Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)
The premise of this fantasy action film should stop the movie cold. What Greek god would for a moment believe that Percy (Logan Lerman), a teen who doesn't even know he's the son of Poseidon, is behind the theft of Zeus's lightning bolts? But director Chris Columbus (he made the first two Harry Potter films) moves the plot along briskly, and it's amusing to see Pierce Brosnan and Uma Thurman playing a centaur and Medusa ("So rude, not looking people in the eyes") respectively. Aimed squarely at teens, with several dividends for adult viewers.
Pretty Bird (2008)
File this one under disappointing quirky indie comedy-drama. Written and directed by Paul Schneider, it's less a film than a series of acting exercises. Co-producer Paul Giamatti gets a meaty role as a sour, unemployed rocket scientist who implausibly agrees to build a rocket belt - a strap-on, one-man, jet-propulsion machine - for a transparently untrustworthy fast-talking dreamer (Billy Crudup) backed financially by a clueless friend. The film sputters, but Wim Mertens's music is lovely: Philip Glass meets the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.