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The otherworldly landscape of Iceland lends an appropriate touch of dark fantasy to this modern retelling of Beowulf, the oldest epic poem in the English language. Gerard Butler (The Phantom of the Opera) brings the right balance of physicality and world-weariness as the Swedish hero Beowulf, who travels to Denmark to fight the monstrous troll Grendel (Icelandic superstar Ignvar Sigurdsson), which has been plaguing the house of King Hrothgar (Stellan SkarsgÂrd, buried under a mound of prosthetic hair).

Girl power (or if you prefer, woman power) gets a goofy boost in My Super Ex-Girlfriend, a breezy rom-com that's as fun as it is forgettable. As devised by former Simpsons writer Don Payne and directed by comedy veteran Ivan (Ghostbusters) Reitman, the premise is certainly promising, and much of that promise is gamely fulfilled.

The fact-based mystery of Hollywoodland takes place in 1959, when the death of Adventures of Superman TV star George Reeves cast a pall over the waning days of golden-age Hollywood. As written by Paul Bernbaum, this intriguing whodunit effectively evokes the tainted atmosphere that surrounded Reeves' death (officially ruled a suicide but never conclusively solved), and speculates on circumstances to suggest that Reeves may have been murdered.

Bend It Like Beckham is true girl power. This glorious comedy centers on Jess (Parminder Nagra), an Indian girl born in England whose only desire is to become a football--or, as we say on this side of the Atlantic, soccer--star like her idol, David Beckham; but her traditional family refuses to even consider it. With the help of her new friend Juliet (Keira Knightley), Jess secretly joins a girls' team under the guidance of a male coach (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). As the team starts to gain some attention, Jess's secret can't be kept forever.

A solid and entertaining biopic, Walk the Line works less as a movie than an actors' showcase for its stars. Joaquin Phoenix's total immersion into the skin of singer Johnny Cash is startling--watching it, you can't believe this is the same guy who whined about being "vexed" in Gladiator. As he evolves from a farm boy to gospel croonin' plunker to the Man in Black, Phoenix disappears into Cash's deep baritone, his way of slinging the guitar onto his back, and his hunched-up style of strumming.

Snakes on a Plane knows exactly what kind of movie it is, knows exactly what moviegoers expect from a title like Snakes on a Plane, and delivers the exact pleasures of a movie in which poisonous snakes are unleashed on a plane to kill an eyewitness to murder. Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, The Long Kiss Goodnight) knows exactly what he's doing in this movie and knows exactly when to pull out the superbad Samuel L. Jackson stare and deliver the infuriated Samuel L. Jackson bellow.

Some comedy is like a scalpel; the Scary Movie series is a hand grenade, spewing bodily fluids and big-breasted women in all directions as they lampoon the latest horror. In Scary Movie 4's case, the main targets are War of the Worlds, The Village, The Grudge, Saw, and Tom Cruise jumping all over Oprah's couch (the scariest of the lot). Along the way, potshots get taken at non-horror fare like Brokeback Mountain and Million Dollar Baby, as well as obvious targets like Michael Jackson and George W. Bush, among others.

In the aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster, hope is still alive. Refusing to bow down to terrorism, rescuers and family of the victims press forward. Their mission of rescue and recovery is driven by the faith that under each piece of rubble, a co-worker, a friend a family member may be found. This is the true story of John McLoughlin and William J. Jimeno, two of the last survivors extracted from Ground Zero and the rescuers who never gave up.

The exotic sounds, vibrant colors, and ecstatic dancing of Bollywood collide with the cunning storytelling of Jane Austen in Bride & Prejudice (from the writer/director of previous East/West hybrid Bend It Like Beckham). When smart, outspoken Lalita Bakshi (Indian beauty Aishwarya Rai) meets Will Darcy (Martin Henderson, The Ring), she finds this American businessman arrogant and conceited--but because his best friend is falling in love with her sister, Lalita agrees to travel around India with Darcy.

Sean Penn gives another powerhouse performance in All the King's Men, leading a topnotch cast in writer-director Steven Zaillian's underrated adaptation of the Pulitzer prize-winning 1946 novel by Robert Penn Warren. When you consider that the previous 1949 film version earned well-deserved Academy Awards for director Robert Rossen and actors Broderick Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge, it's no surprise that Zaillian's film was expected to earn similar acclaim, but lukewarm critical reception and disappointing box-office gave it the stigma of a noble failure.