City of Ember: Two teens (Saoirse Ronan, Harry Treadaway) search for a way out of the underground city mankind has fled to after unspecified apocalyptic events topside. Despite a splendidly inventive production design and a comically villainous turn from Bill Murray, this feels cobbled together from cinematic odds and ends.
- Marc Savlov
The Express: Syracuse University is the coming-out ground of Ernie Davis (Rob Brown), the first African American Heisman Trophy winner, whose rumpled, distempered coach (Randy Quaid) is a stubborn soul in a fedora and NASA-issued horn-rimmed glasses. The film is a doozy, full of stadium heroics and quiet acts of dignity, mixed with heartbreaking racism.
- Josh Rosenblatt
