Capsule descriptions by The Commercial Appeal movie writer John Beifuss.

OPENING TODAY

An American Carol (PG-13, 83 min.) David Zucker ("Airplane!") directs this Dickens-inspired comedy about a Michael Moore-esque filmmaker (Kevin Farley) who wants to abolish the Fourth of July. The cast of Hollywood conservatives includes Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight and Dennis Hopper (yes, the former "Easy Rider" is now a Republican).

Ridgeway Four, Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema 12, Majestic, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

Appaloosa (R, 116 min.) See review on Page 20.

Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua (PG, 97 min.) See review on Page 16.

Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema 12, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Blindness (R, 122 min.) See review on Page 21.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

Flash of Genius (PG-13, 120 min.) It's David vs. Goliath in this true-life story of a smalltime inventor (Greg Kinner) who takes on the Detroit auto industry to get credit for his development of intermittent windshield wipers.

Collierville Towne 16, Paradiso.

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (R, 110 min.) A British writer (Simon Pegg) falls for a colleague (Kirsten Dunst) when he lands a job at a trendy New York celebrity magazine.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

I Served the King of England (R, 120 min.) An absurdist Czech comedy/tragedy about sex and Nazis from Jirí Menzel, director of "Closely Watched Trains" (1966), a film generally regarded as a masterpiece. John Beifuss' review will appear Saturday on GoMemphis.com.

Ridgeway Four.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (PG-13, 90 min.) Pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend, high school kids Michael Cera and Kat Dennings experience a wild and crazy night in Manhattan.

Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema 12, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

Religulous (R, 101 min.) In this documentary, Bill Maher and director Larry Charles ("Curb Your Enthusiasm") take a skeptical look at the world's religions.

Studio on the Square.

SNEAK PREVIEW SATURDAY

The Express (PG, 130 min.) Rob Brown and Dennis Quaid star in a biopic about running back Ernie Davis, the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy.

DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso.

SPECIAL MOVIES

F for Fake (Not rated, 85 min.) Orson Welles examines what he calls "trickery, frauds and lies" in this acclaimed but little-seen 1974 filmed essay/documentary.

8 p.m. Thursday, Mary's Place, 345 Madison at Danny Thomas. Admission: free. Call 507-2720.

Hurricane on the Bayou: Learn everything you can about hurricanes and their destructive powers. Narrated by Meryl Streep, this IMAX feature takes you on a tour of the Louisiana bayou and the city of New Orleans. Shows 2 p.m. daily, through Nov. 14. Tickets $8, $7.25 senior citizens, $6.25 children ages 3-12; children under 3 are free. Call for show times.

Crew Training International IMAX Theater at Memphis Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central. Call 763-IMAX for general information or 320-6362 for reservations.

Roving Mars: The in-depth IMAX adventure follows the "careers" of Spirit and Opportunity, NASA's robotic Exploration Rovers, from their development to their manufacture to their six-month flight through cold space to their landing on the surface of Mars, where they gathered information to help pave the way for future visits by man. Runs through Nov. 14. Tickets are $8, $7.25 senior citizens, $6.25 children 3-12; children under 3 are free. Call for show times.

IMAX Theater at Memphis Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central. Call 763-IMAX for general information or 320-6362 for reservations.

Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure: Narrated by Liev Schreiber, National Geographic's film takes audiences on a journey into the relatively unexplored world of the "other dinosaurs," those reptiles that lived beneath the water. The film plays through March 6, 2009. Tickets: $8, $7.25 senior citizens, $6.25 children ages 3-12; children under 3 are free. Call for show times.

IMAX Theater at Memphis Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central. Call 763-IMAX for general information or 320-6362 for reservations.

The Youngest Candidate (Not rated, 100 min.) 2007 Memphis City Council candidate George Monger is one of four American teenagers running for public office whose election campaigns are examined in this documentary from David Letterman's Worldwide Pants company. Monger and director Jason Pollock (who worked on "Fahrenheit 9/11") will host a panel discussion and answer questions after the screening. Admission: $7.

8:30 p.m. today, Newby's, 539 S. Highland. Visit theyoungestcandidate.com.

NOW SHOWING

Babylon A.D. (PG-13, 91 min.) Nightclub bouncer-turned-action hero Vin Diesel is a future mercenary hired to protect a young woman with apparent superpowers.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, Hollywood 20 Cinema.

Bangkok Dangerous (R, 100 min.) Nicolas Cage is a hitman in Thailand in this remake of an Asian action film from the Pang Brothers, the writing-and-directing team responsible for the 1999 original.

Majestic.

Burn After Reading (R, 95 min.) Set in the nation's capital and inhabited almost entirely by idiots, neurotics and sociopaths, this spy-thriller spoof may be inspired by eight years of Washington iniquity, but it hardly represents a departure from the typically curdled worldview of the Coen Brothers. The movie is played for broad comedy, but it's as dark as Joel and Ethan Coen's previous film, the Oscar-recognized Best Picture of 2007, "No Country for Old Men," and as ruthless as the Coens' debut, 1984's "Blood Simple." It's "Fargo" minus the snow, but with even more caricature -- and a repeat of the earlier film's sudden ax attack. Cast as an angry ex-CIA analyst whose lost memoir drives the plot, John Malkovich steals every scene; he's almost matched by Brad Pitt as a dimwitted fitness fanatic.

Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, Studio on the Square, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Hollywood 20 Cinema.

Choke (R, 93 min.) Sam Rockwell stars as a depressed, smart-aleck sex addict who works as a costumed "historical interpreter" in a re-created colonial village when he's not visiting his dying mother (Anjelica Huston), faking near-death experiences at restaurants or wondering whether he really could be a clone generated from the foreskin of Jesus Christ. Well, it's different, at least. Adapted from a novel by cult author Chuck Palahniuk, director Clark Gregg's movie is faithful to a fault; like its source, it's overstuffed with ideas and incidents and colorful and often distasteful digressions. The film has a relaxed 1970s vibe, but for all its kinkiness, it's surprisingly flat and uninvolving.

Paradiso.

The Dark Knight (PG-13, 152 min.) A lavishly produced drama about hard moral choices, "The Dark Knight" is "The Godfather" of superhero movies -- or, at least, "The Departed." Director Christopher Nolan's ambitious, superior follow-up to "Batman Begins" makes a grim joke out of the idea that it was inspired by a series of so-called "comic" books. The only laughter in the film is the halting, psychopathic chuckle of the Joker, and our pleasurable reaction to his histrionic, terroristic glee is tempered by our awareness that we are watching the last complete screen performance of the late Heath Ledger, who spends at least one moment in the film in a body bag. Occupied by gangsters, thugs, cops, politicians, lawyers and two opposed, outrageous obsessives ("You complete me," the Joker tells Batman, in a parody of romantic confession), this is an epic crime film that has more in common with the gangster movies, noirs and gritty police thrillers of decades past than with the typical DC or Marvel adaptation of today.

Majestic, Palace Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

Death Race (R, 105 min.) Released in 1975, the Roger Corman-produced drive-in cheapie "Death Race 2000" remains a satirical sci-fi cult classic. This big-budget semi-remake is both more lavish and more simplistic: It's a rabble-rousing gas guzzler, directed with the pedal to the metal and a surprising minimum of visual incoherence by Paul W.S. Anderson ("Resident Evil"). Set in 2012, after the collapse of the U.S. economy, the film casts Jason Statham as an ex-race car driver framed for his wife's murder so he can be forced to participate in America's top reality show, "Death Race," in which convicted violent offenders engage in "three days of the ultimate in auto carnage."

Majestic, DeSoto Cinema 16, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

Disaster Movie (PG-13, 90 min.) "Juno," Amy Winehouse, Indiana Jones and "Hancock" are among the targets in the latest quickie spoof from the creators of "Date Movie," "Epic Movie" and "Meet the Spartans."

Majestic, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema.

Eagle Eye (PG-13, 118 min.) Programming the Star-Spangled Banner to be a trigger for violent "regime change" in the U.S. is a diabolically intriguing notion. Unfortunately, by the time "Eagle Eye" and Francis Scott Key's anthem reach their climax, viewers will have lost interest in this paranoid, Steven Spielberg-produced action-drama, which smothers its promising Big Brother-Is-Watching-You premise beneath blankets of narrative implausibility and incoherent shaky-camera action. Reuniting with his "Disturbia" director, D.J. Caruso, Shia LaBeouf stars as an innocent young copy-center clerk recruited for a crime wave by a mysterious voice that seems to have God-like control of the nation's technology. This cautionary tale about the perils of high-tech interconnectivity might seem more sincere if the movie ever stopped trying to indoctrinate us into being good consumers with its incessant product placement.

Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Studio on the Square, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

The Family That Preys (PG-13, 111 min.) The fourth feature from writer-director Tyler Perry to hit theaters in less than 19 months is a comedy-drama about class conflict that stars Alfre Woodard, Sanaa Lathan, Cole Hauser, Taraji P. Henson ("Hustle & Flow") and native Memphian Kathy Bates.

Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Fireproof (PG, 122 min.) Kirk Cameron is a troubled firefighter who agrees to participate in a 40-day "Love Dare" in an attempt to save his marriage in this Christian-themed film.

Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, CinePlanet 16.

Fly Me to the Moon (G, 81 min.) A 3-D animated feature about three young houseflies who stow away aboard the Apollo 11 flight to the moon.

CinePlanet 16.

Get Smart (PG-13, 110 min.) Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway are perfectly cast as CONTROL agent Maxwell Smart and his love-interest colleague, Agent 99, but this update of the classic Mel Brooks-Buck Henry 1960s spy-spoof sitcom is a movie without a context -- as useless as a shoe phone in an iPhone era.

Bartlett 10.

Ghost Town (PG-13, 103 min.) British comic actor Ricky Gervais (the original BBC version of "The Office") stars as a misanthropic dentist whose near-death experience makes him the reluctant ally of a tuxedoed ghost (Greg Kinnear) who doesn't want his Egyptologist widow (Téa Leoni) to become involved with another man. A superstar screenwriter ("Jurassic Park," "Spider-Man"), David Koepp saves some of his best work for his own infrequent directorial efforts; "Ghost Town" is his third feature (after "The Trigger Effect" and "Stir of Echoes"), and it's a movie that seems like it could have been written for Howard Hawks or Billy Wilder or any of the expert comedy directors of the past. It's witty and romantic, in the tradition of "Topper," "Blithe Spirit" and other supernatural farces from cinema's so-called golden age, when the term "adult" meant "sophisticated."

Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Hancock (PG-13, 93 min.) Will Smith is the reluctant title "superhero," a surly and seemingly homeless drunken amnesiac whose destructive heroics make him a pariah until an eager public relations professional (Jason Bateman) tries to rehab his image. Ambitious, clever and peculiar, the film is compromised by low comedy, a pandering soundtrack and the timidity of a studio unwilling to transform the most bankable star in movies into a morally bankrupt character; further sabotaging the story's potential is Peter Berg's annoying shaky-camera, faux-documentary direction.

Bartlett 10.

The House Bunny (PG-13, 98 min.) Anna Faris is a fired Playboy bunny who helps a group of misfit sorority girls find their inner Wonder Woman, or at least their outer Wonderbra.

Stage Cinema, CinePlanet 16, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Igor (PG, 87 min.) A hunchbacked lab assistant (voiced by John Cusack) aspires to be a mad scientist in this "Young Frankenstein"-esque computer-animated spoof of classic monster movies.

Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema 12, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (PG-13, 122 min.) If previous Indiana Jones movies were tributes to the serials, war films, colonial adventure epics ("Gunga Din") and even Hollywood musicals that were popular during the years in which the films take place, "Crystal Skull" -- set almost 20 years after "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" -- takes much of its inspiration from the science-fiction cycle of the 1950s. Those movies exorcised Red Scare paranoia through metaphorical stories about body-snatching aliens and high-tech extraterrestrial invaders; "Skull" replaces the Nazis of the earlier Indy movies with Communists who really do want to conquer the U.S. with the aid of alien technology. This time, the bullwhip-wielding archeologist (an older and grumpier Harrison Ford) is searching for a lost city in the Amazon, aided by a "Wild One"-aping youth (Shia LaBeouf) and old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen, in what proves to be a thankless role).

Bartlett 10.

Iron Man (PG-13, 126 min.) Zillionaire playboy arms manufacturer Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) -- dubbed "the merchant of death" by haters -- experiences an almost literal change of heart after he's wounded by one of his own bombs in Afghanistan. Giving up on munitions, he uses "repulsor technology" to create a stylish, high-tech "gold titanium alloy" suit, and the superhero Iron Man is born. Jon Favreau ("Swingers," "Elf") remains an indifferent director (the most dynamic sequences here are the ones that probably were story-boarded by the special-effects teams), but "Iron Man" ranks with the best "X-Men" films and just below the first two "Spider-Man" movies as the most successful translation of a Marvel comic book to the screen.

Bartlett 10.

Kung Fu Panda (PG, 88 min.) From its stylized opening dream sequence to its beautifully rendered if more familiar-looking CGI animal characters, this parable about a dream-chasing panda named Po (voiced by Jack Black) is the most visually stunning cartoon yet from DreamWorks Animation (home of the "Shrek" franchise). It's also the studio's most consistently entertaining release, functioning as an affectionate homage to classic Hong Kong martial-arts cinema as well as a fuzzy-wuzzy comedy-with-uplift for small fry.

Bartlett 10.

Lakeview Terrace (PG-13, 111 min.) Bad cop Samuel L. Jackson makes life tough for new neighbors Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington. Directed by former "art film" specialist Neil LaBute, who apparently wanted to get back on the commercial horse after his disastrous remake of "The Wicker Man."

Forest Hill 8, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

The Longshots (PG, 86 min.) Keke Palmer is an 11-year-old girl who joins a peewee football team in this inspirational story for young women.

Majestic, Palace Cinema.

The Lucky Ones (Not rated, 115 min.) Unlike many of the soldiers in such "War on Terror"-inspired films as "In the Valley of Elah," "Redacted" and "Stop-Loss," the three Iraq War veterans we meet in this amiable drama-with-comedy aren't racists or nutcases or profanity-spewing rednecks. As played by Tim Robbins, Michael Peña and Rachel McAdams, they're likable, regular Joes; even their war wounds pretty much function in the story as war wounds rather than as metaphors. Trying to readjust to "normal" life in the U.S., the veterans take a road trip from New York to Las Vegas; their adventures are low key but amusing and even moving. The staging is functional, workmanlike; in what appears to be a show of respect to the sacrifice of veterans, director/co-writer Neil Burger ("The Illusionist") never steals the spotlight from his characters.

Studio on the Square.

Meet Dave (PG, 91 min.) A crew of miniature aliens on Earth operate a spaceship shaped like Eddie Murphy. Really.

Bartlett 10.

Miracle at St. Anna (R, 160 min.) Spike Lee directed this World War II drama about African-American soldiers in 1944 Italy.

Stage Cinema, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Hollywood 20 Cinema.

Mirrors (R, 112 min.) Thanks to talented director Alexandre Aja ("High Tension"; the 2006 "The Hills Have Eyes"), this supernatural mystery about an ex-cop (Kiefer Sutherland) threatened by sinister forces that travel through the looking glass is more stylish and spooky than it has any right to be. (It's yet another remake of an Asian horror movie -- in this case, 2003's "Into the Mirror," from Korea.) Instead of a typical haunted house, the ground zero for ghosts here is a burned-out luxury New York department store, making this yet another thriller with post-9/11 associations.

Majestic, DeSoto Cinema 16, Raleigh Springs Cinema.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (PG-13, 112 min.) Like its predecessors (1999's "The Mummy" and 2001's "The Mummy Returns"), this noisy Brendan Fraser fantasy adventure owes more to Indiana Jones than to Boris Karloff, while failing to be a credit to either inspiration. Rob Cohen ("Dragonheart," "The Fast and the Furious") replaces Stephen Sommers as director and Maria Bello replaces Rachel Weisz as Fraser's wife, but the crazy-quilt comic-book formula remains the same, as explorer Rick O'Connell (Fraser) -- now saddled with a grown son who appears to be as old as he is (in fact, actor Luke Ford is barely 12 years younger than Fraser) -- finds himself battling a 2,000-year-old shape-shifting emperor (Jet Li) and his army of living terracotta warriors. Kids should love it.

Hollywood 20 Cinema.

My Best Friend's Girl (R, 103 min.) A vulgar romantic comedy with Dane Cook and Kate Hudson. Directed by former John Hughes associate Howard Deutch ("Pretty in Pink").

Stage Cinema 12, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Nights in Rodanthe (PG-13, 97 min.) Richard Gere and Diane Lane in a romantic drama for grownups.

Forest Hill 8, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, Collierville Towne 16, DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

Righteous Kill (R, 101 min.) It took 40 years, but Robert De Niro finally has made a movie that enables him to utter this line: "Rambo the skateboard pimp was my tenth kill." That snippet of dialogue suggests that this serial-killer thriller with De Niro and Al Pacino as police detectives might be campy fun, but it's not: It's tedious and just plain ugly to look at (the lighting is dim, the sets are dull and the staging is routine), and the "surprise" twist is utterly predictable. The only mystery is why the once remarkable, now ridiculous De Niro and Pacino would want to star in a project that Wings Hauser might have rejected during the heyday of Vestron Video. Directed by Jon Avnet, who was responsible for the year's earlier Pacino serial-killer bomb, "88 Minutes."

Stage Cinema 12, Majestic, DeSoto Cinema 16, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema.

Space Chimps (G, 81 min.) Monkeyshines and NASA heroics go hand-in-foot in this CG film from Vanguard Animation.

Bartlett 10, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Hollywood 20 Cinema.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (PG, 98 min.) Not for the unconverted, this computer-animated film, directed by Dave Filoni, drops viewers smack dab into not just another wearyingly epic battle but into the buzzing hive of the inbred Lucasverse itself, where rigorous adherence to increasingly byzantine "Star Wars" dogma seems to clash with the old idea that intuitive improvisation is what enables a Jedi Knight to transform disaster into triumph. Considering that most of the impressive imagery in the three most recent live-action "Star Wars" movies was not live but literally unreal, George Lucas' failure to deliver a visually stunning animated feature is a shocker; the graphics here are as unattractive as those in a video game, as wooden characters interact within dull and surprisingly dim CG environments that, perversely, seem just a few mouse clicks away from full "Revenge of the Sith" realization.

Stage Cinema.

Step Brothers (R, 98 min.) Will Ferrell isn't yet as irrelevant as Mike "The Love Guru" Myers or Eddie "Meet Dave" Murphy, but it's telling that when Seth Rogen makes a brief cameo appearance here, the "Knocked Up" actor seems to be doing the much more famous Ferrell a favor. The premise is promising: Perennial man-child Ferrell and "serious" actor-turned-Pete Puma human stand-in John C. Reilly star as a pair of jobless, still-living-at- home 40-year-olds whose self-centered, arrested- adolescent existences are threatened when they're forced to move in together after Reilly's dad (Richard Jenkins) marries Ferrell's mom (Mary Steenburgen). Unfortunately, uninspired slapstick (destructive "sleepwalking" scenes) and exceedingly coarse, ugly language result in a mirthless, even ugly noncomedy.

Bartlett 10.

Wanted (R, 110 min.) Criticizing Russian director Timur Bekmambetov ("Night Watch") for overkill is like dismissing Alfred Hitchcock for being fat. In fact, overkill is an understatement when applied to this outrageously stylish and utterly implausible comic-book adaptation about a secret society of assassins whose members blithely refuse to recognize not just the legal niceties of Miranda and habeas corpus but the less arguable laws of gravity, motion and the conservation of energy. James McAvoy is the milquetoast account manager whose transformation from, essentially, Jerry Lewis to James Bond provides a morally specious wish-fulfillment fantasy that should have fanboys drooling; so should the presence of Angelina Jolie, cast as a killer named (what else?) Fox.

Bartlett 10.

The Women (PG-13, 114 min.) In director George Cukor's 1939 adaptation of the Clare Boothe Luce play, gold digger Joan Crawford luxuriates in a tub that appears to have been designed by Aphrodite and Poseidon during ancient Greece's Art Deco phase; in this remake, Eva Mendes bathes in a rectangle that might have been installed by Home Depot. Writer-director Diane English's update lacks wit as well as style; you'll think "TV" rather than "MGM." The game, no-males-allowed all-star cast includes Annette Bening, Jada Pinkett Smith, Candice Bergen and Meg Ryan, who asks: "What do you think this is, some kind of 1930s movie?" If only.

Ridgeway Four, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Collierville Towne 16, Studio on the Square, Cordova Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.