Movie News - AP

Cameron Diaz and James Marsden have a terrible moral dilemma in Richard Kelly's "The Box": Press a button on a mysterious container, they'll get $1 million, and someone they don't know will die.

The flat-lining, alien-abduction thriller "The Fourth Kind" offers a close encounter that buries an interesting idea under a barrage of gimmicky, carnivallike hokum. The movie's unwieldy mix of degraded pseudo-documentary footage and "Unsolved Mystery"-style re-enactments is as unconvincing as it its distancing, making the small charms of "Paranormal Activity" all the more apparent by comparison.

Lionel Barrymore. Alastair Sim. Laurence Olivier. Albert Finney. George C. Scott. Bill Murray. Michael Caine. Mr. Magoo. Scrooge McDuck.

NEW ORLEANS - Actor Tom Hanks says viewers are in for a realistic "wartime experience" when the new film he produced, "Beyond All Boundaries," opens at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans on Friday.

HONG KONG - Zhang Yimou says his first movie in three years has shades of comedian Stephen Chow's outlandish humor and marks the first time the "Raise the Red Lantern" director shot in digital format.

TOKYO - Brad Pitt says he is in the market for a new motorcycle.

LOS ANGELES - Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are taking on the Oscars.

LONDON - Jim Carrey, Colin Firth and Bob Hoskins switched on London's Christmas lights on Tuesday and attended the world premiere of the 3-D film "A Christmas Carol."

Capsule reviews of films opening this week:

A fun tone is undermined by disjointed storytelling in George Clooney's "The Men Who Stare at Goats," and it all starts with the disclaimer that opens the movie: "More of this is true than what you might imagine."

LOS ANGELES - Hollywood loves money. So does Ebenezer Scrooge. So what better way to launch the holiday season than putting the old money-grubber at the head of the line to separate movie-goers from their cash?

LONDON - The George Lucas empire struck back Tuesday against a British prop designer who sold replicas of the iconic Stormtrooper uniforms from the "Star Wars" movies.

GENEVA - Roman Polanski has re-appealed to the Swiss courts to be released from prison on bail, officials said Tuesday, the latest step in the director's protracted legal battle to avoid extradition to the United States.

LONDON - Lawyers for Kate Winslet say the actress has accepted 25,000 pounds (more than $40,000) in damages after the Daily Mail falsely reported in January she lied about her exercise regime.

LOS ANGELES - Technology finally has caught up with Charles Dickens' imagination.

As Hollywood closed specialty divisions that aimed for quality and personal stories, as studios focus more and more on superhero sagas and action blockbusters, cinema fans have rightly wondered, who's left to make great American movies?

LOS ANGELES - A California appeals court will listen to oral arguments from Roman Polanski's attorneys about why it should require a lower court to decide whether to dismiss charges against the fugitive director, whether he is present or not.

LOS ANGELES - Mel Gibson and his girlfriend are welcoming the birth of the couple's first child — making the Oscar-winner a father for the eighth time.

LOS ANGELES - "Michael Jackson's This Is It" danced to the head of the box office, debuting with $23.2 million domestically in its first weekend.

AMSTERDAM - The Dutch marked the fifth anniversary Monday of the murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim fanatic, a brutal killing that continues to shape politics in the Netherlands.

LOS ANGELES - The cast and crew of "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" continued their unexpected journey from a scrappy little screening 10 months ago at the Sundance Film Festival to a star-studded gala at the legendary Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

NEW YORK - Pivotal presidential campaigns are frequently defined in retrospect by documentaries.

NEW YORK - Fox network says an upcoming movie has stepped in for Microsoft to sponsor next Sunday's "Family Guy" special.

The Church of Scientology is going through a difficult season.

PARIS - A French lawyer for director Roman Polanski, imprisoned in Switzerland, says a new bail offer will be filed Monday and it will be a "very, very significant" cash amount.

CUNDY'S HARBOR, Maine - On the big screen, the leader of the Dead Poets Society at an all-boys prep school was an inspirational teacher played by Robin Williams.