Below are Mini Reviews from Cineman Syndicate for three films opening on October 3, 2008.

BLINDNESS. Expectations are high considering director Meirelles has City of God and The Constant Gardener under his belt and now brings Nobel Prize-winner Jose Saramago's novel to the screen. Unfortunately, this silly attempt at deep cinema merely amounts to a pretentious zombie flick. An epidemic of sudden blindness strikes denizens of a multicultural city. The only person immune to the contagion is the doting wife (Julianne Moore) of an ophthalmologist (Mark Ruffalo), who behaves like Florence Nightingale when the government quarantines victims in an abandoned asylum. Is her humanity sufficient to combat an outbreak of beastly behavior? Audience members will wish for a two-hour bout of sightlessness. (R) BORING DRAMA. Director -Fernando Meirelles; Lead - Julianne Moore; Running Time - 121 minutes. Capsule review by John P. McCarthy

FLASH OF GENIUS. A slightly peculiar David takes on a corporate Goliath in a bittersweet tale about sacrifice and perseverance that resists being sugarcoated or gussied-up. The drab, fact-based movie has the integrity of its borderline crackpot hero Robert Kearns (an ideally cast Greg Kinnear), the Detroit professor of electrical engineering who invented the first workable intermittent windshield wiper in the early 1960s, only to have his design appropriated by the automobile industry. The filmmakers don't find an exciting or original way to convey his Sisyphean struggle, but they stay true to their man and resist selling out -- qualities you'll find more admirable in retrospect than while you're watching. (PG-13) FAIR DRAMA. Director - Marc Abraham; Lead - Greg Kinnear; Running Time -120 minutes. Capsule review by John P. McCarthy.

HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS & ALIENATE PEOPLE. How does a filmmaker lose respect and alienate moviegoers? If you're Robert B. Weide adapting Toby Young's best-selling book, you hire Simon Pegg to play piggish Brit Sidney Young, an incompetent entertainment reporter who receives a job offer to cover Hollywood's elite for a Gotham rag. Then you cast Kirsten Dunst as his unlikely love interest. Finally, you somehow lure respectable actors like Jeff Bridges, Miriam Margolyes, Danny Huston and Bill Paterson for supporting roles. Asking thespians such as these to rescue tasteless, imbecilic dreck such as this is the equivalent of expecting four nails to hold together a house. (R) POOR COMEDY. Director - Robert B. Weide; Lead - Simon Pegg; Running Time - 118 mins. Capsule review by Sean O'Connell.

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