Author:   Ken Hanke

The Story: A remake of the 1978 John Carpenter film about homicidal maniac Michael Myers. The Lowdown: A largely wrongheaded attempt to at least in part rethink the old movie. The new film has a few moments, but not enough to amount to much.

The Passion of Anna is part of a series of Classic Cinema From Around the World being presented at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 7, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St. in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.

The Story: A team of scientists is on its way to attempt to reignite our dying sun with a nuclear bomb. The Lowdown: Visually stunning, dramatically exciting and philosophically intriguing, Danny Boyle's Sunshine is a must-see.

The Story: Mr. Bean wins a church raffle for a vacation in Cannes. His trip causes much chaos for anyone who crosses his path. The Lowdown: The gags are more clever than funny, the pace is nonexistent, and this is really a case of "for fans only."

The Story: A college graduate (Scarlett Johansson) accepts a position as a nanny from a posh Upper East Side family. The Lowdown: An entertaining, though rarely more than pleasantly amusing, romantic comedy with a few insights into class consciousness and nice performances from Scarlett Johansson and Laura Linney.

The Story: A sportswriter (Josh Hartnett) buys into a homeless man's (Samuel L. Jackson) claim that he's really former heavyweight contender Bob Satterfield. The Lowdown: A frequently sappy, by-the-numbers sports flick, but with a performance from Samuel L. Jackson that makes it worthwhile.

The Story: A fact-based, highly colored account of the 1857 massacre, by paranoid fanatical Mormons, of a wagon train on its way to California. The Lowdown: Bad filmmaking conspires with bad acting and dubious history to create an alarmingly grotesque film.

The Story: The story of radio's original "shock jock" Petey Greene (Don Cheadle) and his rise to fame as an outspoken broadcaster, personality and comic. The Lowdown: Some of the funniest, most moving and most exciting filmmaking of the year housed in a work with some of the best performances of the year. Don Cheadle…

Through a Glass Darkly is part of a series of Classic Cinema From Around the World being presented at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St. in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.

The Hendersonville Film Society will show Unfaithfully Yours at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 2, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community, 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville. (From Asheville, take I-26 to U.S. 64 West, turn right at the third light onto Thompson Street. Follow to the Lake Point Landing entrance and park…

The Hendersonville Film Society will show The Student Prince at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 26, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community, 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville. (From Asheville, take I-26 to U.S. 64 West, turn right at the third light onto Thompson Street. Follow to the Lake Point Landing entrance and…

The Story: A mysterious virus from outer space transforms people into emotionless automatons who threaten the world as we know it. The Lowdown: This highly compromised fourth version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers scores in terms of thematic content, but is muddled by postproduction reshoots and basic awkward story construction.

The Story: A Roman warrior, a Turkish fighting woman and a sort of magician fight to protect a kid who's the last descendant of Julius Caesar. The Lowdown: There hasn't been anything like this since the Italians were turning out a "Son of Hercules" movie every week back in the early '60s. The lips match…

Asheville Art Museum, 2 Pack Square South, will present A Notebook on Cities and Clothes on Saturday, Aug. 25, and Sunday, Aug. 26, at 2 p.m. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and students, and free for museum members.

Persona is part of a series of Classic Cinema From Around the World being presented at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 24, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St. in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.

The Story: Two high-school nerds attempt to win popularity -- and sex -- by providing the alcohol for a pre-graduation party. The Lowdown: A fairly silly -- and extremely raunchy -- teen-sex comedy that only occasionally hits the bull's-eye with laughs, but scores high marks for surprising emotional resonance.

The Story: Eddie Murphy has transformed into Cuba Gooding Jr. for this sequel, which finds our hero struggling to keep a ramshackle summer camp from going under. The Lowdown: Painfully unfunny family fare that relies on bodily-function humor and the unseemly mugging of its star.

The Hendersonville Film Society will show Mayerling at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 19, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community, 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville. (From Asheville, take I-26 to U.S. 64 West, turn right at the third light onto Thompson Street. Follow to the Lake Point Landing entrance and park in…

The Story: Werner Herzog crafts a narrative variant on the prisoner of war story depicted in his documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997). The Lowdown: A couple of good performances and flashes of Herzog brilliance keep this otherwise rather standard P.O.W. tale afloat.

The Story: Bad werewolves are out to kill a 12-year-old boy who will lift the curse of lycanthropy when he turns 13. His only hope lies in the good werewolves, who are protecting him. The Lowdown: A silly, sometimes unintentionally funny werewolf movie that brings nothing new to the genre.

Smiles of a Summer Night is part of a series of Classic Cinema From Around the World being presented at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 17, at Courtyard Gallery, 9 Walnut St. in downtown Asheville. Info: 273-3332.