BIG SCREEN

Marley & Me (PG-13) -- Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston star in director David Frankel's shot-in-South-Florida adaptation of John Grogan's bestseller about with the world's worst-behaved Labrador retriever.

Bedtime Stories (PG) -- Adam Sandler goes Disney with this kid-friendly tale of a man who discovers the outlandish tales he tells his niece and nephew each night are all coming true.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (PG-13) -- The Oscar buzz is high around director David Fincher's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story about a man (Brad Pitt) who is born as an 80-year-old and ages backward. Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson and Tilda Swinton co-star. Helpful hint: Bring Kleenex. Like a whole box.

Valkyrie (PG-13) -- Controversy has dogged director Bryan Singer's fact-based drama about the efforts by Nazi colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Tom Cruise) to assassinate Adolf Hitler. But the movie marks Singer's reunion with Usual Suspects screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie, so reserve judgment.

The Reader (R) -- Director Stephen Daldry and screenwriter David Hare, who collaborated so effectively on The Hours, take on the film adaptation of another ''difficult'' bestselling novel, this one by Bernhard Schlink. Ralph Fiennes stars as a man in post-World War II Germany who discovers a startling secret about the older woman (Kate Winslet) with whom he had an affair when he was a teenager.

The Spirit (PG-13) -- After writing so many of the graphic novels that spawned hit films (Sin City, The Dark Knight, 300), the legendary Frank Miller takes a stab at directing a comic-book adaptation, this one based on Will Eisner's iconic hero (played by Gabriel Macht), who returns from the dead to battle the nefarious Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson).

-- RENE RODRIGUEZ

Yule Log: The Golden Age of Christmas (9 p.m. Wednesday, WGN) -- It probably won't roast any chestnuts, but that good old flickering video yule log is back this Christmas Eve. Cable channel WGN will carry nine hours of video of wood burning in a fireplace. Really. That's all it is. Don't call me up sometime in the fifth hour and ask, ''So, like, when are the ninjas going to drop down the chimney and get their pants set on fire and explode when the flames reach the grenades hidden under their shirts?'' I'm telling you, that burning log is all there is to it. Well, OK, there is a surprise if you turn the volume on. You'll hear a bunch of Christmas episodes of old radio shows from the '40s, '50s and '60s, including adaptations of It's a Wonderful Life with Donna Reed and Jimmy Stewart, and Miracle on 34th Street with Maureen O'Hara and Edmund Gwenn. And no, there are no ninjas in those, either.

-- GLENN GARVIN

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