Cute

In "Liar, Liar," Jim Carrey's pants are certainly on fire -- and they'll burn all the way to the bank.The movie is far funnier than it is good, and at the same time it's slightly more respectable than the wanton stupidity of the Silly Putty-faced comic's earlier hits, like the Ace Ventura movies or "Dumb and Dumber." It manages to climb that rung up from guilty pleasure to simple pleasure. You can actually admit to other grown-ups you like it.Basically, the film consists of a mild setup that liberates Carrey to go nuts, to sail away on improvisations so astonishing they get you into the far realms of oxygen debt; then, when you've endured enough pain, it returns to its tone of labored cuteness.

"Fools Rush In," but wise men will rush out.Less a movie than a petition by its two stars for major career moves, "Fools Rush In" turns out to be a surprisingly bathetic drama of domestic discord, in-law wars and pregnancy emergencies. It's not very funny.I can certainly see why Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek would have said yes, however; for each it's a chance to stretch from already well-set perceptions and perhaps show the world, or at least the industry, that they are capable of more. Perry, the cute one on "Friends," gets to display callowness, bad judgment, immaturity and self-pity.

Forget the cat. Darn that script!"That Darn Cat!" is a low-energy, low-laugh, low-end remake of a mid-'60s Disney comedy that wasn't very interesting anyway. So why bother? Only the marketing department knows for sure.In any event, the signal item of interest in this version is Christina Ricci as Patti, a role once played by Hayley Mills at the height of her cuteness. Ricci isn't nearly as cute, and she's in an odd spot: She's trying to make that most difficult of transitions from astonishing child actress to acceptable adult one. Mills herself didn't even make it, at least not to an adult film career at the same level as her childhood one. Will Ricci?

It might sound like a good last-minute holiday gift idea -- surprising a loved one with a cuddly puppy or cute kitten -- but animal-care experts say it's a bad idea, for people and for pets."

"A Walk in the Clouds" wants to take you back to the 1940s with all of its big, soft heart. And after two hours, that wish is granted: You feel you're in a theater 50 years ago, when this weepie would have been preceded by a newsreel, a cartoon, a B feature and maybe a soup tureen giveaway."Clouds" is as sweeping, shallow, romantic, corny, innocent and implausible as many postwar films -- not the immortals, but fluff such as "Duel in the Sun" and "Leave Her to Heaven."How you respond will depend on how deeply you enter the world Mexican writers and filmmakers call "magical realism."

Letters, calls and the roar of the crowd:Oresto Digion, Arbutus: I sometimes enjoy reading your columns aloud to my wife. She usually finds an urgent reason for not having time to listen, but I read them aloud anyway.Her verdict on your columns is generally that they are "stupid."I have been surprised lately at her reaction to your stories about Judge Ito.She has pronounced these "cute."I find this to be an interesting development and thought you might like to know.COMMENT: I knew your wife could not keep up the act forever.

Why do elephants sit on marshmallows? Why do elephants paint their toenails red? Why do elephant keepers have the highest on-the-job death rate of any occupation?Graham Thomas Chipperfield, elephant and lion trainer for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, knows about the mortality rate, but not the marshmallows or toenails. Perhaps he doesn't know elephant jokes because he has bigger things on his mind -- 19 elephants, including babies Romeo and Juliette and grown-up King Tusk, billed as "The Largest Land Mammal Traveling The Face Of The Earth Today."

When Doug and Sherry Kay Yetter took over the Annapolis Dinner Theatre last month in a flurry of behind-the-scenes corporate activity, they immediately contacted three local actors who had starred in a recent production of Leonard Gershe's play "Butterflies Are Free."Scott Nichols, Kelly McPhee and Carol Cohen all agreed to resurrect the play at the newly renamed Chesapeake Music Hall. Mr. Yetter, the director, brushed the principals up a bit, added David Reynolds to the cast, and -- voila!

Bob is cute.Bob is friendly.See Bob run.Very slowly.And that's it in a nutshell for Microsoft's earnest attempt to create a new computing environment for people who don't like computers.Bob isn't a person. He's a program, or actually eight simple but well-integrated programs designed for home computer users, wrapped up in a homey little shell that sits on top of Microsoft Windows.Microsoft chose the name Bob because it sounds friendly (everyone knows a Bob). The design of the package is based on research by two Stanford professors who believe that people enjoy a "social" environment.

A few years ago, pink barrettes and a kitty cat lunchbox wrapped up as a holiday present would have caused any teen worth her attitude to roll eyes and groan. Cuteness was then an abomination and embarrassment to the cool crowd.Today's hip youth, however, is likely to be tickled pink with cutesy-poo kiddie gifts. Hello Kitty! She's the too-cute icon of a new generation of young women who don't seem to see contradiction in replacing the Harley logo of a black biker jacket with a chubby white kitty sporting a big bow in her ear. And it isn't just Hello (the hello is obligatory)

There's nothing wrong with Space Chimps. It's perfectly acceptable family entertainment with cute monkeys, the usual message of self-empowerment and the eye-popping animation we've come to take for granted. But is that enough? Andy Samberg of Saturday Night Live voices protagonist Ham III, who's not interested in carrying on the legacy of his grandfather, the first simian astronaut. Even when he's shanghaied by NASA into exploring a strange new world, he's more interested in making time with astrochimp babe Luna (Cheryl Hines of Curb Your Enthusiasm)

Hancock , the redemption tale of a feckless Los Angeles superhero, is named, in a roundabout way, for John Hancock, the patriot with the indelible signature. But it might as well have been named for the insurance company. The first half is diverting and inventive. But the filmmakers use the second half as a box-office insurance policy. They fill it with the conventional super-heroics and heartbreak that they spend the first 45 minutes gleefully deconstructing. Hancock swings into action in ragged street clothes: Tthe only "costume" he wears is a wool watch cap with an eagle stitched into the front of it. Mostly he sports 10 different kinds of grimaces as he demonstrates super-strength, the power of flight and an ultra-blase attitude to any piece of machinery or property that gets in his way. Happily, Will Smith is just as creative and persuasive as a homeless superman as he was playing the homeless businessman in The Pursuit of Happyness.

Definitely, Maybe imagines a world where happy endings are de rigueur, but getting there is no picnic. As romantic comedies go, that may not exactly qualify as a revelation, but in the hands of writer-director Adam Brooks and his uniformly charming cast, it adds some welcome spice to a genre that rarely ventures beyond the predictable anymore. We've seen it all a hundred times: Couple meets cute, breaks up sad, reunites in the final reel. Only this time, there's one guy and three gals, leaving the film to chronicle three meet-cutes and three breakups, but only one feel-good reunion.

These days we're often told that stars become stars after a role defines them - as hard guy, swashbuckler or romantic leading man - and that audiences accept them only in variations on that role. But the career of James Cagney, the most protean acting talent in the first three decades of talking pictures, obliterates that conventional wisdom. What drew audiences to him was the way he made acting seem like a form of controlled euphoria. With breakneck ease, he expressed the galvanizing speed and variety - and the breakneck rhythms - of 20th-century America.

BERLIN -- Is Knut still cute? The question as to whether Berlin's most famous polar bear is or isn't has been the subject of news stories and public debate here. Alongside stories about global warming, U.S. missile defense and human rights abuses in China, there is Knut. "There has been a growing consensus in the past few weeks that Knut is no longer as cute as he was when he was small," wrote Spiegel Online. They lament that he is no longer the little snow-white fur ball that went on public display in March.

Generally events that involve little kids seem harder to me because I always try to avoid the "cute kid" photo. It seems like gloss to me, all surface and no substance. At first I thought this assignment, titled "Poetry Slam," would be no different. The assignment description called for photos of children practicing their poetry at St. John the Apostle Church in West Baltimore. I was a little skeptical about the photographs that I might make at this event, considering that poetry is a written medium.

Where last year's Disney Channel movie sensation, High School Musical, aimed to be fun for everyone, the sequel that debuts on the cable channel Friday is designed from top to bottom for true believers. This movie is for devotees who've memorized every moment of the original and want nothing more than to relive it, for those waiting and craving for hottie Troy and cute Gabriella and conniving Sharpay to be just as hot, cute and conniving as they were before, only more so. On TV High School Musical 2 airs at 8 p.m. Friday on the Disney Channel.

Gee, we think it's kind of cute -- in an invasive, hairy, burrowing, delicacy-in-Asia kind of way. Yet, the Mid-Atlantic is thumbing its crab mallet at the latest thing to wash up in our waters: the Chinese mitten crab, a.k.a. hairy crab (species: E. unappetizis). Beyond a shadow of DNA doubt, two mitten crabs were caught near the mouth of the Patapsco River. Visiting Chinese crab experts were consulted. The state issued alerts. Like the snakehead before it, the mitten crab made Maryland's Most Unwanted List.

CELEBRITY-BABIES.COM What's the point? -- Is it just us, or does it seem like every celebrity in the universe is either pregnant or just had a kid? Well, maybe not every single one, but this blog makes you realize just how many, as it reports on suspected pregnancies, pregnancy confirmations and keeps up with the children later, too. (Want to see the first photos of Zahara Jolie-Pitt learning to walk? This is the place.) What to look for --The site also catalogs all the cute (and often pricey)

There's something wacky going on over at your local Wal-Mart. Sometime while we weren't looking, the big-box retailer began hipping up the joint with cute pet accessories, surprisingly fashionable clothing and health-conscious organic food selections. Imagine our surprise when we walked into the store in Hunt Valley recently and found several well-dressed women browsing its clothing aisles. What happened to the old Always Low Prices juggernaut we once knew? Many thrifty consumers have come to rely on Wal-Mart for its deals, stocking up on toilet paper and paper towels, but rarely for a smart outfit to wear out on the town or chic home furnishings.