“Deja Vu” — Whether or not you get that nagging sensation that you’ve seen this movie before, your brain will seriously hurt trying to figure out whether its central gimmick works.

(It doesn’t.) There are the obligatory explosions and car chases, even a little tease of nudity, everything you’d expect in a big, mindless action movie. Only “Deja Vu” has its mind on far more ambitious, complicated subjects: the possibility of going back in time to keep hundreds of people from dying in a New Orleans ferry explosion. Denzel Washington endures all the physical demands of Tony Scott’s film with his typical aplomb, even gets a few laughs as a no-nonsense ATF agent investigating the attack. But then the movie completely jumps into the abyss and Washington is forced to go with it — literally. (Adam Goldberg’s long-winded explanation about time folding back on itself is unintentionally hilarious.) Val Kilmer co-stars in a thankless role as the FBI agent on the case, with pretty Paula Patton playing a young woman who unknowingly holds clues in the past. PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and terror, disturbing images and some sensuality. 125 min. One and a half stars out of four.

“The Fountain” — Hugh Jackman has got to be the hardest-working man in show business this year between starring in the third “X-Men” film, “Scoop” and “The Prestige” and voicing characters in the animated “Flushed Away” and “Happy Feet.” But nothing could have required more physical exertion than keeping a straight face while shooting “The Fountain,” a laughably preposterous movie. Writer-director Darren Aronofsky has been working on this trippy sci-fi extravaganza since 1999 — before the release of his harrowing drug drama “Requiem for a Dream.” What he’s come up with is just incomprehensible. Jackman stars as three versions of the same guy over 1,000 years: a 16th-century conquistador, a present-day scientist and a futuristic astronaut. In all three he seeks the fountain of youth; in all three, he’s in love with Rachel Weisz, Aronofsky’s real-life fiancee who gets little more to do than stand there and look ethereally beautiful. The cinematography from longtime Aronofsky collaborator Matthew Libatique is striking, though — mostly when Jackman is ascending to the stars inside a bubble with a giant, gnarled tree sprouting from the middle of it, his head shaved in a way that causes him to resemble Joey Lawrence on “Dancing With the Stars.” PG-13 for some intense sequences of violent action, some sensuality and language. 96 min. One and a half stars out of four.

“The History Boys” — Alan Bennett’s unlikely stage hit about brainy British schoolboys angling to get into Oxford and Cambridge comes to the screen rather clunkily. Crafted by acclaimed theater director Nicholas Hytner, who oversaw the stage version and made excellent movie adaptations of “The Crucible” and “The Madness of King George,” the movie feels too much like a filmed play, and filmed not all that gracefully. The many inevitable classroom scenes are stagy and static, while Hytner awkwardly wedges in segments that try to expand the story outside the cloistered school walls. What the film does retain are tremendous performances from the cast, whose main players are reunited from the stage version, including Tony winners Richard Griffiths and Frances de la Tour as two of the boys’ teachers. The story follows eight star students being coached for university entrance exams, the drama becoming more a tussle over the youth’s hearts and minds among their competing school mentors. R for language and sexual content. 112 min. Two and a half stars out of four.

“Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny” — So Jack Black has cashed in on his success by getting someone to pony up the bucks for this ego project, a comic fabrication about how he and Kyle Gass formed their musical duo. Only the most tenacious of Tenacious D fans could love such an inside joke. The movie follows the duo’s rock ’n’ roll fantasy as they go in search of a guitar pick forged from a piece of Satan’s anatomy, which will turn them into music gods. Director Liam Lynch, a Black and Gass pal who has worked with them on Tenacious D short films and a DVD release by the duo, shares screenwriting credit with the two stars. The movie also features cameos and bit parts from other Black and Gass buddies, including Tim Robbins, whose Actors Gang troupe is where the two met. R for pervasive language, sexual content and drug use. 94 min. One and a half stars out of four.

— David Germain, AP Movie Writer

“A Good Year” — You have to at least give Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott credit for trying something different: a film that could not possibly be more the opposite of their epic, Oscar-winning “Gladiator.” They’ve drained out all the carnage, fury and blood and replaced them with sunshine, laughter and bottles upon bottles of red wine. It’s an ambitious experiment, and not a completely successful one. “A Good Year” often feels desperately strained in its whimsy, and as it morphs from travelogue to slapsticky French farce to shameless chick flick, it grows nauseating in its sickly sweet romantic dialogue. For a while, though, it is sort of a curiosity and a refreshing change to see the typically meaty, serious Crowe try on light, physical comedy. He plays a soulless London banker who travels to Provence following the death of his beloved uncle (a rascally Albert Finney), who raised him there on his sprawling vineyard. Initially, he plans to sell the place as quickly as possible, but in time finds he likes it. Cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd’s camerawork makes the French countryside look naturally irresistible, all awash in rich color and warm, golden light. Marion Cotillard and Abbie Cornish co-star. PG-13 for language and some sexual content. 118 min. Two stars out of four.