At The Movies: Moose And Mel

If you're heading to the movie theater this weekend, you don't have to go see The Perfect Storm. Other choices include The Patriot, starring Mel Gibson, Trixie, starring Emily Watson and Nathan Lane, and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, starring a famous squirrel and moose.

Gibson's box office power in action-filled Patriot and thriller Perfect Storm, starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, are receiving strong praise from critics and test audiences.

The Patriot, for which Gibson received $25 million of the film's reported $100 million budget, tells the story of former French and Indian War hero Benjamin Martin (Gibson), who reluctantly enters the Revolutionary War on the side of the colonials after his family is uprooted and farm is burned.

Perfect Storm features non-stop action from the time Clooney, as Captain Billy Tyne, Wahlberg, as hired hand Bobby Shatford, and the crew on swordfishing boat Andrea Gail steam from Gloucester, Mass., for the icy North Atlantic.

Rocky and Bullwinkle hasn't seen much hype. But it may draw crowds from followers of 1960s animated, The Bullwinkle Show. The show still runs on cable TV's Cartoon Network, where it is popular among kids, so the movie may appeal to parents and children.

In the film, Bullwinkle the Moose and sidekick Rocky the Flying Squirrel, must defeat rivals Boris Badenov (Jason Alexander), Natasha Fatale (Rene Russo) and their boss, Fearless Leader (Robert DeNiro) who are plotting to rule the world.

But before they can, the animated duo must learn how to blend into the real world, and it's that real life action mixed with cartoonish antics that makes the film unique.

In Trixie, Watson stars as a blue-collar detective trying to track down a killer at a small lakefront casino. Lane plays the resident lounge act.