WHITFIELD: All right. Let's talk some movies, shall we? Harrison Ford is back in movie theaters this weekend taking on the role of a medical researcher. If you think that's odd, pro-wrestler turned actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is playing "The Tooth Fairy."

Ben Mankiewicz, host of "Turner Classic Movies" is playing himself in Los Angeles. Good to see you. Let's talk movies this weekend. And let's talk about the first one, "Extraordinary Measures." Before we talk, let's look and listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We push ourselves. We work around the clock.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I already work around the clock!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your clear diseases in theory but never helped a single human being in reality.

(INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't cure your kid, you know that. I think I can save lives.

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WHITFIELD: Harrison Ford, he can read a phone book and I'm always a fan. What did you think? BEN MANKIEWICZ, HOST, "TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES": Well, you know it's interesting, a lot of my friends had the same reaction when watching the trailers for this movie, Fredricka. It looked like a made-for-TV movie. Interestingly enough it turns out it's from CBS Films and it feels like a made-for-TV movie -

WHITFIELD: Are you dissing it?

MANKIEWICZ: I'm half dissing it. You never let me -. Let me - sort of dissing.

WHITFIELD: I'm reading your tone.

MANKIEWICZ: Well, you're correct in reading my tone. It is a bunch of sort of one-note performances. That's really what the script called for from Brendan Fraser and from Harrison Ford. Keri Russell is also in it. He plays a father, Brandon Fraser. He is a biotech executive. He has got two kids with this terrible disease that sort of attacks the muscles. He wants Harrison Ford to come up with a cure to save a bunch of children and also to help his kids. It's sort of their struggle throughout.

It does feel like a made-for-TV movie. It's very cliche, very one note. In the end though it's sort of hopeful and Harrison Ford is unquestionably likable. I'm giving it a C. It's OK. There's not much else out there but it is exactly what you expect it to be.

WHITFIELD: OK. Well, it's made for TV or - yes, sort of made for TV like than perhaps you will give it an "A" if it comes out on DVD. Because you know sometimes -

MANKIEWICZ: Fredricka, you and I were made for TV. I'm not knocking that.

WHITFIELD: That's all right. Here we are. OK. Let's talk about "Tooth Fairy" now. "The Rock" is in it. You know, he seems to like some of these kind of funny, cute movies that kids like.

MANKIEWICZ: Yes, these family comedies.

WHITFIELD: He's really thinking about - yes, he's thinking about his family as he's going out on a limb on some of these. But maybe we should watch and listen.

MANKIEWICZ: Let's watch and listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jonathan, the incisor, what a hit and the tooth fairy had struck again.

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WHITFIELD: Is it cute, something to smile about?

MANKIEWICZ: Well, I know you have a - WHITFIELD: You don't like it. I know.

MANKIEWICZ: Hang on. Wait a minute. I took my five-year-old godson, Owen Sure, the cutest child in America -

WHITFIELD: Of course.

MANKIEWICZ: I took him to see this movie, and I think he was a little bit bored. He's five. And I think eight-year-olds will find this a little stupid. So it's a pretty small audience here for this movie. It's not terribly funny. Although it does pit "The Rock" on screen with Julie Andrews.

WHITFIELD: I know.

MANKIEWICZ: That was an inevitable pairing. I mean, it was only a matter of time. You know, it's OK. You know, it's not OK. It's a very silly script. It doesn't give "The Rock" an opportunity to be charming and he is capable of being charming. There is really not much bite to it. I don't even think kids will love it. I think it's dull. It's plotting - it's one joke. It's "The Rock" in that fairy outfit as the tooth fairy learning that you shouldn't kill people's dreams.

I gave it a D-minus. I considered an "F." It's not great. It's not great. I'm sorry. I like "The Rock." I like Duane Johnson and I like Julie Andrews and I'm glad they're together, finally.

WHITFIELD: OK. Let's see if we can get a better grade out of the next one.

MANKIEWICZ: OK.

WHITFIELD: Not really a new release, but, you know, it's still kind of new. "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans."

MANKIEWICZ: Well, yes, this is a Werner Herzog film that came out in November. And the reason I wanted to include it this weekend was because, one, there's not a lot of great stuff out there. And then secondly, you know, few people saw it. It came out at a time when all of those sort of fall blockbusters came out on into December.

And I think this movie got lost in the shuffle. This is Nicolas Cage as a cop in New Orleans. You see him there around Katrina. He's sort of a hero cop. He saves somebody around Katrina. But in the process injured his back and gets hooked on painkillers and then he sort of - and then there's sort of - he falls into worse and becomes heroin, it becomes crack cocaine.

He starts trading to use trading sex for police favors, much like the Abel Ferrara (ph) in 1982 movie, which Werner Herzog claims this is not a remake or sequel to but it is remarkably similar about a police officer's sort of descent into his own personal hell. Nicolas Cage is outstanding at this. This is movie is actually fairly funny at points (INAUDIBLE).

WHITFIELD: He's really good at the green kind of characters.

MANKIEWICZ: He's phenomenal here. You know, the awards, the Oscar nominations come out February 2nd. I doubt very seriously he will get an award. He should. He's sensational in it. This is a good, interesting, tense, dramatic, funny, as I mentioned, movie. Difficult to watch at times. And Eva Mendes is in it and who doesn't want to look at Eva Mendes. And if you think Eva Mendes is only a pretty face (INAUDIBLE) -

WHITFIELD: Aha, so now we're at the root of it. And so now you're giving it a good grade.

MANKIEWICZ: No, the root of it is Nic Cage but I do like Eva Mendes. I think this is (INAUDIBLE) and I love her on Herzog.

WHITFIELD: What was your letter grade on this one?

MANKIEWICZ: A-minus. It's really good.

WHITFIELD: That's impressive.

MANKIEWICZ: Really good. (INAUDIBLE)

WHITFIELD: What?

MANKIEWICZ: I'm just saying fine. It may not be in your main theatre but you should find "Bad Lieutenant."

WHITFIELD: We got a few seconds left for some DVD releases.

MANKIEWICZ: Yes.

WHITFIELD: One a tribute to the late king of pop. We're talking "This is It." Was it it and is it it, for you?

MANKIEWICZ: Well, I mean, it's interesting and the notion that sort of Michael Jackson in the weeks before his death was ill and infirmed and weak, this movie will change your opinion of that.

WHITFIELD: Yes, it defies all of that.

MANKIEWICZ: This guy is moving and he is performing and regardless of what you think of him personally, if you care about the contribution he made to popular music, it's probably worth seeing. It's an interesting movie. It's just a performance video but it's interesting.

WHITFIELD: I did check that out and I thought it was compelling. "The Gamer," real quick, "The Gamer"? That's a DVD -

MANKIEWICZ: Not quite as compelling.

WHITFIELD: You're not game.

MANKIEWICZ: This is a Gerard Butler and this movie is nothing more than a pitch meeting - what if we had video games where you control real people so they could really kill each other, wouldn't that be fascinating? But it doesn't progress beyond that four-second pitch meeting. It is without a degree of tension, without a degree of narrative. This is a terrible movie. This makes the "Tooth Fairy" look like an Academy Award winner.

WHITFIELD: You kill me.

MANKIEWICZ: If there is such a thing and if you could ever give an F- minus to a movie, I give it to "Gamer."

WHITFIELD: Oh, man, that is harsh.

MANKIEWICZ: Sorry.

WHITFIELD: OK. Call it as you see it.

MANKIEWICZ: "This is It" and "Bad Lieutenant" are worth seeing.

WHITFIELD: OK. I like that, two out of five. Good.

MANKIEWICZ: Two out of five, not bad.

WHITFIELD: Ben, good to see you. Enjoy L.A., stay dry while you can.

MANKIEWICZ: Thank you very much, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much. Much more straight ahead, right after this.

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