ABOUT A BOY (PG-13) -- NOT RATED
Chris and Paul Weitz adapt Nick Hornby's novel about perennial bachelor Hugh Grant facing his commitment issues after bonding with Toni Collette's 12-year-old son, with whom he shares more in common than he realizes. Rachel Weisz (The Mummy Returns) co-stars. AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20
THE CAT'S MEOW (PG-13) -- B+
Peter Bogdanovich's (Last Picture Show) first film in a decade offers a fictionalized version of the 1924 Hollywood scandal involving media mogul William Randolph Hearst, actress Marion Davis and Charlie Chaplin aboard Hearst's yacht. Bogdanovich ably captures this Hollywood legend with great aplomb, and Kirsten Dunst and Edward Hermann are great in the leads, but other characterizations and a plodding pace get in the way. (Simmons) Canal Place
CHANGING LANES (R) -- B
Roger Michell's urban drama stars Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Affleck as two contemporary New Yorkers who get in a fender bender and then spend a long day in a series of escalating attacks on each other. (Barton) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20
CLOCKSTOPPERS (PG) -- NOT RATED
A scientist tries to undo his own handiwork after developing a mechanism that speeds up anything it hits. Plaza
DEUCES WILD (R) -- NOT RATED
Gang wars erupt in Brooklyn during the summer of 1958, the first year after the beloved Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, in this film from Scott Kalvert (The Basketball Diaries). Stars Fairuza Balk, Matt Dillon, Stephen Dorff, James Franco, Balthazar Getty, Deborah Harry, Frankie Muniz and Brad Renfro. AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20
ENIGMA (R) -- NOT RATED
Jeremy Northan, Dougray Scott, Kate Winslet and Saffron Burrows star in this fact-based World War II tale of a team of British wunderkinds assembled to crack the Nazis' secret codes. Michael Apted (Gorillas in the Mist) adapts Robert Harris' novel. Canal Place
HIGH CRIMES (PG-13) -- NOT RATED
Hot-shot San Francisco attorney Ashley Judd turns to retired military lawyer Morgan Freeman to help defend husband James Caviezel in military court. Carl Franklin (One True Thing) directs. AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20
HOLLYWOOD ENDING (PG-13) -- B+
Woody Allen's annual film concerns a neurotic but talented film director (Allen) whose career has fallen on hard times. The possibility of artistic resurrection arrives via a project to be produced by his beautiful ex-wife (Tea Leoni), but the director struggles to overcome his bitterness over her leaving him. This is Allen's funniest (which isn't to say his best) film since Mighty Aphrodite. Think Annie Hall lite. (Barton) AMC Elmwood Palace 20
ICE AGE (PG) -- NOT RATED
A woolly mammoth and other Ice Age animals help a human infant get back to his family in this animated film starring the voices of Ray Romano, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo and others. AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette
ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS (R) -- B+
Writer-director Lone Scherfig has done the near-unthinkable: crafted a romantic comedy that still sticks to the spirit of the sometimes overly righteous Dogma 95 credo. In Danish with English subtitles. (Simmons) Canal Place
J CAESAR, URBAN SHAKESPEARE (NR) -- NOT RATED
Karel Sloane's film recasts Shakespeare's tragic figure in the hood, looking at the inner-city strife of drugs, gangs and violence through the Bard's lens. Filmed in New Haven, Conn. (Film will be followed by a screening of a making-of documentary.) 7 p.m. Thursday at UNO Liberal Arts Building Room 140
JASON X (R) -- NOT RATED
Because you can never get enough of a good thing, one of horror film's great bad guys returns for a 10th go-around at the innocent prey. James Isaac directs. AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Downtown Joy, Plaza
LIFE OR SOMETHING LIKE IT (PG-13) -- C
Stephen Herek's retro romantic comedy stars Angelina Jolie as an ambitious newscaster and Edward Burns as her laid-back camera man. A hokey plot turn causes Jolie to think she's about to die and causes her to reassess her priorities. This is as fresh as last week's bread and just about as warm. (Barton) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20
MONSOON WEDDING (R) -- B
Mira Nair's (Mississippi Masala) mostly festive look at an arranged marriage in contemporary Delhi between an otherwise strikingly modern bride and groom is full of energy and joy but only narrowly skirts narrative disaster in a late turn about incest and pedophilia. (Barton) Canal Place
MURDER BY NUMBERS (R) -- B
Director Barbet Schroeder and producer/New Orleans resident Susan Hoffman return to familiar ground with this tepid psychological crime thriller about a detective (Sandra Bullock) tracking a Leopold-Loeb-type pair of killers (Ryan Gosling, Michael Pitt) while battling her demons. (Simmons) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette
THE NEW GUY (PG-13) -- NOT RATED
High school geek DJ Qualls gets expelled from school and sent to prison, where cellmate Eddie Griffin shows him how to act "cool" before he's released and goes to a new school to start fresh. Trouble ensues when a bully from the previous school shows up at the new one. AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Plaza
PANIC ROOM (R) -- NOT RATED
Single mom Jodie Foster and her daughter hide out from burglars Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam and Jared Leto in the supposedly secure room of a new townhouse, not realizing the room hides the goods the burglars seek. David Fincher (Se7en) directs. AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20
PORNSTAR: THE LEGEND OF RON JEREMY (NC-17) -- NOT RATED
Scott J. Gill's debut film chronicles the exploits of the porn industry's most unlikely star, Ron "Hedgehog" Jeremy, whose disturbingly orindary looks helped him become one of the genre's greats and made him a cult hero in the process. Plaza
THE RETURN OF DOLEMITE 2002 (R) -- NOT RATED
The baddest mother-scratching pimp daddy of them all, in the form of Rudy Ray Moore, comes back to save the neighborhood once again in this time-delayed sequel to Moore's campy blaxploitation "classics" of the '70s. Downtown Joy, Plaza
THE ROOKIE (G) -- B+
Director John Lee Hancock and star Dennis Quaid prove that baseball diamonds are a movie-going girl's best friend in this big league, based-on-a-true-story, charming family film. (Carlson) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20
THE SCORPION KING (PG-13) -- F
A worthwhile film franchise goes horribly wrong with this tale of a legendary Akkadian fighter. A poor script, lackluster direction and hammy supporting cast chip away at The Rock, who otherwise shows a moment or two of actual action potential. (Carlson) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Plaza
SPIDER-MAN (PG-13) -- B
Tobey Maguire spins a believable web as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in this Sam Raimi effort. Superb casting, excellent use of Matrix technology and occasional flashes of visual brilliance make this one a solid summer flick, but it's not nearly the total comic book package that Darkman -- or even Batman -- was. (Carlson) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Downtown Joy, Plaza
STAR WARS: EPISODE II -- ATTACK OF THE CLONES (PG) -- A-
The Empire bounces back as George Lucas brings us ever closer to the Star Wars mythology we know and love. Plenty of action, stunning visuals, a kick-ass Yoda and Hayden Christiansen's pitch-perfect performance as young Anakin Skywalker make this one more The Empire Strikes Back than Phantom Menace. The fun is definitely back in the Force. (Carlson) (Reviewed in this issue.) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette, Prytania
UNFAITHFUL (R) -- B-
Though resolutely artful and blessed with exceptionally fine performances by Diane Lane and Richard Gere, Adrian Lyne's domestic drama about the cheating wife of a decent man suffers from a clumsy script and a stubborn Hollywood determination to turn everything into a thriller. Too bad, so sad. (Barton) (Reviewed in this issue.) AMC Palace 12, AMC Palace 16, AMC Palace 20, Chalmette
THE WORLD OF SHOLOM ALEICHEM (NR) -- NOT RATED
The final Yiddish movie of the Jewish Community Center's film season stars veterans Zero Mostel, Nancy Walker and Jack Gilford in a collection of three stories. Noon Tuesday at the Uptown Jewish Community Center
Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN (NR) -- A
Alfonso Cuaron's sexually explicit road "comedy" about two teenage boys and the 28-year-old runaway wife they take to the beach is really an elaborate allegory about Mexican history and society. (Barton) Canal Place
