This Weekend: Godzilla And A Thrilla

New movies this weekend feature a giant lizard, a few laughs, and Jennifer Lopez.

Lopez stars with Vince Vaughn in The Cell, which critic Roger Ebert is praising as an Oscar-worthy masterpiece. Although CBS News The Early Show Contributor Laurie Hibberd doesn't quite agree, she says it is "interesting and disturbing."

The Original Kings of Comedy, a concert film produced and directed by Spike Lee, focuses on the 1999 comedy tour by Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric The Entertainer, and Bernie Mac.

Comedy concert films are very rare these days. Among the most popular of this ilk were the series of films Richard Pryor did in the '70s and Eddie Murphy's Raw, which was released in 1987.

With the popularity of cable, standup comedians have specials all the time, but it's hard for them to get a big-screen release. This film was lucky enough to have the backing of Lee.

Godzilla 2000 is not a sequel to the 1998 Matthew Broderick disappointment. This is the 23rd installment in the Japanese-export saga, and it's old-school Godzilla, right down to the campy outer-space foe, who wakes up after 6,000 years on the bottom of the sea.

In Cecil B. Demented, Stephen Dorff stars as the title character, a guerrilla filmmaker who declares war against the commercial film world.

"I see it as a movie that's about…a guy that's dreamed of being a filmmaker, that is obsessed with making his movie and is tired of seeing bad movies made. And he'll do anything to get his vision accomplished," says the actor.

And anything includes kidnapping actress Honey Whitlock (played by Melanie Griffith) and forcing her to star in his cinematic revolution. Cecil B. Demented is a comedy, even if it wasn't played that way.

Dorff says that actors who work with director John Waters must be prepared to "go all the way. Because you have to. You don't ever want to wink at the camera. That's what John would tell me. I mean, he didn't want camp, he didn't want me to camp it up. He wanted, no matter now ludicrous or insane the scene or the dialogue was...to play it for realism. And that's where the humor comes out of it."

Waters' other credits include such cult films as Hairspray, Serial Mom, and Pink Flamingos.

Dorff calls Waters "a complete original filmmaker," praising him for never compromising his style. "You know, he's always stayed true to who he is," he adds.

The actor himself, who, at the age of 27 is a 10-year veteran of showbiz, also has made unusual career choices.

Although he says he was offered roles in big action movies early in his career, he did not take them. "I've made a lot of decisions in my career based on me purely wanting to work with certain people, you know? Whether I've liked the script or not."

For instance, it was not the script of Blood and Wine that captured Dorff's attention, but the oportunity to work with Jack Nicholson. "That's what I wanted more than anything. I would have done the movie for free and practically did."

Cecil B. Demented is currently playing in about 25 cities, and will be adding more within the next month.