My latest MSN Movies gallery uses the prestigious voice cast of “Astro Boy” (Cage! Theron! Nighy! Sutherland! … um, Eugene Levy as Stumble-Bot!) to remind readers of other animated features that have employed major names.

I was tempted to assemble the whole list out of DreamWorks titles, in an implicit criticism of that studio’s insistence on building movies around megastars rather than picking the best performer for a given role, but that seemed kind of churlish … and this way, I get to pretend that “Shark Tale” doesn’t exist.

Another busy Friday — with a surprising emphasis on impressionable youngsters and the older, wiser folks (in some cases, much older) who turn up to offer guidance. Weird.

“Amelia”: Hilary Swank plays Amelia Earhart in Mira Nair’s biopic, which Fox Searchlight is releasing with virtually no advance fanfare and just one last-minute screening. And these are the guys who screened “(500) Days of Summer” and “Adam” for months in advance. It smacks of damage control to me, but fortunately I’m not the one reviewing it.

“Astro Boy“: I’ll be honest: I wasn’t expecting much from this CG feature based on the mildly charming 1960s TV show. But it’s a very solid and consistently entertaining little movie, filled to bursting with little bits of character business and dazzling visual design. I may be its most enthusiastic champion, though; some of the other reviews I’ve seen are suggesting it’ll be as unfairly dismissed as director David Bowers’ previous venture, “Flushed Away”. And that’s just not fair.

“An Education”: Set in England at the dawn of the Sixties, Lone Scherfig’s festival-circuit hit follows a teenager (Carey Mulligan) who falls into a charged relationship with a man twice her age (Peter Sarsgaard). It’s enjoyable enough, and Mulligan makes an impressive debut, but Nick Hornby’s script is awfully formulaic, and Sarsgaard is awfully weak as someone who’s supposed to be a charming Brit. Rad felt much the same way; Jason was a little less tolerant.

“Saw VI“: More grotty mayhem from the franchise that’s proven considerably longer-lived than the maniac at its core. I’ll be seeing it this afternoon; in the meantime, you can enjoy my conversation with Tobin Bell, who once again returns as the infernal therapist known as Jigsaw, despite dying at the end of “Saw III”. UPDATE: Review’s up!

“The September Issue”: Is Anna Wintour an egomaniacal monster who no longer cares about the impact she has on her staff and colleagues, or is she just really, really dedicated to producing the best product she can? R.J. Cutler’s documentary explores the question, and concludes that the two theories may not be mutually exclusive.

“Stan Helsing“: Bo Zenga’s insipid horror parody might be the worst movie you see this year … if you’re dumb enough to go and see it. Oh, and the DVD’s coming out on Tuesday, so consider yourself doubly cautioned.

“Still Bill“: Some documentaries take their subjects and pick them apart, the better to get to the bottom of their thorny issues; other documentaries just don’t. This look at the present-day activities of essential 1970s soul singer Bill Withers — who vanished from the scene in the mid-1980s — is one of the latter. It’s not bad, exactly, but it is awfully disappointing that it never tries to find a way to provide the backstory (or even the context) that Withers himself refuses to offer.

“The Vampire’s Assistant”: I know absolutely nothing about this movie beyond what I’ve seen in the TV spots, which suggests that John C. Reilly plays a cranky carny vampire, and Willem Dafoe and Salma Hayek are goofing around in the supporting cast. And was that Kristen Schaal in there, too?

Like I said. Weird.

So this is kind of cool: David Cronenberg’s “Videodrome” is screening tonight as the final piece in Cinematheque Ontario TIFF Cinematheque’s Toronto on Film series, and Adam and I have volunteered to introduce it on behalf of the Toronto Film Critics Association. I’ve blurbed it briefly on the NOW Daily page.

What makes it cool? Well, several things. First, it’s “Videodrome”, a genuine visionary masterpiece, and while the Criterion DVD is very nice, it’s no substitute for a 35mm presentation on a proper screen. Second, Cronenberg himself will be in attendance, and I’m quite curious to hear what he has to say about this particular film — and its predictions of a world of interactive screens — a quarter-century later.

The downside? It’s already sold out. So I’m basically just taunting you here. Sorry about that.

Spike Jonze’s magnificent “Where the Wild Things Are” was crowned king of the box-office this weekend, grossing a respectable $32.5 million … though the real success story is this week’s #3 picture, “Paranormal Activity”, which brought in $20.2 million in its first weekend in wide release.

This makes “Paranormal Activity”, which was produced for somewhere between $11,000 and $15,000, one of the most profitable movies ever made. Which is meaningless, really, except that if Oren Peli had a piece of the first-dollar gross, he’ll be in a position to buy Bolivia by the end of the month.

I’m curious to see what will happen to both pictures next week, though. They’re two of the most divisive movies of the year — check out the amusingly hostile comment exchanges that follow my reviews — and swirling word-of-mouth could generate strong numbers, or kill ’em in their cribs.

I strongly suggest that you see both of them — “Where the Wild Things Are” was one of the best films I’ve seen all year, and I found “Paranormal Activity” both clever and creepy. But then, it seems I’m one of those easily led hipster critics who’ll embrace anything with an emo soundtrack or clever viral marketing …

They hurt his family. Now he’s bringing their whole world down.

My latest MSN movie gallery celebrates the red-meat genre of the vengeance movie, where disproportionate violence is wreaked upon scumbags in the hopes of pursuing a teachable moment for cinema audiences.

I very nearly included “The Last House on the Left”, but then I would have had to find room for “The Virgin Spring”, and honestly, that comparison just doesn’t serve anyone.

This is one of the brightest weeks for movies in a long time. We’ve got two pictures opening that I’d rank with the year’s best, a couple of others that are very, very good … and some other stuff that doesn’t measure up at all. But you have to take the good with the bad, right?

“The Burning Plain“: Guillermo Arriaga’s directorial debut features all the everybody-hurts tropes that defined his screenplays for “Amores Perros”, “21 Grams” and “Babel”, only now they’re utterly lacking in visual artistry and emotional resonance. I feel sorriest for Charlize Theron, really. She’s only trying to help.

“The Damned United“: He’s already essayed Tony Blair, David Frost and Werewolf Spartacus, and now Michael Sheen captures both the accent and the self-destructive confidence of overmatched football manager Brian Clough in Tom Hooper’s thrilling sports movie, which isn’t really a sports movie at all.

“Eating Buccaneers”: Have you ever watched a trailer for a movie and thought, ‘oh, dear, that looks like a terrible idea”? That was my reaction to the preview for Bill Keenan’s comedy about a crashed planeload of corporate types struggling to survive in the wilderness. Susan’s review would seem to suggest it’s even worse than I’d feared.

“Good Hair“: Chris Rock examines the weird world of African-American hair care in this engaging documentary, which is worth the price of admission just for the story Al Sharpton tells about how James Brown badgered him into getting his hair coiffed.

“Law Abiding Citizen”: I’m not entirely certain how much time Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx spend glowering at each other in F. Gary Gray’s latest boom-boom actioner, but judging from the trailers, it’s an awful lot. Glenn found it tolerable; Kieran, less so.

“A Serious Man“: Joel and Ethan Coen take the search for God and turn it into a farce. Not everyone can get away with that; remember what happened when Darren Aronofsky tried? That poor man drilled a hole in his head! Seriously, though, this is a terrific movie. You should see it.

“The Stepfather”: Dylan Walsh steps in for Terry O’Quinn in the remake of Joseph Ruben’s 1987 chiller. No press screenings, which is a shame, because I’m kind of curious.

“Taqwacore: The Birth of Punk Islam”: Omar Majeed’s documentary looks at the curious subculture of secular Islamic punk rock. Rad and Kieran are both raving about it. (See what I did there? Yeah, well, it’s been a long week.)

“Where the Wild Things Are“: Spike Jonze and co-writer Dave Eggers turn Maurice Sendak’s slender children’s novel into a raw emotional whirlwind, and one of the finest expressions of a child’s mind I’ve ever seen on film. I wish I’d seen this when I was ten; also, I no longer want to smack Eggers for “Away We Go” quite as much.

“Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg“: Aviva Kempner looks at the life and legacy of Gertrude Berg, the writer-producer who created (and starred in) “The Goldbergs”, America’s first openly Jewish radio show. Berg seems like a fascinating person, but Kempner doesn’t do her any favors with this one-note portrait.

Oh, and “Paranormal Activity” opens wide today. Prepare for a huge opening weekend, and a “Blair Witch”-scale backlash by Sunday …

Joel and Ethan Coen have this reputation as inscrutable, unknowable pranksters who make complex, unreadable movies, refuse to engage with serious questions and don’t suffer fools.

I only spent twenty minutes with them in a round-table situation at TIFF last month, but as far as I can tell, only the last thing is true — as you may glean from the opening of my interview with the brothers, which runs in the new issue of NOW.

Also in today’s paper, you’ll find my festival interviews with Michael Stuhlbarg, the star of the Coens’ wonderful new comedy, and Michael Sheen, who inhabits yet another celebrated Englishman in Tom Hooper’s “The Damned United”. It’s like September all over again!