In theaters this weekend: 'Spiderwick,' 'Jumper'

"The Spiderwick Chronicles" " This may not be in the same fantasy league as the tales of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling.

Yet the family flick based on the books of Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black is an all-around class act, even if its world of ogres and goblins is a bit stale in the wake of its more ambitious cousins in the over-the-rainbow genre.

The human characters are the main source of wonder here. Freddie Highmore, Sarah Bolger and Mary-Louise Parker authentically capture the spirit of a fractured family, while David Strathairn adds a wistful streak as a naturalist who uncovers the secrets of a hidden magical realm.

The story follows a newly divorced mom and her kids as they move into a fanciful house surrounded by menacing goblins and an evil ogre (Nick Nolte) out to take over the world. The house itself is a marvel, though the creatures are far less imaginative " mostly squat, clumsy, jabbering little guys that look like delinquent Muppets.

Far more interesting and scary than any of the computer-generated creatures is Nolte himself in the one scene he appears in the flesh.

PG for scary creature action and violence, peril and some thematic elements. 96 min.

"Jumper" " Let's say you're a young, good-looking guy, with strong cheekbones and puppy-dog eyes and pillowy, kissable lips. Hayden Christensen, for instance.

Let's say you have this amazingly cool ability to jump anywhere in the world at any time, just by thinking of the place you want to go. You can surf in Fiji, have a picnic atop the Sphinx or pop into London to pick up a random blonde for a one-night stand.

You don't have to worry about working because your income comes from robbing banks. But you can't tell anyone about this talent so you have to experience all these adventures by yourself. You have no friends so you couldn't confide in anyone anyway. Wouldn't you feel lonely? Guilty? Conflicted? Something ...?

Not in "Jumper," which is all concept and zero substance. Director Doug Liman, who has made a huge leap of his own from small gems like "Swingers" and "Go" to blockbusters like "The Bourne Identity" and "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," initially offers up what feels like a globe-trotting thriller for the ADD generation. (The script is based on a pair of young-adult, sci-fi novels from Steven Gould.)

It's all fun and sexy until you start wondering, who is this guy and how can he do this?

He has a complicated superhero skill, but he's too shallow and purposeless to be considered a true hero. Special effects alone aren't enough, and the climactic showdown between Christensen and Samuel L. Jackson, as one of the "paladins" who hunt the "jumpers," feels ridiculously overblown.

Then the movie just ends in an abrupt, unsatisfying fashion.

PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence, some language and brief sexuality. 92 min.

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"Definitely, Maybe" " Surely it's not too early to feel nostalgic for 1992. After all, it was 16 whole years ago. No iPods yet " and those clunky cell phones!

Kurt Cobain was still alive and Bill Clinton hadn't even met Monica Lewinsky, much less have sexual relations with that woman.

Thankfully, writer-director Adam Brooks doesn't wallow too obnoxiously in the not-so-distant kitsch, and mainly uses the period to establish the story of Ryan Reynolds' Will, a disillusioned New York ad man who's just been served divorce papers.

That afternoon, he picks up his 10-year-old daughter (Abigail Breslin) from school and is horrified to discover that she and her classmates have had a sex education lesson, which prompts a flurry of uncomfortable questions about where she came from and who else Will dated besides her mom.

He tells her of his romantic past as a bedtime story, changing the names so she (and we) won't know which girlfriend became her mother until the end.

There's Emily (Elizabeth Banks), his wholesome college sweetheart from Wisconsin; April (Isla Fisher), a flighty but quick-witted aide he meets while working on Clinton's presidential campaign; and the sophisticated writer Summer (Rachel Weisz), who's out of his league.

The characters are distinctly drawn and well cast, with each woman believably shaping Will into the man he becomes. But while Brooks has made an inventive romantic comedy " something that seems impossible to do these days " his ending takes way too long and makes too many twists.

PG-13 for sexual content, including some frank dialogue, language and smoking. 111 min.

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"George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead" " Perhaps YouTube and MySpace and the proliferation of cheap, digital video cameras have turned us into a nation of navel-gazers.

We sit in front of computer screens for hours, posting and clicking on the most mundane and intimate details of our lives that are out there for all the world to see " or potentially no one. But it's cathartic, so who cares?

Leaving us sluggish and mumbling with glazed eyes and pasty skin, technology has practically turned us into ... zombies.

Or so George Romero's logic seems to go. The horror veteran appears to be slamming the mainstream media for failing to tell us the truth (about Hurricane Katrina, about the Iraq war) yet he also indicts a generation of twentysomethings for creating their own misleading din with an onslaught of online reportage.

The message is muddled, but the zombie master still knows how to make a gripping, graphic, grossly funny horror flick.

Here, he returns authentically to the low-budget roots he used to established himself 40 years ago with the classic "Night of the Living Dead."

As writer and director, he follows a group of film students crossing Pennsylvania in a Winnebago to escape a growing attack of the undead. They include aspiring filmmaker Jason (Josh Close), who refuses to put down the camera, regardless of the threat; his disgruntled girlfriend Debra (Michelle Morgan), who narrates the finished product; and their melodramatic, alcoholic professor (Scott Wentworth).

R for strong horror violence and gore, and pervasive language. 95 min.