Local residents on the high-honors list include Rachel Innis, Katelyn Pietraszak, Andrew Price, Ashley Ritter and Carol Smith, all of Elburn; Ashley Girard, Matthew Lee and Philip Roberg, all of Maple Park; and Jenna Bergman, Ashley Christman, Megan Cinto and Justin Garlinsky, all of Sugar Grove.

Local residents on the regular honors list include Lindsay Hansen and Charlene Walker, both of Elburn; and Eleni Ajazi, Megan Allen, Shqiponja Ashiku, Daniel Bieritz, Elizabeth Marsh, Catherine Pauls, Amanda Smith and Colleen Stone, all of Sugar Grove.

The high-honors list recognizes students who attain a 4.0 grade-point average. The regular honors list recognizes students who achieve a 3.6 to 3.99 GPA.

John Devitt and Richard Hajduk, both of Elburn, graduated.

The award is presented to an EIU junior or senior majoring in journalism that has been involved significantly in the sports journalism department at the Daily Eastern News.

Murphy is a 2006 Kaneland High School graduate.

DRAG ME TO HELL
Rating: PG-13, Horror
Lead: Alison Lohman
Director: Dam Raimi
Run time: 96 minutes
Sam Raimi gets back to basics with this comic-horror yarn cast in the mold of his “Evil Dead” trilogy. When a loan officer refuses to give an elderly gypsy woman an extension on her mortgage payments, she finds herself cursed, destined to take a one-way trip to Hades in three days. The ensuing madness is of a feverish sort, with Raimi assuredly barreling from one creepy-amusing scenario to the next. By pivoting the story around fiscal solvency and the greed that drives the financial industry, he jolts the film with a measure of hot-button relevance that complicates sympathy for his seemingly doomed protagonist.

UP
Rating: PG, Adventure
Lead: Ed Asner
Director: Pete Docter
Run time: 90 minutes
Arguably the best storytellers in the business, the gang at Pixar Studios offers their second brilliant movie in a row following last summer’s “WALL•E.” The exploits of a grumpy widower (voiced by Ed Asner) and an eager eight-year-old might sound routine, but in the hands of director Docter (“Monsters, Inc.”) and company they become incredibly entertaining, able to put the whole family in a state of rapture punctuated by frequent laughter. The intrepid flick ventures to South America where an exotic bird, talking canines, and a dirigible figure into the fun. The first of Pixar’s 10 films made in 3-D, it will delight in any format.

ONDVD

FOREVER STRONG
Rating: PG-13, Drama
Lead: Rick Faris
Director: Ryan Little
Run time: 112 minutes
Because no sport should be deprived the inspirational Hollywood treatment, rugby finally gets a chance to take center screen courtesy of this formulaic bad-kid-turns-good saga. Based on actual events but nonetheless twaddle of the first order, the story concerns a rugby star (Faris) at odds with his coach father (Neal McDonough) who DUI’s himself into a juvenile detention center and winds up playing for his team’s hated rivals. On its way toward inevitable uplift, the film fails to clue us into rugby fundamentals and provides game action shot in shaky, smeary close-ups, thereby turning its central matches into inconsequential displays of confusing movement and noise.

NEW IN TOWN
Rating: PG, Comedy
Lead: Renee Zellweger
Director: Jonas Elmer
Run time: 96 minutes
Rene Zellweger and Harry Connick, Jr. headline a pasteurized romantic comedy about a foxy food company exec transplanted from Miami to small-town Minnesota. Whilst beating regional stereotypes to death, the movie puts the corporate interloper in the path of a union rep who happens to be an eligible single father. At least Zellweger gamely tries to make the physical comedy work; her co-star is too lackadaisical to provide any authentic flavoring. The jokes about the weather and the not-as-daft-as-they-appear locals are way past their sell-by date. A sweet, lumpy dessert product turns out to be the most enticing and efficacious thing on screen.

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN
Rating: PG, Comedy
Lead: Ben Stiller
Director: Shawn Levy
Run time: 105 minutes
Primarily distinguishable from its predecessor by a bigger budget, cast and venue, this more-is-better sequel involves Museum of Natural History night watchman Larry (Stiller)—now a successful inventor—being called back into guard duty when his friends are shipped off to the Smithsonian archives and every artifact there comes to life. As before, director Levy is unable to convey the type of grand, awe-inspiring wonder required by his material. While constructed with lavish CG effects and innumerable moving parts, the action is less engaging this time around, though Amy Adams, as Amelia Earhart, provides a buoyant antidote to the commotion.

TERMINATOR SALVATION
Rating: PG-13, ACTION
Lead: Christian Bale
Director: McG
Run time: 116 minutes
Machines get the better of mankind in this extension of the popular action franchise. Not plot-wise—that would undercut the remaining installments of a planned trilogy—but because the best thing about the flick is the computer-generated special effects. Christian Bale assumes the role of John Connor, who, post Judgment Day, rallies the human resistance against Skynet and its assortment of cyborgs and other lethal hardware. Adding another layer to the ingenious concept won’t significantly alter the pop-culture landscape, yet it’s obvious why Hollywood couldn’t resist. Bright side: Maybe a new generation of moviegoers will question whether they’ve ceded too much control to their gadgets.

ONDVD

PAUL BLART: MALL COP
Rating: PG, Comedy
Lead: Kevin James
Director: Steve Carr
Run time: 91 minutes
Although never riotously funny, this slapstick comedy has ample heart in the plus-size form of Kevin James’ dedicated security guard. A lovable loser, Paul Blart derails a gang of scruffy, acrobatic thieves when they take hostages in a New Jersey mall on the busiest shopping day of the year. He wins the girl (Jayma Mays) and the respect of his detractors in the process. Adept at physical comedy, James, who co-wrote the script, emerges the king of his retail domain. Suitable for family viewing, the movie’s self-deprecating humor is tame enough to affirm a positive message about our society’s obsession with weight.

VALKYRIE
Rating: PG-13, Thriller
Lead: Tom Cruise
Director: Bryan Singer
Run time: 120 minutes
Without learning more about the high-ranking German officers who conspired to assassinate Hitler, and why, it’s difficult to immerse yourself in this glossily mechanical recreation of their July 20, 1944 plot. Cruise plays the gutsy colonel spearheading the attempt. Hitler’s monstrosity is a given, but what about those who felt he was defiling the Fatherland? By not considering their motivations in depth or their prior culpability at all, the movie becomes a reasonably tense procedural with a known, bleak outcome. British actors fretting over Adolph and fawning over Cruise (as does director Singer’s camera) seems slightly ludicrous, no matter how historically accurate the project or upstanding its intent.

THE BROTHERS BLOOM
Rating: PG-13, Comedy
Lead: Adrien Brody
Director: Rian Johnson
Run time: 113 minutes
Con man movies aren’t easy to pull off and writer/director Rian Johnson’s stylish attempt doesn’t quite cut it. Shooting his terrific cast against striking European backdrops, Johnson appears to be aping Wes Anderson and Hal Ashby, much as he did David Lynch in his debut “Brick.” Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo play fraternal grifters and Rachel Weisz portrays the mark in their final swindle. As Ruffalo’s elder sibling manipulates events, hoping to lift his bro out of an existential funk, the movie’s jauntiness leaks away. The more Johnson belabors an analogy between the perfect con and the ideal narrative, the more predictable his plot becomes.

ONDVD

TAKEN
Rating: PG-13, Thriller
Lead: Liam Neeson
Director: Pierre Morel
Run time: 90 minutes
Swift, sure and mildly sadistic, this thriller is a lot like its protagonist, a semi-retired CIA agent. Upon arriving in Paris from Los Angeles, his 17-year-old daughter is abducted by Albanian gangsters. Daddy has 96 hours to find her before she’s hooked on drugs, deflowered and never seen again in polite society. A stickler for details and the necessity of focus, he possesses the ideal training and disposition to carry out his beat-the-clock rescue mission. Similarly, without being burdened by complexity—or originality, for that matter—the film knows what it needs to do, is capable of doing it, and does it well.

UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS
Rating: R, Horror
Lead: Michael Sheen
Director: Patrick Taopoulos
Run time: 92 minutes
The third “Underworld” movie is a prequel showing how the feud between the Vampires and Lycan breed of werewolf developed. Looking like he stepped out of a 1983 production of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” Michael Sheen plays the lupine rabble-rouser Lucian, who was raised as a slave by Vampire leader Viktor (the deliciously malevolent Bill Nighy). A full-scale rebellion is inevitable, but Lucian’s illicit love affair with Viktor’s hot-to-trot daughter Sonja (Rhona Mitra) accelerates the timetable. Arguably under-lit and definitely unnecessary, the competently kitschy effort isn’t a monstrosity. Sheen and Nighy bring too much class and the mayhem is visually exciting enough.

STAR TREK
Rating: PG-13, Action
Lead: Chris Pine
Director: J.J. Abrams
Run time: 126 minutes
“Energize” indeed. Working at the cinematic equivalent of warp speed, director/producer J.J. Abrams (“Lost”) doesn’t kowtow to the past, treat his audience like imbeciles, or tarry over non-essentials. What he does do is exhilarate and amuse, injecting vitality into a franchise many had left for dead. Kirk (Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto), both wet behind the ears, overcome their differences to battle the rogue Romulan Nemo (Eric Bana), who threatens to destroy Vulcan and Earth. Trekkies should be thrilled and a whole new generation will be won over by the ingenious, gripping and quite funny prequel, which puts entertainment value above all else.

NEXT DAY AIR
Rating: R, Comedy
Lead: Donald Faison
Director: Benny Boom
Run time: 90 minutes
Here’s an ugly and grotesquely unfunny dud about shady Philadelphia criminals loosely connected to a cardboard box full of cocaine. The package in question gets delivered to the wrong address by a perpetually stoned employee (Donald Faison) of Next Day Air. For the rest of the picture, stereotypical cardboard cutouts spit vulgarities, point guns of all sizes, and smoke enough weed to paralyze Delaware. The talented Mos Def is featured prominently on the poster and Debbie Allen’s name is in the credits. Combined, they have five minutes of screen time (lucky them). The director’s name is Benny Boom. His picture is a bust.

ONDVD

THE CURIOUS CASE
OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Rating: PG-13, Drama
Lead: Bard Pitt
Director: David Fincher
Run time: 159 minutes
The idea of a man whose body ages in reverse sounds gimmicky, yet this elegant rendering of an F. Scott Fitzgerald story is anything but thanks to technically flawless execution. The film’s lyrical profundity is enhanced by Alexandre Desplat’s score and Brad Pitt’s self-effacing turn as a son of New Orleans born a shriveled octogenarian who grows physically younger as the decades pass. Why the fantasy narrative enthralls isn’t easy to pinpoint. That it doesn’t seem fantastic at all is a testimony to its emotional power. Cate Blanchett’s presence is an asset. So too is the absence of any manipulative sentimentality.

LAST CHANCE HARVEY
Rating: PG-13, Comedy
Lead: Dustin Hoffman
Director: Joel Hopkins
Run time: 99 minutes
Romantic comedies about and for the 40-plus crowd are rare. This delightful example pairs two actors you’d never imagine making witty and amorous music together. Dustin Hoffman plays a composer of advertising jingles who travels to London for his daughter’s wedding. Job pressures exacerbate the anticipated stresses of the occasion, including seeing his ex-wife and her husband. Emma Thompson plays the British quasi-spinster he falls for, though not in a corny way. Yes, they meet the way people only do in the movies. Yet writer/director Hopkins’ dialogue is unforced and the two leads are such pros that the movie is tasteful and true.

GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST
Rating: PG-13, Comedy
Lead: Matthew McConaughey
Director: Mark Waters
Run time: 101 minutes
Morphing Dickens’ holiday classic into a cautionary tale of wham-bang lasciviousness, this romantic comedy casts Matthew McConaughey as a lothario forced by a trio of female apparitions to reevaluate his commitment-phobic ways on the night before his brother’s wedding. Director Mark Waters barely tweaks his well-worn template, and his leading man has little chemistry with love-interest Jennifer Garner. With the exception of one lame wedding cake-related scene, the film mercifully forgoes goofy physical comedy in favor of tart banter and sweet amour. The plot’s eventual denigration of the single life and endorsement of soul mates and happily-ever-afters, however, is predictably rote.

ONDVD

BRIDE WARS
Rating: PG, Comedy
Lead: Kate Hudson
Director: Gary Winick
Run time: 100 minutes
In this shallow comedy, Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway are Jersey girls who fantasize about June weddings at Manhattan’s Plaza Hotel. Although best friends, they morph into competitive blonde and brunette Bridezillas when their respective nuptials are booked in the venue for the same day. Desperately in need of a flamboyance infusion, the dreary affair veers away from its madcap motif when the women start regretting their catty (and insufficiently funny) behavior. Their race to the altar also falters by trafficking in female stereotypes. A shotgun will be necessary to convince anyone to sit through it twice and most guys to watch it once.

HOTEL FOR DOGS
Rating: PG, Comedy
Lead: Emma Roberts
Director: Thor Freudenthal
Run time: 96 minutes
Unapologetically pitched at canine-loving kids and parents, this flick favors aggressive sentimentality and cutesy humor over the kind of subtle, sophisticated storytelling offered by superior family entertainments like “Wall-E.” Nevertheless, it’s a well-made bit of whimsy that recalls many of the animal-themed live action features Disney used to churn out. The story revolves around two orphaned siblings who start a new “family” by caring for stray dogs in a dilapidated hotel. Although you can see every story beat coming a mile away, you could do much worse if you’re looking to keep the kids entertained for a few hours on a rainy day.

FIGHTING
Rating: PG-13, Action
Lead: Channing Tatum
Director: Dito Montiel
Run time: 105 minutes
Dito Montiel’s follow-up to “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints” is a lukewarm homage to “Midnight Cowboy.” Terrence Howard assumes the Ratso Rizzo role-a two-bit promoter who spots Tatum’s Great White Brawler from Alabama on Manhattan’s unconvincingly mean streets. The movie isn’t exploitative: Montiel offsets every violent, frenetic scene with a quiet, reflective interlude; and actress Zulay Henao forms the third corner of a quasi love triangle. But he doesn’t share enough about his inarticulate characters or dive into the bare-knuckle milieu. Montiel’s bobbing camera and quick edits are more likely to make you queasy than his hero’s bouts with a handful of ethnic foes.

THE SOLOIST
Rating: R, Drama
Lead: Jamie Foxx
Director: Joe Wright
Run time: 115 minutes
A condescending leitmotif is audible in this purple scherzo based on actual events and helmed by British director Joe Wright (“Atonement”). Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx play a newspaper columnist and the homeless musical prodigy he meets in downtown LA. It’s difficult to gainsay the performances or the story, but they’re drowned out by Wright’s florid style. Although easy answers are avoided, a pretentious, lecturing tone is discernible, as if the audience needs to be schooled in the nuances of high culture and in how civilized people treat their less fortunate brethren. The uplifting power of music is demonstrated-of cinema, not so much.

ONDVD

FROST/NIXON
Rating: R, Drama
Lead: Frank Langella
Director: Ron Howard
Run time: 122 minutes
Ron Howard’s mainstream sensibility is just what Peter Morgan’s play needs to make a seamless transition from stage to screen. Although one of Howard’s strongest efforts, it still belongs to Frank Langella and Michael Sheen, reprising their roles as the disgraced 37th American president and the jet-setting British television presenter, David Frost, who interviewed him in 1977. Not only does the material have historical import, it gives two accomplished actors a classic sparring opportunity. Without employing any gimmicks, Howard and his cast — featuring Sam Rockwell, Kevin Bacon, and Oliver Platt-do everyone proud. As embodied by Langella, even Tricky Dick has a certain morose charm.

THE WRESTLER
Rating: R, Drama
Lead: Mickey Rourke
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Run time: 105 minutes
Mickey Rourke puts every ounce of himself on the line to portray Randy “The Ram” Robinson, an over-the-hill grappler struggling to recapture past glory and give his life meaning. His body is a totem of self-abuse reflecting a tawdry milieu where brutality, athleticism and showmanship are knotted together. Trying to do for wrestling what select filmmakers have done for boxing, director Darren Aronofsky fashions a bracing movie. Its authenticity is impossible to gainsay, and Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood are excellent as Randy’s stripper girlfriend and estranged daughter. Nevertheless, although the gritty piece has a quasi-documentary feel, it’s held back by genre conventionality.

STATE OF PLAY
Rating: PG-13, Thriller
Lead: Russell Crowe
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Run time: 117 minutes
Anyone hankering for a conspiracy thriller from the 1970s or lamenting the decline of print journalism should see this reworking of a BBC miniseries about intrigue in the political backrooms and beleaguered newsrooms of Washington, D.C. Russell Crowe headlines as an ink-stained reporter whose college roommate (Ben Affleck) is a scandal-plagued Congressman. Helen Mirren fires off salty zingers as his editor, while Rachel McAdams plays his blogger colleague. Pieces of the story fall into place much as anticipated and some viewers may wish their expectations had been played with more. Yet the movie delivers all the satisfactions of a well-reported article or smartly told yarn.

onDVD

THE CALLER
Rating: N/R, Thriller
Lead: Frank Langella
Director: Richard Ledes
Run time: 92 minutes
Two seasoned actors and pockets of existential tension give this thriller more cache than it warrants. A corporate whistle-blower (Langella) anonymously hires a quirky New York gumshoe (Elliot Gould) to tail him so there will be a witness if he’s killed. Langella and Gould are fine and the movie occasionally has the air of a taut political thriller from the 1970s. Intrigue gives way to obliqueness however, and the story is cluttered by a subplot involving a cabaret singer and flashbacks to WWII France. Co-written by a French psychoanalyst, the script is too obvious about important questions it raises and too mysterious about ephemera.

THE SPIRIT
Rating: PG-13, Comedy
Lead: Gabriel Macht
Director: Frank Miller
Run time: 108 minutes
Frank Miller, author of the graphic novels “Sin City,” “300,” and “The Dark Night,” makes his solo directorial debut with a superhero spoof based on Will Eisner’s 1940 comic book series. All over the map, it shows that creating worthwhile movies requires a different set of talents—no matter how visually oriented a writer’s imagination. Gabriel Macht’s eponymous crime-fighter is a cross between The Shadow, The Green Hornet, and an underwear model. Samuel L. Jackson plays his kooky nemesis and Scarlett Johanson and Eva Mendes (dis)grace the ensemble. There are a few snappy lines and one legitimately campy scene. Otherwise, it’s a dispiriting mess.

OBSERVE AND REPORT
Rating: R, Comedy
Lead: Seth Rogan
Director: Jody Hill
Run time: 87 minutes
This belligerent comedy casts Seth Rogen as a psychotic Barney Fife and then pummels the character within an inch of the audience’s tolerance for brutish behavior. The point is to take the idea of an odious mall cop further than any one would expect from a mainstream movie, which turns out to be way past funny. Tirades and NC-17 crudities aside, the script doesn’t contain enough subtext—or its execution enough skill—to reach the level of genre-busting satire. Writer-director Hill (“The Foot Fist Way”) deploys “it” comic actor Rogen in a way that makes “Paul Blart’s” Kevin James look like Charlie Chaplin.

ONDVD

THE TALE OF DESPEREAUX
Rating: G, Adventure
Lead: Matthew Broderick
Director: Mike Johnson
Run time: 87 minutes
Beware, fainthearted. This stirring animated family film raises the bar for intricate plotting yet may be too scary for the preschool set. Based on the popular children’s book, the ingenious meta-fairytale revolves around an intrepid, undersized mouse, a sociable rat, and the grieving princess of a soup-loving kingdom. Chivalry endures but must survive trials in a dank castle dungeon and further below in the Ratworld, where rodents force their captives to do public battle as in ancient Rome. After some intense sequences, a traditional happily-ever-after message rings out in the end. Sigourney Weaver narrates and numerous talented actors lend their voices.

YES MAN
Rating: PG-13, Comedy
Lead: Jim Carrey
Director: Peyton Reed
Run time: 104 minutes
No sirree. Don’t expect a funny throwback to Jim Carrey in his antic prime. The sobering reality: This blah effort is one-third manically misanthropic comedy, one-third soggy romance, and one-third feel-good holiday flick championing the virtues of charity. None of the parts is viable. Carrey plays a miserable fellow who’s dragged to a self-help seminar during which he vows to say “yes” to everything. It leads to an encounter with a wacky chick (Zooey Deschanel) and to approaching life with annoying gusto. The whimsy—in fact, everything about the movie—is forced, and yet it also seems as if no one is trying hard enough.

ONDVD

MARLEY & ME
Rating: PG, Comedy
Lead: Owen Wilson
Director: David Frankel
Run time: 115 minutes
You’d have to be a real Scrooge to dislike this adaptation of John Grogan’s autobiographical bestseller. It’s admittedly corny but surprisingly moving. And like the pup of the title, it practically licks your face with its desire to please until you succumb, guilt-free. Shaggy dog Owen Wilson plays a newspaper columnist whose mischievous pooch slowly casts an influence over his personal and professional life. “Marley & Me” wins the year’s “Worst Marketing Campaign” award. Endless shots of canine carnage dominate the trailers, which overlook the melancholic avenues and realistic depictions of familial struggle the movie embraces. Bring an open mind… and tissues.

SEVEN POUNDS
Rating: PG-13, Drama
Lead: Will Smith
Director: Gabriele Muccino
Run time: 122 minutes
Will Smith re-teams with the director of “The Pursuit of Happyness” for a troubling movie about a Good Samaritan with a tragic past. Not only is his motivation logically suspect, but how he seeks redemption skirts multiple legal and moral boundaries. The sole bright spot in the maudlin, self-important effort is Rosario Dawson’s performance as a heart patient. Thanks to her, the story gains some traction as a romance. Even so, it is the most macabre tearjerker to come along in a while. Adults should think twice about bringing youngsters. When this lump of coal isn’t being schmaltzy and falsely mysterious, it’s being harsh.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Rating: R, Drama
Lead: Danny Boyle
Director: Dev Patel
Run time: 121 minutes
It’s hard to picture a more dynamic portrait of modern India than this teeming marvel by British filmmaker Danny (“Trainspotting”) Boyle based on a book by Vikas Swarup. Behold the eventful life story of an eighteen-year-old orphan (Patel) from the slums of Mumbai, recounted using his appearance on the Indian version of the TV game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” Unlikely as it sounds, this touching, romantic, amusing and harrowing movie is as colorful and contradictory as the nation it celebrates. Call it a uniquely cinematic, hugely entertaining, emerging market version of “Oliver Twist.” Call it whatever you want, just don’t miss it.

ONDVD

BOLT
Rating: PG, Comedy
Lead: John Travolta
Directors: Chris Williams & Bryan Howard
Run time: 96 minutes
Talented Spanish director Isabel Coixet adapts Philip Roth’s novella “The Dying Animal” with Ben Kingsley portraying a Columbia University English professor who has a May-December relationship with a student (Penelope Cruz). Feminist interpreters will gripe it’s a study in how men objectify women and get away with it. Those with no gender ax to grind will complain it’s too placid and literary—a well-produced exercise hobbled by its own fear of messy entanglements. Mildly erotic and decidedly psychoanalytic, the polished effort ultimately remains locked in its own ivory tower contemplating the nature of beauty, desire and narcissism. Featuring Dennis Hopper, Patricia Clarkson and Peter Sarsgaard.

QUANTUM OF SOLACE
Rating: PG-13, Action
Lead: Daniel Craig
Director: Marc Foster
Run time: 105 minutes
The task of shepherding Daniel Craig through his second outing as James Bond fell to a director not known for action movies. It shows. The fights and chase sequences are often a blur. Forster (“Monster’s Ball”) does somewhat better with the psychological drama as Bond goes rogue to avenge the murder of his “Casino Royale” love interest Vesper. M (Judi Dench) is sympathetic but concerned, especially when James teams up with an exotic beauty (Olga Kurylenko) also bent on vengeance to take down a friend of Her Majesty’s government. Revenge is a dish best served cold. The optimal temperature for a spy thriller is considerably warmer.

THE CAKE EATERS
Rating: N/R, Drama
Lead: Kristen Stewart
Director: Mary Stuart Masterson
Run time: 95 minutes
Actress Mary Stuart Masterson’s directorial debut centers on an upstate New York teen (“Twilight’s” Stewart) stricken with a fatal neuromuscular disease and determined to experience sex. She sets her sights on a quiet young man (Aaron Stanford) working in the school cafeteria, unaware that their families are connected via the amorous liaison of older relations played by Bruce Dern and Elizabeth Ashley. Jayce Bartok, who has a supporting role, penned an intelligent screenplay that avoids bathos. Strong performances, particularly Stewart’s handling of her physically and emotionally demanding role, further enhance the warm, naturalistic picture. Ms. Masterson deserves more work behind the camera.

DUPLICITY
Rating: PG-13, Thriller
Lead: Julia Roberts
Director: Tony Gilroy
Run time: 125 minutes
Champagne will put you in the mood for Tony Gilroy’s clever and sophisticated thriller, but beware of over-imbibing in case it impairs your ability to follow the elaborate con. Quaffing the bubbly doesn’t appear to have dulled the senses of spies played by Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. The lovers forsake government work to engage in corporate espionage for the feuding CEOs (Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson) of two consumer products conglomerates. Though awkwardly structured and in danger of outwitting itself, Gilroy’s follow-up to “Michael Clayton” is a smart, clean, adult movie in which droll repartee and smoldering chemistry take the place of cursing and violence.

ONDVD

ELEGY
Rating: R, Romance
Lead: Ben Kingsley
Director: Isabel Coixet
Run time: 113 minutes
Talented Spanish director Isabel Coixet adapts Philip Roth’s novella “The Dying Animal” with Ben Kingsley portraying a Columbia University English professor who has a May-December relationship with a student (Penelope Cruz). Feminist interpreters will gripe it’s a study in how men objectify women and get away with it. Those with no gender ax to grind will complain it’s too placid and literary—a well-produced exercise hobbled by its own fear of messy entanglements. Mildly erotic and decidedly psychoanalytic, the polished effort ultimately remains locked in its own ivory tower contemplating the nature of beauty, desire and narcissism. Featuring Dennis Hopper, Patricia Clarkson and Peter Sarsgaard.

PUNISHER: WAR ZONE
Rating: R, Action
Lead: Ray Stevenson
Director: Lexi Alexander
Run time: 107 minutes
Marvel’s third attempt to make a big-screen star out of vigilante Frank Castle is just as torturous as its predecessors, save for those moments when it’s just comically bad. Determined to fight NYC’s gangsters, the Punisher takes justice into his own hands, which is a euphemistic way of saying that he stoically decapitates, knifes and guns down all manner of criminals. Frank’s faith in the righteousness of his work is meant to be shaken by his accidental murder of an undercover FBI agent, but the glee with which director Alexander orchestrates her antihero’s urban destruction turns any moral hand-wringing into a laughable charade.

TWILIGHT
Rating: PG-13, Drama
Lead: Kristen Stewart
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Run time: 121 minutes
Sorry to have to drive a stake through your hearts, “Twilight”ers, but Catherine Hardwicke’s humdrum adaptation of Stephanie Meyer’s beloved vampire romance is as dreary as the Pacific Northwest setting, as colorless as the pale-skinned Cullen clan, and as stiff as a corpse. Not that Hardwicke and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg change much from Meyer’s vampire lore. It’s just that Stewart is a mediocre actress who nails her character’s social awkwardness but is incapable of responding passionately to her costar’s advances. And Rob Pattinson is a rigid pretty boy who looks like he’s passing a kidney stone, not struggling to understand nascent feelings of unlawful attraction.

RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN
Rating: PG, Adventure
Lead: Dwayne Johnson
Director: Andy Fickman
Run time: 99 minutes
We’re not talking about defacing a masterpiece, but nearly everything’s amiss with this falsely frenetic revamp of Disney’s 1975 live-action movie “Escape to Witch Mountain.” Asking the handsome, genial slab formerly known as The Rock to keep the cheapo production aloft is too tall an order. Johnson portrays a Las Vegas taxi driver who helps a pair of alien siblings (AnnaSophia Robb & Alexander Ludwig) elude an extraterrestrial assassin, Department of Defense baddies, and a convention of UFO enthusiasts. Patrons of all ages, their intelligence and imaginations insulted, will count the minutes until the space teens are launched back into the stratosphere.

ONDVD

CADILLAC RECORDS
Rating: R, Drama
Lead: Adrien Brody
Director: Darnell Martin
Run time: 108 minutes
There’s ample music and drama in the saga of Chess Records, the blues label Polish emigre Leonard Chess (Brody) founded on Chicago’s south side in the early 1950s. Jeffrey Wright convinces as Muddy Waters and Mos Def dazzles as rock-’n'-roller Chuck Berry, but it’s Beyonce who upstages everyone as singer Etta James. Beyonce served as executive producer, so it’s no wonder she gets to sing three show-stopping numbers. Fortunately, she has the pipes and the soulful presence to deliver on all three. Cedric the Entertainer narrates the satisfying if predictable movie, which takes its name from the cars Chess bought all his top artists.

MILK
Rating: R, Biopic
Lead: Sean Penn
Director: Gus Van Sant
Run time: 128 minutes
Gus Van Sant’s conventional biopic about an unconventional figure is a well-constructed, generally well-performed work of hagiography. Sean Penn plays Harvey Milk, the nation’s first openly gay person elected to public office, who was murdered in 1978 by Dan “Twinky Defense” White (Josh Brolin), a fellow member of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors. Milk’s depicted as brave, tenacious, shrewd and likeable—totally deserving of beatification as a martyr for progressive politics. The movie shares his wonky quality, while also projecting his hopeful message of inclusion. Milk believed all politics was theater and Van Sant, who adroitly weaves in file footage, thoroughly grasps his own medium.

ROLE MODELS
Rating: R, Comedy
Lead: Paul Rudd
Director: David Wain
Run time: 99 minutes
Both coarse and droll, this surprisingly satisfying comedy triggers various types of laughs when a sour misanthrope (Paul Rudd) and a doltish womanizer (Seann William Scott) are ordered by the court to mentor two tough cases—a cheeky African-American kid and a geeky teen whose life revolves around a mediaeval fantasy game. For every bit of frat-house jocularity there’s a quiet, off-the-wall moment to keep things grounded in co-writer Rudd’s deadpan sensibility. The modest project doesn’t overindulge in conventional sentiment and doesn’t let its crudity get out of hand. Jane Lynch is hilariously on edge as the ex-addict founder of the charity Sturdy Wings.

ONDVD
AUSTRALIA
Rating: PG-13, ROMANTIC
Lead: Nicole Kidman
Director: Baz Lurhmann
Run time: 165 minutes
Anyone craving a wide-screen romantic epic is in luck. Baz Luhrman’s sprawling fantasia is a flawed throwback to a noble cinematic tradition. Kidman’s British aristocrat travels Down Under to sell her husband’s cattle station and is bewitched by the land, its indigenous people, and Hugh Jackman’s cowboy. Together with a mixed-race kid (the excellent Brandon Walters), they break the monopoly of a local cattle baron as World War II looms. Overlong and ungainly in spots, the ambitious project-a big-hearted homage to both “Gone With the Wind” and “The Wizard of Oz”-implores the audience to go with it, ultimately rewarding charity and forbearance.

BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA
Rating: PG, Drama
Lead: Drew Barrymore
Director: Raja Gosnell
Run time: 91 minutes
This tale of a pampered pooch who gets kidnapped in Mexico isn’t as bad as the trailer suggests, but it still amounts to an unfunny live-action variation on animated Disney adventures like “Lady and the Tramp,” “Oliver and Company,” and “The Aristocats.” Relentlessly conventional, it’s predicated on rote rich-meets-poor and nationality-clash dynamics, and typified by hectic chase sequences and broad stereotypes-not to mention the off-putting sight of real dogs speaking through CG-animated mouths. Director Gosnell’s perfunctory set pieces lack imagination as well as humor, and the script’s fondness for excruciating one-liners will test the limits of even the most charitable adult’s nerves.

LAKE CITY
Rating: R, Drama
Lead: Sissy Spacek
Directors: Hunter Hill & Perry Moore
Run time: 92 minutes
Sissy Spacek portrays a woman in a small southern town unable to get past the death of her young son years before. She’s fond of watching the autumn sunset from her farmhouse stoop, bathed in golden, melancholy light. Then one day her second, estranged son (Troy Garrity) turns up unannounced. He’s on the run from drug dealers and has a little boy in tow. Can mother and son finally move beyond grief and self-blame? Trying to meld “Witness” with “In the Bedroom,” the filmmakers only manage blubbery melodrama. Rebecca Romijn plays a local cop and musician Dave Matthews a hapless low-life.

JONAS BROTHERS:
THE 3-D CONCERT EXPERIENCE
Rating: G, Documentary
Director: Bruce Endricks
Run time: 75 minutes
The Jonas Brothers conquer Madison Square Garden in a 3-D concert film that will likely rock the socks off female tweeners. In between consistently raucous tunes, the movie offers up bland behind-the-scenes footage, while during the numbers a raft of computer-generated objects fly at the screen in gimmicky 3-D fashion. The three siblings display a genuine knack for larger-than-life showmanship. Still, no amount of enthusiasm on their parts can change the eeriness of seeing young girls weeping and hyperventilating over the focus-tested moppets, who have a look and sound so pre-manufactured, you can almost hear the crinkle of their cellophane wrapping.

STREET FIGHTER: LEGEND OF CHUN LEE
Not screened in advance for critics

ONDVD
THE HAUNTING OF MOLLY HARTLEY
Rating: PG-13, Thriller
Lead: Haley Bennett
Director: Mickey Liddell
Run time: 86 minutes
Haley Bennet plays 17-year-old Molly, the new girl in town with a troubled past attributable to her psychotic mother. Now living with her father (Jake Weber) and attending a posh school, she’s bedeviled by sudden nosebleeds, scary voices and spooky visions. Influenced by a fanatically Christian friend, Molly turns to God for answers; under the sway of hormones, she looks to a hunk played by Chace Crawford for protection. Alas, no salvation awaits the audience. Chock-full of TV faces, this quaint excuse for a slasher flick doesn’t qualify as full-blown horror and is hard to take seriously as a supernatural thriller.

THE MATADOR
Rating: N/R, Documentary
Directors: Stephen Higgins and Nina Seavey
Run time: 74 minutes
The directors of this fawning documentary apparently fell under the spell of David Fandila, the handsome young Spaniard they profile. While picturesque and more exciting than your average non-fiction film, it could drive fur-wearers into the arms of PETA. Although a few talking heads deplore the storied blood sport, the movie amounts to a romanticizing defense of a brutal cultural tradition. Will “El Fandi” become the thirteenth bullfighter in history to kill 100 bulls in a single season? What bodily injuries will he endure trying? Mind you, even if he dies, his exit won’t compare to the savage death every bull must suffer.

WHAT JUST HAPPENED
Rating: R, Drama
Lead: Robert De Niro
Director: Barry Levinson
Run time: 107 minutes
Big-time film producer Art Linson’s memoir is transformed into a lackluster Hollywood satire. Robert De Niro plays Ben, a thinly veiled version of Linson, who, over the course of a week, finds himself dealing with an unhappy studio exec, a bad-boy director and an egomaniacal star (Bruce Willis playing himself), while also patching up his relationship with ex-wife (Robin Wright Penn) and teenage daughter (Kristin Stewart). Director Barry Levinson has been in L.A. too long not to have a good grasp on how to poke fun at the industry’s excesses, but a flabby narrative and awkward tonal shifts weigh this effort down.

ONDVD

BODY OF LIES
Rating: R, Thriller
Lead: Leonardo DiCaprio
Director: Ridley Scott
Run time: 126 minutes
Ridley Scott expends lots of energy underscoring the startling notion that intelligence work entails deception and spies are a mendacious lot. He takes it a step further by arguing hawkish American spooks (Russell Crowe) comfortably ensconced in suburban Virginia are the biggest liars of all. Of course, anyone would look like a clueless reactionary next to Ferris of Arabia (DiCaprio), the CIA’s man on the ground in Iraq and then Jordan. Scott knows how to stage action sequences and his two leads are solid. There’s just not much being said. When it comes to novel ideas, everyone gets left out in the cold.

CHOKE
Rating: R, Comedy/Drama
Lead: Sam Rockwell
Director: Clark Gregg
Run time: 92 minutes
Character actor Clark Gregg—one of those instantly recognizable but anonymous screen faces—adapts Chuck Palahniuk’s novel and the result is among the most unappetizing feature films in recent memory. Sam Rockwell plays Victor, a small-time grifter and big-time sex addict coping with the mental decline of his institutionalized mother (Anjelica Huston) while trying to learn who his father was. The theme that we’re all crazy to some extent is born out by flashbacks to Victor’s upbringing and his skuzzy present-day exploits. But the gross bits are counteracted by his ultimate humanity and the humor exhibited at the Colonial American theme park where he works.

HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3: SENIOR YEAR
Rating: G, Musical
Lead: Zac Efron
Director: Kenny Ortega
Run time: 112 minutes
Disney’s song-and-dance robots come to the big screen in the popular franchise’s third entry, which revolves around basketball star-turned-theater sensation Troy’s (Efron) efforts to determine his own post-high school future while maintaining his relationship with brainy Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens). Director Ortega adheres to formula like a shipwrecked man clings to a shard of driftwood, interspersing bouncy bubblegum pop and cheery dance routines throughout and addressing the mixed feelings wrought by graduation with a simplistic faux-poignancy aimed at those not yet in high school. Despite a bigger budget, it’s merely more of the same, meaning tween fans are sure to approve.

THE INTERNATIONAL
Rating: R, Thriller
Lead: Clive Owen
Director: Tom Tykwer
Run time: 116 minutes
The villain in this non-pandering thriller is a nefarious Luxembourg bank that, for reasons that go unexplained, serves as Moby Dick to an Interpol agent’s Captain Ahab. Clive Owen plays the obsessive investigator and Naomi Watts is the assistant district attorney from Manhattan he’s working with. Although the plot’s connective tissue is thin and much of the dialogue abstract, the architectural settings are dazzling and the tense atmosphere keeps you glued. Proving that a movie’s tactile qualities trump theoretical musings, the best scene by far is pure action-a long gun battle inside New York’s Guggenheim Museum. It’s one you won’t soon forget.

UNDER THE SEA 3D
Rating: G, Documentary
Director: Howard Hall
Run time: 40 minutes
Multiple varieties of cuttlefish dominate the latest IMAX movie from the makers of “Deep Sea 3D” and “Into the Deep 3D.” Peculiar creatures from the coral rich waters of Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef are showcased. A field of garden eels is amazing, as are the means of camouflage adopted by many of the marine animals on display. In its role as an educational vehicle, the film encourages viewers to pay attention to how man is damaging this fragile ecosystem and the overall environment, which makes one wonder about the energy footprint of the production. Jim Carrey unctuously intones the narration.

ONDVD

BLINDNESS
Rating: R, Drama
Lead: Julianne Moore
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Run time: 121 minutes
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 (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.

MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA
Rating: R, Drama
Lead: Derek Luke
Director: Spike Lee
Run time: 160 minutes
Spike Lee has consistently defied expectations, so it’s no surprise his version of a World War II movie is radically different from anyone else’s. Based on James McBride’s book, it tells the heart-wrenching story of four black soldiers trapped behind enemy lines who deviate from their mission to rescue a young boy. As always, Lee isn’t afraid to make his points bluntly and the film does suffer from some awkward dialogue and overheated melodrama. But it’s also one of the most intensely emotional stories the director has ever told and its cumulative power is deeply felt in a beautiful final scene.

CORALINE
Rating: PG, Animation
Lead: Dakota Fanning
Director: Henry Selick
Run time: 100 minutes
It’s one thing not to coddle children; it’s another to creep them out. From a craft perspective, this rendering of Neil Gaiman’s book, by the director of “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” should be admired. But the story is quite dark and sinister, falling somewhere between “Psycho” for kids and a hallucinogenic “Mommie Dearest.” Upon moving into a rambling Oregon house, the young heroine enters an alternate reality populated by unpleasant versions of her parents and eccentric neighbors. Although stop-action animation is ideal for 3-D, this material isn’t crowd-pleasing enough to warrant all the effort Hollywood studios are devoting toward making the projection format more commonplace.

PUSH
Rating: PG-13, Action
Lead: Chris Evans
Director: Paul McGuigan
Run time: 121 minutes
You have to be clairvoyant to follow the particulars of this overly complicated, unconvincing thriller about folks with paranormal abilities. You have to be desperately lonely to care. In Hong Kong, two second-generation psychics from America (Evans and Dakota Fanning) are hunted by government baddies seeking another gifted woman (Camilla Belle) in possession of a special drug. There are various paranormal types in this tedious movie world. For example, Movers move objects with their thoughts; Watchers see into the future; Stitches heal wounds; Wipers erase memories; and Pushers plant ideas in other people’s heads. Audience members will kill for one who is able to speed up time.

ONDVD

MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA
Rating: PG, Animated Comedy
Lead: Ben Stiller
Director: Eric Darnell & Tom McGrath
Run time: 89 minutes
Once again, a menagerie of not-so-wild animals tickles funny bones. This rapid-fire sequel to 2005′s computer-animated flick sends four pals from the Central Park Zoo—lion Alex (Stiller), zebra Marty (Chris Rock), giraffe Melman (David Schwimmer) and hippo Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith)—back to their “ancestral crib” in Africa. The romp boasts top-flight animation, music and voice work, plus those irascible aviator penguins and Sacha Baron Cohen’s regal lemur. Never mind that it makes few concessions to young viewers (without being inappropriate). They’ll enjoy the ride and pop culture-savvy adults may feel like jumping over the moon.

THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES
Rating: PG-13, Drama
Lead: Queen Latifah
Director: Gina Prince Bythewood
Run time: 110 minutes
Nothing remains hidden for long in this adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd’s novel about a white girl (Dakota Fanning) in mid-1960′s South Carolina who runs away from her unhappy, mother-less home and settles with three honey-making African-American sisters (Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, and Sophie Okonedo). No doubt the characters’ inner lives feel more authentic and the plotting less abrupt when you’re reading the book. Yet for every heart that’s warmed by this celluloid celebration of the maternal spirit, another will find it condescending regarding race and/or gender. Unconditional love is one thing, being envisioned as the perpetual caregiver is quite another.

NEW IN TOWN
Rating: PG, Romantic Comedy
Lead: Renee Zellweger
Director: Jonas Elmer
Run time: 96 minutes
Rene Zellweger and Harry Connick, Jr. headline a pasteurized romantic comedy about a foxy food company exec transplanted from Miami to small-town Minnesota. Whilst beating regional stereotypes to death, the movie puts the corporate interloper in the path of a union rep who happens to be an eligible single father. At least Zellweger gamely tries to make the physical comedy work; her co-star is too lackadaisical to provide any authentic flavoring. The jokes about the weather and the not-as-daft-as-they-appear locals are way past their sell-by date. A sweet, lumpy dessert product turns out to be the most enticing and efficacious thing on screen.

ONDVD

THE ROCKER
Rating: PG-13, Comedy
Lead: Rainn Wilson
Director: Peter Cattaneo
Run time: 102 minutes
The story of a washed-up 40-something who nabs a second shot at stardom by collaborating with some wannabe emo stars, “The Rocker” boasts a set-up on loan from the far superior “School of Rock.” Wilson stars as a buffoonish almost-was who is recruited by his dorky nephew’s band to play drums at a prom gig, thus initiating an unlikely rise to MTV glory full of semi-amusing escapades and drab dramatic subplots. Despite his performance’s (and the story’s) derivativeness, Wilson’s idiot enthusiasm is so aggressive it eventually wears down one’s defenses, but it’s not enough to elevate the film above being merely a passable goof-off.

LAKEVIEW TERRACE
Rating: R, Drama
Lead: Samuel L. Jackson
Director: Neil LaBute
Run time: 106 minutes
Fear and loathing in exurban LA. Neil LaBute’s incendiary race drama pits an African-American cop against his new mixed-race neighbors. While a cynical vehicle for exploiting the underlying social issues, its partial resonance is due to Jackson, who brings Luciferian charm and gusto to the role. Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington play the interracial couple—poster children for miscegenation—whose marriage is tested by the hostile behavior of the belligerent, ultimately unhinged man in blue next door. Southern California’s terrain is literally a tinderbox but when the smoke clears, the conflagration has raged mostly inside the heads of LaBute and his troubled protagonist.

FIREPROOF
Rating: PG, Drama
Lead: Kirk Cameron
Director: Alex Kendrick
Run time: 102 minutes
Alex and Stephen Kendrick, the Baptist pastors and sibling filmmakers behind “Facing the Giants” and “Flywheel,” address the institution of marriage in this earnest Christian drama. Kirk Cameron of “Growing Pains” portrays a firefighter whose seven-year union with a hospital publicist (Erin Bethea) is on the verge of collapse until his born-again father suggests he try a 40-day program titled “The Love Dare.” Though it takes quite a while, all prayers are answered. The other good news is that the Kendricks have boosted their production values while folding in action and humor. The Bible-inspired wisdom they dispense could help non-believing couples as well the faithful.

INKHEART
Rating: PG, Adventure
Lead: Brendan Fraser
Director: Iain Softley
Run time: 103 minutes
Not every young-adult best-seller can make a successful transition to the screen. Cornelia Funke’s popular book about a father and daughter who bring fictional characters to life by reading aloud certainly doesn’t. First, it’s necessary to buy Brendan Fraser as a bibliophile. Second, you must overlook sloppy directing and cinematography, choppy editing, and middling special effects. Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent try their darndest to inject haughty whimsy into the proceedings, while Paul Bettany and Andy Serkis suffer as literary creations trapped in the real world. The concept is worthy but the execution leaves viewers’ heads caught in the library and their feet in the cineplex.

UNDERWORLD:
RISE OF THE LYCANS
Not screened in advance for critics

ONDVD

THE EXPRESS
Rating: PG, Sports Drama
Lead: Rob Brown
Director: Gary Fleder
Run time: 129 minutes
As subjects for inspirational gridiron flicks go, the story of Ernie Davis is hard to beat. Known as “The Elmira Express,” he was the first African American to win college
football’s Heisman Trophy, earning the honor at Syracuse in 1961 under the tutelage of Coach Ben Schwarzwalder (Dennis Quaid), who was coming off four testy seasons with the legendary Jim Brown in the Orangemen’s backfield. The polished picture adopts a conservative game plan, running right up the middle on every play, stubbornly refusing to take chances and try the unexpected. Davis’ legacy has been duly recorded but scores no points for probity or derring-do.

MAX PAYNE
Rating: PG-13, Thriller
Lead: Mark Wahlberg
Director: John Moore
Run time: 85 minutes
This adaptation of an outdated video game casts Mark Wahlberg as a brooding detective whose wife and child were murdered by drug addicts high on Valkyr, a blue liquid that either turns you invincible or triggers hallucinations of winged demons. Seeking vengeance, he goes after the drug’s alleged manufacturers but can’t separate friends from foes. Director Moore injects some style into this urban noir, but the plot holes are baffling, even to those who played “Payne” back in the day and should understand what’s happening. Watch through the end credits for the promise of a sequel, but bet the mortgage that it never happens.

SAW V
Rating: R, Horror
Lead: Tobin Bell
Director: David Hackl
Run time: 88 minutes
This latest entry in the Saw series picks up where last year’s “IV” left off, which is to say in a dreary muddle. The saga of moralizing serial killer Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) has become a convoluted puzzle not worth piecing together, and this chapter is particularly inconsequential, equally composed of hackneyed present-day action involving a Jigsaw apprentice’s booby-trap-centric plot, and flashbacks to prior films’ action now seen from a slightly different perspective. As evidenced by the go-nowhere plot, hackneyed visuals, and crude performances—all of which exhibit the intelligence and craftsmanship of a direct-to-video release—”Saw’s” sequelitis has become a creatively fatal condition.

NOTORIOUS
Rating: R, Biography
Lead: Jamal Woolard
Director: George Tillman
Run time: 120 minutes
This sketchy film about the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. works double-time reshaping the Brooklyn-born superstar’s life into the standard biopic mold, a predictable enterprise that the script pulls off with only mild success. Rather than providing insight into this well-known tale, the reductive plot only simplifies with an uncritical eye, letting Biggie off the hook for his reprehensible selfishness while celebrating his big-pimping lifestyle and promoting the notion that he was, at heart, a raw, uncompromising autobiographical storyteller. This may be true, but Tillman’s tell-don’t-show movie never depicts how his experiences informed his art, instead merely delivering poorly acted soap opera and sub-gangster drama.

ONDVD

SWING VOTE
Rating: PG-13, Comedy
Lead: Kevin Costner
Director: Joshua Michael Stern
Run time: 120 minutes
Washington goes to Mr. Smith in this unlikely comedy about a presidential election hanging on the vote of a single dude: Costner’s NASCAR-lovin’, beer-swillin’, apathetic ignoramus. So now the candidates (Kelsey Grammer and Dennis Hopper) have to try to woo this one man. Unfortunately, by the time this wannabe satire realizes that American culture, media, and politics are beyond satire, it’s too late to switch over to wannabe feel-good. It’s properly angry over how we’ve “ruined America,” yet overly simplistic about how to fix things. The lack of appropriate complexity might be considered laughable, but that would imply there’s something actually funny here.

MIRRORS
Rating: R, Horror
Lead: Kiefer Sutherland
Director: Alexandre Aja
Run time: 110 minutes
In his latest shoddy effort, “The Hills Have Eyes” director Aja can’t be bothered to concoct imaginative frights or even tenuous bonds between the supernatural terror and the human drama. An overacting Sutherland stars as a pill-popping detective who, after being suspended from the force, takes a security guard job at a derelict NYC department store and finds himself menaced by the building’s mirrors. The stiff performances can partly be blamed on a silly premise—evil mirrors are far from scary—and lousy dialogue. But while Aja is genre-conversant enough to establish an unsettling mood, he fails to generate a smidgen of tension.

MY BEST FRIEND’S GIRL
Rating: R, Comedy
Lead: Dane Cook
Director: Howard Deutch
Run time: 103 minutes
“The Cars” should file suit and Kate Hudson should get tested for STDs. Viewers will want to bathe in industrial strength disinfectant after enduring this raunchy romantic comedy. Vile and sexist, it wears down your defenses so that by the time Dane Cook upchucks and drops his drawers during a wedding reception, you’ll laugh simply out of exhausted desperation. He plays a vulgar dude other guys hire to date their girlfriends so they’ll look good by comparison. Kate Hudson’s career must really be in the doldrums when she has to choose between Cook and Jason Biggs. Either way she loses. Ditto the audience.