AFFAIR OF THE NECKLACE (R) -- NOT RATED Hilary Swank stars as the real-life Countess Jeanne de la Motte-Valois, whose search for her royal heritage brought close to the French Revolution. Co-stars Christopher Walken, Simon Baker and Adrien Brody. Palace 20
ALI (R) -- B
Michael Mann's ambitious portrayal of former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali is as elusive as its subject. Will Smith is good enough as Ali, but Mann's inability to deconstruct the myth of sports' most important figure leaves us hanging. (Simmons) Chalmette, Palace 16, Palace 20, Plaza
AMELIE (R) -- B+
Jean-Pierre Jeunet (co-director of Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children) presents this unashamedly joyous and cheeky story of a young woman (Audrey Tautou ... or is that Hepburn?) who invests her energy in everyone's happiness but her own. In French with English subtitles. (Simmons) Canal Place
A BEAUTIFUL MIND (PG-13) -- B
Ron Howard's drama profiles a genius mathematician who struggles with mental illness. The picture offers another brilliant performance by Russell Crowe and fine supporting work by Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris. (Barton) Palace 12, Palace 16, Palace 20
BIRTHDAY GIRL (R) -- NOT RATED
Russian mail-order bride Nicole Kidman may prove too much for English bank manager Ben Chaplin in this thriller directed by Jez Butterworth (Mojo) and co-starring Mathieu Kassovitz (Amelie). Palace 12, Palace 16, Palace 20
BLACK HAWK DOWN (R) -- A
In this approximation of the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, director Ridley Scott rolls out an amazingly choreographed chaos and then allows his actors to stand in the storm and deliver finely nuanced performances. Josh Hartnett, Eric Bana, Sam Shepard star. (Carlson) Chalmette, Downtown Joy, Galleria, Palace 12, Palace 16, Palace 20, Plaza
BLACK KNIGHT (PG-13) -- NOT RATED
Martin Lawrence is a fast-talking hustler who is thrown back in time to the Middle Ages in order to wreak havoc in this comedy originally slated for Chris Tucker. Palace 16
BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF (R) -- NOT RATED
Christophe Gans directed this French horror-mystery (which has been all the rage in Europe) about an 18th century legend of a wolf monster terrorizing villagers. Co-stars Monica Bellucci (Malena). In French with English subtitles. Palace 20
THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (PG-13) -- C-
Director Kevin Reynolds squanders a great premise and a good cast in this poorly directed and distractingly edited version of Alexandre Dumas' enduring tale of betrayal and revenge. Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce and Richard Harris star. (Carlson) Chalmette, Galleria, Palace 16, Palace 20
GOSFORD PARK (R) -- A-
Robert Altman craftily recasts Jean Renoir's 1939 classic Rules of the Game as an Agatha Christie murder mystery with greater emphasis on social-class conflict. His ensemble cast soars, including Kristin Scott Thomas, Jeremy Northam, Emily Watson, Ryan Phillippe, Maggie Smith, Clive Owen and Helen Mirren. (Simmons) Canal Place, Palace 12, Palace 20
HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE (PG-13) -- A
Director Chris Columbus plays it safe and allows J.K. Rowling's phenomenally popular story, a perfectly suited British cast and Industrial Light & Magic to provide the magic in this much-anticipated adaptation. (Jackson Bost) Palace 16
HOW HIGH (R) -- NOT RATED
Rappers Redman and Method Man play two stoners whose consumption of the evil weed makes them so smart they're able to get into Harvard. Downtown Joy, Palace 16, Palace 20, Plaza
I AM SAM (PG-13) -- NOT RATED
Sean Penn is a mentally retarded man trying to regain custody of his young daughter, who's been taken away by social services. Directed by Jessie Nelson (Corrinna, Corrinna) and co-starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Laura Dern and Dianne Wiest. Galleria, Palace 16, Palace 20, Prytania
IN THE BEDROOM (R) --
A- Todd Field's emotionally draining drama concerns a middle-age couple unable to recover from the death of their college-graduate son. (Barton) Canal Place, Palace 12, Palace 20
JIMMY NEUTRON, BOY GENIUS (G) -- B-
The folks who brought us the pretty good movie Rugrats in Paris now unleash the pretty good adventures of a pint-sized brainiac who takes his pals to outer space to rescue their parents from egg-shaped aliens. (Tisserand) Palace 16, Plaza
KATE AND LEOPOLD (PG-13) -- NOT RATED
The Queen of the Romantic Comedy, Meg Ryan, falls for time-traveling 19th century hunk Hugh Jackman in this film by James Mangold. Palace 12, Palace 16, Palace 20
KUNG POW!: ENTER THE FIST (PG-13) -- NOT RATED
Steve Oedekerk wrote, directed and stars in this spoof of martial-arts flicks. Chalmette, Galleria, Palace 12, Palace 16, Palace 20, Plaza
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (PG-13) -- A
This first Lord of the Rings movie is better than fans of the books possibly could have imagined. Peter Jackson's masterful direction and devotion to Tolkien's tale create an epic of the highest order. (Carlson) Chalmette, Downtown Joy, Galleria, Palace 12, Palace 16, Palace 20
THE MOTHMAN PROPHECIES (PG-13) -- B+
Richard Gere is engaging as a newspaper reporter with a personal stake in his investigation of paranormal phenomena in a small West Virgina town in Mark Pellington's (Arlington Road) adaptation of John Keel's fact-based novel. This surprisingly subtle and crafted exploration of the horror/thriller genre also features a solid performance by Laura Linney. (Simmons) (Reviewed in this issue.) Chalmette, Galleria, Palace 12, Palace 16, Palace 20, Plaza
OCEAN'S ELEVEN (PG-13) -- B+
Steven Soderbergh's much-anticipated follow-up to the Oscar-winning Traffic and remake of the Rat Pack movie is quite a departure from both, and mostly in all the right ways. (Simmons) Chalmette, Palace 12, Palace 16, Palace 20
ORANGE COUNTY (PG-13) -- B-
Jake Kasdan's teen comedy stars Colin Hanks as a would-be writer whose application to Stanford is rejected because his transcript is mishandled. Funnier and worthier than most entries in this genre, this film nonetheless resorts to vomit jokes and a palpably false ending. (Barton) (Reviewed in this issue.) Palace 12, Palace 20
THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (R) -- A-
Director Wes Anderson (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore) progresses yet again with this scattered, frenetic ensemble comedy about a dysfunctional family of geniuses (Ben Stiller and Gwyneth Paltrow among them) reunited by their manipulative father (Gene Hackman). (Simmons) Canal Place, Palace 12
THE SHIPPING NEWS (R) -- B+
Lasse Hallstrom's adaptation of Annie Proulx's Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel is the story of damaged souls who find their reasons to live in each other on the rocky shores of Newfoundland. (Barton) Palace 20
SLACKERS (R) -- NOT RATED
Definitely not to be confused with Richard Linklater's Slacker, this one features Jason Schwartzman as a geeky college kid who gets stuck in a romantic triangle while trying to blackmail a group running a grade-fixing scam. Chalmette, Galleria, Palace 16, Palace 20
SNOW DOGS (PG) -- NOT RATED
Cuba Gooding Jr. is a big-city dentist who inherits a bunch of dogs and winds up participating in Alaska's famous Iditarod dog-sled race in this film (loosely) based on the book by Gary Paulsen. Chalmette, Palace 12, Palace 16, Palace 20
VANILLA SKY (R) -- C+
Playboy Tom Cruise learns the meaning of life, dreams and nightmares after falling for kooky Penelope Cruz in Cameron Crowe's (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous) frazzled remake of the 1997 Spanish film Open Your Eyes. (Simmons) Palace 20
A WALK TO REMEMBER (PG) -- NOT RATED
Teen pop sensation Mandy Moore is a minister's daughter who falls for rich kid Shane West while working on the town Christmas pageant. Chalmette, Galleria, Palace 16, Palace 20
