Discovering a new Tennessee Williams screenplay is a ‘find,’ even if it turns out to be only a minor work. Set in Memphis in the 1920s and drenched in Southern Gothic atmosphere, “The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond” revolves around an arrogant, impetuous heiress (Bryce Dallas Howard) who loses a $5,000 heirloom belonging to her great-aunt (Ann-Margret) at a party given by her school chum (Mamie Gummer), where she bonds with a bed-ridden, elderly adventurer (Ellen Burstyn).

    From the sublime to the ridiculous, “Killers” is a clumsy action comedy with Katherine Heigl as an unsuspecting naïf who marries a former superspy/assassinAshton Kutcher. Equally idiotic is “MacGruber,” stretching a SNL sketch into a raunchy, inane spoof, featuring Will Forte as the only American ever to become a Green Beret, Navy SEAL and Army Ranger and to cavort naked with a celery stalk sticking out of his derriere.

    Set in the volatile, dangerous world of Rio de Janeiro’s Favela do Pavao, the documentary “Rio Breaks” features two surf-obsessed friends, 13 year-old Fabio and 12 year-old Naama. “For My Wife” is the story of Charlene Strong’s evolution into an equality activist after the tragic death of her partner. And with the recent UN resolution declaring access to clean water and sanitation as a fundamental human right, “Water Wars: When Drought, Flood and Greed Collide” gives a prescient glimpse into the future of water access and control.

    For children, there’s “Shaun the Sheep: Party Animals,” “Thomas & Friends: Misty Island Rescue – The Movie,” and the live-action movie “Marmaduke” about a huge, galumphing Great Dane and his hapless human family.

    PICK OF THE WEEK: In “Solitary Man,” Michael Douglas plays a deeply disturbed car dealer whose corporate malfeasance has decimated his business, whose persistent philandering has destroyed his marriage to his college sweetheart (Susan Sarandon) and whose perpetual unreliability has strained his relationship with his daughter (Jenna Fischer) and grandson. Also supported by Mary-Louise Parker and Danny DeVito Douglas delivers an unforgettable performance, representing a beacon of quality in a summer filled with popcorn pictures.

    In his collaboration with Quentin Tarantino on “Grindhouse” (2007), Robert Rodriguez introduced a mock trailer for a fake movie called “Machete,” starring craggy-faced, veteran character actor Danny Trejo (“Desperado,” “Con Air”) as an intimidating Mexican day laborer. Now, in homage to violent, low-budget, ‘70s exploitation pictures, that ‘coming attraction’ has become a testosterone-fueled reality.

    Although you can’t take it seriously, the minimalist plot revolves around Machete (Trejo), a badass ex-Mexican Federale who is seeking revenge against the vicious Mexican drug lord who killed his wife and daughter. Within the opening minutes, he’s lopped the heads and arms off a dozen gangsters guarding the kingpin Torrez (Steven Seagal). Left for dead, Machete recuperates and flees over-the-border to Austin, where he’s coerced under threat of deportation to accept $150,000 from double-crossing Booth (Jeff Fahey) to kill conservative, intolerant Texas Senator McLaughlin (Robert De Niro), who denounces illegal immigrants as “parasites” and enjoys driving with sadistic, rifle-wielding Von (Don Johnson), shooting unarmed Mexican they find sneaking into the country. But it’s a set-up and when he’s identified as the would-be assassin, Machete’s only allies are his brother (Cheech Marin), a less-than-pious priest, and Luz (Michelle Rodriguez), the proprietor of a taco truck and leader of ‘the Network,’ as the underground resistance is called. Then there’s scantily clad Sartana (Jessica Alba), a luscious Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent, and slutty April (Lindsay Lohan), Booth’s spoiled, drugged-up daughter. Mix ‘em all together and you get murder and mayhem.

    Granted, writer/director Robert Rodriguez (“Sin City”/”Spy Kids”) and his co-director/longtime editor Ethan Maniquis are only junior-grade Quentin Tarantinos, but they assemble enough ludicrous, offensive, over-the-top, politically incorrect genre conventions – like bigoted hombres, naughty nurses and naked bodacious babes – to score as a well-done, late-summer diversion. And they’re already planning two sequels.

    So for an intentionally junky, grade-B movie, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Machete” is a campy, slice-and-dice 7. And I don’t have to be a betting woman to suggest that men will like this R-rated guilty pleasure much more than women.

    Set in Scandinavia during World War II, this fictionalized biopic adventure begins in 1940 on a wintry field in Finland, where a brave, 25 year-old Norwegian, Max Manus (Aksel Hannie), is wounded while helping the Finns fight against the Russian invaders.

    Returning to Norway, after the Royal family was abruptly banished by the Germans, Max helps further the Resistance by destroying draft registration records and distributing newspaper propaganda vilifying the collaborationist government, headed by Vidkun Quisling (that’s how the word “quisling,” signifying traitor, became part of our vocabulary). After eluding captors, Max and his freedom-fighter friends are trained in Scotland to become expert saboteurs and assigned to stealthily stick limpet mines on the hulls of the German supply ships docked in Oslo harbor.

    One of the Free Norwegian Forces’ greatest victories was a daring commando raid involving the sinking of the cargo ship Donau outside Drobak in the winter of 1945, much to the consternation of the local head of the Gestapo, Siegfried Fehmer (Ken Duken of “Inglorious Basterds”). During the liberation, Max Manus became the personal protection officer for Crown Prince Olav upon his return to Oslo and for King Haakon VII, when the rest of the Royal family returned on June 7, 1945.

    Written by the late Thomas Nordseth-Tiller and based on Manus’s own books, plus historical documentation, it’s photographed by Geir Hartly Andreassen and co-directed by Stockholm Film School graduates Espen Sandberg and Joachim Roenning, who made the direct-to-dvd “Bandidas” (2006), starring Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek, and are credited with creating hundreds of award-winning commercials.

    Curiously, the only other film about Norway’s Resistance is “Edge of Darkness” (1943), which starred Errol Flynn as a fearless fisherman who defied the German occupation. However, unlike that Hollywoodized adventure, this far-more-realistic treatment shows how Max Manus suffered serious consequences, both physically and mentally, that turned him into an alcoholic.

    In Norwegian, German and English with English subtitles, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Max Manus” is an action-packed, enthralling 8. Understandably, it’s Norway’s most successful film so far.

    Usually, when the only critics screening of a star-driven spy thriller is just two days before opening, it’s an indication that there’s a problem. And there is. This is not an action movie, and it’s certainly not a conventional thriller. Not that it isn’t intriguing. It is – if you’re into meditative, minimalist, non-commercial, European-style filmmaking.

    Enigmatic Jack (George Clooney) is a master assassin. You never learn anything about his psychological motivation or social background, just that he’s a dour, taciturn loner, filled with melancholy inner turmoil, who often enjoys the company of beautiful women.

    Jack’s grimly inexplicable story begins in desolate, snow-covered Dalarma, Sweden, where he’s being hunted. After reporting in to his handler, Pavel (Johan Leysen), he’s dispatched to picturesque Castel Del Monte, an ancient Abruzzo hill town in Italy, where he’s told to craft a custom-designed weapon for inscrutable Mathilde (Thekla Reuten), who is obviously a professional killer too. “You want the capacity of a machine gun with the range of a rifle?” he ascertains in order to acquire the required parts.

    Between strenuous exercise sessions and methodically constructing this weapon in the privacy of his rented room, Jack bonds with a gregarious priest, Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli), even though he concedes, “I don’t think God is interested in me,” and he takes up with Clara (Violante Placido), a prostitute at a nearby bordello.

    Based on Martin Booth’s novel, “A Very Private Gentleman,” it’s been adapted for the screen by Rowan Joffe and directed by Netherlands-born Anton Corbjin, best known for the biopic “Control.” A former photographer, Corbjin’s erotic symbolism permeates the picture – like when Reuten sensuously assembles the gun that Clooney has fastidiously made. But there are several pretentiously disconcerting elements, including the almost deserted nature of Castel Del Monte. No one else ever walks on the quaint, cobblestone streets except these specific characters, along with another couple of killers-for-hire.

    On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The American” is a spare, self-consciously somber 6. It’s a visually captivating study in stillness but it’s not emotionally involving.

    Given the vicarious nature of our gossip-riddled culture, it’s not surprising that on-screen pairings often ignite off-screen romances – or vice-versa, which seems to be the case here. Uma Thurman met Ethan Hawke during “Gattaca” and Angelina Jolie lured Brad Pitt from Jennifer Aniston while making “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” yet by the time Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck made “Gigli,” their relationship had gone sour. So, while Hollywood sweetheart Drew Barrymore chose as her co-star genial Fairfield native Justin Long, best known as the “Mac Guy” in the Apple vs. PC commercials, concurrent with their intermittent off-screen involvement, their on-screen chemistry is non-existent.

    While working as an intern on the New York Sentinel, 31 year-old Stanford journalism grad student Erin (Barrymore) hooks up with junior record-label exec Garrett (Long). When their summer fling turns into a full-fledged romance, they’re faced with a serious geographic problem: she’s in San Francisco, he’s in Manhattan. And airfare is so expensive that they cannot afford to fly cross-country with any regularity.

    Novice screenwriter Geoff La Tulippe has come up with a relevant predicament, coupled with contemporary uncertainty, yet it deserves better treatment than descending into the kind of coarse vulgarity that characterizes a crude Judd Apatow comedy – like explicit phone sex, masturbation and having one lout conversing with friends while on the toilet with the door open. Filthy language spews out of Erin’s smartass mouth and the supporting characters are contrived caricatures, particularly Garrett’s boorish buddies, Dan (Charlie Day) and Box (Jason Sudeikis), and Erin’s disapproving, over-protective sister Corinne (Christina Applegate).

    First-time feature-film director Nanette Burstein’s clumsy, forced pacing amplifies the long-distance dilemma by making minutes seem like hours. She also breaks believability by having Erin eschew a car seatbelt and placing a pivotal Erin/Garrett encounter in an airport departure lounge when only one of them is boarding a plane. Because of TSA rules, this has become totally implausible.

    On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Going the Distance” falls short with a self-conscious, foul-mouthed 5. As a romantic comedy, it’s a disappointment.

    If you’re into conspiracy theories, “Paul McCartney Really Is Dead: The Last Testament of George Harrison” explores a mystery that exploded worldwide in 1969 and was considered a hoax, as Harrison reveals secret Beatles history, indicating that John Lennon was assassinated after he threatened to expose ‘Paul McCartney’ as an imposter.

    Johnny Winter “Live Through the ‘80s” is an extensive retrospective of the legendary guitarist in live performance during what proved to be an incredibly prolific and successful decade, including archival footage on the tour bus and a rare, candid interview.

    New Zealand’s Fourth Most Popular Folk Parody Duo is back with “Flight of the Conchords: The Complete Collection,” a five disc compilation, including the first two seasons plus the never-before-released “One Night Stand’ special.

    From Wesley Strick, who wrote“Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Cape Fear,” comes the psychological thriller “Addicted to Love,” starring Lizzy Caplan, D.J. Cotrona and Daryl Hannah, revolving around a teenage outcast who finds an effective but dangerous way to impress his popular classmates. In the same horror vein, “Squeal” follows a dysfunctional group of rockers on their first tour when their van breaks down in the middle of nowhere.

    “Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes” is a full-length, animated mystery caper, starring the popular cat-and-mouse duo as they attempt to nab a clever jewel thief with the help of legendary detective Sherlock Holmes and his companion, Dr. Watson.

    For little girls, “Angelina Ballerina: Love to Dance” pirouettes with an all-new look, new music, new friends and new dancing styles as she enters Camembert Academy.

    PICK OF THE WEEK: Madeleine Sackler’s “The Lottery” is a controversial – and heartbreaking – documentary about the crisis of U.S. public education reform. It follows four families from Harlem and the Bronx who entered their children in a 2009 charter school lottery, hoping to avoid the failures of the traditional public school system. In a country where 58% of African American 4^th graders are functionally illiterate, they represent hundreds of thousands of parents attempting to flee the system every year.

    Jimmy Buffett wrote a song called “Overkill” and that’s the word which best describes this high-powered yet formulaic heist movie that’s punctuated with shootouts and explosions, particularly a stylized machine-gun gangbang with Russian mobsters that decimates a Los Angeles hotel suite.

   The action commences with a cleverly staged bank robbery, culminating with the slick hijacking of a TV news helicopter as a getaway vehicle which is then landed and exploded in Dodger Stadium. The GQ-attired, cool-as-cucumber, multi-racial thieves are led by Gordon Jennings (British Idris Elba of “The Wire”) and include strutting brothers Jake and Jesse Attica (Michael Ealy, Chris Brown) along with buddies John Rahway (Paul Walker) and hip A.J. (Hayden Christensen). Bewildered by the gang’s finesse and a discouraging lack of surveillance camera clues, hardworking L.A.P.D. detectives Jack Welles (Matt Dillon) and Eddie Hatcher (Jay Hernandez) are, nevertheless, determined to track the culprits down. The lawmen catch a break when a recently released ex-con Ghost (rapper-producer Tip “T.I.” Harris) approaches the Dom Perignon-sipping, Cuban cigar-puffing thieves in their posh penthouse hangout with a tantalizing offer they can’t refuse: to orchestrate a complicated multi-million-dollar armored-car takedown in just five days.

    After all, as one character says, “We’re takers. That’s what we do. We take.”

    Co-written and stylishly directed by John Luessenhop (“Lockdown”), this complicated caper was obviously inspired by action helmer Michael Mann’s “Heat,” along with countless Quentin Tarantino gangster epics. Unfortunately, however, the script unfolds as if it was assembled by a committee which – with four additional screenwriters (Peter Allen, Gabirel Casseus, Avery Duff) – it obviously was. Double-crosses and betrayals abound, along with laughable clichés, caricatured portrayals, and a riveting but exhausting street chase. The two talented females in the cast – Zoe Saldana (“Avatar”), as Jake’s fiancée, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste (“Secrets and Lies”), as Gordon’s drug-addicted sister – are given far too little to do. And as a perpectually-scowling divorced dad, Matt Dillon ill-advisedly totes his young daughter on a high-speed chase.

    On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Takers” is a frenzied 4. Wait for the dvd.

                              “Creativity is magic. Don’t examine it too closely.”

                                                      American playwright Edward Albee

    Like his best known play, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Edward Albee’s “A Delicate Balance” is another relevant examination of relationships, particularly marriage.

    Living in upper middle-class suburbia, Agnes (Maureen Anderman) and Tobias (Jonathan Hogan) have been married for many years. Now in their late fifties, they occupy separate bedrooms, as Agnes struggles to maintain not only their stability but her sanity which is severely strained by the constant presence of her audacious, unmarried, alcoholic sister Claire (Lisa Emery). Agnes’ tenuous equilibrium is further tested by the unexpected arrival of their closest friends, Edna (Mia Dillon) and Harry (Keir Dullea), who are inexplicably “frightened” and beg to spend the night. Ordinarily, that would not be difficult since their grown daughter Julia’s bedroom is empty, but Agnes and Tobias have just heard that volatile, petulant Julia (Mia Barron) has left her fourth husband and is en route home. Then, as Albee, so succinctly puts it, “The shit hits the fan.”

    Seething with unspoken anger and repressed resentment, Maureen Anderman elegantly embodies the conflicting emotions that propel Agnes, the character who epitomizes Edward Albee’s ferocious vitriol. Director David Auburn (who wrote “Proof”) has assembled an exemplary cast that deliciously delves into the precarious, sniping dysfunction that’s engendered by family and close friends. R. Michael Miller’s set is gracefully evocative of ‘60s WASP society, enhanced by Dan Kotlowitz’ lighting.

    A beacon of quality theater, “A Delicate Balance” is on the Main Stage of the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, thru Sept. 4^th …tickets available at 413-298-5576 and online at: www.berkshiretheatre.org.  It’s a must-see.

    “No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.”

                                Social critic/journalist  H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

    When many critics, including me, review a movie they take into consideration how well it accomplishes what it sets out to do. If it’s a B horror-flick, is it a real fright-fest? Do you cringe? Do you shriek? If the answer is yes – then it accomplishes what it’s meant to do, like “Snakes on a Plane.”

    Every year, the population of the tiny, mythical Arizona town of Lake Victoria explodes from 5,000 to 50,000 for the bacchanal known as Spring Break. But, this year, there’s something more to worry about than vandalism and drunken teenagers. A sudden underwater earthquake sets free thousands of prehistoric flesh-eating piranhas that devour an inebriated fisherman (Richard Dreyfuss, wearing his rumpled “Jaws” costume and singing “Show Me the Way to Go Home”) who gets sucked into a whirlpool. Meanwhile, sleazy, depraved, Joe Francis-like “Girls Gone Wild” video chronicler, Derrick Jones (Jerry O’Connell), is egging on rowdy, obnoxious, bikini-clad babes, earning the stern disapproval of Sheriff Julie Forester (Elisabeth Shue), particularly when he engages her teenage son, Jake (Steven R. McQueen, grandson of the famed Steve), as a location scout to guide his yacht and totes along Jake’s crush, Kelly (“Gossip Girl” Jessica Szohr).

    Inspired by a 1978 Roger Corman low-budget hit, which was written by John Sayles and directed by Joe Dante as an irreverent parody of Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws,” this screenplay was written by Peter Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg (“Sorority Row”) and directed by Alexandre Aja (“The Hills Have Eyes,” “High Tension”). Clumsily converted into 3-D, it’s chock full o’carnage and distracting digital deceits, including topless-and-bottomless full-frontal torsos. Christopher Lloyd does a cleverly crazed cameo as a marine-life expert assessing piranha risk and Ving Rhames scores as a tough deputy.

    Not for the squeamish or faint-hearted, on the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Piranha 3-D” is a scary, sicko 6, spewing gallons-upon-gallons of R-rated graphic bloody gore. Not surprisingly, a succulent sequel is already in the works.

    Before “I Love Lucy” and “All in the Family,” there was “The Goldbergs” about a Jewish immigrant family living in the Bronx, starring writer/director/producer Gertrude Berg, and “Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg” delivers the touching, timeless message that family and friends, not possessions, are what’s most important.

    As summer winds down, A&E’s “Instant Expert” offers student and lifelong learners documentary “quick guides” on a wide array of subjects like “The Story of Oil,” explaining how oil changed the world, along with dangers on land and sea; “The French Revolution” and its reign of terror; “The Mayflower,” a flight from persecution and the true story of Thanksgiving; “Beowulf,” the western world’s oldest written story; “Egypt,” the world’s first superpower; and “Ben Franklin,” publisher/inventor/founding father.

   Set in 2055, when Earth is devastated, “The Age of Stupid” focuses on an archivist (Pete Postlethwaite) trying to discover why we didn’t save ourselves when we still had the chance.

    It’s fortunate that Jennifer Lopez is a successful pop singer because her taste in romantic comedies is formulaic and stale, as evidenced by “The Back-Up Plan,” in which she plays a Manhattanite who realizes that her biological clock is ticking faster than her ability to marry so she decides on artificial insemination. Right after the procedure, she meets Mr. Right (Alex O’Laughlin) – and you know they’re going to wind up together.

    And despite its similar Victorian London setting, don’t confuse Colin Firth’s tepid re-make of “Dorian Gray” with the original Oscar Wilde classic, starring Hurd Hatfield.

    PICKS OF THE WEEK: New Yorkers, particularly those with ties to the Bronx, may feel a special affinity to “City Island,” an amiable romantic comedy about an Italian/American family, starring Andy Garcia. As a companion piece, in “Lucky Days,”  triple-threat writer/director/actress Angelica Torn has crafted a sympathetic slice-of-life, film noir-like drama that’s centered on the doomed enclave known as Coney Island, playing a conflicted, confused 30-something virgin who’s trapped by family obligation. It’s the first film in which Angelica appears on-screen with her father, Rip Torn, and the late Paul Newman is credited as “producer emeritus.”