In Theaters

“Heartbreakers” 120 minutes. PG-13Directed by David Mirkin, written by Robert Dunn, Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur.

David Mirkin’s “Heartbreakers” is a cartoon example of how to con the world.

In it, audiences will find helpful advice on how to con four-star hotels into giving you their best suites for free, how crushed glass can be used as a smart substitute for salt at pricey restaurants, and how marriage can be used to secure a financially rosy future in the face of an absolutely bleak present.

The film, which opened opposite J.B. Roger’s incest-loving raunchfest, “Say It Isn’t So,” is that increasingly rare comedy that doesn’t rely on the toilet to sell its laughs; it’s smarter than that.

At two hours, it’s 30 minutes too long and some of its situations fall flat, but a good deal of it is funny and all of it should be admired for at least trying to steer clear of pop culture’s current love affair with the plunger.

There was a time, after all, when comedies were more about wit than human waste. “Heartbreakers” goes a long way in trying to recapture that time.

The film stars Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt as a mother-daughter team in cahoots to make a comfortable living off the kindness of strangers. Weaver is Max, a towering sexpot who marries wealthy men such as Dean (Ray Liotta) and then steps aside so her daughter, Page (Hewitt), can seduce them. When Page follows through, Max neatly catches them in the act, breaks from her new husband after an expensive divorce, then splits the settlement with her daughter.

Isn’t that sweet?

But when Page decides to break out on her own, the film throws a curveball – an IRS agent played by Anne Bancroft charges fraud and tax evasion – and demands her cut.

Penniless, Max and Page flee to Palm Beach, where they hope to pull off a final scam that includes Max posing as a Russian harlot, Gene Hackman coughing up a lungful of tar as a chain-smoking billionaire, and an unexpected romance between Page and a likable bartender (Jason Lee) who might just prove that love really is all that one needs.

The film, which was a hit at my screening, is at its best with Weaver. Physically, she’s like the World Wrestling Federation’s Chyna, but with less trot in her gallop, less bite in her bridle, less horse in her face. She steals every scene she shares with Hewitt, who barely registers here, but when Weaver is paired opposite Hackman, the joy of watching two pros tear up the scenery is what seeing a comedy is all about.

Grade: B

On Video and DVD

“Red Planet” 116 minutes. PG-13, directed by Antony Hoffman. Written by Chuck Pfarrer and Jonathan Lemkin.

In 1924, director Yakov Protazanov filmed “Aelita: Queen of Mars,” a silent Soviet propaganda film that featured an engineer who kills his wife, takes off for the Red Planet in his homemade spaceship, and falls in love with his dream girl, Aelita, queen of Mars.

For its time, the film was a hugely hyped, big-budget spectacle; one that not only influenced Fritz Lang’s 1926 film “Metropolis,” but which directly influenced Hollywood’s fascination with Mars.

It may not be fair to suggest that the groundbreaking “Aelita” is responsible for such camp debacles as “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians,” “Lobsterman from Mars,” “Devil Girl from Mars” and “Planet Blood,” but it can be said that the film sparked pop culture’s fascination with seeing Mars on film, thus paving the way for those lesser films to land in theaters.

Antony Hoffman’s “Red Planet” is a continuation of that effort – one that surprises in that it does find a measure of intelligence on the fourth rock from the sun.

The film stars Val Kilmer, Carrie-Ann Moss, Tom Sizemore, Benjamin Bratt, Simon Baker and Terrence Stamp as astronauts sent to Mars to study the growth of algae planted earlier to create a breathable atmosphere. But when a solar flare damages the crew’s ship, all hell – predictably – breaks loose: Part of the crew finds itself stranded on Mars while another member, Bowman (Moss), is stuck aboard the failing mother ship.

As rote as this sounds, “Red Planet” nevertheless manages to drum up some dramatic interest. It does a fair job in fleshing out its characters before throwing them into turmoil; its production values are first-rate; and there are a handful of moments that genuinely thrill.

Still, the film isn’t so much a sci-fi thriller as it is an ecological drama. Those seeking action might be disappointed because much of “Red Planet” is introspective and some of it is too drawn-out to suit.

Grade: C+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays in Style, Thursdays in the scene, Tuesdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5” and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ-2 and WCSH-6. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.