THE BOURNE SUPREMACY: This sequel to the surprise 2002 hit, which was apparently the most rented video of 2003, is quite better than the original. A very fast-paced spy thriller with Paul Greengrass taking the reigns from original helmer Doug Liman. Matt Damon plays Jason Bourne, and the government is after him again, and so lots of beating ass and evidence-gathering takes place, and that's all we can really ask for in film like this. This movie keeps action scene after action scene churning through the projector and gives the film an immediacy that certainly was lacking in THE BOURNE IDENTITY. Damon is good, as are foes Joan Allen and the ubiquitous Brian Cox.

HAROLD AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE: Another in a line of lowbrow buddy comedies, directed by DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR "auteur" Danny Leiner. The comedy, opening July 30, scores immediate points by putting little-known, ethnically-diverse John Cho and Kal Penn as the leads and then setting them off on a weed-induced, DUDE-WHERE'S-MY-CAR-style journey to White Castle. I enjoyed the absolute craziness of DWMC, and this, while in some ways toned down, has some really off-the-wall stuff that I liked, especially when Neil Patrick Harris makes a cameo as "himself." Of all the comedies this year, from like-minded EUROTRIP to the awful STARSKY AND HUTCH and the recent OK laughers DODGEBALL and ANCHORMAN, to the upcoming WITHOUT A PADDLE, this might be the best comedy I've seen this year. Sheer lunacy works for me, and it has some pretty good lines in it, too.

I didn't get around to seeing CATWOMAN yet, but everyone who has seen it so far has told me that I should, because it's one of those so-bad-it's-got-to-be-seen type movies.