Teenage girls are annoying. At least, the Hollywood species, where every soul-shattering, apocalyptic relationship problem can be solved with a Prada bag and some "girl time." Perhaps that's why everyone loathes the Hollywood teenager. She preens and over-dramatizes, but everything still works out. That this creature is absent from The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 makes it an above-average film, while good acting and writing make it even better.
The original X-Files series crept onto the scene in 1993, steadily built up a magnificent cult status, then stumbled out in 2002 in a jumble of convoluted soap-opera mush. X-Files: I Want to Believe follows the same pattern, but the 100-minute running time leaves no time for anything magnificent.
They don't make 'em like they used to. Today, your standard summer blockbuster glitters from afar with the flourish of CGI. Upon closer inspection, though, it's just a paper tiger with little beyond its sparkly shell. Luckily, Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy II: The Golden Army saunters in with just as much gloss, yet beneath that lies a sarcastic, goofy heart, some wonderful action and a whole petting zoo of creepy.
Superhero movies walk a fine line. On the one hand, people want explosions and smackdowns. On the other, people need something more: the wittiness of Iron Man or the emotional center of The Crow. The Incredible Hulk almost succeeds in this balancing act, but it's just too rushed and clumsy to pull it off.
