“Windtalkers” is not the right name for John Woo’s new film. A more apt title would be “Sergeant Enders and the Windtalkers,” because the film mainly focuses on the complicated, half-crazed main character rather than the Navajos recruited as Marines in World War II to use their language as a military code that was vital in the allied victory. The movie does a disservice to the men it is intended to honor by perpetuating their marginalization and making the much less interesting Nicolas Cage character the main focus of the story.

We meet Sgt. Enders (Nicolas Cage) in the midst of battle. He is injured and witnessing the deaths of his friends is slowly driving him mad. His hearing loss could get him sent home, but he stays to keep fighting. He and Sgt. “Ox” Henderson (Christian Slater) are assigned to protect newly enlisted Navajo fighters Pvt. Ben Yahzee and Pvt. Charlie Whitehorse, (played superbly by Adam Beach and Roger Willie, respectively) whose abilities with the Navajo code are essential in the war. Enders is noticeably disgruntled at his new duties, but through a series of events he gains a mutual respect for the men he must protect, often in entertaining but predictable fashion. The dialogue is not very memorable with lines from the Navajos like “I’ve never seen so many white men!”

“Windtalkers” follows suit of most post-“Saving Private Ryan” war films and tries to make its point by dousing us with relentless violence. As in too many war movies, there are soldiers who talk about their dreams for when they get home and say things like, “If I die, tell my wife…” and whose purpose in the plot is to help the hero learn something when they die. There’s a tough, bigoted soldier (“The Truman Show’s” Noah Emmerich) who learns that the Navajos are actually good people when one of them saves his life. There’s the doe-eyed girl next door nurse (A.I.’s Frances O’Connor) who loves her stoic, tough but somehow likeable man at war.

Cage, Slater, and a solid supporting cast of character actors are all dependably good, and it’s interesting to see John Woo’s distinctive action style put into a war film. The culture clashes are never boring, and scenes where a peace pipe ritual is carried out on a cigarette and Henderson duets on a harmonica with Whitehorse’s wooden flute are handled with sensitivity.

Parents should know that there is a great deal of graphic battle violence and very strong language, including racial epithets. The Navaho characters are portrayed as patriotic, brave, and dedicated.

Families who see this should discuss the way that Enders and Yahzee change during the course of the movie. Anyone who enjoys this movie will probably also like recent WWII films like the aforementioned Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Enemy at the Gates, and this year’s overlooked Hart’s War. Fore more on the real story of the Windtalkers, see this article.

Like all Oprah-selected books, White Oleander is the story of a girl who has to overcome the most severe trauma and abuse. The book’s language was both vivid and lyrical, making the terrible events more epic than sordid. The movie tries to achieve the same standard, going for prestige drama over soap opera. But even the an exquisite performance by Michelle Pfeiffer and powerhouse appearances by Robin Wright Penn and newcomer Alison Lohman cannot keep the endless series of tragedies from melodrama.

Pfeiffer plays Ingrid, an artist who prides herself on her strength and independence. She murders her lover with poison from white oleander blossoms, and is sent to prison, leaving her daughter Astrid (Lohman) to a series of foster homes. First, she lives with Starr (Wright Penn), a former topless dancer who has found Jesus and is trying to hold on to her own rebellious daughter. Starr is kind to Astrid until she begins to see her as a rival for the attentions of her live-in boyfriend. Astrid protests that she has no designs on the boyfriend, but she cannot resist his attention and they become involved. Jealousy and insecurity cause Starr to begin drinking again and in a drunken rage she shoots Astrid.

Astrid’s other foster homes include Claire (Renée Zellweger), a weepy actress with a distant husband, and Rena (Svetlana Efremova), a money-hungry Russian who presides like Fagin over a ragtag group of orphans. In between, she stays at an institution, where she is beat up by tough girls but befriended by a sensitive boy named Paul (“Almost Famous” star Patrick Fugit).

Each setting provides Astrid with a new identity to try and a new opportunity to be hurt. Through it all, she visits her mother in prison, and it becomes clear that the woman who killed the man who tried to leave her would also do anything – and destroy anyone — to hold on to her daughter. Whenever Astrid seems happy or at home, Ingrid finds a way to poison her environment. Finally, Astrid is so determined not to allow herself to be vulnerable again that when she has a chance for a home with a kind, loving couple, she insists instead on going with Rena, where she is sure not to be disappointed again. She even turns away from Paul. Finally, though, she learns that even then she is reacting to Ingrid, and that to be fully her own person she must find her own way to intimacy and expression.

A Jungian analysis might suggest that the story is a metaphor for the inevitable separation in all mother-daughter relations. All of the mother figures, including not just Ingrid, Starr, Clare, and Rena but also the foster mother Astrid rejects and the social worker responsible for placing her are like one mother splintered into many extreme versions, as though reflected through a prism. All children find their mother to be many things, from the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving figure of their earliest memories to the extremely demanding and ultimately rejecting caricature she can appear to a teenager struggling to know herself.

Parents should know that the movie includes brutality of a modern-era Dickensian quality. Astrid is seduced by one foster parent and shot by another. A third commits suicide. Astrid is subjected to physical and emotional abuse. Ingrid murders her lover. There are non-explicit sexual situations and references. Characters drink, smoke, and use drugs. Characters use strong language and mock religious faith.

Families who see this movie should talk about how Astrid changes her appearance and manner to reflect each of her “homes,” while Ingrid seems almost untouched by her surroundings.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy the book. They may also like to see some other classic dramas of difficult mother/daughter relations, like “Terms of Endearment” and “One True Thing.”

Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin) wants desperately to make a movie, and as he approaches his 50th birthday he thinks he is running out of time. He tries to interest a studio executive in a script called “Chubby Rain,” written by an accountant, and is told the studio will make the movie IF Bowfinger can get Kit Ramsey, Hollywood’s biggest action star, to agree to appear in it. When Ramsey (Eddie Murphy) won’t even look at the script, Bowfinger decides to go ahead and make the movie around him, just filming him wherever he is without telling him anything about it.

Bowfinger takes his $2184 lifetime stash and gets started, with the help of a studio gofer who borrows the equipment (Jamie Kennedy), a very theatrical stage actress (Christine Baranski), and an ambitious ingenue literally just off the bus from Ohio (Heather Graham), who plans to become a star in one week. They set up the camera wherever Ramsey is going to be, and just stage the various scenes around him.

Ramsey, already high-strung and paranoid, finds his worst fears coming true as he is followed by strange people who say completely incomprehensible things to him about aliens and keep calling him “Keith.” He seeks help from Terry Stricter (Terrence Stamp), a counselor at Mind Head, a kooky therapy/religion whose members wear pyramid hats and recite affirmations. Meanwhile, Bowfinger needs a Ramsey look-alike for close- ups, and recruits the nerdy Jeff (also Eddie Murphy). And the ingenue sleeps with anyone and everyone who can help her get more time on screen.

The movie has some very funny moments but is oddly low-key, from its slow set-up of the premise to its lack of follow-through on some of the comic possibilities. Some of the humor may be too inside for those who do not follow Hollywood gossip. Watching Martin, Murphy, Baranski, and Graham — all in fine form here — is reason enough to see any movie, but in this case the script (written by Martin) is not as strong as it could have been.

Parents should know that the movie has a number of sexual references. The character played by Heather Graham has (offscreen) sex with just about every other character (male and female) purely to advance her career. While this is played for humor, without any suggestion that she is being exploited (quite the other way around), parents may want to talk to kids who see this movie about this behavior, as well as the choices Bowfinger himself makes by cheating, stealing, blackmailing, and lying to get his movie made. Some kids may have questions about “Mind Head”-style organizations. It might be fun to talk about what kind of movie could be made by filming family members as they go about their daily lives.

This is the true — and heartbreaking — story of Brian Piccolo and Gale Sayers, players for the Chicago Bears, who were the first interracial roommates in pro sports, based on the memoir by Sayers.

Piccolo (played by James Caan) was not as talented as Sayers (played by Billy Dee Williams) but had enormous commitment, perseverance, and competitiveness in the most positive sense. He knew that trying to beat Sayers was what made him do his best. When Sayers was injured, Piccolo devoted himself to making sure that he recovered fully, because he wanted to beat Sayers at his best, not beat him because of the injury. Piccolo, trying to motivate Sayers to exercise his injured knee, calls him “nigger” in hopes of getting him excited. But it is such a ludicrous insult that both men collapse into laughter.

Sayers comes back, Piccolo is added to the starting lineup, and all seems fine until Piccolo becomes ill. It turns out that he has terminal cancer. The shy and reserved Sayers must learn to handle a devastating loss by keeping the best of Piccolo inside him.

This is a touching and inspiring film (originally made for television), with an outstanding musical score by Michael Legrand. The friendship and devotion between the two friends (and their wives) is very moving, as is the treatment of racial issues.