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Capsule reviews by Thomas Delapa (TD) as indicated.

Aquamarine

Cross the Gidget flicks with a sudsy fish-out-of-water tale and—poof—you'll get this 'tween fantasy, which only lands with a small splash. On the last week of summer, best friends Hailey (Joanna Levesque) and Claire (Emma Roberts) are amazed to find that a mermaid has washed up into their Florida beach resort. Not only that, but the blond-and- blue-highlighted Aquamarine (Sara Paxton) has only three days to hook a man or she'll have to go back to the sea and marry a carp. Next to I Know What You Did Last Summer, few movies can match the squeals and shrieks that director Elizabeth Allen culls out of her cast, but even the cuteness factor sinks against the weight of all the froth. Rated PG. At Colony Square. — TD

Brokeback Mountain

Red River was never like this, pardner. I wouldn't call director Ang Lee's gay-themed breakthrough a "metrosexual" Western, but I reckon it would at least cause John Wayne to roll over in his grave. Then again, what was all that funny business about in Red River when Montgomery Clift and John Ireland compared their six-shooters? Potshots aside, Lee has moved a mountain, or at least nudged it out of the closet. He and screenwriters Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana have taken Annie Proulx's preciously short story and branded it with compassion and humanity. But it's the low-key acting of Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal that takes Brokeback to the heights. In 1963, Ledger's Ennis Del Mar and Gyllenhaal's Jack Twist meet as strapping young cowboys on the Wyoming range. With Michelle Williams and Anne Hathaway. Rated R. At Colony Square, Mayan, Chez Artiste, Landmark Crossroads. —TD

Cache

Georges (Daniel Auteuil), a French TV talk-show host, receives an anonymous videotape of the exterior of the Paris apartment he shares with his wife (Juliette Binoche) and young son. In the days that follow, he receives more tapes, accompanied by disturbing cards--perhaps threats against his son. Or is the mystery deeper, involving the guilty past that Georges thought he erased? Director Michael Haneke's enigmatic Cache (Hidden) reveals its secrets slowly, so slowly in fact that you almost wish it came with a fast- forward button. Considering the recent riots in France's immigrant enclaves, hidden inside Cache you'll find an impeccably timed political theme about the entrenched consequences of colonialism. You'll also find an arty preciousness that puts the long in longueur. Unrated. At Chez Artiste, Landmark Crossroads. — TD

Capote

In many contemporary "biopics" the central performance outmuscles the movie. Whether Jamie Foxx in Ray or Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote, uncanny impersonation has become the Holy Grail. As the novelist who penned Breakfast and Tiffany's and In Cold Blood, Hoffman does an impeccable Truman Capote, capturing his fey manners and high-pitched patter. From a book by Gerald Clarke, Bennett Miller's film underlines the five-year period in which Capote wrote his ground-breaking 1966 "nonfiction novel," In Cold Blood. Capote doesn't pan out as full-bodied biography, but it does spin a cautionary tale of cold-blooded journalism. In Miller's view, Capote made a Faustian bargain with fame that sentenced him to his own private prison. With Catherine Keener. Rated R. At Landmark Crossroads, Mayan, Boulder Theater. — TD

Crash

Paul Haggis didn't have to travel far to fuel his inspiration for this provocative pressure-cooker set in Los Angeles. A few years ago, he was carjacked at gunpoint. Haggis isn't shy about tackling inflammatory racial issues. Sometimes he gives those issues a light touch. Just as often, they crash and burn. Over 36 hours, a handful of people collide in the car-driven culture of L.A. When Haggis keeps Crash intimate, he hits his targets head on. But he's too ambitious, piling on the coincidences with a heavy hand and a lead foot. I left the theater feeling like the victim of a hit-and-run civics lesson.With Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton, Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock. Rated R. At Starz Film Center, Landmark Crossroads. — TD

Curious George

King Kong gets small, very small, in this cheery big-screen version of the popular series of children's books by H.A. and Margret Rey. Orphaned in Africa, our mischievous monkey hitches a boat ride to New York City, where he's befriended by an absent-minded anthropologist who must save his museum from getting paved over and turned into a parking lot. Sprinkled among the monkey business are a couple of mellow songs by Jack Johnson. Like a lot of human tots, George doesn't say much, but wherever he goes, disaster is sure to follow. Voices by Will Ferrell and Drew Barrymore. Rated G. At Colony Square. — TD

Date Movie

A spoof of romantic comedies which focuses on a man, his crush, his parents and her father. Rated PG-13. At FlatIron, Colony Square.

Dave Chappelle's Block Party

Quick-witted comic Dave Chappelle gives away free tickets to a block party in his Brooklyn neighborhood, where Kanye West, Mos Def, the Fugees and other rap acts perform in four-letter, living color. Rated R. At UA Village 4.

Eight Below

Once upon a time, "Based on a true story." was a standard Hollywood boilerplate. When more wiggle room was needed, it became "Inspired by a true story." In Disney's Eight Below, a better subtitle would be, "Sort of inspired by a film based on a true story, but don't sweat the details." The pedigree for this canine survival saga comes from a 1983 Japanese hit about a 1950s Antarctic science expedition. In the Disneyfied version, the Japanese have been voted off the island, replaced by an American cast. If your interest heats up for this warm-and-furry adventure, it will be because of its pack of four-legged leads. At least for the eight sled dogs marooned at the South Pole, it'll be a cold day in hell when they say that man is dog's best friend. With Paul Walker and Bruce Greenwood. Rated PG. At Colony Square. — TD

Failure to Launch

A thirtysomething slacker suspects his parents of setting him up with his dream girl so he'll finally vacate their home. Rated PG-13. At Colony Square.

Firewall

If I hadn't seen Harrison Ford at his grimmest in Firewall, I would have never found out how you can steal $100 million from a bank simply by using a iPod. Your expressions may equal Ford's as you watch him grimace through another one of his family-in-jeopardy thrillers. Led by a steely eyed Brit (Paul Bettany), a gang invades Jack's Seattle home and takes his family hostage. The crooks' cunning plan: To force Jack to embezzle a fortune from the bank where he's the computer-security chief. Whatever Firewall's smoldering subtext, director Richard Loncraine abandons it for the Ford star download. Forget all the high-tech gadgetry. If brute force is the only thing these creeps understand, then our mild-mannered hero is sure to answer the bell with his fists, not his cell phone. With Virginia Madsen. Rated PG-13. At Colony Square. — TD

Freedomland

When Marlon Brando and others took their Method acting to Hollywood in the 1950s, they opened up a new era of emotionalism in American screen acting. A half-century later, Julianne Moore's excruciating performance will give pause to anyone who thinks the Method isn't without its madness. Even Samuel L. Jackson is burned by Joe Roth's direction, which canonizes the over-emotive Moore as if she were Joan of Arc at the stake. Richard Price's script sets out to do the right thing, at least in terms of treating the racial divide in this country. The flash point setting is a New Jersey housing project, the down beat for a paternalistic police detective (Jackson). With tempers on edge, a white woman (Moore) stumbles into the hospital, claiming that her young son was abducted in a carjacking. Rated R. At FlatIron. — TD

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

In his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) takes a class in the dark art of curses. I matriculated from Goblet of Fire muttering a few curses myself—few of them printable. My cup runneth over with tedium during this 2 1/2 hour supernatural slog, in which Harry enrolls in the angst of adolescence. Forget evil Lord Voldemort. Harry's scariest task is finding a date to go to his first dance. Following the pattern of the other Potter pictures, director Mike Newell and writer Steve Kloves serve up an adaptation that's slavish to Rowling's overstuffed book. Cloves is so reverential to Rowling, he might as well be adapting the Bible for Focus on the Family. With Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Brendan Gleeson and Michael Gambon. Rated PG-13. At Nederland Backdoor Theater. —TD

The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

A suburban American family is stalked by a group of psychotic people who live in the desert. A remake of Wes Craven's 1977 horror classic. Rated R. At Colony Square.

The Libertine

The story of John Wilmot (Johnny Depp), a.k.a. the Earl of Rochester, a 17th dentury poet who famously drank and debauched his way to an early grave. Rated R. At Landmark Crossroads, Colony Square.

Match Point

You can take Woody Allen out of Manhattan, but you can't take Manhattan out of Woody Allen. Match Point is a rare Allen foray away from his beloved New York City. He takes his game to London for another study of love and death, husbands and wives, and crimes and misdemeanors. If that sounds like a run-on sentence, that's because Allen is a run-on filmmaker. In this game of mixed doubles, Chris (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a former tennis pro, is the player to watch. Allen makes use of his new milieu, tapping Brit witticisms and an upper-crust ambience. But he also brings some familiar baggage on his trip. Chris' copy of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment is just one sign that Allen wants to school us in Tragedy 101. With Scarlett Johansson, Matthew Goode and Emily Mortimer. Rated R. At UA Village 4. — TD

Neil Young: Heart of Gold

See Screen review. Rated PG. At Mayan. — TD

Night Watch

I could barely keep my eyes open for this anemic Russian vampire film, which tells of the final conflict between good (the Light Others) and not-so-good (the Dark Others) in Moscow. Even on a basic level—duh, scares—writer/director Timur Bekmambetov is about as successful as Putin doing democracy. But in portent and pretension Bekmambetov seems to have his sights on War and Peace with fangs. Along with the tricked-up visuals, Slavic heavy-metal music, animation and lots of mumbo-jumbo, there's a scene of a guy drinking pig's blood. Quick, someone stuff this stiff in its crypt back in the (former) USSR. Rated. R. At Landmark Crossroads, Esquire. — TD

The Pink Panther

Trying to fill some huge paw prints, Steve Martin won't make you forget Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau, but neither will he make you see red. In a return to his wild and crazy days as the Jerk, Martin confidently bumbles his way through this slapstick semi-remake, mixing pratfalls with mangled Franglish. Martin gets help from Kevin Kline, who gets the thankless foil role as the Chief Inspector Dreyfus. Director Shawn Levy also bumbles along, stepping in a pile of bathroom jokes. But Martin keeps gamely plugging away with his squinty-eyed poker face, tracking down a super-sized diamond, sizing up a sexy singer (Beyonce Knowles) and wrecking hotels with all the enthusiasm of a sixties rock band. With Emily Mortimer and Jean Reno. Rated PG. At FlatIron, Colony Square. — TD

Running Scared

Run away. Just when you think Hollywood can't get any worse in an era of Bad Boys and Scream, it constantly surprises you with even more putrid product. Paul Walker stars as a drug-running New Jersey thief who goes on a desperate search to find a handgun that could finger him for a murder rap. With only his wife in his corner, Walker must evade a corrupt cop, Russian mobsters, child molesters, an albino pimp, hockey hit-men and even his own gang. Rated R. At FlatIron. — TD

The Shaggy Dog (2006)

A man tries to live a normal life, despite the fact that he sometimes turns into a sheepdog. Rated PG. At Colony Square, UA Village 4.

16 Blocks

Lt. Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) has only to transport a prisoner (Mos Def) 16 blocks from a police station to a courthouse in Manhattan, but the jaunt turns into The Odyssey when a squad of corrupt cops aim to whack Jack's prisoner. For the dull and preposterous 95 minutes of 16 Blocks, audiences are sentenced to Willis playing a boozy burn-out and a nasal-voiced Def doing his imitation of Porky Pig. You'll have plenty of time to take in the sights on director Richard Donner's walking and shooting tour of lower Manhattan, even if Willis is one dogged cop who doesn't stop for donuts. With David Morse. Rated PG-13. — TD

Syriana

What Traffic was to the drug trade, Syriana is to the international oil industry. But the analogy is a slippery one. For all its topical plotting and far-flung locations, writer/director Stephen Gaghan's geo-political drama runs on fumes. Adapted from a book by Robert Baer, Syriana sets out to drill deep into the sinister complexities of Big Oil. From Texas to Kazakhstan, Gaghan weaves a sprawling story-line that connects the dots between Mideast oil, Enron-slick energy corporations, oily lawyers and the CIA. At one pole is CIA agent Bob Barnes (George Clooney). In Zurich, an industry analyst (Matt Damon) is hired by the royal family of an oil-rich Arab country. Like a pedantic history teacher, Gaghan hits all his points, and digs at the usual suspects. Whether you follow the oil or the money, as drama Syriana is a dry well. With Jeffrey Wright and Christopher Plummer. Rated R. At United Artists 4, Colony Square. — TD

Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

Tommy Lee Jones directs and stars in this messy but well-timed drama that digs up a made-to-order villain (the racist U.S. authorities) and a dead hero (an illegal Mexican immigrant). Looking as weathered as Death Valley in summer, Jones is Pete Perkins, a Texas rancher who goes on a mythic quest to bury his friend, Melquiades Estrada, in his native Mexico when he's shot dead by a loutish and masturbatory Border Patrol officer (Barry Pepper). From a script by Guillermo Arriaga, Jones doubles-back on the story repeatedly, running roughshod over his plot and characters to shovel in his political points. Rated R. At Landmark Crossroads, FlatIron, Chez Artiste. — TD

TransAmerica

A woman playing a man playing a woman, Felicity Huffman is Bree, an L.A. transsexual who goes on a cross-country road trip with the street-hustling teenage son she never knew she had. To make matters even messier, Toby (Kevin Zegers) thinks Bree is a Christian church lady. Duncan Tucker's patchy road movie takes the dysfunctional family to the outer limits of The Twilight Zone. As the deadpan ersatz heroine, Huffman should either should be nominated for an Oscar or given the Hilary Swank Award for best Gender-Bending of 2005. But Swank has nothing on Huffman: In her big breakdown scene, she cries and drools at the same time. Rated R. At Esquire, Landmark Crossroads. — TD

Ultraviolet

A sci-fi thriller starring Milla Jovovich as Violet, a revenge-seeking warrior with fierce fighting skills and chameleon-like abilities. Rated R. At Colony Square.

Why We Fight

Adopting his title from the seminal series of World War II documentaries made by Frank Capra, Eugene Jarecki traces the development of America's "military-industrial complex." Cued by that cautionary phrase coined by Pres. Eisenhower at his farewell speech in 1961, Jarecki attempts to dismantle the elements, direct and indirect, that have gone into the creation of U.S. militarism as an entrenched institution. Much of the information here is old news, and Jarecki's cursory collage style doesn't help his cause. But this is a case of compelling evidence overwhelming the drawbacks of form. Jarecki's recap of the geo-political genesis of the Iraq war, starting with the West's insatiable demand for oil, is a primer on how America's relentless economic self-interest is driving its foreign policy. Rated PG-13. At Esquire. — TD

World's Fastest Indian

No, it's not the Jim Thorpe story. Nor does it have anything to do with the Calcutta marathon. Writer/director Roger Donaldson's peppy road movie runs on a rich performance by Anthony Hopkins, one of the screen world's greatest actors. For those audiences who only know Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter, here's your chance to see him act without chewing scenery—or anything human. His Burt Munro is 1960s New Zealand eccentric who only wants to ride his Indian "motorsickle" to a land-speed record. Donaldson returns to his semi-native homeland for another crack at Munro's obscure true story--which also inspired his 1971 documentary. But it's Hopkins who kick-starts this movie, transforming it into a affable saga about an aging rebel with a cause. With Diane Ladd and Chris Lawford. Rated PG-13. At Landmark Crossroads. — TD

WEEKLY VIDEO PICK

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949). Alec Guinness' first great comic role was actually eight, as he played an entire family of eccentric royal heirs who become the target of a vengeful relation (Dennis Price) bent on murdering his way to dukedom. Guinness' gallery of d'Ascoynes meet their untimely demise in the most absurdly funny of ways. From a 1907 novel (Israel Rank) by Roy Horniman, Robert Hamer directed a droll and delicious black comedy, one of the Ealing Studio's regal postwar hits. With Valerie Hobson and a kittenish Joan Greenwood (DVD and VHS). —TD