WALL•E
4 stars
A computer-animated kids movie featuring a rusty robot that hardly talks, "WALL•E' has more to say than most other films this year. The G-rated movie from Pixar Animation Studios ("Finding Nemo," "Ratatouille" and all the other really good ones) offers a touching robot romance, visuals as artful as they are state-of-the-art, and vital messages about environmental and personal health. Directed and co-written by masterful storyteller Andrew Stanton ("Nemo," "Cars"), "WALL•E" starts in a place that's desolate yet gloriously rendered: an Earth covered in refuse and uninhabitable by humans. The people split 700 years ago, leaving only WALL•E, a trash-compacting robot, and his cockroach pal. Rated G
Tropic Thunder
2 1/2 stars
Christy Lemire of the Associated Press writes: Ben Stiller produced, co-wrote the script and stars as Tugg Speedman, an increasingly irrelevant action hero who now leads the ensemble cast of the Vietnam War epic "Tropic Thunder." When Tugg and his equally pampered cast mates (including Robert Downey Jr., with him, above right) turn out to be too distracted to commit to the production, the overwhelmed first-time director (played by Steve Coogan) leads them into the jungle to bond and fend for themselves. Rated R
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2
2 stars
Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel writes: Too, too long, these traveling pants. They're dragging on the ground, wearing out – and wearing out their welcome. But that's the only big hole in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2," a sequel that actually improves on the original. The sequel to the 2005 film features all four young actresses from the original (from left, above): Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bleidel, America Ferrera and Blake Lively. Rated PG-13
Garden Party
1 star
Kyle Smith of the New York Post writes: A cast of no-name actors portrays young Angelenos on the make in a series of interconnected vignettes. Most of the characters have some connection to porn, either producing it, posing for it or drooling over it. As these dreary figures drift around a sleazy setting, the narrative burns with all the firepower of a night light, and each tiny epiphany is presented as forcefully as a shrug. Contains profanity, nudity, drug use. Not rated
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