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Many call Chicken Little the worst Disney animated film. I disagree. I’d rather watch this over Mulan 2 or The Wild. That's not to say this film is good. There’s not much going on story-wise, it’s never funny and the soundtrack alternates between dated and irritating.

You know the story of Chicken Little right? About the dumb bird who sat beneath a tree, felt an acorn fall onto its head, and, thinking it was a piece of the sky, got all of the other animals of the barnyard riled up for nothing? This film picks up after the embarrassing incident. Chicken Little (Zach Braff) is constantly ridiculed for his mistake. But what if he didn’t make a mistake? What if a piece of the sky DID fall on his head... because the sky is teeming with flying saucers equipped with advanced chameleon-like technology?!

This film's stretching it big time. This 81-minute plot could've been resolved in a standard episode of a television series. Before Chicken Little and his friends Runt of the Litter (Steve Zahn), Fish out of Water (Da Molina), and The Ugly Duckling (Joan Cusack) discover the aliens we have to sit through 45 minutes of nothing. Chicken Little dodges bullies, introduces us to his acquaintances and then the extraterrestrial business comes out of nowhere. There’s no buildup or clues. It’s like the pilot of a television series, and then a random episode where Martians show up.

At first, your hopes are raised. Chicken Little is resourceful and clever, and you feel for him. These characteristics do not lead to anything. Although the aliens look pretty cool (they're stand-ins for the “War of the Worlds” tripods) they're not interesting either. Nothing but standard invaders who show up and start tearing up the place. Considering the ending, their actions make no sense.

When you have a weak story and a hero the audience will be disappointed with, you need to up your game, give us something extra. This is where things start tumbling out of the sky. We get two characters who speak entirely in catchphrases and only appear to produce “funny” reaction shots. Other characters like The Runt of the Litter provides exactly one joke repeated over and over (he’s fat! He likes to eat! We get it).

You'll find a few clever gags here and there. A magazine called “Cowsmoopolitan” or a background sight gag if you look hard. The stuff front and center? It'll make you wince. Almost as much as the soundtrack. You could fill your entire “2000’s music BINGO” card watching Chicken Little. Barenaked Ladies, Five for Fighting, R.E.M., and a host of other hits that haven't been hits since 1977. Needless to say, it culminates in a scene in which everyone dances to a pop song. It worked in "Shrek" and then hardly ever since.

Chicken Little looks great and initially, it'll have you interested. The longer it goes, the thinner your patience gets. The constant references to better films (Men in Black, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Signs, Alien and several other sci-fi alien flicks) won't amuse you. None of the jokes will. Combined with the weak story and numerous plot points that it seemed no one put any thought into (the "love plot" with The Runt of the Litter, for example), you've got a movie that would've been dismissed upon release and then completely forgotten soon after... if it didn't have the Disney name attached to it. (On DVD, April 28, 2015)

No matter who you are, you'll relate to A League of Their Own. It's funny and dramatic, with great, quotable lines, and terrific performances. It's a crowd-pleaser, a movie you'll look back upon fondly right away.

In 1943, every young able-bodied men have left for Europe to fight the war. To keep the profits coming to the team owners and to give the people some entertainment, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) is created. The film chronicles the rise of the Rockford Peaches. Nobody respects them, not the least bit their washout of a coach Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks). But their star player Dorothy "Dottie" Hinson (Geena Davis) has what it takes to take them to the top, and make this league something to be taken seriously.

Right away, you'll latch onto the characters. These women want to be taken seriously as athletes They play for real. Sliding, hitting, giving it their all every single time. But this movie is not a gender-swapped selection of cliches. They aren’t a collection of underdogs just waiting to get their big break so they can go out and change the world. They're real people, products of their time. As soon as their husbands come back from the war, they’re going to head right back into the kitchen, ready to cook and raise the kids as if their time on the field never happened. It mixes the exhilaration you feel as they rise through the ranks with melancholy. They don’t realize how big of an impact they are going to have and you wonder what if...

You don't expect to find great conversation-starters out of sports movie but A League of Their Own has plenty. The players are not taken seriously because of their gender. To get attention, they have to be feminine and sexy. To be seen as legitimate, they have to try twice as hard as their male counterparts and shatter away the expectations placed on them. There is a lot of emotion in this movie on the screen as these women have to confront big ideas. There's even more going on in YOUR head. You wonder what you would do, or how you would react if placed in their shoes.

That would be plenty to keep you entertained, but there’s more. This is also a great sports movie. It’s a case of the ultimate underdogs. The coach doesn’t even believe in them. They have to prove themselves to EVERYONE. Their families, their teammates, to the world that is hesitant to fill baseball stadium to watch a bunch of ladies play, even to themselves. Baseball may not necessarily be what I would call an interesting sport to watch but here, I was gnawing on my fingernails. The way Hans Zimmer’s score was pounding in my ears (or was that my heartbeat?) during the final game, the uncertainty of who was going to win (because the movie does a great job keeping you guessing). It felt as real as a live event. My only criticism if I had to find one is that some of the baseball game montages do run on a bit long. It's worth seeing just to get a look at Tom Hanks playing a jerk. He's great at it too!

Even if you don’t like baseball, catch A League of Their Own. You easily latch onto the characters, the casting is immaculate (particularly in the before/after scenes) and it chronicles a chapter in sports history that’s worth telling. The movie makes you feel good and makes you think too. It only gets better if you can watch it with a crowd and discuss it afterward. (On DVD, March 6, 2015)