How Do You Know - C+

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and some strong language, 120 minutes

Sweet but talky, overlong "How Do You Know"

I'll let you in on a couple of things before you go to the new romantic comedy "How Do You Know." First, the sweet, leisurely film is too talky for its own good and goes on too long, but its heart in the right place. Second, of all the high-caliber cast in the film, you will enjoy Paul Rudd the most. Yes, you heard that right. Rudd has never been more charming in this very expensive rom com ($120 million, with nearly half of that attributed to salaries of the major players) that has a lot riding on it.

Reese Witherspoon is professional women's softball player Lisa Jorgensen, who finds herself cut from the team and forced to find a new life. She soon finds herself in a love triangle with a self-absorbed professional baseball player Manny (Owen Wilson), a player on and off the field, and George (Rudd), a schlub from the financial sector who finds himself in legal trouble with his business partner and father (Jack Nicholson).

"How Do You Know" is a warm but overlong, heartfelt rom com that's heavy on the dialogue, unsurprising given the writer and director is noted director James L. Brooks, who over the years has channeled relationships to Oscars ("Terms of Endearment,") to TV cultural icons ("The Simpsons"). "How Do You Know" isn't one of his stronger efforts, but then it isn't a terrible one, either; it's a pleasant but unrevealing piece of puffery with a high-powered, expensive cast and production.

If "How Do You Know" is a failure (which, given its $120 million price tag, is a strong possibility), the one most to lose will unfortunately be the likable Witherspoon, very pretty here but then it's not a strong women's role, again a surprise from the guy who got an Oscar for keeping peace between Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger. Brooks' uneven script is one of his most flawed; it spends too much time on the Witherspoon-Wilson relationship (who display little chemistry here) and then Witherspoon's character goes on and on trying to make a decision the audience knows she'll make anyway by the end.

Thankfully, the other guy here is charming comic actor Rudd, who's the heart of the film and by far the film's most sympathetic character. Rudd's comic reactions and timings are perfect, and he continues to reveal a versatility that comprable actors would desire (namely Wilson, in another one-note variation of most of the roles he plays). Jack is, well, Jack; fortunately, nearly all of his scenes are with Rudd, and their warmth is the film's most palpable highlight. Nicholson, who's worked with Brooks several times before, also scores the film's biggest laugh (no explanation needed, you will know when that is).

"How Do You Know" is a pleasantly sweet, enjoyable, if not chatty, film. People talk on and on about doing things instead of just doing it and going with the flow. Brooks and company have their heart in the right place, but it tends to stay there too long deciding what to do. Let's hope audiences (and lots of them given its cost) will stay with it too.

Tron Legacy: C+

Rated PG for sequences of sci-fi action violence and brief mild language, 127 minutes

Muddled story aside, “Tron: Legacy” is a visual feast

Upfront, I’ll say that the new action-film sequel “Tron: Legacy” is visually stunning, captivating and at times mesmerizing, and is a shoo-in for many technical awards at this year’s Oscars. On the flip side, everything in between is a mixed bag. The muddled, emotionless story and bland acting come in striking contrast to the captivating visuals, which should make this sci-fi film a big hit. The original “Tron” was a flawed film with too little story and memorable special effects; the sequel is a better but still-flawed film, with memorable special-effects and too much story.

For twenty years, Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) has been haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his father Kevin (Jeff Bridges), an innovative software programmer and former CEO of ENCOM International. One night, an executive consultant for ENCOM and friend of Kevin, Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner), sends Sam to investigate a mysterious page originating from the long abandoned Flynn's Arcade.

While searching for clues, Sam is suddenly transported to the digital world of The Grid. Aided by the digital warrior Quorra (Olivia Wilde) and Tron (Bruce Boxleitner), Sam is reunited with his father and together set out on a journey to return home. Encountering vehicles, weapons, and landscapes that have become far more advanced than before, father and son must evade CLU 2, an updated version of Flynn's original hacking program (and really a younger version of Bridges), which will stop at nothing to prevent their escape.

“Tron: Legacy” is an entertaining sci-fi action film highlighted by some of the year’s most exciting, colorful special-effects. The memorable (and expensive) visuals are the main reason to see the film, you won’t remember much of the slow, baffling story and bland acting. Disney has gone to great lengths to ensure audiences will be entertained and they’ve succeeded; the film should be a big hit though it doesn’t advance the sci-fi genre much.

The cast is headlined by a hammy Jeff Bridges, who returns from the original film, and who plays both the protagonist and antagonist; his older hippy version is the heart of the film (and The Dude comes out a few times, watch closely) while his younger, leaner CG version is the villain. Hedlund is the blandest of the young actors and literally disappears under all the visuals while Wilde, the loveliest of the new wave of British actresses, is somewhat wasted as a young pretty program. Michael Sheen nearly walks off with the movie midway through in campy David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust-like form (at first you really think it may actually be Bowie himself); it’s also nice seeing Boxleitner, though he isn’t given much to do (and hardly recognizable in the digital world).

Without the striking, first-rate visuals, which energize the film, “Tron: Legacy” wouldn’t amount to much. The 1982 original film was somewhat of a cheesy bore; this one is more fun to watch but the story, written by a couple of “Lost” writers, Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, is baffling, peppered with overly symbolic Biblical references (“he’s the son” and “go toward the light”) and assumes audiences will remember the original film (they won’t). Video and commercial director Joseph Kosinski helms the visuals well but he lets everything else go on too long.

“Tron: Legacy” could’ve benefited from a leaner, more efficient story and better acting, which may not mean much given all the exciting visuals; it improves upon the original film but only to show the advances that Hollywood has made with computers and special-effects. Enjoyable but forgettable Disney entertainment.

I Love You Phillip Morris - C

Rated R for sexual content including strong dialogue, and language, 102 minutes

You won't love the odd comedy "I Love You Phillip Morris"

The new comedy "I Love You Phillip Morris" is one of the most unusual films seen in recent memory. Not the fact that two mainstream straight actors, Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, are playing gay men but the fact that the often bizarre low-budget farce is a true story, based on the exploits of real-life con artist and prison escapee Steven Russell, who's still serving time in Texas as this is written. Carrey's performance is the best thing about the odd, uneven movie.

The story begins with Russell (Jim Carrey), apparently on his deathbed, recalling the events of his life. He begins with his early adult years in Virginia Beach as a happily married police officer. He plays the organ at church, has enthusiastic sex with his wife (Leslie Mann), is a doting father, and spends his off hours searching for his biological mother, who gave him up as a child.

After a violent car crash, Russell leaves previous life behind, and goes out into the world as his true self, which is as a gay man that he has secretly lived for years. He moves to Miami, finds a boyfriend (Rodrigo Santoro) and begins living a very expensive lifestyle. The need for money causes him to turn to a life as a conman. When his con work finally starts to catch up with him, Russell is sent to prison, where he sees and immediately falls in love with Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). From there on, it becomes the story of a forlorn lover who cannot bear to be separated from his soul-mate and will go to any lengths to be with Phillip.

"I Love You Phillip Morris" is an uneven, odd dramedy about Russell's exploits that's far more interesting on paper than played out here. It's had distribution problems and has been sitting on the shelf the last two years and was re-edited during that to make it more mainstream. Unfortunately, the newly re-edited film has lost a certain edge in the process and falters between dark, dark comedy and over-the-top farce with a little drama thrown in for good measure, with so much thrown at the screen to see what sticks.

The film's dark tone is unsurprising given that it's directed and written by the team of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, responsible for a much better dark comedy, "Bad Santa." The highlight of the film is a great Carrey performance, who unsurprisingly carries the film on his back with his stellar comic timing and presence, though it's really nothing different than he's done before.

As good as Carrey makes the film, it makes you wonder how differently the film would've been shaded with a less comic actor and a more dramatic one. Carrey's schtick overtakes the film (as for poor Ewan McGregor, he's wasted in a much smaller part than Carrey's) and what could've been an inspired film turns into another Carrey comedy. Leslie Mann ("Knocked Up") has a few good moments as Russell's confused but loving ex-wife.

Surprisingly, "I Love You Phillip Morris" isn't as shocking or as graphic as it could've been, and it falters in delivering an emotional connection. "I Love You Phillip Morris," given the comic presence of Carrey and an intriguing real-life story, is unfortunately just a big disappointment.

The Tourist - C+

Rated PG-13 for violence and brief strong language, 105 minutes

Glitzy but forgettable "Tourist"

You remember those T-shirts that used to say "I went to __________ and all I got was this lousy T-shirt."? The new movie "The Tourist" is kinda like that. It takes you to a far off land, weaves a complex story and then leaves you empty-handed. Slick, pretty but uneven and a little slow at times, some of it works, some of it doesn't and the twist at the end is a tad baffling. What's for sure, "The Tourist" has some great scenery, particularly two handsome, huge movie stars in Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, both of whom play it smart and low-key.

Depp is an American tourist in Italy named Frank trying to get over a lost love. He runs into Jolie, a lovely British woman named Elise who is in Venice searching for a former but mysterious love named Alexander Pearce, who stole some money from some very bad guys and is now on the run. He's being pursued all the while by an agent (Paul Bettany) for Scotland Yard who has connections to them both.

Uneven but glitzy, muddled but somehow crowd-pleasing, "The Tourist" is a weak effort given the talent involved, Jolie, Depp and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, director of the Oscar-winning German film "The Lives of Others." The film wavers too much between thriller and dark comedy but comes up rather empty-handed on both, and given the twist at the end, much of it's unnecessary and contrived.

Jolie and Depp play it well in roles they've played much better in other movies, especially Jolie, who did this thing much better in "Wanted" and earlier this year in "Salt." She's slowly becoming typecast playing women like this, and "The Tourist" reveals her self-effacing traits too much; her English accent wavers in and out too much. Depp is a little better in a woefully underwritten, unrevealing role that's one of his weakest. Bettany is solid, as is Steven Berkoff as the slimy villain; cinemaphiles will enjoy the fact that Berkoff played the equally slimy Victor Maitland in the first "Beverly Hills Cop" 27 years ago.

The silly, contrived script is especially a disappointment considering it was worked on my von Donnersmarck and Oscar-winning screenwriters Julian Fellowes ("Gosford Park") and Christopher McQuarrie ("The Usual Suspects"). The "Usual Suspects"-type twist at the end is especially disappointing and out-of-place with the rest of the film. Venice is beautifully filmed as are Depp and Jolie, but the movie comes up short in delivering a strong story and sympathetic characters you really care about. You'll pay $10 for a forgettable movie like "The Tourist" and all you'll end up with is a silly ending and greasy popcorn hands.

The Warrior's Way - D

Rated R for strong bloody violence, 100 minutes

Ridiculous, silly "Warrior's Way"

Within the first few minutes of the new kung-fu action "The Warrior's Way" the 'greatest swordsmen ever' is brought down, a baby is rescued, ninjas are killed in a bamboo forest and the main character ends up in an Old West town. This has the makings for a cool movie or quite possibly a disaster and one of the worst things seen on screens this year. A few nifty special-effects and fight scenes aren't near enough to make this the most ridiculous, worst-acted film of the year.

Yang (Korean film star Jang Dong-gun) is a warrior with a mission: to kill the last living member of an enemy clan. The only thing is, the last living member is a cute baby girl who Yang cannot kill, so he leaves his country to go to the American West, where a friend of his supposedly living. His friend is no longer there, but in the town he finds talky black small person (Tony Cox), the town drunk (Geoffrey Rush) and a young girl (Kate Bosworth) who Yang becomes attracted to and helps exact revenge on the man (Danny Huston) who killed her family years earlier.

"The Warrior's Way" is preposterously bad action-adventure flick that tries (very badly) to combine a Sergio Leone spaghetti-western with Korean kung-fu. Much like combining Italian food with Korean food, this is an absolute mess. It takes itself far too seriously to work even moderately well, and while the fight scenes and a few special-effects are decent, everything else about it is just plain terrible, from the acting, the story, to the fake sets, all of which make it look like a cheap soundstage. It all comes together in a way-over-the-top, stupid finale that makes little sense for even something like this.

Korean film director and screenwriter Sngmoo Lee and Korean action-star Jang Dong-gun are largely responsible for this mess, which was shot in early 2008 but has been sitting on the shelf for nearly 3 years. It certainly won't help the careers of anyone else involved, including Rush (whose awful, unnecessary narration is heard throughout the film), the once-it girl Bosworth in what could likely be a career-killer; her performance is the film's worst - even Dong-gun has the wisdom to keep his mouth shut most of the time - to Huston, who chews on scenery in his brief role as the slimeball villain.

This disaster is credited with being co-produced by one of "The Lord of the Rings" producers, Barrie M. Osborne, but he may not want much to do with "The Warrior's Way" after most people see how bad it is. This could be one of those "so-bad-it's good" cult-classics in years to come, but for now I'd take the high road away from "The Warrior's Way."

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - B

Rated PG for some frightening images and sequences of fantasy action, 105 minutes

Affecting and action-packed "Voyage of the Dawn Treader"

"The Chronicles of Narnia" gets a boost with the latest in the series based on the C.S. Lewis novels of the same name. "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" is thrilling, action-packed and quite affecting in the last act (i.e. bring plenty of tissues), and may remind some as a "Lord of the Rings" for the junior set. Though suitable for the whole family, some of it is a little intense for very young children and while many prefer the first film, I think overall this is the best of the series so far.

Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund Pevensie (Skandar Keynes) return to Narnia with their cousin Eustace (Will Poulter) where they meet up with Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) for a trip across the sea aboard the royal ship The Dawn Treader. Along the way they encounter dragons, dwarves, merfolk, and a band of lost warriors before reaching the edge of the world.

Magical, colorful and energetic, "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" makes for exciting entertainment, even if it starts treading "The Lord of the Rings" territory, particularly with its breathless, dragon-filled climax. It is a faithful adaptation of Lewis' novel (technically the fifth written but the third released), is the most poignant and best-acted of the lot by the three young children, who are growing up quickly. The new addition, U.K. actor Poulter as cousin Eustace, is the most memorable; his transformation from unlikable brat to hero will have you cheering the most.

Listen closely for the voices of character actor Simon Pegg ("Star Trek") as the heroic mouse Reepicheep and stalwart Liam Neeson as the head lion Aslan. "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" has the most emotional ending of the three, as the two younger children bid farewell to Narnia, so be sure to keep plenty of tissues on hand. Suitable for the whole family, but I'd be careful with anyone younger than 10 or so, as some of the creatures are a tad frightening.

"The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" is enjoyable, action-packed fun and a good night for the family for the holidays, and sometimes that's a good deal.

Black Swan - A

Rated R for strong sexual content, disturbing violent images, language and some drug use, 107 minutes

This is a brilliantly dark, twisted "Black Swan"

You will either love it or hate it. “Black Swan” is one of those divisive films. A disturbing, twisted very dark psychological thriller from “The Wrestler’s” Darren Aronofsky, Natalie Portman gives one of the year’s most sublimely intense performances that’s sure to be Oscar-nominated. Complex but mesmerizing, you won’t understand it all but you certainly won’t be able to look away.

“Black Swan” is about a New York City ballet company producing a version of “Swan Lake.” The company’s director (Vincent Cassel) replaces his long-standing prima donna ballerina (Winona Ryder) with a new, talented ballerina named Nina (Portman). Nina has issues of her own, living with an overbearing, controlling mother (Barbara Hershey), a former ballerina herself. Nina has the skill and grace to perfectly play the White Swan, but lacks the passion to play the sensual Black Swan, something a rival ballerina named Lilly (Mila Kunis) possesses. Nina begins exploring her dark side, something that could help her performance or destroy her personally.

Aronofsky’s “Black Swan” is one of the year’s most provocative, complex and entertaining films. Disturbing, intense and supremely dark “Black Swan” is a must see for Portman’s layered, powerful performance. Aronofksy’s moody script and direction, originally conceived as a companion piece to his 2008 film “The Wrestler,” is bizarre and downright strange at times, but much of it works brilliantly. The mesmerizing on-stage finale is brilliantly staged and executed by Aronofsky and highlights the film.

It’s also universally, superbly acted by the entire cast, with solid turns by Cassel, Kunis and in a brief but fiesty, serious turn, Ryder as a washed-up ballerina. Especially memorable is Hershey as Portman’s overbearing but loving mother, who has issues of her own. Hershey’s strong, searing deliverance should bring the veteran character actress another Oscar nomination for supporting actress.

“Black Swan,” however, gives Portman center stage and she delivers an amazing, complex performance as the uptight ballerina that will propel her to accolades and more A-list roles; she embodies the role of a ballerina to near-perfection, her intense ballet training for the film is evident with every turn. The movie’s most provocative scene has her in a lesbian drug-fueled dream sequence with Kunis that should please those that enjoy that type of thing. Aronofsky also peppers the film with some twisty, nifty special effects that help give life to some of Nina’s mental issues (paintings and tattoos come to life, along with different versions of herself).

“Black Swan” is a disturbing psychological drama that is a must-see, but also know the downbeat, heavy film isn’t necessarily for everyone (and you will not leave this movie happy). Textured, dark and serious, you won't understand it all, but in a bizarre, twisted way, "Black Swan" is one of the year's best films.