When his uncle (Ewan McGregor) dies unexpectedly on an alleged business trip, ordinary English teenager Alex Rider (Alex Pettyfer) soon learns that there's a family tradition of secret agents, and he's next in line.
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Live-action stars take a backseat to CGI chipmunks in this uneven family
comedy: Alvin, Theodore, and Simon have the only good lines or recognizable emotions, with Jason Lee and David Cross straining to flesh out their cardboard roles.
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This is based upon a very short children's book by John Nickle, a beautifully drawn if crudely told tale of a boy named Lucas, who sports Coke-bottle glasses and a propeller skull cap and is picked on by a buzz-cut bully named Sid.
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The wildly uneven French writer-director-producer Luc Besson has a fondness for life outside the margins of conventional society: the neon-lit labyrinths of the Paris Metro (Subway), the pristine depths of the ocean (The Big Blue).
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In this uneven Disney family picture, Adam Sandler tones down his arrested-development persona, trading crass for cuddly as a hotel janitor stuck with babysitting his niece and nephew.
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Don't be fooled by the CGI-laden, Narnia-lite trailers for Bridge to Terabithia: Far from a computer-generated escapist fantasy, this film is an unpretentious and touching tale of preteen companionship and loss.
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The latest vehicle to roll off a Pixar assembly line that has thus far kicked out nothing but spit-shined classics answers that age-old question: What would Doc Hollywood have been like had it been populated entirely by, ya know, cars?
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Roald Dahl's 1964 classic, about a good-hearted poor boy who tours a fabulous factory owned by a profoundly weird man-child, inspired a 1971 film starring Gene Wilder as the eccentric chocolate-maker.
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The whole gang -- Mom (Bonnie Hunt), Dad (Steve Martin), 12 kids, and the family dog -- is back in this so-so sequel to the surprisingly successful 2003 comedy (which was, itself, a remake of a 1950 film).
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Some Oakland politicians and groups are pointing to research by UC Berkeley faculty as proof that the city needs to add hundreds of police officers, but other studies contradict that conclusion.
The former Oakland police chief was too much of an insider to turn around OPD, but his replacement, interim Chief Sean Whent, appears to be a smart pick.
Some Oakland politicians and groups are pointing to research by UC Berkeley faculty as proof that the city needs to add hundreds of police officers, but other studies contradict that conclusion.