The following are capsule reviews of movies recently reviewed by the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Facing the Giants (Samuel Goldwyn)
Evangelical sports drama about a losing football coach (Alex Kendrick, who also directs) at a Christian high school in Georgia, who, experiencing personal and professional adversity, revives his team's season by turning to his faith. The earnest performances from the nonprofessional cast are surprisingly competent and the movie's look is reasonably polished, but while the film's heart is in the right place, its positive message about putting one's trust in God is undermined by a prosaic script that tends toward the preachy. Some mature thematic elements, including discussions about infertility. (A-II, PG)

The Guardian (Touchstone)
Action drama about a veteran Coast Guard rescue swimmer (Kevin Costner) who, after losing a colleague, temporarily hangs up his fins to teach at a Coast Guard academy, where he locks horns with a cocky recruit (Ashton Kutcher). Despite treading water for most of its first hour that plays like a commercial for the Coast Guard, director Andrew Davis' formulaic film is kept afloat by appealing performances, exciting rescue sequences and an admirable theme about sacrificing one's life for others. Intense scenes of peril, including a harrowing helicopter crash, implied sexual encounters and a tacit approval of casual sex, a brief bar fight, an instance of the f-word, as well as some crude language and profanity. (A-III, PG-13)

A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints (First Look)
Adaptation of writer-director Dito Montiel's gritty memoir about his turbulent adolescence (where he's played by Shia LaBeouf) in Queens, New York, with its street violence, casual sex and drugs, his longing for his dad's (Chazz Palminteri) love, and ultimately his flight from and eventual return to the neighborhood as an adult (Robert Downey Jr.) when the father is gravely ill. The film is a kaleidoscopic jumble of fast edits, zooms and pans conveying the undoubted upheaval in Dito's life, but despite its redemptive message about parent-child reconciliation, the brutal milieu and heavy-duty street patois, however accurate, are extremely rough going. Nonstop rough and crude language and general vulgarity, racial slurs, sexual banter and situations with partial nudity, innuendo, drug use, violence, murder, suicide and much domestic discord. (L, R)

Jet Li's Fearless" (Focus)
ction drama loosely based on the life of Chinese cultural hero Huo Yuanjia (Jet Li), an arrogant martial artist whose pursuit of street-fighting fame ends in tragedy, prompting a spiritual awakening that leads him to found a school to promote self-improvement and national pride during the foreign occupation of China at the turn of the 20th century. Director Ronny Yu's artful film delivers balletic fight choreography, elegant visuals and a solid story buttressed by Li's poignant performance and a redemptive theme about the futility of violence and revenge. Subtitles. Much stylized action violence and an instance of mildly crude language. (A-III, PG-13)

The Last King of Scotland (Fox Searchlight)
Morality tale set in the 1970s based on the novel by Giles Foden, about a young Scottish doctor (James McAvoy) who, in search of adventure, travels to Africa, where he becomes the personal physician and eventually the confidant of the charismatic but ruthless Ugandan dictator Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker). Initially blinded to the despot's atrocities by the seductions of power, he later opens his eyes to the heinous truth and his own complicity. Director Kevin MacDonald blends fact and fiction to mostly riveting effect, with Whitaker delivering a towering performance. Though dramatically justified, the brutality is quite gruesome at times. Intense scenes of violence including a graphic depiction of torture, brief grisly images of massacre and dismemberment, several sexual encounters with nudity, an abortion subplot, recurring rough and crude language and profanity. (L, R)

Open Season (Columbia)
Wacky, warm and reasonably witty computer-animated comedy about a domesticated grizzly bear (Martin Lawrence) who, trying to find his way back to comfortable civilization after being released into the wild, befriends a runty, motor-mouthed mule deer (Ashton Kutcher) and bands together with a motley menagerie of woodland creatures to run some hunters out of the forest. Directed by Jill Culton and Roger Allers (with a co-director credit to Anthony Stacchi), the film's thin plot is padded with slapstick, but vibrant visuals, nutty gags, a playful tone, and an amiable message about friendship make this entertaining fare for all but the youngest viewers. Some mildly rude language and humor, a few scenes of hunting menace, some innuendo and comic action. (A-II, PG)

The Queen (Miramax)
Absorbing British drama about the days following the death of Princess Diana, as new Prime Minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) tries to convince Queen Elizabeth (Helen Mirren) to express public remorse about her former daughter-in-law, as public grief reaches fever proportions. Stephen Frears directs beautifully, and even if Peter Morgan's script is mostly speculative, what we see on-screen plays convincingly, with a fine cast (including Alex Jennings, Helen McCrory and Roger Allam) and Mirren whose crusty yet vulnerable impersonation softens the anti-monarchist tone of the screenplay. A couple of instances of mild profanity and a few crass expressions. (A-II, PG-13)

School for Scoundrels (Weinstein)
Dreary and contrived comedy about an all-around loser parking-meter cop (Jon Heder) who, to win the heart of his pretty neighbor (Jacinda Barrett), takes a confidence-boosting course with an unconventional teacher (Billy Bob Thornton) who then pursues her as well. Director and co-writer Todd Phillips' film is almost completely devoid of laughs, indifferently paced, and inconsistent in its character delineation, while its one-upmanship rivalry between student and mentor never ignites. Much profanity, rough and crude language and humor, a brief implication of premarital sex, sexist banter and innuendo, adultery and some violence. (L , PG-13)