TRANSFERRING a show from the small to the big screen can be hit or miss.

As Quantum of Solace approached, early reports heralded the arrival of an even darker take on Bond … a fast and bloody film about revenge. Before its release fans were already taking polls about whether or not they approved.

While “Kung Fu Panda” definitely is a good movie, I think it may be a tad overrated. Kids will love it but speaking as an adult, I doubt most parents will think it is anything better than average. The film does mix solid animation, some great kung fu action, and a decent amount of humor. However, as someone who grew up loving “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” I was just a bit disappointed.

Michaela Ward, the former cheerleader coach at McKinney North High School in McKinney, Texas, sold her story to Lifetime and the movie, “Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal“, premiered Saturday night.

A college dean faces a race-relations fracas in "Spinning Into Butter," the film translation of Rebecca Gilman's widely staged play. Smoothly handled on-screen result retains the play's principal strengths as an involving, accessible vehicle for provoking discussion about myriad hot-button racial topics.

Summer plods along… and another movie debut is on the horizon. It's funny how as the summer drags on the movies become les and less sensational. Guess we have to wait for Thanksgiving week to jump-start the blockbusters.

One thing is certain - either you love Will Ferrell or you hate him. The same goes for his movies. His latest adventure is "Step Brothers" starring Ferrell, John C. Reilly and Mary Steenburgen.

There are plenty of problems with Hancock, to be sure. My primary complaint is that the film is too short - the ending, in particular, feels rushed, and I would have liked several more scenes exploring each character’s reactions to the climactic events.

A new movie - Bigger, Stronger, Faster - takes a somewhat ambivalent look at the use of steroids by athletes, which is completely understandable given the climate of condemnation in this country. The movie has a 100% rating at Rotten Tomatoes after 29 reviews.

Clint Eastwood opens his 1920s-'30s set film Changeling in Cannes (Angelina Jolie as Christine Collins) with a period logo of its studio—here, Universal, with its silvery, Deco-esque depiction of a small plane circling the globe. The slight but noteworthy irony here is that this picture is nothing like a Universal production of that era, it is instead, very much like a Warner Brothers production of that era and beyond. (Eastwood just recently stopped hanging his producing hat at Warner's, alas.)

The good news first: Reports that "Indiana Jones and the Quest For Profit" was an unmitigated disaster appear to have been somewhat overblown. I'd say "This is proof that even as part of a pure money-grab, Spielberg isn't capable of making an unmitigated disaster," but the guy's last sequel was "The Lost World." So I won't say that.

Old Indiana Jones movies are being reissued for sale separately as the new movie about the adventure scientist is coming up. New York Times writes "The worst-reviewed of the three - the second, “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” released in 1984 — was still the third-most-popular movie of the year."