MOVIES

Movies are rated on a letter-grade scale, from A to F. Opinions by R-J movie critic Carol Cling (C.C.) are indicated by initials. Other opinions are from wire service critics.

Motion Picture Association of America ratings:

G - General audiences, all ages.

PG - Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

PG-13 - Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children under 13.

R - Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or guardian.

NC-17 - No one under 17 admitted.

NR - Not rated.

AMAZING GRACE

(B) That rare bird: a tearjerker about the House of Commons and the antislavery movement in 18th-century England. Michael Apted's idolatrous portrait of abolitionist William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd) is wall-to-wall with intriguing characters and deeply felt performances, but leaves us starving to know more about the faces in the background. The top-drawer cast also features Benedict Cumberbatch, Albert Finney, Michael Gambon, Rufus Sewell and Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour. (116 min.) PG; themes involving slavery, mild profanity.

BLACK SNAKE MOAN

(B) Trailer trash (Christina Ricci) needs saving and God-fearing cuckold (Samuel L. Jackson) needs a mission as a backwoods wild child, with sexual abuse in her past, finds redemption -- of a sort -- with a bluesman turned farmer who vows to cure her of her wickedness. "Hustle & Flow" director Craig Brewer is behind this cockeyed and raffishly amusing tale spilling over with blues music and Southern-fried sexism; he flouts enough rules to keep the artistic and political-correctness police writing summonses for weeks, if not years, to come. (115 min.) R; strong sexual content, profanity, violence, drug use.

BLADES OF GLORY

(C+) After spoofing soccer and NASCAR, Will Ferrell goes for the gold as an arrogant figure skater who teams with a flamboyant rival ("Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder) to shake up the pairs division when they're both barred from solo competition.Like "Zoolander" with a Zamboni, this dumb-with-a-capital-D goofball farce takes its (almost) fleshed-out sketch-comedy idea as far as an ice-skating buddy movie with we're-not-gay jokes and a psycho stalker can go. Which isn't that far. (94 min.) PG-13; crude and sexual humor, profanity, comic violent image, drug references.

BREACH

(B) Reasserting his reputation as one of the most intrepid and thoughtful actors around, Chris Cooper's at the top of his game capturing the maddening contradictions of Robert Hanssen, the FBI turncoat, who sold secrets to the Soviet Union and Russia for 22 years. Laura Linney and Ryan Phillippe lead a solid supporting cast, but this is Cooper's show all the way -- which is a good thing, because without his mesmerizing work, "Breach" might seem awfully bleak. (110 min.) PG-13; violence, mature themes, profanity. (C.C.)

DEAD SILENCE

(C-) A widower (Ryan Kwanten) returns to his hometown to solve his wife's murder -- and discovers the eerie spirit of a murdered ventriloquist haunting the town. Amber Valletta and Donnie Wahlberg (who deserves better) co-star in this formulaic and lazy exercise in booga-booga scare tactics. (90 min.) R; horror violence and images.

GHOST RIDER

(D) Crash-and-burn: Motorcycle stunt superstar Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) makes a deal with the devil, becoming a demonic bounty hunter in a Marvel Comics adaptation that's an unholy melding of religious mumbo-jumbo to motorcycle worship, Western folklore, father-son psychology, and Elvis Lives wish fulfillment. (110 min.) PG-13; horror violence, disturbing images.

THE HILLS HAVE EYES 2

(D-) National Guard trainees (including Michael McMillian and Daniella Alonso) battle desert mutants in a sequel to the remake of the 1977 original. Yes, yes, there's dismemberment, rude jolts and gore galore in this sequel, directed by Martin Weisz from a script by series creator Wes Craven and his son Jonathan. But it's all too, too formulaic to be even mildly interesting. (89 min.) R; strong gruesome horror violence and gore, rape, profanity.

THE HOST

(B) Troubled Seoul: Under the still waters of the Han River, a ravenous mutant -- the offspring of pollution, U.S. iniquity and bad vibes -- is about to start an all-Korean diet in director Bong Joon-ho's often scary, often funny and totally absorbing horror farce. In Korean with English subtitles. (119 min.) R; vulgarity, gore, violence, imperiled children.

I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE

(C-) Chris Rock taps an unlikely source -- French master Eric Rohmer's 1975 classic "Chloe in the Afternoon" -- as writer, director and star of this comedy about an investment banker whose serious case of seven-year itch sparks a flirtation (and maybe more) with an old flame (Kerry Washington). Rock wants to be Woody Allen, but watching his comically castrated act here, his humor is hobbled, his personality dulled, his energy depleted. It's like chaining a Kentucky Derby winner to a merry-go-round in a petting zoo. (94 min.) R; sexual content, pervasive profanity.

THE LAST MIMZY

(B-) An owlish 10-year-old (Chris O'Neil) and his angelic little sister (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) find common ground -- and extraordinary powers -- through a strange box that washes up at their beachfront vacation home. This well-meaning, if underpowered, "E.T." wannabe brims with gifted youngsters, addled adults, awe-inducing phenomena and, for those who need it, a cautionary message, yet can't quite conjure the magic it wants so desperately to create. (90 min.) PG; mild peril and profanity, mature themes. (C.C.)

THE LIVES OF OTHERS

(A-) This year's Oscar winner for best foreign-language film -- a remarkably assured debut by writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck -- takes place in 1984 East Germany, where a Communist Party loyalist (Ulrich Muhe), a captain in the secret police, is assigned to spy on a playwright (Sebastian Koch) and his live-in actress girlfriend ("Mostly Martha's" Martine Gedeck). It works beautifully, both as a social and psychological drama and as a taut, tightly wired thriller. In German with English subtitles. (137 min.) R; sexual situations, nudity.

THE LOOKOUT

(B+) It sounds like a routine heist thriller, but a smart script and even smarter performance elevate this gripping tale of a brain-damaged young bank janitor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, in another knockout performance) sucked into a scheme hatched by a slimy ex-classmate ("Match Point's" Matthew Goode). Jeff Daniels (as the protagonist's wisecracking blind roommate) co-stars in ace screenwriter Scott Frank's impressive directorial debut, the kind of movie where the characters generate far more tension and excitement than the caper itself. (99 min.) R; violence, profanity, sexual content. (C.C.)

MEET THE ROBINSONS

(B-) An orphan with a flair for wacky inventions finds a home -- in the future, with the even wackier title family -- in this computer-animated 'toon featuring the voices of, among others, Adam West, Tom Kenny (alias Spongebob Squarepants) and Tom Selleck. It's not exactly original, but this breezy tale juggles its familiar elements with heart, quirkiness and energy to spare. In digital 3-D at select locations. (102 min.) G; all ages. (C.C.)

THE NAMESAKE

(A-) A young Calcutta couple (movingly played by Bollywood veterans Irfan Khan and Tabu) starts a new life in America, only to have their all-American son (Kal Penn, in a welcome stretch beyond "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle") reject his cultural roots in director Mira Nair's beguiling adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The spices may be exotic, but the basic ingredients are universal; the resulting cinematic dish is rich, complex and utterly delicious. (122 min.) PG-13; sexuality, nudity, drug use, disturbing images, brief profanity. (C.C.)

PREMONITION

(C) As Yogi Berra would say, it's deja vu all over again in a been-there-seen-that thriller about a desperate housewife (Sandra Bullock, back in "Lake House" time-displacement territory) who loses her husband (Julian McMahon) in a car crash. But wait, maybe she doesn't. Or maybe she does. Maybe she's losing her mind. But there's no doubt we're losing patience -- and interest. (97 min.) PG-13; violence, disturbing images, mature themes, brief profanity. (C.C.)

REIGN OVER ME

(B) Former college roommates -- one (Don Cheadle) who has it all, the other (Adam Sandler) who lost it all when his wife and daughters died on Sept. 11 -- reconnect on the streets of New York and help each other find themselves. Unlike too many in-your-face dramas that package people and plots so neatly they feel artificial, "Reign Over Me" isn't afraid to embrace life's messiness and pain. And Cheadle and Sandler create such heartfelt rapport that everything surrounding them picks up their positive vibes. (125 min.) R; sexual references, profanity. (C.C.)

SHOOTER

(C+) Mark Wahlberg follows his Oscar-nominated "Departed" turn with this intermittently preposterous, drawn-out -- but sometimes entertaining -- tale of an unstoppable ex-Marine, an exiled marksman, who's framed for a presidential assassination and sets out to track down the true killer. A straight pulp-fiction sniper movie that benefits from Wahlberg's gritty performance, stinging political commentary and more "Here's how you do that" moments than the complete "MacGyver" DVD collection. (124 min.) R; strong graphic violence, profanity.

TMNT

(C+) Time to raise some shell! Yes, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back, digitally animated and ready to kick some serious behind -- that is, as soon as they stop all this unseemly bickering with each other. This latest big-screen incarnation is closer in spirit to the original comic book than the animated TV series that baby-sat at least a generation of youngsters, but what's lacking, except in too-quick flashes, are the wit, self-mockery that have marked this franchise in all its various formats. (88 min.) PG; animated action violence, scary cartoon images, mild profanity.

300

(C) Well, at least it's not 300 minutes long. This adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel only feels that way, as 300 strapping Spartans try to repel thousands of Persian invaders during the bloody (and we do mean bloody) Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Everything looks cool, but "300" is so busy reveling in bombastic, blood-drenched excess that the acting can't hope to match the action; the chiseled, Chippendales-ready performers resemble action figures hacking their way through the cartoon carnage of a video game. (117 min.) PG-13; graphic battle sequences, sexual situations, nudity. (C.C.)

WILD HOGS

(D) Weekend warriors (Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy) go from mild to wild when they rev up their suburban lives on a cross-country motorcycle trip. Or, more precisely, they embarrass themselves by falling off motorcycles, setting fire to inanimate objects and indulging in hissy fits with spectacularly unfunny results, while others (including those of us in the audience) watch helplessly. (100 min.) PG-13; crude and sexual content, violence.

ZODIAC

(B-) A cryptic serial killer terrorizes Northern California in the late '60s and early '70s, impacting the lives of many others besides his victims, including a newspaper reporter (Robert Downey Jr.), a homicide detective (Mark Ruffalo) -- and a political cartoonist (Jake Gyllenhaal) obsessed with the case. With its vast scope, "Zodiac" has to do quite a bit of juggling, and sometimes drops the ball. But the vivid performances -- and some sequences guaranteed to give you the heebie-jeebies -- make this an absorbing thriller nonetheless. (160 min.) R; violence, profanity, drug use, brief sexual images. (C.C.)