Editor’s Note: Starting at 6:30 tonight., Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith will occasionally review films nationally for E! Entertainment Television’s “E! News Daily” show (Channel 55 in the Bangor viewing market). The reviews will be repeated through the weekend and at 7, 7:30, 8 and 8:30 Monday mornings. Smith will also appear on E! in March and in April. Check local listings or go to www.Eonline.com for additional programming information.

In theaters

HART’S WAR, directed by Gregory Hoblit. Written by Billy Ray and Terry George. 125 minutes. Rated R.

Gregory Hoblit’s World War II drama, “Hart’s War,” continues the recent rush of war movies marching out of Hollywood, a list that includes “Black Hawk Down,” “No Man’s Land,” “Charlotte Gray” and “Behind Enemy Lines,” and which continues next month with the March 1 release of the new Mel Gibson movie, “We Were Soldiers,” and later on June 14 with John Woo’s “Windtalkers.”

With the exception of “Windtalkers,” which MGM has delayed for months, nearly all of the aforementioned movies were originally slated for later release dates. But considering the current mood of the country, Hollywood shrewdly stepped up its production schedules and entrenched itself deep into the lucrative business of re-creating war.

Where “Hart’s War” is concerned, that turns out to be a reasonably good thing, especially if you’re prepared before going in to the film that it won’t be the movie MGM is selling in its television ads.

Instead of delivering the nonstop action of “Black Hawk Down,” which is how “Hart’s War” is being marketed, it’s more often a leisurely paced, well-acted drama reminiscent of “Stalag 17” and “The Great Escape” crossed with “A Few Good Men” and “A Soldier’s Story.”

The film, from a script Billy Ray and Terry George adapted from John Katzenbach’s novel, takes place in December 1944, just months before the Germans surrendered and American troops were sent home. Colin Farrell (“Tigerland,” “American Outlaws”) is Lt. Tommy Hart, a Yale law student and senator’s son who, in the film’s spectacular opening sequence, falls victim to a bloody German trap that leads to his imprisonment in a crowded Belgian POW camp called Stalag VI.

There, Hart meets Col. William McNamara (Bruce Willis), the highest-ranking American at Stalag VI; the Nazi commandant Col. Werner Visser (Marcel Iures), a fellow Yalie who runs the camp; and a black airman named Lt. Scott (Terrence Howard) whose skin color becomes key in a murder rap that culminates with Hart defending him in an extended court trial that isn’t what it seems.

The standout here is Farrell, whose star should only rise this summer when he appears opposite Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report,” but Willis and Iures also are solid. Still, “Hart’s War” is more than its performances. In spite of its occasionally plodding midsection, what gives the film an enormous lift are its twists and turns, all of which are surprising enough to make “Hart’s War” a war movie worth seeing.

Grade: B

On video and DVD

O, directed by Tim Blake Nelson. Written by Brad Kaaya. 91 minutes. Rated R.

Loosely based on Shakespeare’s “Othello,” Tim Blake Nelson’s “O” is the Bard for the hip-hop set. It follows its inspiration’s framework and builds to a considerable body count, but unlike so many Hollywood films, it doesn’t take its violence lightly or, for that matter, use it as a means for pure popcorn entertainment.

Instead, Nelson uses his film to deliver a serious, often provocative snapshot of today’s teens, a good deal of whom will identify with the film’s characters – not to mention with its themes of jealousy, love, betrayal, acceptance and rage.

In the film, Mekhi Phifer is Odin James, a gifted black athlete recruited by an all-white Southern prep school to revive its flagging basketball team. With skill and determination, Odin does so, but not without infuriating Hugo

(Josh Hartnett), the team’s former star and allegedly one of Odin’s closest friends.

Hugo’s problem? His father (Martin Sheen) is the school’s basketball coach, a man so overcome with Odin’s talent, he publicly admits to loving him like a son – all while increasingly behaving as if Hugo, his real son (and the film’s Iago character), doesn’t exist.

For Hugo, the relationship is unforgivable. Consumed with jealousy, he plots to destroy Odin, a plan that’s so diabolic, it will eventually force Odin to question those who matter most in his life – from his girlfriend, Desi (Julia Stiles), to his best friend, Michael (Andrew Keegan).

In spite of a clunky start, “O” hits its stride midway through to become a film of unusual power, a movie that dares to question what it means to be a student in today’s high schools. If its answers make some uncomfortable

because they skate too close to the truth, more power to Nelson. It’s been a while since a movie aimed at teens went beyond mere scat jokes to seriously consider the very real pressures placed on today’s students.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith’s reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 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.

THE VIDEO-DVD CORNER

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores.

Don’t Say a Word ? C-

Hardball ? C+

O ? B+

Hearts in Atlantis ? B

Life Without Dick ? D

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin ? D

Ghost World ? A

Lost & Delirious ? C-

Atlantis: The Lost Empire ? C

Curse of the Jade Scorpion ? B-

Lisa Picard is “Famous” ? B

Kiss of the Dragon ? B-

Rock Star ? B

American Pie 2 ? C+

Bubble Boy ? F

Glitter ? D

Sound and Fury ? A

Jeepers Creepers ? D

The Fast and the Furious ? B

The Glass House ? C

Greenfingers ? B-

What’s the Worse that Could Happen ? D

The Center of the World ? C

Evolution ? D-

Two Can Play That Game ? C+

Moulin Rouge ? A-

The Princess Diaries ? C+

Scary Movie 2 ? D

Hedwig and the Angry Inch ? A

Jurassic Park III ? B-

Rush Hour 2 ? D

The Score ? B

American Outlaws ?F

Ghost of Mars ? C-

Pearl Harbor ? D

Summer Catch ? C-

Bread and Roses ? A-

Divided We Fall ? A

Made ? B

Pootie Tang ? D+

Osmosis Jones ? C-

Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas ? D+

Planet of the Apes ? C-

America’s Sweethearts ? D+

crazy/beautiful ? B

Tomb Raider ? D+

Doctor Zhivago (DVD debut) ? A-

The Golden Bowl ? C+

Legally Blonde ? B+

Shrek ? A-