Kyle Smith's review in the New York Post of Pride, about black competitive swimmers in the '70s and their coach (Terrence Howard), is headlined "Diff'rent Strokes," which pretty well sums up the movie in two words. Most other critics use a few more words, but their reviews remain rather terse. Perhaps it's because they've all seen versions of the same movie before. As Jan Stuart writes in Newsday: "There comes a time in the career of every leading man when he is called upon to play a coach in an inspirational sports drama. Despite their true-life origins, these McSport movies have less in common with genuine athletic events than with jigsaw puzzles that have been cut into square, magnetized pieces that snap into place as soon as they drop out of the box." Similar words drop out of other critics' boxes. "The trouble with Pride is that it sticks so close to the sports-movie playbook that it never comes alive," comments Jason Anderson in the Toronto Globe and Mail. Nevertheless, Howard receives plenty of praise for his performance as Philadelphia swim coach Jim Ellis. Writes Glen Whipp in the Los Angeles Daily News: "Howard's work rescues a movie that, from what I can gather from interviews with Ellis, is a complete work of fiction." Or as Michael Phillips remarks in the Chicago Tribune: "Out of a foamy sea of inspirational-sports-film clichés, Terrence Howard pulls Pride to safety."

As with Pride, it's performance that seems to count most among critics in their consideration of Reign Over Me -- in this case, the performances of Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler. A.O. Scott in the New York Times calls Cheadle's "flawlessly understated and intensely interesting." As for Sandler's characterization, Scott says, "It is the kind of role that tries to force you to see a familiar performer in a radical new light." Together, the two actors make an impressive force, the critics suggest. "The chemistry between Sandler and Don Cheadle keeps us engaged," comments Claudia Puig in USA Today. "Reign is a triumph for Cheadle and Sandler, whose performances strew the seeds of regeneration," says Carrie Rickey in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Clearly, however, Sandler, who has been on the receiving end of more than a fair share of potshots from critics, has made a strong impression on critics. "Cheadle is good, as always, but Sandler's portrayal of a guy on the perennial brink of a psychotic breakdown is amazing," says Jack Mathews in the New York Daily News.

Critics have concluded that Mark Wahlberg's performance in Shooter will likely be a crowd pleaser. Most of them, however, have reservations about it, despite the fact that one of their own, Washington Post movie critic Stephen Hunter, wrote the novel on which the movie is based. "Hunter certainly won't review Shooter himself, but I suspect he'd be honest enough to give the movie what it deserves: a middling endorsement," remarks Michael Booth in the Denver Post. In fact, Scott Eyman, who did review the movie in that newspaper, gave it just that.) Comments Kyle Smith in the New York Post: "Though the movie has some mild pretensions to rank with great paranoia films like Three Days of the Condor, mostly it's content to deliver Salisbury steak-and-mashed-potatoes action, with lots of thunking of ammo." Similarly, Kenneth Turan writes in the Los Angeles Times: "Shooter has its pro forma, paint-by-numbers elements, but it is executed with such efficiency and energy by action maestro Antoine Fuqua, that ignoring flaws and becoming involved in the proceedings isn't a matter of choice."

Judging from the reviews, The Last Mimzy ought to be welcomed by parents, even if the film is otherwise unappreciated by critics. Comments Eleanor Ringel Gillespie in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "On its own lightweight terms, The Last Mimzy is a small gem." Jeannette Catsoulis in the New York Times calls it "overstuffed yet warmhearted ... a wholesome, eager entertainment." Peter Howell in the Toronto Star credits New Line Cinema co-founder Robert Shaye, who directed the movie, for turning out "a modest children's fantasy that holds the attention without severing limbs or shattering eardrums. It also imparts a useful message about life and saving the Earth, not at all a bad thing for these fractious times." And Nancy Churnin in the Dallas Morning News praises it as "a brave, well-acted little film staking all on a belief that kids will value a good story more than familiarity."

The revelation that Andrés Martinez, the editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times, who had selected producer Brian Grazer as a "guest editor," was involved in a romantic relationship with a publicist for the PR firm representing Grazer led Thursday to Martinez's resignation. Martinez had selected Grazer to edit a special edition of this Sunday's "Current," an opinion section. Publisher David Hiller canceled the section and issued a statement Thursday night saying that although the newspaper did not believe that Martinez's relationship with publicist Kelly Mullens played a part in the selection of Grazer, the Times had decided to cancel the section "to avoid even the appearance of conflict." Martinez promptly resigned, announcing his decision on a blog on the newspaper's website, saying that Hiller's decision made his continued role at the Times "untenable" and amounted to "a vote of no confidence." He further lashed out at colleagues at the newspaper, who had shone a light on the matter. "In trying to keep up with the blogosphere, and boasting about their ability to go after their own, navel-gazing newsrooms run the risk of becoming parodies of themselves," he commented. (Daily Variety pointed out that "the blogosphere" was "the very forum he was using" to denounce the decision. Martinez also charged that canceling the section had been an overreaction. "There's a perception that Hiller is trying to suck up to Hollywood and advertisers," he wrote. Today's (Friday) New York Times quoted unnamed people close to Grazer as saying that he had been "humiliated by the outcome."

For the second time in two weeks, the recently launched Politico.com website, which has partnered with CBS News for political coverage, has found itself having to backtrack after issuing what appeared to be poorly sourced reports. On Thursday, it reported that Sen. John Edwards had decided to suspend his presidential campaign after learning that his wife had been diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer. The report was quickly picked up by other media outlets before it was quashed by Edwards himself, who declared, "The campaign goes on. The campaign goes on strongly." The writer of the original Politico.com article, Ben Smith, quickly posted a message titled "Getting It Wrong," and apologized for not getting a second source for his story. On the CBS blog Public Eye, CBSNews.com political editor, which ran the story as its lead, commented, "While The Politico is an editorial partner of CBSNews.com, we should not have run breaking news of this nature that had not been independently verified by CBS News and will be careful not do so in the future." Only last week, the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric led off with a report by correspondent Jim Axelrod that "our partners at Politico.com" were predicting that "it is inevitable that [Attorney General Alberto] Gonzalez will be fired" and that "officials at the request of the White House have begun interviewing successors." In a commentary posted on the Columbia Journalism Review's website, writer Gal Beckerman observed, "The bigger problem has to do with the Internet itself. By giving the impression that everything is immediately correctable, it lowers accountability, making it seem okay to take risks -- like basing a story on one source. If a website like Politico wants to be taken seriously, it has to live by the same rigorous standards that most news organizations live and die by."

As usual, ESPN dominated nominations for Sports Emmy Awards announced Thursday by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. ESPN received 26 nominations, but NBC, thanks in large part to its coverage of the 20th annual Winter Olympics, was close behind with 24 nods. HBO came in third with 16 nominations (five of them for Real Sports With Bryan Gumbel), followed by CBS with 14, Fox with 13, and ABC with 10. Winners are due to be announced at ceremonies in New York on April 30.

ABC News President David Westin has acknowledged that when Katie Couric took over as anchor of the CBS Evening News at about the same time that Charles Gibson took over the reins of ABC's World News, he tried to prepare his news staff for at least a temporary drop in ratings. "I said, 'We will suffer because of this [Couric's debut], our ratings will go down. Be prepared for several months of this.' I was wrong," Westin told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In fact, the opposite occurred. Gibson, the newspaper observed, "finds himself headlining one of the more intriguing comeback stories going," as his program has taken the lead in the evening news competition. Professor Robert Thompson, who comments on popular culture at Syracuse University, noted that at first all eyes were on Couric. "Then before you knew it, ABC seemed to inhabit this territory that network news seems completely unable to conquer, which is 'America's newscast.'"

Three Internet activist groups have sued Viacom, charging that it improperly forced YouTube to delete a clip from Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. MoveOn.org, Civic Action, and Brave New Films claimed that posting of the clip was protected under "fair use" rules of copyright law. Earlier this month, Viacom, the parent company of Comedy Central, demanded that YouTube remove 150,000 clips of shows and movies for which it holds the copyrights and sued the website for $1 billion. However, a Viacom attorney, Michael Fricklas, responded to the suit by denying that the company had asked that the clip be removed. The Associated Press quoted from a letter that Fricklas sent to the plaintiffs, saying "Viacom has no problem with your client's continued use of [the clip] on its website or on YouTube."

In an apparent effort to prevent ABC's Dancing With the Stars from bringing down House, Fox next Tuesday will extend American Idol seven minutes, thereby competing against Dancing during the overrun. Although Fox said that House will not be shortened because of the overrun, it was not clear whether the drama would run past 10:00 p.m., when local programming takes over on Fox stations, whether seven minutes of commercials would be deleted, or whether a tighter script has been shot for House. In any case, viewers planning to watch one show while automatically TiVoing the other would be advised to adjust their digital recorders accordingly.

Viacom-owned pay-TV channel Showtime announced Thursday that it has posted the first two episodes of its upcoming period drama The Tudors on the video website Brightcove, a YouTube rival. The episodes will be available for viewing even before they air on the Showtime channel.