Capsule reviews of films opening this week:

The makers of the new "X-Files" movie have done themselves a disservice in coming up with the elongated title, "The X-Files: I Want to Believe." Really, it just invites a whole bunch of bad jokes which, unfortunately, are justified.

"Step Brothers" is a one-joke comedy that might have made a decent recurring sketch on "Saturday Night Live," digested in five-minute doses.

Best enjoyed by those unfamiliar with Evelyn Waugh's classic 1945 novel or the seminal 1981 miniseries version, this new "Brideshead Revisited" is tidy, proper and obvious - the cinematic equivalent of Cliffs Notes.

Remind me, what was so great about Will Ferrell? Judd Apatow - wasn't he responsible for some funny movies a long time ago? Their suffocatingly stupid comedy "Step Brothers," hellbent on destroying every last brain cell that wasn't exterminated by "Semi-Pro" and "Drillbit Taylor," makes it near-impossible to recall their glory days. I wish I could forget the new movie as easily.

Everyone knows that Hollywood operates on the principle of safety. Studios and distributors always look for the can't-miss product that will hit the coveted demographic and rake in some serious revenue because making movies is expensive, even when they stink.

The title is "Step Brothers." You know, because there are two of them.

LOS ANGELES Bob Hope and Bing Crosby might be on the road to nowhere if they tried to team up today the way they did in old Hollywood.

"The X-Files: I Want to Believe," the sequel to the 1998 "X-Files" movie and the hit '90s TV show of the same name, should really be called "The X-Files: I Can't Believe THIS is What They Came Up With."

Here's a cool movie about a cold case. The story begins eight years after the murder of Margot (Marie-Josee Croze), the beloved wife of Alex (Francois Cluzet), a gentle Parisian pediatrician. The killing was ascribed to a maniac who was active in the area at the time.

NEW YORK Thousands of Batman fans finally got what they were waiting for Friday as sold-out midnight showings of "The Dark Knight" kicked off a weekend of screenings across the country.

The late Hunter S. Thompson was a hard man to pin down.

Is computer animation still such a novelty that it will pull moviegoers into theaters? Do wisecracking critters still push children's joy buttons? Is "Space Chimps" really necessary?

"The Dark Knight" is such a moody, dramatic, dead-serious affair that it feels more like a noirish crime thriller than a superhero movie. Everything in the movie is played straight and aimed at grown-ups (or at least older kids). There is no geeky joy in Gotham City, no trace of the gee-whiz wonder most comic-book pictures trade on for effect. At times, when Batman pops up onscreen in all his high-tech gothic regalia, you wonder, "What's that clown doing here?"

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. The Joker (Heath Ledger) strolls into a posh fund-raiser for District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) in the latest Batman big-screen adventure, "The Dark Knight." The wingding is hosted by Gotham City's favorite playboy, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale).

It's difficult to separate the movie from its mystique.

Apparently there are two actors named Steve Carell.

Green, lean and mean, "The Incredible Hulk" is a thrill-oriented reboot of the superhero franchise that should have action fans cheering. Setting aside the ponderous Freudian themes of Ang Lee's 2003 "Hulk," this installment substitutes momentum for depth and bombastic battle scenes for character development. It lacks the graceful balance of those elements that made "Iron Man" the gold standard for superhero films, but it's a blast for demolition fans.

In "The Happening," Mother Nature decides that humanity is a dangerous virus - and gets to work eliminating the threat.

No human being ever shared the Earth with dinosaurs. Despite, or perhaps because of, that basic, universally accepted fact, human beings have been fascinated with the mighty creatures.

When it was released in 2002, Fernando Meirelles' remarkable debut, "City of God," felt like a revelation - an exhilarating work of stylized, energetic filmmaking that adopted the same reckless attitude and swagger of its protagonists, two childhood friends from the "favelas" (or slums) of Rio de Janeiro whose lives took different paths as they edged into adulthood.