Like its title character, this little animated film has heart and charm. What it will have trouble finding is an audience to appreciate it. This is a computer-animated film with a G rating that assumes its viewers will understand references to Edith Piaf and the Invasion of Normandy. If there are any children out there who were born in th 1940’s, this could be just the movie for them.

It is set in World War II London, where carrier pigeons played a crucial role by bringing essential information to the fighting forces. A small pigeon named Valiant (voice of Ewan McGregor) dreams of being one of them. He is not exactly up to the literally high standards of the Royal Air Force Homing Pigeon Service, but their forces have been terribly depleted by capture and casualties and they have to take what they can get.

Squadrons A, B, C, D, and E are no longer available. So, Valiant is reluctantly accepted for training in Squadron F, along with Bugsy (voice of “The Office’s” very funny Ricky Gervais), his messy, cowardly, dishonest, but somehow endearing friend. There is an important message to be delivered, some carnivorous German falcons to be evaded, some captured colleagues to be rescued, a problem only someone much smaller than the usual carrier pigeon can solve, and, of course, freedom to be fought for and a pretty nurse pigeon to come home to.

This is the traditional G-rated underdog theme, but it is first and foremost a very traditional WWII movie, down to the saucy French resistance fighter and the salty veteran of the previous war who always has a drink on the house for a brave lad, I mean pigeon.

It doesn’t have the immediate accessibility of most animated films or most G-rated films of any kind. Its greatest charm lies in its understated humor and its affectionate salutes to the familiar characters of the era. But this is likely to be confusing or completely above the heads of children, even most teenagers. Unlike its title character, this is a film that is not quite sure how to deliver its message.

Parents should know that there is some mild wartime violence, including a plane crash, some injuries, and some off-camera fatalities. There are some mildly grisly images, including bombed-out buildings, the bones of birds that have been eaten, a gargoyle, and the squishing of a fly. Characters are in peril in secenes that may be too intense for younger children. There is some mild crude humor.

Families who see this movie should talk about why Valiant wanted to be a part of the messenger corps. Why did Valiant want to be a part of the fight? Why did Bugsy not want to, and why did he come back? They may want to find out more about the use of animals in wartime. The real life Dickin medal awardees are discussed on these BBC programmes. And families may also want to find out about the real-life Normandy invasion.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy Chicken Run.

Buoyed by Gena Rowlands’ magisterial presence, this mediocre little bit of hoodoo-voodoo mystery casts enough of a spell to propel it through the trancelike lethargy of the first 80 minutes until it double, double, toils and troubles to reach its frenzy of a finale. “Skeleton Key” is neither magic nor mundane but for some it will unlock a satisfying enough set of twists and turns for a summer escape into a bayou thriller.

Loaded up on the guilt of losing her beloved but estranged father, Caroline (Kate Hudson) is candy-striping herself toward atonement. She ditches her job at a New Orleans hospice to take care of Ben (John Hurt), a stroke victim, living out his last days with wife Violet (Gena Rowlands) in a spooky manor house, an hour outside of the city and a hundred years outside civilization. After poking further into the house than privacy dictates, Caroline realizes that the mansion’s macabre history might have some bearing on her future and that Violet has no intention of giving her the true skeleton key to unlock the mystery of the past.

Hudson does a decent job of playing a part that at times begs for disbelief to be suspended a bit beyond the stretching point. Peter Sarsgaard plays family lawyer, Luke, with a spot-on blend of practicality and Southern bonhomie. It is Rowlands, however, who steals scenes with her tough-as-nails, genteel belle presence and makes the story credible.

Director Iain Softley pares down the ingredients in this potentially complex mix of themes and superstitions, until the movie is nothing but lean, hard plot. Seemingly distrustful of his audience’s ability to stay focused on the story, the sparseness of the characters mean that everybody has a role to play and every utterance is a clue to the mystery of the house. He does not spare much thought for originality of setting – the attic is the archetypal black magic lair with old jars of floating things, spell books and albums – and lulls the audience with familiar signs (a blind woman full of bayou wisdom, a cautious roommate) down the road to get to the final twist of an ending.

Parents should be aware that this movie is borderline horror, with many scenes of peril, and it touches on mature themes. In flashbacks to the early 1900’s, the story of a lynching is shown and the crowd responsible is a drunken mob, too well-heeled to be punished. Hospice care, the death of family members who were loved or shunned, as well as the difficulty of caring for ailing kin are all issues covered in the movie. The belief –or not—in superstition and “hoodoo” (voodoo’s non-religious, folk-magic counterpart) is a central theme of the movie. Partial, non-explicit nudity scenes include a scantily-clad woman, a character in the shower and another in the bath. The overall Spanish-moss laden spookiness of the isolated mansion, with hidden secrets, will scare more sensitive viewers, as will some of the Gothic residents of the nearby bayou. There are the obligatory jars of yucky things in bottles to signify dark magic. There is an implicit reference to spousal abuse. Characters smoke and drink socially. A night of excessive drinking leads to bloodshed.

Families who see this movie might discuss the impact on Caroline of losing her father and the ways this loss guides her guilt, her choice of profession, not to mention her actions. The theme of “hoodoo” provokes questions about what superstitions you might believe in, whether there are paranormal things that you believe can protect or hurt you. The “evil eye”, for example, is a theme in cultures throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Even though few people say they believe in it, the blue-glass eyes, red-string bracelets and the eye-within-the-hand-motif, all symbols to ward off this curse, have never been more popular in jewelry and decoration. Why do some people in this movie choose not to leave even though they say they do not believe?

Families who enjoy this movie might like “K-PAX”, also directed by Softley and featuring a similar pace and prettiness, if radically different themes.

For those looking for a genuinely scary, horror/suspense flick with voodoo themes might watch “Angel Heart” (mature content). Other recent supernatural thrillers include “Constantine” and “Dream Catchers”.

Andy (Steve Carell) collects “action figures” from movies, comic books, and television series, maintaining them with curatorial scrupulocity in their meticulously preserved original packaging. He is pretty meticulously preserved himself. Like his collection, he is an action figure who gets no action. Andy is, as the title says, a 40-year-old virgin.

Andy is a sweet guy who had a couple of bad experiences as a teenager and then just gave up. The pent-up longing has him so tightly wound that he moves as though it requires his full concentration to make sure that he doesn’t explode into a volcano of denied desire. He believes that if he just ignores it, it will all go away. So he spends his weekend making egg salad, and then doesn’t eat it. And the highlight of his social life is watching television with his elderly neighbors. And the whole world seems to exist to torture him. He can’t even escape a sexy bus poster for a cologne called “Eruption.”

When Andy’s colleagues at an electronics store discover his secret, they vow to help him cross the threshhold into sexual relations with a woman. They have a lot of theories and a lot of advice. Andy ends up trying everything from taking a drunk girl home to speed-dating and a “sure thing,” but everything goes excruciatingly, humiliatingly — and hilariously — wrong.

Meanwhile, Andy meets Trish (Catherine Keener), a warm-hearted woman who owns a nearby “Sell it on Ebay” store. The more he comes to like and feel close to her, the more he fears disappointing her or looking foolish due to his lack of experience.

This is a performance anxiety movie, a sort of American Pie for grown-ups. It reaches into our deepest fears of appearing ignorant or foolish or clumsy and shows us that as horrifying as our worst fears are, it is possible to come up with scenarios that are even worse. And because they are happening to someone else, they are not just very funny, but very cathartic.

That makes it the best kind of funny. The clever script is more than just a series of skits and the characters are real and endearingly romantic. The script’s structure sets up the narrative direction and the change in the lives of the characters beautifully. The already-legendary chest-waxing scene (no special effects or tricks — that’s Carell’s hair getting yanked out) is not just a comedy bit. It is sort of primal scream therapy for Andy and — like all of his other encounters — a crucial step on his road to getting in touch with all of his feelings.

Too many raunchy comedies make the mistake of confusing outrageousness with humor (take a look at the horrible Say it Isn’t So as one atrocious example). The ones that get it right make sure that we are rooting for the characters. What makes this movie work is that the under-used organ it focuses on is Andy’s heart.

Parents should know that this is not intended for or appropriate for kids or most teenagers. It is a raunchy sex comedy with very strong language and very explicit and crude sexual references (including teen sex) and situations, some homophobic humor, and some non-sexual nudity. Characters drink (some get drunk) and smoke marijuana. There is comic peril (no serious injury) and comic barfing, and condom humor, along with some brief horror movie clips from Dawn of the Dead. One strength of the movie is that it comes down very clearly on the side of truly intimate, monogamous, and romantic relationships. And another is its portrayal of diverse characters who demonstrate loyalty and compassion. And while there is some sexist and mysogynistic talk, the behavior of the men in the movie and the lessons they learn come down on the side of commitment and love.

Families who see this movie should talk about why it was so hard for Andy to tell the truth about himself and what he learned about honesty. They might also want to talk about some of their own experiences and fears and about the feelings everyone has in evaluating the risks of intimacy. And they can talk about the idea that if what feels right doesn’t work, how you can tell when it is time to try something else and what that should be.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy American Pie.

George Orwell said that by age 50 every man has the face he deserves. Now in Hollywood, by age 50 it’s more likely that movie stars pretty much have the faces they can buy (are you listening, Cher? Meg Ryan? Burt Reynolds?). We are all grateful to those, like Bill Murray, who know how to use a face that has been lived in. The pouches under his eyes tell the story and make it interesting and sad and funny all at the same time. His is just one of a set of brilliantly complex and vivid performances that make this film a moving exploration of all we do to find meaning in our lives.

In “Broken Flowers,” Murray plays Don Johnston. He keeps having to emphasize the “t” when people think he shares the name of the actor from “Miami Vice.” But his name is really a reference to the legendary ladies’ man, Don Juan. When we first see Don, he is sitting on the sofa of his big, luxurious, but somewhat sterile home, watching the 1934 movie The Private Life of Don Juan on television. The most recent of his many girlfriends (Julie Delpy) tells him she is leaving him. He is vaguely distressed, but does not try to argue with her. if he was not exactly expecting her to leave, he seems resigned to it.

Then he receives an unsigned letter typed on pink paper, from a woman who says she had his child 19 years earlier. Don’s next door neighbor Winston (the terrific Jeffrey Wright) is a loving family man and an amateur detective. He assembles a dossier for Don, complete with plane tickets and Mapquest directions on how to find the four likeliest prospects for having written the letter. He sends Don off, telling him to be alert for the color pink and for evidence of a typewriter. Don goes, not because he is as interested as Winston is in finding out whether he has a son but because he doesn’t really have anything else to do.

So, Don goes off on a journey, but, this being a Jim Jarmusch movie, it is more about mood and moment than motion. There is a sense of sequence, as each of the women is emotionally and literally less accessible than the one before.

Sharon Stone is Laura (perhaps a reference to the great love of Petrarch?), the widow of a race car driver and the mother of the aptly named Lolita. She is completely warm and inviting, with no expectations or demands, genuinely glad to welcome Don and no illusions about how long he will stay.

Dora (perhaps a reference to the great love of David Copperfield?), played by Frances Conroy of HBO’s “Six Feet Under,” is now a very proper realtor living in an antiseptic McMansion with her husband. But she manages to exchange some glances with Don that show she shares some fond memories.

Carmen (Jessica Lange) (perhaps a reference to the operatic femme fatale?) is more withholding, answering Don’s questions as though each word is costing her money. Is there a romantic relationship with her female colleague? How did she go from being a lawyer to being a…pet psychologist? And then there is Penny (maybe a reference to Penelope, who waited for Ulysses to come home), played by Tilda Swinton, almost unrecognizable under Morticia Addams-style hair. She has nothing to say to Don; she just decks him and tells the current man in her life to beat him up. The last woman on the list is dead. Don places a pink bouquet on her grave.

People keep telling Don he is a Don Juan, but if that’s true, it’s not in the traditional sense. He never tries to romance any of these women, and when a woman he meets along the way indicates that she might be interested, he does not respond to her. He seems to walk through life in a cloud. Back at home, he tells Winston the mystery has not been solved. And then he has an intriguing but ambiguous encounter that raises the question of questions themselves, and whether answers really matter.

Parents should know that the movie includes some extremely strong language, sexual references and situations, nudity, drinking and drug use, and brief violence.

Families who see this movie should talk about why Don made the choices that he did and what he and Winston think of each other. What do you think happened in his relationships with Laura, Dora, Carmen, Penny, and Sherry?

Families who enjoy this film will also enjoy Murray in Lost in Translation and Jarmusch’s other films, including Mystery Train and Stranger than Paradise.

If you think that seeing a nutty fat guy in saggy white underpants blowing things up is funny, then this movie might be for you.

Otherwise, don’t bother. The single biggest challenge for a “lunchbox movie” (a movie that gets produced because some studio executive once had the lunchbox from the television show) is to figure out who its audience is. The Brady Bunch Movie was aimed at its now-grown-up former fans, and hit the right note of ironic nostalgia by keeping the Bradys in the 1970’s time warp by rerun-watching fans who made it a bigger hit in syndication than it was on the air. The first Charlie’s Angels took what worked about the show and updated it, balancing a bit of a self-awareness with genuine sweetness.

But “Dukes” cranks up the sunny, carefree, cornepone quality of the original television series. Instead of amplifying the simple pleasures of the original, it exposes the weak points. The humor is raunchier and the chases and explosions more intense and thus harder to think of as good-natured fun. It’s too gross for kids and too thin for teens and adults. It all backfires worse than the General Lee before a tune-up by Cooter.

The plot is exactly the same as most episodes of the television series. Will Mean Old Boss Hogg take the family farm away from the good old boys, cousins Bo, Luke, and Daisy Duke and Uncle Jesse? Will Bo and his beloved General Lee, a souped-up 1969 Dodge Charger, win the big race? Will there be some car chases and good old boy hijinks, and some gorgeous babes? Okay, we were not expecting suspense or surprises; so how enjoyable is the ride to the conclusion?

Not very. The few pleasures of this movie are just recognition laughs and signifiers. The most enthusiastic audience response in the screening I attended was when the director, Jay Chandrasekhar, appeared in a brief cameo echoing his appearance in the gross-out comedy, Super Troopers. They weren’t laughing at anything he did in this movie; they were just happy to be reminded of another movie. Seann William Scott, Johnny Knoxville, Jessica Simpson, and Willie Nelson as Bo, Luke, Daisy, and Jesse Duke, don’t even attempt to give anything resembling performances, though Knoxville scrunches up his face a time or two. Burt Reynolds enjoys himself a little too much as Boss Hogg. The most appealing performance is from David Koechner as Cooter. There is one funny joke, early on, relating to a recorded book, and the film gets some credit for attempting to address the issue of the Confederate flag image on the General Lee and for providing one police officer immune to Daisy’s appeal. But it is a dull, meandering, pointless film that takes for granted our interest in a souped-up version of the television show. The show created a Hazzard county we liked to visit, with people who had simple, good hearts. The movie, like Johnny Knoxville, has a nasty smirk that leaves you thinking that maybe strip-mining might be an improvement over this version of Hazzard County.

Parents should know that the movie is raunchy for a PG-13 with sexual humor (including a joke about beastiality and some homophobic humor) and sexual references and situations (all the girls in the movie are scantily clad and find the Duke brothers irresistible). There is brief nudity (mooning) and suggested nudity. Characters drink (scene in a bar) and there is as much drug humor as the MPAA will permit in a PG-13 film. There is some strong and crude language. A character pretends to be religious. While the film attempts to address the insensitivity of the original General Lee’s having a Confederate flag on its roof, it typically tries to have it both ways — they keep it there but it provokes some angry responses from both white and black characters. Similarly, the film tries to make bombshell Daisy Duke a bit more up-to-date but, as she says about the role she plays in Hazzard, “Those two are going to get in trouble and land in jail and I am going to have to shake my ass at somebody to get them out.” And the movie has constant “action-style” violence, meaning situations that would normally be lethal (cars crash and burst into flames) but in Hazzard County are just for grins.

Families who see this movie should talk about what makes Bo, Luke, and Daisy the good guys, even though they break the law, and Boss Hogg the bad guy, even though he more often abides by the law.

Families who enjoy this movie will enjoy the DVDs of the original television series and the music of Willie Nelson, who sings the theme song originally performed on the television show by Waylon Jennings. An equally good theme song for this film might be Dierks Bentley’s “What Was I Thinking?” And families may appreciate the original “Appalachian-American” comedy, Li’l Abner and the original cornpone car movie, Smokey and the Bandit, with Reynolds, Sally Field, and Jackie Gleason. Fans of the television series will enjoy the website and museum created by Cooter (Ben Jones).