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Slate contributor Ben Williams offers a weekly round-up of what critics are saying about the weekend's major new movie premieres. This week: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Wimbledon and Mr. 3000.

NPR's Neda Ulaby compares the two very different versions of Swept Away -- a politcally charged tale of a rich, haughty socialite and a working-class fisherman stranded together alone on a deserted island. The 1974 version had sass and a message -- the Madonna re-make just falls flat.

Slate contributor Ben Williams presents a roundup of what film critics are saying about this weekend's new releases, including Mean Creek, Without a Paddle and Exorcist: The Beginning.

Los Lobos' new CD, appropriately named The Ride, celebrates the band's 30 years together. Hear their extended interview with NPR's Renee Montagne and live performance at NPR.

Tom Moon reviews Jill Scott's new CC, Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2. Scott had an incredibly successful debut recording 4 years ago. She has kept a fairly low profile until now. Tom Moon says her new recording is in a tradition of great soul singers writing about the political in personal terms.

HBO on Sunday night will begin airing episodes for season three of The Wire, a series about the dueling bureaucracies that govern cops and criminals in Baltimore, set against the backdrop of the drug trade. Variety critic and columnist Brian Lowry has a review.

Red Lights, the new film from French director Cedric Kahn, is a taut, atmospheric thriller about a husband and wife who think they're going on vacation but are actually about to descend into a chaotic abyss. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan has a review.

Day to Day book critic David Kipen offers his appreciation of English-born writer Christopher Isherwood, whose novella Goodbye to Berlin provided the inspiration for the musical and film Cabaret.

The film Mean Creek, starring Rory Culkin, dives into the messy reality of teen life, combining sensitivity and teen themes in a plot with echoes of Deliverance. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan has a review.

Alan Cheuse reviews Birds Without Wings, by Louis de Bernieres. Cheuse says it's a story with numerous richly portrayed characters living in an Anatolian coastal village in the early 1900s.