). Years later, there's still much to savor: the remarkable performance by Henry Thomas as the alien's human soulmate Elliott (it's no coincidence his name begins and ends with "ET"); the equally impressive turns by Robert McNaughton and 6-year-old Drew Barrymore as Elliott's siblings; the majestic sweeps of one of John Williams' best scores; Dee Wallace's achingly real performance as the kids' vulnerable single mom (why Wallace never became a bigger star remains a mystery); and isolated sequences (the classroom frogs, the flying bikes, etc.) that will continue to delight moviegoers for generations to come.

THE ROOKIE This G-rated Disney film comes with the tagline "Based On A True Story," but I'd much rather start seeing a tagline that reads, "Based On A True Story That Translates Wonderfully To Film." As it stands, the tale at the center of The Rookie was a great one when it first appeared on the pages of the dailies, but as a motion picture, it's an overly familiar formula film that won't move anyone who's already seen their share of motivational, follow-your-dream flicks. What little juice this gets comes courtesy of its actors, particularly Dennis Quaid in the leading role of Jim Morris, a high school chemistry teacher and baseball coach who, a decade after what was ostensibly his prime, takes one last shot at achieving his goal of pitching in the major leagues. With John Lee Hancock providing the sleepy direction and Mike Rich supplying a script that's almost as generic as the one he penned for Finding Forrester, there isn't much sense of joy surrounding The Rookie, as a leisurely running time of 129 minutes and too many golden shots of Texas skies and fields (John Schwartzman's camerawork is pretty but predictable) also result in the movie taking an unusually long time to tell its straightforward story. Indeed, for a motion picture meant to inspire us, the perspiration comes through more often than the inspiration.

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DRAGONFLY Say you're a studio head, and you have this sensitive, soulful, supernatural love story that, if nurtured properly, could turn out to be a commercial bonanza on the order of Ghost or The Sixth Sense. Would you then turn around and hand the project to the guy responsible for inconsequential, ham-fisted works like Patch Adams and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective? That's the kamikaze approach taken here, as a potentially moving tale about a doctor (Kevin Costner) who believes his recently deceased wife may be trying to communicate with him is torpedoed by the oblivious efforts of director Tom Shadyac. That's not to say the script by David Seltzer, Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson is flawless -- for one thing, it's not too difficult to figure out the twist ending that the picture has in store for us. But for a movie that's supposed to be about airy, ethereal elements, Shadyac moves this along at a torpid pace and frequently undermines any notions of everlasting love by tossing in the sort of cheap scares more suitable to a horror yarn.

40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS That ultimate genre of ill repute, the teen-oriented sex comedy, takes a sideways step with 40 Days and 40 Nights, a mildly tolerable romp that at least offers a sweet center to counterbalance its smarmy surroundings. Josh Hartnett, that stiffest of Next Big Things, delivers a surprisingly adept comic turn as Matt Sullivan, a web page designer who decides that the best way to forget about the icy girlfriend (Vinessa Shaw) who dumped him is to abstain from all sexual pleasures, including masturbation, under the Lenten timeline of 40 days (yeah, it makes no sense, but work with me here). At first, things go well for our celibate hero, but once he meets his perfect match (Shannyn Sossamon), he finds it exceedingly difficult to keep his vow. A few modest laughs and an imaginative sex scene can be found amid the usual condom/Viagra/erection gags, but the film goes limp (no pun intended) during the disappointing climax (ditto), not least because it involves a rape that never really gets addressed.

HARRISON'S FLOWERS It took the film world several years before it felt ready to start producing Vietnam War features, and now a similar holding pattern seems to have ended in regard to the various international skirmishes that have been devastating the world for a good many years now. Following on the heels of No Man's Land and Black Hawk Down comes Harrison's Flowers, a hard-hitting drama that doesn't shy away from showing the atrocities committed under the tag of "ethnic cleansing." Set in 1991, this stars Andie MacDowell as Sarah Lloyd, whose husband Harrison (David Strathairn), a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, is presumed dead after he travels to Yugoslavia to cover the escalating civil war. Convinced he's still alive, Sarah enters the fray herself, aided in her efforts by various other newshounds. By necessity, MacDowell's character fades into the background as the group finds itself venturing deeper into enemy territory; while this may distance some viewers from the movie's emotional center, it also demonstrates writer-director Elie Chouraqui's commitment to keeping this as real as possible. This may not match the wallop of The Killing Fields (a similar film that was also sympathetic toward journalists under fire), but there's still plenty here to jolt viewers out of their seats.

ICE AGE This year's Oscar ceremony marks the first time an award is being given for Best Animated Feature; if next year's contest adds a category for Best Performance By An Animated Character, then Ice Age's Scrat will doubtless get my vote. Incidental to the main story, this prehistoric squirrel spends his limited screen time in a futile attempt to bury the acorn he's been lugging around -- this dude's such a character, you're sorry every time he leaves the screen. Fortunately, the central plot is enjoyable enough to occupy our minds -- it's like Disney's Dinosaur done slightly better, since it doesn't get weighed down with the mountains of sentimentality that the Mouse House usually slathers on its family flicks. That's not to say it doesn't lean on the Disney template a bit heavily at times -- for starters, there's a cute kid that the protagonists must protect from all manner of peril -- but between Ray Romano's sensible woolly mammoth, Denis Leary's duplicitous saber-toothed tiger and John Leguizamo's imbecilic (but eager to please) sloth, the main characters are unique enough to help us begrudgingly pardon a pedestrian plotline. 1/2

LANTANA An adult drama that could have been called Husbands and Wives or Scenes from a Marriage had Woody Allen and Ingmar Bergman not already co-opted those titles, Lantana only looks like it's a murder-mystery; in truth, it's a galvanizing study of the complexities and crises that threaten to derail any given marriage. Anthony LaPaglia, a reliable character actor who emerges as a full-blown leading man here, is superb as an Aussie detective whose strained relationship with his sexy, sensible wife (Kerry Armstrong) leads him into a reluctant affair with an emotionally unstable woman (Rachael Blake). On top of this, the cop also has to contend with a baffling case that involves yet another troubled couple: a psychiatrist (Barbara Hershey) and academic (Geoffrey Rush) coping with the death of their daughter. The events that bind all these characters might seem like a gimmick in a lesser film, but here they're merely necessary stepping stones in a powerful drama about remorse, reparation and redemption. 1/2

MONSOON WEDDING Seeing the moldy expression "feel-good" in relation to a motion picture generally gives me heartburn, but how else to describe this joyous work from Mira Nair, the director of Salaam Bombay! and Mississippi Masala? A picture as full of emotion as the traditional ceremony it celebrates, Monsoon Wedding uses the title event as the backdrop for a work that, among other things, delineates the struggle between "old" and "new" India, examines the compromises that individuals must perform for the sake of family sanctity, and, in the tradition of Father of the Bride, takes a gently comic look at the headaches brought on by pulling the whole thing together. Naseeruddin Shah is cast in the equivalent of the Spencer Tracy role, as the family patriarch who must contend with all sorts of old-fashioned strife in new-fangled Delhi as he coordinates the union of his thoroughly modern daughter (Vasundhara Das) to a handsome man (Parvin Dabas) flying in from Houston to take part in this arranged marriage. Characters come and go, tense situations alternately explode or dissipate, and secrets are uncovered -- yet through it all, most of these ingratiating folks invariably manage to do what's best for themselves and for the family unit. Vijay Raaz steals the film as a wedding planner whose obnoxiousness gets vaporized by true love, and there's an infectious soundtrack that may warrant an immediate trip to your local music store. 1/2

QUEEN OF THE DAMNED It's difficult to make a truly boring vampire picture, but the folks behind this draggy adaptation of Anne Rice's bestseller have done just that. Neil Jordan, Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and the rest of those responsible for the arresting screen version of Rice's Interview With the Vampire are sorely missed this time around; instead, given the tedious exploits of the notorious bloodsucker Lestat (blandly played by Stuart Townsend) in this outing, the movie's sole claim to fame would seem to be as the final film project of the late singing star Aaliyah. She's cast as Akasha, the Mother of All Vampires, but it's impossible to gauge her thespian abilities based on this performance: She only arrives during the final half-hour, buried under reams of makeup and jewelry and boasting an electronically altered voice that sounds like a cross between Bela Lugosi and Twiki the robot from that 70s Buck Rogers series. There's probably a compelling film version to be made from this particular chapter in the vampire chronicles, but this moribund (and occasionally laughable) take ain't it. 1/2

RESIDENT EVIL Here we go again: yet another screen adaptation of a popular video game, and one that makes last summer's doltish Lara Croft: Tomb Raider seem almost Kubrickian by comparison. Writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson, doubtless hoping that financiers will confuse him with writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson (of Boogie Nights fame), has made a career out of helming noisy sci-fi spectacles like Soldier and Mortal Kombat, and here he returns to the same dry well, concocting a shoddy product that tries to beef up its pinball-simple narrative by borrowing liberally from The Andromeda Strain, Aliens and George Romero's Dead trilogy. After an opening half-hour that ranks as the most excruciatingly dull 30 minutes I've sat through in at least two years (basically, expository scenes of a military task force trying to find out what went wrong at an underground genetic research facility), things get moving once our heroes get attacked by hordes of shuffling zombies, a pack of fleshless Dobermans, and a laughable, computer-generated mutant billed as "The Licker" (boy, there's a terrifying moniker). Except for one imaginative (albeit gruesome) sequence involving slice-and-dice laser beams, this isn't even fun on a trash level.

SHOWTIME While the dreadful trailer and the opportunity to catch overexposed Robert De Niro in his 238th film appearance of the new decade combined to make Showtime seem as appealing as a case of the clap, this is actually one entry in Hollywood's ceaseless string of "buddy-cop comedies" that has enough fun with its own premise to make it a passable timekiller. De Niro plays the team's straight man, a humorless detective who's forced to co-star in a reality-TV series with a preening cop (Eddie Murphy) who's always been more interested in pursuing an acting career. Much to the delight of the show's producer (Rene Russo), the friction between the partners helps turn the program into a ratings bonanza, but these mismatched cops eventually find common ground once they both set their sights on bringing down a suave arms dealer (Pedro Damian, doing a poor job of aping Alan Rickman's classic Die Hard villain). Aside from hearing William Shatner (playing himself) refer to De Niro's character as "the worst actor I've ever seen," there's nothing new under the sun in this one, but De Niro's frequent slow burns are consistently amusing, while Murphy's attempt to tackle the sort of role that made him a star in the first place is appreciated. 1/2

THE TIME MACHINE Although George Pal's exciting 1960 screen version of H.G. Wells' immortal tale still holds up nicely, it seemed only logical that someone would have been interested in crafting another Machine for a new generation. Alas, this latest adaptation is a mild disappointment, starting off well but getting bogged down in a third act that steadily seeps energy even as it's playing out. Memento's Guy Pearce plays the turn-of-the-last-century inventor who creates a contraption that allows him to whiz through time; after making brief stops in the 21st century, he catapults 800,000 years into the future, whereupon he sides with the peaceful Eloi tribe against the vicious Morlocks. Under the guidance of scripter John Logan and director Simon Wells (H.G.'s great-grandson), this version takes some early liberties that surprisingly work, but rather than ever fully capturing our imaginations, the picture then begins curtailing its own creativity, culminating in a yawner of a showdown between Pearce's scientist-cum-adventurer and the brainy Morlock leader (played by a campy Jeremy Irons, defeated by powder-white makeup and an outfit better suited for a Judas Priest concert). 1/2

WE WERE SOLDIERS This adaptation of Joe Galloway and General Hal Moore's book We Were Soldiers Once... and Young focuses on a key skirmish of the Vietnam War: the 1965 battle in the Ia Drang Valley, when 400 Americans found themselves surrounded by 2,000 enemy soldiers. Like Black Hawk Down, this also centers on the inspiring mettle demonstrated by US soldiers under fire, and it's the superior film, since it does a far better job of placing a human face on the spectacle of war. Rather than diluting the power of the piece, the expository scenes and domestic interludes provide it with an intimacy and emotional scope that easily allow it to overcome some rough narrative patches, while a no-nonsense cast (led by Mel Gibson) offers the necessary conviction. The combat scenes are extremely intense, and while some of the dialogue may clank, the sentiments don't: This is that rare Hollywood movie that isn't afraid to present its leading characters as devout Christians honestly seeking to reconcile their predicament with a spiritual soothing, and it's that even rarer movie that allows us to spend a little time with the enemy in an effort to show that the devastation of war hits on all fronts and in all facets. 1/2