Ah, Barbra. Of all her onscreen personas, she sparkles in none as she does in her role as 1930s comedian Fanny Brice in the musical Funny Girl. Portraying the life of this star of stage and radio, Brice preens and prances and sings, captivating her audience both onscreen and off. Fanny Brice started life on the Lower East Side of New York, the daughter of a Jewish saloon owner. Not the prettiest girl around, Brice still managed to quickly rise to stardom as a performer in the Ziegfield Follies. A shrewd, obstinate woman, Brice dictated her own success story on stage; things were a different matter in romance. Falling hard for the stunning Nick Arnstein (suavely played by Omar Sharif), Brice must navigate a difficult marriage. While kids may love the tunes (which include the now-infamous "People," as in "People who need people are the luckiest people in the world"), the plot is definitely adult-oriented. Enjoy this one, but don't go too far out of your way for the sequel, Funny Lady. -Jenny Brown.

When egghead Scotty Smalls moves to town just before the summer vacation of 1962, his first priority is to make friends. He heads to the nearby sandlot only to humiliate himself before the local kids, but star player Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez befriends the awkward boy, teaches him the basics of baseball, and welcomes him to the team. It's a summer filled with camaraderie and fun until Smalls hits his first home run. Problem is, Smalls's home run sends his stepfather's "Babe Ruth" autographed baseball into a neighboring yard that's patrolled by a snarling, slobbering monster called "The Beast. " Creativity reigns and hilarity ensues when the boys risk everything to retrieve the ball. A final heroic encounter with "The Beast" and his owner yields some very surprising results. Action, humor, and friendship permeate this 101-minute film appropriate for ages 5 and older. Rated PG due to name-calling and some pubescent behavior. -Tami Horiuchi.

Michael Biehn plays a Seattle attorney who talks his friend, a physics instructor (Matt Craven), into joining a party with plans to climb the tallest and least accessible mountain in the world, K-2. Biehn's arrogant character immediately bumps noggins with the tour's leader (Raymond J. Barry) and the latter's strong-willed girlfriend (Patricia Charbonneau). But when various disasters begin to strike at the group, cooperation ensues, followed by assorted acts of heroism, friendship, and self-sacrifice under almost unimaginable conditions of lethal distress. Based on a play that examined the view on human values from a perch far above the world most of us know, K-2 surrounds that essential drama with extraordinary location footage. Director Franc Roddam (Quadrophenia) succeeds very well at turning a thoughtful piece into a fine action movie-and vice versa. -Tom Keogh.

Dos Peliculas, en Espanol.

Storytelling doesn't get much purer than this-a film with virtually no dialogue and not a minute that isn't fascinating, either for the plot it pursues or the way director Jean-Jacques Annaud gets his ursine stars to do what he wants. The story deals with a young cub who, after his mother is killed in a landslide, bonds to a lumbering male Kodiak. The two of them then must cope with an invasion of hunters into their territory-and Annaud makes it clear whose side he's on. Aside from stunning scenery, the film offers startlingly close-up looks at bear behavior. They say the best actors are the ones that let you see what they're thinking, a trick Annaud manages with his big, furry stars. -Marshall Fine.

Robert Townsend has managed to build an entire career on the basis of one funny movie (The Hollywood Shuffle)-even though he hasn't had one that was anywhere near as funny since. Case in point: This would-be comedy about an unwilling black superhero. Townsend plays a schoolteacher in a bad Washington, D. C. , neighborhood that is controlled by a vicious drug gang (recognizable by their blonde-dyed hair). Then he is hit by a meteor and suddenly finds that he has super strength and can fly (and can read the minds of dogs). But Townsend's writing is surprisingly weak and, despite a cast that includes a mugging Bill Cosby, Eddie Griffin, Robert Guillaume, and sadly miscast James Earl Jones, this movie is never able to get off the ground. -Marshall Fine.

Pecker (so named, at least according to his grandmother, because he always pecks at his food) loves to use the camera to capture his fellow Baltimore residents living their daily lives. Of course, since this is a John Waters movie, those daily lives include visits to strip bars, shoplifting, and various other quirky, and frequently hilarious, human activities. When Pecker's makeshift photo exhibit comes to the attention of a New York art agent (Lili Taylor), Pecker becomes the latest sensation. Unlike the hero in most sudden-fame stories, however, Pecker, as played by Edward Furlong, isn't exactly an innocent; rather, he takes in the world with his eyes, and his mind, wide open. So instead of suffering a precipitous fall, Pecker eventually turns the tables on his more worldly New York peers. While not as outrageous as early Waters features such as Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos, Pecker still has something to offend just about everyone. But those who take the offenses to heart would be missing out on what amounts to a sweet-natured farce. The movie is not so much a pointed satire as a gentle teasing of the art world and its pretensions. The all-embracing world of John Waters allows for lovable freaks from the big city, too. The movie sags a bit when it settles into its plot; it can't sustain the comic inspiration reached in the opening scenes of Pecker's encounters with Baltimore's misfits. [+]

"Watching it is like seeing a poem for the eyes. " That's how Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert described this exquisite, Oscar-nominated, French-Vietnamese film from 1993, which begins in the 1950s and ends more than a decade later during the early years of the Vietnam war. The story is set almost entirely in a Saigon house where a 10-year-old orphan girl named Mui arrives to work as a servant. As she grows into a beautiful young woman, Mui is quietly and carefully observant of everything around her, from the scent of green papaya (hence the title) to the relationship between her employers. The film takes its visual cues from Mui's observations-it's a placid, soothing film that lingers over the physical and emotional details of its setting and story. What's really astonishing about this beautiful film is that director Anh Tran Hung shot it entirely on a soundstage in Paris, but the sights and sounds are so completely convincing that you'd swear the setting is an actual home in Saigon. This remarkable craftsmanship remains invisible to the viewer, and the seductive progression of the story unfolds with exacting visual precision. It's a film about Mui's growth and development, but also about her benevolent effect on the world around her. As such, it's a movie to savor like no other, life affirming and glorious in the memorable depth of its captivating simplicity. -Jeff Shannon.

"Only in excess can one find liberty. " Oh, that's right-the Marquis de Sade wasn't just a freaky-deaky sex fiend, he was also a philosopher. And that's the side illuminated in Sade, a marvelously chewy look at an episode from the life of the indecent marquis. In 1794, after the Revolution, Robespierre has imprisoned Sade in a comfortable old nunnery, along with some royalists. Daniel Auteuil's superb performance in the title role brings a lifetime of scandalous living to Sade's face, and he makes the man utterly unapologetic. By the time Sade deflowers a fascinated young woman, the act is more a defiant political statement (for both of them) than a naughty roll in the hay. This is another good one from director Benoît Jacquot (A Single Girl, Seventh Heaven), whose work always manages to be calm but passionate. It certainly tops Quills, another look at the enigma of Sade. -Robert Horton.

This big and sometimes messy movie achieves the seemingly impossible: it demythologizes the American Revolution and lets us see it in a completely new light. Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire) has directed a starkly beautiful, powerfully visceral portrait of war from the point of view of the little people who are swept along in its wake. Al Pacino is Tom Dobb, a poor, illiterate trapper bringing up a young son when rebellion breaks out in New York. Dobb's small boat is requisitioned for the war effort, and he and his son become reluctant conscripts. It takes six months and some truly vile treatment by the British before the conflict becomes personal for Dobb and he makes the American cause his own. The Dobb family's tale intersects that of British Sergeant Major Peasy (a formidable Donald Sutherland) and his own son. As the tide of the war turns, the enemies' fortunes are reversed. Tom's love interest, Daisy McConnahay (Nastassja Kinski), is a fiery beauty who breaks from her family of wealthy Tories (British sympathizers) to fight for freedom. Kinski is wonderful as a living Lady Liberty, and Pacino has some extraordinary moments of raw emotion as Dobb. The film's highlights include authentic, grisly re-creations of famous Revolutionary War battles, including Yorktown and Valley Forge. [+]

The not-so-glam side of rock is on defiant display in Prey for Rock & Roll, another well-cast Gina Gershon flick (after Showgirls and Bound) poised for cult-favorite status. Serving as co producer and star, Gershon (looking hotter than ever at age 41) is note-for-note perfect as Jacki, the tattoo-clad, pushing-40 leader of Clam Dandys, an L. A. -based all-girl rock band that's never risen above low-paying club gigs despite Jacki's 20-year experience as a wannabe rock star. On the verge of a possible recording contract, the band is close-knit but troubled: ace bassist Tracy (Drea de Matteo, from The Sopranos) has a nasty boyfriend and a drug-and-alcohol problem, while lead guitarist Faith (Lori Petty) and her lover, the band's drummer Sally (Shelly Cole) cope with the unexpected arrival of Sally's ex-con brother Animal (Marc Blucas), an unlikely virgin who's attracted to Jacki. Based on a play by rocker Cheri Lovedog (who wrote and performed most of the band's '80-styled girl-punk music, with Gershon ably handling lead vocals), this down-and-dirty chick flick falls prey to forced melodrama and obligatory tragedy, but it looks, feels, and sounds remarkably authentic, and the cast is terrific. Easily recommended despite its faults, Prey is a feminist cautionary tale for anyone who chooses rock & roll not merely as a profession, but a lifestyle that can't be denied. -Jeff Shannon.