Get Smart **

This attempt to revive a beloved TV show character from the 60's, long before the target audience for the movie was born, has few funny moments, all of which you've seen in the previews. In a Post- Cold War world, the deadly, if bumbling, conflict between the agents of KAOS and CONTROL loses its bite. The cast is A-list, but the material is uneven. Wait for the rental if you're interested.

Rated PG-13. 110 minutes. Peter Segal - Director, Tom J. Astle - Writer, Matt Ember - Writer, Mel Brooks - Writer (characters), Buck Henry - Writer (characters), Michael Ewing - Producer, Alex Gartner - Producer, Andrew Lazar - Producer, Charles Roven - Producer, Dean Semler - Cinematographer, Trevor Rabin - Composer, Wynn Thomas - Production Designer, Richard Pearson - Editor. Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Principal actors: Steve Carrell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp.

Young@Heart ****

Stephen Walker's documentary, "Young @ Heart," introduces the Young at Heart Chorus of Northampton, Massachusetts, composed of senior citizens (average age 80) who rehearse weekly or more and perform nationally and internationally. Under the direction of Bob Climan, the chorus' repertoire has evolved from standards and show tunes 25 years ago to classic and contemporary rock.

Walker follows the group from first rehearsals of the new songs for this year's show through to its first triumphant show. Along the way we visit a few members at home, including a sprightly 92 year old, and get to know them. Some do not make it through to the end of the film. At their advanced age, of course, death is always around, and Walker does not flinch from this reality.

The singers and their lives are fascinating, but it's the music that gives the story its power. Even though the songs are punk or rock, Climan has chosen his songs well. Songs that you may think you know attain greater clarity when you see them performed with such attention and concentration.

As Andrew Lloyd Webber tells his singers: "It's words, words, words." The song is saying something, and you can't get it without the words. Long may they sing, and long may we listen.

Rated PG. 107 minutes. Stephen Walker - Director, Sally George - Producer, Ed Marritz - Cinematographer. Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

The Incredible Hulk ***

"The Incredible Hulk" is a surprisingly good piece of work, well-written (by comic book to movie veteran Zak Penn), well-directed (by Louis Leterrier of "Transporter 2"), and well-acted (need I say more than Edward Norton, William Hurt, and Liv Tyler?). The opening credits sequence cleverly shows us snippets of the main scenes from the previous Hulk movie, so we get the story. Except that it's an artifice. It's the previous movie that these actors did not make; it's an imaginary origin movie that grounds us in the story, and pays homage to Ang Lee's 2003 "Hulk." It's an inspired, and not inexpensive set up so we know why Bruce Banner is hiding out in a Brazilian favela and taking lessons in keeping his cool.

The location shots in the favela are exotic and arresting, with floating arial shot showing us the striking size, color, and complexity of the slum. Built illegally and haphazardly, with streets too narrow for vehicles, it makes a superb backdrop for Banner's new life, not to mention a great locale for a chase scene. I think it's a better chase/fight scene than the similar roof-top action in "The Bourne Ultimatum."

The special effects and fight scenes between the Hulk and his similarly created foe (a creepy, driven Tim Roth) are spectacular. Some of the action scenes do go on and on, and the final battle could have been benefited from some trimming, but they are in the end what the target audience teen fan boys are there for. But like "Kung Fu Panda," there's enough there to entertain an adult, and it's exhilarating escapist fun.

Rated PG-13. 114 minutes. Louis Leterrier - Director, Zak Penn - Writer (screenplay) (screen story), Avid Arad - Producer, Kevin Feige - Producer, Gale Anne Hurd - Producer, Peter Menzies Jr. - Cinematographer, Craig Armstrong - Composer, Kirk M. Peteruccelli - Production Designer, Rick Shaine - Editor, John Wright - Editor. 

Principal actors: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, Tim Blake, Ty Burrell, and William Hurt.r

The Happening *

There is plenty of horror, but, after the first ten minutes, little suspense in "The Happening." The scariest moments all come at the beginning, when you don't know what's causing it, but suddenly things are going seriously, crazily wrong. These arresting images, several of which you've no doubt seen in the previews, are the work of a master. Unfortunately, the movie descends into talking heads on TV explaining everything, and a race to the hinterlands where maybe solitude will provide some protection.

It's too bad, because the concept is a good one, and the performances by Wahlberg, Deschanel, and Leguizamo are all fine. There's just this problem with sustaining suspense that M. Night Shyamalan does not solve. It's not the total mess that "Lady in the Water" was, but it is a big disappointment.

Rated R. 91 minutes. M. Night Shyamalan - Director / Writer / Producer, Barry Mendel - Producer, Sam Mercer - Producer, Tak Fujimoto - Cinematographer, James Newton Howard - Composer, Jeannine Claudia Oppewall - Production Designer, Conrad Buff IV - Editor. Distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation.

Principal actors: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Betty Buckley, Spencer Breslin, and Ashlyn Sanchez.

You Don't Mess with the Zohan ***

You have to give Adam Sandler some credit for tackling the Arab-Israeli conflicts in a comedy, and while not wholly successful, "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" is actually funny and will delight his fans, who are legion, and even those, like me, who find him a bit hard to take in his typical comedy flicks. The Zohan is a superhuman Mossad agent who fakes his own death to go to New York and follow his dream of becoming a hair stylist.

Sandler's co-star in this epic his is packed cod piece. I don't think a gentleman's hisness section has received this much attention since the days of Monica Lewinski. Penis focus has become something of a trend lately, with the drawings from "Superbad" and the frontal nudity in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." Maybe this is a more equal treatment than Hollywood's tits and ass obsession, or maybe it's just the latest gross-out line to be crossed.

The stereotypes - on both sides - are displayed with glee, from the permanently "Going Out of Business" Jewish electronics shop to the Arab cab driver taking catalogue calls while he drives his fares. Cameos abound, usually to good effect. In the end, New York becomes a kind of promised land, where Israelis can operate shops on one side of the street while Arabs have colonized the other side. You have to wonder why, as someone said, we all can't get along. But then you remember Zohan's mother on what's to come: "They've been fighting for 2000 years. It can't last much longer!"

Rated PG-13. 113 minutes. Dennis Dugan - Director, Adam Sandler - Writer / Producer, Robert Smigel - Writer, Judd Apatow - Writer, Jack Giarraputo - Producer, Michael Barrett - Cinematographer, Rupert Gregson-Williams - Composer, Perry Andelin Blake - Production Designer, Tom Costain - Editor. Distributed by Columbia Pictures.

Principal actors: Adam Sandler, John Turturro, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Nick Swardson, and Rob Schneider.

Kung Fu Panda ***

"Kung Fu Panda" is a kids fun house of animals-do-martial-arts animation, voiced by some top stars, available in IMAX, and that won't bore the adults. While I have some qualms about making an overweight panda a hero, he does have to do some real work to train for his calling. Animation is expressive and masterful, and the Kung Fu contenders - tigress, monkey, mantis, viper, and crane - are imaginatively drawn characters.

Compositions draw heavily from martial arts movies with the kind of zooms and angles that only CGI can provide. Besides the fun, there's an earnest lesson or two, and a fan-boy dreamer who gets his chance at the big time story that many little dreamers will identify with.

Rated PG. 92 minutes. Mark Osborne - Director, John Stevenson - Director, Jonathan Aibel - Writer (screenplay), Glenn Berger - Writer (screenplay), Ethan Reiff - Writer (story), Cyrus Voris - Writer (story), Melissa Cobb - Producer, Yong Duk Jhun - Cinematographer, John Powell - Composer, Hans Zimmer - Composer, Raymond Zibach - Production Designer, Clare Knight¹ - Editor. Distributed by DreamWorks Animation.

Principal actors (voices): Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim.

Sex and the City ***

An indulgent, longish update for fans of the series, the girls from "Sex and the City" are back four years later, each going through a new phase of their lives, which has mostly to do with men and, as always, high fashion. This movie is tailor-made for groups of fan gals to organize an outing and catch up with Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda, and each other, with pre- or post-show Cosmos and better clothes than they normally wear to the movies.

First, and perhaps most importantly, the fashion. "Sex and the City" always had the industry's biggest budget for clothes, and SATC the movie does not skimp. There's even a protracted sequence of Vogue (spoiler alert! but not really) wedding dresses for Carrie. The range and variety of outfits is truly breath-taking, and helps keep up the interest (if you're interested in that sort of thing) in some of the rather frequent slow spots. Unfortunately, in this time of record gas prices, recession, and massive layoffs, the focus on fashion as a major focus of your life does seem more retro and insensitive than it did in the show's heyday. It is a shame, for example, that the divine Jennifer Hudson's big scene is with a handbag.

Then there are the stories. As we know, life goes on. There are philandering spouses, the cooling of desire, and the loss of romance, along with the life-affirming surprises of life. It's all just what a clutch of fan-friends could ask for, satisfying on several levels - update, fashion, entertainment - for a fun outing to the movies. Enjoy!

Rated R. 148 minutes. Michael Patrick King - Director / Writer / Producer, Candace Bushnell - Writer (characters from the book), Eric M. Cyphers - Producer, John P. Melfi - Producer, Sarah Jessica Parker - Producer, Darren Star - Producer, John Thomas - Cinematographer, Aaron Zigman - Composer, Jeremy Conway - Production Designer, Michael Berenbaum - Editor.

Principal actors: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Chris Noth, Candice Bergen, Jennifer Hudson, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler, Jason Lewis, Mario Cantone.