Info: Opens today at the Broadway Centre Cinemas; rated PG-13 for some strong language; 93 minutes.

"Super Size Me" director Morgan Spurlock applies his brand of humorous social activism to the War on Terror, and the results are funny and humanist. Here's the shtick: When then-girlfriend (now his wife) Alex announces she's pregnant, Spurlock decides he's going to make his future child's world safer by tracking down the world's most wanted terrorist. His journey takes him through Egypt, Morocco, Israel, Jordan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, dissecting Osama's past and talking to civilians about the poverty, hopelessness and distrust of U.S. foreign policy that combine to drive radical fundamentalism. Spurlock's worldview may be too touchy-feely for some tastes, but he is sincere in stressing the universal truth that all of us - whether in the Midwest or the Middle East - just want a better world for our kids.

The Forbidden Kingdom

Info: Opens today in theaters everywhere; rated PG-13 for sequences of martial arts action and some violence; 108 minutes.

On paper, this movie should be a Hong Kong action fan's dream come true: a fantasy extravaganza that references everything from Bruce Lee to "The Bride With White Hair," has martial-arts choreography by Woo-Ping Yuen (who has staged fights for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "The Matrix" and "Kill Bill"), and stars two action legends, Jet Li and Jackie Chan. Alas, the results are a dog's breakfast of slamming fists, swordplay and special effects swirling around a weak "Wizard of Oz"-like story about a Boston teen ("Sky High's" Michael Angarano) magically transported to ancient China to dethrone a warlord (Collin Chou, from the last two "Matrix" films), aided by a monk (Li), a drunk (Chan) and a vengeance-minded young woman (newcomer Liu Yifei). Director Rob Minkoff ("Stuart Little") and writer John Fusco ("Hidalgo") clearly love the genre, but the camerawork is a little too frenetic to capture the kung-fu action. Meanwhile, the long-awaited pairing of the 44-year-old Li and the 54-year-old Chan is a fizzle (they only fight each other once, early in the film) that makes you wish they had met up in their prime.

88 Minutes

Info: Opens today in theaters everywhere; rated R for disturbing violent content, brief nudity and language; 108 minutes.

Movies this stupid usually have names like Pauly Shore or Larry the Cable Guy attached, not Al Pacino. Big Al plays Jack Gramm, a Seattle "forensic psychiatrist" whose expert testimony nine years ago put away a serial killer, John Forster (Neal McDonough). Now, on the day Forster is slated to be executed, Gramm receives a mysterious call on his cell phone, telling him he has 88 minutes to live. Gramm tries to figure out who made the call - his students (including Alicia Witt, Leelee Sobieski and "The O.C.'s" Benjamin McKenzie), his dean (Deborah Kara Unger), his stalwart assistant (Amy Brenneman), or some guy on a motorcycle - while murders copying Forster's gruesome and labor-intensive M.O. open up doubts that the wrong man went to prison. The script by Gary Scott Thompson ("The Fast and the Furious") features logical leaps, jaw-dropping coincidences and enough red herrings to fill Pike Place Market. Meanwhile, director Jon Avnet ("Up Close and Personal") sets up feverish chases that defy the laws of physics and Seattle traffic, while letting Pacino's acting go as wild as his variably puffy hair.