Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

The folks at 20th Century Fox behind the Ice Age franchise have proven to be much better at persuading hordes of parents to bring the kids to see their movies than they are at making movies that hordes of parents and their kids really need to see. For this latest, they decided that what the first two movies lacked was 3-D and dinosaurs, so here we are in polarized glasses watching Manny (Ray Romano), Ellie (Queen Latifah), Diego (Denis Leary) and Sid (John Leguizamo) dodge thunder lizards on a journey to the center of the Earth. The script is again stale sitcom stuff with lame pop-culture references, this time by Michael Berg, Peter Ackerman, Mike Reiss, Yoni Brenner and Jason Carter Eaton—so many hands to so little effect. Directors Carlos Saldanha and Mike Thurmeier halfheartedly exploit the 3-D.