Starring Patrick Fugit and Shannyn Sossamon Directed by Goran Dukic U.S. Box Office: $231,512 Rated R

Zia is distraught after his hottie girlfriend breaks up with him, and after a leisurely morning of cleaning up the apartment, he decides to calmly end it all. What he doesn't realize is that there really is no end -- the afterlife for suicides consists of a bizarre purgatory with a striking resemblance to the desert Southwest in which no one can smile and strange, unexplained events referred to as miracles happen to ordinary people. Zia learns that his ex-girlfriend has also "offed," and he sets out on a road trip with his Russian musician friend to find her.

Now if that isn't the damned strangest thing you've ever heard, I'd be afraid to hear what is. To answer your first question, the movie isn't violent, although there are one or two images that might be difficult for some to see, especially early in the film. From there, the ironies and tongue-in-cheek moments hide around every corner. Zia gets a job in this afterlife at a place called Kamikaze Pizza, and there's a spot under his passenger's seat in which objects tend to disappear and are never seen again. Shannyn Sossamon is wonderful as the distant but loveable Mikal, a mysterious girl who "isn't supposed to be here" and is keeps mentioning her search for "the people in charge," of which no one can make heads or tails.

There are scattered moments when you have to wonder where all this is going, but it's a very interesting take on an afterlife created especially for people who have "offed." The very last scene makes the entire journey worthwhile just on its own. See it and you'll understand what I mean.

Starring Monica Potter and Freddy Prinze, Jr. Directed by Mark Waters U.S. Box Office: $10,397,000 Rated PG-13

Amanda Pierce (Monica Potter) is loveable, hard-working, and a bit naive, especially for a Manhattan girl. She's immediately charmed to pieces by the amiable Jim Winston (Freddy Prinze, Jr.), and the two at first deny their already cautious attraction to one another. But when Amanda witnesses what appears to be Jim murdering a woman in cold blood in his apartment, all bets are off. Amanda and her four supermodel roommates are on a mission to find out just exactly who this Jim Winston guy is and why he is apparently not what he seems.

Look. I don't need to tell you that Freddy Prinze, Jr. is a dreadful actor. On top of his inability to deliver a line convincingly, he always has this bemused look on his face like he's about to wink into the camera like the joke's on us. His good looks have gotten him this far, but they can only do so much for him on-screen. The real star of this one is Monica Potter, whose adorably charming performance as the lovelorn Amanda Pierce happily carries us through the formulaic plot, the silly, slapsticky physical humor, and the rampant cultural stereotypes, and in the end, makes us really, really glad we bothered. Head Over Heels neither made a splash at the box office nor formed a line out the door for the DVD release. It's just a really good time, even if it does qualify as the number one guilty pleasure of 2001.

Starring Anastasia Hille Directed by Nacho Cerda U.S. Box Office: $1,255,000 Rated R

Originally part of After Dark Horrorfest's 8 Films to Die For in 2007, The Abandoned was named the Fan Favorite of the festival, earning it much wider release after the fact than it would have normally received. A Russian woman living in the States returns to her native homeland to settle her family's affairs, having just been contacted even though her parents died over 40 years ago. Upon arriving, she quickly discovers that a furious supernatural infestation plagues the family farm, and she has only a few days to discover the truth about what happened there before she loses her sanity and/or her life.

And I mean honestly. This is what real horror is, and that's not an exaggeration. The atmosphere alone qualifies it for the genre; from the moment she arrives in the woods surrounding the farm, you know something is terribly wrong, and you can't shake the feeling that this woman is going to find out the hard way. The whole thing has a pervasive eerieness to it that I can't quite explain, and that's before peoples' spectral doubles start showing up in closets, blank-eyed but clearly watching your every move.

It doesn't over-rely on gore and takes itself ominously seriously. I can recommend The Abandoned to anyone who can appreciate the feeling of sinking down in your seat, hoping not to be seen by Whatever's Out There.

And thanks for stopping by Movie-Popcorn's latest addition to the web site, Lost in the Shuffle, a virtual online museum of practically-forgotten films we think deserve a second look.

That's the purpose behind Lost in the Shuffle -- as avid movie fans and longtime critics, we come across entire libraries of films that got little or no publicity at the time of their release and are, as a result, what we consider lost gems. Our team of hard-nosed but fair and balanced movie critics will be periodically bringing you a closer look at some of the films that we feel fit this description. Each entry will be signed by its author and will represent his or her own individual opinion on the film in question, just like our weekly reviews on Movie-Popcorn.

So feel free to browse. Leave comments and let us know what you think, whether you've seen the films previously or trusted our good judgment and checked it out after the fact. We're always glad to hear from you.