In theaters

DREAMGIRLS, written and directed by Bill Condon, 131 minutes, rated PG-13.

Given the groundswell of hype surrounding the new Bill Condon musical “Dreamgirls,” there’s every reason to expect it to be on par with Rob Marshall’s “Chicago,” which was based on Condon’s script and which was one of 2002’s best films.

The reality, though, is somewhat different.

While “Dreamgirls” is a good movie, what’s missing is the soul that could have made it a great movie. This glittering adaptation of the long-running 1981 Broadway show has fine production values and it’s enjoyable in parts, but it isn’t memorable as a whole.

Unlike “Chicago,” for instance, or “Ray,” “Cabaret,” “Moulin Rouge,” “My Fair Lady,” “Funny Girl” or the 1954 version of “A Star is Born” with Judy Garland and James Mason, you don’t leave the film exhilarated or spent. Instead, you leave it feeling somewhat ambivalent, with one major exception – Jennifer Hudson, who gives the film’s best, most heartfelt performance as Effie White, the brassy member of the 1960s girl group the Dreams, itself a thinly veiled version of the Supremes.

Though Hudson falls short in those scenes where her lip-sync is distractingly out of sync, her undeniable talent and powerful voice nevertheless pummel through the movie in ways that give it a generous lift.

An “American Idol” castaway now enjoying her heyday, Hudson may be the film’s novice actor, but she steals each scene she’s in, deftly bulldozing over her seasoned co-stars with a rawness and a confidence that’s magnificent to behold. Her star isn’t just born here, it’s sent over the moon and we’re all better for it.

As you’d expect, her defining moment comes when she sings the powerhouse ballad “And I Am Telling You (I’m Not Going),” which was made famous by the great Jennifer Holliday and which Hudson does proud in an extended sequence that proves the movie’s highlight and the story’s turning point.

Just before she sings it, Hudson’s Effie was ousted from the Dreams, which includes singers Lorrell Robinson (Anika Noni Rose) and her unexpected rival, Deena Jones (Beyonce Knowles, beautiful yet slight). Effie’s trouble is that she’s considered trouble, a diva with a self-destructive attitude that might bring down the group just as they’re on the cusp of stardom.

Worse for her is that her lover and the group’s manager Curtis Taylor Jr. (Jamie Foxx, coasting) believes Effie is too ethnic for a country divided by the civil rights movement. And so, by turning his back on her by championing the thinner, more white-friendly Deena as the new star of the group, he essentially has turned his back on his own race.

All of this could have made for a revealing, powerful film about how blacks were treated in the music industry during the 1960s and ’70s – and how they had to strategize to be successful – but it doesn’t.

Instead, Condon (“Kinsey,” “Gods and Monsters”) goes for the glitz, the glamour and the infighting, which generates its share of energy but no depth.

Working hard in a subplot is Eddie Murphy as James “Thunder” Early, a James Brown-like entertainer who is on fire as the movie begins, yet whose collapse into disillusionment and drug addiction becomes disappointingly flat when the industry turns against him. The flatness isn’t Murphy’s fault – he’s good here, particularly in early scenes – but a fault of the script, which doesn’t allow the actor to have his moment the way it absolutely allows Hudson to have hers.

Grade: B

On DVD

THE DESCENT, written and directed by Neil Marshall, 99 minutes, rated R.

Neil Marshall’s “The Descent” follows six women who regroup a year after tragedy leaves one of the women, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), nearly destitute.

Their new outing, designed by the adventure-seeking Juno (Natalie Mendoza), is meant to bring the women closer and put the steel back into their backbones. As such, what Juno suggests is a formidable challenge not without its risks – they will travel to the Appalachian Mountains and traverse a tricky, little-known cave system previously unclaimed by humans. The idea is that, should they succeed, it will put them firmly back on track as a team while lifting everyone’s self-esteem in the process.

Naturally, stumbling blocks abound. First, the tunnels that wend through the cave are unnervingly claustrophobic, so much so that bums tend to get stuck and anxiety attacks tend to strike when entrances start to crumble. Second, the cave already has been claimed, though not by humans.

Look beyond the stalagmites. Leaping amid them and eager for fresh meat are an amphibious race of blood-sucking beasts who appear to have been poached beyond the boiling point. They can’t see, but their other senses are acute – and they’re just as aggressive and as hungry as the six women they’re about to be pitted against.

At my screening last August, when the movie really started to cook, you’d swear that those monsters had been unleashed within the theater – at several points, when the best jolts were let loose, the place came alive with genuine shrieks of delighted fright.

That was nice to see, particularly since the modern-day horror movie has become more interested in the less-interesting, base elements of joyless slaughter, degradation and humiliation (“Hostel,” the “Saw” series, etc.) than in generating the sort of suspense and over-the-top gore that likely would have appealed to, say, a young Sam Raimi. While none of the actresses leave much of a mark here, they nevertheless are served by a skilled director who isn’t afraid to play with the conventions of the genre while also taking it seriously.

That’s one of the reasons this British horror movie is as good as it is. It borrows, it pilfers and yet somehow, it’s its own.

Grade: B+

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.

The Video-DVD Corner

Renting a video or a DVD? BDN film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those 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-

Bulletproof Monk (Blu-Ray) – D

Cars – C

Cheaper by the Dozen 2 – C-

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

Clerks II – B+

Click – C-

The Constant Gardener – A-

Crank – B+

Curious George – B

Date Movie – D-

The Da Vinci Code – C+

The Descent – B+

The Devil Wears Prada – B+

Double Indemnity – A

Failure to Launch – C-

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift – 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 Illusionist – B+

Inside Man – B+

Invincible – B

Jackass Number Two – B

Junebug – A

Kinky Boots – B+

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – B+

Last Holiday – B

The Libertine – D

Little Miss Sunshine – B+

Lucky Number Slevin – B

Match Point – A

Miami Vice – C

Mission Impossible III – C-

Monster House – B+

Munich – A-

My Super Ex-Girlfriend – A-

Nacho Libre – C

North Country – C

The Omen – B-

Over the Hedge – B

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

A Prairie Home Companion – C

Rumor Has It… – 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

Transporter 2 (Blu-Ray) – 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-