When the box office champ Ben Stiller’s comedic performances aren’t a variation on a soft-spoken, put-upon everyman with an eventual fuse, he’s usually playing a full-blown absurdist monster with an apoplectic Napoleon complex. These bizarre creations usually adorn films in which the funnyman provides the supporting work (DODGEBALL, HEAVYWEIGHTS), but, whenever he’s directing, he’s free to build an entire filmic universe around his asinine, ludicrously funny, culture-skewering characters and premises. His ZOOLANDER (2001) bit at the entertainment industry with silly abandon, but Stiller has firmly set TROPIC THUNDER within the realm of sophisticated Hollywood satire. In it, a desperate director named Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) trying to make a Vietnam war movie drops his pampered actors into the heart of the jungle. Cockburn’s stars include Stiller as an action hero who’s starting to make bad career choices, Jack Black as an insecure low-brow comedy star going through heroin withdrawals, and Robert Downey Jr. as an Australian Oscar winner so lost in his “craft” he underwent a procedure to become black for his role. In the jungle, they remain under the delusion that they are still being filmed even after they encounter a dangerous gang of druglords. The film’s basic premise has popped up several times since Hollywood’s 1970s golden age in films such as THREE AMIGOS! and GALAXY QUEST. Where those films simply blanketed a classic Overconfident Bumbling Idiot comedy showcase with a pop culture lexicon, however, TROPIC THUNDER could have only been made, as on-the-nose at is, by people who have been working in the Hollywood system for years, making cutting observations along the way. Simply put, this raucous satire knows big-budget filmmaking, the delusional narcissism of actors, and even the good points of those actors–perhaps why they’re celebrated–like the back of its hand.

Comic actress Anna Faris (LOST IN TRANSLATION, SCARY MOVIE) shines in her starring turn in THE HOUSE BUNNY, a hilarious and heartfelt tale of female empowerment. As the film opens, Shelly Darlingson (Farris) is Big Bunny on Campus at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion. With her 27th birthday approaching, Shelly eagerly anticipates fulfilling her dream: to be centerfold of the month. But when she learns that she’s being booted from Bunnyland, Shelly finds herself with no family or place to call home. Desperate for both, she lucks across the socially inept sisters of the Zeta Alpha Zeta sorority. With no hope of attracting new pledges and the consequent threat of losing their sorority, the girls of Zeta take in the bubbly Shelly as their new “house mother.” Shelly immediately sets to work helping the Zetas bring out their inner glamazons, luring in boys while drawing the ire of rival sorority Phi Iota Mu. Shelly also catches the eye of Oliver (Colin Hanks), who forces her to realize that it will take more her Playboy Mansion ways to win over a good man. Plus, Shelly discovers that her social insights have transformed the Zetas into the very superficial types they once railed against. And when Hugh Hefner calls to offer Shelly her dream centerfold shoot, she must choose between returning to the family that loved her best and saving the family that needs her most. Faris (who co-produced the film) is a comic delight as Shelly, with a perfect blend of sexy charm and sweet-natured cluelessness. Supported by an excellent cast of fresh faces and seasoned veterans, THE HOUSE BUNNY is an irresistible tale of inner beauty and “sisters” sticking together.

Teenage romance gets a dark, supernatural twist in this adaptation of Stephanie Meyer’s bestselling novel TWILIGHT. When Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) moves from sunny Phoenix to dreary Washington State, she has trouble fitting in at her new high school. But things get better–and worse–when she meets the unearthly Edward (Robert Pattinson), a beautiful vampire who will stay 17 forever.

When straight arrow FBI agent Roy Clayton heads up the investigation into a dangerous international conspiracy, all clues seem to lead back to former U.S. Special Operations officer, Samir Horn. A mysterious figure with a web of connections to terrorist organizations, Horn has a knack for emerging on the scene just as a major operation goes down. The inter-agency task force looking into the case meets with Carter, a veteran CIA contractor who seemingly has his own agenda and Max Archer, a fellow FBI agent. The task force links Horn to a prison break in Yemen, a bombing in Nice and a raid in London, but a tangle of contradictory evidence emerges, forcing Clayton to question whether his quarry is a disaffected former military operative — or something far more complicated. Obsessed with discovering the truth, Clayton tracks Horn across the globe as the elusive ex-soldier burrows deeper and deeper into a world of shadows and intrigue.

Two strangers become the pawns of a mysterious woman they have never met, but who seems to know their every move. Realizing they are being used to further her diabolical plot, they must work together to outwit the woman before she has them killed.

For those left unsatisfied by Robert De Niro and Al Pacino’s near-lack of shared screen time in the masterful HEAT, RIGHTEOUS KILL promises a prominent pairing of the two legendary actors. De Niro and Pacino star as two cops who team up to catch a serial killer in this crime thriller from director Jon Avnet.

Trailer for Women

Though FIGHT CLUB has reached cult status, CHOKE is surprisingly only the second of writer Chuck Palahniuk’s novels to make it to the screen. This adaptation from actor-writer-director Clark Gregg stars Sam Rockwell as a man with a sex addiction. Anjelica Huston, Brad William Henke, and Kelly Macdonald costar in this darkly comic film that charmed Sundance audiences.

After they escaped from New York City, the creatures of 2005’s MADAGASCAR are back in this African adventure. MADAGASCAR: THE CRATE ESCAPE features the return of the first film’s vocal talents: Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, and Andy Richter.

The Roger Corman-produced cult favorite DEATH RACE 2000 (1975) gets an update in this reworking from action director Paul W.S. Anderson (RESIDENT EVIL). In a role sure to please fans of his work in CRANK (2006) and the TRANSPORTER films, Jason Statham is Frankenstein, the fierce driver portrayed by David Carradine in the original. The script, also by Anderson, largely does away with the original’s satirical elements in favor an increased number of breathtaking crashes and stunt driving. In 2012, the American economy has collapsed, and prisons have been taken over by corporations. Overseen by Warden Hennessey (Joan Allen), Terminal Island prison generates immense amounts of revenue with pay-per-view broadcasts of “Death Race,” in which inmates participate in an auto race where anything goes. New inmate Jensen Ames (Statham), who has been framed for the death of his wife, is chosen to take over the role of Frankenstein, the contest’s recently deceased masked star driver. His chief competitor, Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson), unaware that a new man is behind the mask of his old rival, will stop at nothing to win. With Case, a sexy navigator from the nearby women’s facility, and a trusty pit crew led by wise veteran Coach (Ian McShane), Ames has a good shot at winning. If he does, he’s been promised his freedom—but the race holds more obstacles than he can imagine, and ratings are more important to Hennessey than being true to her word. <br><br>Loud, gory, and lightning fast, DEATH RACE is geared to the video game generation, right down to the graphics that appear onscreen during the race’s TV broadcast. Once again, Statham creates a great hero to root for in a performance that rises above the copious stunts and visual effects. Allen, in uncharacteristic role, is suitably imposing as the steely warden.