"Hot Fuzz" is probably your best play for sheer, no-brain entertainment value among the weekend's new releases: It's a two-cop action movie tweaked to lowered British expectations, much as its director (Edgar Wright) and star (Simon Pegg) did with "Shaun of the Dead." Nice to see Timothy Dalton play a dweeb, too.

"The TV Set" is for smart people -- a droll, deliciously deadpan deconstruction of Hollywood groupthink with Sigourney Weaver and David Duchovny in change-up roles -- and "After the Wedding," from Denmark's Susanne Bier, is for smart people who don't mind a good bit of purple melodrama in their foreign-language cinema.

"Vacancy" looks like the usual horror chum ladled out to the jaded dice-and-slice crowd, but won't they be surprised when they get an actual good movie. Raw, no-frills, just enough grue -- this thing scares the dickens out of you and sends you on your way.

Of the films Wesley reviewed, "Year of the Dog" looks like the keeper. I've been waiting for Molly Shannon to get a real role, and it looks like Mike White may have finally given her one. Shame about the pooch, though.

"In the Land of Women," on the other hand -- that looks like a good, fun chunk o' really bad drama, although the trailer may have said all that needs to be said. I'll let you know when it comes on Cinemax at 11 p.m. in three months. Notable for Meg Ryan entering the Mom era of her career and for the appearance of yet another son of Lawrence Kasdan ("The Big Chill") behind the camera. (Jake directed "TV Set," Jonathan directed this.)

"Wristcutters: A Love Story" at the Brattle tomorrow night, with author Etgar Keret in person.

Burkino Faso's first woman director, Fanta Régina Nacro, will appear at the Harvard Film Archive this weekend with her movies. (That's a shot from Africas Africa" above.)

Tonight at the MFA: Max Ophuls' wonderful 1953 melodrama "The Earrings of Madame de..." If you've never seen it on a big screen, do yourself a favor.

And if you still haven't checked off Verhoeven's sneaky/brilliant "Black Book" on your must-see list, it's at the Coolidge for the forseeable future.

Yesterday, a hilarious thing happened. Sean Penn bravely attempted to demonstrate he had a sense of humor. He took Stephen Colbert up on his challenge for a "metaphor-off," which Colbert issued after an allergic reaction to a point-blank mad speech Penn delivered last month about the president that, admittedly, was bloated with metaphor.

Robert Pinsky moderated (it's National Poetry Month!). Penn didn't have to be funny, per se. He just had to absorb Colbert's shtick, and eventually that became rather amusing as Penn's unease gradually relaxed. But Penn I'm worry that Penn has so serious, so self-serious for so long that he might be comedically challenged. Humor is some vestigial appendage of his personal character.

Maybe he's bravely refusing to live in these dark times without the protective armor of irony the rest of us do. He wants to feel what's real. And what's real right now isn't funny. Good for him. I'm not sure it's good for his art though. But maybe direct exposure to Stephen Colbert will make him reconsider lightening up, if for just one movie.

Here is Penn and Colbert's pre-"Meta-Free-Phor-All" interview.

TMZ has suggested that Netflix is trying to move copies of Park Chan-wook's "Oldboy" because it was an apparent favorite of Cho Seung-Hui. The film shouldn't be yanked from the store's rotation, but to have it as a featured movie, as TMZ has observed, is not the shrewdest move.

Let the speculation end and the head-scratching begin: the Cannes 2007 lineup is upon us. Perhaps I'll parse the unusually yank-heavy list later. Here is the Hollywood Reporter story with most of the dirt.

"Disturbia" opened very nicely this weekend, with $23 million in just under 3,000 theaters. Atta boy, Shia. Now go rent "Rear Window," kids.

The rest of the new releases tanked. "Perfect Stranger," $11.5 million; "Pathfinder," $4.8; "Redline," $4; "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," only $3.1 (at only 877 theaters). "Blades of Glory" and "Meet the Robinsons" were still the broad-appeal favorites. "300" is finally sloping off (after crossing the $200 million mark total) and "Grindhouse" is toast (down two-thirds its second week out; can Harvey take a hacksaw and separate these Siamese twins fast enough?).

More numbers at Box Office Mojo and Leonard Klady.