Most critics have concluded that Fantastic Four is something less than fantastic. "Underwhelming," is how Roger Ebert describes the movie in the Chicago Sun-Times. He concludes: "The really good superhero movies, like Superman, Spider-Man 2 and Batman Begins, leave Fantastic Four so far behind that the movie should almost be ashamed to show itself in the same theaters." Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer is harsher, commenting: "Lacking wit, lacking style, and just plain lacking, Fantastic Four offers a series of noisy confrontations, ho-hum special effects, and a post-action-scene mantra repeated ad nauseam: One of the Fantastics, dusting off debris, checks with another and inquires, 'Are you OK?'" Lou Lumenick in the New York Post is harsher still, describing the film as "the smelliest dead-on-arrival would-be franchise since The Hulk. A perfect storm of wooden acting, hackneyed direction, inane scripting and laughably cartoonish special effects." On the other hand A.O. Scott in the New York Times apparently has concluded that all of that was intentional. "In an era when movies based on comic books have become increasingly solemn and serious, this one is content to be trashy," he writes. Stephen Hunter in the Washington Post calls it "a funky, fun film version of the famous Marvel superhero concoction." And Glenn Whipp in the Los Angeles Daily News takes a middle position -- calling it "neither here nor there." So does Geoff Pevere in the Toronto Star, who remarks: "Because 'The So-So Four' would never do for a quartet of weirdly gifted comic-legend superheroes, Fantastic Four is somewhat misnamed. Fantastic it ain't, but not bad it sort of is."

Critics, who rarely give positive reviews to horror flicks, have mostly fine things to say about Walter Salles' Dark Water. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times even includes a little essay on the sentiments of film critics in his review: "I have been criticized recently for giving a pass to films of moderate achievement because they accomplish what the audience expects, while penalizing more ambitious films for falling short of greater expectations. There may be some truth in such observations, but on the other hand, nobody in the real world goes to every movie with the same kind of anticipation. If I see a film by Ingmar Bergman, as I recently did, I expect it to be a masterpiece, and if it is not, Bergman has disappointed me. If I attend a horror film in which Jennifer Connelly and her daughter are trapped in the evil web of a malevolent apartment building, I do not expect Bergman; if the movie does what it can do as well as it can be done, then it has achieved perfection within its own terms." He gives Dark Water three stars. Carrie Rickey in the Philadelphia Inquirer also writes positively about the movie, saying that it "pushes every button on the parental-fear keypad: Divorce, loss of custody, loss of child, loss of domicile, loss of mind. Salles doesn't tap a horror gusher, but trickles a steady panic drip. While his movie lacks the psychological resonance of Rosemary's Baby or The Sixth Sense, it easily equals their creep-out quotient." The also draws some negative reviews, but, for a horror film, none of them is horrible. For example, Gene Seymour writes in Newsday: "Dark Water is all suggestion and moody inference setting you up for a payoff that seems itself like an apparition." And Claudia Puig writes in USA Today: "Dark Water has more substance and a more interesting look than many horror films, but the familiar elements of the story disappoint."

Box office analysts were mulling the effect of Thursday's London terrorist attacks on the fortunes of Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds this weekend. After it became obvious that aliens were not required to set off the kind of confusion and havoc depicted in the movie, several analysts questioned whether the film could continue to be regarded as escapist entertainment. As Kathy Dzielak, the entertainment editor of the Asbury Park(NJ) Press, observed, "In a post-9/11 world, feeling scared isn't quite as much fun as it used to be." The movie was also mentioned by other columnists in their commentaries today (Friday) about the attack. Michael Paul Williams wrote in the Richmond, VA Times Dispatch: "After the latest act of terror to rock the planet, you have to ask: Why would the aliens bother to do an extermination job humans are ably achieving on their own?" Still others observed that the Londoners under attack in real life behaved far better towards one another than the selfish, angry survivors depicted in Spielberg's movie.

With most public transportation shut down in London in the wake of Thursday's attacks, most movie and legitimate theaters in the city went dark. However, a spokesperson for the Cinema Exhibitors Assn. said late in the day that, regardless of the continued transportation snarl, every effort was being made to reopen today (Friday), unless authorities asked them to remain shuttered. Movie theaters, which have been targeted by Hindu terrorists in India, may be asked to beef up their security following the attacks, perhaps randomly checking large purses and packages being carried into theaters. Meanwhile, reports indicated that the bombing is expected to increase sales and rentals of DVDs.

The six major studios -- Paramount, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Disney, Universal, and Sony -- actually took in more money from their movies in the first half of 2005 ($3.2 billion) than they did in the same period in 2004 ($2.7 billion), the online Slate magazine observed today (Friday). Although the box office declined by 7 percent overall, the magazine observed, the loss came from lower revenue for independent releases. (The independently released The Passion of the Christ and Fahrenheit 9/11 alone accounted for $500 million of last year's box office.)

Television may increasingly rely on disaster coverage by the victims themselves, judging from Thursday's news reports from the scenes of the London bombings. Jon Klein, president of CNN/US, told today's (Friday) Los Angeles Times. "These days, you just have to be in the wrong place at the right time, and you too can cover the news." Photos and video captured with third-generation cell phones by people escaping from the wreckage of London subway trains provided the first on-the-scene coverage of the disaster since London police immediately sealed off subway entrances, barring reporters and photographers from the scenes. Sandy MacIntyre, director of news for Associated Press Television News, directed his staff to ask witnesses if they had taken any pictures and quickly agreed to pay one man $250 for his video of the double-decker bus that had been hit by the bombers; likewise London TV stations asked viewers to transmit any photos of the bomb scenes to them. Independent Television News (ITN) said that it had received dozens of clips, some of them transmitted online, others delivered by hand to their studios. One ITN editor told today's (Friday) Los Angeles Times that some of the images were too gruesome to air. The BBC and ITN posted some of the amateur clips on its websites. Many of the stills and videos were also shared with U.S. networks, who had sent most of their reporters and camera crews to the G8 conference in Gleneagles, Scotland. However, only one U.S. network, ABC, aired any them during primetime. ABC's Primetime Live scrapped its usual features format and replaced it with coverage of the London attacks. (Earlier it had also scrapped its planned movie, Reign of Fire, which takes place in post-apocalyptic London, replacing it with the family comedy Big Fat Liar.). The coverage continued at 11:35 p.m. on ABC's Nightline, which included interviews with former terrorists.

The Writers Guild of America West has filed suit against the producers of eight reality shows and the four networks that aired them alleging numerous labor law violations. The shows included The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, Are You Hot? and The Real Gilligan's Island. In its complaint the guild claimed that the producers often refused to pay for overtime work, worked the writers during meal breaks and ordered them to falsify time cards so that it appeared they were working fewer hours than they actually did. One writer claimed that he received a flat weekly rate of $2,000 no matter how many hours he was required to work -- and that he routinely put in 60 hours a week.

Former Chrysler Corp. Chairman Lee Iacocca, who led a turnaround of the company in the 1980s when he appeared in TV ads telling prospective car buyers, "If you can find a better car, buy it," is returning as a Chrysler pitchman. Advertising Age reported in its online edition Thursday that a deal between Iacocca and the automaker was finalized Thursday that calls for payments being made to the Iacocca Foundation for diabetes research. Ad Age said that the spots, also featuring Jason Alexander, would begin running either on Thursday night or tonight (Friday). In them, Iacocca will reportedly revive his memorable line from the 1980s' commercials.

ABC has garnered 29 nominations (two with the Discovery Channel) for News and Documentary Emmy Awards, more than any other network. NBC received 21; History Channel, 14; and CBS, 10. Dateline NBC received 11 nods, the most for any single broadcast. Winners are due to be announced at ceremonies in New York on Sept. 19.

Taking advantage of the growing base of broadband (high-speed) Internet users, MTV Networks is launching two free video websites. One of them, Vspot, is due to begin airing today (Friday) with a telecast of The Surreal Life, which won't make its debut on MTV's VH-1 until later this month. The Viacom-owned company also disclosed that it made a "soft launch" on Friday with another new kids' Internet channel, TurboNick.

Sony has developed a new "roll-up" computer screen that could replace newspapers when it hits the market in about 2010, the New York Daily News reported today (Friday).