An action-adventure movie that's almost as clunky as its name.

Russell Crowe stars as jaunty Capt. “Lucky Jack” Aubrey, who is sailing far from home to fight the Napoleonic menace. He strides the deck of his warship with a wink and a quick wit for all - until it's time for some bloodletting, and then he's all “Die Hard.” Director Peter Weir, whose credits include “The Mosquito Coast” and “The Truman Show,” stumbles in the action sequences, which are muddled and confusing.

Meanwhile, Crowe's performance as the cap'n is too inconsistent to offer anything but a superficial look into what's inside a man who loves war.

The first one was an original.

The second one was not, but it had a riotous vomiting scene from “The Exorcist,” a trash-talk war between disabled characters and enough booty and marijuana jokes to prompt giggles from even the most jaded movie-goer.

“Scary Movie 3,” however, is on autopilot - a guaranteed moneymaking machine that has the formula down pat: Spoof, laugh, laugh, spoof; stupid, stupid, stupid, funny.

If you toss out a joke every 10 seconds, something will stick. And teenage boys will arrive in hordes, because the movie leads off with Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy (who are actually humorous) and the Coors twins.

But the spark that made the first “Scary Movie” such a cultural touchstone has gone AWOL.

Tolerance for the gushy sentiment of the high-school sports flick “Radio” depends on whether you've been booing or rooting on the sidelines for its star, Cuba Gooding Jr.

If you're fed up to the shoulder pads with Gooding's bad movie choices since winning an Academy Award for “Jerry Maguire,” you'll likely have little patience for this safe, unimaginative story of a mentally disabled man who finds acceptance as booster for local sports teams.

If you've remained a loyal Gooding fan counting on a comeback, you'll come away feeling that while the home team may not have delivered a victory, it at least made a valiant effort.

“Radio” is a by-the-numbers tale of inspiration that resonates with the cheery sentiment and trifling depth of a well-written Hallmark card. Director Mike Tollin and producing partner Brian Robbins - sports-genre specialists whose past collaborations include “Varsity Blues” and “Hardball” - carefully concoct the ingredients for maximum pull on the heart strings.

The gooey results are lifted above mawkishness by sincere performances from Gooding and co-star Ed Harris as his mentoring coach.

With Clint Eastwood's profoundly moving “Mystic River,” it's as if all the sturdy but generally forgettable movies he directed since “Unforgiven” never happened.

“Mystic River” weaves a rich study of complex characters and moral ambiguity rarely seen in today's big studio films. The performances by Tim Robbins, Sean Penn and Marcia Gay Harden are among the year's best, while Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne and Laura Linney provide excellent support.

Eastwood and his actors create a brooding drama whose events and interrelationships seem surreally improbable yet painfully authentic. The players evoke a palpable sense of community in this tale of a tightknit neighborhood sharing grief, anger and suspicion of outside authority in the aftermath of a young woman's murder.

Unlike 1992's “Unforgiven,” on which Eastwood did double duty as actor and director, “Mystic River” keeps Eastwood behind the camera, and the film probably is the better for it.