Beverly Hills Chihuahua
* 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS)
$29.3
million
$29.3 million
1 week
Rated: PG
Running time: 91 minutes
What it's about: A spoiled Chihuahua named Chloe (Drew Barrymore) gets dognapped and taken to Mexico City, where some newfound friends (including a German shepherd named Delagado) try to help her and her million-dollar Harry Winston collar get home.
Our take: Lots of talking dogs, little of anything else.
Eagle Eye
** 1/2 ( 2 1/2 STARS)
$17.7
million
$54.6 million
2 weeks
Rated: PG-13
Running time: 118 minutes
What it's about: A mysterious woman who seems able to control any electronic device coerces an aimless slacker (Shia LaBeouf, above) and a single mother (Michelle Monaghan) into implementing a plot that may bring down the U.S. as we know it.
Our take: It's moderately gripping, but, too often, watching this movie is like seeing someone else crack a jigsaw puzzle.
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
** 1/2 ( 2 1/2 STARS)
$11.3
million
$11.3 million
1 week
Rated: PG-13
Running time: 90 minutes
What it's about: Two high school seniors (Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, above), who are meant for each other but don't know it, spend a long night searching for a cult band and stumbling into romance.
Our take: It contains some intelligent humor and high-SAT comedy as well as high jinks so crude they're really low jinks.
Nights in Rodanthe
* 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS)
$7.4
million
$25.1 million
2 weeks
Rated: PG-13
Running time: 97 minutes
What it's about: Based on a Nicholas Sparks best-seller, the film is about an emotionally bruised woman (Diane Lane, above) who finds love while running a hotel in a coastal North Carolina town.
Our take: It should be a surefire weepie, but not even Lane can push this soggy mass uphill.
Appaloosa
*** 1/2 ( 3 1/2 STARS)
$5.0
million
$5.6 million
3 weeks (1 week here)
Rated: PG-13
Running time: 90 minutes
What it's about: A taciturn marshal (Ed Harris) and deputy (Viggo Mortensen, above) tame the title town and rule supreme - until the love of a gal (Renee Zellweger) complicates law and order.
Our take: Harris and Mortensen deliver virtuoso understatement; this old-fashioned Western goes down like a single malt aged for 25 years.
Lakeview Terrace
* 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS)
$4.6
million
$32.2 million
3 weeks
Rated: PG-13
Running time: 110 minutes
What it's about: An interracial couple (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington, above) move to an L.A. suburb and almost immediately suspect their neighbor, a veteran black cop (Samuel L. Jackson), of plotting to drive them out of the neighborhood.
Our take: It's one more failed thriller about men behaving badly - and stupidly.
Burn After Reading
** 1/2 ( 2 1/2 STARS)
$4.1
million
$51.7 million
4 weeks
Rated: R
Running time: 96 minutes
What it's about: Espionage gets mixed up with a gym worker's desire to get a Hollywood body, a CIA wife's move to get a divorce and a U.S. Treasury agent's propensity to get some thrills.
Our take: You can't fault the ensemble, which includes George Clooney (above), but the movie lacks internal combustion. It's more like a lava lamp than lava.
Fireproof
** ( 2 STARS)
$4.0
million
$12.4 million
2 weeks
Rated: PG
Running time: 124 minutes
What it's about: A firefighter named Caleb (Kirk Cameron, above) whose loveless marriage is headed for divorce court tries a 40-day caring-for-marriage regimen with a Christian underpinning.
Our take: The story may be a bit gimmicky and the central couple is thinly drawn, but the cast of mostly amateurs is surprisingly good.