Tech (excellent Anthony Mackie) longs to play pro basketball but is realistic about his skills. He's trying to get his GED. He's a bit of a scoundrel who shoots hoops against strangers for money with his short, comical cohort (Little JJ). He also has a temper and a prison record. Tech and lifelong pal Cruise (Wesley Jonathan) play on a streetball team. Cruise is so good that the sleazy ex-agent (Wayne Brady) who handles illegal streetball betting tries to recruit him as a client. But Cruise is determined to stay amateur, go to college and be a doctor. The two friends' equilibrium is tested on a trip to Los Angeles with Tech's new girlfriend, Eboni (Alecia Fears), a nice girl, and the gold digger Vanessa (Eva Pigford, who's a riot), who could be bad news for Cruise.

"How to Eat Fried Worms" (PG). Likable, witty gross-out fable (based on the 1973 kids' novel by Thomas Rockwell), in which 11-year-old Billy (Luke Benward) bets the bully (Adam Hicks) at his new school that he, Billy, can eat 10 worms in one day; he gets moral support from a girl (Hallie Kate Eisenberg) in his class but must chew alone; film deftly demonstrates value of friendship, understanding -- even for bullies; Billy eats worms fried in lard, exploded in a microwave, pureed with broccoli, etc. -- bilious recipes not to try at home; vomit jokes; worm sphincter jokes; Billy's little brother says "penis"; ragged proprietor of a bait shop scarily chases kids.

"Invincible" (PG). Surprisingly poignant, expertly acted reality-based tale of Vincent Papale (Mark Wahlberg in strong, sensitive, believably athletic turn); an out-of-work teacher and part-time bartender in 1976 Philadelphia, Papale is a champ at neighborhood football games; when the new Philadelphia Eagles coach Dick Vermeil (Greg Kinnear) holds open tryouts, Papale decides to go; he winds up making the NFL team, despite the pro players' hostility toward a 30-year-old rookie. Rare mild profanity; understated sexual tension between Papale and a new love (Elizabeth Banks); football field mayhem; beer.

"Material Girls" (PG). Cloying, cutesy comedy may appeal narrowly to fans of teen and twenty-ish sisters Hilary and Haylie Duff, who mince and flutter as Los Angeles "celebutante" sibs who must clear the name of their late father after the cosmetics company he founded suffers a scandal that depletes their fortune; they move in with their maid (Maria Conchita Alonso) and witness "real life." One s-word; mild sexual innuendo; gay jokes, some of them homophobic; smoking; dumb remark (from current slang) about driving on a country road being so "ghetto."

"The Wicker Man." Plodding, often laughably flat-footed thriller stars Nicolas Cage as motorcycle cop traumatized by witnessing a terrible crash in which a mother and daughter apparently died; at the behest of an ex-girlfriend (Kate Beahan), he travels to the weird, remote farm commune where she lives to search for her missing daughter; he suspects the commune's leader (Ellen Burstyn) of using evil pagan rituals. Harrowing crash shows truck slamming into mother and daughter's car, but injuries or dead bodies are never shown; scene recurs as stylized hallucination; disturbing images of drowned people, a dead man with his mouth sewn shut, full-term human fetuses preserved in laboratory jars, swarming bees; a few punches thrown; occasional profanity; smoking. Teenagers.

"Accepted." Refreshingly anarchic, often lewd jab at pressure on teenagers to get into college; a smart, lazy kid (Justin Long) fakes a college acceptance letter to please his folks; his fake school morphs from an Internet address into a real place ("South Harmon Institute of Technology" -- picture the acronym) in an abandoned psychiatric hospital, with "rejected" kids signing up for partying and courses such as "hooking up overseas." Crude sexual references; bikini-clad young women; much use of the s-word; other profanity; gross-out gags; verbal drug references, depiction of a drug sale; older teenagers drinking, using electroshock treatment for fun. Iffy fare for middle schoolers, even some high schoolers younger than 16.

"Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby." Will Ferrell as dimwitted stock car driver who goes from being a champ to a chump and back in broad, often very funny sendup of NASCAR culture that some may find condescending. Crude sexual innuendo, slang; lewd references to erections, animal sex; implied toplessness; talk of posing for porn magazines; homoerotic innuendo; homophobic slurs; other profanity -- strongest words partly muffled; drinking, smoking, talk of selling, abusing drugs; crazy driving, crashes, including a preschooler joy-riding in a station wagon; comedic violence shows arm broken, mountain lion pouncing, Ricky sticking a knife in his own thigh. Too lewd for middle schoolers.

"Crank." Lewd, wacked-out, high-speed action thriller geared to short attention spans has inventive mayhem, strong acting, but baldly contrived premise, little character development; Brit Jason Statham as a hit man who learns he has been injected with poison by a jealous gangster (Jose Pablo Cantillo); his doc (Dwight Yoakam) tells him he can delay death a while with stimulants such as cocaine and epinephrine; in a rage, he snorts, zaps, injects to stay wired, then goes after his killer in mad car chases, fights, shootouts; inhibitions gone, he has a very public sexual liaison with his girlfriend (Amy Smart), pushing R-rating boundaries. Point blank, bone-cracking violence; steaming profanity; other lewd sexual content; toplessness; ethnic slurs; smoking. No one younger than 17.

"The Protector." Thai martial arts star Tony Jaa in athletically impressive, sometimes poignant, but nearly incoherent saga as elephant herder from rural Thailand whose father is murdered and prize elephants stolen by Thai gangsters from Australia; trained by his dad in ancient martial arts, he follows bad guys and elephants to Sydney, dodges crooked cops and lays huge men flat. Martial arts mayhem grows more intense and lethal-seeming -- hard to watch for the fainthearted, though nearly bloodless; graphic sound effects behind kicks, punches, twists imply bones and skulls cracking, tendons tearing; gunshot kills elephant early in film; steamy sexual innuendo; implied sexual situations; toplessness; implied drug use; drinking; rare crude language. In Thai with subtitles, some English dialogue. Martial arts buffs 16 and older.

"Idlewild." Lavish, unevenly successful movie musical -- flawed by corny story, inauthentic period detail -- tries to blend classic 1930s production numbers with hip-hop aesthetic, music-video shorthand; talented R&B/hip-hop duo, OutKast (Andre Benjamin and Big Boi, a.k.a. Antwan A. Patton), wrote most of the score and star as pals in rural 1930s Georgia -- one a shy pianist-composer (Benjamin) in love with a pretty singer (Paula Patton), the other a slick performer and womanizer (Big Boi); a murderous bootlegger (Terrence Howard) targets them. Very explicit sexuality; toplessness; bloody gun violence; profanity; crude sexual language; use of n-word; smoking, drinking; suicide theme. 17 and older.

"Snakes on a Plane." Ordinary thriller, despite surefire premise of snakes wreaking havoc on jet; Samuel L. Jackson as FBI agent escorting surfer (Nathan Phillips) from Hawaii to Los Angeles to testify against a mobster; snakes in cargo hold escape, as rigged by mobster's minions; in lurid-yet-puritanical thriller tradition, first victims include couple who smoke pot and copulate (explicitly, with seminudity) in lavatory; FBI guy tries to kill snakes, amid many passengers' bloody deaths, swollen limbs, distorted faces; gory baseball-bat murder; strong profanity; lewd sexual innuendo; children endangered. 16 and older.

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