Times are subject to change, and we recommend calling ahead to confirm.
Beaver Creek Shopping Center, off NC 55, Apex. 676-3456.

600 Blue Ridge Rd, Raleigh. 282-9003.
8611 Brier Creek Pkwy, Raleigh.

484-9994.
5501 Atlantic Springs Rd, Raleigh. 645-1111.

Colony Shopping Center, 501 Atlantic Springs Rd 5438 Six Forks Rd, Raleigh. 856-0111.
501 Caitboo Ave, Crossroads Shopping Center, Cary.

226-2000.
770 Cary Towne Blvd, Cary. 463-9989, .

2600 Timber Dr, Garner. 779-2212.
201 E Hargett St, Raleigh.

834-4040.
2109-124 Avent Ferry Rd, Raleigh. 834-2233.

4150 Main at North Hills St, Raleigh. 786-4511.
9525 Chapel Hill Rd, Morrisville.

645-1111.
Corner of Glenwood Ave and Lynn Rd, Raleigh. 226-2000.

Falls Village Shopping Center, Raleigh. 847-0326. .

1620 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh. 856-0111.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer mdash;8.

Also Sat-Sun 2, 5. Rocky Horror Picture Show mdash;Fri midnight.
9500 Forum Dr, Raleigh.

846-3904.
1205 Timber Dr East, Garner. 676-FILM.

309 W Morgan St, Durham. 560-3030, .
1056 W Club Blvd, Durham.

286-1001, .
8030 Renaissance Pkwy, Durham. 676-3456.

2523 E Club Blvd, Durham. 688-1037.
1800 Martin Luther King Blvd, Durham.

489-9020.
Timberlyne Village Mall, 1129 Weaver Dairy Rd, Chapel Hill. 968-3005.

Southern Village, NC 15-501 South, Chapel Hill. 932-9000.
Timberlyne Shopping Center, 120 Banks Dr off Weaver Dairy Rd, Chapel Hill.

933-8600.
123 E Franklin St, Chapel Hill. 967-8665.

119 N Main St, Graham. (336) 226-1488.
Call for shows and times.

5050 Durham Rd, Roxboro. (336) 598-5050.
Black Christmas mdash;4:30, 7.

Also Fri-Sat 9:30; Sat-Sun 2:15; Thu 1. Charlotte's Web mdash;4:55, 7:05. Also Fri-Sat 9:40; Sat-Sun 2:20; Thu 1.

Code Name: The Cleaner mdash;4:35, 7:10. Also Fri-Sat 9:25; Sat-Sun 2:25; Thu 1. Happily N'ever After mdash;4:45, 7:05.

Also Fri-Sat 9:30; Sat-Sun 2:10; Thu 1. Night at the Museum mdash;4:30, 7. Also Fri-Sat 9:25; Sat-Sun 2:10; Thu 1.

The Pursuit of Happyness mdash;4:40, 7:15. Also Fri-Sat 9:45; Sat-Sun 2:05; Thu 1. Rocky Balboa mdash;4:50, 7:10.

Also Fri-Sat 9:35; Sat-Sun 2:25; Thu 1. We Are Marshall mdash;4:40, 7:15. Also Fri-Sat 9:45; Sat-Sun 2; Thu 1.

Chronological by date and time
Phantom Planet: Fri, Jan 5, 7 pm: The mysterious appearance of an unknown planet brings miniature people, giant monsters, beautiful women undaunted heroes to the screen. NC Museum of Natural Sciences, 11 W Jones St, Raleigh. Presented by A/V Geeks.

Free.
NC Museum of Art Winter Film Series: Fri, Jan 5, 8 pm: Army of Shadows. Fri, Jan 12, 8 pm: The Fallen Idol.

2110 Blue Ridge Rd, Raleigh. 839-6262, . $5, $3.

50 students.
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism: Fri, Jan 5, potluck at 7:30 pm, movie at 8: Robert Greenwald's film examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news. Durham Co-op Grocery, 1101 W Chapel Hill St.

Free.
Hemp and the Rule of Law: Tue, Jan 9, 7 pm: Blending history with current events, this documentary traces hemp's legendary past in United States agriculture chronicles the heated debate to return the crop to American farmers. Kings Barcade, 424 S McDowell St, Raleigh.

Preceded by Independent Voices. Free.
NC State University Campus Cinema: Thu, Jan 11 Sat, Jan 13, 7 pm; Fri, Jan 12 Sun Jan 14, 10 pm: Saw III.

Thu, Jan 11 Sat, Jan 13, 9:30 pm; Fri, Jan 12 Sun Jan 14, 7 pm: The Prestige. Witherspoon Student Center, NC State Campus, . $1.

50-2.50.
The Civil War: Ken Burns' celebrated nine-part documentary from 1990.

Thu, Jan 11, 6:30 pm: 1861 mdash;The Cause: At the Crossroads of Our Being. Thu, Jan 18: 1862 mdash;Very Bloody Affair: From the Peninsular Campaign to Shiloh. Olivia Raney Local History Library, 4016 Carya Dr, Raleigh.

250-1196, . Free.
Cinema Inc.

: Fri, Jan 14, 7 pm: State of the Union. Rialto Theater, 1620 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh. $20 annual subscription.

787-7611.
Martin Luther King Jr Film Festival: Wed, Jan 17, noon: The Boy King. Thu, Jan 18, noon: Martin Luther King: The Legacy.

Fri, Jan 19: The Assassination of Martin Luther King. Sonja Haynes Stone Center, 150 South Rd, Chapel Hill. 962-9001, .

Free.
Student Friends Movie Night: Thu, Jan 18, 7: Pollock. Ed Harris' acclaimed film about Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock, aka "Jack the Dripper.

" Ackland Art Museum, Columbia St near Franklin, Chapel Hill. 843-3676. Free.

Our rating system uses zero to four stars. If a movie has no rating, it has not been reviewed by Laura Boyes (LB), Godfrey Cheshire (GC), David Fellerath (DF), Neil Morris (NM) or Zack Smith (ZS).
Opening This Week
CHILDREN OF MEN mdash;Charged with ferrying the only known pregnant girl to safety, Clive Owen's Theo Faron is part-Joseph, part-Noah in this postmodern nativity story set in a not-too-distant dystopia in which women have mysteriously grown infertile and humankind stands at the brink of its gradual, seemingly inescapable extinction.

Sadly, our cultural, racial and religious prejudices not only survive but thrive in this vacuum of life's lost purpose and meaning mdash;denizens of an isolated British Isle in 2027 are ordered by their totalitarian regime to report undocumented immigrants as often as women are reminded of the illegality of refusing fertility tests. In loosely adapting P.D.

James' 1992 novel, director Alfonso Cuaron conjures a masterwork of coincidental contradictions: a sci-fi fantasy steeped in gritty realism, a futuristic fiction replete with political poignancy and a paradigm of technical proficiency reliant upon handheld camerawork and long, extended takes. It is quite simply the best directed film of 2006, and probably the most cautionary. Rated R.

mdash;NM
CODE NAME: THE CLEANER mdash;Cedric the Entertainer is a humble janitor who fancies himself a secret agent after being hit on the head. It's your money, you decide. Rated PG-13.

Can this smile save the inner-city kids? Hilary Swank stars in Freedom Writers, which opens Friday. Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures FREEDOM WRITERS mdash;The sincerity of this depiction of real-life educator Erin Gruwell (Hilary Swank) and the cathartic missives of her inner-L.

A. high school students cannot fully compensate for the ultra-banal plot in which an idealistic (and, as usual, white) teacher tries to inspire a group of multiracial miscreants victimized by social decay and a neglectful educational system. Synchronize your watches to the scenes where someone gets shot, someone gets sent to prison, and Swank joins in a hip-hop group jig.

By casting Patrick Dempsey as the husband who takes a backseat to Gruwell's professional calling, the film seems to say, "Look, she's so noble she'll even give up McDreamy for these kids!" Swank's presence, in lieu of some Hollywood has-been or a starlet looking for street cred, lends the movie much-needed heft. But, while the lessons taught by this story are laudable, the curriculum rings too familiar.

Rated PG-13. mdash;NM
HAPPILY N'EVER AFTER mdash;It's officially reached the point where making fun of clich e s has become a clich e . This relentlessly self-referential tale of fairy tale villains taking over the stories where they always lose is harmless but predictable, going over the same territory from Shrek, Ella Enchanted, Hoodwinked, etc.

Wouldn't it be nice to see some new stories instead of revamped classics and wisecracking animals? Though in this film's defense, its CGI Cinderella does have an adorable pixie haircut. Rated PG.

mdash;ZS.
OLD JOY mdash;Kelly Reichardt's naturalistic drama about two old friends on a weekend camping trip in Oregon's Cascade Mountains is one of the best films of 2006, but it also plays like one of the best films of 1973 or so, a time of political disillusionment and a boomer generation that found itself starting to settle down. Old Joy is reminiscent of such 1970s boys-gone-wild classics as Deliverance and The Deer Hunter, but its two leads (Will Oldham and Daniel London) are clearly creatures of our own times, perhaps to their sorrow.

Reviewed on page 38. Not rated. mdash;DF
PERFUME: THE STORY OF A MURDERER mdash;This appalling mess tells the tale of Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), an outcast in 18th-century France with a superhuman sense of smell, who becomes obsessed with capturing the essence of beauty in a perfume.

Based on a novel by Patrick Suskind that was a favorite of Kurt Cobain, director Tom Tykwer fails to capture the story's subtext about alienation in favor of lurid spectacle. It looks terrific, but it doesn't have a point. Reviewed on page 39.

Rated R. mdash;ZS
THR3E mdash;A cunning psychopathic killer leaves clues that ensnare three people into his deadly web. However, Thr3e is not to be confused with Se7en.

Honest. Rated PG-13.
APOCALYPTO mdash; Mel Gibson's subtitled plunge into ancient Mayan civilization turns out to be a brilliantly imagined, thoroughly engrossing popcorn epic.

Yes, as in previous Gibson films, there's plenty of blood and gore, but here it doesn't have the S M tinge of Passion of the Christ. And while there are hints that Mel wants astute viewers to understand this as a kind of Meso-American correlative for the Book of Revelation, the movie's real claim to fame is that it's simply a great display of old-fashioned movie thrills and storytelling smarts. Rated R.

mdash;GC
BHAGHAM BHAG (RUN AWAY) mdash;An Indian theater company comes to London, initiating four unfunny slapstick plots. Govinda, the king of 1990s Bollywood comedy, makes an anticipated comeback after a term in politics. But, he looks tired, and not at all pleased with playing sidekick to 2000s king of comedy, Akshay Kumar.

Director Priyadarshan directs traffic, as the company searches for a leading lady, some dim-witted drug dealers bungle, a mob of mullet-wigged thugs stalk and the plot of Vertigo all collide. The non-stop activity denies Govinda and Akshay either much of a chance to bounce comedy off each other, or display their superior dancing ability. The audience, however, laughed non-stop, and left the theater singing "Pyaar ka signal" (Love's signal).

mdash;LB
BLACK CHRISTMAS mdash;they say Christmas began as a pagan holiday. This year, a group of sorority sisters make the ultimate sacrifice. Rated R.

BLOOD DIAMOND mdash;No doubt the campaign against conflict diamonds is a worthy one, but the film plays like a typically self-righteous Hollywood sermon wrapped around a very bloody, totally predictable and unbelievable adventure yarn constructed of jackhammer "action beats." Even fine performances by leads Leonardo DiCaprio (sporting a South African accent) and Djimon Hounsou can't offset the formulaic filmmaking, or Jennifer Connelly's lame turn as an activist reporter. Rated R.

mdash;GC
BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN mdash;Inventive British TV satirist Sacha Baron Cohen makes his big-screen starring debut playing Borat, an eager, culturally obtuse Kazakh TV r eporter road tripping across the United States. Though the comedy sometimes relies a bit too obviously on gross-out and lowbrow provocations (including its absurdist take on Jews), its relentless ingenuity and its star's wacky winning presence make it unfailingly amusing, a sure guarantee of many Cohen comedies to come. Rated R.

mdash;GC
CASINO ROYALE mdash;Easily the best 007 movie since the 1960s, the 21st installment in cinema's most successful franchise sweeps away a lot of the cutesy gimmickry that's encumbered it in recent decades while inaugurating a new Bond, Daniel Craig, who proves to be the most skilled and charismatic actor to occupy the role since Sean Connery. While the basic formula of action and intrigue in exotic locales remains the same, the fantasy quotient has been significantly reduced, giving us a more human, complex Bond. Rated PG-13.

mdash;GC
CHARLOTTE'S WEB mdash;While this live-action rendering of the venerable E.B. White children's book will delight young viewers, some of the original text's idyllic transcendence gets lost amongst such contemporary allowances as burping rats and flatulent cows.

Director Gary Winick's effort is quite watchable, but if you are looking for an enchanting movie filmed in Australia about an underdog pig, talking farm animals and their human minders, go rent Babe. Rated G. mdash;NM
COME EARLY MORNING mdash;Previously known as an actress, Joey Lauren Adams makes an extremely impressive debut as writer-director, as well as turning out the best Southern film of 2006, in this flavorful indie dramedy about a Little Rock gal named Lucy, who's trying to move beyond her habit of getting drunk and hooking up with stray guys.

Ashley Judd is superb in the lead role and there's also fine work by Diane Ladd, Scott Wilson and Jeffrey Donovan. Rated R. mdash;GC
DHOOM 2 mdash; Straightlaced cop Jai (Abhishek Bachchan) teams with bad boy cycle racer Ali (Uday Chopra) in a breathlessly entertaining movie of monumental silliness.

Hrithik Roshan (one of People magazine's Sexiest Men Alive) snatches the spotlight as a master thief and action guru Allen Amin devises a dizzying array of stunts. The cast (including seductresses Aishwarya Rai and Bipasha Basu) radiate a superhuman level of gorgeousness, beautifully lit, primped and moistened. The giddy international caper encourages you to rev your engines, check your brain and dhoom, dhoom.

Not rated. mdash;LB
DREAMGIRLS mdash;A '60s girl group reaches the top, but only after fronting Deena (Beyonc e ), a beauty with crossover appeal, and benching the raw sound and plump physique of the more talented Effie (Jennifer Hudson). This movie stars Beyonc e .

Does no one see the irony in this? The pastiche score of R B, Motown and disco sounds is convincing, but devolves into one power ballad after another. American Idol confirms the public's insatiable thirst for these anthems, but enough already.

Rated PG-13. mdash;LB
ERAGON mdash;One part Star Wars, one part The Lord of the Rings, and three parts crap. Rated PG.

mdash;NM
THE GOOD SHEPHERD mdash;Focused on a buttoned-down counterintelligence expert played by Matt Damon, Robert De Niro's second directorial outing examines the CIA's roots and first 30 years through a dark, complex drama that's rich enough to evoke comparisons to classics like The Godfather and All the President's Men. Though Eric Roth's script doesn't finally live up to its epic ambitions, this is still one of the year's most fascinating and intelligent films. Angelina Jolie, William Hurt, Billy Crudup and De Niro himself costar.

Rated R. mdash;GC
HAPPY FEET mdash;Spawned from the machinations of March of the Penguins, this bird-brained eco-musical posits that penguins are not only hatched under daunting natural obstacles, but born bearing intrinsic familiarity with an anthology of late 20th century American pop music. What starts out as part The Jazz Singer, part Footloose ends up a contradictory fiction where human encroachment on an endangered ecosystem is halted only when the inhabitants of that environment adopt Western pop culture and thereby prove their entertainment worth.

Rated PG. mdash;NM
THE HISTORY BOYS mdash;Nicholas Hytner's film of Alan Bennett's West End-to-Broadway hit has the typical strengths and weaknesses of its theatrical kind. Set in an '80s British class of boys hoping to study history at university, a milieu rife with homoerotic, student-teacher and teacher-administrator tensions, the film boasts a cavalcade of witty writing and expertly engaging work by star Richard Griffiths and a slew of young newcomers.

But Bennett's script is also overlong and too pleased with its facile, two-dimensional, ultimately sentimental view of human nature. Rated R. mdash;GC
THE HOLIDAY mdash;Writer-director Nancy Meyers' triennial sap-fest about symbiotic sisterhood congeals with the yuletide-angst subgenre to form a half-baked Christmas cookie-cutter movie.

Some sporadic chuckles, picturesque settings and infectious charm cannot offset the lack of focus and somnolent banality. With Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black and Jude Law. Rated PG-13.

mdash;NM
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM mdash;Somehow, the melding of the talents behind The Pacifier, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Just Married and the Pink Panther and Cheaper by the Dozen remakes isn't the disasterpiece it could have been. However, this tale of a shlubby night guard (Ben Stiller) dealing with exhibits coming to life at the Museum of Natural History doesn't offer much beyond typical bland family fare. Points to Robin Williams for not going over the top as Teddy Roosevelt, and also to the filmmakers for assembling an eclectic cast including Mickey Rooney, Ricky Gervais and Dick Van Dyke.

Rated PG. mdash;ZS
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS mdash;With its early Reagan-era milieu, the most textured parts of this inspiring rags-to-riches biopic of struggling Chris Gardner (Will Smith) accentuate the intractable class and economic divide that often smothers even the most well-intentioned and hard-working among us. And, the film's most effective moments are the tender and genuine exchanges between Gardner and his young son, played by Smith's real-life son Jaden.

Still, director Gabriele Muccino essentially crafts a glorified after-school special imbued with more filler than focus. Rated PG-13. mdash;NM
THE QUEEN mdash;The latest from Stephen Frears has a great premise: a look into the lives of Britain's royal family at the time of the tumultuous public reaction to the death of Princess Diana.

Unfortunately, the seriocomic concept is undermined from the first by Peter Morgan's script, which has all the obviousness and banality of a TV production. Rated PG-13. mdash;GC
REQUIEM mdash;Sandra H u ller gives a haunting performance as Michaela, a young German woman from a religious home who slowly becomes convinced she is possessed by demons when she goes away to college.

Suffering from epilepsy and the guilt heaped on her by her oppressive mother (Imogen Kogge), Michaela's condition is framed by writer Bernd Lange and director Hans-Christian Schmid in a realistic, almost documentary fashion, as she's slowly convinced of her own madness. The film doesn't offer easy answers, suggesting that whether or not she's truly possessed, her belief in the possession represents a weird sort of personal martyrdom and liberation. The film was inspired by a true story that also inspired 2005's The Exorcism of Emily Rose mdash;and boy, they really mucked that one up in comparison to this film.

Not rated. mdash;ZS
ROCKY BALBOA mdash;The film franchise nearly stages its greatest comeback, spotlighting a middle-aged Italian Stallion (Sylvester Stallone) subsisting off his faded glory and living amongst the ghosts of his South Philly past. However, once another recycled training montage segues into one final (?

) fight against the current champ, Mason "The Line" Dixon (real-life boxer Antonio Tarver), the film loses its focus and spirit. In the end, Rocky Balboa is not unlike its centerpiece Las Vegas exhibition bout mdash;a meaningless spectacle that fails to advance the Rocky lore. Rated PG-13.

mdash;NM
WE ARE MARSHALL mdash;Charlie's Angels mastermind McG gets serious with this based-on-a-true-story tale of Marshall University Thundering Herd football team, but the results take a genuinely moving true story and impose a traditional "underdogs come together" sports film onto it. Rated PG.