Zach Braff had his pick of projects after scoring a hit and making a generational statement with the melancholy "Garden State." He chose the predominate role in an ensemble piece about a quartet of childhood friends making decisions on their futures as they hit the big 3-0. Braff's character sabotages his relationship with his girlfriend (Jacinda Barrett) when she becomes pregnant.

Based on one of the few foreign-language films (Italian) of the past few years aimed at audiences under 40, it has a decidedly European approach to on-screen sex, and an attractive cast, which could get some attention. But the story has been given gravity by a script by Paul Haggis ("Crash," "Million Dollar Baby").

One of the more infamous unsolved murders in American crime lore is revisited by director Brian De Palma in an adaptation of James Ellroy's 1940s-set novel about two ex-boxer cops (Josh Hartnett and Aaron Eckhart) who team to investigate the brutal killing of a would-be actress, and the dames (Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Swank) who complicate things.

The Black Dahlia case has been the subject of, or the backdrop for, a number of films, including 1981's "True Confessions." De Palma's out to give it the noir treatment of Ellroy's "L.A. Confidential," but given the director's recent track record, hopes do not run high.

Originally titled "Yankee Irving," this computer-generated imagery (CGI) family film tells the story of a boy (the voice of Jake T. Austin) named for the team he loves, who is determined to recover the stolen bat of his idol Babe Ruth so the Bambino can use it in the 1932 World Series.

Christopher Reeve was still developing this story about not giving up, which he planned to direct, when he became too ill to work and later died. It was completed by Colin Brady, who did the animation on "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events."

No, they haven't turned a pre-game show into a feature film yet; this is an inspirational drama starring Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson as a California probation officer who forms a football team in a youth facility dominated by gang members, many of whom despise each other.

If the title's familiar, it's because it was also the name of the 1993 documentary film that inspired it. Former Detroiter and rap star Xzibit costars as the Rock's street-savvy coworker.

A spoof of teenage high school comedies for people who find it hard to relate to the usual situations, but with the same essential storyline: Four gay seniors are determined to lose their virginity before graduation.

Orlando Bloom is somewhere near the center of this multilevel crime drama set in the Cayman Islands. He plays a native whose ill-fated romance with the daughter (Zoe Saldana) of a wealthy businessman leads to his becoming a pawn on a chessboard that includes a tax dodger (Bill Paxton) on the lam with his own teenager (Agnes Bruckner), his shady investment counselor (Stephen Dillane) and his duplicitous secretary (Joy Bryant).

French director Jean-Pierre Melvilledirected this acclaimed account of a small but determined band of resistance fighters in German-occupied France in World War II. While the film was called a masterpiece when it was issued in Europe in 1969, it never had a U.S. release.

Melville is best known for his atmospheric crime dramas, so it's not surprising that this bears more resemblance to a thriller than a war drama.

One of the greatest of all novels about politics, written by Robert Penn Warren and filmed in 1949, is remade with Sean Penn taking the role of Willie Stark, a Southern demagogue whose populist platform is corrupted by his own desires and the system he promises to reform.

Originally positioned for release late last year for maximum Oscar potential -- the cast also includes Jude Law, Kate Winslet, James Gandolfini and Anthony Hopkins -- it was pushed back, allegedly at the request of director Steve Zaillian ("A Civil Action"). A reworked version gets its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, a traditional launch pad for Oscar hopefuls.

Nearly all the footage in Patricia Foulkrod's documentary about the war in Iraq was shot by soldiers themselves, some of it in combat, and posted on the Internet. While ostensibly non-political, it makes a powerful case about the war's impact on the people fighting it.

Foulkrod has been criticized for not being in Iraq herself, and much of what we see is presented without context. Still, it shows scenes from a war that the Bush administration has chosen not to let Americans see.

The third and apparently last film whose production was documented on TV's "Project Greenlight" is a horror movie with people locked in a bar and attacked by monsters. Maybe the neon sign outside said "Eat."

The trailer uses quotes from reviews of the first film, all of which essentially proclaim it unfit for human consumption. That oughta show 'em.

Jet Li is back in fighting form in this bio of martial arts icon Huo Yuanjia, founder of the Jin Wu school, who overcomes physical and emotional obstacles to become the greatest fighter in 20th-Century China.

Li, having made no secret of his desire to be taken seriously as an actor, said this film would be his farewell to martial arts. He's backed off since, but the stunts he performs -- nearly all without any special effects -- have the wow factor we'd expect from a swan song.

A mockumentary about three British couples chosen by a magazine to participate in a competition for the title of "Most Original Wedding of the Year." One wants to produce a sort of movie musical of a ceremony; the two others are into tennis and nudism.

Inspired by Christopher Guest's "Best in Show" and "A Mighty Wind," writer-director Debbie Isitt gave the primary cast members the story and character basics and let them fill in the rest with improvisation. Sounds more reality show than romantic comedy.

Dictator Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) takes his Scottish doctor (James McAvoy) into his confidence during his brutal reign of terror in 1970s Uganda, in a drama based on a novel by Giles Foden.

Kevin MacDonald made an impression with his half-documentary, half-dramatized and all-harrowing "Touching the Void"; this is his first all-fictional film.

Ashton Kutcher is a young man trying to turn his life around by joining the Coast Guard. When he becomes determined to join the elite rescue swim team, a veteran (Kevin Costner) with his own issues takes him under his wing.

Kutcher's film career looked promising before he became a gossip column fixture. Costner's been working steadily to get his own career back on track. A serious-minded action drama directed by Andrew Davis ("The Fugitive") could help them both.

It's all Ashton all the time! Kutcher supplies the voice for a one-antlered deer in this CGI family comedy, which has him looking after his own tail during hunting season -- and that of a domesticated bear (Martin Lawrence) lost in the orange zone.

Some say CGI animation hit its saturation level this summer, leaving "Barnyard" and "Monster House" looking for buyers. But if Lawrence can do for this what his mentor Eddie Murphy did for "Shrek," this could make it out of the woods.

A dramatized version of the true story of Lafayette Escadrille, the first air squad in WWI, which flew for France but were made up of young American fliers who had volunteered for the French Army.

James Franco was on everyone's list to become the next brooding leading man until he started showing up in high-profile character roles in films like "Spider-Man." This could put him back on his previous flight pattern.

Geek of His Generation Jon Heder ("Napoleon Dynamite") is a loser who falls for a girl (Jacinda Barrett, "The Last Kiss") who might not be just out of his league but out of his species. He finds hope in a confidence-building class taught by Billy Bob Thornton in this comedy by "Old School" director Todd Phillips.

Hollywood lore has it that when Phillips got the script, he didn't even know it was based on a hilarious comedy from 1960 and based on a play and a couple of satirical novels.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono came to New York on a tourist visa in 1969, fell in with an antiwar, pro-grass, anti-imperialism crowd that included Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Michigan's own John Sinclair, and recorded a (bad) album that insulted Nixon and extolled Black Panther Angela Davis. This promptly got Sen. Strom Thurmond and other political paragons of virtues on their foreign butts. This documentary looks at the lengths the government went to throw them out.

Directed and written by David Leaf and John Scheinfeld, who have made feature docs about Brian Wilson's "Smile" project and the late Harry Nilsson, this features the unreleased live recording of "Attica State" that Lennon and Co. made at an Ann Arbor rally for Sinclair.

I have always wondered exactly how any kid from Texas could grow up to become a chainsaw-wielding maniacal murderer and cannibal. Finally, we get some answers in a prequel to the exploitation film on just about everyone's list of the scariest ever made.

Director Laura Poitras spent more than eight months in Iraq in 2004-05, focusing not on the fighting but the preparations for the country's first-ever democratic elections, seen primarily through the eyes of a Sunni Ara candidate for assembly who operates a health-care clinic.

So concerned was Poitras for the doctor's safety that she never uses his family name in the film, for fear someone outside Iraq would recognize it and mark him as a target for violence.

Dane Cook, who appeared in the funny comedy "Waiting," set in an Applebee's-like restaurant, is behind the counter again, this time with Dax Shepard ("Zathura"), in a Costco-inspired big box store, and both are competing for the eye of new employee Jessica Simpson and the honor of the title.

The latest kids' book series to come alive on the big screen stars newcomer Alex Pettyfor as the 14-year-old boarding school super-sleuth from Anthony Horowitz's popular novels. His quest to save his school from destruction by evil Mickey Rourke is complicated by an MI6 agent played by "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" villain Bill Nighy, who may not be recognizable to the targeted younger crowd without his tentacles.

Jude Law stars as a married landscape architect whose interest in a teenage immigrant thief leads him into a world and a relationship (with the boy's mother, played by Juliette Binoche) he never imagined.

Director Anthony Minghella's first film since 2003's "Cold Mountain" comes from an original story, a departure for the filmmaker, who has built a career on adaptations of novels.

A documentary about Kids on Fire, a summer camp for born-again evangelical children, focusing on three immersed in a program designed to produce "warriors for God" who will "take back America for Christ" when they are not bowling or riding go-carts.

The last film by codirectors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady was also about a camp of sorts, for U.S. city kids who learn survival skills and moral lessons in Africa.

This sci-fi thriller is set in a "Brave New World"-style Paris in 2054 where Big Brother is a corporation called Avalon whose product is youth and beauty. An underground resistance (whose leader was voiced by Daniel Craig before he became James Bond) plots to brings it down. This was made using the motion-capture process of films like "The Polar Express," in which live action footage is subsequently computer-animated.

Ryan Gosling is an inspirational inner-city teacher whose dark and destructive secret is discovered by one of the students he is trying the hardest to keep on the straight and narrow.

Author and film critic Graham Greene touted this 1948 film by British director Carol Reed as the best film adaptation of all his fiction, telling the story of an 8-year-old boy who discovers that the family's married butler (Ralph Richardson), whom the boy reveres, is having an affair. His pain becomes even more acute when the butler is accused of murder.

Though this won Oscar nominations for Richardson and Greene, it has been little seen since its original release, and has been restored for the first time.

Ken Takakura stars as a fisherman long estranged from his son, who is diagnosed with cancer and refuses to see his father. Upon learning that his sick son had been making a documentary film about a folk opera in a remote province, the father sets out on a long journey to complete the project.

This marks a return to intimate, personal drama that occupied Chinese director Yimou Zhang before his martial arts epics "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers." Fans of the latter shouldn't fret; arriving early next year is "The Curse of the Golden Flower."

Robin Williams and director Barry Levinson reunite for a comedy that looks more in the vein of Levinson's "Wag the Dog" than his and Williams' "Good Morning, Vietnam." Williams is a politician-skewering TV comic who runs for the presidency with help from speechwriter Lewis Black and, to everyone's surprise, he wins.

If this wins the support of box-office voters, it might say more about the state of politics than the star or director; neither has had a big hit since the Clinton administration.

John Cena leaves the war in Iraq to find a war at home: His wife (Kelly Carlson of "Nip/Tuck") is kidnapped at the behest of a crime boss (Robert Patrick).

A sequel to the 2004 ghost thriller, with Sarah Michelle Gellar returning to do psychic battle with the mysterious ghost of the first film who sets its sights on her character's younger sister, played by Amber Tamblyn.

Takashi Shimizu, who wrote and directed "Ju-On," the Japanese horror hit on which this was based (and three sequels and the American remake) is back again, determined to protect his domain from intruders.

The last year in the life of the great composer is detailed in a drama by Agnieszka Holland with Ed Harris as Ludwig and Diane Kruger as Anna Holtz, the Vienna conservatory student who is hired to copy the score of his Ninth Symphony when he becomes too ill to do the job himself.

The Polish-born Holland, whose credits include "Europa Europa," has spent much of the past two years directing American TV drama, including "Cold Case" and "The Wire."

Amy Berg's documentary about pedophilia in the Catholic Church concentrates on former longtime priest Oliver O'Grady, known as the kind and trustworthy Father Ollie to his California parishioners, who molested hundreds of boys and girls in the course of being shuffled from assignment to assignment by the church hierarchy over 20 years.

A former producer for CNN and CBS News, Berg talked to dozens of church officials, victims and members of their families, but her most interesting interview is with Grady himself, who uses the opportunity to make his public confession.

British director Stuart Cooper, with cinematographer John Alcott, shot this intimate World War II drama, which follows a young man (Brian Stirner) from his training to service on D-Day, in black-and-white to integrate period war footage. The result is a film that blurs the distinction between drama and reality to startling effect.

Though it won numerous awards, including the Berlin Film Festival's Silver Bear when released in 1975, it was never released in the United States.

Few have tried, and none have succeeded. No, not in talking sense into Tom Cruise. We're talking about directors who have attempted to make serious movies -- that is, well-made, with actors and a plot -- that happen to include graphic sexual conduct. The latest pioneer is "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" director John Cameron Mitchell, who goes all the way in a film about the interconnected lives of New Yorkers who may get a little too interconnected for most mainstream moviegoers.

You read it here first: Mitchell confided to the Free Press he was determined to make a film about "lovers doing what lovers do" way back in 2001.

Coincidence? You decide: This year's "Lassie" was a remake of the canine's first big screen adventure, 1943's "Lassie Come Home." That was the same year of "My Friend Flicka," whose remake "Flicka" also has two words shaved from the title. As eerie as that is, we can expect the film, starring Alison Lohman ("Matchstick Men") as the teen who tames the wild mustang, to be pretty dang wholesome.

Director Sofia Coppola follows the much-praised "Lost in Translation" with this gilded portrait of the Archduchess of Vienna (Kirsten Dunst, star of Coppola's debut "The Virgin Suicides"), who became the bride of the king of France at 19, and then became one of the most reviled women in history. Coppola's stylized approach and the rock music score divided audiences at the Cannes Film Festival premiere.

The lifelong competition between two radically different 20th-Century illusionists (Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale) turns deadly serious in director Christopher Nolan's adaptation of a novel by Christopher Priest. Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson and Andy Serkis also play significant roles.

Though it iscredited to Henry Selick, Tim Burton conceived this 1993 predecessor to last year's "Corpse Bride." The musical about Jack Skellington (voiced by Chris Sarandon and composer Danny Elfman, who does the singing) should be even spookier in a new IMAX 3-D edition.

If this is a success, look for studios to go back through their catalogs of digitally animated films to create 3-D versions that can be seasonal attractions, a la "The Polar Express."

Based on the popular video game series, with Holly Valance, Jamie Pressly, Matthew Marsden and Kane Kosugi among the high-flying fighters doing combat.

Rowan Atkinson ("Mr. Bean") has a rare understated role in this dark English comedy, playing a country minister who barely notices that his family and marriage (to Kristin Scott Thomas) is in utter disarray. Fortunately, a cheerful new housekeeper (Maggie Smith) arrives to put all in order, in her own imaginative way.

Inspired by the great Ealing Studios comedies of the 1950s like "The Lady Killers" and "Kind Hearts and Coronets," it has all the makings of a cult classic.

Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara takes us on a tour of buildings and parks designed by Gaudi, the architect and sculptor who refused to let convention, common sense or even good taste get in the way of his imagination.

When this film was made in 1984, Gaudi's most famous creation, Barcelona's Templo de la Segrada Familia, was said to be nearing completion; when this writer visited last year, it remained his unfinished masterpiece.

Director Ron Mann, whose pop culture exhumations include "Comic Book Confidential" and "Twist," might have outdone "Cars" in recruiting celebrities. Ann-Margret, Jay Leno and even Tom Wolfe (who wrote about Roth) provide voices for the animated witnesses.

Augusten Burroughs' best-selling memoir is the basis of this comedy about a kid (Joseph Cross) who leaves an alcoholic father (Alec Baldwin) and bipolar mother (Annette Bening) to go live with the family of her shrink (Brian Cox), only to discover that the doctor's family may be screwier than his own. Director-writer Ryan Murphy's dream cast includes Evan Rachel Wood, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jill Clayburgh and Joseph Fiennes.

Despite the fact that this is the first feature from "Nip/Tuck" creator Murphy, the writer-director apparently had his pick of actors. Insiders say some top names campaigned for roles in the film, which is already getting award buzz.

Stop me if this sounds familiar. Truman Capote (played by Toby Jones, the English actor most recently seen in HBO's "Elizabeth I") goes to Kansas to write about the brutal murder of a rural farm family with his friend and fellow writer Harper Lee (Sandra Bullock). When the suspected killers are caught, his interest in the case is complicated by his attraction to one of them (Daniel Craig).

Essentially the same tale told in last year's "Capote," but with more focus on the relationship between writer and killer. This was delayed for a year to put distance between them. Regardless of its artistry and pedigree (it was directed by Douglas McGrath, and the cast includes Jeff Daniels, Sigourney Weaver and Gwyneth Paltrow (as singer Peggy Lee), it will undoubtedly feel like deja vu.

Like 2000's "Amores Perros" and 2003's "21 Grams," Alejandro Gonzalez-Inarritu's third feature film delves deep into tragedy and fate via a trio of intersecting stories. While Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett attempt to heal a fractured marriage during a vacation in Morocco, their nanny attends a wedding with the couple's children in Mexico. And connected somehow is a story about a teenager who is deaf testing a father's love and indulgence in Tokyo.

The sadistic and gruesome terror games devised by the serial killer known as Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) are continued by an apprentice (Shawnee Smith), with the assistance of a doctor (Bahar Soomekh) she kidnaps for the purpose of keeping her mentor alive -- and the games afoot.

The local trailers for "Saw III" open with a video image of Jigsaw innocently inquiring "Do you want to play a game, Detroit?" But he's not just messing with us; the marketers have personalized the preview for 10 major markets.

After apolitical oil industry manager Derek Luke ("Antwone Fisher") and his wife are arrested for crimes they didn't commit, he joins the African Congress in apartheid-era South Africa. But his involvement for a secret mission leads to his pursuit by cop and former ally Tim Robbins.

Director Phillip Noyce continues to toil in the politicized territory of his other films, "The Quiet American," "Rabbit-Proof Fence" and "Clear and Present Danger."

The long-in-the-making look at the Detroit garage scene that produced the White Stripes, the Detroit Cobras, the Electric Six and others has its premiere at the Detroit Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

The film's debut is scheduled to coincide with a DIA exhibition of music photographs by Annie Leibovitz that runs through January 2007. Opening night of the film will feature a live performance by the Dirtbombs.

A very domesticated mouse named Roddy (the voice of Hugh Jackman), in attempting to rid himself of a low-class rat who has taken up residence in his flat, gets himself flushed down a London toilet and finds himself in an even lower-class milieu, sewers populated by the likes Whitey (Bill Nighy) and Spike (Andy Serkis) in the employ of the mouse-hating Toad (Ian McKellen).

Like "Wallace & Gromit" and "Chicken Run," this comes from the imaginative Aardman Animations with clay-modeled characters (now computer-animated). But unlike them, it is directed by Nick Park compatriots David Bowers and Sam Fell.

Though Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) is preparing to celebrate his first Christmas with his new family and in-laws (Alan Alda and Ann-Margret), he has to get back in the beard and back to the North Pole as his alter ego when Jack Frost (Martin Short) attempts a toy shop takeover.

Resurrecting the title that was attached to the surprisingly warm and funny "Santa Clause 2," it also brings back characters from that sequel, including the Easter Bunny and Mother Nature for what is believed to be the last sleigh ride -- unless it brings big box office cheer.

A sort of existential French comedy-mystery about a man (Vincent Lindon) who shaves off the mustache he's worn for years before going to a dinner party, only to be discomfited when the wife (Emmanuelle Devos) he's had for years and his friends fail to notice. It becomes a larger issue when they claim he's never had a mustache.

One of the most popular films at the recent Traverse City Film Festival, it was directed by Emmanuel Carrere, who wrote the novel on which it was based.

Shopsin's is a Greenwich Village eatery where New York natives have long taken visitors to show them what makes their city different than ours. It begins with a menu of all sorts of arbitrary rules (including no more than four customers at any of its mismatched tables) and hundreds of flaky-sounding but good-tasting items from deli food to exotica. (The menu, at www.shopsins.com , includes a Detroit egg cream, something you can't find in Detroit.) The experience ends, if you're lucky, by being insulted by owner Kenny Shopsin. He's the less-than-generous subject of this unadorned documentary, making the Soup Nazi seem like Ronald McDonald.

Shot on video, it's as claustrophobic as the restaurant. Like "Deadwood," it should be avoided by people who don't like salt with their language.

The title translates roughly to "Between Sweet and Salt Water," and this 1967 movie starring Claude Gauthier as a young musician who leaves the village where he was born for the bohemia of Montreal is a sweet snapshot of the period -- one rarely seen on this side of the border.

Russell Crowe lays down the gloves to play Max Skinner, a type-A English banker who inherits a Provencal vineyard from his uncle (Albert Finney in a smart bit of casting) and soon discovers a life far more satisfying than the one he's left.

Though this is officially adapted from the novel by Provence-loving author Peter Mayle, the idea was suggested to him by director Ridley Scott, another Brit who refreshes his spirit every year in the area.

Though the title refers to the spirit of someone mysteriously murdered years ago, it could also apply to Sarah Michelle Gellar, returning for her second supernatural drama of the fall. Here she plays a woman who sees the murder in her dreams, but has no idea how she's connected. Luckily, Sam Shepard is around to help her get to the bottom of it.

Director Asif Kapadia, who made the much-admired Indian film "The Warrior," says his film has less in common with J-horror like "The Grudge" than with early Roman Polanski films like "Repulsion" and "Knife in the Water."

Will Ferrell, who was less than challenged by "Talledega Nights" and "Bewitched," bites off something chewier with this take of an IRS grunt who begins to hear his life being narrated in his head. With help from English professor Dustin Hoffman, he discovers he is in fact a character in a work-in-progress by a British author played by Emma Thompson.

In the wake of reality- and fantasy-twisting films like "Being John Malkovich," this script by Zach Helm became one of the hottest reads in Hollywood. "Finding Neverland" and "Monster's Ball" director Marc Forster snagged the prize.

Director Steven Shainberg has subtitled his film "An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus" to give himself the artistic freedom to explore Arbus' complicated life -- a life she would take by suicide, something not addressed in a film.

Christian Bale escapes his bad-times destiny when he joins the Army Rangers and becomes a warrior, but when he is discharged and returns to Los Angeles, he fails to get the job he counted on with the cops. Instead, he returns to the orbit of his best pal Freddy Rodriquez, goes on an aimless, alcohol-fueled joyride through the city, and makes a decided wrong turn.

David Ayer makes his directing debut with this drama that draws from the same well as his screenplay for "Training Day" and provides an acting showcase for Bale similar to the one that earned Denzel Washington an Oscar.

The Quebec in "Entre la Mer et l'eau Douce" (see Nov. 9) is fondly recalled in Jean-Marc Vallee's film about a large Catholic family that includes a son (Marc-Andre Grondin) who realizes early on that he is different from the other boys, as does his loving but concerned old man.

The most popular Canadian-film of 2005, both with audiences and the voters for the annual Genies (their equivalent to the Oscars), which showered it with about every award they had.

Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer returns with a live action-animation fusion of two stories by Edgar Allan Poe that he describes as "philosophical horror" -- which we can assume will be as eccentric and haunting as his previous contraptions.

The DFT screening of this film will be appended by "My Dad Is 100 Years Old," a 16-minute film by another cinematic eccentric, Guy Maddin, in which Isabella Rossellini talks about her director father Roberto.

Director Christopher Guest turns his satirical eye on his own kind in his latest mockumentary, which follows three actors as they campaign for Oscar nominations amid Hollywood's award-season madness. Usual stock-company members Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Parker Posey, Michael McKean and Michael Hitchcock are joined by Ricky Gervais, Rachael Harris and Jane Lynch.

If there is a concern about Guest's long string of satirical swipes at American manners, it's that his fish are confined to a barrel; this one offers the most stationary targets of all.

Jack Black finally realizes his dream project, a feature film exploring the origins of his legendary acoustic-metal duo (with Kyle Gass), Tenacious D. We now learn this duo could only be forged with a magical guitar pick that must be retrieved from a faraway rock 'n' roll museum.

This film has been set up at various studios with many scripts, but the Tenacious D shorts shown years ago on HBO remain hilarious, so despite a discouraging trailer, hope can be kept alive.

Craig. Daniel Craig. Despite widespread speculation that this fine and versatile actor is the altogether wrong choice to replace Pierce Brosnan (who didn't really need replacing), he has both charisma and talent. The decision to return Bond to something resembling reality is a wise one, and Ian Fleming's novel "Casino Royale" (previously filmed as a spoof) is, with "Doctor No," the best of the series.

Though Craig is a question mark, director Martin Campbell was already on the right track with 1995's "GoldenEye," and casting Eva Green ("The Dreamers") as the Bond girl ensures the sexual charge these films require.

Director Richard Linklater took a bold approach in making a film of Eric Schlosser's muckraking nonfiction book about the impact of fast food on the culture and our bodies, via a fictional dissection that begins with a burger-chain marketing executive (Greg Kinnear) trying to stop a rumor that manure has become a secret ingredient, and working its way down the food chain to the consumer.

The real issue here is this: Do McAmericans want to see a satire that reminds them their eating habits are not just stupid but harmful to the planet at large? If this is as funny and smart as Cannes festival audiences said, maybe.

Penguins, reduced to supporting players in "Madagascar," finally get the starring role in this animated film about a poor penguin (Elijah Wood) who cannot sing, which means he can't attract a mate. But wait, can he dance? Heck yes.

It's a comeback of sorts for director George Miller, who used animatronics in making the terrific pig movie "Babe" but must now adjust to the new world of CGI. The voice cast includes Robin Williams and Hugh Jackman who, after "Flushed Away," graduates from gutter rat to Emperor.

Isabelle Huppert, incapable of giving an indifferent performance, returns in a turn-of-the-20th-Century drama as the hostess of an upper-crust dinner party who announces between courses that her perfect marriage isn't, and that she is taking her leave.

Directed by Patrice Chereau and based on the Joseph Conrad novel "The Return," this was one of the best received films at last year's New York Film Festival.

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