Patrick Bergin

Beneath Loch Ness borrows a page from Jaws, with mysterious deaths attributed not to Nessie but to prankster teenagers, while researchers and a TV crew try to pull off a Geraldo-worthy expose show in the decidedly southern California-looking "Loch Ness." But of course the real Nessie is out there somewhere, savagely marauding people while the local police chief repeatedly refuses to close the Loch, and damn the tourists!

Continue reading: Beneath Loch Ness Review

"Eye of the Beholder" isn't a title, it's a warning label. What's going on in this movie is anybody's guess.

An erotic thriller/mystery/failed cerebral art film, starring Ashley Judd as an esoteric serial killer and Ewan McGregor as her high-tech stalker/guardian, this flick is steeped in spiraling twists and volatile psyches which seemingly build toward a shock finale that never arrives.

Based on a novel by Marc Behm, it raises dozens of questions that go unanswered. It provides only snippets of backstory, leaving its characters half-revealed. And all the while, it's readily apparent that writer-director Stephen Elliott ("Welcome to Woop Woop," "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert") considers himself terribly cagey.

Continue reading: Eye Of The Beholder Review

Following in the footsteps of the "Fractured Fairy Tales" cartoons, "The Princess Bride," "Ever After," "Shrek" and "A Knight's Tale" -- but never quite matching any of their wit or novelty -- "Ella Enchanted" is an amusingly self-aware fable of handsome princes, evil kings and one very plucky heroine caught up in a magic spell.

Aiming at the tween-ager crowd that made a hit of "The Princess Diaries," 2001's more modern twist on such girlish daydreams, light-hearted director Tommy O'Haver ("Get Over It," "Billy's Hollywood Screen Kiss") enlists "Diaries" charming star Anne Hathaway in the title role as a medieval teenager who was hexed at birth with an obedience spell by an irksome but well-meaning fairy (Vivica A. Fox, stuck in a mock-ghetto-fabulous stereotype).

Having grown up quite stubborn yet unable to resist any demand upon her, Ella manages to get through life keeping her curse on the QT until her widowed father brings home a wicked stepmother (Joanna Lumley) and two even worse and obnoxiously over-played step-sisters (Lucy Punch and Jennifer Higham), who quickly and cruelly figure out that they can make Ella their plaything.

Continue reading: Ella Enchanted Review