“Elizabethtown” is a cute movie. Not cute as in fluffy kittens romping through flowers in the spring, but cute as in precious bordering on nauseatingly sweet. This Cameron Crowe relationship saga is bogged down in a mire of sugary sweetness that isn’t as much heartwarming as it is just plain tedious.

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Don’t let the trailers fool you. The promotional clips tease a horror story – or at least a suspenseful thriller – when in fact there’s no horror and very few thrills in Lady in the Water. Lacking M Night Shyamalan’s signature twist, Lady in the Water barely manages to tread water as the writer/director has packed his convoluted fairy tale with arbitrary rules, one-dimensional characters, and laughable dialogue.

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Quadripeligic ex-cop Lincoln Rhyme was looking forward to his assisted suicide when he got the news: some sicko was abducting people in a taxi and leaving them to die in particularly sadistic ways. With time counting down between each abduction and possible death, Rhyme recruits rather-unwilling Amelia Donaghy, haunted by her cop father’s suicide and thinking she’s next, into working the crime scenes to track down the killer. Written by Jeff Cross {blackjac_1998@yahoo.com}

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Whatever you’re expecting from “Alexander,” the odds are high you’ll be in for a huge surprise. Oliver Stone’s Alexander the Great story is more about the man himself and his relationships with the men in his life, than it is about Alexander’s conquests and life as a ruler.

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Can I just start this out by declaring upfront Peter Jackson is a genius? There, I’ve said it and I stand behind my opinion. He’s a genius for having the guts to film the entire trilogy at the same time, for choosing the perfect mix of new, rising, and established actors, and for creating a fantasy world so breathtakingly entrancing fans of Tolkien’s work were left with very little to gripe about. Jackson’s also one smart cookie for his use of the Internet and fan sites to spread the news (and hype) surrounding “The Lord of the Rings.” Instead of keeping fans at a distance, Jackson did a fantastic job of embracing the people who would ultimately buy tickets, buy the DVDs, and support “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

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Director Peter Jackson had big shoes to fill in creating “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” - his own (albeit in reality said shoes were most often missing, exposing feet that have been described as ‘hobbit-like’). With the first film garnering 13 Academy Award nominations, picking up American Film Institute and Screen Actors Guild Awards, doing boffo business at the box office, and accomplishing the near impossible - exceeding many Tolkien fanatics’ fantasies of a live action trilogy - Jackson set the bar incredibly high. Fortunately, this short, stout, visionary director turns out to be quite a high jumper.

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Jennifer Garner looks hot in skintight red leather and she can hold her own in fight scenes as well as any actor around. But sexy costumes, a fair amount of flesh, and a few well choreographed fight sequences can’t make up for the fact “Elektra” lacks heart. Sluggishly paced and devoid of the dark humor and wit that set the “Spider-Man” and “X-Men” movie franchises apart, “Elektra” manages to rise only a whisker above its “Daredevil” predecessor. And it’s not like “Daredevil” set the bar high in the first place.

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