Stars

Paul Blart: Mall Cop ** (2 STARS) $21.6 million $64.9 million 2 weeks Rated: PG Running time: 87 minutes What it's about: Kevin James (above) stars as a fat and clueless security guard who takes on goons that have overrun his New Jersey mall. Our take: Sure, you'll laugh at times. But you'll feel guilty about it later. Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans No stars $20.8 million $20.8 million 1 week Rated: PG Running time: 92 minutes What it's about: This prequel goes back 1,000 years to explain just how those vampires and werewolves (including Rhona Mitra, above)

Their lockers were very close, but Brian Roberts and Nick Markakis barely spoke during the Orioles' 2006 season. There was no animosity, no lingering jealousy between one of the team's biggest stars and its hot-shot rookie. Roberts and Markakis were perfectly compatible as teammates. They just decided very early they weren't going to be good friends. "I just didn't feel myself hanging out with him or talking to him," Markakis said. "I didn't dislike him. I just didn't see him as a guy I'd hang out with."

Food **1/2 (2 1/2 stars) Service *** (3 stars) Atmosphere *** (3 stars) Pierpoint is Baltimore's forgotten restaurant. When Nancy Longo opened it in 1989, the New American bistro with a Maryland accent was an instant hit. But over the years the restaurant and its personable chef-owner have gotten less and less attention as newer, trendier places arrived on the scene. With the opening late last year of Longo's in Green Spring Station, Nancy Longo's second restaurant, I thought there might be a rebound effect for the original place, still doing its thing in Fells Point.

Paris, j'etaime, an intriguing little film in which 21 directors offer romantic cinematic snippets set in the city on the Seine, opens today at the Charles Theatre. What a great idea for a film, giving people who love a city the chance to commit that passion to film. Which led me to wonder, why shouldn't Baltimore be afforded the same sort of treatment? A bunch of creative people love this city very, very much. What if a dozen of the city's biggest boosters were offered the chance to direct 10-minute cinematic snapshots of Baltimore as they see it?

Top TV shows for the week of Nov. 5-11, according to A.C. Nielsen Co.: ShowNetworkViewers* 1CSI: Crime Scene InvestigationCBS21.9 2Without a TraceCBS21.7 3Dancing with the Stars, MondayABC20.5 4Grey's AnatomyABC19.5 5Desperate HousewivesABC18.6 6HouseFox18.2 7NCISCBS18.1 8Sunday Night FootballNBC17.3 9Dancing with the Stars, TuesdayABC17.1 10CMA AwardsABC15.9 *The listing gives estimated numbers of viewers (in millions) for each show last week.

SWEET LAND [Fox] $28 Sometimes movie gems come out of left field. Case in point is this independently made romantic drama by Minnesota-based, first-time feature writer-director Ali Selim. The critically acclaimed tale revolves around a German-born mail-order bride (Elizabeth Reaser) who arrives in rural Minnesota in the 1920s to marry a taciturn Norwegian immigrant farmer (Tim Guinee). Alan Cumming, who was also a producer, Lois Smith and Paul Sand also star in the film, which was made for a mere $1 million.

Food ** 1/2 (2 1/2 stars) Service *** (3 stars) Atmosphere ** 1/2 (2 1/2 stars) If you're a serious carnivore, Fogo de Chao is the restaurant you've been dreaming of. Not only will servers bring beef, lamb, pork, chicken and sausage to your table until you beg for mercy, but seafood isn't even an option here. You don't have to have the smallest twinge of guilt for choosing the steak. Pretty amazing for a Baltimore restaurant in the Inner Harbor. Fogo de Chao (pronounced fo-go dee shouwn)

LOS ANGELES -- This Sunday, Rob Corddry stars in his first sitcom, The Winner, as a lovable loser determined to turn his life around to impress his unrequited high-school love. But the real winner in all this may be The Daily Show, which has become the fertile breeding ground for comic actors that Saturday Night Live once was. "We have a track record of promoting people to bigger and better things or, at least, bigger things," said Daily Show executive producer David Javerbaum jokingly.

Food ** 1/2 (2 1/2 stars) Service ** (3 stars) Atmosphere ** 1/2 (2 1/2 stars) Every steakhouse has to have a gimmick to differentiate it from the rest. In the case of oZ. Chophouse, it's all in the name. It's an awkward name -- do I capitalize it when it starts a sentence, for instance? And I can only imagine the various ways it's pronounced. (The correct way seems to be oh-zee, not Oz, not ounce, and not oh-ZEE.) But the name does say in two letters and a period quite a bit about Maple Lawn's first steakhouse.

Food *** (3 stars) Service *** (3 stars) Atmosphere *** (3 stars) The news that Michael Tabrizi is back with Tabrizi's in the Harborview complex means something to Baltimoreans who have been around for a while. They remember his first wonderful Mediterranean restaurant of the same name, a cozy spot in Federal Hill where Corks is now. It closed over a decade ago. I expected more buzz about the reopening, but the lack of it may be because Tabrizi's has arrived in the shadow of a much showier new restaurant.

'Zombieland' *** 1/2 ( 3 1/2 Stars) $24.7 million $24.7 million 1 week Rated : R Running time : 1:20 What it's about : A zombie plague has transformed the world into a cannibalistic hellscape. Our take : Woody Harrelson (above) is the undead's worst nightmare in first-time director Ruben Fleischer's fresh and funny take on the horror genre. 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' ** 1/2 ( 2 1/2 STARS) $15.8 million $81.5 million 3 weeks Rated : PG Running time : 1:30 What it's about : A Jimmy Neutron-type inventor (voiced by Bill Hader)

Watching the Roller Derby movie "Whip It" is like spending roughly two hours with a frisky group of girls in a female empowerment camp. In the young-adult source book of the same name, the heroine, Bliss Cavendar, says in her first-person narration that "for the record, the roller-derby sisterhood is the real thing, not tainted by that fake you-go-girl, Oprah vibe you get from Noxzema commercials." She states she "really knows this" because "no one actually says 'you go, girl,' " - instead they say things like "you rock the house."

'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' ** 1/2 ( 2 1/2 STARS) $25 million $60.4 million 2 weeks Rated : PG Running time : 1:30 What it's about : A Jimmy Neutron-type inventor (voiced by Bill Hader) perfects a machine that turns water into food. Our take : Fairly inventive and exceedingly manic, it is certainly fresher than many recent computer-animated flicks. 'Surrogates' * 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS) $14.9 million $14.9 million 1 week Rated: PG-13 Running time: 1:28 What it's about: Set in a world where humans live in isolation and interact through robots, a cop (Bruce Willis, above)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs ** 1/2 ( 2 1/2 STARS) $30.3 million $23.4 million 1 week Rated: PG Running time: 1:30 What it's about: , A Jimmy Neutron-type inventor (voiced by Bill Hader) perfects a machine that turns water into food with disastrous results. Our take: Fairly inventive and exceedingly manic, it is certainly fresher than many recent computer animated flicks. The Informant! *** ( 3 STARS) $10.4 million $10.4 1 week Rated: R Running time: 1:48 What it's about: Matt Damon (above)

Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself ** ( 2 STARS) $23.4 million $23.4 million 1 week Rated: PG-13 Running time: 1:53 What it's about: A hard-drinking, cynical nightclub singer (Taraji P. Henson) must care for her 16-year-old niece and two younger nephews after they are dumped on her doorstep. Our take: Strong performances and stirring music more than compensate for Perry's hokey storytelling. 9 *** ( 3 STARS) $10.7 million $15.1 million 10 days Rated: PG-13 Running time: 1:19 What it's about: A group of nine living raggedy dolls debate how to survive in a world where malevolent machines have eliminated all other life.

Helen Mirren is portraying a tragic Greek queen. Cate Blanchett takes on the role of an iconic Southern belle. Laurence Fishburne plays an esteemed judge. Billy Crystal spins comic scenes of family life. But rather than appearing on movie or television screens, these stars are aligning along several blocks in northwest Washington. Though touring productions with big-name actors frequently stop in D.C., and stars try out productions there or perform at the White House, this year is different.

The Final Destination * 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS) $12.3 million $47.5 million 2 weeks Rated: R Running time: 1:22 What it's about: Once again, attractive young people try to cheat death. Silly them. Our take: The filmmakers waste little plot or character development on dispatching them with 3-D gore. Inglourious Basterds * 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS) $11.6 million $91.8 million 3 weeks Rated: R Running time: 2:33 What it's about: A band of Jewish-American commandos (including Brad Pitt, above)

The Final Destination * 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS) $27 million $27 million 1 week Rated: R Running time: 1:22 What it's about: Once again, attractive young people try to cheat death. Silly them. Our take: The filmmakers waste little plot or character development on dispatching them with 3-D gore. Inglourious Basterds * 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS) $19.3 million $73 million 2 weeks Rated: R Running time: 2:33 What it's about: A band of Jewish-American commandos (including Brad Pitt, above)

Inglourious Basterds * 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS) $38 million $38 million 1 week Rated: R Running time: 2:33 What it's about: A band of Jewish-American commandos (including Brad Pitt, above) bedevil the German army, and a French Jew seeks justice for the Nazi slaughter of her family. Our take: It's so hollow and protracted that it transforms mayhem into monotony. District 9 ** ( 2 STARS) $18.2 million $72.8 million 2 weeks Rated: R Running time: 1:52 What it's about: A government agent comes to the aid of an alien race (above)

District 9 ** ( 2 STARS) $37.5 million $37.5 million 1 week Rated: R Running time: 1:52 minutes What it's about: A government agent comes to the aid of an alien race (above) forced to live in slumlike conditions on Earth. Our take: It's mainly a compost of other sci-fi movies, some as old as "RoboCop" and "Aliens," and some as recent as "Cloverfield." G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra ** ( 2 STARS) $22.3 million $98.5 million 2 weeks Rated: PG-13 Running time: 1:58 minutes What it's about: Team leader Duke (Channing Tatum, above)