High School Musical 3: Senior Year
** ( 2 STARS)
$15.3
million
$62 million
2 weeks
Rated: G
Running time: 113 minutes
What it's about: High school sweethearts Troy (Zac Efron, above) and Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) struggle with the idea of being separated as college approaches.
Our take: It contains high-energy singing and dancing, and it's refreshing to see a high school movie that eschews gross-out gags and elevates romantic courtship rites.
Zach and Miri Make a Porno
* ( 1 STAR)
$10.1
million
$10.1 million
1 week
Rated: R
Running time: 101 minutes
What it's about: Two childhood friends, Zach (Seth Rogen, above) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks), can't pay bills; then Zach gets the big idea of creating a porn movie.
Our take: This movie is so amateurish, there's no suspense to whether Zach and Miri will make their porno; the real excitement would come from Kevin Smith finally making a real live movie.
Saw V
No stars
$9.7
million
$45.5 million
2 weeks
Rated: R
Running time: 88 minutes
What it's about: The gory horror franchise continues as the latest Jigsaw killer works to keep his identity a secret. Its stars include Julie Benz (above).
Our take: Saw V is a particularly dull and discombobulated affair, shot and acted with all the flair of a basic-cable procedural.
Changeling
** ( 2 STARS)
$9.4
million
$10 million
2 weeks (1 week here)
Rated: R
Running time: 141 minutes
What it's about: Angelina Jolie (above) plays a mother whose missing son is returned to her. But it's not her son, and when she tries telling that to the police, she gets thrown into a psychiatric ward.
Our take: Director Clint Eastwood is more interested in stoking his audience's sense of outrage than telling a nuanced story.
The Haunting of Molly Hartley
* ( 1 STAR)
$5.4
million
$5.4 million
1 week
Rated: R
Running time: 101 minutes
What it's about: On the eve of her 18th birthday, a girl (Haley Bennett, above) discovers the evil lurking beneath the lush surfaces of her private girls school.
Our take: A first-time director delivers aural jolts but little real suspense in this lifeless thriller.
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
* 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS)
$4.9
million
$84.2 million
5 weeks
Rated: PG
Running time: 91 minutes
What it's about: A spoiled Chihuahua named Chloe (voice of Drew Barrymore) gets dognapped and taken to Mexico City, where some newfound friends (including a German shepherd named Delgado) try to help her and her million-dollar Harry Winston collar get home.
Our take: Lots of talking dogs, little of anything else.
The Secret Life of Bees
*** 1/2 ( 3 1/2 STARS)
$4
million
$25.3 million
3 weeks
Rated: PG-13
Running time: 111 minutes
What it's about: A motherless white girl (Dakota Fanning) seeks refuge from her abusive father with her surrogate mother (Jennifer Hudson, above) in the home of the black Boatwright sisters.
Our take: The film's honest emotions keep it from getting too sappy. The performances of Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo as the Boatwrights give it substance.
Max Payne
* 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS)
$3.7
million
$35.5 million
3 weeks
Rated: R
Running time: 100 minutes
What it's about: Max Payne (Mark Wahlberg, above), a former New York lawman, now the chief librarian of his precinct's cold-case files, chases the most frigid case of all: the murder of his wife and infant child.
Our take: You can forgive the slow-mo bullet effects since they're endemic to the genre. What kills Max Payne is that the characters think in slow motion.