'Wild Target': ★★ out of four stars

★★ out of four stars

Rating: PG-13 for violence, some sexual content and brief strong language.

Where: Lagoon.

Victor may seem to be a pinch-mouthed English toff but he's also a professional assassin, the latest in a proud family line of hired killers. He may be the last in his lineage; his elderly mama (Eileen Atkins) frets that her prudish middle-aged son may not be merely repressed but homosexually inclined. This is the subject of much huffing from Victor (the ever-delightful Bill Nighy) and comic speculation in the crime comedy "Wild Target." It's lovely to see Nighy finally in a starring role, even if the film is slight and forgettable.

Victor is hired to eliminate a randy con artist played by Emily Blunt, after she swindles wealthy businessman Rupert Everett in a double-dealing art heist. Victor not only fumbles the job, he offers her protection from the next wave of hit men. They join forces with a teenage urchin ("Harry Potter's" Rupert Grint), forming an oddball family unit on the run. The main dramatic issue, dodging bullets aside, is whether Victor will end up coupling with the brunette or the redhead.

The plot complications are achingly predictable and the characters tissue thin, but there's an amiable air about the enterprise. Director Jonathan Lynn has been wonderfully funny in the past ("My Cousin Vinny"). This time out he's dry and droll and rather dull.

COLIN COVERT

Rating: PG-13 for sexual content including several suggestive dance routines, partial nudity, language and some thematic material.

A competent, buoyant, busy showbiz fantasy, "Burlesque" taps into the escapist mindset of the classic Depression Musical. Christina Aguilera's Ali ditches her job at a greasy spoon in Iowa and buys a bus ticket to L.A. Once on Sunset Boulevard, she's mesmerized by the tatty glamour of the Burlesque Lounge, a vaudeville joint run with steely resolve by owner/choreographer/den mother Tess (Cher), who is facing foreclosure on the club.

"Burlesque" is structured around a series of production numbers that erupt onscreen like explosions in a sequin factory. It's a wise choice to keep Aguilera singing rather than acting. Her larynx is a lot more expressive than her face. The same goes for Cher, who at this stage in her mummification looks like a PSA on the paralytic effects of Botox. Her pipes are as good as ever, though. Not as bad as "Showgirls" but not nearly as good as "Chicago," "Burlesque" hits its marks and high-kicks its way offstage just before it gets the hook.

COLIN COVERT

★★★ 1/2 out of four stars

Director Ed Zwick is known for war epics ("Glory," "The Last Samurai"). His focus in this sprawling, ambitious romantic comedy drama for grown-ups is on the emotional battles and bedroom skirmishes between hotshot pharmaceutical rep Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, a spunky waitress whose vitality camouflages a Very Bad Disease.

If it sounds contrived, it is. But it's a kind of minor miracle the way Zwick and his actors go at the potentially sticky material. They're so straightforward that you follow them, trusting that they won't embarrass you by doing something stupid. They repay that suspension of disbelief, making the story a hair-curling, heart-wrenching ballad of love triumphing against the odds, served up with heaps of dirty, breezy comedy.

Gyllenhaal gives his best, most engaging performance to date, but Hathaway carries the film.

COLIN COVERT

★★ 1/2 out of four stars

In this revenge drama, Dwayne Johnson trades in his comedic smile for a cold grimace. And he's bulked up -- to the point that his neck muscles appear to have muscles.

The plot can be described simply as: They killed his brother, now he's going to kill them. Ten years removed from a botched robbery in which his brother was murdered, Johnson is out of prison and ready for payback. A shaggier-than-usual Billy Bob Thornton is "Cop," and a hired assassin seems to have been dropped in from another movie.

Johnson is as comfortable as ever here. His physicality and charisma lend themselves naturally to "Faster's" frantic, stylized action. But the revenge material is nothing we haven't seen before.