The scorchingly funny guys behind “Spinal Tap,” “Waiting for Guffman” and “Best in Show” have produced a kinder, gentler film that is still very, very funny.

Once again, this is a “mockumentary” about a very diverse but earnest and enthusiastic group of people who share a passion that involves performing in front of an audience. This time, the story is set in the world of aging folk musicians. “PBN” (a stand-in for PBS) is going to broadcast a special concert in memory of Irving Steinbloom, a man who was instrumental in the careers of 60’s folk musicians. The groups who will participate are a trio called The Folksmen (Spinal Tap alums Christoper Guest, who also co-wrote and directed, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer), a once-married duo called Mitch and Mickey (co-screenwriter Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara) and the relentlessly perky Main Street Singers — now called the New Main Street Singers because only one of the original group is still participating. This return to the spotlight after so many years creates all kinds of traumas and challenges.

Guest movies always get better on the second viewing, and this one may need three as its best moments are its subtlest, like the fabulously constructed songs that are just one tweak away from the music of the Hootnanny-era, where suburban kids sang folk songs written by slaves and hobos so they could feel more “authentic.”

There are wonderfully choice moments. I loved the riffs by Fred Willard about his brief stint on a sit-com and Ed Begley, Jr.’s Yiddish-peppered discussion of putting the broadcast deal together. Steinbloom’s son (Bob Balaban) is so obssessed with the details of the event that he literally can’t see the forest for the trees — he interrupts the live broadcast to warn the audience in the theater to be careful not to get scratched by the twigs in the floral arrangements. The reconstruction of the historical material is devilishly meticulous, well worth hitting the pause button when it comes to video and DVD.

Parents should know that there is some mature material including references to substance abuse, homosexuality, pornography, and a sex-change operation. Characters use some strong language.

Families who see this movie should talk about the unusual way that Guest and Levy work. They set out the broad outlines of the story and then invite their actors to improvise their parts. How does that make the final version of the movie different from most? Families should also talk about the performers who inspired this movie, like the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Joan Baez. What was it that brought folk music to the forefront in the early 1960’s?

Families who enjoy this movie should see the other Guest films, especially on DVD where they can have the added pleasure of seeing them a second time with the commentary by Guest and Levy. They might also try to see “Festival,” a 1967 documentary featuring Joan Baez, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Bob Dylan.

“The Haint” is an intriguing Southern ghost story very reminiscent of Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology and Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood, with eclectic, memorable characters, and an overall creepiness throughout the play that doesn’t take away from some very funny moments. What makes “The Haint” stand out is that it is all performed by one man -— co-playwright Troy Mink.

Mink never once changes costume throughout the show; rather he relies on his expressive face and astounding vocal range to convey the characters. All the characters are talking to some documentary makers who have come to Midway, Tennessee, to discuss Bloody Mary, a woman who killed her cheating lover and then herself (and told people before she was going to do it) and now has become the focus of a great tourist attraction to Midway. Mink eventually plays 13 characters; from a strange town simpleton to a humble mayor to an effeminate spiritualist through interviews from the filmmakers, a climactic séance, and the tourists’ mixed reactions.

Mink is incredible. His understated performances are so varied that they have to be spoken of as plural. He never showboats or caricatures. He doesn’t even have to make his voice artifically high to convey a woman, but I would have believed it was a women talking had my eyes been shut.

On the DVD extras, Mink speaks without a southern accent, making his sustained and convincing onstage accent even more impressive.

Unsurprisingly, he based some of the characters on people he knew, but fortunately he never stoops to mocking them; no matter how dense or unlikable they are, he believes their every word and shows it.

“The Haint” itself never gets terrifying, but is always creepy, from the story of the ghost to the quirky characters and the onstage darkness, including a few moments completely in the dark. It’s always believable; we never see the ghost and the peculiar characters are realistic. Plus, anyone who’s been to Salem, Massachusetts knows how towns can exploit their scary history as a tourist attraction. It’s cleverly written, and by the end the viewers know they’ve witnessed more than another ghost story.

The Haint is also very funny. Maybe it’s easier to laugh when there’s a threat of something scary happening, but there are some genuinely comic moments that could’ve been in a comedy, like a tourist who tells the filmmakers what a terrible place it is for children before carelessly telling her child, “Come on, let’s get some coffee.” That kind of twisted, blink and you miss it humor is scattered throughout the show, but your eyes and ears as so focused on Mink that you’ll likely catch it and enjoy it all too.

The Haint contains brief foul language and scariness.

This is a dumb guy with nothing to lose explosion movie, which is forgiveable, but it is a pretentious, manipulative, and incompetent dumb explosion movie, which is not.

Vin Diesel plays a DEA cop who makes a big arrest — a cocaine kingpin. The minute we see him make that call to his beautiful adoring wife, we know what’s coming next. But no, first we have to live through a syrupy scene on the beach at sunset and then, yep, the bad guys come after Sean, and he gets shot and his wife is killed. So, ho hum, he’s out long enough to grow a goatee and then this time it’s personal yadda yadda, and we still have 3/4 of the movie for Sean to go after whoever did it.

The usual conventions are in place — the strip club scene, the “you need some time off, give me your badge” scene, the humorous interlude with the small-time drug dealer, the partner who first says he won’t go along on a boneheadly rogue mission but then shows up at the crucial moment, and of course the many, many, many moments of hitting, shooting, and blowing things up. But none of the scenes have any life, originality, or conviction. And there is this irritating effort at making it all seem more meaningful, with voiceovers that just sound silly, even with Diesel’s gravelly voice.

Parents should know that the movie is very, very violent, with a lot of firepower and many characters killed, including a woman and child. Policemen violate the civil rights of suspects, including beating them. Characters drink, smoke, and deal in drugs. They use very strong language, and a child’s use of a swear word is supposed to be humorous. When a character tries to insult Sean by suggesting he is gay for turning down a lap dance, Sean gets infuriated. Black and white characters are deeply loyal to each other. Most of the drug dealers and criminals are black or Latino.

Families who see this movie should talk about the dilemma posed to Sean’s partner, Demetrius (Larenz Tate, in the movie’s best performance). Demetrius must do what he thinks is right or what Sean wants him to do. Sean says at one point that “that’s not my fault if somebody gets out of line.” Families should discuss his failure to accept responsibility for his actions (and the police department’s casual attitude toward his many violations of law and procedure).

Families who enjoy this movie will enjoy better films with Diesel, including “Pitch Black” or “Boiler Room.”

In sharp contrast to most movies directed at 10-15-year-olds (come to think of it, to most movies of any kind), “Holes” respects the intelligence of its audience. It is even willing to challenge them, and that makes it a movie for everyone in the family to treasure.

Adapted by Louis Sacher from his Newbery award-winning book, this is the story of Stanley Yelnats (Shia LaBeouf), whose name is the same backwards and forwards, a palindrome. Stanley is wrongfully accused of stealing a very valuable pair of sneakers and sentenced to a juvenile facility in the desert. Each boy there is required to dig a five-foot-deep hole every day. They are told it is to help them develop character, but could it be that the Warden (Sigourney Weaver) is looking for something that just might be buried in the endless stretch of sand that once was Green Lake?

We cannot understand the answer to that question until we learn the stories of Stanley’s pig-stealing great-great grandfather, who was cursed by a gypsy, and of the notorious outlaw of the Old West, Kissin’ Kate Barlow, who left lipstick kissprints on the faces of the men she killed.

These two stories are interwoven with Stanley’s, providing counterpoint and illumination.

Author Louis Sacher (who appears briefly as a man who is going bald) adapted his own story, and it retains all of the complexity and understated, offbeat charm of the book. The adult actors are excellent, especially Arquette and Hill, but the kids are the center of the story, and they handle it beautifully. Khleo Thomas is wonderfully engaging as Zero.

Parents should know that the movie deals frankly with some very serious issues, including racism, injustice, and the sometimes tragic consequences of poor choices. The boys at Green Lake are not beaten, but they are treated very badly and do not always treat each other very well. Characters are in intense peril and some are killed. There is a gross wound and a character throws up on screen. A character commits suicide. There is some strong language for a PG movie. There are very devoted and loyal inter-racial relationships, including one that ends tragically due to prejudice.

Families who see this movie should talk about its themes of fate and choice. What actions in the movie seem to have been decided by fate (or a curse) and what were decided by the characters? How much of our present is influenced by or determined by the past? There are even more connections between the three stories than you see at first. How many can you find? If you pay close attention, there is something significant about when the boys use their real names and when they use their tough nicknames. What does that tell you? Why doesn’t Stanley tell the truth in his letter to his mother? How is Stanley different at the end of the movie?

“Holes” is also a good story to introduce young readers to the idea that the setting of a story can tell you something about the characters. Green Lake appears in very different form in the three stories. What does that tell you about what is going on with the people in the stories?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” and “Tuck Everlasting.” They should read the book and the companion volume, Stanley Yelnats’ Survival Guide to Camp Green Lake, as well as some of Sacher’s other terrific books.

This is not just a fairy tale — it is a full-out fantasy straight from the heart of all young girls and former young girls who really really love their daddies. It may feel to other people like a adorableness overdose, but its intended audience will enjoy it very much.

Adorable Amanda Bynes plays Daphne Reynolds, the spirited daughter of a wedding singer and single mom named Libby (Kelly Preston). Daphne has always dreamed of meeting her father, but her parents split up before he even knew she was going to be born, and he doesn’t know anything about her. After she graduates from high school, she hops on a plane and shows up at his house. Except it isn’t exactly a house — it’s one of those hundred-room Masterpiece Theatre-style palaces.

It turns out her father is Lord Henry Dashwood (adorable Colin Firth), who has just given up his hereditary seat in the House of Lords to stand for office (they say “stand” instead of run in England) just like a commoner. He is engaged to a horrible social-climbing monster named Glynnis (Anna Chancellor) with a snooty teen-age daughter. Daphne is a breath of fresh air and both she and Henry learn a lot about themselves as they learn about each other.

Bynes is a gifted comedienne who does not get a chance to show off what she does best in this movie the way she did in “Big Fat Liar” and her television show. But she has a fresh and engaging presence and some able and charismatic support from classically trained stage actors Firth (who looks GREAT dancing in leather pants), Eileen Atkins, and Jonathan Pryce. The love interest, played by Ian Williams, should be high on the Teen Beat hearthrob list.

The movie feels too long because it is more like a string of unconnected sit-com episodes, each one signaling its conclusion the moment it starts. Each incident fails to build on or even be reflected in the one that comes next. It has a pre-packaged feel, leaving absolutely nothing to chance, not even the possibility that there might be some eight-year-old who has never seen a movie before and might not know that the bad guys are really bad unless they engage in the most idiotically outrageous (and self-defeating) behavior. Those parody villains who let the hero plot his escape because they just have to go into long explanations of everything they are doing have nothing on these guys. The climactic, Cinderella-ish conclusion to the big coming-out ball makes Daphne seem inconsistent and immature. And the climactic decision by Henry makes him seem irresponsible and immature.

Parents should know that there is some brief strong language in the movie, including a reference to a dog that bit a man’s testicle and an ugly insult (from a villain) about a character’s mixed race heritage. The family issues, including the “Parent Trap” problem of having a child bring her estranged parents together, may be difficult for some children.

Families who see the movie should talk about the way Daphne tried to “fit in” and whether Henry was doing the same. What were the most important things Daphne and Henry learned from each other? They should also Henry’s decision to change direction and what the impact is likely to be.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy “The Princess Diaries” and Disney’s “Pollyanna.” The movie is very loosely based on “The Reluctant Debutante,” which is available on video, and it might be fun to compare them. It is by no means a classic, but it does have a rare film performance by one of the 20th century’s most exquisite comediennes, Kay Kendall, who appears with her husband, Rex Harrison and Sandra Dee as the American debutante who falls for a musician.