At the theaters 4/21/06

New at the theaters

'Akeelah and the Bee'

Starring Keke Palmer, Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne. Akeelah Anderson (Palmer), an 11-year-old girl from south Los Angeles, shows a knack for spelling. Akeelah is tutored for the upcoming spelling bee season by Dr. Larabee (Fishburne); her principal, Mr. Welch (Armstrong); and the residents of her neighborhood. Akeelah's aptitude earns her an opportunity to compete for a spot in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Running time 112 minutes, rated PG for some language. (Cape West Cine)

'Friends With Money'

Starring Jennifer Aniston, Frances McDormand and Joan Cusack. Olivia (Aniston) quit her teaching job and now cleans houses for a living while continuing her seemingly endless quest to find a decent guy. Running time 88 minutes, rated R for language, some sexual content and brief drug use. (Cape West Cine)

'Sentinel'

Starring Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland and Eva Longoria. Secret Service agent Pete Garrison (Michael Douglas) finds himself a suspect in a murder investigation when a mysterious person blackmails him -- Garrison's been sleeping with the first lady (Kim Basinger). Stripped of his duties and reduced to fugitive status, he's convinced that someone is going to kill the president. Running time 105 minutes, rated PG-13 for some intense action violence and a scene of sensuality. (Town Plaza Cinema)

'Silent Hill'

Starring Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean and Laurie Holden. Rose (Radha Mitchell) travels to an abandoned town that has been appearing in her daughter's nightmares. The town is covered in fog, and every now and then, the creepy mist transforms everything it touches. Rose quickly realizes that her child's dreams could be the key to the history of the haunting haze. Running time 120 minutes, rated R for strong horror violence and gore, disturbing images, and some language. (Town Plaza Cinema)

STILL PLAYING

'ATL'

Starring Tip "T.I." Harris, Lauren London and Evan Rossi. For these youths growing up in working-class Atlanta, only two things matter: Hip-hop and hangin' at the local skating rink, Jellybeans. The film is loosely based on the life of TLC's Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins. Rated PG-13 for drug content, some language, sexual material and violence, running time 105 minutes. (Cape West Cine)

'The Benchwarmers'

Starring Rob Schneider, David Spade and Jon Heder. Three unathletic guys try to compensate for a childhood of ridicule by forming a three-man baseball team and competing with nine-person elementary-school squads. They develop a large following of left-out youths as they head for a high-stakes game against the best team in the state. Rated PG-13 for crude and suggestive humor and language, running time 80 minutes. (Town Plaza Cinema)

'Firewall'

Starring Harrison Ford, Paul Bettany and Virginia Madsen. The wife and family of a man working as the head of security for a multinational bank are kidnapped. To get them back, he has to circumvent his own security system to steal $37 million from the bank as ransom, after which he has to catch the kidnapper to clear his name from the predictable embezzlement accusations. Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of violence, running time 105 minutes. (Cape West Cine)

'Ice Age: The Meltdown'

Starring Ray Romano, John Leguizamo and Denis Leary. Manny the wooly mammoth, Sid the sloth, Diego the saber-tooth tiger and silly squirrel Skrat find themselves at the end of the ice age, and everyone is happy that the deep freeze is over. That is until they learn a huge glacial dam is about to break, which will flood their entire valley. The only chance for survival: get the heck outta there, and fast! Rated PG for some mild language and innuendo, running time 90 minutes. (Cape West Cine)

'Inside Man'

Starring Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster. Tough cop Detective Frazier matches wits with clever bank robber Dalton as a dangerous cat-and-mouse game unfolds. Unexpectedly, Madaline, a power broker with a hidden agenda, emerges to inject even more instability into an already volatile situation. Rated R for language and some violent images, running time 129 minutes. (Cape West Cine)

'Lucky Number Slevin'

Starring Bruce Willis, Josh Hartnett and Lucy Liu. In a case of mistaken identity, Slevin (Hartnett) finds himself in the middle of a crime war between the Rabbi (Kingsley) and the Boss (Freeman). He's trailed by a detective and an assassin, played by Willis. Slevin must clear his name, and quick, if he wants to keep living. Rated R for strong violence, sexuality and language, running time 109 minutes. (Cape West Cine)

'Scary Movie 4'

Starring Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Carmen Electra and Leslie Nielsen. Sending up such blockbusters as Saw, Million Dollar Baby, War of the Worlds, The Village and The Grudge, the fourth installment of the spoof franchise finds dim-witted Cindy Campbell (Faris) and her sex-crazed pal Brenda joined by the cute and clueless Tom Ryan in a fight to save the world from an alien invasion. Running time 83 minutes, rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor throughout, some comic violence and language. (Town Plaza Cinema)

'Shaggy Dog'

Starring Tim Allen, Kristin Davis and Craig Kilborn. This remake of the 1959 flick tells the story of a lawyer who occasionally transforms into a large, shaggy sheepdog. Needless to say, the spontaneous changes don't help his legal career, but they do help him learn how to be a better family man. Rated PG for mild and rude humor, running time 99 minutes. (Cape West Cine)

'She's the Man'

Starring Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum and Laura Ramsey. To matriculate at a fancy boarding school, Viola Johnson disguises herself as her twin brother, Sebastian. Meanwhile, Viola, disguised as a guy, falls for Sebastian's roommate, Duke, who's got the hots for Olivia. Unfortunately, Olivia is in love with Sebastian. Rated PG-13 for some sexual material, running time 105 minutes. (Cape West Cine)

'Slither'

Starring Nathan Fillion, Gregg Henry and Michael Rooker. In the small town of Wheelsy, Sheriff Bill Pardy (Fillion) becomes suspicious when animals and livestock go missing. An investigation by his team reveals that an ancient organism has been infiltrating the community by burrowing into people's brains, which turns them into flesh-hungry lunatics. Rated R for strong horror violence and gore, and language, running time 96 minutes. (Cape West Cine)

'Stay Alive'

Starring Jon Foster, Samaire Armstrong and Frankie Muniz. After their buddy is killed, a crew of teenage gamers finds Stay Alive, a cutting-edge survival game based on a 17th-century woman called the Blood Countess. The game's not even on the market yet, but the children can't resist playing it. Soon they realize that when someone in the game dies, they die the exact same way in real life. Rated Rated PG-13 for horror violence, disturbing images, language, brief sexual and drug content, running time 86 minutes. (Cape West Cine)

'Take the Lead'

Starring Antonio Banderas, Rob Brown and Alfre Woodard. Pierre Dulane (Banderas), a one-time professional ballroom dancer, decides to teach at a public school in New York City. His hip-hop-obsessed students don't dig his stiff ballroom style, so he develops a new hybrid dance with their help. Rated PG-13 for thematic material, language and some violence, running time 108 minutes. (Cape West Cine)

'V for Vendetta'

Starring Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving and Stephen Rea. Based on Alan Moore's graphic novel, the story is set in the futuristic fascist nation of Great Britain; a terrorist called V violently rebels against the restrictive government with the help of a woman named Evey. Rated R for strong violence and some language, running time 132 minutes. (Cape West Cine)

'The Wild'

Starring Kiefer Sutherland, Greg Cipes and Jim Belushi. A crew of animals from the New York Zoo -- including a lion, a giraffe, an anaconda, a koala, and a squirrel -- discover what a jungle the city can be when one of their own is mistakenly shipped to the wild and they embark on a dangerous mission to rescue him. Running time 94 minutes, rated G. (Cape West Cine)

-- From staff reports