The Movies

1 Hollow Man

$13.04 million 2 weeks in release $50.3 million to date

PLOT A megalomaniac scientist goes mad after discovering the secret of invisibility.

MESSAGE Genius and opportunity can make bad people exponentially worse.

CAUTION Rated R for strong violence, language, and sexual situations.

$13.01 million 2 weeks in release $39.02 million to date

PLOT A former Air Force pilot reunites his old team for a shot on the Space Shuttle.

MESSAGE People can do heroic things despite advanced age.

CAUTION PG-13 for profanity and brief nudity.

$11.04 million 1 week in release $11.04 million to date

PLOT A team of scab football players gets a shot at victory when the pros go on strike.

MESSAGE Greatness can still be earned even when recognition and glory are absent.

CAUTION Rated PG-13 for crude humor and language.

$10.99 million 1 week in release $10.99 million to date

PLOT A womanizing restaurateur chases a 22-year-old despite the fact that he's pushing 50 (see below).

MESSAGE Good-looking men can get away with anything.

CAUTION Rated PG-13 for language and some sensuality.

$10.22 million 3 weeks in release $93.99 million to date

PLOT Tasteless sequel with Eddie Murphy playing the professor, his alter ego, and his entire family.

MESSAGE Sometimes elders can be worse than their children.

CAUTION Rated PG-13 for crude humor and sex-related material.

Death and romance usually don't have much in common, except in movies. In Autumn in New York (MGM; rated PG-13 for language and some sensuality), an older man (Richard Gere) is smitten with a much younger woman (Winona Ryder). It's everything audiences have come to expect from a tearjerker, except with an intergenerational twist. The lead is a womanizing restaurateur who chases a 22-year-old despite the fact that he's pushing 50. Not even this new true love can keep him from sleeping around. This guy even dated her mother years ago, and cheated on her-producing a daughter whom he abandoned even as he was becoming the toast of Manhattan. In Autumn, Richard Gere gets to be the sort of nihilist who usually appears in action or suspense movies: a complete jerk whose behavior is excused by his good looks and charm. None of this is explored as the movie moves on toward the heroine's denouement. Director Joan Chen tries to train sweetness out of a banal world of shallow people in predictable situations. The characters are as airbrushed as the Big Apple backgrounds that set nearly every scene. They spend their time smirking and quoting poetry at one another until the final exit.