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THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING In filming the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy, director Peter Jackson gets things off to a promising start with this three-hour epic that, while rarely scaling new heights in the fantasy genre, will still please both fans and novices alike. Even those who haven't read the books are probably familiar with the basic thrust -- noble Middle-earth denizens must destroy a powerful ring before it falls into the hands of an evil warlord -- but to their credit, Jackson and his co-scripters kick things off with a prologue that nicely sets up the story. From there, Jackson juggles a daunting array of conflicts and characters (Ian McKellen as Gandalf is the cast standout), and it's to his credit that the pace rarely flags. The sense of wonder that Jackson brought to some of his earlier credits isn't quite as apparent (a determination not to offend the faithful may have something to do with it), but admittedly, this is a mere quibble that diehard fans will brush aside like a gnat. 
THE MAJESTIC The latest fantasy from director Frank Darabont, whose previous works (The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption) viewed prisons as feel-good enclaves full of civilized, misunderstood citizens, is set in the early 1950s, a period in which McCarthy and his zealots were sniffing Commies out of every corner of the country. Jim Carrey (in a nicely understated turn) plays Pete Appleton, a Hollywood screenwriter whose career gets ruined when he's suspected of being a Red. After a timely car accident, he awakens with his memory wiped clean -- and with everyone in the small town of Lawson believing he's one of their long-lost WWII vets finally returning home. The first part of the movie, which deals with Pete's involvement with the town's residents, will strike some viewers as inspiring and others as manipulative; the second half, which centers on Pete's stand against the House Un-American Activities Committee, is patently false and a queer whitewash of a tragic chapter in US history.
NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE If there's one thing positive to be said about Not Another Teen Movie, it's that its makers have managed to rape, pillage and plunder the source material even more thoroughly than the Wayans brothers did for the two Scary Movies. The ferocity with which director Joel Gallen and his five writers deconstruct and then devour the teen flick deserves a modicum of respect, as these guys manage to include letter-perfect take-offs on plot situations in everything from the John Hughes oeuvre of the 80s right up to the student-skewering hits of today. But since the follow-through is every bit as important as the pitch, it should be noted that NATM, for all its eager-beaver zeal to deliver the raunchy laughs, provides the gross-outs but not the gags -- or, at least, not enough good ones to make this anything more than a quickie toss-off.
THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS This unusual production doesn't offer the sort of instant guffaw gratification we generally get from American comedies; instead, its laughs are like stealth bombers, sneaking up on us to the extent that we suddenly find ourselves chortling even as we're wrapped up in the movie's unexpected air of melancholia. Through odd circumstances, the members of a dysfunctional clan -- the estranged parents (Gene Hackman and Anjelica Huston) and their grown kids (Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller and Luke Wilson) -- find themselves living under the same roof, a pressure cooker situation that causes all sorts of messy emotions to spill over. The brand of eccentric humor is often heavy-handed, but its ability to make us care about these flawed, sad characters can't be underestimated. The entire cast clicks, though this is clearly Hackman's show: Refusing to pander to audience sympathies, he makes his character both endearing and infuriating. Come to think of it, the same can be said about the movie itself.
VANILLA SKY Before breaking through with The Others, writer-director Alejandro Amenabar made a handful of films in Spain; these included 1998's Open Your Eyes, an intriguing drama about a self-centered hunk who suffers from strange visions after getting disfigured in a car accident. This is Cameron Crowe's risky remake, and what's most shocking about this controversial conversation starter is how faithful it remains to the original. In short, this isn't a typically dumbed-down rehash, a designation that will cost it millions at the box office but which will earn it the appreciation of adventurous filmgoers. Tom Cruise, a narcissist who nevertheless won't back away from perilous parts, shrewdly mixes both facets of his career as the pretty boy whose perfect life turns into a living hell, while Cameron Diaz, as his fatal attraction, slinks through the proceedings like a feral feline. Unsettling, perplexing and playing like the visualization of a caffeine buzz, this is a Hollywood flick with a kick. 1/2
