In theaters

HITCH, directed by Andy Tennant, written by Kevin Bisch, 119 minutes, rated PG-13.

The new romantic comedy “Hitch” stars Will Smith as a consort of sorts for the dating challenged, those awkward souls who have never learned the art of winning someone’s heart, no matter how hard they try.

Smooth and irresistible, his clothes as tailored as his smile, Hitch has the hook-up, all right. After years of making his own mistakes with women and surviving a broken heart, he has pulled a Mel Gibson and learned what women want. Now it’s his business to tell men what women want. With one exception, his clients are mostly a well-meaning group of men finding it difficult to have a successful dating life in Manhattan.

They need Hitch’s help and the good news is that Hitch is full of advice. He urges his clients to become better listeners, to be more attentive, to put some effort into their attire, to wax their backs if necessary, to learn how to dance, to be less eager to make a move toward the bedroom.

Big into research, Hitch encourages his clients to discover the likes and dislikes of those women they’re interested in dating before the date – not after it – to facilitate conversation. And how do you do that, you might ask? Google them, for God’s sake. As for that crucial first kiss, let’s just say it’s best not to cut right to the tongue.

The film, which Andy Tennant based on a script by Kevin Bisch, is Smith’s first romantic comedy and he pulls it off seamlessly, making his role look deceptively easy as the story unfolds with the addition of Albert (Kevin James), a chubby wreck of a junior executive who is in love with Allegra (Amber Valletta), an allegedly unobtainable heiress who happens to be Albert’s boss.

Complicating matters is Hitch’s own budding relationship with Sara (Eva Mendes), a steely newspaper gossip columnist whose job it is to write about people like Allegra. Since Allegra and Albert don’t exactly make sense to the outside world, Sara takes notice and the film’s plot forms a noose, with everyone here eventually having their necks stuck through it in ways that won’t be revealed here.

The first two-thirds of “Hitch” are the movie at its best. They’re fun and brisk, gently guided by formula until the third act succumbs to it. All of the actors are well-paired, with Smith and Mendes playing characters just hardened enough by life to be interesting and compatible; Smith and James forming a brotherly bond that’s natural, not forced; and James and Valletta somehow fitting together in spite of a world that would prefer they didn’t fit at all.

“Hitch” is being marketed as “the cure for the common man,” as if men were a virus. While that’s certainly true for one of the film’s characters, a client Hitch drops because he turns out to be a womanizing pig, the movie doesn’t demonize men so much as it tries to understand them and nurture them. Dating is difficult. Relationships can be tough. “Hitch” wants to be the Band-Aid that heals the wound.

Grade: B

On video and DVD

TAXI, directed by Tim Story, written by Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon and Jim Kouf, 105 minutes, rated PG-13.

On her rich, soulful album of standards, “The Dana Owens Album,” the rap star and actress Queen Latifah takes a risk by once again pressing against expectations, deftly broadening her audience with smooth covers of such songs as “California Dreamin’,” “Hard Times,” “Hello Stranger” and “I Put a Spell On You.”

The album is a pleasure, exactly what Latifah fans have been waiting for since her Academy Award-nominated performance as the brassy Matron Mama Morton in the 2002 musical “Chicago.” Unfortunately, what isn’t such a pleasure is her movie “Taxi,” which continues to find Hollywood stumbling to find its footing in the face of her impressive talent.

The film is a dim slog with few laughs that features the actress as Belle Williams, a Manhattan bike messenger-cum-cabbie whose souped-up wheels fly through the curiously uncongested streets of New York in ways that suggest you can drive through that city at 120 mph. As if.

When Belle teams with Jimmy Fallon’s Washburn, a washed-up cop with an aversion to cars who’s out to thwart a bevy of busty, bank-robbing Brazilian supermodels, we get a buddy movie crammed with chase scenes that finds Belle and Washburn trying to connect in spite of their initial dislike of each other.

I understand this is meant to be Fallon’s movie and this review hasn’t focused on him, but there’s a reason for that. Let’s call it what it is – dismissal. Fallon could be fine in his skits on “Saturday Night Live,” but he isn’t the interesting one here and he isn’t the performer we will be watching 10 years from now. Latifah is.

Her recent work hosting the Grammys confirms that the music industry knows it has something on its hands with her versatile talent. Now it’s up to Hollywood to follow suit and figure out what the rest of us already know. Queen Latifah is ready for the A-list – and the better movies that go along with it.

Grade: D+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He may 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. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Alien vs. Predator – B

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy – B+

The Bourne Supremacy – B

Catwoman – B-

Cellular – B+

The Cookout – C-

The Clearing – C+

Collateral – B+

Dawn of the Dead – A-

The Day After Tomorrow-B

De-Lovely – B

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story – B

Elf – B+

Ella Enchanted – B

Envy – D

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – A-

Fahrenheit 9/11 – A-

The Forgotten – D

Friday Night Lights – B+

The Grudge – D-

Hero – B+

I, Robot – B+

Kill Bill Vol. 2 – B

King Arthur – B

The Manchurian Candidate – B+

Man on Fire – B

Maria Full Of Grace – A

Mean Girls – B+

Napoleon Dynamite – B+

The Notebook – B+

Open Water – A-

Paparazzi – D-

Ray – A

Saw – D

Shall We Dance? – B

Shark Tale – B-

Shaun Of The Dead – B+

Shrek 2 – B

Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow – A-

Spider-Man 2 – A