SCREEN GEMS

A look at the week ahead in the movies and TV

BIG SCREEN (PG-13) -- Sandra Bullock sets aside the ditzy romantic-comedy act for this drama based on Michael Lewis' nonfiction bestseller The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, about a homeless African-American teenager (Quinton Aaron) who is taken in by a wealthy white couple (Bullock and Tim McGraw) as part of a college-football recruitment program.

MOVIES

Review | 2012 (PG-13) **

The world can't end fast enough, despite visual thrills

MOVIES

Review | Pirate Radio (R) ***

Out to sea with a merry band of rock 'n' rollers

MOVIES

Review | (Untitled) (R) **

It may speak to to all of us -- but is it art?

MIAMI BOOK FAIR

Fame finds a place among Miami book lovers

Celebrities such as Isabella Rossellini draw readers to the Miami Book Fair International, but organizers say they focus on their work as authors.

MIAMI SHORT FILM FESTIVAL

Documentary focuses on historic Overtown

When David Weintraub moved to Miami to work as a civil rights lawyer in a downtown skyscraper, he collected plenty of tips about the town, among them: Stay away from certain areas.

SCREEN GEMS

A look at the week ahead in the movies and TV

BIG SCREEN 2012 (PG-13) -- Disaster magnet Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) returns to destroy our planet -- again. John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton and Amanda Peet are among the humans trying to make sense of the impending apocalypse. Remember when Irwin Allen made those star-studded disaster flicks in the 1970s? Those were awesome. Emmerich's, not so much. But they sure look awesome.

MOVIES

Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival schedule

Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival: The 24th annual event moves into its final week of new features, documentaries and shorts from around the globe plus parties, seminars and films for kids. Filmmakers are featured at many of the events; through Nov. 11; Cinema Paradiso, 503 SE Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale (unless otherwise noted); $10, $8 seniors and students, $6 FLIFF members (unless otherwise noted) A $25 donation is suggested at some of the screenings and is tax deductible. See website for details and to confirm schedule. 954-525-3456 or www.fliff.com:

DVD SCANS

DVD review | Hitchcock on Blu-ray's a thriller

No one can definitely say 1959's North By Northwest is Alfred Hitchcock's best movie -- how to choose? -- but from first frame to last, it may well be his most entertaining. The first of Hitchcock's pictures to appear on the Blu-ray format (Warner Home Video, $35), the film has been given a $1 million restoration, and to say it looks utterly fantastic on high-definition -- one of the most astounding Blu-ray transfers to date -- is probably an understatement.

'The Box' filmmaker Richard Kelly pushes his viewers' buttons

Filmmaker Richard Kelly's initial encounter with Richard Matheson's fiendish little short story Button, Button -- about a cash-strapped couple offered a million dollars to push a button on a box that will instantly cause someone they don't know to drop dead -- came not on the page, but on TV.