``Herbie: Fully Loaded'' (G, 1 hr., 41 min.)

After an opening montage of Herbie’s glory days, we see him dented, depressed, and dumped in a junkyard. Then we meet Maggie (Lohan), a new college grad and the daughter and sister of NASCAR racers. Her dad (Michael Keaton) takes her to the junkyard to choose a jalopy for the summer and there sits Herbie. Maggie gets him and gradually realizes how special he is. At an auto fair with her old high-school crush (Justin Long), now a mechanic, Maggie and Herbie outrace an obnoxious NASCAR hero (Matt Dillon) who demands a rematch. She must choose whether to go against her dad’s wishes and get into the family business.

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``Bewitched" (PG-13, 1 hr., 45 min.)

Clever people have put a happy spell on this sparkly, refreshingly off-center re-imagining of the 1964-72 TV series. Despite an abrupt finale, in which characters and plot lines get lost, this ``Bewitched" proves a surprising, if unprofound, treat. Tweens and teens who like fantasy will find the film’s story-within-a-story premise beguiling and the cast -- Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Michael Caine, Shirley MacLaine -- highly watchable. The PG-13 reflects occasional insults using crude sexual slang in a nonsexual context. The film also contains milder sexual innuendo, a comic moment of implied nudity, and a joke about drug use. There are scenes of drinking. Some parents will find the whole witchcraft theme objectionable.

Director Nora Ephron and her co-writers were truly inspired to do ``Bewitched" as an inside-showbiz fable. Ferrell plays washed-up movie star Jack Wyatt, who hopes to rejuvenate his career in a TV update of the old ``Bewitched" sitcom -- but in his version, the ``normal" husband Darren will be the star and his wife, the good witch Samantha, a secondary character. Using a tinkly Marilyn Monroe voice, Kidman plays Isabel, a real witch who wants to set aside her powers so she can find a husband and be normal. Her warlock father (Caine) thinks she’s silly. One day, Jack Wyatt spies Isabel twitching her nose in a bookstore. He thinks she’d make the perfect Samantha. She gets the part, never letting on she’s the real thing. With the actress (MacLaine) playing Samantha’s mother Endora observing closely, Isabel gets wise to Jack’s ego games and all bets are off.

P.S. FOR KIDS 10 AND OLDER: If you’re interested in a spookier movie about witches interacting with kids, check out ``The Witches" (PG, 1990), about a boy who winds up staying at a hotel where they’re holding a witches’ convention. ``Bell Book and Candle" (1958) is an older, much milder film about a witch and an ordinary man who fall in love.

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BEYOND THE RATINGS GAME

``The Adventures of Sharkboy & Lavagirl in 3-D'' PG

(Inventive digital video fantasy celebrates youthful imagination, yet despite pun-filled, literate script, grows quickly tedious, flawed by amateurish child actors, washed out color in 3-D scenes; a daydreaming schoolboy (Cayden Boyd) sees his classroom invaded by superhero kids he made up in his dreams -- Sharkboy (Taylor Lautner) and Lavagirl (Taylor Dooley); 3-D effects begin as they take him to Planet Drool, an amusement park-ish place that he must save from Mr. Electric (George Lopez). Littler ones may find pop-out 3-D images scary, but film is mild, apart from a tornado and a giant who nearly eats the kids; subplots about a bully, troubled parents; a flatulence joke.)

-- 7 AND OLDER:

``Herbie: Fully Loaded'' G (NEW)

(Cliched, charmless update of 1969s ``Love Bug'' and its offspring -- ``Herbie Rides Again'' (1974), ``Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo" (1977), ``Herbie Goes Bananas" (1980), all G's -- is partly saved by Herbie’s anthropomorphic cuteness; Lindsay Lohan stars as young woman from a NASCAR racing family who unwittingly rescues the gifted VW Bug in all his headlight-winking, oil-spurting glory, from the scrap heap and races him against a villainous NASCAR champ (Matt Dillon). Mild sexual innuendo -- racecar driver demands photos of women who send him their phone numbers; Herbie’s aerial goes up in a way adults (and some kids) may take as sexual when he sees a pretty VW bug; his risky stunts could frighten little ones, especially when he seems scared.)

``Howl's Moving Castle" PG (LIMITED RELEASE)

(Enchanting, visually stunning animated film by Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki, based loosely on a book by Diana Wynne Jones; Sophie (voice of Emily Mortimer), a timid shop girl in early 20th-century Europe, is rescued from blob-like demons by a handsome wizard, Howl (Christian Bale); a jealous witch (Lauren Bacall) turns her into an old crone; she goes to the countryside and, guided by a silent scarecrow, finds Howl's magical castle; unable to speak of her spell, she becomes his housekeeper, befriends his smart-aleck fire demon (Billy Crystal) and gains new confidence in herself; scary-looking, shape-shifting demons; somber intimations of war, with fantastical air battles, bombers that flap their wings and set cities ablaze.)

``Madagascar" PG

(Spottily funny computer-animated feature spends too much time on adult-focused New York jokes, classic rock, silly sexual innuendo to fully entrance younger kids; four pals from Central Park Zoo -- a lion (voice of Ben Stiller), a zebra (Chris Rock), a giraffe (David Schwimmer) and a hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) -- get caught up in a penguin escape plot, fall off a ship and wash up on Madagascar, where the goofy lemur king (Sacha Baron Cohen) welcomes them; the lion gets hungry and nearly reverts to the ``wild,'' briefly viewing zebra pal as lunch before a plot twist saves them; critters drawn in droll caricatures, but gags about neuroses, hypochondria won't tickle younger kids; idea of reverting to predatory behavior could baffle or scare under-8s.)

-- 10 AND OLDER:

``Deep Blue'' G (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE)

(Gorgeously filmed documentary footage of spectacular seascapes from around the world, culled from the cable series, ``Blue Planet,'' is big on music and sound effects, short on information. Harrowing -- though not graphic -- sequences show a baby whale stalked and hunted by sharks and other sea mammals killed by predators; true, it is the nature of things, but the film seems to exploit the violence a bit for drama; some blood shown.)

``The Perfect Man'' PG

(Sappy, sanitized trifle features Hilary Duff in another of her perky teen portrayals as Holly, who invents an imaginary secret admirer to send her always-single mom (Heather Locklear) flowers and e-mails so she won't pull her daughters (Aria Wallace as the 7-year-old) out of school and change cities every time she breaks up with a loser; newly settled in Brooklyn, Holly makes a friend (Vanessa Lengies), meets a guy (Ben Feldman) and wants to stay, but her scheme is laborious and unfunny. Subtly implied that both sisters were born out of wedlock; mild sexual innuendo, includes a man who hints he had a fling with two women, and Carson Kressley of TV's ``Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" as a bartender flirting with hard hats; Duff wears teen jeans that start near the bikini line.)

-- PG-13s:

``Bewitched" (NEW)

(Cleverly conceived update of classic 1964-72 TV sitcom; Will Ferrell as washed-up movie star who hopes to revive his career in a remake of the old series; Nicole Kidman as a real-life witch who wants to stop using her powers and lead a normal life; he spots her in a store, twitching her nose, and gets her to audition for Samantha, not knowing her secret; she gets the part and soon decides her childish co-star needs some comeuppance; with Michael Caine as her dad, Shirley MacLaine as the actress hired to play Samantha’s mom, Endora. Insults using crude sexual slang in a nonsexual context; milder sexual innuendo; comic moment of implied nudity; joke about drug use; drinking; some parents will object to witchcraft theme on religious grounds. Tweens, too.)

``RIZE" (NEW; LIMITED RELEASE)

(Fairly compelling documentary chronicles growth of competitive dance teams in South Central Los Angeles, offering inner-city kids a creative alternative to gangs, drugs; dancers working in what they call ``clowning" and ``krumping" styles are incredibly athletic, their movements expressing a mix of rage and joy; disappointing sense the kids are still not breaking out educationally. Some sexualized movements; discussion of one teen’s father committing suicide, of other violent street deaths and of parents in jail or on drugs; losers at big dance battle contest act out a bit; some profanity.)

``Batman Begins"

(Moody, expressionistic, well-made prequel traces troubled millionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) path from a Hamlet-style funk to his crime-fighting Batman persona; still traumatized from childhood experiences of falling into a cave and being swarmed by bats, then witnessing the mugging/murder of his parents, the grown-up Bruce trains in Asia with a martial arts master (Liam Neeson), then returns to Gotham City still pondering vengeance versus justice; a gangster (Tom Wilkinson), an evil shrink (Cillian Murphy) and a childhood sweetheart (Katie Holmes) all affect his choice; his butler Alfred (Michael Caine) and a scientist (Morgan Freeman) from his dad's company help invent Batman. Flashbacks of childhood traumas are intense; nongory martial arts fights, gunfire, swordplay; wormy hallucinatory images; mild profanity; drinking. Too slow or intense for some middle-schoolers; not for preteens.)

``The Honeymooners"

(Haphazardly conceived update of 1950s Jackie Gleason blue-collar sitcom has a contrived, feel-good story and none of the original's grimly comic, bickering edge about people who don't achieve their dreams; helped somewhat by comedic skills of Cedric the Entertainer as bus driver Ralph Kramden and Mike Epps as sewer worker Ed Norton; they buy an antique train car to convert into a tour bus, then adopt a stray greyhound, hoping it will win races to fund their project; their wives Alice (Gabrielle Union) and Trixie (Regina Hall) just want to buy a duplex. Muted sexual innuendo; rare profanity, semi-crude humor; Ralph and Ed bend the rules, cheat with few consequences. Teens.)

``Mr. and Mrs. Smith"

(Clever satiric metaphor for man-woman relationships becomes soulless, superficial entertainment in amoral action comedy about professional assassins (Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt), married to each other but keeping secret what line of work they're in; years of lies have killed their union; it reignites after one is assigned to kill the other. High body count with relatively bloodless, stylized hits; gunplay, knife attacks, explosions; Jane Smith (Jolie) poses as a prostitute in dominatrix gear; other sexual innuendo, implied, nongraphic sexual situations (including premarital tryst); some profanity; drinking. Teens.)

(c) 2005, Washington Post Writers Group