LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION (PG) A blend of live action and cartoon craziness that, while not up to Who Framed Roger Rabbit standards, is certainly several steps up from Space Jam. The basic scenario here is simply a series of predictably frenetic chases — Brendan Fraser and Jenna Elfman join Daffy and Bugs in a mad race to locate a valuable diamond — but director Joe Dante infuses the project with more than enough clever pop culture references to keep the boomers happy. Also stars Steve Martin, Timothy Dalton and Joan Cusak. 
LOVE ACTUALLY (PG-13) From Four Weddings and a Funeral to Notting Hill, Richard Curtis' scripts have proven consistently funny, energetic, romantic, and just smart and quirky enough to compensate for stray moments of unruly sappiness. Love Actually, Curtis' first self-directed project, breaks absolutely no new ground, but it showcases most of the things the writer-director does best. Curtis interweaves nearly a dozen tales here, showing us all kinds of love, from the puppy and unrequited varieties, to office romances to power worship that might or might not be love, actually. None of it ultimately matters much, since Love Actually awards happy endings to all, urging its characters along to the fulfillment of their romantic daydreams, like lemmings to the sea. But, like those lemmings, it's hard for those of us in the audience not to get caught up in the movie's glib, carefully orchestrated enthusiasm. Ironically, the movie's weakest element is its biggest selling point — Hugh Grant, absurdly miscast as the eminently eligible Prime Minister of England (!), and a sweetly stammering, eye-fluttering parody of himself. Also stars Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Bill Nighy, Martine McCutcheon, Andrew Lincoln and Laura Linney.
MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (PG-13) Director Peter Weir's latest film is every bit the rousing, testosterone-infused adventure you're probably expecting, but it's also an above-average character study, and a finely drawn portrait of seafaring days in the early 19th-century. Based on Patrick O'Brian's popular novels about Captain Jack Aubrey, Master and Commander follows Aubrey (Russell Crowe) and the crew of HMS Surprise as they travel the seven seas (well, two or three of them), playing cat-and-mouse with a bigger, faster, better-armed French vessel. Crowe is the big sell here, of course, but the movie's considerably more than just a star's pretty face. For all its mainstream appeal, Master and Commander in many ways harks back to its director's earlier efforts — quiet, delicately textured films like Picnic at Hanging Rock — that relied as much on atmosphere as on plot. Weir's a good enough filmmaker to infuse this big-budget, big-name production with artistry, without alienating the affections of audiences primarily craving exhilarating action scenes. Also stars Paul Bettany and Billy Boyd. 1/2
THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS (R) Revolutions begins with a series of elegant set pieces, leading to a CGI-generated machines-versus-humans battle of numbingly epic proportions (with visuals ripped from Aliens via Robocop), and concludes with Keanu Reeves' savage messiah dishing up some obligatory cosmic comeuppance. There are few surprises this time out, but the movie feels more cohesive than the last installment, and it's so well made that we can't help but get caught up in all the fireworks. Also stars Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving and Jada Pinkett Smith. 1/2
THE MISSING (R) Ron Howard's new film takes place in the Old West, and it consciously recalls classic Westerns like The Searchers, big movies about obsessive quests, family, redemption, and the land. At the same time, The Missing isn't a Western at all; it's a horror story. Cate Blanchett is in typically fine form as a frontier doctor in crisis when an evil Apache witch doctor kills her lover and kidnaps her teenaged daughter. With no one else to turn to, she enlists the help of her estranged father (Tommy Lee Jones) — a conflicted and tragically flawed white man who's spent most of his life living with Indians — and together they ride off in search of the stolen child. Howard has some good, nasty fun weaving elements of supernatural horror throughout the film, and the unforgiving, anything-goes terrain of America's 19th-century frontier provides a surprisingly effective setting for it all. At the same time, The Missing remains a Western, first and foremost, with everything from James Horner's musical score to Salvatore Totino's exquisite cinematography evoking the form in fine style. Also stars Evan Rachel Wood. 1/2
