Reuters - One of the more memorable lines from "Chinatown" said something to the effect that, with enough time, old whores, politicians and ugly buildings become respectable.
AP - Zac Efron and the rest of the crew behind "Charlie St. Cloud" want their movie to be weepy, soulful, inspirational, cathartic, ethereal, life-affirming and who knows what else on the New Age emotional barometer.
AP - "The Four Fingers of Death" (Little, Brown and Co., $25.99), by Rick Moody: I'm afraid that when I do that book reviewer thing and give you the obligatory summary of the plot of "The Four Fingers of Death" by Rick Moody, it will scare off all but the most hardcore of sci-fi geeks, but there's really no way around it.
AP - This summer has been so oppressive throughout most of the United States that even driving to the video-game store feels like an ordeal. Fortunately, you don't have to leave home to experience some of the season's most interesting games — you can download them directly to your console.
AP - "My Appetite for Destruction: Sex & Drugs & Guns N' Roses" (It Books, $25.99), by Steven Adler, with Lawrence J. Spagnola: A rocker's life seems to be an endless party. But what happens when the partying takes over?
AP - Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini were the filmmaking couple behind "American Splendor," the wonderful 2003 film that was as charming as it was brutally honest.
Reuters - It would be a lot easier to know what to make of NBC's "Breakthrough with Tony Robbins" if it were possible to separate the actual breakthrough from Robbins' upbeat motivational patter.
Reuters - Although critter movies have performed extremely well at the box office, "Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore" will put that trend to a tough test when it opens on Friday.
Reuters - Chore No. 1 is accomplished: The fanboys and girls gave a resounding shriek of approval to Universal's "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World" at Comic-Con following its "surprise" screening here at this event that has become a kind of Halloween for adults.
Reuters - Throughout "Recovery," the rapper's first album since overcoming an addiction to pharmaceuticals, Eminem is unsparing in assessing the weakness of character that led to his descent into drugs.
AP - Robert Duvall looks great as a grizzled old coot, while Bill Murray makes a mighty fine funeral director. Surround them with sharp old-timey details of the Depression-era boondocks and the roles fit them even better.
Reuters - One surefire sign of a television series in its prime comes when an episode's plot and subplots dovetail so stylishly that it's difficult to tell which is which.
AP - "Eating for Beginners: An Education in the Pleasures of Food From Chefs, Farmers, and One Picky Kid" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25), by Melanie Rehak: "Eating for Beginners" starts with a stark statistic: 61 percent of Americans are confused about what to feed their family.
Reuters - Ramona Quimby, author Beverly Cleary's little girl with the supersized imagination, leaps to the big screen courtesy of the cheerfully innocuous if generically uninspired "Ramona and Beezus."
