LIMITED RUN

Body and Soul: A Story of Blacks and Jews in America
A documentary about blacks and Jews in America, by University of Washington student Shaun Scott. Smith Hall #120, UW campus, Tues Nov 8 at 7 pm.

Consciousness, Creativity, and the Brain, featuring David Lynch
David (Eraserhead) Lynch is coming to town to preach to UW students about the virtues of transcendental meditation. No, really. This bizarre event is free and open to the public, and will include appearances by the quantum physicist John Hagelin, who, having appeared in the Ramtha recruitment film What the Bleep Do We Know!?, must be approached with caution. But Lynch made Eraserhead so, you know, it's all cool. Or is it? Kane Hall #130, UW campus, Mon Nov 7 at 7:30 pm.

Disease Warriors
A film series focusing on global health launches this week at a branch of the Seattle Public Library. Disease Warriors is about vaccine researchers from Louis Pasteur on. Capitol Hill Library, Wed Nov 9 at 6 pm.

Elevator to the Gallows
See review this issue. Varsity, Fri-Sun 12:30, 2:50, 5, 7:15, 9:20 pm. Mon-Thurs 7:15, 9:20 pm.

The Fence
A documentary about a16-year-old student activist who was kidnapped and tortured by Argentinean state police. Phinney Ridge Community Center, Sun Nov 6 at 3:30 pm.

The File on Thelma Jordan
Barbara Stanwyck plays Thelma Jordan in this 1950 film noir from Robert Siodmak. Seattle Art Museum, Thurs Nov 3 at 7:30 pm.

Five Easy Pieces
The greatest film ever made about male sexual dominance and its roots in both male and female despair. Jack Nicholson stars as Bobby Dupea, a piano prodigy currently pissing away his talent and promise in search of authenticity (work on oil rigs, sex with poor white trash, booze, fistfights). When his father's health takes a turn for the worse, he embarks on a road trip that will land him face to face with his own emotional hypocrisy, and send him hurtling into the existential infinite. Nicholson does the best acting of his life (the scene with his catatonic father gets you every time), and director Bob Rafelson was never so poetic, eloquent, or self-indicting. And the thing with the dyke hitchhikers is hilarious, too. (SEAN NELSON) Movie Legends, Sun Nov 6 at 1 pm.

Hana and Alice
A Japanese film about two young girls who convince a male peer that he has forgotten his love for one of them due to a bump on the head. Gowan Hall #201, UW campus, Thurs Nov 3 at 7:30 pm.

Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival
The environmental film festival that had its start in Leavenworth comes to Seattle with a series of short film programs. For a complete schedule and details, please see www.hazelfilm.org. All films in the Hazel Wolf series screen at Broadway Performance Hall. Opening reception with guest speaker Adam Werbach and a preview screening of Hazel Wolf: Open Doors, Thurs Nov 3 at 5:30 pm. Consumption Junction (including a screening of the activist favorite Afluenza), Fri Nov 4 at 5 pm. There Is No Place Like Home, Fri Nov 4 at 7:15 pm. The UN-natural World, Fri Nov 4 at 9:30 pm. NW Issues on Forests and Waterways (short films and discussion, no tickets required), Sat Nov 5 at 10 am. NW Issues on Transportation and the Environment (short films and discussion, no ticket required), Sat Nov 5 at 11:30 am. A Walk on the Wild Side (documentary about wolves), Sat Nov 5 at 1:30 pm. Busses, Burbs, and Big Business, Sat Nov 5 at 4 pm. Life Without..., Sat Nov 5 at 6:45 pm. Get on the Bus: Words from Woody (including Easy Rollin, Go Further, and Banjo Frogs), Sat Nov 5 at 9:30 pm.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch
With its charming pop-art magical realism, cinematic flashbacks, and the ability to present intimate documentary-style footage of Hedwig's misfit band on tour with their charlatan business manager (an excellent character addition), the movie version of Hedwig emphasizes the rich plot far better than the stage version did. (JOSH FEIT) Egyptian, Fri-Sat midnight.

Heidi
Shirley Temple stars in this 1937 version of the Johanna Spyri story about a little orphan girl who's kidnapped by her own aunt. Central Cinema, Sat-Sun, 12, 2:15, 4:30.

The Hollow Triumph
Film noir from 1948 about a con man and a botched scarification. Seattle Art Museum, Thurs Nov 3 at 7:30 pm.

Independent Exposure
The Independent Exposure series of eclectic short film and video programs returns to its Seattle birthplace for a 10th anniversary retrospective. Two programs encompass the best Independent Exposure has to offer, from documentary to animation and experimental films to a digital short entitled Buena Vista Fight Club. Central Cinema, Wed Nov 9 at 7 and 9 pm.

Inside Iraq: The Untold Stories
A documentary by Mike Shiley about Iraq. Pacific Place, Tues Nov 8 at 2 and 7:30 pm.

Lady Snowblood
A movie about a woman bent on bloody revenge for the massacre of her family. Gowan Hall #201, UW campus, Thurs Nov 10 at 7:30 pm.

Let's Roll
B-Movie starlet—and 1970 Playmate of the Year—Claudia Jennings straps on a pair of roller skates and plays Karen Walker, a girl with roller derby dreams, in the campy 1972 drive-in flick Unholy Rollers. The film's slim on plot, but full of action: Karen, who quickly rises to the top of the L.A. Avengers derby team, is a touch manic—she likes to throw things at her boss, pull a gun on her boyfriend, and smash things with her car. She fits right into this bizarre, frenetic film, and she's perfect for the Avengers, a team full of violence-prone, oft-naked coeds just like herself. (Prime example: A post-game happy hour turns into a beer brawl, with girls on the team ripping off Karen's clothes and smacking her around. Huh?) It's not all naked catfights, though. There's plenty of retro derby footage, played like derby used to be played: on a banked track without helmets! (AMY JENNIGES) All films in the Let's Roll series screen at Northwest Film Forum. Opening Night Party with Rat City Rollergirls Season Highlights, Fri Nov 4 at 9 pm. Unholy Rollers, Fri 7 pm, Sat-Mon 9 pm, Tues-Wed 7 pm. Skatetown, USA, Sat-Mon 7 pm. Rollerball, Sat 11 pm, Tues-Wed 9 pm.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
The coolest fucking British film you will see this year. Period. Set in the East End of London, it's a fast, frantic, and frequently flippant ride through the social strata of gangland as four wide boys send one of their number, cardsharp Eddie (heartthrob Nick Moran), to take on local crime boss Hatchet Harry (P. H. Moriarty) at poker. They soon find themselves in debt to the sum of half a million nicker, and they're not helped by the fact that Harry has put his debt collector Big Chris (soccer hardman Vinnie Jones) on their tails. It's a tidy movie—all the dead bodies are shot and accounted for—and it's also got a wicked, very English sense of humor. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels makes Tarantino look like the art school, panty-waisted wuss he undoubtedly is. (EVERETT TRUE) Central Cinema, Thurs-Sun 7, 9:30.

Lynn Hershman Leeson Film Series
In conjunction with the exhibition Hershmanlandia, the Henry Art Gallery screens Hershman Leeson’s two feature films. In Teknolust (2002), geneticist Rosetta Stone (Tilda Swinton) devises a way to download her DNA onto a computer. She then creates three Self Replicating Automotons (also Swinton) who, among other things, try to dance. Conceiving Ada is about a computer genius named Emmy who figures out a way to give birth to Ada Lovelace (Swinton again), a mathematician from the 19th century. Films screen at Henry Art Gallery Auditorium. Teknolust, Sat Nov 5 at 2 pm (Hershman Leeson in attendance). Conceiving Ada, Sun Nov 6 at 2 pm. Tickets free with museum admission.

The Oil Factor
A documentary about worldwide oil supplies and U.S. interests in the Middle East region. Pigott Auditorium, Seattle U campus, Wed Nov 9 at 7:30 pm.

The Oyster Farmer
Anna Reeves's feature film debut tells the story of Jack Flange (Alex O'Lachlan), a man who moves to a remote Australian fishing village to take care of his ailing sister. To supplement her diminishing insurance funds, he steals from a local fish market–only to lose the money in the mail. This comedic drama could have focused on Jack's frantic efforts to retrieve the cash, but instead Oyster Farmer directs its energy into its characters. In his search, Jack engages with the townspeople, including a seductive woman named Pearl (Diana Glenn). The film gives voice to even the most marginal characters (which must include the lush Hawkesbury River region where the film is set). Oyster Farmer takes too much time getting off the ground, but it offers fresh dialogue and many quirky, funny moments. It's a pleasantly understated film with a very human sensibility. (ILSA SPREITER) Grand Illusion, Weekdays 7, 9 pm, Sat-Sun 3, 5, 7, 9.

Señorita Extraviada
A documentary about the more than 200 women from Juarez, Mexico who have been kidnapped and murdered since 1993. Keystone Church, Fri Nov 4 at 7 pm.

Third Eye Cinema: Len Lye
The quarterly film program coordinated by Jon Behrens continues with this showcase of classic films by "kinetic sculptor" and direct animation pioneer Len Lye (1901-1980). Check out the "Gasparcolor"-processed Rainbow Dance, the "photogram" film Color Cry, and the "scratch film" Free Radicals, among other works by Lye. Plus films by Jon Behrens, R.K. Adams, Inna-Marie Strazhnik, and David Gatten. Northwest Film Forum, Mon Nov 7 at 7 pm.

Walking to Werner
See profile this issue. Seattle Art Museum, Sun Nov 6 at 7:30 pm.

We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen
We Jam Econo is a love letter to the Minutemen–Mike Watt, D. Boon, and George Hurley, all of whom are interviewed in this film. (Boon was killed in a car crash in 1985, but there is vintage footage of the guitarist from the band's early days). The hardcore Minutemen appreciation society will most likely appreciate the little details that come out of the film's extensive scope–like how Boon and Watt met as kids when Boon fell out of a tree, or how Watt went into a music store not knowing what a bass was (somehow) after already starting to play the instrument. (JENNIFER MAERZ) Northwest Film Forum, Fri-Sat 11 pm.

Werner Herzog Series
Werner Herzog will be in attendence to introduce two double features of his work, touching upon topics from space aliens to oil well fires and from Tibetan Buddhist pilgrims to hot balloons. All films screen at Seattle Art Museum. The Wild Blue Yonder, Tues Nov 8 at 7:30 pm. Lessons of Darkness, Tues Nov 8 at 9:15 pm. Wheel of Time, Wed Nov 9 at 7:30 pm. The White Diamond, Wed Nov 9 at 9:15 pm.

NOW PLAYING

The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Surprisingly smart and unashamed of a little jolt to the heartstrings, it's a sly movie, happy to shock occasionally, but happier still to bless its characters with the intelligence sorely lacking from most comedies. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)

Batman Begins
Taking equal inspiration from Sin City creator Frank Miller's Batman: Year One miniseries and artist Neil Adams' classic grim and gritty '70s run of Adam West apologia, the scenario circles back to the basics and has a ball reinventing the mythos. For the first time in a live-action recounting, the title character is actually allotted more attention than the inevitably showy villains. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Broken Flowers
Jarmusch's best films have always been built around an amicably aimless spirit, but Broken Flowers is undermined by a lack of drive comparable to that of its main character. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)

Capote
Capote is a restrained film about a man whose life and work were anything but. Despite its limited scope–it addresses only the years that Truman Capote was writing his groundbreaking In Cold Blood, about a Kansas robbery turned quadruple murder–you want to call the film, after the fashion of ambitious biographies, "A Life." Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Truman Capote, and his is an enveloping performance, in which every flighty affectation seems an invention of the man rather than the impersonator. His pursed lips and bons mots and the ravishing twirls of his overcoat become more and more infrequent until all that's left is alcohol and a horrible will to power. (ANNIE WAGNER)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The moment Willy Wonka makes his big entrance, cheering as an "It's a Small World"-style diorama bursts into flames, it's plain to see that Johnny Depp is in a world, and indeed a film, all his own. Unfortunately, director Tim Burton either doesn't know or doesn't care that the source material is being undermined by Depp's inventions. (SEAN NELSON)

The Constant Gardener
Heavily reworked by director Fernando Meirelles, the stripped-down screenplay retains John le Carré's basic thrust: following the disappearance of his activist wife, a middle-rung foreign ambassador goes proactive on a global scale, uncovering all sorts of corporate malfeasance before eventually zeroing in on illegal drug testing in the slums of Kenya. As in the best adaptations, there's a sense that The Constant Gardener is hijacking the source material in order to feed the filmmaker's personal obsessions. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Corpse Bride
Victor (voiced by Johnny Depp) is about to marry a lovely young woman named Victoria (Emily Watson). Following a strange series of accidents, Victor instead finds himself hitched to Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham Carter), a woman who died years ago on her wedding day. Victor is scared shitless, but Corpse Bride couldn't be happier. The wicked characters aren't nearly as wicked as they could've been, and the songs aren't particularly memorable, but the animation is classic Tim Burton. (MEGAN SELING)

Doom
Video game becomes movie becomes ballet... no, wait. Just movie.

Dreamer
As Kurt Russell (the smartest man alive!) surveys an injured horse shaking on the track, a heartless and beady-eyed bastard (who also happens to be a RACIST!) demands that they kill Horsey Horse: "She's broken! Kill it!" But creepy Dakota Fanning (Russell's daughter) doesn't want to see Horsey Horse die, so in a desperate attempt to avoid teaching a kid a painful lesson about life (which is: Everything dies, bitch), they let Seabiscuit... uh, I mean Horsey Horse, live. And after a couple of months of rest and a lot of strawberry popsicles, Horsey Horse can not only walk again, but she can run again, too! (MEGAN SELING)

Elizabethtown
Cameron Crowe's latest is shapeless, overstuffed, and frequently maddening. While traveling to Kentucky to retrieve his father's corpse, Orlando Bloom's disgraced shoe designer discovers an adorable stewardess (Kirsten Dunst). This basic love story occasionally recalls some of Crowe's old magic, particularly an impromptu all-night cell-phone conversation (complete with recharge), but the film's insistence on giving full attention to even the smallest quirk or emotional beat soon knocks things completely off-kilter. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Flightplan
A grieving widow wakes up at 30,000 feet to find her 6-year-old daughter missing, along with any sign that she ever stepped on board. As far as hooks go, this newfangled locked room story has a honey. The problem with fantastic premises, of course, is that they eventually have to be backed up. Despite Jodie Foster's beyond-the-call conviction in the lead role, Flightplan can't quite deliver on its promise, squandering some major paranoia with a disappointingly mundane third act. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

The Fog
While no masterpiece, John Carpenter's film benefited mightily from its bare-bones storytelling and realistically weathered cast, virtues which this new telling completely pisses away. As the final insult, the filmmakers have eliminated the trusty dry ice machine completely, in favor of fast-moving, noticeably fake CGI cotton-candy murk. What is there to say about a film whose titular weather condition can't even be bothered to show up? (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Good Night, and Good Luck.
Documenting the Red Scare clash between Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) and Joseph McCarthy, George Clooney's second trip behind the lens is a largely terrific picture: a scathing social document submerged within a deeply pleasurable entertainment.Movies about people simply doing their jobs can be fascinating in ways that are hard to define, to the point where a guy laying bricks can trump a fleet of star fighters. Through the eyes of Clooney and Strathairn, the newsroom becomes, variously, a shrine, a confessional, a torture chamber, and the best place in the world to hang out. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Grizzly Man
Werner Herzog has always had a thing for the abyss, of both the inner and outer kind. The much-Googled true story of Timothy Treadwell, a self-fashioned nature expert who spent 13 seasons in close contact with wild bears in Alaska before he and his girlfriend were devoured in 2003 by a rogue grizzly, seems so far up the director's alley as to be a little daunting–the kind of career-defining summation that can easily tar-baby a filmmaker into submission. He nails it. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

A History of Violence
A History of Violence looks like a straightforward mobster flick, but what keeps the film mesmerizing is Cronenberg's style–at once detached and tense–combined with the brutal beauty of Viggo Mortensen as the stoic central character. There's a horrible splendor in his performance as a man in whom will and instinct merge into a simultaneously humane and amoral machine. (SHANNON GEE)

In Her Shoes
Introduced with a lulu of a thong shot, Cameron Diaz's barely literate Philly party girl clashes with her type-A attorney sister (Toni Collette), as she lifts cash, boyfriends, and clothes at every opportunity. After a final transgression banishes Diaz to the Florida doorstep of her estranged grandmother (Shirley MacLaine, still possessing atomic-clock timing), the irradiated family unit must find a way to reunite. Character arcs are broad but reasoned, plot devices are conveniently timed, yet never annoyingly so, and there isn't a single damned group sing-a-long to be found. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Just Like Heaven
Über-pert Reese Witherspoon plays Elizabeth, a frigid, workaholic doctor who crosses paths with a careening truck and winds up in a coma. While her mortal shell lies vacant in the hospital, Elizabeth's stylish and sassy spirit heads back to her apartment, only to find studly subletter David (Mark Ruffalo) failing to use a coaster. The dialogue surpasses cliché to achieve total nonsense, the jokes are insultingly lazy, and even the ghost-movie inconsistencies are familiar. (LINDY WEST)

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Shane Black's directorial debut, is a riotously meta piss-take on Hollywood excess. Shifting his sights to the detective story, Black writes and directs like a man attached to a fuse, creating a vulgar wonderland chock-full of both body parts and snappy patter. If, as some have speculated, Satan is indeed involved in Black's career, then Satan deserves a raise. The plot–low-rent thief turned actor (Robert Downey Jr.) makes his way to L.A., gets tangled up with Val Kilmer's proudly out sleuth–is loopy enough on its own, but what makes it a blast is the director's sly violation of the genre's old corpses. Black's enthusiasm rubs off on his actors, who appear to be having an out-and-out ball. Watching their collective take on the private dick probably won't do your karma any favors, but there may not be a better time in theaters this year. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

The Legend of Zorro
The story is pure retread (of Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious, specifically), involving an evil Frenchman (of course), a crackpot scheme (of course), and a dangerous soap (huh?). Swords clang, the music swells, and things go boom–with pulse-deadening results. Added into the mix this go around is Zorro's wretchedly annoying son, whose predictable arc helps to completely capsize the entire project. Children may be our future, but they are, without a doubt, the death of our movies. When you're rooting for a villain to run a saber through an 8-year-old, the producers may have miscalculated. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)

Lord of War
Lord of War, Andrew Niccol's ambitious, blacknasty take on arms dealing, certainly has its share of niceties, most noticeably a wittily subdued performance by Nicolas Cage as Yuri Orlov, but it can never quite get a fix on the delivery of its volatile subject matter. When the film deals with the nuts and bolts of the weapons business, it carries a nifty, amoral charge. Where it falters is in the larger rags-to-riches-to-rags framework, which comes off as both moldy and maddeningly condescending. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Madagascar
Content to perform several times a day before his adoring fans, Alex has no desire to leave his cozy confines-until his best friend, a zebra named Marty (Chris Rock), hits the road in search of freedom. Alex and annoying friends give chase, find Marty, end up on a ship, arrive on the shores of Madagascar, and lessons about the wild vs. captivity, hunger vs. friendship, and how to build a plush tiki bar without opposable thumbs ensue. Too bad none of it is funny in the least. (BRADLEY STEINBACHER)

March of the Penguins
The only animal worth making a documentary about is the human. (CHARLES MUDEDE)

MirrorMask
MirrorMask, Dave McKean's much-anticipated feature-length directorial debut, shows that whatever his gifts, moving pictures may not yet be his medium. Taken on a shot-by-shot basis, McKean's talents for design are more than evident, with bizarro cityscapes and oddball characters rendered even more impressive by the miniscule $4 million budget. On a whole, however, the results are less Lewis Carroll and more Labyrinth. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Nine Lives
Consisting of nine single-shot vignettes (most only tenuously connected), writer/director Rodrigo García's Nine Lives is a bit of a beautiful freak: full of wonderful moments, but constrained by the rigid novelty of its structure. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

North Country
As a miner who endures cosntant sexual harrassment, Charlize Theron rarely makes it through a scene without her eyes filling with bravely suppressed tears, and the film keeps flashing forward to the courtroom drama that will bring her vindication. Unfortunately, the film blows its trial-by-jury conceit early, with a truly climactic showdown in the miners' union hall. The actual court dramatization (involving wanton witness-badgering, spectators rising in unison, etc.) is melodramatic and contrived. The physical landscape in North Country is inhuman, inhospitable, and desolate; in such a context, it's strange that the plot should proceed so confidently toward humanism, harmony, and justice. (ANNIE WAGNER)

Prime
As far as the main girl-boy-mom love triangle goes, Prime has a surprisingly light touch. New Yorkers Rafi (Uma Thurman) and David (Bryan Greenberg) meet outside of the restroom during a screening of Blow Up. She's a rich older WASP, he's a Jewish wannabe painter who still lives with his grandparents. And her therapist Lisa (Meryl Streep) is his mother. After the screenplay establishes a few narrative conveniences–Lisa uses her maiden name professionally, both Rafi and David lie about the age of their paramours–the stage is set for some rich dramatic irony. Prime isn't guilt-free entertainment, but with some nice Manhattan locations and a "Palestinians Do It Better" T-shirt to sweeten the deal, it isn't unpleasant either. (ANNIE WAGNER)

Proof
Though it's not as grossly heavy-handed as A Beautiful Mind, this film suffers from a similar failure of specificity. Of course Jake Gyllenhaal isn't convincing as a math graduate student–but it's not because he's sexy. It's because his character never talks directly about math. Proof resonates emotionally, but the real achievement would have been sneaking some real math into a math movie. And no, name-dropping Sophie Germain doesn't count. (ANNIE WAGNER)

Saw II
Remember 2004? Remember how much you liked Saw? Well, madman-with-a-heart-of-gold Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is back (finally!) and he just wants to help. His body ravaged by cancer, he decides to spend his last days giving back the only way he knows how: spreading a little joie de vivre through gruesome torture and mutilation. Hence, Saw II. According to Jigsaw, "those that don't appreciate life don't deserve life." What they deserve, apparently, is to be sliced and poked and gouged and gassed, to have their heads crushed in spiky helmets and their children abducted. There is nothing about this movie that I didn't hate. (LINDY WEST)

Serenity
This six-gun space oddity comes recommended, but you may want to brush up on the Firefly series before venturing into the theater. For God's sake, don't let the hardcore fans smell virgin blood. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Shopgirl
Adapted by Steve Martin from his novella of the same name, Shopgirl is a film with strangely divided loyalties. Mirabelle (Claire Danes) is a lonely, sensitive Vermont native, stuck behind the rarely frequented glove counter at Saks Fifth Avenue in L.A. She's so desperate for post-collegiate human contact that she'll accept dates from any bachelor. The film borrows the deliberate pace and resolutely postmodern ennui of Lost in Translation, along with aspects of that film's plot. But in most of its particulars, Shopgirl betrays a fetish for the past. Mirabelle's abject status and occupation would be stock clichés–if she were the heroine of a '20s melodrama. In a film more aware of its proclivities, this nostalgia wouldn't be a fault. As it stands, the old-fashioned values the film espouses (gallantry, attention to a woman's needs) feel like a cover for historical sins (sexism, annoyingness) that I'd rather time would forget. (ANNIE WAGNER)

Thumbsucker
Thumbsucker, Mike Mills's first feature film, is a sweet coming-of-age movie with a mildly Freudian catch–no more than that, but certainly no less. Justin Cobb (Lou Pucci, perfectly cast) is a high-school senior, and he still sucks his thumb. It's a quiet habit for a quiet kid, but breaking it unleashes all kinds of static on his family and friends. (ANNIE WAGNER)

Two for the Money
Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey star in this movie about the sleazy world of sports betting.

Waiting...
Set within a bric-a-brac-studded theme restaurant, Waiting... aspires to be the grand champeen of the vulgar workplace comedy pioneered by Clerks, but the all-important rhythm between cast and script feels miserably off. Not to get all Joel Siegel-y or anything, but the delivery sucks. (ANDREW WRIGHT)

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
It's almost time for the annual vegetable fair, and the town has been taking great care in growing the very best produce possible. Problem is, a bunch of ravaging rabbits have been eating up as much of the harvest as their bunny faces can fit. This would be a problem, but luckily for everyone, Wallace and Gromit have invented the Bunny Vac 6000, a large vacuum that humanely sucks up the cutest frickin' bunnies in the whole wide world, and safely releases them to another location. Hooray! But you know how bunnies like to, ahem, breed, so of course the rabbit population keeps rising and rising despite Wallace's efforts. The humor is just as funny as the classic Looney Tunes (which were funny!) but even smarter because it's not actually American-made. (MEGAN SELING)

The Weather Man
Chicago news fixture Dave Spritz (Nicolas Cage) is living out an existence that might make Ziggy weep: bitter, soon-to-be-ex wife, space-case kids, and a disdainful Pulitzer-winning dad (Michael Caine). Things get worse. Despite an ad campaign stressing the wacky interactions between Cage and his adoring, trash-flinging fans, this is an odd, slowly simmering little character study, with a tonal palette that wavers somewhere between About Schmidt and Taxi Driver. (In one of the more worrying subplots, the main character develops an intense interest in archery.) Cage and director Gore Verbinski (The Ring) deserve credit for going all the way into their subject's doldrums, but their commitment doesn't exactly make for a fun view. Worth a look, but have booze handy. (ANDREW WRIGHT)