National Treasure: Book of Secrets: Golden Fry Bread

The makers of this film don’t take themselves seriously and neither should you. It’s the Disney franchise’s version of a McDonalds Happy Meal – slick packaging filled with warmed over tidbits of bland, inoffensive fare – and getting about the same appraisal from the critics a the Big Mack does from the American Heart Association. But audiences seem to love it just about as much as they do their burgers and fries, a phenomenon more worthy of analysis than its breezy, insubstantial plot.

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The Kingdom: Arabian Spinach

Finally, a political thriller that does it. Nails our real enemies, instead of the usual Hollywood villains -- those insipid, unimaginative, politically correct stereotypes guaranteed not to offend.

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The Brave One: Ultimate Greek Sala Recipe

This is the thinking man’s vigilante film, peppered with artsy NPR radio monologue as well as quotes by D. H. Lawrence and Emily Dickinson. But there’s plenty of badass, too, and Jodie Foster wears her compulsive vengeance like second skin, blowing away bad guys with a driven lethal fury as cold as it is addictive.

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The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada: Roasted Corn with Cilantro Butter Recipe

This tale of poetic justice is as stark and beautiful as its West Texas landscape and as unpredictable as the creatures that inhabit it. Although it careens between cynicism and sentimentality, the grotesque and absurd, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada is intriguing, at times poignant, and guaranteed to generate a great discussion afterward.

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The Interpreter: Zimbabwe Bean Salad

It’s no wonder the United Nations cooperated to have The Interpreter filmed within its hallowed halls. What is billed as a thriller is much more an infomercial for the institution that failed to stop genocide in Rwanda. In this fictional account, at last the UN does the right thing.

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