Bestsellers > Books > Wildlife

Glamour girls Hilary and Haylie Duff (featured in Lizzie McGuire and 7th Heaven, respectively) star as cosmetic heiresses Ava and Tanzie Marchetta, whose lives get turned upside down when their deceased father's company is accused of selling toxic products. Wouldn't you know it, Ava and Tanzie decide to go all Erin Brockovich and investigate. Material Girls should be awful--but it isn't. It's not a great film, it may not even be a good film, but it's more watchable than it has any right to be, thanks to the confident and thoughtful guiding hand of director Martha Coolidge (Rambling Rose, Valley Girl). It's hard to say exactly how a director can keep something like Material Girls from being as insipid as, say, New York Minute. Coolidge injects some hint of awareness of what it actually means to be poor, casts some surprising actors (like Anjelica Huston, Prizzi's Honor; Brent Spiner, Star Trek: The Next Generation; and Lukas Haas, Brick), and somehow makes the Marchetta sisters both vapid and sympathetic--all of which is some impressive cinematic alchemy. The result is the most enjoyable film of Hilary Duff's career. --Bret Fetzer

If you are one of Hilary Duff's most ardent pre-teen fans, chances are you'll find something to enjoy in A Cinderella Story, but everyone else should proceed with caution. It's an updated fairy tale for the age of instant messaging, which is how Sam (Duff) develops a crush on Austin (Chad Michael Murray) before realizing that this Tennyson-quoting poet-at-heart is actually her San Fernando Valley high school's star quarterback and most desirable hunk. In a role that squanders her proven comedic gifts, Jennifer Coolidge is Sam's Botox-injected evil stepmother, and lame attempts at comedy turn her dimwitted stepsisters into buffoons, like many of the other cast members who struggle to find anything funny in the screenplay. So we're left with the bland, blonde charms of Hilary Duff, who fared better in The Lizzie McGuire Movie, but manages to salvage her mainstream appeal in a comedy for which "cute" is not necessarily a compliment. --Jeff Shannon

Disney's Winnie the Pooh & Tigger Too Animated Storybook lets kids play and learn with beloved Hundred Acre Wood characters. Kids can read along or listen to the story of Tigger discovering that his friends have tired of his bouncing ways. There are also fun skill-building games that let kids earn their learning stripes.

If you're going to pitch a movie about cyber-revolutionaries to plugged-in audiences, you'd best mind your MP3s and BPMs when choosing soundtrack selections. The cynical wireheads who flock to such high-tech conspiracy flicks as Brazil and Hackers are thrillseekers of the highest caliber, and The Matrix soundtrack meets this challenge faster than a speeding cyborg. The opener, Marilyn Manson's anti-consumerism rant "Rock Is Dead," paints an aural portrait of urban decay. Ominous sirens permeate the Propellerheads' drum 'n' bass track "Spybreak!"; mournful piano alternates with hard shiny beats on Rob D's "Clubbed to Death"; and Meat Beat Manifesto fills "Prime Audio Soup" with enough bleeps to make one imagine being trapped inside a motherboard in Hell. It may sound dismal, but the friction permeating this compilation of techno, grindcore, and heavy metal is energizing enough to make fans of these genres feel the same unity as a clandestine community of hackers. --Kristy Ojala