Capsule reviews of feature films

ALEXANDRA 3 stars. Russian director Alexander Sokurov uses the incongruous image of a dignified old woman waddling around a shabby army base on a desolate patch of land to get at the futility and ugliness of war. A slow-moving and fastidiously staged affair with opera great Galina Vishnevskaya in the title role. No MPAA rating (adult themes) _ Steven Rea

BABY MAMA 3 stars. Tina Fey as a buttoned-up careerist who can't conceive and Amy Poehler as an unzipped trash-talking babe hired to be her pregnancy surrogate. What's not to like? Hilarious cameos from Steve Martin, Sigourney Weaver, Romany Malco and Holland Taylor. 1 hr. 39 PG-13 (procreative candor, profanity) _ Carrie Rickey

THE BAND'S VISIT 3 ˝ stars. An Egyptian army band is beached in the Israeli desert in this low-key charmer, a funny valentine from one adversary to another. 1 hr. 29 PG-13 (discreet sensuality, profanity) _ Carrie Rickey

THE BANK JOB 3 stars. Roger Donaldson's high-tension thriller, inspired by an actual 1971 London heist, stars Jason Statham (of the sandpaper face and voice) as a roughneck who thinks he's in it for the money and jewelry but learns there are items in the bank vault that the Crown wants recovered. 1 hr. 50 R (nudity, sexual candor, profanity) _ Carrie Rickey

BATTLE FOR HADITHA 2 ˝ stars. Nick Broomfield's doc-like reenactment of an Iraq War incident in which a convoy of Marines go door-to-door killing unarmed citizens in retaliation for a roadside bombing. Exploitive, manipulative, but it has the ring of truth about it, too. Filmed in Jordan, the movie's cast includes real ex-Marines, and Iraqi refugees. 1 hr. 37 No MPAA rating (violence, profanity, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

BEFORE THE RAINS 2 ˝ stars. A melodrama of colonial karma set in the late days of the British Raj, with Linus Roache as an English tea planter whose affair with his Indian housemaid sets off a series of tragic events. Never less than compelling, but never more than adequately realized, either. 1 hr. 38 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER The win-at-all-costs American culture and how it helped spawn steroid use in sports is the focus of this outstanding documentary. 1 hr. 46 PG-13 (vulgarity, adult content, violent images, drug content) _ Wire services

BRA BOYS This odd, one-sided documentary looks at a community of surfers in Sydney, Australia, with a reputation for hard partying and a history of struggle to fit in with the wider society around them. Narrated by Russell Crowe. 1 hr. 30 R (profanity, some violent content and reckless behavior) _ Wire services

BODY OF WAR 3 stars. This documentary follows the travails of an Iraq war veteran who returns home to the U.S. after being seriously wounded. 1 hr. 27 No MPAA rating (medical candor) _ Carrie Rickey

CHAPTER 27 1 ˝ stars. Jared Leto gained 60 pounds to play Mark David Chapman, the deranged fan who shot John Lennon. He needn't have bothered, for J.D. Schaefer's film is excruciatingly slow and psychologically opaque. 1 hr. 25 R (sexual themes, profanity) _ Carrie Rickey

CHICAGO 10 2 stars. This documentary uses music, animation and interviews to look back at the riots during the 1968 Democratic convention. 1 hr. 43 R (profanity, sexual candor) _ Carrie Rickey

THE CHILDREN OF HUANG SHI Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars in the true story of a 1930s Brit who risks his life by helping to smuggle 60 orphans out of Japanese-occupied China. 2 hrs. 05 R (some disturbing and violent content) _ Wire services

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN 3 stars. A year after they fell through the wardrobe into the parallel universe of Narnia, the Pevensie siblings return to help the Narnians restore the legitimate ruler, Prince Caspian, to the throne. Andrew Adamson's film overcomes a shaky start to find its own rhythms. Despite its intended 'tween audience, this is less of an adventure than a war movie. 2 hrs. 17 PG (intense war and action sequences) _ Carrie Rickey

THE COUNTERFEITERS 3 ˝ stars. Winner of the 2008 Oscar for foreign language film, this true story of a band of concentration camp prisoners who worked on an SS counterfeiting ring _ trading their talents for their lives _ is powerful, affecting stuff. R (violence, atrocities, profanity, nudity, sex, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

THE FALL 3 ˝ stars. A dazzling fantasy, a dark fairy tale about suicide and broken hearts, this labor of love from top commercials director Tarsem is set in the early 20th century, and takes flight from an L.A. hospital ward to literally circumnavigate the globe. A celebration of cinema, of old-fashioned storytelling and spectacle, it stirs the soul. 1 hr. 56 R (violence, adult themes) _ Steven Rea.

FLAWLESS 2 ˝ stars. Demi Moore and Michael Caine star in this classy heist movie, set in London in the 1960s _ but not the Swinging '60s of mods and minis. There are some good, thrilling twists and turns, but the suspense is compromised by awkward moments and plot machinations that are just too much. 1 hr. 40 PG-13 (profanity, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON 3 ˝ stars. Not a remake, and not a kid flick, Hou Hsiao Hsien's sublime little film takes its inspiration from the 1956 children's classic, "The Red Balloon." Juliette Binoche stars as a harried single mom, juggling work and homelife, in contemorary Paris. Loose, improvisatory, with a grace and humor that's wonderfully inviting. 1 hr. 53 No MPAA rating (adult themes) _ Steven Rea

THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM 2 ˝ stars. Martial arts superstars Jackie Chan and Jet Li team up for the first time in this enjoyable, if hardly life-changing Fung Fu fest set in the smog-free days of ancient China. 1 hr. 53 PG-13 (violence, martial arts mayhem, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL 3 stars. Jason Segel, beer of the month from the Judd Apatow comedy microbrewery, is a musician who gets dumped by his actress girlfriend, runs away to Hawaii to nurse his wounds and finds himself at the hotel where his ex (Kristen Bell) is shacked up with her new beau (Russell Brand). Generic, if enjoyable. 1 hr. 52 R (frontal nudity, sex, profanity, drug vandor) _ Carrie Rickey

FRONTIER(S) 2 ˝ stars. A group of thieves escape from Paris during the violence that follows an election, then hide out at an inn run by neo-Nazis. Xavier Gens' "Frontier(s)," the latest entry in the French Horror New Wave ("Inside," "High Tension," "Malefique"), is a deeply disturbing, unapologetically brutal exercise in torture porn. 1 hr. 48 NC-17 (Extreme violence, sadism, gore, Nazism) _ Tirdad Derakhshani

FUGITIVE PIECES 2 ˝ stars. A handsome, emotionally predictable tale of survival: a young boy witnesses the death of his parents, and abduction of his sister in World War II Poland, then grows uop to be a writer tortured _ quite understadably _ by the traumas of his youth. 1 hr. 45 R (violence, sex, nudity, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

FUNNY GAMES 3 stars. Michael Hanake's English-language replica of his own thoroughly disturbing 1997 home-invasion drama, with Tim Roth and Naomi Watts as the well-to-do couple whose country home gets taken over by terribly polite psychopaths. Things don't go well for the victims, nor for the audience _ the film messes with our heads, with malicious glee. 1 hr. 47 R (violence, profanity, menace, child in jeopardy, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

HAROLD & KUMAR ESCAPE FROM GUANTANAMO BAY 3 stars. A post-9/11 pothead picaresque, this sequel to the 2004 hit finds the stoner duo doing just that _ escaping _ and skewering Bush-era xenophobia, government ineptitude, and a melting pot of racial and ethnic stereotypes. With John Cho as Harold, Kal Penn as Kumar, Rob Corddry as a lunkhead G-man and Neil Patrick Harris back again playing himself. 1 hr. 40 R (profanity, drugs, nudity, sex, violence, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

HONEYDRIPPER 3 stars. John Sayles affectionate portrait of an Alabama hamlet, circa 1950, when the equal rights struggle and the blues went electric. With Danny Glover, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Charles S. Dutton and lovely newcomer Yaya DaCosta. 2 hrs. 03 PG-13 (discreet sexuality, mild violence) _ Carrie Rickey

HORTON HEARS A WHO! 3 stars. In this animated feature, a lovable elephant protects a microscopic community from those who don't believe it exists. Jim Carrey, Steve Carell and Carol Burnett provide their voices. 1 hr. 28 G (mild cartoon suspense; nothing unsuitable for children) _ Carrie Rickey

IN BRUGES 3 stars. Teeming with goofball patter and profanity, gunfire, and jokes at the expense of dwarfs and Yanks, playwright Martin McDonagh's cracking good yarn follows a pair of Irish hitmen stuck in the picturesque Belgian burg, grappling with questions of honor, friendship and mortality. 1 hr. 47 R (violence, profanity, drugs, nudity, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL 2 ˝ stars. Wise-cracking, whip-snapping archaelogist adventurer Henry "Indiana" Jones is back, as Harrison Ford reunites with his fedora, and Steven Spielberg and George Lucas with one another in this third sequel to "Raiders of the Lost Ark." It's been 19 years since the last, and things are a little creaky. With Shia LaBeouf as the Indy heir apparent, and Cate Blanchett as a villainous Russian in this Ike-era escapade. 2 hrs. 04 PG-13 (violence, scares, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

IRINA PALM 3 stars. Marianne Faithfull _ yes, that rock goddess _ stars as an English country grandmother(!) in desperate need of money for her beloved grandson's surgery in Australia. With no assets but soft hands, she becomes a noted sex worker in London. No, we're not making this up. The movie is still a lugubrious snooze. 1 hr. 43 R (sexual content, nudity, language, dismal music) _ Karen Heller

IRON MAN 3 ˝ stars. Fast. Funny. Deliriously entertaining. As a hybrid of Howard Hughes and Hugh Hefner, Robert Downey Jr. delights as Tony Stark, billionaire playboy/inventor/businessman who realizes that U.S. soldiers are casualties of the weapons he's designed to protect them. 2 hrs. 06 PG-13 (sexual innuendo, violence) _ Carrie Rickey

JELLYFISH 3 ˝ stars. Israeli writer and director Etgar Keret (with Shira Geffen) conjures up a beautifully strange movie about three Tel Aviv women who share a common bond: a profound sense of disconnection from family, from loved ones, from themselves. Playful, mesmerizing, sad. 1 hr. 18 No MPAA rating (adult themes) _ Steven Rea

KUNG FU PANDA 3 stars. Jack Black gives voice, and emotion, to the title character, a rolypoly panda bear who works for his father's noodle shop in ancient China, but dreams of being a martial arts master. A spirited computer-animated follow-your-dream comedy _ smart, fun, with a little Zen wisdom to boot. 1 hr. 28 PG (cartoon violence) _ Steven Rea

LEATHERHEADS 2 ˝ stars. George Clooney and Renee Zellweger star in this doggedly retro homage to the breakneck screwball romances of Capra and Sturges. Set in the 1920s, in the early days of professional football, this Clooney-directed lark has its snappy, sassy moments, but not enough of them. 1 hr. 54 PG-13 (boozin' and brawlin', profanity, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

THE LIFE BEFORE HER EYES 2 ˝ stars. A somber meditation on fate and grief and guilt that gets the relationship between two teen girls just right, but goes off track as it deals with the haunting aftermath of a Columbine-like school shooting. With Evan Rachel Wood and Eva Amurri as the friends, and a tremulous Uma Thurman in a key role. 1 hr. 30 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

MADE OF HONOR 2 ˝ stars. "My Best Friend's Wedding" by way of "Notting Hill" and "Four Weddings and a Funeral," with Patrick Dempsey as a serial cad and Michelle Monaghan as his platonic best friend _ until she decides to go off and get married. 1 hr. 41 PG-13 (sex, profanity, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

MARRIED LIFE 2 ˝ stars. An oddly unsatisfying affair about a marital affair _ and a murder plot _ with Pierce Brosnan, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Cooper and Rachel McAdams in late 1940s New York. Part pulp, part melodrama, part dark, grown-up comedy _ but some part's missing. PG-13 (adult themes) _ Steven Rea

MISTER LONELY 2 stars. Harmony Korine's oddball, artsy indie is about people that've chosen to "be" other people: The title character is a Michael Jackson impersonator, and a too-earnest Samantha Morton is "Marilyn" _ as in Marilyn Monroe. The action switches from Paris to a Scottish commune inhabited by Abe Lincoln, James Dean, and a band of other impersonators, and then, for no apparent reason, to nuns jumping out of a plane. 1 hr. 52 No MPAA rating (profanity, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

THE MOTHER OF TEARS 3 stars, A gloriously tacky horror movie with an inclination towards the occult, the final installment in Italian schlockmeister Dario Argenti's "Three Mothers" trilogy stars his daughter, Asia Argenti, and deals with three 13th century totems that come to life, causing a plague of Evil _ and a plague of bad acting _ to overrun Rome. 1 hr. 38 No MPAA rating (violence, gore, nudity, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS 2 stars. Wong Kar Wai's gauzy romance/sputtering road movie stars Norah Jones as a soul-searching New Yorker who goes to Memphis and Vegas and back again, meeting up with David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz and Natalie Portman along the way. Back in NYC, Jude Law runs a diner, and serves up pie. 1 hr. 30 PG-13 (profanity, alcohol, violence, slo-mo smooching, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD 3 ˝ stars. The ideological battles of 1960s Italy pit brother against brother in Daniele Luchetti's freewheeling seriocomedy about Communist and Fascist in the same working-class family. In Italian with English subtitles. 1 hr. 48 R (profanity, sexual candor) _ Carrie Rickey

NEVER FOREVER 3 stars. An intense Vera Farmiga stars in this compelling cross-cultural romantic melodrama that asks the question: Is paying a stranger to impregnate you really an act of love towards your sterile husband? That's quite a question, and this is quite a movie _ fevered, erotic, outlandish. 1 hr. 42 No MPAA rating (sex, nudity, profanity, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

NIM'S ISLAND 2 ˝ stars. Mildly diverting action/adventure starring Abigail Breslin as a Robin Crusoe living on a desert isle with her marine-biologist father (Gerard Butler). Jodie Foster co-stars as an agoraphobic novelist. 1 hr. 35 PG (mild profanity) _ Carrie Rickey

NOISE 3 stars. Tim Robbins stars as a fed-up New Yorker who rails against the constant cacophony of car alarms, becoming a vandal, a vigilante, an urban folk hero, in Henry Bean's smart, nutty black comedy. 1 hr. 33 No MPAA rating (proganity, violence, sex, nudity, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

PARANOID PARK 2 ˝ stars. Intriguing and obliquely involving, Gus Van Sant's film _ based on Blake Nelson's young adult novel _ uses abstract means to tell the story of a young Portland, Ore. skateboarder who may be involved in a brutal death. 1 hr. 18 R (adult themes, graphic accident) _ Carrie Rickey

PENELOPE 3 stars. Christina Ricci stars in this modern-day fable about a girl and her problem proboscis. It's a variation on "The Ugly Duckling" and other tales where the hero _ or heroine _ has to overcome beastly obstacles to discover 1) their true self, and 2) true love. With James McAvoy as a down-on-his-luck Prince Charming. 1 hr. 30 PG (comic mayhem, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

PERSEPOLIS 4 stars. Marjane Satrapi's brilliant adaptation (with Vincent Paronnaud) of her graphic memoirs to animated film. Recounting her childhood and youth in Iran from the fall of the Shah to the rise of the mullahs, Satrapi creates a universal coming-of-age story that's unique as a fingerprint. 1 hr. 35 PG-13 (mature themes, war sequences, profanity, marijuana use) _ Carrie Rickey

REDBELT 2 ˝ stars. Full of tough patter and poker-faced actors walking in and out of rooms, David Mamet's latest is set in the world of mixed martial arts, and stars the great Chiwetel Ejiofor as a Zen-like jujitsu instructor who gets sucked into a seamy world of fight promoters and movie stars. Not top-notch Mamet, but Ejiofor makes it worthwhile. 1 hr. 39 R (profanity, violence, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

REPRISE 3 stars. Drawing inspiration from the young-artists-in-angst tales of Godard and Truffaut, this wheeling Norwegian film about two young writers is both a charming homage and a vibrant work in its own right. 1 hr. 45 R (sex, profanity, violence, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

ROMAN DE GARE 3 stars. Claude Lelouch's diversion is about a potboiler author (Fanny Ardant) haunted by her ghost writer (Dominique Pinon), who may be acting out the crime scenarios he writes. 1 hr. 43 R (profanity, sexual content) _ Carrie Rickey

SEX AND THE CITY 3 stars. Frothy as a Margarita and twice as salty, the further adventures of Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her bosom buds may well be the most effervescent film fantasy since "The Incredibles." With Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Chris Noth and Jennifer Hudson. 2 hrs. 20 R (nudity, sex, sexual candor, profanity, conspicuous consumption) _ Carrie Rickey

SHINE A LIGHT 2 ˝ stars. Martin Scorsese directs this Rolling Stones concert film _ from two New York shows midway through the band's 2006 tour. There's little drama, but plenty of music, with guest spots from Buddy Guy, Jack White, and Christina Aguilera. Messers. Jagger, Richards, Watts and Wood are in fine form musically, and Jagger's in pretty impressive shape physically, too. 2 hrs. 02 PG-13 (profanity, drug references, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

THE SIGNAL 3 stars. A startling, original apocalyptic horror comedy about an electronic signal which causes half the population to commit mass murder. Story focuses on the members of a classic love triangle who try to survive _ and deal with their romantic woes. 1 hr. 39 R (gore, intense violence, profanity) _ Tirdad Derakhshani

SLEEPWALKING 2 stars. This bleak, heavy-handed drama about a messed-up single mom (Charlize Theron) who skips out on her 11-year-old daughter is like Raymond Carver Not-So-Lite. AnnaSophia Robb plays the troubled kid, and Nick Stahl is her simple-minded, deadbeat uncle _ Theron's character's brother. Things go from grim to grimmer. 1 hr. 40 R (sex, profanity, violence, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

SMART PEOPLE 2 stars. A morose comedy starring Dennis Quaid as a cerebral professor and Ellen Page as his brainiac daughter who learn the difference between book-smart and life-smart. With Thomas Haden Church and Sarah Jessica Parker. 1 hr. 35 R (sexual candor, profanity, marijuana, underage drinking) _ Carrie Rickey

SNOW ANGELS 3 ˝ stars. Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell star as a broken-up couple with a young daughter in this disturbingly good, and grim, portrait of smalltown lives gone wrong. From the talented writer/director David Gordon Green. 1 hr. 46 R (violence, profanity, sex, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

SON OF RAMBOW 3 stars. Set circa 1982 in England, this whimsical and unpredictable comedy about fatherless 12-year-old misfits who adopt Sylvester Stallone's John Rambo as their fairy godfather is exhilarating fun. 1 hr. 36 PG-13 (brief movie violence, reckless behavior that has consequences. Suitable for those 10 and up) _ Carrie Rickey

THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES 3 stars. Tween adventure/fantasy about bickering siblings (Freddie Highmore and Sarah Bolger) who inherit an enchanted house and stand together against the dark forces who want it for their own. 1 hr. 31 PG (scary creatures, tweens in peril) _ Carrie Rickey

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE 3 stars. Errol Morris collects testimony from those indicted of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, demonstrates that photographs are unreliable evidence, and leaves the verdict to the audience. A challenging and disturbing tragedy that unsettles as it denies the audience the comfort of easy answers. 2 hrs. 01 R (disturbing images involving graphic nudity and torture) _ Carrie Rickey

STEEP 3 stars. Visually exhilarating if exasperating sports doc about the stars of extreme skiing _ men, mostly, who maneuver their way to the trickiest patches of the Alps, the Rockies or wherever, and then zoom groundward _ DROPPING STRAIGHT DOWN some of the most spectacular snow-covered places in the world. Now if only they'd shut up about it. 1 hr. 32 PG (profanity, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

STOP-LOSS 3 ˝ stars. Kimberly Peirce's pro-soldier, anti-bureaucrat,war-neutral account of Iraq soldiers redeployed to combat at the end of their tours-of-duty. Exceptional performances from Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum and Abbie Cornish. 2 hrs. 02 R (combat violence, profanity) _ Carrie Rickey

THE STRANGERS 1 star. Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman star as a moody twosome terrorized, tormented and tortured by a trio of masked psychos in this contemptible home invasion creepfest. 1 hr. 30 R (violence, profanity, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

STREET KINGS 3 stars. A hardboiled rogue-cop drama from "L.A. Confidential's" James Ellroy and "Training Day's" David Ayer. Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker star in this compelling, violent, if flawed and too-familiar tale of crime, corruption and belated honor on the streets of L.A. 1 hr. 45 R (violence, profanity, drugs, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

STUCK 3 stars. A quick and nasty social satire about a woman who hits a guy with her car, and lets him stay there, trapped in the broken windshield, bleeding. Mena Suvari and Stephen Rea star in this mix of horror and humor, offering a literally lacerating portrait of humankind at its worst. 1 hr. 25 R (violence, profanity, gore, sex, nudity, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE 3 ˝ stars. Alex Gibney's Oscar-winning doc examines the death of an Afghan taxi driver in custody at a U.S. military base, making the case that under the post-9/11 marching orders of the Bush administration, many of the fundamental rights and beliefs represented in the U.S. Constitution have been undermined or altogether jettisoned. 1 hr. 46 R (images of torture, nudity and sexual humiliation, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

10,000 B.C. 1 ˝ stars. Roland Emmerich's tedious, ludicrous and harmless glimpse at the dawn of civilization. With Steven Strait and Camilla Belle, whose mud makeup and dreadlocks match those of the woolly mammoths. 1 hr. 49 PG-13 (intense acton, violence, sexual threat) _ Carrie Rickey

THEN SHE FOUND ME 2 ˝ stars. Bette Midler stars as an eccentric talk-show host who decides to find and get involved in the life of the daughter (Helen Hunt) she gave up years earlier for adoption. R (profanity, sexual content) _ Carrie Rickey

21 3 stars. A glammed-up, hammed-up version of a real story about a gang of MIT math geniuses who figure out a way to win at blackjack, and take the Vegas casinos for millions. Jim Sturgess stars as a Beantown brainiac caught up in the scheme, with Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne and Kevin Spacey. 2 hrs. 03 PG-13 (profanity, violence, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

TYLER PERRY'S MEET THE BROWNS 2 stars. Angela Bassett stars as a hard-pressed single mom from the big city who goes to the Georgia sticks for a funeral, meeting up with her long-lost family _ and with some soapy melodrama and over-the-top farce, too, in this latest feel-good black-centric Tyler Perry production. With Rick Fox, Jenifer Lewis and David Mann. PG-13 (drugs, violence, adult themes) _ Steven Rea

U2 3D 3 stars. Bono and friends take to a series of South American stages in this straight up concert film with no backstage interviews or band history. 1 hr. 25 G (no sex or drugs, just rock and roll) _ Dan DeLuca

VANTAGE POINT 3 stars. A white-knuckle thriller set in Salamanca, Spain, in which an assassination attempt on the U.S. president is viewed from different perspectives. With William Hurt as the president, Sigourney Weaver as a news producer, Forest Whitaker as an American tourist with a camcorder, Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox as Secret Servicemen and Eduardo Noriega as a Spanish policeman. 1 hr. 30 PG-13 (mature themes, violence, profanity) _ Carrie Rickey

THE VISITOR 3 stars. The life of a bored, middle-aged college professor (Richard Jenkins) is changed by the presence of two immigrants who turn out to be living in the New York apartment where he's supposed to stay for a conference. 1 hr. 43 PG-13 (profanity) _ Carrie Rickey

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS ... 2 ˝ stars. Pleasant formula rom-com starring Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz respectively as a slacker and a workaholic who drunkenly meet, mate and marry on a Sin City spree. 1 hr. 39 PG-13 (profanity, sexual candor, crude humor) _ Carrie Rickey

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA BIN LADEN? 2 ˝ stars. Documentarian Morgan Spurlock ("Super Size Me") travels to the Middle East, ostensibly looking for Al Qaeda's architect, but really to make the point that from Afghanistan to Saudi Arabia to America, people are more alike than not. 1 hr. 30 PG-13 (profanity) _ Carrie Rickey

THE WITNESSES 3 stars. Sensual and compelling, Andre Techine's film is set in Paris in the Orwellian year of 1984 when the first wave of AIDS slammed the sexual garden of Eden and precipitated the expulsion from paradise. 1 hr. 52 No MPAA rating (nudity, sex, profanity) _ Carrie Rickey

THE YEAR MY PARENTS WENT ON VACATION Set in 1970 Brazil, with a totalitarian regime clamping down on the citizenry, this playful, yet poignant film follows a 12-year-old boy forced to fend for himself when his parents go missing and his grandfather dies. 1 hr. 44 No MPAA rating (adult themes) _ Steven Rea

YOU DON'T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN 2 ˝ stars. In this raunchily wholesome message movie that deploys Arab and Jewish stereotypes while smashing them, Adam Sandler is an Israeli commando who fakes his death and comes to America to be...a hairdresser. 1 hr. 53 PG-13 (nudity, sexual candor, sexual innuendo, ethnic sterotypes) _ Carrie Rickey

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RATINGS:

4 stars: Excellent; 3 stars: Good; 2 stars: Fair; 1 star: Poor

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© 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer.