The Movies

1 Legally blonde

$20.4 million 1 week in release $20.4 million to date

PLOT Unfunny comedy about a sorority girl who goes to Harvard Law on a quest to win back her boyfriend.

MESSAGE Beauty and cunning can get you anywhere in life.

CAUTION Rated PG-13 for bad language and sexual references.

$19 million 1 week in release $19 million to date

PLOT Heist movie about a safecracker out to rob the Canadian Customs House.

MESSAGE That one last score is a huge risk.

CAUTION Rated R for bad language.

$12 million 2 weeks in release $58.9 million to date

PLOT Effects-heavy kid's movie about a young puppy that joins a secret canine war to keep cats from taking over the world.

MESSAGE Dogs really are man's best friend.

CAUTION Rated PG for animal action and crude humor.

$11.4 million 1 week in release $19 million to date

PLOT Computer-generated adaptation of the video game with a dying scientist trying to stop alien invaders.

MESSAGE New Age mysticism: The planet is alive and has its own Gaia-spirit.

CAUTION Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action violence.

$9.6 million 2 weeks in release $53 million to date

PLOT Raunchy sequel rehashes the Wayans Brothers' spoof of recent horror movies.

MESSAGE Even scary stuff is fair game for satire.

CAUTION Rated R for strong sexual and gross humor, graphic language, and some drug content.

Legally Blonde should be a crime. This surprising hit plays like a bad sitcom: A spoiled rich girl named Elle (Reese Witherspoon) leaves her posh Bel Air world to conquer Harvard Law School. The result is an insufferable hour and a half that never makes good use of its lead character. Thanks to the times, she's not even allowed to be a dumb blonde. Instead, we're reminded that she's a 4.0 student who can do anything she wants to do. And the movie never really pokes fun at this person who is pure image and no substance. So Blonde spoils its own humor. The one good joke in this movie will fly over its teen-dominated audience's heads: Elle pines over her dimwitted but ambitious ex-boyfriend, a budding future senator named Warner. (Paging Liz Taylor, onetime wife of real-life former Sen. John Warner, R-Va.) Much of the movie is spent with the lead slowly gaining acceptance in law school, which she does with apparent ease. (Ex-boyfriend: "You got into Harvard Law?" Elle: "What? Like it's hard?") Then at the end she wins an internship and Blonde shifts gears from being Clueless II to a My Cousin Vinny clone. A maddening character like this doesn't deserve (fur-lined) kid gloves. This sort of movie celebrates the clever, stylish blow-off. Instead of hard work, she builds success on scheming, luck, and good looks.