PICKS & PANS

This week's reviews: 'Mr. Deeds,' Rush, 'Dog Eat Dog'

(PEOPLE) -- This week, PEOPLE.COM looks at the film "Mr. Deeds," Rush's "Vapor Trails," and "Dog Eat Dog" on NBC.

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Movie review: 'Mr Deeds'

Tabloid TV producer Winona Ryder wants to make Adam Sandler a star for all the wrong reasons in "Mr. Deeds," a junky comedy.

A sloppy comedy about a small-town rube who inherits $40 billion and moves to Manhattan, "Mr. Deeds" may please devoted fans of Adam Sandler's slap-happy brand of comedy. But it won't win over any converts.

Sandler specializes in playing men who seem half-formed; one isn't sure if they're missing marbles or simply have a lot of growing up to do. Longfellow Deeds, his character in "Mr. Deeds," is no exception. The owner of a pizzeria in a New Hampshire burg, he spends his off-hours writing greeting-card verse. (Sample: "I promise to love you 50 years more, even when your bosom drags down to the floor.") Upon inheriting control of a global corporation from a distant relative, Deeds heads to the Big Apple, where conniving corporate bigwigs try to fleece him, sophisticated swells patronize him, and a comely TV journalist (Winona Ryder) cozies up to him only to ridicule him on the air.

A remake of 1936's "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," a dandy screwball comedy directed by Frank Capra and starring Gary Cooper, this "Deeds" fails to improve upon the original. And what's with the newly added sadistic streak? "Deeds" now whups all comers to the accompaniment of bone-crushing sound effects. Sandler's appeal, such as it is, continues to be his slob-next-door ordinariness; if this guy can be a movie star, so can your neighbor Melvin. Ryder tries hard to get in the wacky swing of things but seems distinctly uncomfortable, drawing back as if from a bad smell. "Deeds" marks the second effort by Sandler and director Steven Brill, who last teamed on the woeful "Little Nicky" (2000). Between "Nicky" and "Deeds," it's clear that pairing two decidedly minor talents does not add up to a greater whole. (PG-13)

Bottom line: Mis-deeds

Music review: 'Vapor Trails'

Rush (Anthem/Atlantic)

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Now for the world's smallest "Jeopardy!" categories: Hugh Grant Westerns, J.D. Salinger appearances on TRL, intellectual metal bands. Rush may be the sole claimant to that last title, but even if they still rattle and stimulate the brain with as much crash-thump voltage as ever following a six-year break from recording, their newest hooks don't match their best.

Lyricist/drummer Neil Peart, who lost his 19-year-old daughter in 1997 (in a car accident) and his wife a year later (to cancer), has turned from futurist social commentary to personal yearning and nature images; those menacing synthesizers are gone too. On vocals, Geddy Lee has shed some of his skyscraping upper levels (now his voice is no higher than, say, Sheryl Crow's). This is stripped, hard stuff with plenty of musicianship but no must-have tracks.

Bottom line: Straightforward trail

TV review: 'Dog Eat Dog'

NBC (Mondays, 9 p.m. ET)

An extreme game show that combines elements of "Survivor," "Weakest Link" and "Fear Factor," "Dog Eat Dog" just lies there, misproportioned and inert, like a Frankenstein that starts at the top with Anne Robinson's head and ends with Jeff Probst's socks and hiking boots.

Six contestants, vying for a $25,000 prize, first get acquainted in some sort of day-long boot camp (shown to us only in brief glimpses), where they assess each other's aptitude for trivia and physical skill. Once on the set, a cavern of blue steel that looks like the Batcave redone as a fitness club, they thin their ranks with brief endurance challenges involving balancing, climbing, swimming and so on. In a final trivia round the contestants (at least in the first two shows) all but collapse under the strain of having to exercise their brains. Even under the gun would you guess that Secretary of State Colin Powell has already done stints as President and Vice President?

The one half-decent thing here is the game's host, former "Baywatch" babe Brooke Burns. Smooth, shapely and blonde, she keeps the activities moving along with the smiling efficiency of a laboratory assistant who hasn't been informed that the experiment has already failed.

Bottom line: Junkyard dog