Scenes at a malls during this holiday frenzy

JAKARTA (JP): If you can jostle your way through malls crowded with holiday season shoppers, a movie may be the tonic to settle your nerves.

Spawn. Cast: Michael Jai White, Martin Sheen. Director: Mark Dippe

An antihero is born from Todd McFarlane's best-selling comic book. Unlike heroic figures like Batman or Superman, Spawn comes from darkness after signing a pact with the devil to be able to meet his wife one more time after his death.

Spawn, who is killed by his amoral friend, Jason Wynn (Sheen), originally plans to avenge his death but ultimately good wins out.

Contact. Cast: Jodie Foster, Matthew McCanaughey, James Wood. Director: Robert Zemeckis. (opening soon)

The movie explores the age-old human yearning to scour the universe for signs of other life forms, despite the theological edicts that we are the masters of our own little universe.

Foster, playing an astronomer, is thrown into a predicament of conscience after experiencing a costly dream-come-true, which, unfortunately, she cannot prove happened. The moral is that two different routes can be taken in search of the truth. (ste/02)