It's 'Disaster' weekend, thanks to Hollywood
Did Hollywood trick you last weekend? One of the movie industry's many strategies for getting you to buy tickets to its junk is to sneak bad movies into theaters without screening them for critics. Without the negative reviews to serve as warning, the thinking goes, they may be able to ambush some moviegoers before the word gets out.

Access Bollywood
Area theaters regularly program imports from India's Bollywood movie industry. The following are Kathy Gibson's capsule reviews of currently playing films.

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Capsule reviews of films currently playing in local theaters, including "Traitor" and "Tropic Thunder."

Alone in the Dark: 'Disaster Movie'
Another in a series of movies that puts pop culture in a blender and comes up with just over an hour of, er, filmed content, "Disaster Movie" does in fact feature a disaster. It's "The Day after Tomorrow" meets "Cloverfield" meets "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull," but that's not all.

Alone in the Dark: 'College'
"College" desperately wants to be the next "Superbad." Only it's just super bad. Three high school friends - one sensitive guy, one portly jerk and one nerd - try to turn their disappointing social lives around at a party. As in "Superbad," the friends score with girls, get in a fight and make up before the credits roll.

Alone in the Dark: 'Babylon A.D.'
I can’t decide what is most confusing about “Babylon A.D.,” writes Sun critic Josh Larsen: the nonsensical, science-fiction plot, the participation of classy Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh or the fact that Vin Diesel’s voice has somehow dropped another register.

'Traitor' plays like a policy paper
Faced with the daunting task of tying a narrative bow on something as messy as contemporary global politics, pictures such as "Lions for Lambs" and now "Traitor" unfold less as stories than as carefully studied policy papers. The characters don't talk like people; they talk like graduate students.

Popcorn Panel: 'The Longshots'

I liked it

Access Bollywood

DVD LIBRARY: 'The Little Mermaid'
Anyone with little fans of "The Little Mermaid" knows that this is a sing-along movie, so Chicago's Music Box Theatre took the next logical step and is hosting sing-along screenings of the 1989 animated film through Monday.

Documentary focuses on local track team
"The Long Green Line," a documentary that follows the boys' cross country team at Elmhurst's York High School as they pursue a state title, comes to AMC Cantera 30 in Warrenville on Friday.

Three Days Grace concert screens in Naperville
"Three Days Grace: Live at the Palace 2008" will screen for one night only - Tuesday - at Kerasotes Naperville ShowPlace 16.

Now Playing
Capsule reviews of films currently playing in local theaters, including "Death Race," "The House Bunny" and "The Longshots."

Faris fails to make 'Bunny' funny
In "The House Bunny," Anna Faris plays Shelley Darlington, a Playboy model who has been kicked out of that sorority and tries to make a home with another one - namely, a campus collection of misfits and nerds who are in danger of losing their home if that can't increase their popularity and attract new pledges.

Beyond the Blockbusters: 'Hamlet 2'
There is some really dark stuff going on underneath all the outrageous goofiness in "Hamlet 2," so much so that you wonder if the entire project was designed as a cathartic experience for the filmmakers. For the audience, it's mostly uncomfortable.

Popcorn Panel: 'Tropic Thunder'
Wait for the DVD For two weeks in a row, another highly acclaimed comedy fails to hit my funny bone as hard as others. "Tropic Thunder" boasts an arsenal of in-jokes and tongue-in-cheek cameos, but misplaces genuine humor along the way. Ben Stiller plays his doe-eyed action star similar to Zoolander: a one-trick pony too dim for his own good. Robert Downey Jr. comes off as the most talented of the bunch, but his gravelly voiced portrayal of a black infantryman renders his lines unintelligible. The weakest of the three, Jack Black, is relegated to the background, hamming it up when he gets the chance (as per normal), and doesn't bring much to the entertainment table.

Young actress makes 'Longshots' a sure thing
Keke Palmer has single-handedly saved another feel-good drama from drowning in sap. The 14-year-old actress from Harvey, Ill., has a grounded, unaffected seriousness that previously rooted "Akeelah and the Bee" and now anchors "The Longshots," which is based on the first female football player in a Pop Warner league.

Access Bollywood

It's misguided to take offense at 'Tropic'
Of all the potentially offensive elements in the Hollywood spoof "Tropic Thunder" - Robert Downey Jr. in blackface, the lampooning of "Platoon," Tom Cruise's filthy mouth - the aspect that has raised the most ire is the movie's use of the "R" word – "retard."

Wilson can't make it on his own in 'Rocker'
It can be hard to explain what makes a star, writes Sun critic Josh Larsen, but it's fairly easy to identify a performer who doesn't have that mysterious star stuff. Rainn Wilson doesn't have it.

Now Playing
The following are capsule reviews of films currently playing in local theaters, including "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" "Tropic Thunder" and "Mirrors."

Sensual cast enlivens Allen's 'Barcelona'
Though "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" is nowhere near as steamy as the commercials suggest, the cast gives it a surprisingly physical sexuality for a Woody Allen picture, writes Sun critic Josh Larsen. Sex is usually an intellectual endeavor for the filmmaker, but this foursome forces him - and us - to get out of our heads.

'Teen' doc comes to Naperville
Sometimes fictional drama conveys "real" experience better than a documentary, a point proven by "American Teen," which opens at Kerasotes Naperville ShowPlace 16 today.

'Tropic Thunder' skewers Hollywood stars
The jokes are machine-gun fast in Ben Stiller's "Tropic Thunder," a spoof of pretentious war movies and Hollywood hubris in general. To help you keep up, we've prepared a guide to the movie's targets.

Popcorn Panel: 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2'
This week the Popcorn Panel takes a look at "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2."

'Clone Wars' exhausts this fan's patience
All battle and no myth, the computer-animated "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" is a dispiriting experience for those few of us who haven't yet written off the series. I've defended all three prequels, writes Sun critic Josh Larsen, but there is no need for this.

DVD Library: 'Metropolis'
One of the grand visions of the cinema may just get grander.

Access Bollywood

'Tropic Thunder' spoofs Hollywood hubris
Ben Stiller has made a lot of Hollywood junk over the past few years, and "Tropic Thunder" feels like an attempt to cleanse these projects from his system. For starters, it proves Stiller can still be funny.

Now Playing
The following are capsule reviews of films currently playing in local theaters, including "Pineapple Express" and "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2."

'Dark Knight' kicks off Oscar season early
Remember last Oscar season when all the talk was about how no one had heard of the Best Picture nominees and the Academy Awards had lost touch with popular taste in general? Well, "The Dark Knight" could change all of that.

Popcorn Panel: 'The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor'
I liked it Once again Rick O'Connell reprises his role as the Mummy seeker, and this time around his wife and adult son are along for the ride. When we first meet Evelyn O'Connell, she's a writer bored with her life. They're soon in the middle of a fantastic adventure and that's when the movie really takes off. Several new characters are introduced this time that not only give the movie a boost but make for non-stop action. The computer generated battle screens take on a life of their own on the big screen. Go and have a fun time at the movies.

Now Playing
The following are capsule reviews of films currently playing in local theaters, including "Pineapple Express" and "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2."