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

Beowulf (Paramount)
Generally impressive 3-D animated reworking of the Beowulf legend, dramatizing the warrior's vanquishing of the tortured Grendel, his encounter with the demon's mother (Angelina Jolie), and his later troubled kingship. Director Robert Zemeckis has taken some dramatic license with the venerable but sketchy original narrative, but writers Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery's intelligent screenplay has remained faithful to the essentials, including its mix of Christian and pagan elements, while several of the action sequences, including the climactic battle with a flying dragon, are excitingly done. Nearly full male and female nudity, sexual references and innuendo, period bawdiness, adultery, implied nonmarital encounters, intense violence with gore and a suicide. (A-III , PG-13)

Margot at the Wedding (Paramount Vantage)
Well-acted though downbeat tale of neurotic short-story writer (a superb Nicole Kidman) and her teenage son (Zane Pais) on the brink of puberty who attend the wedding of her often-estranged sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who's about to marry an out-of-work artist (Jack Black). Writer-director Noah Baumbach's keenly observant drama (interlaced with mordantly comic moments) has much the same feel as his more autobiographical "The Squid and the Whale" about a singularly dysfunctional family, and may offer to some the same grim fascination even though the mostly unlikable characters' actions are often reprehensible. Pervasive rough language and profanity, brief partial and rear nudity, masturbation, adultery, adolescent sexuality, premarital pregnancy, drug use, some physical violence and much domestic discord. (L, R)

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (Walden/Mandate/Fox)
Wholesome, well-meaning but only moderately charming tale about a magical toy store run by a 243-year-old eccentric (Dustin Hoffman), his young assistant (Natalie Portman), a 9-year-old boy (Zach Mills), and their new stuffy accountant (Jason Bateman). There are too many holes in writer-director Zach Helm's basic premise even for a fantasy, while the death of a major character and the shop's subsequent temporary transformation into funereal black may be too downbeat for the youngest viewers, while the ultimate messages about "believing in yourself" and "finding the magic within" have been done better elsewhere. An ambiguous remark about the afterlife. (A-I, G)

Office for Film & Broadcasting classifications: A-I -- general patronage; A-II -- adults and adolescents; A-III -- adults; L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling; O -- morally offensive.