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Vardalos captures Greek magic

Posted at 12:00 AM on Sunday, Oct. 04, 2009

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"My Life in Ruins" Grade B: A Greek tour guide (Nia Vardalos) must deal with an odd collection of tourists while trying to find love.

Most of the energy comes from the star, Vardalos. She brings the same self-deprecating humor, vulnerability and spunk that made her a sensation in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."

This is a film about falling in love. It's easy to do that with the characters and the country. Nothing's rushed.

Vardalos turns in a performance with so much energy against such a magnificent backdrop.

"Year One" Grade F: Two lazy hunter-gatherers (Jack Black, Michael Cera) make a trek through the ancient world. The latest work by Harold Ramis starts bad and then takes a turn for the worse.

Jack Black, the 21st century's answer to Jerry Lewis, mugs his way through the role of Zed. He's a hunter with no hunting skills who gets banished from the tribe. He's joined by not-so-good gatherer Oh, played by the one-note, monotoned Michael Cera. Uninspired writing, made all the worse by amateur acting, leaves this film a complete zero.

"Imagine That" Grade D+: Eddie Murphy plays a workaholic who finds a new way to look at life through his daughter's imaginary world.

The film is the most painful of all the Eddie Murphy flops because it contains a nugget of a sweet story that Murphy does his worst to kill every time it starts to emerge.

The failure of this film is not Murphy's alone. Thomas Haden Church turns in his worst performance, as Whitefeather, since "George of the Jungle 2." He's a financial analyst who uses Native American heritage as if it were a sideshow act.