“Hart’s War” is a big movie that takes on big themes with the courage to give them time and allow for some ambiguity.

Although it is set in WWII and has some battle violence, it is primarily a human drama about honor, sacrifice, courage, and dignity, themes that are explored from the farthest reaches as ideals and from the most personal choices made by individuals.

Lt. Hart (Colin Farrell) is a soldier who works at a desk, far from enemy lines. His father is a Senator, and he was in his second year at Yale Law School when he joined the Army. He tells us that troops were just pins on a map to him. He is glad for the chance to get out into the countryside when he gets an opportunity act as driver for a commanding officer. But the officer is killed and Hart is captured by the Germans. They torture him to try to get him to provide information, and then they ship him off to a prisoner of war camp.

The ranking American officer at the camp is Colonel McNamara (Bruce Willis). The German commandant is Colonel Visser (Romanian actor Marcel Iures). The commanding officers have more in common, and perhaps more respect for one another, than they would like to admit.

When two black officers arrive at the camp, the fragile balance of power is disrupted. Because the officer’s quarters are full, they, like Hart, are put in with the enlisted men, who object. During WWII, the armed services were still segregated, so none of the American soldiers had ever had to live with black men before, much less salute them. When the most outspokenly racist soldier is murdered, a black officer is accused, Hart is assigned as his defense counsel, and a court-martial is set up.

About 45 minutes into the story, it begins to become clear that it is not intended to reflect or illuminate the history of about WWII or indeed any war or any history. It is only set in a POW camp as a way to provide a sharper focus for the issues it addresses. McNamara tells Wasser that Americans don’t make distinctions. Wasser, serving more in the role of Socratic interrogator than enemy, points out that America makes a lot of distinctions, especially when it comes to black people. Will the officer get a fairer trial in a German POW camp than he would in the Georgia of the 1940’s? In the POW camp, the black officers face far more mortal danger from their fellow Americans than they do from the Nazis.

The story has some surprising twists and turns, and an ending that will spark some discussion as audiences leave the theater. The performances are excellent, with Terrence Howard a standout as the accused man, telling the court that in his home town, white German POWs can eat at the diner and go to the movie theater, while he, an officer risking his life for his country, cannot.

Parents should know that the movie has some graphic battle violence. Characters are killed. There is some strong language, and some references to drinking. Issues of honor, integrity, equality, justice, and balancing individual rights with the good of the group are all explored.

Families who see this movie should talk about the segregation that existed in the United States before the 1960’s, and the consequences that are still felt today. They should also talk about the choices made by Hart, McNamara, Wasser, and Scott. Which ones surprised you? Which did you agree with?

Families who appreciate this movie will also like the two great WWII POW dramas Stalag 17 and The Great Escape, both based on true stories. They will also like Breaker Morant, another story of a military legal proceeding with an inexperienced defense attorney and the brilliant anti-war drama Gallipoli, starring Mel Gibson.

Amanda Pierce (Monica Potter) is an art restorer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York with very bad taste in men. When she comes home to find her current beau in bed with another woman (“This isn’t what it looks like,” he protests), she has to find another apartment. She moves in with four towering fashion models and promptly falls (literally) for Jim Winston (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), the Prince Charming across the street who makes her weak in the knees. One little problem — as she gazes into his window, it appears that he has killed someone. Amanda is caught between fear and longing as the models act as sort of combination Greek chorus members/evil stepsisters/fairy godmothers guiding her to solve both the mystery and the romantic dilemma.

This plot could be played a number of ways from slapstick (think Lucille Ball) to terror (think “Rear Window” or “Gaslight”). The tone this version tries to strike is something like “date movie for teenage girls whose boyfriends love Adam Sandler.” So what we get is some swoony romance, a lot of pratfalls, and intermittent gross-out jokes. For example, not once, but twice the snooty supermodels are trapped in the bathroom to no end of would-be comic chaos. The first time they are hiding out in Jim’s shower while he has a post-pirogi visit to the bathroom. The models get to engage in frantic breath-holding and face-squinching. The second time they are in a restaurant men’s room and listen to two plumbers engage in conversation misperceived as sexual before a toilet explodes. The movie’s first ten minutes include two gay jokes and a crack about menopause, all of which, like the bathroom scenes, miss rising to the level of actually being funny.

The models are good sports and enjoy making fun of their image as vapid gold-diggers. Potter (the wife in “Con Air” and the girlfriend in “Patch Adams”) is pretty and appealing but she has no comic sparkle. The movie needs Meg Ryan or Jenna Elfman (and a better script). What we get instead is a standard-issue blue-eyed blonde with an acting range as narrow as her roommates’ hips. Prinze has real star appeal, but deserves much better than this generic role.

Parents should know that the humor and plot may be juvenile, but the movie is raunchier than many PG-13s, with some very strong and graphic language. When the models do a makeover on Amanda, they tell her to clench her behind and tweak her nipples. Amanda’s lesbian friend grabs her breast. The dog Prinze walks for a neighbor tries to mount Amanda, which is supposed to be funny. There is violence, including an apparent murder and some shooting, but it is not explicit or very threatening. Some parents may also be concerned about the way that the models exploit the men who want to date them and about the foolish chances taken by the characters.

Families who see the movie should talk about why some people make mistakes in trusting the wrong people. They may also want to talk about whether a life devoted to looking beautiful can lead someone to be superficial and self-centered.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy “Charade” (the perfect combination of thrills and romance) and romantic comedies like “If a Man Answers.”

William Tensy (Gene Hackman), a chain-smoking tobacco zillionaire, goes into a little rant about the ridiculous notion that second-hand smoke is harmful and turns to blast a cloud of cigarette smoke at his parrot, who immediately keels over. If only the second-hand comedy in this movie was as powerful. It is clear that the dream cast members are all enjoying themselves immensely, but that does not translate into much fun for the audience.

Sigourney Weaver plays Max, a con woman who marries wealthy men, denies them sex, and then sues them for divorce when they make a pass at her partner, Page (Jennifer Love Hewitt), who is also her daughter. Weaver and Hewitt are at their most delectable in outfits that Erin Brockovich could only dream of. If there were ever an Oscar for cleavage, this movie would be the one to beat.

After they take New Jersey chop shop owner Dean (Ray Liotta), Page is restless and wants to go off on her own. When they run into a little problem with the IRS, they agree to take on one last big con together and head off for Palm Beach. Max wants to go after Tensy, but Page is drawn to a sweet bartender named Jack (Jason Lee) who owns some land worth $3 million. Max’s challenges include a ferocious guard dog of a housekeeper (“Saturday Night Live’s” Nora Dunn), and Tensy’s constant coughing and terrible tobacco-stained teeth. Page’s challenge is keeping her plan secret from her mother and keeping herself from falling in love with Jack.

It isn’t a terrible movie, but it just does not work very well. We like the characters too much to enjoy their greedy behavior but we do not like them enough to care whether they end up happily. Max and Page are awful to just about everyone and have no sense that their behavior hurts other people. They are selfish and amoral, operating entirely out of expediency with no thought for the consequences for themselves or others. The script tries to make us believe that this is all because Max is trying to protect Page from being hurt, but that is a con job that we just don’t fall for. And despite a few con-job twists, the script is just weak and unoriginal. In real life, these con women would not fool Forrest Gump. Can it possibly be true that this is the second movie in two months to have a supposedly funny scene in which the genitals are knocked off of a nude male statue? This one is even less funny than the one in “The Wedding Planner.”

Aside from the cleavage already mentioned, the best reason to watch the movie is to see Weaver and Hewitt doing their bombshell best and Hackman’s odious performance as the mark who just might not be worth marrying to get $20 million.

Parents should know that this is yet another example of the MPAA’s comedy rule, meaning that material that would get an R rating in a drama gets a PG-13 rating because it is supposed to be funny. The movie contains continual sexual humor that can get very raunchy, including references to group sex. There is no nudity and nothing too graphic onscreen except for the statue. It has very strong language, especially for a PG-13, smoking (comic) and drinking. As noted, the main characters are con women with no concerns about stealing from anyone and everyone.

Families who see the movie should talk about how Max tried to protect Page from hurt, and whether that is wise or even possible. What does it mean to say, “you might as well get hurt in your own healthy ways?” What was it about Jack that made Page think differently about herself and about the possibilities? What do you have to think about the world to be able to rob everyone you meet? Why did it take Page so long to tell Jack her real name, and what did it mean when she did?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy one of the all-time classics, “The Lady Eve,” about a father-daughter team of con artists, and “The Sting” (some mature material), about two con men who take on an even bigger crook for one of the most intricate and satisfying con jobs of all time.

If you’re allergic to the kind of movie that starts with a funeral and then goes into a flashback about a sensitive kid’s last childhood summer, then stay away. But audiences with an appreciation or even a tolerance of this genre will find this to be above average. It is based on a story by Stephen King. There is some tension and an element of the supernatural, but this is King’s coming of age mode (“Stand By Me”) and contact with an extraordinary character mode (“The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile”), not a horror movie.

It is summertime, and Billy has just turned 11. His mother’s birthday gift is not the bicycle he dreams of but an adult library card. She is quick to remind him that they have very little money, since Billy’s father died leaving them with unpaid bills and no insurance. Billy’s friend Carol points out that his mother buys new clothes for herself, but Billy defends her, saying that she has to look good for work.

A stranger comes to live above Billy and his mother. His name is Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins). He hires Billy to read him the newspaper and watch out for “the low men,” who wear hats, drive fancy cars, and leave odd messages in code on telephone poles. Billy thinks Ted is a little loony, but he agrees, at first because he wants to earn money for the bicycle, and then because he is drawn to Ted’s warmth, humor, and even to his strangeness. He begins to see signs of the low men, but he does not tell Ted. He knows that when Ted hears that the low men have come, he will have to leave.

Billy gets a chance to see through Ted’s eyes, which may be weak when it comes to reading but which see important things very clearly. When Billy touches Ted, he gets a little bit of Ted’s ability to somehow “know” things. All of a sudden, in the next room, Billy can tell that what Ted is wondering about is his cigarettes. And a surprised three-card monte shark (well-played by “A Knight’s Tale’s” Alan Tudyk) finds that Billy can tell him where the Queen of Hearts is without even looking at the cards. Even more important, though, is that way that Ted, like all special grown-ups in the lives of children, guides Billy to a new knowledge of himself and the world. Ted helps Billy realize that his friend Carol is more special to him than he thought, that he deserves better treatment from his mother, and that the town bully is not as powerful as he thinks.

Parents should know that there is some strong language, characters are in peril and some are injured, and a character is raped (inexplicit and mostly offscreen). A character is wrongfully accused of molesting a child. A bully who accuses others of being “queer” turns out to be acting on his fears about his own sexuality. Fighting back is portrayed as heroic. There are a couple of chaste kisses.

Families who see this movie should talk about the grown-ups who inspired them the most, and might also want to discuss how we decide whom we will trust.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy Stand By Me – Special Edition(some mature material).

David Mamet, writer/director of “Heist,” is fascinated by the con. He has written movies about an ordinary person who becomes involved with professional con men (“House of Games”) and about men who sell vacation property by selling a dream to people who cannot afford it. His most recent film was “State and Main,” about people who said and did anything to get their movie made. When one character was accused of lying, he explained it was just “a talent for fiction.” But it may be that the con that interests Mamet most is the story itself, with the storyteller as the con man who spins a yarn so enticing that the listener is utterly captivated.

And it is a pleasure to be captivated by Mamet, the master of tired, tough, talk. The characters in “Heist,” long-time thieves on their last big job, have had everything burned off of them but the coolness at their core. They do not talk to communicate. They talk to test each other and show off in front of each other and sometimes to show off in front of those who don’t get it. Their talk is like their thievery, stripped down, cynical, and clever. It’s like a secret language from Planet Cool and it makes you feel that it just might be worth breaking the law just to be able to speak it. Main character Joe Moore (Gene Hackman) is “so cool that when he sleeps, sheep count him.” His pretty, young wife (Rebecca Pidgeon) “can talk her way out of a sunburn.” And everyone wants money; “That’s why they call it money.”

More archetype than stereotype, the set-up is the veteran with one last big job, the one that will get him out of the business for good. Moore’s fence (Danny DeVito) will not pay off on a jewel robbery unless Moore goes for a gold shipment being held on a plane. If this part sounds familiar, it’s because you just saw the same set-up with Marlon Brando and Robert DeNiro in “The Score.” Just as in “The Score,” the fence brings a new young partner into the deal. In this movie, it is Jimmy Silk (Sam Rockwell), young and arrogant. Will Moore get away with the gold? Will there be double, triple, and quadruple crosses? Is there ever any honor among thieves? It is a treat to explore these questions in such capable hands.

Parents should know that the movie has very strong language, sexual references and situations (including sex used as a bargaining chip), drinking, smoking, robbery, and a very violent shoot-out.

Families who see this movie should talk about whether it is possible to be loyal to people who are professional betrayers. Are there any good guys in this movie? How can you tell?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy seeing Hackman, DeVito, and Lindo working together in Get Shorty and some of Mamet’s other movies, including Glengarry Glen Ross and State and Main.