Another Friday, another flood of new arrivals on the big screen … and one of the summer’s best movies threatens to be clobbered by one of its worst.

“Bruno“: Look, I loved “Borat” as much as the next guy. (Maybe even more so, actually, once I realized I was sort of understanding the Hebrew dialogue Baron Cohen was substituting for Kazakh.) And I understand the value of revealing the noxious homophobia of rural America. But this series of increasingly immature provocations doesn’t produce anything of comic or satirical value — though there will be plenty of people who think it does.

“Il Divo“: Paolo Sorrentino’s head-spinning biopic of Italian political player Guilio Andreotti took the Jury Prize at Cannes last year, presumably because they figured they had to give Sorrentino something for all the effort. I would have been extra-perverse and given the Best Actor prize to Toni Servillo instead — his gnome-like stillness is the only thing that breaks through the movie’s bludgeoning style.

“The Hurt Locker“: Kathryn Bigelow’s exceptional movie about an American bomb-disposal squad trying to survive Iraq is being buried by all the “Bruno” hype. Don’t let it slip past you; it’s her best film since “Near Dark”, and it’s definitely worth seeing on a big screen. Also, if this doesn’t land Jeremy Renner five major features by the time September rolls around, he needs a new agent.

“I Love You, Beth Cooper“: Have you ever seen a filmmaker completely misjudge the tone and intention of his source material? No? Well, don’t start with Chris Columbus’ boneheaded attempt to turn Larry Doyle’s brilliant deconstruction of John Hughes movie logic back into a crowd-pleasing John Hughes movie. I’m not sure anyone could have made this work on-screen, but Columbus just fails so profoundly …

“Valentino: The Last Emperor”: Circumstances prevented me from seeing Matt Tyrnauer’s ride-along with revered fashion designer Valentino Garavani … and it looks like I dodged a bullet, based on Rad and Adam‘s reactions. Lucky me!