HELLBOY (PG-13) As Michael Mann can tell you from his experience directing The Keep, nothing quite beats the combination of Nazis and the supernatural. Hellboy does Mann one better, throwing lots of slimy, Lovecraftian monsters and undying super-assassins into the mix. Based on the Dark Horse action-fantasy comic about crime-fighting demons, Hellboy may remind some of X-Men or Men in Black and others of Ghostbusters with very sharp teeth. Director Guillermo Del Toro (Blade II, Cronos, The Devil's Backbone) brings his own distinctive vision to the project, however, creating a world rich in atmosphere, humor, humanity and an imagination that occasionally borders on the nightmarish (although things also often veer in the other direction, toward unabashed silliness). The nominal star is Ron Perlman, at home again under a ton of bright red makeup that makes him look like a big surly monkey with horns. The real star, though, is Del Toro, who is increasingly beginning to look like one of contemporary cinema's few genuine poets of the fantastic. The movie's rated PG-13 but it's a hard PG-13, by the way, so parents of small kiddies be warned. Also stars Selma Blair, John Hurt, Jeffrey Tambor and Rupert Evans. 
JOHNSON FAMILY VACATION (PG-13) This is an African-American National Lampoon's Vacation, which raises the question: Why would Cedric the Entertainer want to be Chevy Chase when he has the potential to be much funnier, without the premature burnout? The incidents on the road prove too stupid for words, and while Cedric has some good one-liners, you can hear most of them in the trailer. —Steve Warren
KILL BILL, VOLUME TWO (R) There's still a goodly amount of blood and guts to be found here, but if KB1 was all form and slick, shocking exteriors, then KB2 often appears to be the inside of the story, the so-called heart. KB2 is still basically a cartoon, albeit a more elaborately illustrated one, but it's also where the story behind the story of the first film starts opening itself up and, eventually, turning itself inside out. Tarantino's new movie sometimes almost seems to be on the verge of becoming a blood-spattered chick flick about the, uh, complicated relationship between Uma Thurman's retired assassin and her former employer and lover, Bill (David Carradine). In the end, KB2 is more interesting for how it defies expectations than for what it actually achieves, but it's nice to see that Tarantino hasn't completely turned his back on the idea of telling a genuine story peopled by real-live humans with real-live emotions. Also stars Michael Madsen and Darryl Hannah.
KITCHEN STORIES (NR) Norwegian director Brent Hamer's eccentric but ultimately endearing comedy is a classic example of less is more. The story here is a bit odd but rigorously minimal — a Swedish statistician comes to Norway to observe the domestic habits of local bachelors — and the movie's dry, deadpan humor often hangs on just a look, a gesture or an extra beat of anticipation. The film is slight but slyly ingratiating, with its droll sight gags and social observations eventually giving way to a fairly standard bonding story between a middle-age Swedish observer and the old Norwegian bachelor he's supposed to be dispassionately tracking. There's even a tiny undercurrent of the homoerotic here, although it's all about as stirring as a warm pair of feetie pajamas. Stars Joachim Calmeyer and Tomas Norstrom.
THE LADYKILLERS (PG-13) The latest oddball odyssey from those wacky Coen Brothers remakes the beloved British comedy about a gang of crooks and con men using the home of an elderly widow as a base from which to pull off a heist. The movie's edges have been dutifully smoothed out and its characters, while colorful and eccentric, are never memorably odd in the best Coen tradition. Despite the occasional signature touch — a cat with a human finger in its mouth, a running gag involving Irritable Bowel Syndrome, a man giving mouth-to-mouth to a bulldog — the movie feels like another exploration of the mainstream vein recently opened up, to similarly mixed results, in Intolerable Cruelty. Most frustrating of all is the film's finale, a reduction of the original's elaborate last act to what feels like a rushed, 10-minute afterthought. Stars Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, Marlon Wayans and J.K. Simmons.
LAWS OF ATTRACTION (PG-13) Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore play dueling divorce lawyers dealing with a massive mutual attraction that should make things more interesting, but doesn't, in this latter day riff on Adam's Rib. The mush-headed script is as dull as they come, leaving us with a movie that isn't really much more than a showcase for some watchable chemistry between the stars. Moore is a bit out of her element here, but gamely manages a few passable comedic moves, while the ever-charming Brosnan displays to full advantage that perfectly sculpted hair that adorns both his scalp and pecs. That's about it. Also stars Frances Fisher and Nora Dunn.
