Movie News & Gossip

LONDON (Reuters) - Richard Curtis is better known for the films he wrote than the films he directed, but he sees himself working behind the camera more and more.

His writing credits include the English romantic comedies "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and he both wrote and directed 2003's "Love Actually."

- Capsule reviews of films opening this week:

"Fantastic Mr. Fox" — With George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Bill Murray leading the top-notch voice cast, director Wes Anderson has found an ideal story and medium — stop-motion animation — to bring his cockeyed vision to the cartoon world. In the hands of "Rushmore" director Anderson, Roald Dahl's children's book about a poultry-thieving fox gets loving treatment and a distinct handcrafted style that sets it apart from the sleek computer-generated imagery dominating animation today. Clooney provides the voice of a fox whose capers against three evil farmers bring the mechanized wrath of the human world down on him, his family and a menagerie of neighbors. It's lightweight fun, yet the film succeeds on all levels, presenting cute and clever varmints to charm children while offering adults merry screwball humor that slyly stretches the film's family-friendly rating. PG for action, smoking and slang humor. Running time: 88 minutes. Three stars out of four.

- No movie can be all bad when juiced up with a soundtrack of more than 50 classic rock tunes.

The best thing to say about Richard Curtis' "Pirate Radio" is that it's all about the music, man. The Kinks, the Who, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, Jimi Hendrix — these are the stars of "Pirate Radio," and the well-chosen songs are the main thing keeping the film afloat.