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Joaquin Phoenix as drug-addicted country singer Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon as singer June Carter generate enough electricity to power much, though not most, of Walk the Line, director James Mangold's take on Cash's early career. Despite the sparks, something is out of sync.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is a step down in the series, failing to define the title character and portending less engaging versions in the future. British director Mike Newell's (Mona Lisa Smile) deliberate approach is a welcome break from the usual slam-bang mayhem for the first third of the movie—but, with a grinding plot and passive protagonist, this year's Hogwarts lessons are awfully thin.

Openings in Australia, France, South Korea and Spain sent Flightplan flying to first place. Its $15.9 million weekend was plenty to dethrone The Legend of Zorro, and its foreign total grew to $60.2 million, putting the Jodie Foster thriller on course to top its $86.7 million domestic haul in the coming weeks. Cameron Diaz

Users can now create their own movie comparison charts in our new Showdowns section.

The dreary Bee Season takes a firm dramatic subject—the role of mysticism in one family's demise—and intellectualizes it to death. Written by Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, based on the novel by Myla Goldberg and directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel (who directed the eerie Lake Tahoe tale, The Deep End), this ponderous drama drains the life out of everyone in it—and in the theater.

Focus Features' Pride and Prejudice enjoyed arguably the most impressive debut of an overall soft weekend. The $28 million adaptation of the Jane Austen novel attracted $2.9 million from 215 theaters, ranking 10th place and averaging a potent $13,325 per site. Keira Knightley

The sky didn't fall for Chicken Little, but it has yet to rise in regards to overall business. With modest starts from Zathura, Derailed and Get Rich or Die Tryin', the weekend was down 13 percent from the comparable frame last year, and it was the least attended second weekend in November since 2000. Robin WilliamsClive OwenJennifer AnistonCurtis HansonJim Sheridan

Burbank, California—Whether cheering for John Wayne's screen hero or rooting for Kelly's Heroes, seeing war movies as a child with my father, a veteran, was a unique experience. Dad was usually silent during Hollywood's depictions of war. He knew the reality. Having fought in battle, having lost much of his hearing—and his comrades—he neither romanticized killing nor turned bitter about having done it. He wanted us kids to think about war. Michael Caine

All eyes are on an ever-growing boy wizard. The release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on Nov. 18 will supply a much needed boost to the foreign box office after a slew of disappointing months. This past weekend offered some promise with the arrival of Chicken Little, but top draw, The Legend of Zorro, experienced the standard sequel tumble. Jodie FosterCameron CroweTerry Gilliam

Coming off Robert Zemeckis' successful adaptation of his The Polar Express and ten years after Joe Johnston brought his Jumanji to the screen, children's writer Chris Van Allsburg scores three for three with Jon Favreau's charming take on his Zathura. The theme is no deeper than "be nice to your little brother," but this board game fantasy is as much fun as a box of Cracker Jack.

The holiday season kicked off with a cluck and a grunt, an improvement over the thud of recent weeks but down seven percent from the comparable weekend last year when The Incredibles burst on the scene. As popular as they were, Chicken Little and Jarhead combined opened smaller than the Pixar picture's $70.5 million. Jamie FoxxGeorge ClooneySteve Martin

Admittedly, Jarhead looked awful from the tag line, "Welcome to the Suck," and this 1990s rehash of a zillion war movie clichés is a plotless nomad in the desert, which is a shame; with 2,000 U.S. military deaths in the Middle East, where the movie takes place, America could use a provocative movie about what it means to fight.

After more than three years of development, Activision will release The Movies on Nov. 8. The PC-based movie studio tycoon game by Lionhead Studios (Black and White) aims to please movie fans, box office watchers and gamers alike by challenging both their business smarts and artistic creativity.

Disney's wispy Chicken Little, which has virtually nothing to do with the famous story about the little chicken who thought the sky was falling, hardly gets cooking. Despite a feast of clever, colorful scenarios and talented actors providing voices, a collective of screenwriters contaminates the feathery fable with a theme that combines aliens with pseudo self-esteem.

The Legend of Zorro leaped to the top of the foreign box office with a $26.3 million weekend from 45 markets ($28.2 million total including previews). Distributor Sony's massive 6,094-screen launch assured a sizable opening, but, like its domestic start, the movie was decisively unspectacular, especially for a sequel to a picture that grossed $156.2 million overseas. Emma ThompsonJodie Foster

Halloween weekend saw a duel between blade-oriented sequels, and, with fewer theaters and a fraction of the budget, Saw II made mincemeat out of The Legend of Zorro. Antonio BanderasCatherine Zeta-JonesMeryl StreepUma ThurmanNicolas CageGore Verbinski

Seven years after The Mask of Zorro paired Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones in a zesty take on the swashbuckler, The Legend of Zorro rides again with the stars and the same director, Martin Campbell, taking another turn. It is a wrong turn.

The year's worst breach of medical ethics in pictures goes to Prime, a harmless, ineffective update of Summer of '42, taking the older woman / younger man affair to the Upper West Side instead of the beach, with gorgeous Uma Thurman replacing gorgeous Jennifer O'Neill. The leggy Pulp Fiction star does her best to convince us that she would fall for a 23-year-old artist from Brooklyn (Bryan Greenberg).

Director Gore Verbinski's The Weather Man is a slow, bleak, climb to a higher altitude. Neither hilarious nor profound, it is glum, yet it stretches consistently toward a modest goal. The movie's poster, featuring actor Nicolas Cage as a put upon weatherman, wears its cynicism as a badge and a tag line that bears a warning: Bring an umbrella.

Stop-motion animation led the foreign box office over the weekend. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit was tops with $16.9 million, while {lnk42535}Tim Burton's Corpse Bride{/lnk} landed in second place with $9.7 million from 19 countries. Emma ThompsonJodie Foster