Amanda Seyfried

Earlier this week, at an event following the Hollywood premiere of the new movie "Letters to Juliet," actress Amanda Seyfried found herself under friendly fire. Besieged by back-slapping studio executives and adoring fans — all eager to congratulate her on her role as a young journalist who stumbles into love in Italy — she was pinned down in a restaurant banquette, graciously thanking and hugging admirers as they approached. But what she really wanted to do was to leave her own party.

The title of the somnolent new thriller "Gone" may be generic, but it packs plenty of information about the movie into its lone word. Gone is the sister of the film's heroine, who up and vanishes 15 minutes into the movie. Gone is perhaps the heroine's sanity, since, absent any hard-and-fast evidence, she firmly believes that said sister was abducted by the same serial killer who may (or may not) have kidnapped her a year earlier. Gone is also your hard-earned money if you buy a ticket to this slack piece of work, a movie that makes "Murder on the Orient Express" feel like"The Silence of the Lambs"by comparison.

If only, if only, if only.… Where to begin with "In Time" — a very "if only" proposition with Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy, Olivia Wilde and countless other young beauties living and dying very fast in this futurist action-thriller. Let's see: If only the ticking clock were more tightly wound; if only more time were used to develop the romance and relationships; if only dying didn't seem so easy. Writer-director Andrew Niccol, a whiz at mind games having written such brain teases as "The Truman Show," has conjured up yet another clever idea.

SUNDAY Happy holidays! Amy Smart goes on the "12 Dates of Christmas," Melissa Gilbert directs "The Christmas Pageant" and Laura Breckenridge steals "A Christmas Kiss" in these made-for-cable fables. (ABC Family, 8 and 10 p.m.; Hallmark, 8 and 10 p.m.; Ion, 9 p.m.) Happy horror days! There's something rotten in the state of Maine — ain't there always? — in "Stephen King's Bag of Bones. " Pierce Brosnan, below, stars in this new two-part terror tale based on King's bestselling novel.

"Letters to Juliet" is an ode to romance of the most starry-eyed sort, a sugary paean to quixotic clichés and a film destined to be a guilty pleasure for some (me included, sigh) and the painful price of a relationship for others (so steel yourselves). The starry eyes here belong to Amanda Seyfried, one of Hollywood's favorite ingénues now. But soon enough the movie morphs into a multigenerational romance-Italian road trip with Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Egan and Franco Nero, to say nothing of certain members of the audience, bitten by the bug. But love doesn't guarantee happy endings, particularly when the tale is tied to Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" and the Verona balcony wherefore the star-crossed lovers he conjured up once cooed.

The horror-tinged romance of "Red Riding Hood" is at its heart nothing more than a fashionable fairytale version of what's all the rage in teen love stories these days. The basic formula includes a moody beauty falling for the wrong boy, who may actually be a vampire-alien-werewolf-whatever. Can "Pinocchio at 15" be far behind? With "my, what big eyes you have" Amanda Seyfried as the girl in the scarlet cloak and that edgy shaman of young angst, Catherine Hardwicke, in the director's chair, the movie comes with great expectations.

The ads for "Red Riding Hood" show Amanda Seyfried dramatically cloaked in a cape, the better to see her in the snowy woods that serve as the backdrop for a story loosely based on the classic fairy tale. But, as the trailers hint, everything is not as it seems. The movie is also a print novel that was being written even as the filming progressed. It is also a multimedia e-book that leverages the latest technology to enhance the story of a teenage girl torn between two male suitors, one of whom may be a werewolf.

The Early Show Quarterback Drew Brees; Justin Bieber performs. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Jennie Garth; Melissa Gilbert. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA Good Morning America Super Bowl recipes. (N) 7 a.m. KABC Good Day L.A. (N) 7 a.m. KTTV The View Jamie Foxx; Amanda Seyfried. (N) 10 a.m. KABC The Doctors Will power. (N) 11 a.m. KCAL Rachael Ray (N) 2 p.m. KCBS The Martha Stewart Show Making nachos.

Is Justin Timberlake the latest Hollywood star to hold surprising clout overseas? The singer-turned-actor is hardly Johnny Depp, but his last few films have done better abroad than domestically. "In Time," his sci-fi action flick released in the U.S. three weeks ago, has already collected $53.7 million abroad compared with its $30.7-million stateside tally. The Andrew Niccol-directed movie is playing in 53 foreign countries and has performed best in Russia, where it has grossed $13.2 million.

SUNDAY While you're sitting there in your pajamas, sipping your morning coffee and reading this, hundreds of your fellow citizens are running from Dodger Stadium to Santa Monica in the "L.A. Marathon. " The least you can do is tune in and cheer them on. (KTLA, 7 a.m.) "40 Funniest Fails" succeeds in the alliterative-title department, but the "win" stops there. Clips of unwise and tomfool-ish behavior, culled from TV and the Internet, are featured in this special hosted by comedian Julian McCullough and his puppet pal Ralphy.

Is Justin Timberlake the latest Hollywood star to hold surprising clout overseas? The singer-turned-actor is hardly Johnny Depp, but his last few films have done better abroad than domestically. "In Time," his sci-fi action flick released in the U.S. three weeks ago, has already collected $53.7 million abroad compared with its $30.7-million stateside tally. The Andrew Niccol-directed movie is playing in 53 foreign countries and has performed best in Russia, where it has grossed $13.2 million.

Hall Pass Warner Bros., $28.98; Blu-ray, $29.98/$35.99 The Farrelly brothers return with the lightweight buddy comedy "Hall Pass," which takes a promising premise and defangs it in disappointing ways, given this is coming from the men behind "There's Something About Mary" and "Kingpin. " Owen Wilson and Jason Sudeikis play sexually frustrated middle-agers whose wives give them a week off from marriage, which they proceed to squander through their own timidity and ineptitude.

SUNDAY While you're sitting there in your pajamas, sipping your morning coffee and reading this, hundreds of your fellow citizens are running from Dodger Stadium to Santa Monica in the "L.A. Marathon. " The least you can do is tune in and cheer them on. (KTLA, 7 a.m.) "40 Funniest Fails" succeeds in the alliterative-title department, but the "win" stops there. Clips of unwise and tomfool-ish behavior, culled from TV and the Internet, are featured in this special hosted by comedian Julian McCullough and his puppet pal Ralphy.

"Battle: Los Angeles" is expected to wipe out the competition at the box office this weekend, leaving "Mars Needs Moms" searching for any signs of life. Sony Pictures' "Battle: L.A.," an alien invasion story starring Aaron Eckhart, could open with ticket sales of $30 million to $35 million in the U.S. and Canada, according to people who have seen pre-release audience surveys. But the biggest news at the box office this weekend is projected to be a disastrous debut of "Mars Needs Moms," a big-budget animated movie from Walt Disney Studios that is on track to open at just $10 million.

The ads for "Red Riding Hood" show Amanda Seyfried dramatically cloaked in a cape, the better to see her in the snowy woods that serve as the backdrop for a story loosely based on the classic fairy tale. But, as the trailers hint, everything is not as it seems. The movie is also a print novel that was being written even as the filming progressed. It is also a multimedia e-book that leverages the latest technology to enhance the story of a teenage girl torn between two male suitors, one of whom may be a werewolf.

Earlier this week, at an event following the Hollywood premiere of the new movie "Letters to Juliet," actress Amanda Seyfried found herself under friendly fire. Besieged by back-slapping studio executives and adoring fans — all eager to congratulate her on her role as a young journalist who stumbles into love in Italy — she was pinned down in a restaurant banquette, graciously thanking and hugging admirers as they approached. But what she really wanted to do was to leave her own party.

"Chloe" is a conundrum. Envisioned as a psychosexual thriller about a woman scorned, director Atom Egoyan's latest puzzle is just puzzling, little more than a messy affair with mood lighting, sexy lingerie, heavy breathing and swelling, um, music. Everyone here is dripping with money, lust and anxiety, all to bad effect. Julianne Moore is Catherine, a successful Ob-Gyn who suspects husband David (Liam Neeson), a college music professor, of something more than a pedagogical interest in one of his students.