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An American Affair (R, 93 minutes) This far-too-complicated potboiler is set in 1963 white-collar Washington, where a teenager gets an inside view of a steamy affair between his sexy neighbor (Gretchen Mol) and President John F. Kennedy.

Grade: 78

Bad Lieutenant (NC-17 ) A brutal, grim and difficult to watch parable, released in 1992, about a nameless New York cop (Harvey Keitel) with hellish addiction problems who encounters a chance at redemption when investigating the rape of a nun. The DVD includes audio commentary with director Abel Ferrara and a new retrospective documentary that includes interviews with the cast and crew.

Grade: 88

Bart Got a Room (PG-13, 79 minutes) This simple and often sweet comedy, which debuted at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, concerns Hollywood, Fla., high school senior Danny (Steven Kaplan) who spends $600 on a hotel room, a limousine, and a tuxedo for his prom. Now all he needs is a date. Bonus features include a pop-up production notebook and theatrical trailer.

Grade: 80

Fast & Furious (PG-13, 107 minutes) Noise. Crunched metal and shattered glass. Revving engines. Vin Diesel's giant head. Hot women in tight miniskirts. More noise. The end. That's pretty much all there is to Fast & Furious, essentially a remake of the 2001 hit The Fast and the Furious with the same cast (Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez). There are snarling bad guys, pouting women and wildly souped-up cars, but not an ounce of creativity or grace. And the fact that it's so repetitive only magnifies how little this latest installment has to offer.

Grade: 73

Inglorious Bastards (not rated, 99 minutes) This campy, violent 1978 international hit, directed by Enzo Castellari, is the inspiration for the Quentin Tarantino action epic with the same name but spelled differently: Inglourious Basterds, coming to theaters Aug. 21. It stars Bo Svenson and Fred Williamson as the leaders of a gang of condemned criminals who escape from an Allied prison convoy, then get sucked into a suicide mission deep inside Nazi-occupied France. The Blu-ray disc includes a making-of documentary and an audio commentary by Castellari. In Italian, German, French and English.

Grade: 85

Miss March (R, 90 minutes) Crass and insulting to its intended audience, Miss March is an unfunny comedy about Eugene Bell (Zach Cregger) who, after suffering an accident on prom night that knocks him out for four years, awakens to discover that his once-virginal personal prom queen (Raquel Alessi) is a Playboy Playmate. The DVD includes audition outtakes along with an unrated version of the film.

Grade: 68

Severed Ways (not rated, 109 minutes) Imagine if heavy metal existed in the 11th century (and who's to say it didn't?) and you'll get an idea of the tone of Severed Ways, a historical epic in which Vikings, American Indians and Irish monks battle for dominance on the shores of North America. Primal instincts and spiritual quests collide. Soundtrack includes music from Burzum, Morbid Angel, Judas Priest and Dimmu Borgir. DVD bonus features include "severed" scenes and featurettes. In pseudo-Norse with hipster English subtitles.

Grade: 84

300 (R, 117 minutes) Based on the epic graphic novel by Frank Miller, 300 is a bloody, ferocious and visually stylish retelling of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his massive Persian army.

Grade: 81

The Union: The Business Behind Getting High (not rated, 104 minutes) This brisk documentary by Adam Scorgie investigates how the marijuana industry can function while remaining illegal. Through interviews with growers, police officers, criminologists, economists, doctors, politicians and pop culture icons such as Joe Rogan and Tommy Chong, Scorgie examines the cause-and effect nature of the business, and pretty much comes out in support of it.

Grade: 82

MovieStyle, Pages 35 on 07/31/2009

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