These movies open Friday unless noted.
Bobby Emilio Estevez directs this dramatic retelling of Robert Kennedy's assassination by following 22 people who were at the hotel where the murder took place that night. Anthony Hopkins and Helen Hunt star.
Opens Thursday
Deck the Halls Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick star as suburban neighbors who go to war when one of them seeks to build the world's brightest Christmas display. Opens Wednesday
D e j Agrave; Vu This sci-fi thriller filmed in post-Katrina New Orleans stars Denzel Washington as an ATF agent who has to go back in time to stop a woman from being murdered. Opens Wednesday
For Your Consideration Christopher Guest (A Mighty Wind, Best in Show) writes, directs and stars in this comedy about the excitement felt by three actors who learn that their indie film has generated Oscar buzz.
Opens Wednesday
The Fountain This sci-fi romance spans a millennium and three stories, all focusing on the same man in different guises - starting as a 16th-century conquistador who discovers the key to eternal life. Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz star. Opens Wednesday
Mutual Appreciation Newly arrived in New York, a rock musician (Justin Rice) can't seem to spend enough time around his best friend's girlfriend (Rachel Clift).
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny Jack Black and Kyle Gass star in this comedy about a pair of slackers who form the world's greatest rock band. Opens Wednesday
Reviewed by critics Carrie Rickey (C.R.
), Tirdad Derakhshani (T.D.), David Hiltbrand (D.
H.) and Steven Rea (S.R.
); W.S. denotes a wire-service review.
The QueenCompassionate as it is critical, satirical as it is serious, The Queen is less a docudrama about British Prime Minister Tony Blair and HM Elizabeth II in the aftermath of Princess Diana's death than it is a political romantic comedy. Its concern is how the Labor leader and the wary wife of Windsor change each other, as people and as leaders. 1 hr.
43 PG-13 (profanity) - C.R.
BoratSacha Baron Cohen stars in the title role of this mock-doc in which the buffoonish tele-journalist from Kazakstan travels to America, offends everyone, and tries to meet, and marry, Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson.
R(nudity, profanity, crude humor, adult themes) - S.R.
The Departed Freed from iconic figures and weighty themes, Martin Scorsese gets to riff and rock in this huge, bloody, profane gangland entertainment.
Set in Boston, and tracking the trajectories of two cops - one crooked, one undercover - the pic stars Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg. They all rock. 2 hrs.
31 R (violence, sex, nudity, profanity, drugs, adult themes) - S.R.
The Illusionist Edward Norton stars as a master magician in late-19th-century Vienna whose sublime trickery gets him in trouble with a dastardly royal.
A wonderful anachronism of a movie, with its clip-clopping horses, gaslit lanterns, and Hollywood stars (Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel) elocuting in quasi-Euro accents. 1 hr. 49 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) - S.
R.
Marie Antoinette A gorgeous confection, packed with billowing gowns and near-pornographic displays of pastrystuffs, Sofia Coppola's ode to 18th-century France's teen queen is also a sharp, smart look at the isolation, ennui and supercilious affairs of the rich, famous and famously pampered. Not Paris Hilton, exactly - but maybe someone called Versailles Hilton.
2 hrs. 03 PG-13 (sex, nudity, adult themes) - S.R.
Open Season In this animated feature from the director of The Lion King, a 900-pound domesticated grizzly bear (voiced by Martin Lawrence) gets stuck in the woods as hunting season is about to begin. 1 hr. 29 PG (some rude humor, brief profanity) - W.
S.
Shut Up Sing Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck's Dixie Chicks documentary tracks the culture war fallout from Natalie Maines' infamous dis of George Bush in March 2003 to the release of their 2006 album, Taking the Long Way. The music flick follows Maines, Martie Maguire and Emily Robison as they survive verbal abuse from Toby Keith and death threats, and succeeds in serving up an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of an arena-size pop band that is far more revealing than your typical self-serving music documentary.
1 hr. 33 R (profanity) - D.D.
Stranger Than Fiction As The Truman Show is to Jim Carrey, this trippy tale - about an IRS drone who suddenly hears someone narrating his life - will be to Will Ferrell. Take a brainy premise, a smart director, and a top-flight cast, then throw an ex-TV sketch comedy knucklehead into the mix - voila, a thinking person's dramedy that grapples with issues of fate and free will. 1 hr.
53 PG-13 (profanity, sex, nudity, adult themes) - S.R.
Babel **1/2 An array of characters in Morocco, Tunisia, Japan, Mexico and suburban America find themselves in a series of desperate situations in this drama that flows between different story lines.
Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, and Gael Garc i a Bernal star. 2 hrs. 22 R (violence, nudity, sexual candor, profanity) - C.
R.
Casino Royale *** Daniel Craig possesses a distinctive mix of macho, menace and magnetism in this kickiest of James Bond reboots based on the Ian Fleming novel that started it all. With Judi Dench, Eva Green and Mads Mikkelsen.
2 hrs. 20 PG-13 (discreet nudity, implicit sadism, violence, profanity) - C.R.
Flushed Away *** A jolly, roller-coaster-paced, computer-animated romp about a pampered pet mouse (Hugh Jackman) that winds up in the sewers of London, where he meets a plucky rat girl (Kate Winslet) and has to foil a dastardly plot involving a band of evil French frogs. Gleefully bad puns and flotsam sight gags abound. 1 hr.
24 PG(potty humor) - S.R.
Happy Feet *** A trippy mash-up of March of the Penguins and a hyperactive jukebox musical, this computer-animated kid epic comes by way of Babe director George Miller, and shows a similar, if not as successful, comic sensibility.
Voice talent includes Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and Brittany Murphy. It's too long, but also too good to miss. 1 hr.
48 PG (plucky penguins in jeopardy) - S.R.
The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause ** Tim Allen returns as Father Christmas in this slick and silly family sequel.
The Mrs. is pregnant; the in-laws are barking; and Jack Frost (Martin Short) is nipping at his..
. ahem. 1 hr.
38 G - D.H.
Saw III **1/2 Far superior to its predecessor, the latest entry in the Saw saga has the dying antihero Jigsaw set up his final message to the world.
With more gore, violence and a tighter pace, the film is a disturbing thrill ride. 1 hr. 47 R (strong grisly violence and gore, torture scenes, profanity) - T.
D.
Reviewed by critics Douglas J. Keating (D.
J.K.), Wendy Rosenfield (W.
R.), Howard Shapiro (H.S.
) and Toby Zinman (T.Z.).
Mickey's Magic Show (Academy of Music) Disney Live! presents Mickey, Minnie and a slew of other Disney characters along with illusionists. Friday through next Sunday.
The Phantom of the Opera (Forrest) Once again the masked man will lure the soprano with Andrew Lloyd Webber's music of the night. Wednesday through Dec. 31.
Robin Hood (People's Light) This new musical by Kathryn Petersen continues People's Light's annual panto tradition. Previews begin Wednesday, opens Dec. 1.
42nd Street (Walnut) A lavish show-biz musical about a chorus girl tapping her way to stardom. The Broadway production ran nine years. Through Jan.
7.
Crime and Punishment (Arden) A 90-minute version of Dostoyevsky's novel about an ax murderer and a prostitute that shrinks the Russian masterpiece into a simplified saint/sinner dichotomy. Through Dec.
10. - T.Z.
Every Christmas Story Ever Told (Act II) A holiday comedy spoofing Christmas and other holidays. Through Dec. 17.
Kiss of the Spider Woman (InterAct) Two sterling performances by Frank X and Vaneik Escheverria fuel Manuel Puig's play about an unlikely pair of prisoners in an Argentine jail. At the Adrienne; ends today. - H.
S.
Menopause: The Musical (Society Hill Playhouse) Four excellent performers make this light musical approach to the change of life very entertaining theater. Open-ended.
- D.J.K.
Our Lady of 121st Street (Temple) Stephen Adly Guirgis' ferocious play about a murdered nun and her former students who return to the Bronx to mourn her. Through Dec. 2.
The Producers (Merriam) This flat, slow touring production takes the fun out of Mel Brooks' smash-hit musical comedy about two guys who produce an unexpected smash-hit musical comedy. Ends today. - T.
Z.
QED (Lantern) A play about the Nobel prize-winning physicist and much-loved personality Richard Feynman. At St.
Stephen's Theatre; through Dec. 3.
Something You Did (People's Light Theatre) Willy Holtzman's play about a former radical, hoping for parole after 30 years in prison, traverses the political divide without becoming didactic.
Ends today. - W.R.
The Spider's Web (Hedgerow) The Agatha Christie mystery delivers escapist fun complete with butler, bucolic English setting, and every other convention possible. Ends today. - W.
R.
The Tempest (Villanova) Shakespeare's last play takes place on a magical island where Prospero rules. Ends today.
The Trial of Ebeneezer Scrooge (Bristol Riverside) A sequel to A Christmas Carol, this comedy takes up Scrooge's story a year later when "nice" seems to have worn off. Through Dec. 10.
Valhalla (Philadelphia Theatre Workshop) A Paul Rudnick comedy about opera, a Texas teenager and Mad King Ludwig is about the quest for beauty in a life that isn't. Through Dec. 3.
Ice Age: The Meltdown *** The rare sequel superior to the original. This one has our pal the woolly mammoth (voice of Ray Romano), worried that his kind is extinct, meet up with a female mammoth (Queen Latifah) who thinks she's a possum, headed toward higher ground because global warming is causing floods. 1 hr.
30 PG (discreet sexual inneundo) - C.R.
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