Right before the Academy Awards on Sunday, a rush of disappointing movies is being released. Great directors and great actors just aren’t living up to their potential but there are bright spots, sort of.

Vantage Point

The president has been killed. Who did it? There are eight viewpoints of the situation, so whose is right? Starring Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox of Lost as FBI agents trying to solve the case, and directing credits by Pete Travis, it is has everything a movie needs to succeed. Too bad it’s slow and generally mediocre work from an all-star cast.

“Alas, this well-crafted terrorist plot is sandwiched between two terrible acts, making for the kind of movie that you should walk into late and sneak out of early,” MSNBC said.

Be Kind Rewind

Jack Black, Danny Glover and Mos Def star in this film directed by Michel Gondry, the man behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep.

Premise: In this Michel Gondry-directed flick, Jack Black’s head gets magnetized and erases all the videos in Mos Def’s movie store. They recreate the movies themselves on slightly lower-than-original budgets. Jack Black is awesome in it; everything else, a little less so.

“For all of Gondry’s undeniable talent, it would be hard to imagine him pulling off this delicate and even cornball conceit without his star, Jack Black,” said Kik Honeycutt of Hollywood Reporter.

Charlie Bartlett

It’s another screw the man teen flick with a likable lead and the sale of prescription drugs. “I would classify Charlie Bartlett as a smart teen film. It’s more ambitious and overall more successful than its ’80s forebears even though the resemblance is unmistakable,” Reelviews said.

There was a prescreening of this baby by A&O on Feb. 11. It’s supposed to be alright.

Witless Protection

It’s going to be bad, really bad, but you knew that already. Larry the Cable Guy stars as a small town sheriff who gets involved in an FBI case. Obviously, he’s completely unequipped. Something along the lines of hilarity (more like nauseating slap-stick?) ensues. Jenny McCarthy is in it too.

Witless Protection is going to be a really bad movie … too bad it’s going to make tons of money at the box office, just like all the other Larry the Cable Guy movies.