By BETSY PICKLE, Scripps Howard News Service

After making three films in England and seeming very much at home, Woody Allen plays tourist in Spain with "Vicky Cristina Barcelona."It's an approach that works well for the writer-director. He uses the exotic locale to remove any sense of equilibrium his main characters have, forcing them to examine their issues without a safety net.

Hayley Atwell was "minus 1" when the landmark miniseries "Brideshead Revisited" debuted on British television and turned Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews and Diana Quick into stars, but ever since she auditioned for the role of Julia Flyte in a new film version of Evelyn Waugh's classic novel, she's found herself connected to the 1981 series.

Sex, religion and Anglophilia never seem to go out of style, making "Brideshead Revisited" a perfect target for visiting or revisiting.

Just when months of presidential campaigning are threatening to burn out many American voters, along comes "Swing Vote" to remind us again what's important.

The brooding hero of "Batman Begins" faces even tougher dilemmas in "The Dark Knight" than he did in his 2005 debut.

OK, it's time to come out of the closet.I'm an ABBA fan.

Perhaps the worst thing Guillermo del Toro could have done to himself was make "Pan's Labyrinth."After his brilliant 2006 fantasy won three Oscars (out of six nominations), the Mexican writer-director became more than just a creative outsider in Hollywood. He became a player, with the obligatory excesses and expectations.

What matters about "The Children of Huang Shi" isn't that its inspired-by-a-true-story umbrella allows it to take a creative approach to dates, events and people, but that its purer motive of wanting to shine a light on a man who placed the welfare of others above himself is a tale worth telling in any form.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Josh Hutcherson traveled into space in "Zathura," into a magical world in "Bridge to Terabithia" and across the country in "RV," so it was easy for him to stretch his imagination to take a "Journey to the Center of the Earth."That's not to say the film shoot wasn't hard on his body.

Fun is the mission in "Journey to the Center of the Earth," and the mission is accomplished delightfully.