Jodie Foster wasn’t enough to save this film from the contrivations that flowed freely through its plot and characters. I didn’t mind overlooking the film’s total disregard for the laws of physics, but the psycho bus driver and everyones’ complete inability to negotiate were a bit beyond my capacity for suspension of disbelief. That said, I was on the edge of my seat at least a few times, so perhaps I was believing more than I’d care to admit.

My experience with platformers on the PlayStation has been limited and unsatisfying. Thus, I had hopes for Jak and Daxter that I wouldn’t go so far as to call high, but perhaps slightly elevated from the average. The brute force of the PS2 was used to good effect, creating sprawling, detailed worlds. Unfortunately, in those highly detailed worlds, one played a game that was often tedious and rarely innovative. If we weren’t in the midst of a serious video game drought, I would have gladly passed over this blatantly adolescent-targeted game, but in these lean times, one is driven to dire measures in an effort to satisfy the hunger.

A straight up Ed Norton good time. Not necessarily the most empathy inducing subject matter, but a poignant film none the less.

I think this film gives Planet of the Apes some serious competition for the worst movie I’ve ever seen. Guy Pierce was horribly cast as the eccentric scientist and the pacing and plot boggled the mind. I wish I had a time machine of my own so that I could use it to tell my past self not to go see this movie.

Though the film is sprinkled with well conceived humor, it never really coheres into anything substantial. This is not for lack of good acting, which was provided amply by everyone except the Wilson brothers. Where Rushmore succeeded in portraying quirky characters in an otherwise normal world, Tenenbaums bit off more than it could chew with too many kooks and not enough time to make any of them believable or interesting. That and Jason Schwartzman gave a vastly better performance than Luke Wilson.