“Law Abiding Citizen” is a glib, brutal and preposterous revenge fantasy, a take-the-law-in-your-own-hands rabble-rouser that taps into a lot of fears and genuine gripes about the American legal system. It’s the sort of movie Mel Gibson or Clint Eastwood might have made back in the day – a man survives the slaughter of his family by thugs and sets out to get even, and then some.

The conceit is simple enough. Round up three generations of famous rock guitarists, use home movies, visits to their old stomping grounds and concert footage to tell their stories, then put them in a room together to see what happens.

How do you make a movie about the country’s current economic crisis and actually get people to see it?

In the months after the zombie apocalypse, brought on by a virulent mutation of Mad Cow Disease, America has ceased to be.

A bouncy, female-centric portrait of a misfit teen finding her place in the world, “Whip It” isn’t the most original movie you’ll see this year. But first-time director Drew Barrymore illustrates an edict which experienced filmmakers would be wise to follow: If you surround yourself with a stellar cast and invest the proceedings with heart and energy, you’ll earn the audience’s attention.

Brit-comic Ricky Gervais stakes a serious claim to the title “the British Albert Brooks” with “The Invention of Lying,” his droll, witty and thoughtful comedy about the thing that really makes the world go round.

Things are looking up for film in the Northwest, and it’s partly thanks to the Tacoma Film Festival. Now in its fourth year, the festival organized by the Grand Cinema has taken an intensely local turn, with nearly one-third of its 132 films made by Northwest filmmakers. It’s good exposure for them, good marketing for the Grand, and a unique experience for audiences who see local surroundings and lifestyles on the big screen.

In telling the story of the final years in the brief life of poet John Keats, “Bright Star” easily could have been a stuffy, period costume drama.

The soul: Albatross or asset? It seems as if soulless people, unhindered by conscience, have a huge advantage in life. They calculate their options without sentiment and act decisively to advance their objectives. But could a person who is nagged by inner voices become like them? Should he?

An oddball cross between “Catch Me If You Can” and “The Insider,” Stephen Soderbergh’s “The Informant!” suggests that the Oscar-winning filmmaker is so sick of the last two decades of corporate malfeasance that he can only express his outrage as sputtering comedy.

Megan Fox, queen of cut-off jeans, lip gloss and hair toss, Fandango bait to the fanboys in the “Transformers” movies, makes a mess of herself in a teasing mess of a movie titled “Jennifer’s Body.”

Despite the lofty place they occupy in world cinema, filmmaking brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne have never bothered turning their pensive, intimate camera on characters falling from great societal heights. No, their people-in-crisis are generally only two or three rungs from the bottom already, which makes the stakes not just desperate but dire.

Something cold and calculating lies at the center of “Paper Heart,” an ingratiating, mostly mock documentary by comedian and actress Charlyne Yi (“Knocked Up”).

Although there are technically a couple of weeks of summer left, the films of fall are upon us. Now is when movies get serious, when Hollywood starts thinking about Oscar. You’ll still find plenty of zombies and ninjas at the multiplex in the coming weeks, just not quite as many as you would have found in July.

When we first meet Seraphine de Senlis, it’s hard not to feel confused. This most ordinary of women, this overweight housekeeper trudging heavily through cobblestone streets in a shapeless black dress, she could not possibly be the subject of a major French motion picture, let alone one that won seven Cesars, including best film, best screenplay, best cinematography and best actress for star Yolande Moreau. There must be some kind of mistake.