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Poseidon quickly sinks, with relatively stale characters and effects and without the only thing that made the original 1972 disaster movie The Poseidon Adventure worth passing the time: a sense of moral conflict. Wolfgang PetersenJosh LucasKurt RussellEmmy Rossum

The foreign box office represented a mixed bag for Mission: Impossible III, which stumbled out of the gate in all but a handful of European and Latin American markets yet notched record highs in Asia and bested Mission: Impossible II in several key European territories. Tom Cruise's third outing as spy Ethan Hunt opened nearly worldwide, with the significant exception of Japan, grossing $70.3 million from nearly 8,000 screens.

Irwin Allen's production of The Poseidon Adventure is properly regarded as among the best of the late producer's movies, which include The Towering Inferno and The Lost World (1960). Poseidon is an entertaining movie, certainly better than most of the disasters being released in today's movie theaters. It's an old-fashioned, one-at-a-time popcorn picture: good writing, steady plot, large scale excitement, terrific special effects for its time and a great cast, notably Gene Hackman as a preacher who's losing his faith in God. Leslie Nielsen

This franchise will self-destruct in three movies. Tom Cruise

Superstar Tom Cruise puts his perennially adolescent persona to the latest live action video game, Mission: Impossible III, and comes up with another non-stop assault on the senses. Liv TylerKatie HolmesLaurence Fishburne

In its likely final weekend atop the foreign food chain before the opening of Mission: Impossible III, Ice Age: The Meltdown snatched an estimated $25.3 million, moving its total to a mammoth $373.6 million.

Media hype did not convince droves to board United 93—Robin Williams' return to his strongest genre did not get RV rolling—Starbucks and positive buzz did not keep Akeelah and the Bee from flunking. It was the least heralded picture, Stick It, that beamed the most over the weekend. Paul Greengrass

Former model (catch a glimpse of her in the Merchant/Ivory production Slaves of New York), high school basketball star and entertainment journalist Jessica Bendinger took her latest role—first time feature director of Stick It—in stride. The woman who wrote the popular cheerleading movie, Bring It On, talked about writing the script, working in Hollywood and why she stopped competing in gymnastics. Jeff BridgesCameron Crowe

United 93, a taut recreation of the September 11, 2001, United Air Lines flight in which passengers counterattacked Islamic suicide hijackers, is powerful as a perceptual-bound experience. Unfortunately, that's the sum of it; the motion picture, written and directed by Paul Greengrass, achieves nothing else.

The less-than-perfect-ten girls' gymnastics movie, Stick It, written and directed by Jessica Bendinger, is just as fun and spunky as Bendinger's cheerleading picture, Bring It On. Easing up on the god-awful hip-hop recordings, adding a tomboy and a pair of goofy guys for laughs—and Jeff Bridges as the girls' coach—Bendinger scores again.

Taking a rare premise these days, the development of a child's mind, Akeelah and the Bee dramatizes how a child learns to think and how her pursuit of knowledge inspires an entire community. This picture's for anyone who had a favorite subject in school. Angela BassettLaurence Fishburne

Stomping past the $300 million mark internationally, Ice Age: The Meltdown remained the highest grossing movie for the fourth weekend in a row. Its weekend haul came to $40.3 million, propelling the computer-animated comedy to $333.1 million. The closest competitor was Scary Movie 4 at $16.4 million for the weekend.

Sold on its menacing atmosphere and twisted monsters, Silent Hill crept to $20.2 million at 2,926 sites, claiming the weekend top spot. Based on a popular series of video games, the nearly $50 million horror picture drew about as many moviegoers as the first Resident Evil did out of the gate and generated similar business as Hostel and Final Destination 3 from earlier this year. Michael DouglasHarrison FordNicole KidmanPaul WeitzHugh GrantDennis Quaid

Exploding over the Easter holiday, Ice Age: The Meltdown skyrocketed to $275.9 million through Monday in less than three weeks of release. For the three-day weekend alone, the computer-animated sequel grossed about $56 million from 57 territories. Spike LeeHarrison Ford

Slapping Easter weekend with the biggest opening the holiday has ever seen, Scary Movie 4 racked up $40.2 million at a super-saturated 3,602 theaters. The previous Easter high was Panic Room's $30.1 million, and Dimension Films' spoof also nabbed the second best April start on record, behind Anger Management's $42.2 million.

With a tailor-made title for the fetish demographic, Kinky Boots abandons a solid plot about a struggling shoe factory in favor of a drag-queen-as-fairy-godmother tale.

Fifties fetish pinup Bettie Page, known in pornography circles for her black-haired bangs and kinky straps, whips and boots, predated Playboy magazine and, apparently, caused quite a stir—eventually being asked to appear before a senator's porn hearing.

Truly mammoth, Ice Age: The Meltdown grossed $93 million overseas last weekend. The computer-generated comedy exceeded even the highest expectations in its new territories, opening in first place in all of them and breaking records in many. Its weekend also ranked as one of the ten best in international box office history.

After sitting on the Miramax shelf for a long time, it came and went without much notice—director Lasse Hallström's Western ranch tale, An Unfinished Life, starring Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Lopez and Josh Lucas. Mr. Hallstrom talked about this lush September 2005 release, now available on DVD, by telephone from New York.

The first blockbuster of 2006, Ice Age: The Meltdown, claimed the top spot again with ease, but the herd was thinned by half. 20th Century Fox's $80 million computer-animated sequel gathered $33.8 million, down 50 percent. Rob SchneiderDavid SpadeJon HederAntonio BanderasJosh HartnettMorgan FreemanLucy LiuBruce Willis