Warner Bros

One should have reservations about No Reservations, a romantic comedy that does precious little with the considerable resources at its disposal. Those resources include a pair of actresses - the formidable Catherine Zeta-Jones, lovely and commanding as ever, and the effortlessly charming Abigail Breslin, fresh off last year's Oscar nomination for Little Miss Sunshine - who alone should make any movie worth the price of admission. That they don't isn't so much their fault as it is the people behind the camera, who are far too happy to follow well-trod cinematic paths when they could at least stretch the genre's boundaries.

Washington-- --The Mystery of the Time-Traveling Sleuth. Attractive, golden-tressed teenage actress Emma Roberts and her stalwart sidekick, first lady Laura Bush, were hot on the trail. They were seeking to uncover clues that explain the continuing appeal of the fictional teenage sleuth Nancy Drew. After all, the first book in the series was published in 1930 under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene, though about a dozen authors contributed manuscripts. Dozens of titles have been published, and hundreds of millions of copies have been sold worldwide, though a spokesman for Simon & Schuster couldn't provide specific figures.

If grating is what you are looking for, then by all means, don't miss Because I Said So. Watching this movie, with Diane Keaton cast as the ne plus ultra of irritating, overbearing mothers, is roughly the equivalent of listening to fingernails on a chalkboard for nearly two hours. With her skittishness and her near-constant state of fluster, Keaton as a comic actress can be wonderfully endearing, the sort of lovable ditz you can laugh with and desperately want to protect. But here, as a mother who can't bear the thought of her lovelorn daughter (Mandy Moore)

Lucky You is good at introductions, but doesn't develop far enough beyond some spunky openers and cute come-ons. What's befuddling is that its smart and sensitive director, Curtis Hanson, the mastermind behind L.A. Confidential and Wonder Boys, is usually terrific on the follow-through. In Lucky You, Hanson swiftly fills us in on the Las Vegas scene but rarely connects us to the characters. Hanson shrewdly introduces us to Eric Bana's super-hustler Huck Cheever, a Vegas card shark having a bad run right before the 2003 World Series of Poker, as Huck manages to hock a digital camera to a pawnbroker (Phyllis Somerville)

Jodie Foster, who earned an Oscar nomination 32 years ago for playing a child prostitute in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, plays a more cultured character in The Brave One, an illegitimate heir to that incendiary mid-1970s masterpiece. Here she's a radio personality who reports poetically on the changing face of New York until her own face is beaten to a pulp. Then the whole thing turns into trash with flash. The Brave One (Warner Bros.) Starring Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard. Directed by Neil Jordan.

TELEVISION 1.The Singing Bee, NBC 2.America's Got Talent, NBC 3.Law & Order: SVU, NBC 4.CSI, CBS 5.CSI: NY, CBS FILMS 1.I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Warner Bros. 2.Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Warner Bros. 3.Hairspray, Disney 4.Transformers, DreamWorks 5.Ratatouille, Disney SINGLES 1.Hey There Delilah, Plain White T's 2.Umbrella, Rihanna featuring Jay-Z 3.Big Girls Don't Cry (Personal), Fergie 4.Party Like a Rockstar, Shop Boyz 5.The Way I Are, Timbaland featuring Keri Hilson ALBUMS 1.T.I.

NEW YORK -- Even for a notorious control freak, the Artist Formerly Known as Prince is planning a pretty audacious challenge to his old record company.Unhappy at his failure to gain possession of the music he recorded for Warner Bros., the Artist says he will re-record the music -- all of it -- and sell it on his own.That's everything: "Purple Rain," "Little Red Corvette," "Raspberry Beret, "Kiss," the whole catalog. He recorded 17 albums for Warner, beginning in 1978 when he was seen as a teen-age prodigy and lasting until their nasty divorce five years ago, not including a greatest hits package.

"The Blair Witch Project" is doing more than giving audiences the creeps. It's also heralding a whole new approach to marketing the movies -- over the Internet."We really did no TV advertising until this week," says Daniel Myrick, co-director of the film that's positioning itself to be one of the most successful independent films ever. "Ninety percent of the good word of mouth that's been generated about the film has been generated through the Web."Not that marketing movies over the Internet is something new; film studios have been creating Web sites for their new releases for years; Warner Bros.

After Barry Sonnenfeld read the script for the movie "Wild Wild West," he told Warner Bros. he was interested in directing the movie. But he had one condition, and it was non-negotiable.He wanted Will Smith, with whom he collaborated on the monster hit "Men in Black," to play the role of government agent Jim West.Someone at Warner Bros. pointed out that Smith was black and that Robert Conrad, who played West on the original TV series upon which the movie was based, was white. Or, as Sonnenfeld describes him, "very white."

Baltimore is in for a Christmas treat, as the coolest movie star ever gets himself a four-day tribute at the Charles beginning tomorrow night.I refer, of course, to Bugs Bunny, that wascally wabbit who's proved the most enduring star to ever come out of the Warner Bros. studio. True, Humphrey Bogart, the epitome of all things grand and glorious when it comes to movie stardom, also called Warner Bros. home. But, tell the truth: Which film would you rather see for the umpteenth time, "Casablanca" or "What's Opera, Doc?"

Extract : *** ( 3 STARS) Movies disappear quickly if they don't score at the box office the first day, so lovers of American comedy should dash out this weekend to erase the disappointing opening weekend of "Extract," the highly enjoyable new workplace comedy by Mike Judge ("Office Space"). No recent film has a saner view of the tensions among workers and management. Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck are both hilarious as, respectively, the righteous owner of a flavor-extract company and the bartender buddy who has bad ideas about how to improve his friend's marital life.

Ponyo: **** ( 4 STARS) This loose variation on "The Little Mermaid" offers audiences a chance to see the great Japanese cartoonist Hayao Miyazaki pull off traditional hand-drawn animation with the sweep and invention of a print artist like Maurice Sendak. And despite the worries of fanboys, the American version has been dubbed exquisitely, with Liam Neeson a majestic standout as a psychedelic warlock struggling to balance the human and natural worlds, and the realms of land and sea. Opening Wednesday 9 : (Focus Features)

Nov. 6 Disney's A Christmas Carol: (Walt Disney Pictures) Director Robert Zemeckis distills the classic Dickens tale with a 3-D twist. With Jim Carrey and Gary Oldman. The Fourth Kind: (Universal Pictures) A psychologist investigates an extraordinary number of disappearances around a small Alaskan town. With Milla Jovovich and Elias Koteas. Men Who Stare At Goats: (Overture Films) A reporter in Iraq just might have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, a guy who claims to be a former member of the Army's First Earth Battalion, a unit that employs paranormal powers.

albums 1 Deeper Than Rap Rick Ross 2 Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack Various Artists 3 Sounds of the Universe Depeche Mode 4 Unstoppable Rascal Flatts 5 Asleep in the Bread Aisle Asher Roth BILLBOARD MAGAZINE dvd sales 1 The Wrestler Fox Searchlight 2 Marley and Me Fox 3 Yes Man Warner Bros. 4 The Day the Earth Stood Still Fox 5 Slumdog Millionaire Fox Searchlight BLOCKBUSTER film 1 X Men Origins: Wolverine Fox 2 Ghosts of Girlfriends Past Warner Bros./New Line 3 Obsessed Screen Gems 4 17 Again Warner Bros.

May 1 Battle for Terra : (Roadside Attractions) A peaceful alien planet is invaded by the last survivors of Earth. With the voices of Evan Rachel Wood and Brian Cox. Ghost of Girlfriends Past: (Warner Bros.) In a romantic comedy twist on A Christmas Carol, a smooth womanizer revisits his troubled love life through supernatural means. With Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner. Is Anybody There? : (BBC Films) A retired magician befriends a young boy who lives in a British nursing home.

Battle for Terra : (Roadside Attractions) A peaceful alien planet is invaded by the last survivors of Earth. Ghosts of Girlfriends Past: (Warner Bros.) In a romantic comedy twist on A Christmas Carol, a womanizer revisits his troubled love life through supernatural means. With Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner. Is Anybody There? : (BBC Films) A retired magician befriends a young boy who lives in a British nursing home. With Michael Caine and Bill Milner. Paris 36: (Sony Pictures Classics)

Dragonball Evolution: (20th Century Fox) A young man must track down seven mystical treasures before an evil lord uses them to take over the world. Based on the popular Japanese cartoon. Hannah Montana: The Movie: (Walt Disney Pictures) The teen pop star is torn between her jet-setting Hollywood scene and the slower pace of her hometown in Tennessee. With Miley Cyrus and Jason Earles. Observe and Report : (Warner Bros.) A mall security guard hopes to advance his career and his love life by catching a serial flasher.

Che: (IFC Films) In 1956, Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Benicio Del Toro) and a band of Castro-led Cuban exiles mobilize an army to topple the regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista. With Julia Ormond and Rodrigo Santoro. The Class : (Sony Pictures Classics) Cultures and attitudes clash in the classroom as teachers prepare for a new year at a high school in a tough neighborhood. With Francois Begaudeau. Medicine for Melancholy (IFC) Two black 20-somethings struggle to find a place in a rapidly gentrifying San Francisco.

Sports Movies: If you watched the most exciting Super Bowl ever, follow it up with Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 (****) (3 STARS), an engrossing documentary about the most exciting football game in Ivy League history. If that film carries too high a pedigree for your tastes, you can always take in The Wrestler (** 1/2 ), ( 2 1/2 STARS) a fictional film that applies documentary realism to the tawdry spectacle of professional wrestling. Oscar-nominated Mickey Rourke elevates every scene he's in. opening next friday Confessions of a Shopaholic : (Touchstone)

WB shrouds 'Dark Knight' from Chinese audiences Batman landed in Hong Kong, but that doesn't mean The Dark Knight will open all over China. The movie opened in Hong Kong theaters. But Warner Bros. decided not to release the film in mainland China - or even submit it for censors' approval - because of "prerelease conditions" and "cultural sensitivities," the studio said Tuesday. Warner Bros. officials may have been concerned the film - particularly scenes shot in Hong Kong, where Batman nabs a gangster - would offend censors.