A guide to this week's movie releases from a family perspective:

“Astro Boy”

LOS ANGELES - Rodney Dangerfield's widow says that even in death the comedian can't get any respect.

CANNES, France - Angelina Jolie, who plays the widow of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in "A Mighty Heart," said she was overwhelmed by Mariane Pearl's inner strength and her ability to let go of hatred.

ROME - For the first time at the Venice Film Festival, all films vying for the top Golden Lion award will make their world premiere at the late summer event, organizers said Thursday.

LOS ANGELES - A momentous finale lies ahead for Hollywood this year. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” is the biggest screen farewell since the final “Star Wars” movie, closing out a decade of adventures for the young wizard.

LOS ANGELES - Robert Altman, the caustic and irreverent satirist behind "M-A-S-H," "Nashville" and "The Player" who made a career out of bucking Hollywood management and story conventions, died at a Los Angeles Hospital, his Sandcastle 5 Productions Company said Tuesday. He was 81.

It's the sixth year of the Phoenix Film Festival, and thanks to vérité hits such as like “March of the Penguins” and “Murderball,” the competition boasts an abundance of documentaries.

TORONTO - Only Hollywood could dream up an Academy Awards schedule that starts in earnest now, half a year before the trophies are handed out and months before most people will see many of the Oscar-contending movies.

CANNES, France - Pedro Almodovar reveled Wednesday in his gig as opening act at the Cannes Film Festival, saying he felt like a puppetmaster about to draw back the curtain on a 12-day burst of cinema.

While I praised "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" as a terrific beginning of the end, you might have noticed that the film did not make my top 10 list last year. 

While I praised "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" as a terrific beginning of the end, you might have noticed that the film did not make my top 10 list last year. 

September 14, 2004

LONDON - A British teenage actor playing a minor role in the upcoming "Harry Potter" film was stabbed to death during a brawl in London on Saturday, police said.

LOS ANGELES - Brad Pitt has backed out of a Universal Pictures movie set to begin filming this year, a newspaper reported.

WASHINGTON - President Bush wants to see the controversial new Mel Gibson film, "The Passion of the Christ," his spokesman said Friday.

LOS ANGELES  Harry Potter was the center of seven novels, but he'll star in eight films. The final book in the wildly successful series will be made into two films, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.