Labor Day weekend is usually a dumping ground for the worst movies the studios are trying to hide. This weekend, though, there are some really good movies hitting theaters.

"Restrepo" (opening at the Broadway) may be the most important movie of the week, and one of the toughest movies you'll see all year. This documentary, which won the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival, follows an Army platoon through one year of combat in Afghanistan's Korangal Valley. The movie dramatically shows the chaos and hell of combat, and is a tribute to the soldiers who are put in harm's way. (The Tribune's Matthew D. LaPlante interviewed a Utah soldier who fought in that platoon, as well as the mother of a Utah soldier killed there.)

"Going the Distance" is a charming and raunchy romantic comedy, which smartly deals with a real-life romantic problem: Long-distance dating. Erin (Drew Barrymore) and Garrett (Justin Long) meet and fall in love in New York, just weeks before she's due to return to California for grad school. The attempts to keep the flame burning 3,000 miles apart are funny and touching, and made authentic by the improvisational style of director Nanette Burstein (who directed the documentary "American Teen").

"Machete" is a fond re-creation of '70s exploitation movies (think Roger Corman), based on the fake trailer that was part of the Robert Rodriguez/Quentin Tarantino mash-up "Grindhouse." Danny Trejo, the tough-as-nails character actor, plays a Mexican ex-Federale who's drawn into an anti-immigration conspiracy involving a Texas state senator (Robert DeNiro), the senator's double-dealing aide (Jeff Fahey), and the Mexican drug lord (Steven Seagal) who killed Machete's family. There's some sex appeal, as Machete seduces an immigration-network revolutionary (Michelle Rodriguez) and an idealistic ICE agent (Jessica Alba). The movie is over-the-top with violence, but tongue-in-cheek with its action.

"Cairo Time," playing at the Broadway, is a slowly paced and gorgeously shot romantic drama about a Canadian woman (Patricia Clarkson) who tries to visit her diplomat husband in Cairo, but strikes sparks with a local cafe owner (Alexander Siddig) when her husband is busy working. Clarkson is lovely, and the movie's discursive look at the culture clash between this modern woman and an ancient civilization is interesting — but it's a tedious slog at times.

"Princess Kaiulani," playing at the Megaplex 20 at The District, is also beautifully shot and painfully slow. It's a historical drama that tells of the Hawaiian princess (played by Q'orianka Kilcher, who played Pocahontas in "The New World") who helped secure civil rights for her people in the face of a takeover by white landowners supported by the U.S. military. The movie focuses on a prefunctory romance between the princess and an English lad (Shaun Evans), while some familiar actors (Barry Pepper and Will Patton) struggle to act behind abundant facial hair.