Nights in Rodanthe 2 Stars—The last time we saw Richard Gere and Diane Lane, in the 2002 guilty pleasure “Unfaithful,” they were running off together after covering up Gere’s murder of Lane’s hot, young, Parisian lover. Ah, those were the good old days. Their latest pairing, “Nights in Rodanthe,” finds them falling for each other under circumstances that are even more contrived. Gere plays a stoic surgeon on a mission to right a wrong; Lane plays an earthy mother of two who has separated from her cheating husband. Gere is the only guest at a remote coastal North Carolina inn; Lane just happens to be overseeing the place—as a favor to a friend—the weekend Gere is staying there. And wouldn’t you know it? There’s a hurricane on the way. Surely you see where this is going, and because “Nights in Rodanthe” is based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks (“The Notebook,” “A Walk to Remember”), you know it can’t end happily. We wouldn’t dream of giving anything away, but bring tissues if you’re the sentimental type. You’d pretty much have to be sentimental to tolerate such schlock, or at least be willing to check your cynicism at the multiplex door. Gere and Lane make the first half of director George C. Wolfe’s movie surprisingly tolerable, simply because they have such an obvious comfort with each other (they also co-starred in “The Cotton Club” back in 1984). Both have been around long enough to find some nuance within the potentially treacly script from Ann Peacock and John Romano. But then the storm comes—and it washes away all that good will. PG-13 for some sensuality. 96 min.—Christy Lemire



Miracle at St. Anna 2 Stars—The most technically ambitious film in Spike Lee’s long and eclectic career. After acclaimed character dramas (“Malcolm X,” “Do the Right Thing”), some ill-fated comedies (“Bamboozled,” “She Hate Me”) and even a documentary or two (”4 Little Girls”), Lee takes on a big, old-fashioned war picture. It’s hard not to appreciate the fact that, after a quarter-century of making movies, he’s chosen this time to leap so boldly away from his comfort zone. But he might not have been ready for the enormity of such a project. “Miracle at St. Anna” is wildly unfocused in terms of tone and, at two hours and 40 minutes, it’s unjustifiably overlong. Lee didn’t write the script—that’s the work of James McBride, who based his screenplay on his novel of the same name—but he didn’t rein in his writer, either, perhaps because he feels so strongly about the subject matter. “Miracle” tells of the men of the 92nd Infantry Division, black troops who served in Italy during World War II and were known as Buffalo Soldiers. Lee has long been critical of films about the war such as Clint Eastwood’s “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima” for depicting only the white U.S. soldiers who fought. This is his response—voluminous and full of unmistakable anger. That’s not the only emotion that comes out in loud bursts. In following four soldiers trapped behind enemy lines in Tuscany (Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso and Omar Benson Miller), Lee jumps from visceral battle scenes to intimate drama to lighthearted comedy. Regardless of the situation, though, he smothers everything, as usual, in the distractingly horn-heavy score of his longtime collaborator, composer and jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard. R for strong war violence, language and some sexual content/nudity. 160 min.—Christy Lemire



Ghost Town 2 Stars—A great idea that doesn’t have very far to go: A guy dies for seven minutes while under anesthesia, then when he comes back to life, he sees dead people. And they see him, and talk to him, and follow him around Manhattan all day nagging him to help them with their unfinished business so they can go off to the great beyond in peace. Naturally, the man the ghosts flock to hates people, dead or alive, and so he dreads the company. This is a perfect fit for Ricky Gervais, whose brand of humor (“Extras,” the British version of “The Office”) mines laughs from the moments in life that make you cringe: the awkward pauses, the uncomfortable asides. His character, Bertram Pincus, became a dentist specifically because it would mean he’d never have to talk to people, but rather shove cotton and sharp tools in their mouths to shut them up. But you can only wander down this comic road for so long; once you’ve run through a few sight gags, you have to go somewhere else with this high-concept premise. Unfortunately, director and co-writer David Koepp heads toward sticky sentimentality—and that’s not nearly as good a fit for Gervais. The way in which the ghosts find closure, and the visual effect that accompanies that moment, is too feel-good and looks especially cheesy. It’s as if Koepp and co-writer John Kamps have created two separate movies and jammed them together. (Actually, “Ghost Town” almost feels like a romantic comedy do-over of Koepp’s 1999 thriller “Stir of Echoes,” starring Kevin Bacon as a man who sees a ghost after being hypnotized.) Greg Kinnear co-stars as a cad of a businessman who was having an affair when he died, with Tea Leoni as his widow who is about to remarry. PG-13 for some strong language, sexual humor and drug references. 102 min.—Christy Lemire



Igor 2 Stars—Dr. Frankenstein himself could not revive this animated comedy about a hunchbacked lab assistant playing at mad scientist. Frankenstein specialized in reanimating once-living matter, but he would be unable to find any spark of life to resuscitate here. A potentially original premise and an eager voice cast led by John Cusack and Molly Shannon are left to decay amid a clunky story vaguely reminiscent of “Monsters, Inc.” and a clutter of cartoon images often resembling visuals rejected from “Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride.” Director Tony Leondis and screenwriter Chris McKenna take a jumble of Hollywood horror cliches and shove them through a meat-grinder to concoct an awkward, unfunny comic twist on the evil-genius genre. Cusack plays the title character, aiming to prove he’s more than a hunchbacked gofer by creating an evil behemoth woman (Shannon), who turns out to be a pussycat. PG for some thematic elements, scary images, action and mild language. 86 min.—David Germain, AP Movie Writer



RATINGS: 4 stars: Excellent; 3 stars: Good; 2 stars: Fair; 1 star: Poor