Top five movies

By STEVE PERSALL
Published August 3, 2006

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Current movies recommended by the Times:

1. Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby - Will Ferrell gets back on track - the NASCAR circuit to be precise - after a string of disappointments.

2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Who cares if Superman returns? Capt. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is back with an adventure to shiver timbers and rattle funny bones.

3. Clerks II - Kevin Smith revisits the neighborhood that made him famous, discovering that everyone there is older, no wiser and still hilariously profane.

4. A Scanner Darkly - Did you fall asleep during Waking Life? Richard Linklater's second experiment in rotograph animation contains similar visual delights, and adds an interesting plot.

5. The Descent and The Night Listener - Take your pick. Both films deliver fine tension without wall-to-wall gore. The Descent has cannibals in the final 30 minutes, if that matters to your tastes.