Even though the new musical is a high octane, high energized feel good romp, the lack of plot and underlying discrimination issues leaves TWO AND A HALF stars for the synthetic but pleasant, Hairspray. The movie's three screenwriters should be getting raspberries for this fruity, dud of a movie. ONE AND A HALF STARS for Chuck and Larry.

After bringing in more than $70 million in its opening weekend, comic book adaptation 300 made history as the highest grossing film debut for the month of March and the third highest opening for an R-rated movie (after The Passion of the Christ and The Matrix Reloaded). Without a single recognizable star among its cast and a fraction of the production budget, it also far outperformed the opening tallies of predecessors like Troy and Gladiator. It has been a long time coming, but Leonardo DiCaprio is finally all grown up—cinematically speaking, that is. Like a lot of conservative film critics, I was more than a little apprehensive to hear that anti-American conspiracy theorist Oliver Stone would be making a movie about 9/11.