RottenTomatoes.com

This week at the movies, we've got monster mayhem (Cloverfield, starring Michael Stahl-David), marital mishaps (27 Dresses, starring Katherine Heigl), and heist hilarity (Mad Money, starring Diane Keaton and Queen Latifah). What do the critics have to say?

A sort of Blair Witch Project crossed with Godzilla, Cloverfield tells the story of a monster invasion in Manhattan through the eyes -- and lenses -- of a group of twentysomethings. And critics say it's one of the most intense cinematic offerings of the new year. The film begins at a going-away party for Rob (Michael Stahl-David). Just as the festivities get into full swing, a crisis grips the borough; it turns out a creature is on the loose, and the partygoers wade out into the terrifying urban landscape, recording the bedlam on their camcorders. The pundits say Cloverfield may be a gimmicky take on old monster movie tropes, but it's also economically paced, stylistically clever, and filled with scares. At 70 percent on the Tomatometer, Cloverfield is a monstrously fun time.

"Stay Puft Marshmallow Man again?"

In 27 Dresses Katherine Heigl plays a woman who's always a bridesmaid, never a bride. The movie's looking for some love, too -- from the critics. Heigl plays Jane, a selfless gal who's never met the right guy, and whose best friend is about to marry the object of her unspoken affections (Ed Burns); good thing there's a better guy (James Marsden) in the general vicinity. The pundits say although everything that happens in 37 Dresses is what you'd expect -- check that, exactly what you'd expect -- Heigl is good enough to make one wish she was in a better movie. At 24 percent on the Tomatometer, Dresses is getting critically annulled.

Katherine Heigl in The Namesake: The Reckoning.

Mad Money has such a delirious premise -- three average Janes decide to knock over the Federal Reserve -- and such a talented cast (Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, Katie Holmes) that one might be tempted to believe the movie is a hilarious girl-power-flavored romp. No such luck, say critics. Money is the story of a down-on-her-luck housewife (Keaton) whose husband has just been laid off; after taking a job at the fed bank, she meets some compatriots who are willing to join her in lifting bills that are to be removed from currency. While pundits say Money is without a few laughs, it lacks the sharp edge and bounciness to pull off a caper comedy of this sort. At 21 percent, Mad Money is not garnering mad props.

Queen Latifah's words fall on deaf and plugged ears.

Also opining this week in limited release:

• Taxi to the Dark Side, a documentary about the Bush administration's torture policy, is at 100 percent.

• Indonesian import Opera Jawa, a phantasmagoric folk musical, is at 100 percent.

• A restored Last Year at Marienbad, Alain Resnais's still-divisive meditation on the persistence of memory, is at 89 percent.

• Still Life, Zhang Ke Jia's quiet docudrama about romance in the midst of Chinese modernization, is at 83 percent.

• Teeth, a horror/comedy about a teenage girl with killer genitalia, is at 82 percent.

• Lou Ye's controversial Summer Palace, about the lives and loves of a group of college students in the days before Tiananmen Square, is at 58 percent. (Check out our review from Cannes 2006 here.)

• Woody Allen's latest, Cassandra's Dream, starring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell as brothers in dire financial straits, is at 35 percent.

• And Day Zero, a drama about three young men who have been drafted and are off to war starring Elijah Wood and Chris Klein, is at 17 percent.

  
  "You really think Manhattan Murder Mystery is overrated?"

And finally, props to SplendidIsolation and Meatcake, as each of them correctly guessed that In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale would wind up at three percent on the Tomatometer. In the name of Uwe Boll, I give thee props.
 

Recent Diane Keaton Movies:
-------------------------------------
5% -- Because I Said So (2007)
53% -- The Family Stone (2005)
69% -- Something's Gotta Give (2003)
13% -- Town and Country (2001)
12% -- Hanging Up (2000)