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

Battle in Seattle (Redwood Palms)
Engrossing docudrama (including some archival footage) about the 1999 meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle, as thousands of protesters, decrying the agency's globalization policies --- involving issues like environmentalism, fair trade and employment --- clashed violently with police, turning the city into a virtual war zone and leading to the collapse of the WTO talks. Actor Stuart Townsend, in his directorial and writing debut, maintains a taut pace with mostly fictional central characters playing out against the actual events. Some brutal riot violence, much rough language and some profanity, and a premarital situation. (A-III, R)

Miracle at St. Anna (Touchstone)
Powerful World War II drama about a kindhearted African-American soldier who, together with three others from his segregated unit, becomes trapped behind enemy lines in Italy where they must rely on a sympathetic villager and a partisan leader for safety, while he protects a wounded local boy. The script contains much spiritual debate and reflection and pits Catholicism, as embodied by a heroic priest, against the brutality of the occupying Nazis. Director Spike Lee's ambitious effort to blend action, mystery, pathos and social commentary --- though it sometimes leads to jarring tone shifts --- ultimately proves an ardent emotional journey. Intense combat violence with gore, nongraphic sexual activity, adultery, upper female nudity, much rough and crude language, several uses of profanity and racial slurs. (A-III, R)

Religulous (Lionsgate)
Comedian Bill Maher attacks spiritual beliefs and religion by traveling the globe interviewing officials and adherents of various faiths --- Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Mormon, among them --- subjecting all to ridicule. Ignoring both the good done by religious people and institutions and the millions murdered by militantly atheist regimes in the past century, he seeks out a parade of people who make all-too-easy targets, but does not grapple with the answers the great religions offer to the serious questions people face. His sneering dismissal of all religious beliefs as mere superstition makes this documentary blatantly irreverent and journalistically spurious. A consistently irreligious, sometimes blasphemous, tone; rough language; crass expressions and some profanity; brief sexual references and imagery; and upper female nudity. (O, R)

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.