by CHRIS BARRY, ADRIAN MACK and SARAH ROWLAND

The Forgotten

At first, Julianne Moore's seasonal sci-fi seems like the perfect autumn thriller. Her crimson locks burn in the sun as she frantically darts in and out of streets that are lined with crisp amber and rust coloured leaves. But all the timely scenery can't compensate for the jarringly bad special effects and unintentionally funny plot gaffes.

Moore's character Telly is trying to figure out why someone or something is trying to erase all traces of her son's existence. He supposedly died in a plane crash along with his playmate Lauren, whose father Ash (Dominic West) is an alcoholic former NHL star. This storyline comes in handy when he has to shoulder check those pesky National Security Agents who keep dogging him and Telly as they search for answers.

When we first meet the hardened hockey has-been, he has already forgotten his daughter. That is until Telly refreshes his memory by literally peeling off his shoddy office wallpaper to reveal his little girl's bedroom.

Funny how the same extraterrestrial villains who went through the trouble of eliminating all Internet data of the deadly air tragedy and destroying every hard document on file - not too mention the arduous task of brainwashing everyone who has ever come into contact with the children - cut corners when it came to a simple home improvement.

Long story short: The abductions are laughable. Moore is stunning and the movie is at-best a rental. (SR)

Criminal

In this remake of the Argentine caper Nine Queens, the great John C. Reilly manages to imbue his pudgy, beady-eyed grifter Richard Gaddis with an offbeat élan. Richard has an uncanny ability to see the angle, even when all seems lost; Rodrigo (Diego Luna) is entranced by Richard's fast footwork and his strangely hard-bitten optimism. "It's not over till you're in handcuffs on the pavement," he tells him after another devastating blow to their plan. Richard has taken the baby-faced rookie under his wing just in time to cut him in on the Big One. Nobody's loyalties are clear, of course, and both the partnership and the sting itself are tenuous, especially when Richard's sister Valerie (Maggie Gyllenhaal) gets dragged into the picture. The scam, involving a forged bank note, had a political snap in the original but here any such opportunities are ignored, and Criminal suffers in the same way that co-producer Steven Soderbergh's own Traffic suffered, in that it becomes less a remake than a reduction of the original.

Still, the film exhilarates and has the breezy hipster tone that these filmmakers are gradually perfecting. L.A. has a lived-in feel in this movie and the locations are refreshingly downbeat and unfamiliar, but it's Reilly finally who makes the impression. As the tension mounts, it's Richard's ambiguous motives, so generously reflected in his big fat face, that fascinate. Luna lets himself drift in Reilly's current and he's no less impressive for it. He's a warm actor playing a likable guy, but not a stupid one. Lucky for first-time director Gregory Jacobs that both men are so adept at deception. (AM)

Eternal

Perhaps it's because I simply assumed Eternal would have to be beyond terrible that something feels very weird here. You see, I've come to the conclusion this movie really isn't half bad, especially for a domestically produced film. Sure, it gets a little stupid at times. For instance, some - but not all - of the acting is a little weak and even by horror/suspense/modern film noir standards, there are enough lapses in logic to effectively have you rolling your eyes more often than you'd like.

But that said, directors/writers Wilhelm Liebenberg and Federico Sanchez have produced an energetic, good-looking film that manages to hold your attention and even have you guessing where the plot is headed every once in a while. You see, there is something evil up in the hills of Westmount, and it ain't just Brian Mulroney. It's a sexy blond vampire chick (Caroline Néron), who likes to bathe in the blood of freshly murdered nubiles. Apparently based on, ahem, "true events," things start to go awry for our horny lipstick lesbo bloodsucker after she mistakenly devours the wife of a tough maverick vice cop Raymond Pope (Conrad Pla). But Pope has his weaknesses too, most notably an insatiable fondness for pussy, and our lady vampire, being 300 years old with several lifetimes of seduction experience, takes full advantage of our hero's lusty peccadilloes in her effort to take down the nosy cop.

While unlikely to win any Academy Awards, Eternal is essentially fun, escapist entertainment that doesn't ask you to think a whole lot. Hey, no problem. (CB)

The Forgotten, Criminal and Eternal open Friday, Sept. 24

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