The X-Files invade multiplexes

OPENING THIS WEEK

OSS 117: CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES (NR) Based on a series of books and films that took France by storm in the '50s and '60s, this French spy spoof captures the style of that period perfectly, functioning as a somewhat drier and droller Austin Powers, with a sprinkling of satirical swipes at the European colonialist mentality. Jean Dujardin channels early Sean Connery to a T as the aristocratically monikered Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, aka agent OSS 117, a semi-clueless super-spy who spends his time battling bad guys, bedding babes and undertaking a modest little mission to "make the Middle East safe." No problem. Also stars Berenice Bejo, Aure Atika, Phillippe Lefebvre, Constantin Alexandrov. Opens July 25 at Tampa Theater. 3.5 stars

STEP BROTHERS (PG-13) Read Lance Goldenberg's review.

THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE (PG-13) Six years after their TV show went out with a whimper, not a bang, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are back as Mulder and Scully, chasing after slime-oozing aliens and other things that go bump in the night. Series creator Chris Carter is the writer-director here, promising lots of inside jokes, updates and surprises for the true believers. Also stars Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly and Xzibit. Opens July 25 at local theaters. (Not Reviewed)

RECENT RELEASES

BABY MAMA (PG-13) Tina Fey and Amy Poehler offer up a watered-down version of their old SNL chemistry in this inoffensive comedy about a successful businesswoman (Fey) who hires a clueless skank (Poehler) to be the surrogate mother for her child. Nobody plays white trash as well as Poehler (it has something to do with that crazed, Nicholson-ian glint in her eye), but the script plays things too safe to let the comedian be nearly as unhinged as she needs to be. And between Poehler's antics and some juicy cameos by the likes of Steve Martin and Sigourney Weaver, the extremely funny Fey winds up reduced to a straight woman, or worse — a virtual supporting player in her own movie. There are a handful of nice moments (a Young Republican couple bonding with their Wiccan surrogate; "Endless Love" playing over an artificial insemination scene), but what pleasures there are here are nearly forgotten in a ridiculously inept final act full of forced revelations and rushed resolutions. The strong of heart can stick around for the closing credits, which feature some of the most worthless outtakes you'll ever see. Also stars Dax Shepard, Greg Kinnear, Romany Malco, Siobhan Fallon, Maura Tierney and Holland Taylor. 2.5 stars

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN (PG) Over 1300 years have passed since the events of 2005's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, but the more things change the more they stay the same. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian finds the titular kingdom once again under the thumb of evil despots and again in need of saving by our noble, still younger-than-springtime heroes (who are this time whisked away from grimy London to magical mystery land not via wardrobe but by the conduit of a Potter-esque train station). The sequel's look and feel is a bit darker than the original, with a vaguely Medieval ambience and an endless clanking of swords and solemn line readings that become tedious well before the movie's 144 minutes have elapsed. Character development is even more cursory than in the first film, with the main draw being a tapestry of unintentionally dopey-looking centaurs, minotaurs and talking animals (including a rodent rip-off of Shrek's swashbuckling kitty) that, mystical pretensions aside, belong in a Sid and Marty Krofft production. Sergio Castellitto makes an interesting villain and Peter Dinklage manages to maintain his dignity under a false nose and gnomish make-up, but there's not much else to brighten up the plodding here. When Tilda Swinton's evil witch briefly materializes towards the end — and then just as quickly vanishes — the movie's lack of life becomes all too apparent. Also stars Ben Barnes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes and Warwick Davis. 2.5 stars

THE DARK KNIGHT (PG-13) Good as it was, Batman Begins was just a warm-up for this latest installment in director Christopher Nolan's franchise, an adrenaline-charged action-thriller that is also a complex and luxuriously moody rumination on human nature, heroes and villains, and order vs. chaos. Christian Bale returns as the movie's iconic (albeit thoroughly human) hero, a man who thrives on the importance of symbols. But it's Heath Ledger who pushes the film into the cinematic stratosphere as The Joker. A deranged spook with Ratso Rizzo's phlegmatic snarl and splotchy make-up swiped from Bette Davis' Baby Jane, Ledger's Joker is a gestalt of the century's biggest bogeymen (think Osama by way of Dr. Lector), with the movie strongly suggesting a symbiotic relationship between his random sadism and the more orderly vigilantism of his caped and cowled nemesis. The director and his sibling co-writer, Jonathan Nolan, fill the film with intriguing and disturbing mirror images and parallels, while the interlocking storylines twist and turn with the aggressive intricacy of Nolan's earlier Memento even as The Dark Knight plows full steam ahead at a breathtaking clip. Fans may wish the movie were simply a little more, well, fun, and there truthfully isn't a whole lot of light at this end of this bat-tunnel — but it's hard to deny The Dark Knight. It's a remarkable achievement, succeeding equally as sophisticated, artful drama, as whiz-bang entertainment and as bona fide pop-culture phenomenon. Hottest ticket of the summer, hands down, and one of the very best films of the year. Also stars Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman. 4.5 stars

FLIGHT OF THE RED BALLOON (NR) Loosely inspired by Albert Lamorisse's 1956 The Red Balloon, Hou Hsiao-hsien's Flight of the Red Balloon exudes the severe but exceedingly poetic style — full of long takes, minimalist dialogue and free-floating narratives — for which this Taiwanese auteur is know. There's an actual red balloon in both films, for what it's worth, and a young Parisian lad who treats the inanimate object as if it were a special friend. But the balloon soon disappears from Hou's picture (rematerializing for only a few moments at the midpoint and end), and Flight of the Red Balloon moves on to examining other, more mundane signs of life. Hou trains his patient, ever-attentive camera upon a household going about is business, the balloon peeping through the window periodically, but all of this is basically just a framework for the characters to express themselves through improvised dialogue and an accumulation of details. Viewers without prodigious attention spans are likely to be put off by all this reveling in the quotidian, however, with a few of the characters sometimes feeling less than fully formed. Flight of the Red Balloon is full of the eloquent artistry for which Hou is known, but it's also less emotionally engaged and less ambitious than the best films of this director, who ultimately comes off as a bit of a Taiwanese fish out of water in Paris. Also stars Juliette Binoche, Simon Iteanu, Song Fang, Hippolyte Girardot and Louise Margolin. 3.5 stars

GET SMART (PG-13) True to the spirit of the 1960s TV series without parroting or postmodernizing it to death, the big-screen Get Smart gets by on goofy charm, a higher-than-average percentage of jokes that hit their target and a winning comedic performance by Steve Carell. Carell steps neatly into Don Adams' shoes (and inherits his trademark shoe phone) as Maxwell Smart, aka Agent 86, a likeable but somewhat delusional bumbler who's convinced he's the greatest secret agent since that Bond guy. 2008's Get Smart humanizes Smart by having Carell's character start out as an underappreciated intelligence analyst who's frustrated at being a middle-aged "invisible man" and who only gets to realize his dream of becoming an agent when all the other spies are conveniently compromised. Once Max gets his groove on, though, the movie doesn't look back, whisking around Russia and other exotic ports of call rooting out enemy agents and foiling assassination attempts in a plot that's short on logic but long on breezy energy. Meanwhile the gags fly thick and fast, as the movie liberally spices up its action with some choice bits that allow Carell to shine, mostly slapstick-ish routines involving the comedian falling out of airplanes, imitating an idiot and repeatedly shooting himself in the face with a mini-harpoon. The rest of the cast is pretty solid as well, from Anne Hathaway (channeling a Shrimpton sister via smashing '60s fashions and foot-long lashes) to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's pitch-perfect parody of a slick super-spy to the elegantly villainous Terrence Stamp. Look close and you may even find Bill Murray in there, lurking within some innocuous clump of flotsam and jetsam. Also stars Alan Arkin. Terry Crews, David Koechner and James Caan. 3.5 stars

HANCOCK (PG-13) Will Smith stars as a surly, alcoholic superhero in Hancock, and sad to say, that concept is all there is to this glum Hollywood product. Devoid of a compelling story, Hancock relies instead on Smith's star power, gimmicky direction and the de rigueur assemblage of CGI effects typical of would-be summer blockbusters. As the titular hero, Smith has a penchant for drinking excessive amounts of whiskey and causing millions of dollars' worth of destruction during his rescues and crime-stopping endeavors. Even at its best, Hancock doesn't reinvent the superhero genre's template so much as invert it, to mild comic effect, and it never makes satisfactory use of the issues it raises, namely fate, responsibility and duty to one's fellow man. While Hancock the hero embraces his potential, Hancock the film squanders it away. Also stars Jason Bateman, Charlize Theron and Eddie Marsan. 2 stars —Anthony Salveggi

HELLBOY 2: THE GOLDEN ARMY (PG-13) One of the odder Hollywood blockbusters around, and I use the word "odder" with great affection, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is that rarest of big-budget popcorn movies — a sequel that ups the ante of the original, taking chances so bizarre as to put the franchise at risk. The action sometimes even takes a backseat to the movie's fundamental quirkiness this time out, and though there's a little too much rambling going on to generate a fully cohesive story, the sheer outpouring of imagination is almost too much of a good thing. Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) directs this sequel to his phantasmagorical 2004 blowout, dazzling us with a full-to-bursting sense of the fantastic that's gleefully tongue-in-cheek (think Men in Black meets the cantina scene from Star Wars) but never less than sincere, conjuring an eye-popping world of elves, ogres, kitty-gobbling trolls and tooth fairies for the movie's cigar-chomping demon-hero (Ron Perlman) to contend with. Nobody makes the grotesque as appealing as del Toro, whose big message seems to be that we need our monsters — a point eloquently demonstrated by the movie's supernatural villain (Luke Goss) railing against humankind for failing to understand that the world would be a poorer place without its creatures of the night. Things tend to get a little silly from time to time — a lovesick Hellboy drinking beer in the shower is one thing, but seeing the big red guy get sloppy crooning "Can't Smile Without You" is pushing it. But Hellboy 2 is good enough to withstand even Barry Manilow. Also stars Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Jeffrey Tambor, Anna Walton and John Hurt. 3.5 stars

THE INCREDIBLE HULK (PG-13) The Hulk, for those who may be unfamiliar with Marvel Comics' green-skinned man's man, is rage personified — a towering, pea-brained inferno who bubbles up from the depths of mild-mannered Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) whenever BB gets agitated — and The Incredible Hulk's most salient feature may just be the heaps of unfiltered aggression it offers audiences like holy communion. Gone are the moody convolutions and Oedipal mumbo jumbo of Ang Lee's poorly received 2003 Hulk, and in its place we have nearly two hours of pure id, complete with CGI effects that turn the Hulk into a steroid casualty resembling nothing so much as a big, green penis. This isn't exactly one of the more sophisticated narratives you'll encounter this season, but the sound and fury can be seductive. Hulk might essentially be a combination of unchecked hormones and unlimited strength that speaks directly to adolescent boys, but by the end of the movie, he's oozing a raw power that even the Sex and the City girls might find attractive. Also stars Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, Tim Blake Nelson, William Hurt, Ty Burrell and Christina Cabot. 3 stars

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (PG-13) A surprisingly satisfying return to form, the new Indiana Jones movie is an old-fashioned adventure so expertly crafted and consistently entertaining we barely have a moment to consider the empty calories. Set in 1957, exactly 19 years after the last installment took place, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull gives us a naturally aged Indy, wrinkled and graying but still iconic under that familiar fedora, much as an aging Humphrey Bogart (circa The African Queen) might have played him. The movie barrels along, delivering one super-charged set piece after another, sequences all the more remarkable for largely avoiding CGI and relying on proudly old-school building blocks like skillful, intricately orchestrated stunts and a well-placed camera. It's a perpetual motion machine as impressive as something like Speed Racer, but infinitely closer to the natural charms of Buster Keaton or Jackie Chan than to the vacuum-packed, post-Matrix shenanigans of the Wachowski Brothers. What computerized trickery is here is generally so seamlessly integrated into the action that we barely notice it, the one notable exception being the movie's finale, a lazily conceptualized mish-mash of digital explosions, big-eyed aliens and other elements rehashed from earlier Spielberg productions. It's an unbecoming send-off for a movie that for the most part manages to remain faithful to a formula while revitalizing itself through sheer energy and imagination. Also stars Cate Blanchette, Shia LaBeouf, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone and John Hurt. 3.5 stars

IRON MAN (PG-13) Even if every aspiring blockbuster released over the next few months turns out to be a massive dud, the summer of '08 will be fondly remembered for Iron Man, a credit to popcorn movies everywhere. Marvel Comics' metal-suited superhero is shepherded to the big screen by director Jon Favreau (Elf, Made) and co-writers Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby (Children of Men), a talented team that supplies a surprisingly smart story that moves briskly while beautifully balancing humor and darker moments. There's also a super cast including Gwyneth Paltrow as pitch-perfect girl Friday Pepper Potts and Jeff Bridges as a towering weapons magnate with Daddy Warbuck's cue-ball head — but this is ultimately Robert Downey Jr.'s show, who invests the role of Iron Man's alter ego, playboy wunderkind Tony Stark, with enough charm, pathos and irreverent edge to keep us glued to the screen. Although not as visually poetic as the superhero movies of Bryan Singer (X-Men, Superman Returns) or as existentially engrossing as the darker-than-dark Batman Begins, Iron Man is the real deal — a first-rate comic-book flick as suitable for grown-ups as it is for kids. Also stars Terrence Howard, Shaun Toub and Hilary Swank. 3.5 stars

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (PG-13) State-of-the-art special effects will almost certainly be the real stars of this big-screen version of Jules Verne tale of a scientist discovering marvels, terrors and a fabulous lost city deep within the bowels of the earth. The movie will play at select theaters in a 3-D version, which is probably the ideal way to see this. Stars Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson and Anita Briem. (Not Reviewed)

KIT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL (G) This first feature film inspired by the mighty American Doll franchise turns out to be a surprisingly classy and, dare I say it, literate production. Things get a little dry here and there, but this handsome, wholesome period piece compensates with just enough kid-friendly gestures to keep even the youngest viewers interested. The movie is set during The Great Depression (the last one, in case you were wondering), and stars Little Miss Sunshine's Abigail Breslin as a plucky, resourceful 10-year-old whose upper-middle-class family finds itself reduced to taking in boarders to make ends meet. At root, of course, this is just a light family entertainment (culminating in a Nancy Drew mystery, complete with dastardly crooks and buried treasure), but the movie doesn't shy away from troubling topics like kids coping with vanishing social status or fathers deserting families they can no longer support, underscoring the fragility of prosperity (now a timelier notion than ever) while fleshing out its occasionally poignant essaying of life in the 1930s. Even with its misbehaving monkey, a gaggle of wacky characters and a climactic, slapstick-heavy chase through the woods, Kit Kittredge is a movie for children who like to think, even if they won't admit it. Also stars Julia Ormond, Chris O'Donnell, Jane Krakowski, Joan Cusack, Stanley Tucci, Zach Mills, Wallace Shawn, Glenne Headly and Willow Smith. 3.5 stars

KUNG FU PANDA (PG) Kung Fu Panda doesn't offer much more than a reasonably pleasant but surprisingly savvy stew of talking animals engaged in grand quests, and Joseph Campbell's theory of the Hero's Journey isn't the only mythos to be reckoned with here. George Lucas' shadow likewise looms large, with Jack Black's fuzzy, flabby hero, Po, inexplicably chosen for his world-shaking mission and trained by a wise, Yoda-like master (a pint-sized mouse voiced by Dustin Hoffman), while a promising Jedi leopard (Ian McShane) slinks over to the dark side to become the movie's monumental Darth Vader figure. Fleshing out the story's bare bones is a goodly amount of slapstick, some fairly clever one-liners, several lavishly choreographed, martial-arts-based action sequences and an eye-catching animation style that owes as much to ancient Asian scroll paintings as it does to the classic Shaw Brothers films of the '60s and '70s. There's a little something for almost everyone here, but kung fu fanboys will take particular delight in touches like the legendary schools of martial arts made literal via Po's anthropomorphic sidekicks — a snake, crane, mantis, monkey and tiger (the last two given voice by Jackie Chan and Angelina Jolie). Also features the voices of Seth Rogan and Lucy Liu. 3.5 stars

MAMMA MIA! (PG-13) Based on the Broadway musical so beloved by aging boomers and their familiars, Mamma Mia! relies on the hits of '70s uber-group Abba to tell the story of a young bride-to-be (Amanda Seyfried) trying to discover which of her mother's three ex-lovers is her real father. Meryl Streep is a hoot as the bride's bohemian mother (a self-described ex-slut), again demonstrating her remarkable versatility by singing, dancing, doing light comedy and occasionally emoting, all with considerable panache — but the rest of the movie is a mixed bag, at best. Mamma Mia! doesn't pretend to be anything other than fluff, but even on those terms it's sometimes tough to take, with performances that practically shriek with campy desperation (prime offenders being Christine Baranski and Julie Walters as Streep's gal pals), and singing that ranges from the passable (Colin Firth's thin and reedy balladeering) to the flat-out embarrassing (Pierce Brosnan's rendition of "S.O.S." is sheer torture). It all takes place on an impossibly picturesque Greek island, so there's plenty of gorgeous scenery to gawk at, but the colorful locale is a lazy substitute for the original stage show's inventive stylization, and the naturalistic setting ultimately just doesn't feel right. On the other hand, the Abba music is just as ridiculously catchy as you want it to be (who can resist "Dancing Queen?"), even as rendered by often inept pipes, and the film manages to espouse both hippie free-love and the sort of classic romanticism that requires one of the male leads to get down on one knee and propose to someone by movie's end. And let's not forget the Greek Chorus (composed of actual Greeks) who burst out cackling when someone complains of a "cruel act of fate." Also stars Stellan Skarsgard, Nancy Baldwin, Rachel McDowall and Enzo Squillino Jr. 2.5 stars

MEET DAVE (PG) Eddie Murphy once again takes on multiple roles, this time playing a gaggle of tiny extraterrestrials living inside an anthropomorphic spaceship that looks just like, well, Eddie Murphy, and that falls in the anthropomorphic spaceship equivalent of love with a smokin' hot earthling. Let the fart jokes commence. Also stars Elizabeth Banks, Austyn Lind Myers, Gabrielle Union and Scott Caan. (Not Reviewed)

MONGOL (R) Mongol, the Academy Award-nominated epic about Genghis Khan, hinges on its revisionist notion of an enlightened Temudjin, who was dubbed with the title "Genghis Khan" after his death. Throughout the film, Temudjin comes across not as a bloodthirsty superwarrior but a reasonably sensitive guy whose military success derives from the love of a good woman and belief in the rule of law. TheKazakhstani production works as a kind of trans-Asian melting pot, featuring a Russian director, a Japanese leading man and actors ranging from Chinese movie stars to Kazakh nonprofessionals. Director Sergei Bodrov displays impressive powers of crowd control and widescreen composition, offering a period piece with the visual sweep and panoramic battles they don't make any more without extensive CGI enhancement. Mongol clearly oversimplifies vast swaths of Temudjin's life story but still provides rousing entertainment that makes Hollywood's action blockbusters look meek by comparison.The film lacks the nuanced vision of history and character that you find in David Lean's similarly sprawling Lawrence of Arabia or Kurosawa's masterpieces on feudal Japan, but Mongol feels more authentic than the likes of, say, Mel Gibson's Braveheart.StarsTadanobu Asano,Odnyam Odsuren, Khulan Chuluun,Ba Sen,Amadu Mamadakov andHonglei Sun. 4 stars —Curt Holman

ROMAN DE GARE (R) On the most visible of its several levels, Roman de Gare is a thriller, a distant cousin to the films of Claude Chabrol (aka the "Gallic Hitchcock"), but Claude Lelouch's movie is also a fine romance, a witty reverie on the creative process and a dance of muddled and mistaken identities that at times almost approaches the metaphysical heights of Vertigo. The framing device is a famous writer (Fanny Ardant) being interrogated for having supposedly committed a perfect crime (a murder, although the victim isn't revealed until well into the game), but the movie mostly concerns itself with connecting the dots between an alternately charming and ominous figure played by Dominque Pinon (the grizzled little Popeye clone from Delicatessen) and various other curious characters. Just for starters, we get a teacher who has abandoned his wife and kids, a writer in search of a story, a hairdresser who might also be a hooker and a serial killer on the run, and the movie's structure is intricate and clever enough to keep us guessing until almost the last minute as to who's who. Just when we think we have the scenario sussed out, the movie throws us for an elegant loop, its narrative dipping and hiccupping until the characters' identities are revealed to be not at all what we thought. Ultimately, the velvety red herrings don't provide quite the payoff the movie deserves, but even if Lelouch's film finally reveals itself as something of a soufflé, it's one with heft, an airy batter brushed with goose fat. Also stars Audrey Dana, Zinedine Soualem and Michele Bernier. 4 stars

SEX AND THE CITY: THE MOVIE (R) Romantic relationships are fleeting but a designer handbag is forever in Sex and the City: The Movie, nearly two hours of product placement disguised as a feature film. Although basically just a criminally bloated chick flick, the big-screen Sex often feels more like a slightly revamped sitcom from decades past, with its four gal pals coming off as if Mary and Rhoda had cloned themselves, consumed a steady diet of Danielle Steele, scrounged up the cash for better wardrobes, and spent more of their time talking about, and occasionally having, sex. Writer-director Michael Patrick King dutifully trots out a stream of minor infidelities, misunderstandings, bedroom problems, commitment issues and the like, but the threadbare plot is essentially driven by the three S's — shoes, shopping and sex (or, more specifically, the idea of sex, since there's surprisingly scant shtupping in this rather tame project, save for a horny little dog who shows up to hump a pillow or a pile of laundry whenever the movie requires a laugh). Those who thrill to spotting fabulous designer items by Prada, Gucci and Chanel will be in heaven here. Those of us less enamored of montages of dresses, jewelry and stiletto heels will discover a brand of fashion porn every bit as dubious as the so-called torture porn dished out by some movies these days. Fans of the series probably won't be much dismayed by the lack of depth — think of it as Transformers transformed as a chick flick — but the rest of us will find so little of interest that it's hard not to start fixating on how the little wart on Sarah Jessica Parker's chin seems to change size from scene to scene. Stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Chris Noth and Jennifer Hudson. 2 stars

SPACE CHIMPS (G) An uninspired and only sporadically entertaining kid flick about a trio of simian astronauts who wind up saving a distant planet from a cruel tyrant. The main monkey is voiced by Saturday Night Live's Andy Samberg, whose clueless but cocksure TV persona not only survives intact but actually seems to work better in the form of a chimp. One of the other monkeys is voiced by Patrick Warburton, the most recognizable and overused voice in animated features since Robin Williams. This is one strictly for younger children, but even little kids may be put off by the flat animation style and supposedly cute chimps that unintentionally wind up looking a little creepy. Also features Cheryl Hines and Jeff Daniels. 1.5 stars

SPEED RACER (PG) With little to it other than pure, frenetic energy and an ultra-groovy design sense, Speed Racer is pitched somewhere between a manga comic book and a neon Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas acid trip amplified to the point of no return. Moviegoers raised on a steady diet of videogames will likely revel in the head-spinningness of it all; other (possibly older) viewers may find themselves yearning to be submerged in the nearest sensory deprivation tank. Constantly in motion and way beyond candy-colored, The Wachowski Brothers' new movie seems positively irradiated, like one of those trendy nitrogen oxygen cocktails pumping through the digestive track of some phosphorescent deep-sea creature. Speed Racer spews out a stream of splashy visuals, careens forward at a breathless clip and provides a certain modicum of fun, but it's impossible to enter into this proudly two-dimensional story in any meaningful way. Even the action scenes — primarily a series of races in which fancy cars endlessly flip around tracks twisted as if inside a worm hole (probably situated inside The Matrix, or maybe Tron) — are so flat they fail to drum up much excitement. And with no real sense of danger and no gravity (literally), the Wachowskis' pop opus begins to look a little like Shark Boy and Lava Girl with delusions of grandeur. Stars Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon and Matthew Fox. 3 stars

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE (R) Errol Morris, the prime mover behind The Thin Blue Line and The Fog of War, excavates a twisted romance, a true crime yarn and a metaphysical treatise on the nature of perception out of the lurid morass of Abu Ghraib. And that's only the tip of the iceberg in Standard Operating Procedure, a powerhouse documentary about war, the darkest sides of human nature and the dangers of taking at face value "facts" that turn out to be, well, tips of icebergs. Morris' starting point is those notorious photographs from Abu Ghraib, the ones that outraged the world and sparked a global scandal with images of American soldiers (many of them women) abusing and humiliating naked Iraqi prisoners. Most of these soldiers were inexperienced grunts, low-ranking MPs, and as we listen to their stories it becomes painfully apparent that virtually all of them took the fall for higher-ups, and were literally "framed" — which is to say that they were naïve enough to be photographed in the wrong place at the wrong time. The actual architects of the crimes were smart enough to stay out of the photos or found ways to have themselves cropped from view. As fascinating as it is painful, Standard Operating Procedure is probably the best and scariest film yet made about the Iraq debacle. Features Javal Davis, Tim Dugan, Lynndie England, Megan Ambuhl Graner, Sabrina Harman, Jeremy Sivits, Janis Karpinski and Brent Pack. 4.5 stars

THE STRANGERS (R) In the opening scene of writer/director Bryan Bertino's debut effort, two young boys stumble upon a crimson knife and a blood-splattered wall, the gruesome aftermath of the film's ensuing "based on true events" cautionary tale, which focuses on a young couple, Kristen and James (played by Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman) who are terrorized by three masked strangers while they are visiting their country home. The next 90-minutes takes the audience on a tension-filled, albeit often predictable, ride that finds the couple involved in a violent struggle with the strangers. Though the protagonists are relatable and sympathetic, the suspenseful peaks are disappointingly trite. And despite having all the plot devices and miraculous escapes associated with horror films, The Strangers lacks that final "I get it" moment. The villains' motives (and their identities) are never revealed, and when Kristen repeatedly asks why she and James are being attacked, the reply is simply "because you were home." The film seems to be commenting on the void of human compassion and connection in the modern world, but instead, it just comes across as a cheap and easy fix. 2 stars —Franki Weddington

WALL-E (G) The animation whiz-kids at Pixar are no strangers to wringing emotion from talking toys, endearingly anthropomorphic fish and other decidedly non-human creations. But some of the most poignant moments ever found in a Pixar film occur in the first half of WALL-E, a nearly wordless journey through a decimated future where humans are conspicuous by their absence, and by the mess they've left behind. Those first 45 minutes alone make WALL-E arguably the first genuinely post-apocalyptic kid flick and also Pixar's masterpiece, a pitch-perfect blend of epic sci-fi and comedy pantomime recalling the glory days of silent cinema. The titular hero — a rickety robot who might be Chaplin's Little Tramp reincarnated as R2D2 — spends his solitary days cleaning up the mountains of trash left by vanished humankind, an endless routine that's finally shattered when our hero falls for a visiting fem-bot and follows her back to the mothership, where more than a few surprises await. The smoothly digestible freneticism of WALL-E's last act is a bit of a let-down after the near-minimalist poetry of the unconventional opening passages (scenes of WALL-E silently trying to make sense of our cultural bric-a-brac are particularly eloquent), but the amazingly human (and humane) robot-to-robot romance here is one for the ages, and the movie almost always gives us something wonderful to gawk at while serving up nods to everything from Silent Running and A.I. to Jacques Tati, 2001 and beyond. And don't miss the short film that precedes the main attraction, another concentrated dose of Pixar's slapstick brilliance that, with nary a word, sets the stage nicely for WALL-E, one of the best films of the year. Features the voices of Ben Burtt, Jeff Garland, John Ratzenberger, Sigourney Weaver and Fred Willard. 4.5 stars

WANTED (R) A killer movie, literally. Timur Bekmambetov, director of the Russian fantasies Night Watch and Day Watch, hits the Hollywood big time with this gleefully over-the-top action extravaganza about a downtrodden office drone (James McAvoy) who finds himself inducted into a secret society of super-assassins. Bekmambetov is as giddy as the proverbial kid in a candy store here, reveling in the tricks of his trade and coming up with a few new ones, and his stylishly hyperkinetic take on the old ultra-violence is frequently a hoot. The movie occasionally takes its own ludicrous plot a little too seriously, but the basic attitude here is appropriately tongue-in-check, with a wicked sense of humor not far removed from the splatter yuks of Shoot 'Em Up. Whether it's following the path of a bullet as it rips through a human head or refining the classic Matrix trick of squeezing time back and forth like an accordion, Wanted's go-for-broke energy feels like it wants to make every shot count, and that's pretty exciting. Also stars Morgan Freeman and Angelina Jolie. 3.5 stars

This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2008.