Movie Guide

Staff ** 1/2 Fun family fare, cute kids, simple story.

Sex/Nudity: 1 innuendo. Violence: 9 scenes of slapstick violence. Profanity: 7 mild expressions. Drugs: 1 scene with smoking.

Director: Peyton Reed. With Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor. (96 min.)

Sterritt * The time is 1962. The heroine is an enterprising author (Zellweger) who's penned a feminist book years ahead of its time, but the suave magazine editor she needs for publicity purposes (McGregor) wants to prove she's a romantic at heart. There's promise in the film's idea of reviving the spirit of Doris Day-Rock Hudson comedies, complete with colorful images and vintage wide-screen cinematography. Sadly, though, director Reed has no idea how to build the right bubbling rhythms.

Staff ** 1/2 Campy, giddy, sappy.

Sex/Nudity: 16 instances of innuendo. Violence: 3 mild scenes. Profanity: None. Drugs: 25 scenes with drinking and smoking.

Director: Andrew Stanton. With (voices) Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Willem Dafoe, Geoffrey Rush. (101 min.)

Staff *** A grumpy clown fish searches for his missing son after the youngster is scooped up by scuba divers and plopped into the office aquarium of an Australian dentist. This exuberant animation is no "Toy Story," but it's the next best thing, with colorful cartooning, imaginative dialogue, and voice performances that mold the finny characters into richly believable figures.

Staff **** Artistic triumph, hilarious, fun.

Sex/Nudity: None. Violence: 5 scenes of cartoonish violence. Some scenes may scare small children. Profanity: None. Drugs: None.

Directors: Johnnie To, Wai Ka Fai. With Andy Lau, Takashi Sorimachi, Kelly Lin. (102 min.)

Sterritt ** Two hit men - one secretive and reclusive, the other wild and flamboyant - joust for the No. 1 reputation, bringing excitement and danger to a young woman who becomes a pawn in their competition. The story matters less than the style, full of swooping camera movements, rapid-fire editing, and color-drenched displays of the vivid violence the Hong Kong school is famous for. Action- adventure buffs will enjoy it, but the picture's interests are too narrow for crossover viewers. In English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Japanese with English subtitles.

Directors: Michael Galinsky, Suki Hawley. With James Hatfield, Sander Hicks, Mark Crispin Miller. (90 min.)

Sterritt **** This is a chilling and engrossing documentary about an author whose life took wild turns when his biography of George W. Bush lost its berth with a mainstream press, leading him to team up with a maverick publisher. The film should fascinate anyone interested in politics, publishing, and the uneasy marriage between big money and mass communication.

Staff *** Grass roots, smart, raw.

Sex/Nudity: None. Violence: None. Drugs: 2 scenes with drinking; 4 with smoking.

Director: Andrew Fleming. With Michael Douglas, Albert Brooks, Ryan Reynolds. (95 min.)

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