Capsule descriptions and starred mini-reviews by The Commercial Appeal movie writer John Beifuss.

OPENING TODAY

The Boys Are Back (PG-13, 100 min.) A sportswriter (Clive Owen) in Australia becomes a single parent to two rambunctious boys in this inspirational and inspired-by-a-true-story film from director Scott Hicks ("Shine").

Ridgeway Four.

Janky Promoters (R, 96 min.) Ice Cube and Mike Epps star as California concert promoters trying to book Young Jeezy.

Majestic.

Law Abiding Citizen (R, 122 min.) See review on Page 23.

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

More Than a Game (PG, 102 min.) A documentary about LeBron James.

Ridgeway Four.

Opa! (PG-13, 94 min.) Workaholic Matthew Modine finds love in picture-postcard- perfect Greece.

Cordova Cinema.

Paranormal Activity (R, 86 min.) See review on Page 18.

DeSoto Cinema 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso.

The Stepfather (PG-13, 102 min.) Dylan Walsh is the psycho daddy in this remake of a 1987 cult classic.

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.

Where the Wild Things Are (PG, 94 min.) See review on Page 16.

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, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

SPECIAL MOVIES

Fear(s) of the Dark (Not rated, 85 min.) Ten international graphic artists -- including cult cartoonist Charles Burns ("Black Hole"), who contributes a "creepy, Cronenbergian homage to EC Horror" (the Village Voice) -- created this omnibus film of black-and-white animated terror tales. The movie concludes this month's University of Memphis series of free French films.

7 p.m. Thursday, Psychology Auditorium, 3710 Veterans Ave., U of M . Visit frenchtennessee.org/filmfestivals.

Friday the 13th (Not rated, 85 min.) Young Kevin Bacon gets an arrow through the throat, but the gory artistry of makeup-effects genius Tom Savini is the real star of this insanely influential 1980 teen-oriented slasher film, which introduced moviegoers to Camp Crystal Lake and the legend of Jason Voorhees.

7 p.m. Thursday, Psychology Auditorium, 3710 Veterans Ave., U of M . Visit frenchtennessee.org/filmfestivals.

From Swastika to Jim Crow (Not rated, 60 min.) This documentary explores the little-known story of Jewish refugee scholars teaching at historically black colleges before and during World War II. The movie will be followed by a discussion led by Dr. Barbara Frankle, dean of academic affairs at LeMoyne-Owen College.

7 p.m. Thursday, Beth Sholom Synagogue, 6675 Humprheys Blvd. Admission: free. Visit bsholom.org or call 683-3591.

Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk: The latest IMAX documentary follows two environmentalists on a daring rafting ride down the Colorado River. Narrated by Robert Redford; music by Dave Matthews Band. Runs through Nov. 13. 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 320-6362 for tickets and reservations.

The Grocer's Son (Not rated, 96 min.) Director Eric Guirado's 207 film -- a work of "humor, warmth, kindness, insight and scenery," according to Roger Ebert -- concerns a young Parisian who returns to the small village of his youth to help his aging mother with her grocery business. The movie is part of a free public series of French films that screens this month at the University of Memphis.

7 p.m. Wednesday, Psychology Auditorium, 3710 Veterans Ave., U of M . Visit frenchtennessee.org/filmfestivals.

Indie Memphis Film Festival Free Outdoor Movies: The "Elvis: '68 Special" (6:45 p.m.) and "The Big Lebowski" (8 p.m.) screen tonight in a double feature at the Levitt Shell in Overton Park.

Visit indiememphis.com.

Jules and Jim (Not rated, 105 min.) Francois Truffaut's 1962 "New Wave" masterpiece about a love triangle inaugurates a four-week series of "Essential Art House Cinema" at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, organized in collaboration with Indie Memphis.

7:30 p.m. Thursday. Admission: $7, or $5 for Brooks or Indie Memphis members. Visit brooksmuseum.org or call 544-6208.

Movies to Masticate To: A four-hour fearfest of horror shorts, trailers and the new feature "Trick 'r Treat," starring Anna Paquin.

7 p.m., Odessa, 2613 Broad. Recommended donation: $2. Visit odessatheblog.wordpress.com.

Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs: Follow researchers and explorers as they piece together archaeological and genetic clues of Egyptian mummies. The IMAX film plays through Nov. 13. 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 320-6362 for reservations and tickets.

Under the Sea: This new IMAX adventure transports you to some of the most exotic and isolated undersea locations on Earth, including South Australia, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Coral Triangle islands of Papua, New Guinea, and Indonesia. Runs through March 5, 2010. 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 320-6362 for reservations and tickets.

NOW SHOWING

Aliens in the Attic (PG, 86 min.) A "brainiac," a sock monkey-clutching little girl, videogame-loving twins, a cool cousin and a pouty teenager (Disney Channel starlet Ashley Tisdale) save their vacation home (and the Earth) from pint-sized outer-space invaders in this amiable, kid-oriented, slapstick action-comedy from director John Schultz. The major annoyances: The broad, sitcom-style personalities of the aliens, and the clichéd conception of Tisdale's boy-obsessed character, who should annoy any self-respecting teenage girl in the audience.

Bartlett 10, CinePlanet 16.

All About Steve (PG-13, 99 min.) Sandra Bullock plays an eccentric crossword-puzzler (really) who stalks a CNN cameraman (Bradley Cooper).

Stage Cinema, Palace Cinema.

Capitalism: A Love Story (R, 127 min.) A summation of themes found in Michael Moore's five previous feature documentaries, this typically entertaining, typically stunt-heavy film (Moore wraps Wall Street banks in yellow crime-scene tape) is effective when it exposes the immoral, even "evil" excesses of an economic system that prizes profit above public welfare; it's less persuasive when it waxes nostalgic about the golden factory era of the less greedy mid-20th century (no black people are asked if they'd like to return to the 1950s, when Moore's beloved Flint, Mich., was thriving). At its best, the film offers strong evidence that the corporations that dominate America have little interest in the well-being of its citizens, as when Moore reveals documents in which companies almost literally gloat that the U.S. has become a "plutocracy" with a growing disparity between the rich and the poor; these same memos also bemoan the fact that poor people still are allowed to vote.

Ridgeway Four.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (PG, 90 min.) Part Jerry Bruckheimer, part Betty Crocker, this Sony Pictures Animation feature begins as a jokey, slapstick, computer-generated cartoon for kids and expands into a clever and even thrilling disaster-movie spoof that should delight fans of all ages -- it's "Apocalypse Chow," with super-sized extra toppings of everything. Borrowing the title and premise and little else from a 1978 children's picture book by Judi and Ron Barrett, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller have a field day imagining the blizzards of ice cream, the tornados of spaghetti and the Vesuvial fountains of nacho cheese cooked up a nerdy young inventor (voiced by Bill Hader) who seeds the clouds with foodstuff; "What if we've bitten off more than we can chew?" someone asks, in a foodie update of the famous warning against meddling in things man was not meant to know that was heard in "The Invisible Man" and almost every other vintage science-fiction film. "Cloudy" could be interpreted as a commentary on the potential perils of genetically engineered "Frankenfood," but it doesn't sweat the message. If it lacks the grandeur of "Wall-E," it's also utterly unpretentious; unlike the Pixar films, it's an unheralded surprise.

Forest Hill 8, Stage Cinema (in 3-D), Majestic, Collierville Towne 16 (in 3-D), DeSoto Cinema 16 (in 3-D), Cordova Cinema (in 3-D), Paradiso (in 3-D), Hollywood 20 Cinema (in 3-D), CinePlanet 16 (in 3-D), Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Couples Retreat (PG-13, 114 min.) Vince Vaughn, Kristen Bell and Jon Favreau are among the husbands and wives who engage in embarrassing hijinks during a tropical vacation.

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

District 9 (R, 113 min.) This gory, galvanizing science-fiction thriller from producer Peter Jackson ("The Lord of the Rings") and South African novice feature director Neil Blomkamp delivers an unfortunate mixed message through the "alien apartheid" metaphor of its clever but confused premise, as human-sized outer-space crustaceans (disparaged as "prawns") are segregated into crime-ridden slums after their spaceship breaks down over Johannesburg. Presented "documentary" style, like some sort of monster mash-up of "The Office" and "Alien Nation," the movie is technically impressive; also admirable is newcomer Sharlto Copley's tour-de-force performance as a bureaucrat who comes to sympathize with the aliens. But it's troubling that almost all the black African characters in this parable of racism are thugs, gangsters and even cannibals, with none of the dignity of the "prawns"; a young white suburbanite might emerge from a screening thinking that aliens are cool, but, y'know, black folks are really scary.

Bartlett 10, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

Fame (PG, 107 min.) An update of the 1980 musical about a New York performing arts high school.

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

The Final Destination (R, 81 min.) Forget such fusty sources as Poe, Stoker and Shelley: this fourth "Final Destination" film demonstrates that the only inspiration needed for a hit horror franchise is one of those cornball "Today Is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life" posters, as yet another clique of attractive teenagers learns that life is just a short circuit, a spilled hair gel or a cracked swimming pool drain cover away from extinguishment. James Cameron and the folks at Pixar may disagree, but this is what 3D was made for: To make audiences scream and duck as Death hurls lethal objects from the screen.

Stage Cinema, Majestic, DeSoto Cinema 16, Palace Cinema.

G-Force (PG, 88 min.) Have you ever wondered what a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced talking-animal movie would be like? Me, neither. But here's the answer: The Disney/Bruckheimer collaboration "G-Force," in which the car chases, explosions, transforming robot battles and "Mission: Impossible" suspense sequences are as intense as in an "adult" movie, except instead of Tom Cruise and Will Smith, the heroes are members of an elite squad of commando guinea pigs and insects, plus one star-nosed mole (nerdily voiced by Nicolas Cage). I would have been happier if the "black" guinea pig (Tracy Morgan) didn't get all the stereotypical comic-relief lines ("Pimp my ride," "That was off the huh-zook"), and if the female guinea pig (Penélope Cruz) wasn't obsessed with romantic mind games. Even so, longtime special effects supervisor-turned-debuting director Hoyt Yeatman has delivered a fairly amusing spoof of James Bond/comic-book superteam conventions. With Memphis' Chris Ellis as "the director of the FBI."

Bartlett 10.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (PG-13, 120 min.) The cartoon inspired by the Hasbro "action figures" inspired this chuckleheaded but coherently staged action movie that overcomes the burden of its reported $170-million budget to be surprisingly fun. With its massive sets, lack of "Transformers"-style bathroom humor, comic-book heroes ("Heavy Duty" and "Snake-Eyes," to name two), male and female eye candy (when Rachel Nichols suits up for action, you notice that large breasts have been premolded onto her body armor), ninja duels and scenery-chewing villains (the juiciest is a mad doctor with a horribly burned face), the film harks back to the pulpy spirit of "Doc Savage" adventures and Roger Moore-era James Bond movies. The result is director Stephen Sommers' first likable film since "The Mummy" in 1999.

Bartlett 10, Majestic, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

Halloween II (R, 101 min.) Brutal and redundant but not without a certain ugly integrity, this gruesome sequel allows director Rob Zombie to continue to explore his idea that murderous maniac Michael Myers is not the near-supernatural bogeyman of the original John Carpenter film but a pathetic and tragically irredeemable product of childhood abuse who suffers from multiple personality disorder: In the film's only interesting twist, Myers is accompanied on his rampages by his childhood self and his dead mother, an angel in white played by Sheri Moon Zombie.

Majestic, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

The Hangover (R, 100 min.) Or: Dude, Where's My Bachelor? Sometimes tasteless, frequently hilarious, this "Superbad" with grown-ups (the dentist played by Ed Helms even resembles an adult "McLovin") chronicles several hours of irresponsible, occasionally criminal male conduct, as three best buds (Helms, Bradley Cooper and Justin Bartha) and a tagalong demented future brother-in-law (Zach Galifianakis) road-trip to Vegas for an overnight bachelor party; director Todd Phillips ("Old School") cuts from the pals' Jägermeister toast to the painful morning after in a destroyed hotel suite, where the evidence of debauchery includes a live chicken, a missing tooth, loss of memory, an Elvis jumpsuit, Mike Tyson's Bengal tiger, an unidentified baby and the absence of the bachelor himself. The talented cast and the mystery structure of the plot keep the film fresh and funny; but as the title suggests, you might regret your good time the next day, as you contemplate the at best ambivalent, at worst hostile relationship to women that motivates the narrative.

Bartlett 10.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (PG, 153 min.) As the apparently physically mature "boy wizard" (Daniel Radcliffe) begins his sixth year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, there's not a house elf nor comical ghost in sight, and the most impressive magical creature onscreen, a giant spider, is dead. Voldemort's at the gates, so the palette is grim and the mood is somber; but Harry and his best friends, Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint), remain stalwart and true -- to each other, to the vision of author J.K. Rowling, and to fans' expectations for what has been a truly remarkable movie series. Director David Yates (returning from "The Order of the Phoenix") fumbles what should be the emotionally devastating death of a major character, but he does wonderful work with the cast, including the teenagers (now as interested in "snogging" as Quidditch); Jim Broadbent, as the new potions professor, Horace Slughorn; and the many other British character actors, who intone their lines with the sincere and intense glee of cats sucking a songbird's bones.

Hollywood 20 Cinema.

I Can Do Bad All By Myself (PG-13, 113 min. ) Taraji P. Henson ("Hustle & Flow") meets Madea in the fifth film with Tyler Perry as his drag alter ego in four years.

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.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (PG, 94 min.) Sid the Sloth (slurringly voiced by John Leguizamo) and the fanged rat-squirrel known as Scrat (the unluckiest cartoon character since Wile E. Coyote) are as amusing as ever, but this third computer-generated "Ice Age" forsakes action for ancient sitcom-style platitudes about the importance of "the herd" (family) until the characters finally break into a lost world of prehistoric reptiles.

Bartlett 10.

The Invention of Lying (PG-13, 105 min.) Star Ricky Gervais co-wrote and co-directed this comedy about the only man who knows how to fib in a world of truth-tellers.

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

Jennifer's Body (R, 102 min.) Oscar-winning "Juno" scribe Diablo Cody penned this smartypants chiller with Megan Fox as a high-school hottie possessed by a boy-slaying demon after an encounter with a satanic indie-rock band; Amanda Seyfried is the long-suffering and somewhat nerdy best friend who suspects the truth. Tonally inconsistent and perverse, with a forced glibness and a reliance on pop-culture references that often fall flat (Jennifer's assailants break into a chorus of Tommy Tutone's "Jenny" as they stab her), the movie -- unlike most of its horror peers -- at least errs on the side of ambition and cleverness; its box-office failure suggests that male genre fans don't want to be asked to identify with the victims instead of the menace. Directed by Karyn Kusama ("Girlfight").

Majestic, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

Love Happens (PG-13, 109 min.) Can Seattle florist Jennifer Aniston and self-help guru Aaron Eckhart find love? Probably.

Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, Palace Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

My One and Only (PG-13, 108 min.) The teen memories of famously tan Memphis-born actor George Hamilton provide the unlikely inspiration for this episodic love letter to Hamilton's elegant and apparently indomitable self-styled Southern belle of a mother, played here by Renée Zellweger, whose aging Kewpie doll persona is perfectly suited to the role. The movie focuses on a real-life 1953 experience in which mom packed her two sons (Logan Lerman is 15-year-old George, Mark Rendall is "sensitive" -- i.e., gay -- Robbie) into a baby-blue Cadillac Eldorado convertible for a cross-country husband hunt that failed to turn up a mate but brought young George to Hollywood, validating mother's upbeat motto: "Everything works out for the best -- always." The film will appeal most to those who find solace in such uplift and are cheered by the pretty period detail and the nostalgia-colored view of the past painted by the script by Charlie Peters and the direction of Richard Loncraine (better known for darker visions, including a 1995 Nazi-influenced "Richard III").

Studio on the Square.

My Sister's Keeper (PG-13, 109 min.) Abigail Breslin stars as a young girl who sues her parents (Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric) for "medical emancipation" so they will stop using her blood, marrow and other body parts as donor material for her older sister (beautifully played by Oscar-worthy Sofia Vassilieva), an angelic, even wise teenager whose life has been a constant struggle with leukemia.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (PG, 105 min.) As Amelia Earhart, Amy Adams adds plenty of welcome "moxie" (and a tight pair of aviator's britches) to an extraordinarily busy but simple-minded scenario that finds security guard-turned- infomercial magnate Ben Stiller traveling to Washington when his New York living-exhibit pals (Owen Wilson as a cowboy, Steve Coogan as a centurion, etc.) are relocated to the Smithsonian, where an evil pharaoh (Hank Azaria) with a Karloffian lisp plans to take over the world .

Bartlett 10.

9 (PG-13, 79 min.) Yet another nightmare postapocalyptic world is imagined with a wealth of technical brilliance and a dearth of thematic originality in this dark, computer-animated man-vs.-machine fable, which will seem redundant to fans of "Matrix" and "Terminator" movies and uninspired to those familiar with director Shane Acker's chief influences, the surreal stop-motion shorts of the Czech Republic's Jan Svankmajer and England's the Quay Brothers. The story follows several "stitchpunks"-- weirdly stylized sentient rag dolls (voiced by Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly and others) -- as they struggle to preserve the last vestiges of humanity: pieces of their inventor's soul, preserved within their cloth-and-copper bodies.

Stage Cinema, Majestic, Hollywood 20 Cinema.

Orphan (R, 116 min.) Didn't Vera Farmiga learn her lesson in her previous kid-from-hell horror flick, "Joshua"? This time, the woman who may be the world's finest actress plays a melancholic classical pianist who introduces a 9-year-old adopted Russian orphan into her privileged household; the results are alternately predictable and outrageous, as the preternaturally possessed but spooky Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman, in a tour-de-force performance) demonstrates a need for a straitjacket as well as for eyebrow tweezers. Stylishly directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (the weird 2005 "House of Wax"), the film is distinguished by a loony plot twist and by its sympathetic treatment of characters, especially children.

Bartlett 10.

Pandorum (R, 108 min.) Amnesiacs Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster are awakened from a deep-space deep freeze to discover their spaceship is home to hordes of pale mutants, as well as to a mute martial artist (Cung Le) and a butt-kicking glamazon (Antje Traue). After a slow, dull opening, director Christian Alvart's gloomy action-horror film becomes surprisingly effective, with a grim integrity that seems unbeholden to commercial mandates, even if the choppy editing is just this side of trendy.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

The Proposal (PG-13, 108 min.) Tailored to fit Sandra Bullock more snugly than the antique wedding dress altered for the star during the final act, this romantic comedy begins to fall apart at the seams after director Anne Fletcher ("27 Dresses") stops concentrating on her promising screwball premise -- hated New York book editor Bullock forces subordinate Ryan Renolds into marrying her so she won't be deported back to Canada -- and becomes distracted by forced comic interludes involving a male stripper, morning arousal and Bullock's ghastly interpretation of Lil' Jon's "Get Low." As Bullock's future in-laws, Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson and Betty White do their best; the movie also is elevated by its beautiful seaside locations (Massachusetts, subbing for Alaska).

Bartlett 10.

Secrets of Jonathan Sperry (PG, 96 min.) A Christian-themed film with a TV Land cast: Would you believe Capt. Stubing (Gavin MacLeod) and Benson (Robert Guillaume) are on the big screen?

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Collierville Towne 16.

The September Issue (PG-13, 89 min.) This documentary follows editor Anna Wintour during the production of the annual phone book-thick fall-fashion issue of Vogue.

Ridgeway Four.

Sorority Row (R, 101 min.) Coed cutups get cut up in this bloody party-hearty slasher throwback (marred by pretentious faux artsy photography), in which a prank gone wrong summons a vengeful killer in a hooded graduation gown who dispatches the hot but insufferable "crazy bitches" of Theta Pi with a "pimped-out" tire iron. The cast list tells the story: It includes such characters as "Bra-Clad Sister," "Slutty Sister" "Stoned Dude," "Wasted Guy" and (for fans of "The Man Show"?) "Trampoline Sister."

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8, Majestic, DeSoto Cinema 16, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Surrogates (PG-13, 89 min.) Science-fiction chillers of the past that warned about dehumanization -- "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," for example, or "I Married a Monster from Outer Space" -- posited an outside threat; now, in a 21st-century world of plastic surgery and online avatars, the danger comes from within: The dehumanization is voluntary, as seen in "Gamers" and this graphic-novel adaptation from efficient director Jonathan Mostow ("Terminator 3"). Bruce Willis stars as a police detective in the near future, when most people "live" through attractive robotic "surrogates" that enable them to experience virtual sex and violence from the safety of their homes; the premise is utterly implausible, but the movie is surprisingly sober.

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

Toy Story 1 & 2: 3-D (G, 183 min.) The Pixar classics are back in a special double feature, remastered in 3-D.

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

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (PG-13, 151 min.) Director Michael Bay's instant megahit sequel to 2007's "Transformers" is tinnitus with pictures. It's like sticking your face inside an electric can opener and your finger in a wall socket -- and those are the good parts. The state-of-the-art rock-'em, sock-'em giant robot mayhem is, as expected, impressive; what's not impressive is the racial stereotyping ("Skids" and "Mudflap" are illiterate Autobots with gold teeth who speak in African-American slang) and the warmongering (with its desert climax, this apologia for the Iraq War -- one evil Decepticon shouts "Jihad!" -- suggests Barack Obama is an appeaser and a coward). The disconnect between the scary hyper-realism of the in-your-face effects and the juvenile, even infantile and cartoonish content of the story and gags (a robot farts out a parachute) is unnerving.

Bartlett 10.

Up (PG, 102 min.) "Up," up and away -- Pixar, with its 10th feature film in 14 years, again demonstrates it has no intention of losing ground to the competition, which at this point includes not just other animation studios but all of Hollywood. If "Up" (in 3-D at some theaters) doesn't quite soar to the heights of some previous Pixar releases, it nonetheless is unfailingly charming, exciting, inventive and moving. It's kind of weird, too -- a vibrantly colored, highly stylized and literally uplifting tale of house-hoisting helium balloons, talking dogs and prehistoric goony birds that owes as much to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, L. Frank Baum, Frank Capra and even Richard Connell (author of "The Most Dangerous Game") as to Walt Disney. Having already turned a rat and a robot into movie stars, Pixar's artists have no trouble making a surly septuagenarian into an admirable cartoon hero: Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner) is a widower and would-be explorer who's as blocky as the old house he refuses to abandon. When he and a chubby boy scout land on a lost plateau in South America, director Pete Docter's story takes on something of the craziness of the classic Donald Duck adventures created by comic-book artist Carl Barks in the 1940s and '50s.

Bartlett 10.

Whip It (PG-13, 111 min.) A triumph on every level for debuting director Drew Barrymore, this whip-smart coming-of-age fable of female empowerment provides Ellen Page with a worthy post-"Juno" star vehicle and moviegoers with a funny and moving film that compares favorably to "Sixteen Candles," "Valley Girl" and other astute but unpretentious artifacts from the last great heyday of teen cinema, when Barrymore was a child. Hip but not smart-aleck, the film is not afraid to wear its heart on its sleeve as an invisible accessory to the pads, helmet and embarrassing Barbie skates that propel its underage smalltown heroine from the Texas beauty pageant circuit to a new identity as "Babe Ruthless" in the bruise-and-brews culture of women's roller derby. "Put some skates on and be your own hero," advises team leader "Maggie Mayhem" (Kristen Wiig), and it's a measure of Barrymore's tasteful handling of a fine script by Shauna Cross (working from her own Young Adult novel) that the line is thrilling instead of corny.

Stage Cinema, Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, Hollywood 20 Cinema, CinePlanet 16.

Zombieland (R, 88 min.) According to movie tradition, a bullet to the brain can drop a zombie; the typically less lethal presence of Bill Murray, however, is all that is needed to stop "Zombieland" dead in its tracks. Director Ruben Fleischer's slapstick splatterfest begins on an up if bloody note, as brainy virgin Jesse Eisenberg (basically repeating his role from "Adventureland"), gunslinger Woody Harrelson and sisters Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin unite to bust undead caps as they travel through a post-plague America overrun by the ravenous living dead. But when Murray shows up as himself halfway through the film, for an interlude that must have seemed like cheeky fun on the page but is smug and winky on the screen, consistency is tossed aside for the sake of an elaborate in-joke with a cruel punchline that exposes the film as a hollow exercise in cheap laughs and sensationalism.

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.