“Undercover Brother” combines broad comedy with clever satire to happily skewer blacks, whites, men, women, the “blaxploitation” movies of the 1970’s, O.J. Simpson, and just about everything else that comes within range. Selected by the Washington Film Critics as the guilty pleasure of 2002, it is worth a look.

Comedian Eddie Griffin plays Undercover Brother, a guy with the tallest Afro, the highest platform shoes, and the coolest attitude on earth. He drives a gold-colored Cadillac with an 8-track tape player and a license plate that says, “Solid.”

Undercover Brother works on his own to fight injustice (he’s the “Robin Hood of the ‘hood”), but he is not aware of the seriousness of the threat. It seems that a mysterious bad guy known only as “The Man,” operating out of a remote island command center, is responsible for discrediting black public figures. Come to think of it, that explanation for Urkel and Dennis Rodman makes more sense than the real one.

A popular black general (Billy Dee Williams) is about to declare his candidacy for President. The Man is furious at the prospect of a possible black President (“Let’s keep the White House white!”). So, he directs his henchman (“Saturday Night Live’s” Chris Kattan) to stop him. Somehow, the general’s announcement turns out to be the opening of a chain of fried chiicken restaurants featuring the “nappy meal.”

An organization called The Brotherhood” asks Undercover Brother to join them in fighting The Man. With their top agent, Sistah Girl (Anjnue Ellis), Undercover Brother infiltrates The Man’s world, disguised as a Rastafarian caddy, a preppy office worker and someone I will just describe as a performing artist.

But the Man fights back with “black man’s Kryptonite” in the form of Denise Richards. For a moment, it seems that Undercover Brother will even eat tuna with extra mayonnaise. But Sistah Girl comes to his rescue, and they are soon off for the final confrontation.

The movie is filled with such high spirits and good humor that the jokes are pointed but not barbed. Director Malcolm Lee (a cousin of Spike Lee) has a marvelous eye for telling details (the re-creation of a 1970’s-style credit sequence is hilarious) and Eddie Griffin gives the title character some heart along with a lot of attitude.

Parents should know that the movie has very strong material for a PG-13 — as usual, the MPAA is much more lax with a comedy than they would be if the same material appeared in a drama. The movie has sexual references and situations, smoking, drinking, and drug humor, and comic violence.

Families who see this movie should talk about the stereotypes that the movie uses for humor and to make its points. How can some issues be addressed more effectively through comedy than through drama? Parents might find that they have to explain some of the humor to teenagers who are too young to remember some of the outfits and expressions satirized in the movie.

Families who enjoy this movie should take a look at some of the movies that inspired it, the “blaxploitation” movies of the 1970’s. Some of the best are included in the Pam Grier Collection and Sweet Sweetback’s Badasssss Song. Note: both have very mature material.

Somewhere on the continuum between complexity and incoherence lies the latest film from Steven Soderbergh. After big-time Hollywood critical and box office success with the glossy, classy “Erin Brockovich,” “Traffic,” and “Oceans 11,” Soderbergh has returned to his indie roots to make a small, messy, improvised, non-linear film that recalls his earliest success with “sex, lies, and videotape.” Indeed, he has described the new film, “Full Frontal,” as a thematic sequel.

Like the earlier film, “Full Frontal” is filled with intimate conversations about love, sex, boundaries, longing, and voyeurism. Both films revolve around two sisters, one married, one single, with some strains in their relationship.

But this film is less a story than a series of moments, variations on the themes rather than a narrative. Digital and analog images alternate as we go into and out of a movie within a movie, even a movie within a movie within a movie, performed by actors playing actors.

Several different stories overlap and intersect. Catherine Keener plays Alice, a human resources director unhappily married to Carl (David Hyde Pierce), who writes for a magazine. Alice’s sister, Linda (Mary McCormack) is a masseuse who is currently carrying out an online flirtation with Brian (Rainn Wilson), Carl’s co-author. Both Linda and Brian have not been entirely truthful about themselves, and they are planning to meet in Tucson.

Linda is having an affair with Calvin (Blair Underwood), an actor who is currently playing the part of an actor named Nicholas who is playing the part of a sidekick to a detective played by Brad Pitt (playing himself). In his movie, Nicholas becomes romantically involved with a journalist named Catherine (Julia Roberts in a very unfortunate wig, except when she appears as Francesca, the actress playing Catherine) who happens to work for the same magazine that Alice’s husband Carl works for in what sort of passes for real life in “Full Frontal,” at least as compared to the Nicholas/Catherine movie within a movie or the shlocky cop story with Brad Pitt and Calvin that is the movie within the movie within the movie. Two characters have written a play called “The Sound and the Fuhrer” featuring a high strung and narcissistic actor (brilliantly played by Nicky Katt) as a Hitler who uses a cell phone and breaks up with his girlfriend by explaining that he just needs to “swim in Lake Me for a while.” Then it starts to get confusing.

Themes and images flicker through several levels, like a David Lynch movie with less voluptuous imagery. On one level, a secret letter in a red envelope contains a note ending a marriage. In another story, a secret letter in a red envelope contains a note starting an affair. Alice is firing employees at her company, asking them bizarre questions and tossing an inflated globe at them, as her husband, Carl, is asking bizarre questions of co-workers and getting fired from the magazine. We see Alice in bed with Calvin, who, as the character Nicholas explains to the journalist interviewing him that black men in movies never get to do sex scenes. Alice is turning 41 just as Gus (David Duchovney) the producer of the movie starring Calvin and Francesca, is turning 40, with a party that many of the characters in the movie are invited to attend. In the end, just as one set of fictions are abandoned in favor of reality, a fiction at a deeper level is revealed.

The movie has many wonderful moments and many marvelous lines. But it does not have the improvisational brilliance of the Christopher Guest movies and comes off more like an actor’s studio workshop than a film. The whole is less than the sum of its parts, but some of those parts are remarkably vivid and intriguing.

Parents should know that, as the title indicates, this movie includes explicit nudity, explicit and varied sexual references and situations, and very strong language. A character dies, apparently from auto-erotic asphyxiation. Characters drink and smoke and eat hash brownies. There are tense emotional scenes. Parents may want to see the film themselves before deciding whether it is appropriate for teen viewing.

Families who see the movie should talk about why Soderburgh told the story this way and what a movie they would make with their friends and families would be like.

Viewers who enjoy this movie will enjoy two other movies about making movies and the line between fantasy and reality, The Stunt Man and Day for Night. They may also want to compare this to sex, lies, and videotape.

I may be too old for Adam Sandler movies, but it seems to me that he’s getting too old for them, too.

Sandler really brings out my “Mom” side – I want to tell him to stand up straight, stop dressing like a slob, and start living up to his potential. His movies are one-sentence concepts plus cheap shots and middle-school-style body part jokes to fill out the rest of the 90 minutes. This time, he didn’t even come up with his own one-sentence concept. Instead he lifted one from a genuine Depression era movie classic starring Gary Cooper, “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.” Then he took out all of the wit and warmth (and the point) and substituted jokes about getting hit on the head, getting hit in the genitals, snapping off the arm of a frozen dead body, getting stabbed in the foot, physical deformity, and getting hit in the throat.

Sandler can’t be bothered to move on from the 1980’s, which still serves as his touchstone for comic references (like John McEnroe). As with the courtroom scene of Big Daddy, Sandler could also not be bothered to spend five minutes asking a few questions about annual shareholder meetings actually work, thus making the situations more ludicrous than humorous.

As in the original, the main character is a small-town guy named Longfellow Deeds who writes poems for greeting cards and is kind to his neighbors. Deeds unexpectedly inherits a fortune. (It was $20 million in the original, now $40 billion in the remake.) So, he goes to the big city, where an unscrupulous reporter named Babe (Jean Arthur in the original, Winona Ryder in the remake) pretends to be a damsel in distress to get close enough to him so that she can write stories about what an idiot he is.

Sandler’s “I’m just a sweet guy who likes dumb jokes” routine is getting tired, and apparently so is he – he looks puffy and uninterested in many of the scenes and oddly uncomfortable when called upon to kiss his leading lady. Ryder is far classier than the material, as are supporting stalwarts John Turturro, Conchatta Farrell, and Steve Buscemi. The other supporting actors range from bland to incompetent, including the obviously uncomfortable John McEnroe.

Parents should know that the movie has extremely vulgar humor and strong language for a PG-13.

Families who see this movie should talk about what they would do if they inherited $40 billion, how childhood dreams turn into adult realities, and how the media covers celebrities.

Families who enjoy this movie will enjoy Sandler’s best films, The Wedding Singer and Big Daddy. All families should see the classic original film Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and talk about whether ideas about money were different during the Depression than they are now.

Many kids will enjoy this traditionally animated story about a brave wild mustang in the 19th century American west, but parents may find it overlong even at a running time of less than 90 minutes. Parents should also know that there are some scary scenes and that the story may be hard for younger children to follow because the horse characters do not talk.

Spirit is born (in a discreet G-rated scene) to a loving mare and grows up in a paradise of mountains and plains, with plenty to eat and drink and freedom to run as far as he can dream. He becomes the leader of the pack of horses, and watches out for his group to keep them safe from predators. His curiosity leads him to investigate a campsite, and he is captured by cavalry soldiers. A brutal commander tries to break him, but even starvation does not make him submit.

Spirit escapes with an Indian boy named Little Creek and they grow to care for each other. Spirit also cares for Little Creek’s pretty palomino, Rain. But Spirit still will not let anyone ride him. Little Creek sends Spirit back to his home, but he is captured again and has many more adventures before returning to his family.

There are some lovely and powerful images of horses racing through endless stretches of grass, mountains, and rivers. The scary scenes are very vivid, especially the fire and a railroad engine knocked off its tracks that comes tumbling downhill. But the story moves slowly, especially during the dreary Bryan Adams songs. The narration (by Matt Damon) is more poetic than descriptive, so younger kids will benefit from some discussion about the story before they get to the theater.

Parents should know that the movie may be too scary for younger kids. The soldiers use guns and treat Spirit harshly, applying whips and spurs. The blacksmith makes an unsuccessful attempt to brand him. Characters are in peril and it appears that one has been killed. There is a fire and a chase scene.

The Native American boy is portrayed as brave, compassionate, and honorable. Some families may be concerned that all of the white males are portrayed as brutal and insensitive.

Families should talk about the different ways that the Colonel and Little Creek have of trying to teach Spirit to carry a rider. Do different parents have different ways of teaching children? What ways work best? What made Spirit different from the other horses, those of his family and those he met on his travels? Families of older children might want to talk about the triumph and tragedy of the Westward Expansion in the 19th century.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy the two greatest horse movies ever made: The Black Stallion and National Velvet.