At The Movies

Opening

Barnyard: The Original Party Animals
1/2
An animated movie about a free-wheeling cow and his misfit farm animals who live the high life when humans aren't looking. Review on Thursday's Entertainment page. (PG)

The Dark Backward

This dark and gross comedy from 1991 has gone on to become a cult film. A terrible comedian gets notoriety when a third arm grown out of his back. (R)

The Descent
1/2
One year after a tragic accident, six girlfriends meet in a remote part of the Appalachians for their annual caving trip, where they meet unspeakable horrors at the hands of a mysterious race. (R)

The Night Listener
1/2
Psychological thriller follows a troubled radio-show host who develops an intense relationship with a young listener who supposedly has terminal AIDS. (R)

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

The "Anchorman" duo of Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay return with the tale of a NASCAR driver who must face his own demons and fight to retain his place at the top when he is challenged by the arrival of a flamboyant French Formula One star. (PG-13)

Now Playing

G - General audiences.

Cars
1/2
Director John Lasseter and his Pixar animation team's latest feature is about a hotshot rookie race car who learns about life in the slow lane when he finds himself unexpectedly detoured to Radiator Springs.

Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties
1/2
On a trip to England, the beloved comic strip fat cat is mistaken for another tabby who inherited a castle.

Over the Hedge

A group of woodland animals visit the strange new world of suburbia with the prompting of an opportunistic raccoon.

The Wild

The computer-animated film is about a New York City zoo lion who enlists his animal friends to search for his cub, who was mistakenly shipped to the wild.

PG - Parental guidance suggested.

Akeelah and the Bee
1/2
The innate talent of an 11-year-old inner-city girl makes her a surprise contender for the national spelling bee.

The Ant Bully

After a 10-year-old boy terrorizes an ant hill, the tiny insects use a magic potion to shrink him to their size and make him live and work in their colony in order for him to earn his freedom.

Goal!: The Dream Begins

An illegal Mexican immigrant living in Los Angeles travels to England to try to make the Newcastle United soccer club.

Ice Age: The Meltdown
1/2
The cheery animated sequel might as well come with another subtitle: "Featuring Scrat!" The fanged little goof constantly upstages the top-billed talent with his manic antics to secure his acorn.

An Inconvenient Truth

A documentary about former Vice President Al Gore's touring multimedia talk about the moral challenge of global warming.

Monster House

A group of kids suspect a creepy old house is really alive and dangerous. This movie features a blend of motion-capture and CG animation and has lots of fun to deliver. It makes for a great, scary film for youngsters.

RV
1/2
Robin Williams stars as a dad who rents a recreational vehicle to take his family on vacation.

PG-13 - Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate from children under age 13.

The Benchwarmers
1/2
Three grown-up dweebs form a barnstorming team seeking to lay the smackdown on full-rostered youth squads.

Click

Adam Sandler stars as a harried architect who stumbles upon a universal remote that allows him to perform TiVo-like functions on his life.

The Da Vinci Code

Based on the best-selling novel, the murder of a curator at the Louvre reveals a sinister plot to uncover a secret that has been protected since the days of Christ.

The Devil Wears Prada
1/2
More college drab than haute couture, a hapless young woman (Anne Hathaway) becomes the assistant to a demanding editor (Meryl Streep) who oversees the fashion bible of New York.

John Tucker Must Die

When three popular girls from different cliques discover they've all been dating the school stud, they band together to seek revenge.

Keeping Up With the Steins

A highly entertaining, not-so-kosher comedy about a high-powered, if dysfunctional, Jewish family in Hollywood and a boy who ends up using his bar mitzvah for the unlikely purpose of actually becoming a man and reconciling his elders.

Lady in the Water

A mystical water nymph lives under the swimming pool of a drab apartment complex. It's an intriguing premise, yet the mythology director M. Night Shyamalan builds around his main characters is forced, pretentious and outright silly at times.

Little Man

Brothers Marlon and Shawn Wayans follow up "White Chicks" with this screwball comedy about a short-statured criminal who poses as an adopted baby to recover a stolen diamond from an unsuspecting couple.

Mission: Impossible III

Tom Cruise's superspy series continues, as Ethan Hunt goes against a dangerous international weapons and information dealer who places his girlfriend in peril.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend
1/2
Veteran comedy director Ivan Reitman is back with a tale of an architect (Luke Wilson) who breaks up with his clingy girlfriend (Uma Thurman), only to find out she's a superhero out for payback.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom reprise their roles in the swash-buckling sequel to the popular 2003 movie. This time, Capt. Jack Sparrow discovers he owes a bloody debt to the legendary Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) of the ghostly Flying Dutchman.

Poseidon

A groaning giant of a film, it delivers disaster on an epic scale and absurdity in abundance. The action remake, about a cruise ship capsized by a freak wave, is bigger, louder and cheesier than its 1972 predecessor.

A Prairie Home Companion

Veteran director Robert Altman applies his masterfully ironic and curmudgeonly eye to a whimsy-filled fantasy about the last night of Garrison Kellior's venerable radio variety show.

Scary Movie 4
1/2
The latest sequel has sporadic flashes of comic greatness, but is separated by draggy repetitive sketches that make this movie feel longer than it should.

Scoop

Woody Allen's latest film is a mirror image of his more successful "Match Point" from last year, and a stale rehash of a couple of his earlier films.

Superman Returns
1/2
The Man of Steel returns to Metropolis after a five-year absence. He begins his life again as his alter ego Clark Kent while trying to restart his romance with Lois Lane and battle his arch-nemesis Lex Luthor.

X-Men: The Last Stand

When a cure for the genetic aberrations that grant the mutants their powers is discovered, the team must decide if they want to become normal human beings.

You, Me and Dupree
1/2
Wedding crasher Owen Wilson does more lighthearted loitering in this movie, playing a barfly who overstays his welcome sleeping on a newlywed buddy's couch.

R - Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Clerks II
1/2
Director Kevin Smith checks back in with the slackers from his indie breakout film to find out what they're up to a dozen years later.

Friends with Money

Writer-director Nicole Holofcener tells the story of a quartet of longtime friends from tiny West Los Angeles.

Miami Vice

Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx star in Michael Mann's updated version of his popular action-crime TV series of the 1980s.

A Scanner Darkly

Philip K. Dick's grim novel of drug addiction is made into an often incomprehensible sci-fi tale by Richard Linklater, using the wobbly rotoscoping animation technique he last used in "Waking Life."

See No Evil

Wrestling star Kane plays a giant-sized serial killer that hunts down and kills, in gory detail, the delinquent teens who invade his hotel hideout.

Art House | Revival

THE DORIS DUKE THEATRE, HONOLULU ACADEMY OF ARTS

900 S. Beretania St.; $7 general; $6 seniors, students and military; $5 Academy members (532-8768):

'Ohina: The Short Film Showcase
See story on Page 10. At 7:30 p.m. Friday and noon, 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday. Free.

Lower City
1/2
Review on Friday's Entertainment page. At 1, 4 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Aug. 7; 1 and 7:30 p.m. Aug. 8 to 10.

MOVIE MUSEUM

3566 Harding Ave.; $5, $4 members; reservations recommended due to limited seating (735-8771):

V for Vendetta
At 12:30, 3, 5:30 and 8 p.m. Friday.

Beat the Devil
At 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m. Saturday.

Hail the Conquering Hero
At 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m. Sunday.

In a Lonely Place
At 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m. Aug. 7.

The Bad and the Beautiful
At 12:30, 3, 5:30 and 8 p.m. Aug. 10.

UHM CINEMA SERIES: BEYOND OIL

Spalding Hall Auditorium, University of Hawaii at Manoa; $5 general and $3 UH students/faculty:

Turning Down the Heat: The New Energy Revolution / Renewable Power: Earth's Clean Energy Destiny
At 5 p.m. Sunday.