By Matt Brunson

THE LORD OF THE RINGS MOTION PICTURE TRILOGY: EXTENDED EDITION

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (2001)

***1/2

THE TWO TOWERS (2002)

***

THE RETURN OF THE KING (2003)

***1/2

DIRECTED BY Peter Jackson

STARS Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen

The Beatles over Elvis, Coke over Pepsi, coffee over tea, and Star Wars (original trilogy) over The Lord of the Rings — those are my long held preferences and I'm sticking with them. Still, regarding that last face-off, I must admit that George Lucas has his work cut out for him when he releases the Star Wars saga on Blu-ray this September, given the fact that LOTR has largely defined the glories of the DVD experience and now promises to do likewise on Blu-ray.

By Matt Brunson

CARS 2

DIRECTED BY John Lasseter

STARS Owen Wilson, Larry the Cable Guy

Think of Pixar as a person instead of a studio. Imagine it as Clint Eastwood.

By Matt Brunson

BAD TEACHER

DIRECTED BY Jake Kasdan

STARS Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake

It's no Bad Santa, but Bad Teacher brings just enough naughty behavior to the table to make it a decent watch for viewers tired of PG-13 timidity.

By Matt Brunson

THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES (1976)

***1/2

DIRECTED BY Clint Eastwood

STARS Clint Eastwood, Chief Dan George

An important movie in the maturation of Clint Eastwood as both actor and director, The Outlaw Josey Wales finds the legend cast as a Civil War-era farmer whose wife and son are killed by rampaging Union soldiers.

By Matt Brunson

THE TREE OF LIFE

DIRECTED BY Terrence Malick

STARS Brad Pitt, Sean Penn

Terrence Malick's latest cinematic meditation, the Cannes Palme d'Or winner The Tree of Life, is a movie that's probably easy to hate and almost impossible to defend. Detractors will be quick to label it pretentious, which seems unfair to me — pretentious denotes insincerity, and Malick is nothing if not genuine in his attempts to use the motion picture medium as a means with which to explore subjects that are important to him. For whatever faults some viewers might find with his works (boring, pointless, unfocused), no one can ever accuse him of cold calculations or cynical compromises, the modus operandi of too many of today's stateside filmmakers.

By Matt Brunson

MR. POPPER'S PENGUINS

DIRECTED BY Mark Waters

STARS Jim Carrey, Carla Gugino

Aside from Tom Popper (Jim Carrey) mistakenly believing that "BFF" stands for Big Fat Friend, the only original element to be found anywhere in Mr. Popper's Penguins is the character of Pippi, Popper's personal assistant and a Brit prone to parleying with prose that begins with the letter "p." The London-born actress with the terrific name of Ophelia Lovibond essays this role, and she provides a lift to every scene in which she appears.

Unfortunately, she doesn't appear nearly enough to save this ghastly family film. A bastardization of the award-winning children's book, this finds Carrey cast as a ruthless businessman with daddy issues, spousal issues, and neglected kids issues. Mr. Popper has always placed his job above all else, but that changes after he receives a parting gift from his deceased father: six penguins that take over his apartment and his life. Initially desperate to get rid of these creatures, he soon finds that the birds are useful in bringing him back together with his family. But what's this? A nasty zoologist (Clark Gregg) is harassing Popper and his new friends (given names like Loudy, Bitey and Stinky), insisting that the birds would fare better in a zoo than an apartment.

The penguins seen in the picture are a mix of actual animals and CGI creations, and here's a quick primer for those unable to tell the difference: The ones acting normal are the real birds while the ones pooping in Popper's face or leaning over to break wind are the fake ones. Watching the real penguins, your have to feel sorry for them — in this picture, they get less respect than Rodney Dangerfield. Still, they fare better than Carrey, who's only allowed to try something new a couple of times; for the most part, he's simply required to react to the wacky penguin shenanigans.

Small children might get restless during the sequences in which Popper tries to patch up his relationship with his ex-wife (Carla Gugino is wasted as the missus), but they'll otherwise be kept entertained by the animal antics. Adults, on the other hand, might want to stay away — as Pippi would doubtless note, this movie is putrid, puerile and painful.

By Matt Brunson

THE ART OF GETTING BY

DIRECTED BY Gavin Wiesen

STARS Freddie Highmore, Emma Roberts

There are the lucky ones, those performers who manage to transition smoothly from child actor to adult star without hitting a rough patch during the teen years (e.g. Jodie Foster, Elizabeth Taylor). Then there are those who find their careers derailed for whatever reason — take, for instance, the promising 50s actor Bobby Driscoll (Treasure Island, the voice of Disney's Peter Pan), whose sudden onslaught of severe acne once he hit puberty all but killed his rapid ascension (turning to drugs, he later died a homeless man at the age of 31). Or Macaulay Culkin, whose Home Alone superstardom eventually evaporated thanks to a series of flops as well as the interference of his avaricious prick of a pop.

Presently, it's Freddie Highmore who stands at the crossroads of career considerations. An appealing small fry in such films as Finding Neverland (when he was 12) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (13), Highmore now turns up in his first significant role in years at the age of 19, playing the leading character in The Art of Getting By. To quote Fred Willard in A Mighty Wind, "Hey, wha' happened?"

By Matt Brunson

THE DOUBLE HOUR

DIRECTED BY Giuseppe Capotondi

STARS Ksenia Rappoport, Filippo Timi

Giuseppe Capotondi made his directorial debut with The Double Hour while the picture's three screenwriters all began plying their trade in 2005. Presumably, all of these relative newbies spent the previous years watching endless cycles of twisty thrillers and taking as many notes as possible. But based on the evidence of this film, their hands began cramping before they finished jotting down pointers on how to maintain interest from first frame to last.