A disgraced paleontologist, his assistant and a macho tour guide find themselves in a strange world inhabited by dinosaurs, monkey people and reptilian Sleestaks. (1 hr. 41 min.)

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With its sweet teen coupling and ardent devotion to music, NICK & NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST feels like the cinematic equivalent of a mixtape made by John Hughes and Cameron Crowe. But the film is actually directed by Peter Sollett, who earned praise for his debut feature, RAISING VICTOR VARGAS. This studio-produced comedy is a bit shinier and more polished, but it still has hints of the authenticity that made his first film so well loved. NICK & NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST centers on two New Jersey teens, newly single Nick (Michael Cera, JUNO) and his fellow music lover Norah (Kat Dennings, CHARLIE BARTLETT), who meet at Nick’s band’s show in New York City. Their very long night in the city is driven by two searches: one for a secret concert by their favorite band, Where’s Fluffy; and a second for Norah’s irresponsible and drunk friend Caroline (Ari Graynor, in what should be a star-making performance). The pair bounce through the streets of New York in Nick’s Yugo and his bandmate’s van, bonding over their shared love of music, while their exes threaten their new romance.

Based on a young adult novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, NICK & NORAH’S INFINITE PLAYLIST makes an able leap to the screen. Dennings and Cera are likeably awkward in their tentative courtship, but much of the praise should go to music supervisor Linda Cohen and composer Mark Mothersbaugh. Cohen picks of-the-moment bands such as Vampire Weekend, Takka Takka, We Are Scientists, and Band of Horses that are sure to make the soundtrack as big a hit as the film, while Mothersbaugh perfectly complements Nick and Norah’s sweet romance with his fun yet unobtrusive score. (1 hr. 30 min.)

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Tiny and graced with oversized ears, Despereaux was born too big for his little world. Refusing to live his life cowering, he befriends a Princess named Pea and learns to read (rather than eat) books — reveling in stories of knights, dragons and fair maidens. Banished from Mouseworld for being more man than mouse, Despereaux is rescued by another outcast, Roscuro, who also wants to hear the tales. But when the Princess dismisses Roscuro’s friendship, he becomes the ultimate rat and plots revenge with fellow outsider Mig. After Pea is kidnapped, Despereaux discovers he is the only one who can rescue her…and that even the tiniest mouse can find the courage of a knight in shining armor. (1 h. 34 min.)

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After creating a classic with THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, director Henry Selick crafts the first stop-motion animated feature to be filmed in three dimensions. Dakota Fanning voices a girl who finds a parallel universe lurking behind a door in her home, but the new world isn’t all it initially appears. Based on Nail Gaiman’s novel, CORALINE promises to be a favorite for both children and adults. (1 hr. 40 min.)

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A quick perusal of any of LAKEVIEW TERRACE’s promotional materials–its nervy trailer, its foreboding (and painterly) dawn-hued poster featuring Samuel L. Jackson looking less-than-neighborly in his squad car–not only reveals it as a thriller, but offers up aesthetic evocations of several popular home-invasion suspensers made in the early 1990s. Like UNLAWFUL ENTRY and PACIFIC HEIGHTS, LAKEVIEW TERRACE takes place in upper-middle-class Californian suburbia. The film’s ubiquitous purple sky and poolside lighting create an air of domestic bourgeois comfort just waiting to be upended by deadly social unease. In this mode, the surprises start when the film opens with intimate household scenes not of the film’s purported heroes, an interracial couple who’s about to move next-door, but of its not-entirely-apparent villain–a curiously middle-aged beat cop (Jackson) who raises a few eyebrows when he close-mindedly bullies his children, but seems sad and sympathetic. The cop, a black man named Abel Turner, watches blankly from his home when the first new neighbor he sees is an African-American wife (Kerry Washington)–and then reacts with quiet shock and disgust when he realizes that the white mover is actually her husband, Chris (Patrick Wilson). The invasion in this home-invasion thriller is, ironically, the one perceived by its psychologically damaged bad guy. Abel, offended and ostensibly law-immune, immediately begins jabbing Chris with a toxic passive-aggression that quickly becomes impossible to ignore. LAKEVIEW TERRACE adheres to a satisfying thriller construct. It’s also a little interested in exploiting the archetypes of squirm-inducing domestic threat–all the nasty scenarios viewers recognize from those earlier movies–to consider several facets of American racism: its inevitability in familial and casual issues and its existence in liberal white guilt as much as its poisonous mixture with mental illness. (1 hr. 46 min.)

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In this comedy, Eric Christian Olsen (NOT ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE) and Nicholas D’Agosto (HEROES) star as unmotivated football stars who switch to cheerleading when they realize they can go to camp with 300 girls. FIRED UP also stars Sarah Roemer (DISTRUBIA), Annalynne McCord (90210), and the always hilarious John Michael Higgins (FRED CLAUS). (1 hr. 34 min.)

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E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL is Steven Spielberg’s warmhearted classic for both children and adults. It tells the story of an alien creature, E.T., mistakenly left behind on Earth. When a young boy, Elliott (Henry Thomas), finds E.T. and hides him in his home, both their worlds are changed forever. E.T. teaches Elliott and his two siblings (Drew Barrymore and Robert MacNaughton), whose parents have recently separated, about caring and love while the children protect E.T. from the malevolent world of grown-ups. Elliott and E.T. become so close that they share emotions; as E.T. becomes ill, so does Elliott. The children end up going on a fabulous adventure trying to help E.T. find a way back to his home planet. The movie was originally going to be based on a story idea by director John Sayles, but after he removed himself from the project, screenwriter Melissa Mathison (Harrison FordÂ’s wife) took over the script and made it her own. John WilliamsÂ’s soundtrack became forever linked to E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL. (1 hr. 55 min.)

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CADILLAC RECORDS is a writer/director Darnell Martin’s riveting ensemble film depicting the rise, in the early-‘50s to late-‘60s, of key musical figures at the crossroads between blues, rhythm & blues, and rock & roll. Based on the true story of the original Chicago-based purveyors of electric blues, Chess Records, it centers on two men: Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody), a Polish-Jewish nightclub owner; and Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), a transplanted Mississippi sharecropper with sights set on musical stardom. After hearing Waters’s electrified Delta blues during a tussle at his nightclub, Chess decides to pool his resources into releasing what were then called “race records.” Soon a coterie of label talent, from Little Walter and Howlin’ Wolf, to Chuck Berry and Etta James, help to propel the fledgling label to the top of the charts–with each hit-maker rewarded by Chess with a shiny new Cadillac automobile. While sometimes playing loose with some minor historical points, the film truly hits the mark with its attention to visual detail, from costumes and cars, down to vintage recording equipment, all of it is a feast for period buffs. But what truly makes CADILLAC RECORDS captivating are the exceptional musical performances of Beyonce Knowles (Etta James) and Mos Def (Chuck Berry), two of the finest musicians-turned-actors of their time. Ultimately, CADILLAC RECORDS’ most potent message may be the boundless ability that much of this music had in transcending the unsettling realities facing blacks of the time. From Payola (the practice of bribing disc jockeys to play “race records”) and segregation, to white performers pilfering songs written by blacks, all of it is handled with admirable aplomb in this enjoyable, often edifying, film. (1 hr. 48 min.)

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Narcotics detectives Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) have been assigned to a high-tech task force investigating the flow of designer ecstasy into Miami. This leads them to a conspiracy involving a vicious Kingpin (Molla), whose ambitions have ignited a bloody turf war. Mike and Marcus’ working relationship is threatened when Mike develops feelings for Marcus’ sister Syd (Union), and unless they can separate the personal from the professional, the case and Syd’s life are in danger. (2 hrs. 26 min.)

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Comic actress Anna Faris (LOST IN TRANSLATION, SCARY MOVIE) shines in her starring turn in THE HOUSE BUNNY, a hilarious and heartfelt tale of female empowerment. As the film opens, Shelly Darlingson (Farris) is Big Bunny on Campus at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion. With her 27th birthday approaching, Shelly eagerly anticipates fulfilling her dream: to be centerfold of the month. But when she learns that she’s being booted from Bunnyland, Shelly finds herself with no family or place to call home. Desperate for both, she lucks across the socially inept sisters of the Zeta Alpha Zeta sorority. With no hope of attracting new pledges and the consequent threat of losing their sorority, the girls of Zeta take in the bubbly Shelly as their new “house mother.” Shelly immediately sets to work helping the Zetas bring out their inner glamazons, luring in boys while drawing the ire of rival sorority Phi Iota Mu. Shelly also catches the eye of Oliver (Colin Hanks), who forces her to realize that it will take more her Playboy Mansion ways to win over a good man. Plus, Shelly discovers that her social insights have transformed the Zetas into the very superficial types they once railed against. And when Hugh Hefner calls to offer Shelly her dream centerfold shoot, she must choose between returning to the family that loved her best and saving the family that needs her most. Faris (who co-produced the film) is a comic delight as Shelly, with a perfect blend of sexy charm and sweet-natured cluelessness. Supported by an excellent cast of fresh faces and seasoned veterans, THE HOUSE BUNNY is an irresistible tale of inner beauty and “sisters” sticking together. (1 hr. 38 min.)

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