The

Community actors will recreate the 1938 classic radio presentation, “The War of the Worlds,” in a live performance on Oct. 28 at the Challenger Learning Center of Lucas County (CLCLC) on Seaman Road in Oregon.

The play begins at 8 p.m., followed by a “Star Party” reception with the cast, a viewing of the planet Mars and a tour of the center. Local experts will host a question-and-answer forum about the red planet. The speakers are Julie Muffl er, Challenger Learning Center director, Reed Steele, lead fl ight director and Jeff Bender, vice president of the Toledo Astronomical Association.

In 1938, Orson Wells sent millions into panic, broadcasting a simulated invasion of the earth by Martians. The radio play was an adaptation of the H.G. Wells story published earlier in the century.

For authenticity, the center will transform its Orientation Room into a model of the original CBS Mercury Theatre. The efforts, according to Steele, guide students toward the pure sciences in an effort to promote greater interest, particularly those in grades fi ve through eight.

“That’s when students determine whether they’re good at math and science or even like it,” Steele said. “If we get them excited about what math and science can do and technology can do, they’re a little less timid when they go into high school and college, and they have more confi - dence in those areas.”

A nonprofi t organization, CLCLC was founded by family members of the Challenger shuttlecraft crew lost in an accident in 1986. CLCLC is the 48th of 52 such centers throughout the United States, Canada and England, with a Mission Control — one of its headquarters — in Houston.

Reserve tickets are available in advance for $5 for adults and $6 at the door. Students are admitted for $3. — Scott McKimmy

Paul Angelo Halloween party will take place from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Oct. 29 at Diva, 329 N. Huron St., Downtown.

For $10 at the door, guests will receive ghoulish Diva treats and psychic readings. All proceeds benefi t David’s House. For information, call (419) 324-0000.

From Staff Reports

Ghosts, ghouls and goblins will provide fun at the Camp Miakonda Halloween Party. Designed specifi cally as a family oriented event for children 12 and under, the Camp Miakonda Halloween Party is a “safe and fun way to celebrate,” according to a press release.

The event will take place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Oct. 28 and 29 at Camp Miakonda on Sylvania Avenue. Children should wear their costume and

bring their families to enjoy trick or treating, a haunted hayride, haunted hike, Halloween games, stories and concessions.

Admission is $5. Children under 2 are admitted free. Adult supervision is required. Trick or treat bags will be passed out at check-in. Additional parking with shuttle provided from across Camp Miakonda on Sylvania Ave. All proceeds will benefi t the Erie Shores Council Boy Scouts of America. For additional information contact the Erie Shores Council, (419) 241-7293.

■ “Bewitched”: (Comedy, PG-13, 100 m., 2005). Will Ferrell plays a has-been movie star who signs for a TV retread of the sitcom “Bewitched.” He insists on an unknown for the Samantha role and discovers Nicole Kidman in a bookstore because she has that famous nose-twitch thing. The joke is, she’s really a witch, although she’s trying to give it up. You smile and laugh and are tolerably entertained, but you get no sense of a mighty enterprise sweeping you along with its comedic force. Not a movie so much as scenes in search of one. Costarring Shirley MacLaine, Michael Caine and Jason Schwartzman; directed by Nora Ephron

Rating: Two and a half stars. ■ “House of Wax”: (Horror, R, 113 m., 2005). “It is wax! Literally!” says one of the characters, scraping his fi ngernails down the walls of the house. But in the tradition of Dead Teenager Movies, these college-age future

Dead Post-Teenagers do not run for their lives, but accept rides in scary pickup trucks and enter the House of Wax (“Hello? Anyone home?”). Paris Hilton is perfectly adequate for the movie’s admittedly limited demands, and Elisha Cuthbert and Chad Michael Murray also risk the waxworks. The special effects are distinguished, especially in a spectacular closing sequence where characters are trapped inside the melting house.

Rating: Two stars. ■ “Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist”: (Supernatural thriller, R, 111 m., 2005). Director Paul Schrader does something risky and daring in this time of jaded horror movies: He takes evil seriously. There really are dark Satanic forces here, in a story that takes a priest scarred by the Holocaust and asks if he can again trust in God. With Stellan Skarsgard, Gabriel Mann and Clara Bellar. After Schrader delivered this version to the studio, they wanted more action and hired Renny Harlin to do an instant remake, substituting some of the actors and much of the content; that movie is known as “Exorcist: The Beginning.” I have seen both, prefer this one, but fi nd this a fascinating chance for fi lm buffs to watch two skilled directors dealing with the same material.

Rating: Three stars. ■ “Batman Begins”: (Superhero adventure, PG-13, 140 m., 2005). The Batman movie I’ve been waiting for, penetrating to the troubled depths of the legend and creating a superhero who, if not plausible, is at least persuasive as a man driven to dress like a bat and become a vigilante. Christian Bale stars as a millionaire, traumatized since childhood, whose study of evildoing leads him into a cruel prison and a mysterious secret society, before he returns to Gotham and turns his childhood fear of bats into a motif. Directed by Christopher Nolan (“Memento”), who avoids the frankly fake special effects of the earlier fi lms and surrounds his action with fog, shadow and ominous sound. Rating: Four stars.

■ “George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead”: (Zombie horror, R, 93 m., 2005). Life (and death) in zombie land has evolved. The zombies have learned to communicate, in a somewhat murky fashion, and their leader is fi guring out what a machine gun is for. Meanwhile, the rich people cluster inside Fiddler’s Green, a luxury high-rise run by Dennis Hopper. He hires mercenaries, led by Simon Baker and John Leguizamo, to raid stores for goods, gas and booze. They use an armored truck that is central to the action. Also central is Asia Argento, as a beautiful hooker/warrior, thrown to the zombies. As usual, Romero fi nds new and disgusting things to happen to zombies and their victims, and adds a level of sly social satire.

Rating: Three stars.

■ “The Ring Two”: (Horror thriller, PG-13, 111 m., 2005). Newspaper reporter Naomi Watts and her young son (David Dorfman) fl ee Seattle for a smaller town, hoping to escape the menace of the deadly VHS tape. But more dread awaits them, as the ghost of the abused child Samara tries to occupy Aidan’s body, and enraged deer attack their car. The fi lm makes absolutely no sense, while nevertheless generating a real enough feeling of tension; images, music, photography and mood conspire to create a sense of danger, even though it muddles the rules under which that danger might manifest itself.

Rating: Two and a half stars. ■ “Oldboy”: (Violent tragedy, R, 120 m., 2005). A man is kept prisoner for 15 years without knowing why, or by whom. After he is freed, he single-mindedly devotes himself to fi nding revenge against whoever did this to him. But the movie, by the Korean director Chanwook Park, is not simply a mystery or a thriller; it uses extremes of sexuality and violence to reach psychological depths. Min-sik Choi stars as the prisoner, a pathetic drunk at the start of the movie, transformed by his ordeal into an obsessed vengeance-seeker. Hye-jung Gang plays the young woman who pities him and believes his story. Certain extreme scenes, while justifi ed by the plot, make it a fi lm for adults only. The fi lm won the grand Jury Prize at Cannes 2004.

Rating: Four stars.

����������������������������� ����������� C r y s t a l Wa t e r V i l l a s

(419) 283-0828 Bob Coberley (419) 351-2123 Mark Lajoie

���������������� �������������������

����������������

������������������ ��������� �����

��������������������������������������������������� ��������������������������