If all goes well (fingers crossed), there will be a series of these going up over the next week or so in an effort to manage the outrageous number of holiday releases. Today's installment is jam-packed with hilarity, featuring three comedies that may or may not actually be funny. The short: The Ringer is sweet, Cheaper by the Dozen 2 is painful, and Fun with Dick and Jane is, well, just that. Details follow.

  • Cheaper by the Dozen 2: Let's just start with the fact that even our editors were not cruel enough to send any Cinematical staff to a screening, and close with this quote from Peter Bradshaw's review: "Of all the mysteries concerning those Extraordinary Rendition planes passing through UK airspace, one at least is solved. We now know what the in-flight movie is." Yikes. (Weirdly, Roger Ebert sort of liked it. So, you know, maybe it's not THAT bad - me, I'm not going to risk it, but do what you need to do.)

Also hitting theaters in more limited release during this first wave of holiday openings are a blind Ralph Fiennes in The White Countess, Munich (James was impressed), and, at long last, the award-winning Caché (which Christopher saw as a meditation on the media).