"Monsters vs. Aliens"

Deep in outer 3D space, a distant planet explodes, sending chards of debris into the cosmos. For a few moments, if you didn't know you were about to embark on a kid-friendly trek filled with goofy wisecracking creatures, you'd be thinking greatest special effect ever. You'd be thinking science fiction masterpiece.

Hence the dilemma of cinema's mind-blowing ability to suck us into a reality so real it has to be fabricated. (Talk about irony.)

"Monsters vs. Aliens" is delightful kiddie fare that's so marvelously rendered, so amazingly tactile that I almost forgot to laugh.

3-D has come of age, has hit a homer, has just been discovered in a coffee shop by a Hollywood producer—and I guess it's now up to the people in charge to keep stretching that envelope in all the right directions. Last month's "Coraline," the current "Monsters vs. Aliens," the upcoming "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and "Up" (not to mention James Cameron's mysterious "Avatar") all seem to be meeting those expectations.

But only about 5 percent of U.S. theaters are equipped for 3D projection, so the trend may have to percolate a while longer before rendering that old-fashioned flat screen obsolete. Is 3-D that progressive? Hey, some said the talking picture wouldn't last either.

Meanwhile, back in Modesto, a sweet bride-to-be gets conked on the head by a radioactive piece of that aforementioned space debris. Susan Murphy (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) sprouts to 50 feet, is plucked from obscurity by the U.S. government and meets a plethora of cute, trash-talking monsters also lingering under the government's top-secret care.

So when aliens attack (actually, alien—the evil overlord Gallaxhar), the government's only hope is to pit their goofy assortment of creatures against the alien invasion.

The movie's at its best when monsters and alien lock horns— or appendages, claws, antennae or sometimes just goop—and less effective when Susan and her human pals are angsting about her size and her future. Still, "Monsters vs. Aliens" is a stunning visual treat. The brainless and bouncy blue B.O.B. (Mr. Benzoate Ostylezene Bicarbonate, voiced by Seth Rogen) steals the show.

There's enough going on for fans of every age to sit merrily through this one. My only complaint? Now that we're smart enough to recycle those 3-D glasses at the end of the flick, how about a buck back for the goodwill gesture?

"I Love You, Man"

Light on plot but doubledipping into character development,

"I Love You, Man" is yet another example of the modern romantic comedy trading quirkiness for traditional romcom staples. (Yes, welcome to the "bro-mantic comedy.")

The thing about dangling quirkiness in front of an audience, you have to be able to deliver quirkiness at all the right moments. And "I Love You, Man" gets it right just about every time.

Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) is a timid real estate agent engaged to Zooey (Rashida Jones)—the perfect woman. Peter's also the perfect man (from the estrogen perspective)—attentive, doting, fastidious; the only problem is that Paul's been a "dater" his whole life, so attentive to the opposite sex he's had little time to make any real male friends.

As his wedding day approaches, Paul's realizes he has no candidates for his best man. So he embarks on a quest to find a friend.

Yeah, the journey gets predictable—I mean, who doesn't anticipate the plethora of mistaken perceptions, the gay innuendos, the subtle faux pas. But "I Love You, Man" doesn't dwell or descend into the inane or the rehashed. Yeah, there are innuendos, but these play out with a lighthearted sincerity.

Eventually, Peter meets Sydney (Jason Segel). Sydney seems to be an all-right sort of guy—honest but a tad eccentric, somewhere just inside that bell curve that passes for acceptable "normalcy."

Which is the heart of "I Love You, Man." As Peter and Sydney bond (clever, occasionally bawdy, frequently awkward moments) you can feel the goofy tension begin to rise. It never gets near the contrived awkwardness of, say, "You, Me & Dupree"—this one's a gentler, happy-go-lucky tale of modern-day American male angst—but it does give women an understanding of (and quiet suspicions about) any guy's new best friend.

You never quite know where this one is heading either; fortunately the movie is quick-paced, light on its feet and one step ahead of predictable. Basically, the film's innovative, stylistic, smartly dialogued approach keeps "I Love You, Man" alive and humming and the audience laughing, which is good news for quirk addicts everywhere.