By BETSY PICKLE, Scripps Howard News Service

Greg Kinnear is such a likable guy that he's able to slide damaged characters under the radar so that audiences root for and connect with them before they realize that there's something wrong with them. It isn't that his characters don't deserve sympathy; it's just that viewers need to understand that they have flaws.

To make his next film, "Green Zone," Greg Kinnear reunited with "Stuck on You" sibling Matt Damon. It's a thriller instead of a comedy, and it takes place in Iraq, but the biggest difference was the angle.

In his latest film, "Flash of Genius," as well as in other movies he's made this decade, Greg Kinnear seems to have spent more than his fair share of screen time in pajamas or bathrobes.

What gives?

"How To Lose Friends & Alienate People" is three movies in one.

For starters, it's a hilarious ribbing of celebrity journalism -- think "America's Sweethearts," but funny. Then it's a behind-the-scenes expose about pop-culture power -- "The Devil Wears Prada" redone in the film milieu.

"Towelhead" has sparked controversy with its title, which is a derogatory term referring to Arabs that definitely needs to disappear from the lexicon. But it's what's in the movie that ought to stir discussion.

As you drive your Porsche Cayenne to the movie theater where "Eagle Eye" is playing, please don't use your cell phone.

After all, you wouldn't want to be distracted and get a scratch on your shiny new Porsche Cayenne that you park at the edge of the lot so no one will rub against it.

"Beer for My Horses" may find an audience among Toby Keith's and Rodney Carrington's family members and fans, especially the ones who are on their Christmas-card lists.

The movie, which the pair co-wrote and in which they co-star, probably won't appeal much beyond that circle, but it does prove two things:

1) Boys of all ages love flatulence jokes.

British television writer-director-producer-comedian-actor Ricky Gervais is such a favorite around the office -- for creating "The Office" and "Extras" and for his hilarious appearances on talk shows -- and he's become such a darling of the media over the past few years that it didn't occur to me that there still were Americans who didn't know who he is.

To put it kindly, writer-director Tyler Perry needs a vacation. The man works too hard. He gives too much.

To be frank, Perry is burned out. His funny bone is sprained. His melodrama is drowning in soap-opera suds.

Robert De Niro and Al Pacino probably still have enough fans to get respectable box-office numbers for the opening weekend of "Righteous Kill." But very soon, their fans will speak of their poorly thought-out pairing in this halfhearted cop thriller in hushed tones, as though their idols were ill when they agreed to make it and are still recuperating.