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Katja von Garnier's Blood and Chocolate is a werewolf movie for people who like teen romances, and a teen romance for people who like werewolf movies. It's no great shakes in either direction, but the crossover attempt is mildly interesting. At least it's not yet another remake filled with the same old tricks. Instead, the film opens with plenty of picturesque shots of Bucharest, Romania, with trees, buildings, fountains, sculptures, and especially the lithe form of Vivian Gandillon (Agnes Bruckner), jogging. If there was any doubt that she's a werewolf, we get an immediate shot of a dog whimpering and backing away under her gaze -- not to mention that her brand of jogging includes bounding off the sides of buildings.

Vivian lives, vaguely dissatisfied, in a community of werewolves that keeps mostly to itself. The pack's leader, Gabriel (Oliver Martinez) worries that an attack could lead bands of marauding humans into their lair, massacring the lot of them. Occasionally, Gabriel waylays a drug dealer or some other scum of society and lets his furry brethren loose on a merry chase. Some of the wolfmen, such as Vivian's cousin Rafe (Bryan Dick), complain that life is too boring, but Vivian has other worries. Every seven years Gabriel takes a new bride, discarding the old ones, and Vivan dreads that she could be next. Worse, she fears that there's nothing she can do about it.

We hear it on the news twice a week, it seems: A young dead woman has been found on the road, in a ditch, back behind someone's barn, etc. We give the news a casual listen, perhaps offer a brief bit of sympathy to the girl's family, and then throw our focus back into our own lives. The world can be an ugly place; best not to dwell on the more horrific aspects of it ... until we have to.

Karen Moncrieff's follow-up to 2002's Blue Car is a decidedly unique take on the "serial killer movie." The Dead Girl is not a mystery, nor is it really a thriller. It's more of an anthology piece that introduces us to a collection of people on the periphery of a horrible murder. It's not a movie about the killer, per se, nor is it a character study of the victim ... except when it is. It's a tough movie to describe, a tougher movie to "enjoy," but an easy one to recommend -- provided you don't mind a little darkness, gloom and sobriety mixed in with your indie-style ensemble pieces.

A lifelong Philadelphian discussing the Rocky flicks is sort of like a devoted parent dealing with a bunch of very different children: You love 'em all for what they are, but you can see their shortcomings as clear as day. The first-born Balboa (1976) is truly an offspring to be proud of: warm, sincere and truly admirable. The second son (1979) showed up and did all he could to replicate his big brother's success, but managed only to wimp out at the last minute and take the easy way out. The third brother (1982) turned out to be a pompous blowhard and the fourth one (1985) ended up being a cynical jerk ... the less said about that fifth Rocko sibling (1990) the better, mainly because that kid was a huge mistake from the word go.

And now, 16 years after the last breach birth, proud papa Sylvester Stallone has procreated one more time. The result is Rocky Balboa, and if this sixth chapter isn't the finest offering since the original Rocky, well, it sure as hell is the most heartfelt, melancholy and contemplative. Basically, those who go in expecting a non-stop slug-fest may well walk away underwhelmed -- whereas those who approach the Rocky Balboa character as a modern-day folk hero may find themselves brushing a few stray teardrops from their cheeks.

To comment on anything within The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift other than the cars, the chicks, and the chase scenes would be the epitome of all things pointless. These movies are not made to tell a story, to impart a lesson, or to illuminate the masses to something culturally fascinating. They don't bother with things like quality screenplays, adequate acting performances, or sincere emotion ... because those clunky components only manage to get in the way of ... the ... cars!

So if you're a diehard gearhead who loves all things auto-related, then there are certainly a few isolated sections of Tokyo Drift that should tickle your eyeballs, if not exactly engage your brain. That admission aside, this flick's as dumb as a box of rocks and twice as pointless.

It all started, more or less, with a kooky little movie released way back in 1980. It was called Airplane!, and I think it's one of the finest American comedies ever made. (Yes, I'm serious ... and don't call me Shirley.) Not many young filmmakers can rightfully claim to have created an entirely new sub-genre, but the goofball team of Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker were just silly enough to chance upon a comedy gold-mine: straight-faced, yet unequivocably outlandish satire that could effectively skewer a convention as readily as embrace it. (Let's face it: Airplane! poked a lot of fun at Zero Hour and the four Airport movies, but I bet you the ZAZ boys really like those flicks.)

With the disaster genre well and duly spooferized, the trio went on to lampoon spy movies (1984's hilarious Top Secret!) and police procedurals (Police Squad! on television and The Naked Gun trilogy in theaters) before mounting their first "straight" farce -- a rather brilliant kidnapping comedy called Ruthless People. After that, the boys amicably chose to go their separate ways: Jim Abrahams would go on to direct Big Business (1988) and Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael (1990) before heading back to spoofsville with Hot Shots! (1991), Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), and Jane Austen's Mafia! (1998); Jerry Zucker would move on to direct Ghost (1990), First Knight (1995), and Rat Race (2001); his brother Dave would solo-helm the first two Naked Gun flicks, as well as BASEketball (1998) and My Boss's Daughter (2003). So clearly these are the guys to talk to when the topic of conversation is "movie spoofs."

It would take about three viewings and four scraps of paper to list all the wonderfully geeky horror references found within James Gunn's Slither. Half-horror, half-comedy, and (once it gets rolling) packed to the rafters with gleefully giddy gore-splatters, this flick is made for (and by) precisely one type of moviegoer: The old-school horror geek, the ones who'll sit through a cock-eyed fright flick, smiling and intermittently elbowing his neighbor in the ribs while muttering "The Blob. Body Snatchers. They Came From Within. Night of the Creeps. The Thing. Critters! Basket Case!?? Society!?!??"

Yes, horror fans, Gunn's directorial debut (after penning Tromeo & Juliet, he wrote both Scooby-Doo flicks and the fantastic Dawn of the Dead remake) is an absolute stew of creatures, characters, and conventions snatched from a dozen easily recognizable sources. (Well, recognizable if you grew up in a video store during the 1980s, anyway...) But the young filmmaker makes the difference between "homage" and "ripoff" quite apparent, because Slither has a large and obvious streak of affection for all the flicks mentioned above, and probably a dozen more.

The plummeting price of digital cameras and editing software, combined with the death spiral of network news, has resulted in a booming documentary offering over the past couple of Sundances. The public loves the genre, and like a William Gibson novel, it seems like everyone is now recording everything. If there's a conflict, obscure sport, or flamboyant personality you can be sure someone, somewhere, is making it into a documentary, and the result is a crop of boring-to-serviceable documentaries that are occasionally more suited for cable distribution than theatrical.

I thought for sure Clear Cut: The Story of Philomath, Oregon would fall into the television news documentary category, but was pleasantly surprised that the films excellent pacing and structure made it truly a film--not a Frontline episode.

Clear Cut, tells the story of a timber town in transition: as the blue collar jobs leave, the liberal information workers move in. They bring with them some unwelcome values including what locals perceive as a pro-environment, pro-gay, and ...