Adam Sandler generally isn’t the first actor you think of when it comes to dramatic performances, and this isn’t really a dramatic role, but he did a pretty decent job. Sure, there are moments. There are references to his other films, whether it’s the inclusion of his buddies or names or what-have-you. But there are also moments where he and Drew Barrymore really do fine job of making things work.

Henry Roth (Sandler) is something of a serial liar. He works at the aquarium, but you wouldn’t know it if you were to happen across him in a bar. He tells women that he works for the CIA – or just about any other secret organization – in order to avoid having to call them. He only dates tourists, so that they will leave at the end of their trip and he doesn’t have to see them again. Ever. But that changes when he meets Lucy (Barrymore) one morning at breakfast.

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Three things struck me about this movie.

One is that I knew very little about Ray Charles, and I found this story about his life to be interesting.

Two is that I was really impressed with Jamie Foxx. He did a great job.

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Kevin Spacey is just a really good psychopath. I think it’s because he doesn’t have to be all in-your-face about it. He can quietly go about his business and when you turn around, you realize how twisted he is. If you’re lucky. This movie, while perhaps not the best, is a pretty good example of that.

Here, Spacey plays Eddy Otis, a seemingly successful guy in the suburbs who is always ready to share everything he has – even, it seems, his wife. Initially, neighbor Richard Parker (Kevin Kline) thinks Otis is a little wacko, but over time, he slowly becomes curious, until one day he gives in entirely.

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Steve Martin is back as George Banks, and if it wasn’t bad enough that his daughter is grown up and taken away from him, now it turns out that she is pregnant and wanting to move away when the baby is born. So he puts the house up for sale – he is moving to the beach.

In a classic bit, the house sells way too quickly (the buyer is Eugene Levy in a small but funny role), but before he knows it his own wife is pregnant and he needs that space. So the buyer offers to sell it back, but only for a profit of one hundred thousand dollars. Not bad for a day’s work.

Not wanting to see his house be torn down (and also to get back in his wife’s good graces), George relents, and buys the house back. He also builds a baby suite and caters to both his wife and daughter for the next nine months.

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Bruce Willis stars in this thriller about a down-on-his-luck private eye who gets a plum assignment guarding an exotic dancer (a young Halle Berry).

Unfortunately, he gets the job from his best friend, which ordinarily wouldn’t be so bad, but he gets the job because his friend is finds out that it’s dangerous, and since he is sleeping with his wife, he wants him out of the picture. Too bad for him he’s too late and gets blown up early on.

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Brothers Frank and Jack Baker (played by real-life brothers Beau Bridges and Jeff Bridges) have been hanging around the Seattle lounge scene for fifteen years, and it’s just about time for them to hang it up.

That is, until they meet Susie Diamond (Michelle Pfeiffer),who livens up their piano act with some sultry vocals. The only problem is that perpetual bachelor Jack has an eye for Susie, which leads to problems of a different sort.

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I expected a lot out of this movie – mostly because it had really good reviews from what I had seen. I can’t say that I was completely disappointed, but it didn’t really live up to its billing either. It wasn’t exactly a bank heist, but it wasn’t exactly as advertised, either.

The actors that you’d expect to do something wonderful (Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster) didn’t. They were okay, just not great. The others weren’t notable at all. I think that the movie tried to do too much. Had it cut out the extra pieces unrelated to the heist (and probably 30 minutes of its length), it probably would have been a lot better.

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While I suspect that this movie is a bit of a fabrication because it says it was “inspired by a true story”, which has to be a step below “based on a true story”, there was some truth in there somewhere. We do know that Frank William Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) was a con man who, before his 19th birthday, wrote millions of dollars of fraudulent checks and passed himself off as a pilot, doctor and lawyer.

FBI agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), meanwhile, is his foil, who tracks him across the country and finally around the world to bring him down. Time after time they cross paths as Abagnale goes through identities and his checks get better and better. We’re watching a movie, but it’s probably somewhat accurate in that the first batch of checks he passes are little more than paper with some decals on them.

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I’ve always liked Al Pacino, even if I can’t always figure out why. I mean let’s face it – it isn’t as if he possesses the most versatile acting range in the world. His characters are generally about the same from movie to movie.

Still, they are certainly entertaining characters, and perhaps that is why I enjoy watching him. In this case, he is teamed with John Goodman as the two try to catch someone who is killing men who take out personal ads.

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I can certainly understand Anne Hathaway wanting to shed the image of The Princess Diaries.

Bijou Phillips, on the other hand has to rid herself of Bully. I can’t say either made a particularly good choice with this movie.

Phillips made a step up perhaps in that she didn’t take her clothes off quite as much. But her character was actually even less developed this time around than she was in Bully, if that is even possible. Hathaway, meanwhile, actually had what was perhaps an interesting character, but it seems about the only compelling reason to see this movie is the fact that she’s not the little princess any more. As it turns out, that’s not enough.

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