In theaters

WE ARE MARSHALL, directed by McG, written by Jamie Linden, 128 minutes, rated PG.

In the right hands, “We Are Marshall” could have been an insightful, moving drama about the difficulty of getting on with life in the wake of a horrific tragedy. Its studio, Warner Brothers Pictures, thought this was the case, so they sent out awards screeners to the Academy and to critics groups in hopes that votes would be favorably cast and nominations would ensue.

And they just might, though likely only for the Razzies, since what Warner has here is a cliched, predictable sports movie with cloying inspirational overtones whose mangled execution sends it to the far end of the playing field, where it drops the ball.

As directed by McG (“Charlie’s Angels”), this overly earnest, melodramatic movie follows the residents of Huntington, W.Va., after the Nov. 14, 1970, airplane crash that killed 75 people, including 37 Marshall University football players, eight of its coaches and many supporters.

The film is about a town coming to terms with those deaths and with a university president, Donald Dedmon (David Strathairn), who was forced to acknowledge that the town’s residents might be caught in a haze of mourning if he didn’t find the means to start a new team.

He did so in the face of great opposition from some members of the community, who believed that creating a new team was disrespectful of the dead, but also with great encouragement from many members of the student body, who believed that carrying on with the tradition of a football team was the only way to respect the dead.

Wary of the former but fueled by the latter, Dedmon set out to find a new coach, with his exhausting efforts leading him to Jack Lengyel, who is played by Matthew McConaughey as if the actor has been struck dumb by a brick. His dim turn as Lengyel suggests caricature, not character, a man whose unfocused, caged energy is meant to be endearingly quirky, but which really is distractingly cartoonish.

The film fares mildly better with Matthew Fox as Lengyel’s assistant coach, Red Dawson, and with Anthony Mackie as Nate Ruffin, one of the original team’s few surviving players. But working against them is a sorely miscast Strathairn, who often appears blinking and bewildered by the fate handed him, and especially Ian McShane, who is wasted in a two-dimensional role as a bitter, grieving father of one of the dead football players.

Since “We Are Marshall” only ever plays by the rules of the genre, there are no surprises here – none. It’s a movie that leans hard on its hit-heavy soundtrack of popular music and as such, it just coasts, following its rote story of how Lengyel and Dawson had to take a scrappy, underdog team and turn them into winners in spite of the odds stacked against them. Who wants to guess how that turns out?

For those interested in seeing a good, recent football movie, rent the just-released “Invincible” with Mark Wahlberg instead. That movie lifts this overdone genre in ways that “Marshall” sandbags it.

Grade: D

On DVD

THE BLACK DAHLIA, directed by Brian de Palma, written by Josh Friedman, 122 minutes, rated: R

Brian De Palma’s “The Black Dahlia” is based on the legendary Hollywood murder in which 22-year-old Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirshner) came to Tinseltown from Massachusetts in search of fame and fortune, but instead found death and dismemberment.

On Jan. 15, 1947, her life literally was cut short. In a vacant Los Angeles lot, Short’s body was found naked, bloodless and severed in half, her mouth savagely cut from ear to ear in an effort to create a sort of grinning death mask.

What Short experienced is the kind of grisly brutality that shocks even today, with questions still lingering around her death. Why was she murdered? Who did it?

Unlike the recent “Hollywoodland,” which was too timid to take a point-of-view in the death of George Reeves, “The Black Dahlia,” from James Ellroy’s book, at least comes armed with a theory. Still, it errs in that it misinterprets the underpinnings of noir, amplifying elements that should have remained nuances and turning the production into an overbearing joke.

While there are some pleasures to be had in the camp the movie courts – nobody who sees it will soon forget Fiona Shaw’s hilarious performance as the wealthy Ramona Linscott, which is startling in just how wrong it goes – it’s unlikely that unintentional laughter is what De Palma was seeking. That said, it’s nevertheless what he gets.

The film stars Josh Hartnett as former boxer-cum-detective Bucky Bleichert, who joins his partner, Lee Blanchard (Aaron Eckhart), in attempting to solve Short’s case. Together, they must work through a few issues – their mutual attraction for Kay Lake (Scarlett Johansson, weak) being one – while delving into a sordid mystery certain people don’t want solved.

Such people include the slinky bisexual Madeleine Linscott (Hilary Swank, channeling Barbara Stanwyck), a wanton femme fatale who dresses to resemble Short and who pins her secrets close to her breasts; her shady father, Emmet (John Kavanagh), who owns a revealing collection of art; and the aforementioned Ramona, whose alien-like presence would be better-suited in a movie about Roswell than Hollywood.

There are others, all of whom work to clog the unnecessarily dense script. Tin dialogue clangs throughout, with the confused plotting joining the phony performances in failing to come through. Unlike “L.A. Confidential,” which was successfully adapted from an Ellroy book, “The Black Dahlia” folds in the face of it.

Grade: C-

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening, and weekends in Television as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.

CURRENTLY IN THEATERS

Apocalypto – C

Babel – A-

Blood Diamond – C+

Bobby – C-

Borat – B+

Casino Royale – A

CHARLOTTE’S WEB – B+

Deck the Halls – C-

The Departed – A

Flags of Our Fathers – B+

Flushed Away – B+

Flyboys – C-

The Fountain – D

THE GOOD SHEPHERD – B-

A Good Year – C-

Happy Feet – A-

THE HOLIDAY – C+

Hollywoodland – C

The Illusionist – B+

The Marine – C+

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM – C+

NOTES ON A SCANDAL – B+

The Prestige – B+

PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS – B-

THE QUEEN – A-

ROCKY BALBOA – B+

Saw III – F

Shut Up & Sing – A-

VOLVER – A

WE ARE MARSHALL – D

Renting a video or a DVD? BDN film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those capped and in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Akeelah and the Bee – B+

Annapolis – C-

The Ant Bully – B+

Basic Instinct 2 – D+

Big Momma’s House 2 – D

THE BLACK DAHLIA – C-

Breakfast on Pluto – B

The Break-Up – B

Brokeback Mountain – A-

Cars – C

Cheaper by the Dozen 2 – C-

A CHRISTMAS STORY – C+

Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – A

Clerks II – B+

Click – C-

The Constant Gardener – A-

Curious George – B

Date Movie – D-

The Da Vinci Code – C+

DERAILED: HD DVD – C+

THE DESCENT DVD and Blu-Ray – B+

The Devil Wears Prada – B+

Double Indemnity – A

Failure to Launch – C-

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift – B

FLIGHTPLAN Blu-Ray – B-

Freedomland – C-

Friends with Money – B

Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties – C+

A History of Violence – A

How Art Made the World – A

THE HULK HD DVD – C-

Inside Man – B+

INVINCIBLE – B

JACKASS NUMBER TWO – B

Junebug – A

Kinky Boots – B+

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – B+

KUNG FU HUSTLE Blu-Ray – A

Last Holiday – B

The Libertine – D

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE – B+

Lucky Number Slevin – B

THE MATADOR HD DVD – B+

Match Point – A

MEET THE PARENTS HD DVD – A-

Miami Vice –

Mission Impossible III – C-

Monster House – B+

THE MUMMY HD DVD – C+

Munich – A-

MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND – A-

Nacho Libre – C

North Country – C

The Omen – B-

Over the Hedge – B

PEARL HARBOR Blu-Ray – D+

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest – B-

A Prairie Home Companion – C

Rumor Has It … – C-

SCARY MOVIE 4 HD DVD – D+

THE SCORPION KING HD DVD – B

The Shaggy Dog – C-

Shakespeare Behind Bars – A-

16 Blocks – B

Sky High – B-

Slither – B

SNAKES ON A PLANE – A-

Stay Alive – D-

Superman Returns – C+

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby – B

24: SEASON 5 – B+

United 93 – A

V for Vendetta – B+

THE WICKER MAN – BOMB

World Trade Center – A

X-Men: The Last Stand – B-

You, Me and Dupree – C-