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by THE INLANDER & r & & r & 27 DRESSES & r & & r & Twenty-seven times the maid of honor, never the bride. After a couple dozen weddings that aren't your own, you'd think it'd get easier facilitating other people's dreams while sublimating your own. It hasn't for Jane (Katherine Heigl), especially when this latest wedding is her sister's -- the sister who's marrying the dude Jane loves. (LB) Rated PG-13





ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS


The classic cartoon is live-action and computerized here, then fortified with Jason Lee as the chipmunks' guardian, Dave, along with a healthy bit of fecal humor. (LB) Rated PG





ATONEMENT


In this story about childhood love and lost innocence set against the backdrop of WWII, director Joe Wright tells a tragic story that spans nearly 60 years, employing a raw intensity often missing from this sort of film. Atonement is a sad romantic story,and its impact is a lasting one. (BG) Rated R





THE BUCKET LIST


Two strangers who are complete opposites (Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman) meet in a hospital, where both have been told they have a year left. They decide to join in a series of adventures they've scrawled on a "to do" list to be finished before they, you know, kick the bucket. Funny, positive stuff in the midst of a serious subject. There are a couple of commonsense plotting problems, but Nicholson and Freeman -- and their characters -- are having so much fun, you won't care. (ES) Rated PG-13





CHARLIE WILSON'S WAR


Director Mike Nichols and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin have conspired to make a campy movie about the way America trained the soldiers of Osama bin Laden. Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts trade too-witty barbs as a boozing and womanizing congressman and a right-wing socialite; meanwhile, Philip Seymour Hoffman steals scenes as a loose cannon and CIA fix-it man. (CS) Rated R





CLOVERFIELD


Cloverfield combines a Godzilla movie with Blair Witch's "found footage" conceit. But setting it in Manhattan doesn't guarantee relevance to 9/11, and critics who expect incisive social commentary and sophisticated dialogue from a monster movie are just trying to make their jobs seem more important. Morons. (BK) Rated PG-13





ENCHANTED


The sweet silliness of the collective Disney animated fairy tale landscape meets the rough reality of Noo Yawk City? Why didn't someone think of this sooner? Evil queen Susan Sarandon banishes princess Amy Adams from a parody of an animated world to Central Park -- with prince James Marsden in pursuit and Patrick Dempsey lying in wait. (MJ) Rated PG





FIRST SUNDAY


Two bumbling con-men (Tracy Morgan and Ice Cube) are sentenced to 5,000 hours of community service, whereupon they stumble into the best bad idea for a heist. A church they're helping clean up has recently raised a couple hundred Gs and has it --all cash! -- locked in a safe on the premises. (LB) Rated PG-13





THE GOLDEN COMPASS


If it weren't for the wondrous visuals, this would only merit a "wait for the DVD" rating. The story traces the adventures of young Lyra, the only person who can read the title Compass. She and her shape-shifting daemon must go up against the evils of Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) and get a giant bear (voice of Ian McKellen) on her side. (ES) Rated PG-13





THE GREAT DEBATERS


Denzel Washington's second directing effort endows a clich & eacute;d underdog-makes-good framework with a social justice theme. As the coach of the Wiley College debate team, he tells his students, oppressed by Jim Crow laws, that he intends "to give you back your beautiful minds." By mythologizing both a team and a social movement, Washington has created a predictable but principled film. (LB) Rated PG-13





I AM LEGEND


No invading aliens, yet New York City is desolate. There is only Robert Neville, alone in the urban vastness with his German shepherd, Sam. Will Smith plays Neville like a man pushing to keep himself too busy to have a breakdown. And when he stops to talk to mannequins, he'll break your heart. But if he's alone, why does he shut up his home every night like a fortress? (MJ) Rated PG-13





I'M NOT THERE


Six actors portray six aspects of Bob Dylan, America's iconic misanthrope: Ben Whishaw (Dylan the drunken poet), a black child named Marcus Carl Franklin (Dylan the blues-loving adventurer), Richard Gere (Dylan the outlaw), Christian Bale (Dylan the born-again preacher), Heath Ledger (Dylan the star), and Cate Blanchett (Oscar-rumored for her depiction of Dylan the sellout). Meanwhile, Dylan the mythical figure empowers the jerky narrative and vibrant surrealism of this heavy, fierce, brilliant film. (LB) Rated R





JUNO


Offbeat and surprising, Jason Reitman's second film is about perky, outspoken, wisecracking Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page), a 16-year-old with the kind of curiosity that leads her to have sex with her best pal Paulie (Michael Cera). That leads to a pregnancy test, the results, breaking the news to Paulie, a confession to her parents (J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney) and a trip to the abortion clinic. But something happens, and that's only the beginning of this sweet, funny, heartfelt film. (ES) Rated PG-13





THE KITE RUNNER


Many years after two best friends part ways, the one who moved to America is called back home to help rescue his friend's young son from the Taliban. Sadly, everything that was wrong about Afghanistan that Khaled Hosseini wrote about in the source novel is still wrong in real life. (ES) Rated PG-13





MAD MONEY


We were looking forward to this being Jim Cramer's silver screen debut (as a superhero hopefully, with world-saving-ly high blood pressure and stock advice that deflates evil-doers' portfolios in a single fiscal quarter), but no, it's another female empowerment drama featuring three actresses dead-set on ruining their careers. Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes hatch a hare-brained scheme to knock off "the most secure bank in the United States." One or two of them also find love. (LB) Rated PG-13





MICHAEL CLAYTON


George Clooney, looking ragged, plays a Manhattan law firm's "fixer" -- a cleaner-up of messes. But when a litigator in Clayton's office (Tom Wilkinson) decides to work against instead of for his mega-corporation client, the mess becomes very big indeed. A nail-biting thriller with classy performances and a tight, twisting script. Nominated for seven Oscars. (ES) Rated R





NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS


Treasure hunter Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) sets out to clear the family name (turns out an ancestor might have helped plot Lincoln's assassination) and finds himself in the middle of some plot holes and political intrigue. More of what you saw in the first installment. It's no Indiana Jones, but Cage seems back to form, shining brighter and cracking wiser than he has in years. (JS) Rated PG





NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN


When Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds the remnants of what looks like a drug deal gone bad -- heroin, money, bodies -- he decides to take the money. That puts a psychopath (Javier Bardem) on his trail. And while Tommy Lee Jones' sheriff provides some help, Llewellyn has now plunged himself into a world in which everyday things turn lethal. Joel and Ethan Coen return to the violent black comedy of Fargo. (ES) Rated R





ONE MISSED CALL


One Missed Call is about some sort of malevolence that tells you you're going to die by leaving... voice mail messages of your own death rattle! Of course, the only way to stop the carnage is to trace it back to the source. (LB) Rated PG-13





THE PIRATES WHO DON'T DO ANYTHING


This is a Veggie Tales movie. Buy your tickets soon and be prepared to brave packed theaters. (LB) Rated G





P.S. I LOVE YOU


A passionate married couple (Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler) is dealt a terrible blow when he suddenly dies. The film manages to find a lot of humor and positive vibes in the situation when she starts receiving letters from him, written when he was still alive, suggesting how she can get on with her life and maybe even find love again. (ES) Rated PG-13





SWEENEY TODD


Tim Burton and Johnny Depp -- together again -- in a big splashy version of the Stephen Sondheim musical about a Victorian-era barber (Depp) who, with his sharpest razors, decides to take revenge upon the dastardly judge (Alan Rickman) who tore him apart from his family. It's gory and violent, and the songs aren't up to Sondheim par, but Burton's vision is amazing. (ES) Rated R





THE WATER HORSE: LEGEND OF THE DEEP


A Scottish lad finds what looks like a baby dinosaur. So the family decides that the creature has to be set free to swim in a nearby lake. Which, since this is Scotland, is known as a "Loch." (MB) Rated PG