In the grand tradition of Butch and Sundance and Hope and Crosby, we have Terry (Billy Bob Thornton) and Joe (Bruce Willis), two charming rascals in love with the same woman. They don’t want to hurt anyone; they just want to rob enough banks to let them retire to paradise (a resort in Mexico) and live lives of “tuxedos and margaritas.”

The story is told in flashback, starting with a stakeout at a bank robbery that appears to have gone very wrong, and then going back in time to the duo’s impulsive jailbreak and the start of their career as the “sleepover bandits.” Instead of charging into a bank with guns blazing, they spend the night before the robbery with the bank manager, and walk into the bank before opening time the next morning. As happens only in movies, they become loveable folk heroes, and people actually enjoy being robbed by them.

A would-be stuntman mesmerized by a beautiful hitchhiker (Troy Garrity) and an unhappy runaway wife (Cate Blanchett, sensational in auburn hair and teal high-fashion attire) join the gang. Then there are some more robberies and some getaways and some funny disguises (my favorite is the Neal Young sideburns) and something about a romantic triangle. But the movie is really about the conversations and throwaway repartee, deftly directed by Barry Levinson (“Diner”) and impeccably delivered by the cast. Thornton is terrific as the guy who always thinks he is the smartest person in the room (and usually is), but who has “issues” with everything from germs to antique furniture to the hair of former Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. Blanchett is magnificent, especially dancing in the kitchen as she whips up a gourmet meal. Azura Skye has a nice small part as a teenager who told her parents she would be staying with a friend when they were out of town.

This is really a movie for grown-ups, not because the language or violence or sexuality is any more intense than any other PG-13, but because it is just not something most kids will appreciate. Parents should know that it does have some strong language (including a crude reference to a gynecological problem), some violence, and sexual references and situations, including teen sex and adultery.

Families who see this movie should talk about whether it is true that no one is hurt when money is stolen from a bank and whether robbers become folk heroes in real life and what the film-makers do to get audiences to root for the “bad guys.” Why is it so easy for us to be on the side of characters in movies that we would want arrested in real life? At one point, Terry says to Kate (Blanchett’s character), “I don’t think you’re crazy. I think you’re bored.” Later Kate says, “I think it’s better to feel too much than to feel too little.” How did she get into a situation where she felt too little, and how did that change?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kidand Bull Durham (Special Edition)(mature material) and a made-for-cable movie based on an Alice Tyler book, Earthly Possessions, starring Susan Sarandon.

In the future, a race of 9-foot-tall, dreadlocked aliens called Psychlos takes over the earth following a nine-minute battle. A thousand year later, the few remaining humans are hunter-gatherers and the evil Psychlos maintain earth as an outpost for mining. Terl (John Travolta), furious at not being allowed to return to the home planet, decides to use humans to mine gold for him to keep. But one of the humans, Jonnie Goodboy Tyler (Barry Pepper), encourages the others to revolt.

There. Now you know everything you need to know about the movie and I’ve saved you the trouble of trying to sit through it. You might think it can’t be that bad because science fiction movies often have cheeseball dialogue and cardboard performances and as long as the special effects and explosions are good, it does not really matter. You would be wrong. This movie was made due to the ceaseless efforts of its star, John Travolta, and it is the most horrible example of vanity filmmaking since Isaac from “The Love Boat” cast himself as “Othello.”

The movie could be used as an exam for film school students on what not to do.

Acting: John Travolta’s performance as the bad guy in this movie is reminiscent not of his brilliant work in movies like “Get Shorty,” “Face/Off” and “Pulp Fiction” but of his character in “Welcome Back Kotter,” Vinnie Barbarino, trying to act tough. His attempts to sound imperious and sarcastic lack any sense of presence or dignity, and then, to make it worse, he follows them with an attempt at a contemptuous laugh that sounds a cross between Faye Dunaway railing about the wire hangers in “Mommy Dearest” and Dr. Evil in “Austin Powers.” Poor Forrest Whitaker does his best with an idiotic role as Terl’s sidekick and whipping boy. Some other actor struggles underneath the worst make-up job since Dan Ackroyd in “Nothing But Trouble.”

Design and effects: The humans look like a hair band on a bad day. The Psychlos look like a hair band on a really bad day. The sets are dark, dank, and uninspired. The explosions are boring. And it is all much too loud.

Dialogue: At some points, we hear the Psychlos’ dialogue as garbled mush resembling the way the clay people used to talk in the old “Flash Gordon” serials. Unfortunately, at times we hear it in English. “Couldn’t you forget to file the report, as a friend?” “As a friend I could forget to file the report, but fortunately, I’m not your friend.” “While you were still learning to spell your name, I was being trained in how to conquer galaxies!” “Never engage in a criminal activity unless you have a patsy to pin everything on.” And my personal favorite: “Jonnie, I know you don’t believe in fate, but I’ve always known this was your destiny.”

Plot: The plot is not very interesting and completely illogical. Even if we assume that the Psychlos really wanted minerals from the earth, if they were so advanced that they could annihilate the human population in nine minutes, how could it take them more than a thousand years to extract it? Jonnie has to figure out a way to produce gold for Terl while he and his men are really secretly using flight simulators somehow still functioning after a thousand years. This is to enable them to learn to fly fighter jets, also somehow still functioning after a thousand years, kind of like the scene in “Sleeper” when Woody Allen starts up a Volkswagen Bug that had been abandoned for hundreds of years, except not intentionally funny. The audience dissolved in laughter at Jonnie’s solution – just get the gold from Fort Knox, which conveniently had been overlooked during the Psychlo’s thousand-year domination of the planet, and was still intact but ready to be emptied out. Somehow a group of humans who are illiterate and have not even discovered the wheel manage to master thousands of years of literal rocket science in a couple of days, transport over to the Psychlos’ planet and blow it all up with one well-placed bomb. Not since that girl learned how to be a ballerina without leaving the house in “Flowers in the Attic” or Rock Hudson went to medical school really really fast so he could invent an operation to cure Jane Wyman’s blindness in “The Magnificent Obsession” has there been such an example of speed learning.

Halfway through the movie, my son leaned over to whisper, “It’s the movie Ed Wood wanted to make but never had the money for.” He is right – this movie has Wood’s genuine fervor overriding genuine ineptitude.

Parents should know that the movie has a lot of sci-fi violence, with lots of explosions, characters in peril and some gory dismemberment. There are a couple of mild expletives and some mild sexual references. Women are treated as sex objects or taken as hostages.

Families who see the movie should talk about the importance of learning and history (Jonnie is inspired by the Declaration of Independence), and they should contrast the way that the Psychlos use “leverage” (blackmail) to manipulate each other with the teamwork and loyalty shown by the humans. They might also want to compare this movie to some sci-fi classics, like the “Star Wars” movies. Or, they might just want to skip this one and watch those instead.

Minnie Driver does her best, but, sadly, she gets no help from the movie’s producers (14 of them!). She gets no help from the screenwriter, whose only previous credit was Jerry Springer’s “Ringmaster.” Driver does not even get much help from first-time feature director (but two-time Best Actress) Sally Field. In other words, this is a bad movie.

The people in this movie can’t even be referred to as “characters” because they do not behave like any human being who ever thought, spoke, or breathed. The actors might as well be wearing signs that say, “Plot device!” as they are moved around the set like chess pieces, because that is the only possible explanation for their behavior. And basic elements of plot are slapdash or just missing.

Mona is a little girl who lives with a mother who does not seem to care much about her and with her mother’s out-of-work boyfriend, who does not like her at all. So, she makes her bedroom into a private world, decorated with cheery little signs that say things like, “Never give up!” and “U can do it!” For her, beauty pageants are a vision of perfection, grace, and validation. So, she decides that what she needs to make her feel beautiful and loved is to win one or maybe all of them. She earns money for lessons and braces and does statistical analysis of each year’s winners. She picks just one girl from school to be her friend — the one who can sew costumes for her.

When she grows up, Mona (Minnie Driver) is relentless. She is incapable of any thought that does not relate to winning a pageant. Her friend Ruby (Joey Lauren Adams) is happy to devote all of her efforts to Mona’s competitions, too. When obstacles arise, Ruby takes care of them, from smoothing over allegations of cheating at a pageant to becoming the mother of Mona’s child (Hallie Eisenberg, the little girl from the Pepsi commercials). A parent or guardian is ineligible to be Miss American Miss. And nothing must get in Mona’s way.

Beauty pageants certainly provide material enough for several movies, and some, like “Smile,” manage to do them justice. But this movie has no point of view, a wildly inconsistent tone, and no understanding of its characters — I mean people.

Is Mona supposed to be a caricature? Then you can’t expect all of America to adore her at the end. Is she supposed to be a likeable person with flaws? Then she can’t possibly be as overwhelmingly self-absorbed as she is throughout the movie. It isn’t just that she responds to a question about “human interest” by admitting that there just aren’t that many humans she finds interesting. It is more that her best friend is in prison on a murder charge and it never even occurs to her that she might want to, say, get her a lawyer? Come to the trial? Try to help her in any way? And does anyone think that it is a good thing to confess your biological relationship to your best friend’s daughter on national television? Or that the daughter would consider this good news?

The movie has some funny moments. Kathleen Turner is magnificent as a beauty pageant diva. One pageant contestant announces that she has a double degree in genetic engineering and cosmetology, and another has a ventriloquist act. When a woman goes into labor in a grocery store, Mona seizes the opportunity to get some good publicity and pushes her to the hospital in a shopping cart, singing, “Wind Beneath My Wings.” But these bright spots are just not worth the sloppy mess that comes along. Maybe sixty years ago Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins or Mary Astor might have pulled off this kind of a plot (come to think of it, they did, in “The Big Lie” and “Old Acquaintance”). Maybe thirty years ago, Carol Burnett could have pulled off a parody version. But with these people and in this decade, it is not just bad — it is positively annoying.

Parents should know that the movie has occasional strong language and sexual references (mild by PG-13 standards, but still vivid). Mona cheats in the pageants, causing serious damage to another contestent’s hand, without any remorse. Indeed the injured woman’s bitterness is portrayed with as much callousness as though the screenwriter shared Mona’s conviction that all that counts is winning. There is an out of wedlock pregnancy and a minor character commits suicide by taking pills.

Families who see this movie should talk about Mona’s comment that love is a language that has to be taught, and Ruby’s comment about letting bad things go. More cynical family members may want to count up the logical inconsistencies and plot holes.

Families who enjoy this movie will like “Smile” even more. And they may also enjoy “We’re Not Married,” a cute comedy in which Marilyn Monroe plays a married beauty queen who all of a sudden becomes eligible for the single woman competitions when it turns out that her wedding ceremony was invalid.

The classic English comedy written in 1967 by Peter Cook and starring Cook and Dudley Moore has been Americanized. In other words, it has less deadpan humor, sly wit, and existential comedy and more jokes about penis size. But it is still delicious fun and one of the best comedies of the year. It may not leave you bedazzled, but it will leave you happy.

Brendan Fraser is one of the most versatile actors around, which makes him a perfect choice for the role of Elliot, a nerdy guy who longs for the beautiful Allison. But after four years working in the same firm, he has managed to speak to her only once, and that was about the weather. When he whispers that he would give anything to have her, that is all the invitation that the devil (Elizabeth Hurley) needs to make him an offer he can’t refuse — seven wishes in exchange for his soul.

But as anyone who has ever read a fairy tale knows, wishes are a tricky business. Elliot wishes to be rich, powerful, and married to Allison. He is instantly all three — and a Colombian drug lord. And Allison hates him. Elliot stumbles his way through his wishes, each time adding in what he left out before only to find that he has created yet another loophole. He may be rich, smart, popular, sensitive, and well-endowed, but somehow it never works out the way he hoped.

Fraser is wonderful, almost unrecognizable as he moves from sensitive poet to basketball superstar. Hurley may not be up to the acting challenge, but she looks like a million bucks in a series of hilarous get-ups, and she has that most important attribute of a movie bad guy — an English accent. The rest of the cast does not have much to do beyond wardrobe switches as they play different roles in each scenario, but Frances O’Connor (Allison) has a great smile and Orlando Jones (of “The Replacements” and the 7-Up commercials) has a couple of good moments. Gabriel Casseus makes a strong impression as someone who gives Elliot some good advice.

Parents should know that the PG-13 rating comes from some relatively mild language, sexual humor (including references to homosexuality), comic peril, and comic drug use.

Families who watch this movie should talk about what wishes they would like to make, whether they would make them if they had a chance, and what the Devil means when she says that you don’t have to look very far for Heaven and Hell. Ask kids what they think a soul is, and whether it can be sold. What did Elliot learn from his mistakes? Why was it so hard for him to be likeable and to see how others perceived him at the beginning of the movie? How was he different after the wishes? Was the ending what they expected?

Families who enjoy this movie should see the original version (notice the names of the Devil’s dogs in the new version). They may also enjoy other “sell your soul to the devil” movies like “The Devil and Daniel Webster” and “Alias Nick Beal.”

“Behind Enemy Lines” is an old-fashioned, heart-thumping, send-in-the-Marines, “I don’t care what the orders say” rescue mission story, and the most purely exciting movie of the year.

Equal parts adrenaline and testosterone, it wastes no time in getting us into the action. Owen Wilson plays Chris Burnett, a Navy navigator who is impatient with whatever it is that the US is doing in Bosnia. He longs for some excitement. When he and his partner are sent out on a routine reconnaissance mission on Christmas Day, they stray out of the prescribed area because they see something suspicious. Then they are shot down.

All of this is very inconvenient to NATO, which is in the final stages of negotiating a very fragile peace agreement. Burnett tries to stay alive and get to a safe rendezvous spot as his commanding officer, Admiral Reigart (Gene Hackman), tries to direct a rescue mission.

What this means is about 90-pulse-pounding minutes of non-stop nightmarish action as Burnett is chased by an assassin through minefields and desolation of all kinds, from ravaged trees to burnt-out cities. Meanwhile, the Admiral has an almost as treacherous struggle as he makes use of the most sophisticated technology to track Burnett’s position but is thwarted by politics when he orders a rescue.

It is brilliantly filmed by first-time feature director John Moore who masters both the second-by-second intensity of the action sequences and the bleakness of the physical and political landscape. The aerial combat scenes are stunning. The parallels between the personal, the psychic, and the political are subtly intertwined, and the rousing, send-in-the-Marines finish is, these days, especially satisfying.

In the midst of the action, there are dozens of moments filled with quiet power. The ejected officers drift down as the camera circles a hugely imposing statue of the Madonna, looking over a barren landscape, and we see that half of her face has been blown off. A young boy’s English vocabulary is based on Ice T lyrics. Two officers walk down the hall toward a father who knows that they do not deliver good news in person.

Hackman, as always, is a joy to watch, doing wonders with the subtle struggle of a by-the-books patriot whose loyalty and sense of honor makes him risk everything, knowing that his career is on the line. Wilson, in his first major dramatic role, does not show much range, but is a very likeable presence as a classic American hero – brave, resourceful, and a little cynical, but everything we would hope for when the time comes. Charles Malick Whitfield is the Marine we all want to rescue us, and David Keith contributes a fine performance as the Admiral’s aide.

Parents should know that the movie, though rated PG-13, has intense peril and devastating violence, with many characters killed. Children and young teens are involved. There is brief strong language.

Families who see this movie should talk about the complexity of today’s military actions, compared to the stark contrast between freedom and tyranny in previous wars (at least as portrayed in most history books and movies). They might want to compare this movie to others like Three Kings (very mature material) and The Longest Day.

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy Hackman as a submarine commander in Crimson Tide.