Capsule reviews of other movies opening today:

	Jurgen Olczyk Rachel Hurd-Wood is a young woman with a fascinating scent in "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer." Click photo for larger image.

'Perfume: The Story of a Murderer'

Too bad "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" () wasn't filmed with scratch-and-sniff cards. That way we could smell what the lead character encounters at birth -- fish guts, vomit, maggots -- or, far better and years later, the fields of lavender or the enchanting perfumes he concocts.

But while "Perfume" is about a serial killer, it's no cheapie horror flick. It's a beautifully filmed but not entirely successful adaptation of Patrick Suskind's novel of the same name. Of the five senses, smell may be the most difficult to translate to screen, and the movie never quite meets that challenge.

The story, set in 18th-century France, is about an orphan named Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw) who has a rarefied sense of smell. He can detect or identify odors from far away or break down a perfume to its components -- top, heart and base notes, as we learn.

He is intoxicated by the smell of a young beauty and kills her to try to preserve her fragrance; that launches him on a gruesome sensory search. Along the way, he encounters a master perfumer (Dustin Hoffman) and a merchant (Alan Rickman) who goes to great lengths to safeguard the life of his daughter (Rachel Hurd-Wood).

While providing a glimpse into what life might have been like and smelled like in France, the movie's climatic, fantastical scenes play better on the page than on the screen. When rooted in reality, the gossamer web of murder and magic spun by the novel falls away.

Rated R for aberrant behavior involving nudity, violence, sexuality and disturbing images.

---

'Happily N'Ever After'

Perhaps "Flushed Away" wasn't so bad after all. It looks brilliant next to this animated movie (), which has a good idea and delightfully devilish voice by Sigourney Weaver but lackluster animation and execution.

It's refreshing to see Ella (as Cinderella is called) as a brunette in Fairy Tale Land, but the animals look like cheap plastic toys. Weaver speaks for Frieda, Ella's stepmother, who seizes control of a vacationing wizard's staff and scale of good and evil.

Frieda messes with the magic. "Starting tonight, I give you happily never after!" she cackles. That opens the door, however, for Rick (Freddie Prinze Jr.), crushing on Ella (real-life wife Sarah Michelle Gellar), from his gig as servant to the musclebound pretty-boy prince.

The voices, dialogue and animation are all over the place, with the wolf from "Little Red Riding Hood" saying "capiche?" as if he were a "Sopranos" henchman. A song is dropped in, out of nowhere, Frieda has ridiculous cleavage, and "Happily" suffers by comparison with last year's banner crop of cartoons.

Rated PG for some mild action and rude humor.

---

'Code Name: The Cleaner'

Lucy Liu and Cedric the Entertainer are boxed in in "Code Name: The Cleaner." Click photo for larger image.

What can you say about a movie that seems to pay more attention to its product placements -- especially a popular candy -- than to its stars, script, comedy or so-called action scenes? You can say that the worst list of 2007 has its first entry, and it's called "Code Name: The Cleaner" ().

Cedric the Entertainer plays an amnesiac named Jake who wakes up in a hotel room with a dead FBI agent at his side and a briefcase with $250,000 in cash. A blonde (Nicollette Sheridan) greets him, insists she is his wife and that they live in a mansion, complete with a butler.

Unable to remember his name, occupation or anything else, Jake becomes convinced he's an undercover agent for the CIA, although a waitress (Lucy Liu) assures him he's a janitor who fights grime, not crime.

Cedric makes a likable everyman, but "Code Name" is not funny, clever, well-paced, good-looking or original. A bit about a would-be rapper begging to be shot, to advance his street cred, seems reminiscent of a "Sopranos" episode, the one called "The Fleshy Part of the Thigh."

Cedric dances as fast as he can, even wearing wooden shoes at one point, but even he isn't a movie miracle worker.

Rated PG-13 for sexual content, crude humor and some language.