It is the time of the Disney dogs. Just weeks after the studio scored a surprising hit with Eight Below, it returns with a remake of The Shaggy Dog, and box-office results, critics suggest, are likely to be the same. Neil Genzlinger in the New York Times gives star Tim Allen credit for turning "what could have been an obligatory revisiting into something worth seeing." Louise Kennedy in the Boston Globe agrees, writing, "It's a pleasant surprise to find a movie that genuinely pitches itself at a child's level while also giving parents some real laughs." Claudia Puig in USA Today concludes that the movie "may not make you howl, but it does offer a few bona fide belly laughs." Nevertheless, most of the major critics, while agreeing that the film is likely to attract a big family audience, spend most of their reviews growling at it. Amy Biancolli in the Houston Chronicle, for example, concludes the "Shaggy Dog is a subpar remake of a subpar movie that can only spawn subpar remakes." Jami Bernard comments in the New York Daily News: "Watching a pack of dogs sniff Tim Allen's butt -- repeatedly -- is probably someone's idea of a good time at the movies. Not mine." And Lou Lumenick in the New York Post expresses doubt that the film will even have much family appeal. "Most of the kids who stuck it out at a half-empty screening the other evening seemed at least half asleep by the end," he remarks, adding: "The Shaggy Dog is the kind of dubious 'entertainment' that is killing the idea of going out to the movies for many families."

It probably took some guts to title a film Failure to Launch. Imagine how critics could run with that title! Well, it turns out that critics are indeed using that title to predictable effect. "Failure to Launch? Is that the title or my review? Answer: yes," quipped Joel Siegel on ABC's Good Morning America."Fatally titled," Stephen Holden comments in the New York Times. Peter Howell in the Toronto Star asks, "How, exactly, did an idea with this much star power and comic potential manage to misfire?" Bob Strauss in the Los Angeles Daily News concludes: "Failure to Launch does not achieve altitude. In fact, it never gets off the ground." In fact the movie is receiving wildly mixed reviews. On the one hand, Stephen Holden in the Washington Post calls it, "one of the best American films in months and months and the best comedy since I don't know when." Chris Kaltenbach in the Baltimore Sun credits the performances of Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker. "There's comfort in seeing actors we know doing what we've come to expect them to do," he writes. "But more important, the film surrounds them with supporting characters who are less familiar to us, who act in ways we don't expect. The result is a satisfying blend that does down nice and easy." On the other hand, Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer obviously feels that it should have been blown up on the launching pad. He describes it as "apocalyptically awful" and goes on to say, "Failure to Launch represents a failure in every way: of ideas, of inspiration, of casting." Claudia Puig in USA Today is equally caustic. "This would be romantic comedy is neither," she comments. "The premise is misbegotten, the chemistry non-existent and the dialogue leaden. Did we mention how tediously the plot unfolds."

Critics are expressing massive disappointment with Robert Towne's Ask the Dust, his fourth film as a director, which is opening in limited release. (The film is based on the classic cult novel by John Fante.) Kevin Crust in the Los Angeles Times calls it, "a film of great beauty with unfulfilled promise." Glenn Whipp in the Los Angeles Daily News writes that the film is "rich on atmosphere, heavy with metaphor and short on the kind of vitality that might fix an audience's interest." Joanne Kaufman in the Wall Street Journal remarks that the film is "beautifully shot" but that the images "serve only to emphasize the emptiness of the drama unfolding in the foreground." Jami Bernard describes the film as an "atmospheric but awkward drama," adding, "The movie weds hard-boiled dialogue with over-the-top medlodrama. The result is enough to qualify for the Camp Hall of Fame."

The critics' love affair with Johnny Depp is over. Sort of. Most agree that his latest film, The Libertine, is dreadful. But some suggest that it's not unwatchable. Indeed, Ty Burr in the Boston Globe writes that of the latest batch of films opening today, "The Libertine is almost certainly the worst, and possibly the most enjoyable. Stinkers this rapturously self-assured don't come along often, and when they do, they deserve to be honored with the proper giggling disbelief." Eleanor Ringel Gillespie in the Atlanta Journal Constitution begins her review by noting that when the film opens, the cosumed Depp faces the camera and announces "You will not like me." Writes Gillespie: "Alas, it's his movie we don't like. Depp, for all his debauchery as the notorious 17th-century poet and, well, libertine, John Wilmot ... remains impossible to dislike." Also commenting on that opening line, Lisa Kennedy in the Denver Post remarks, "If by 'me' he means himself -- he doesn't, of course -- then he's wrong. Even in this minor movie ... it's hard not to admire Depp's gifts." And Michael Wilmington in the Chicago Tribune notes that in the end, the character asks "Do you like me now?" Wilmington calls it, "a cruel, mocking question in an intermittently fascinating, ometimes deeply unpleasant movie."

The MPAA disclosed Thursday that Hollywood suffered its worst year at the box office in nearly a decade -- even as marketing costs soared, especially for small films. In its annual box-office marketing report, the MPAA said that the number of admissions dropped nearly 9 percent to 1.4 billion, the lowest number since 1997. The overseas box office also fell 9 percent, according to the report. Strikingly, the report noted hat the costs of marketing small specialty films increased 33 percent, rising to $15.2 million from $11.4 million the previous year. On the other hand, the average cost to produce a movie fell 19 percent to $23.5 million.

With American Idol presenting its 12 finalists Thursday night, the talent show registered a 15.3 rating and a 24 share during the 8:00 p.m. hour, easily beating CBS's Survivor: Panama, which scored a 9.0/14. However, Fox's The O.C. was unable to retain its big lead-in audience at 9:00, drawing only a 4.9/7, and losing to CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which beat Idol as the top-rated show of the night with a whopping 16.8/26. CBS also finished the night with a 13.3/23 for Without a Trace at 10:00 p.m., more than twice the ratings of an E.R.rerun on NBC, which drew a 5.4/9.