The mysterious and alarming signs have been out there for weeks, months even: On billboards, benches and bus stops featuring crude cartoon alien drawings, they've warned us of non-humans, they've urged us to remain separate.

"What is all that about?" you've probably wondered. Well, they're ads for the enormously buzzed-about District 9, and thankfully, given their ubiquity, all the hype is justified.

This is one intense, intelligent, well-crafted action movie - one that dazzles the eye with seamless special effects but also makes you think without preaching. Like the excellent Moon from earlier this summer, District 9 has the aesthetic trappings of science fiction but it's really more of a character drama, an examination of how a man responds when he's forced to confront his identity during extraordinary circumstances.

Aliens who arrived here in their spaceship more than 20 years ago have now been quarantined in cramped and dangerous slums; the nerdy bureaucrat charged with moving them to new quarters (the tremendous Sharlto Copley) undergoes a physical and emotional transformation in the process.

What's amazing is that this visceral yet philosophically sophisticated film is the first feature from commercial and music-video director Neill Blomkamp, who co-wrote the script with Terri Tatchell. (Peter Jackson is the big name attached to this refreshingly star-free project - he's one of the producers - and Weta Digital, the company behind Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, provided the intricate alien effects.)

Blomkamp set District 9 in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he was born and raised, so it's easy to assume his themes of racial division are a metaphor for apartheid. You could interpret it that way, but its quick bursts of violence and urban warfare also feel like a statement on the war in Iraq; a private corporation tasked with keeping aliens away from humans is reminiscent of Blackwater.

Using his own short film, Alive in Jo'burg, as a leaping-off point, Blomkamp creates a sensation of relevance and immediacy by combining fake news footage, real TV clips and documentary-style, hand-held camerawork. Meanwhile, the fantastic sight of a spaceship hovering over Johannesburg - trapped and unable to return home, its former inhabitants scurrying about on the ground in squalor - creates an ominous and steady source of tension.

But he also builds suspense early on with a flurry of talking-head interviews from experts and insiders, all foreshadowing that something horrible has happened in the slum known as District 9, and that Copley's character, Wikus van der Merwe, was at the center of it.

"The entire world was looking at Johannesburg so we had to do the right thing," says one.

"Nobody saw it coming at all," says another.

Wikus seems a rather ordinary sort in his own on-camera interviews: sunny, jumpy, a bit like Ricky Gervais' character, David Brent, on the British version of The Office. He lives in a nondescript suburban house with his wife; his father-in-law is his boss. Everything seems to be in order.

But what's fascinating is watching his true nature emerge as he interacts with the aliens once he enters their camp and tries to evict them. He becomes slick, conniving, almost cruel. And what's even more riveting is the way his dramatic exposure to these creatures - known pejoratively as "prawns" for their antenna and hard shells - doesn't necessarily make him a better person all of a sudden.

There is so much more to say from this point but doing so would ruin the many twists and revelations in store. We'll just say that Wikus adapts - he learns how to survive - in a place where there are no easy answers.

District 9, a TriStar Pictures release, is rated R for bloody violence and pervasive language.

Running time: 113 minutes

Rating: Three and a half stars out of four

Cold Souls a clever look at identity

Movie Cold Souls Director Sophie Barthes Cast Paul Giamatti, David Strathairn, Dina Korzun, Katheryn Winnick

Christy Lemire

People are so preoccupied with the importance of the soul, it's become its own cottage industry. Oprah Winfrey has devoted an entire series to the evolution of one's soul. But what if you just didn't need yours? What if you decided one day you'd be better off without a soul and just ... had it removed? That's the inspired and absurd premise of "Cold Souls," the feature debut from writer-director Sophie Barthes. And who better to personify such existential hand-wringing than Paul Giamatti? His bug eyes, hunched carriage and exasperated delivery suggest that he constantly bears the weight of the world on his shoulders, even in a comedy or an action picture. Here, Giamatti plays himself - or a version of himself, not unlike John Malkovich in Being John Malkovich, which is fitting. Cold Souls explores some of the same questions about identity, memory and reality that frequently arise in Charlie Kaufman's writing. Paul is preparing to star in a production of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and rehearsals are vexing him. He's not enjoying the work - he just can't get it right. One day, his agent suggests he read an article in The New Yorker magazine about a lab on New York's Roosevelt Island where they extract the soul and store it until you decide you need it again - unless you'd like to try someone else's, that is. The process is intended to alleviate worries and fears: Instead, you feel nothing at all. David Strathairn is coolly amusing as the deadpan Dr Flintstein who runs the place, which looks like a day spa designed by Stanley Kubrick. As Paul examines a row of souls being held in their cylindrical glass containers, the doctor explains that "they mostly come in dark tones - blacks, browns, grays." And so he's understandably horrified to find when his own soul comes out that it looks exactly like a chickpea (it's a neat little visual gag). Barthes cuts back and forth between Paul's story and that of a Russian woman named Nina (a confident performance from Dina Korzun), who functions as a sort of "soul mule" for a guy running a black-market operation. She takes them in on one end and has them extracted on the other; trouble is, after so many transfers, she's got a build-up of residue in her body. And so, like Paul - whose path will eventually cross with hers - she's a bit mixed up about who she is herself. Katheryn Winnick is also very good as the soul merchant's trophy wife, a no-talent soap-opera star who wants the soul of an American actor (preferably Al Pacino, George Clooney or Sean Penn) to help her improve her craft. These are all very surreal, inventive ideas, heightened by the dreamlike cinematography from Barthes' partner, Andrij Parekh; the scenes shot in St Petersburg, for example, are simultaneously gauzy and bleak. The combination of themes and visuals does make Cold Souls feel a little slow, but it's also invigorating to walk out of a movie that actually makes you think - especially during this time of year. Cold Souls, a Samuel Goldwyn release, is rated PG-13 for nudity and brief strong language. Running time: 101 minutes Rating: Three stars out of four The Goods never gets started Movie The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard Director Neal Brennan Cast Jeremy Piven, Ving Rhames, James Brolin, David Koechner, Kathryn Hahn, Ed Helms, Jordana Spiro, Tony Hale, Ken Jeong, Alan Thicke Christy Lemire Enduring the soul-sucking process of buying a used car is bad enough. Watching a movie about soulless used-car salesmen is even worse - especially when it's a comedy that strains desperately for raunchy, politically incorrect laughs. In theory, the pieces were there for something slightly more inspired with The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. Chappelle's Show co-creator Neal Brennan directs for the first time (from a script by Andy Stock and Rick Stempson), and the large ensemble cast features Jeremy Piven, David Koechner, Ving Rhames, Ed Helms, Tony Hale and Ken Jeong. A lot of improv supposedly went on, as well, as you might expect in a movie from Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's Gary Sanchez Productions. After all, these are the people behind Anchorman and Talladega Nights. But this time, except for a couple of amusing lines here and there, the results just feel flat and generally unpleasant. Every character is singularly unlikable, but beyond that, they're drawn so one-dimensionally that they're not even interesting. Piven, as hotshot used-car salesman Don The Goods Ready, is essentially doing a variation on his cocky, fast-talking Ari Gold character from Entourage - which is pretty much all we've seen him do for years now. Don is the leader of a brash crew of mercenaries (played by Koechner, Rhames and Kathryn Hahn) who are hired to travel from town to town, moving cars off flailing lots. Their latest stop is Temecula in Southern California, where they have to help sell 141 cars over the three-day July 4 weekend. The dealership's owner, Ben Selleck (James Brolin), is in financial trouble and on the verge of selling the place to his more successful competitor, Stu Harding (Alan Thicke). Stu's son, Paxton (Helms), the leader of the thirtysomething boy band Big Ups (he calls it a "man band"), wants to use the space for rehearsals. Paxton also happens to be engaged to Ben's daughter, Ivy (Jordana Spiro), which makes no sense since she seems vaguely cool and smart. And so what we have here is essentially a remake of the 1980 Robert Zemeckis comedy Used Cars, complete with wild gimmicks and even strippers who are brought in to help move those vehicles. A gag involving getting American Idol runner-up Bo Bice's brother to play during the sale gets hammered into the ground. So do racial and gay jokes. It's just repetitive, adolescent and lame. Speaking of which, the whole point of Rob Riggle's character - that he's a 10-old-boy trapped in the body of a grown man because of a pituitary irregularity - is downright creepy, especially when Hahn's oversexed Babs Merrick starts aggressively hitting on him. And then there is Ferrell himself - who makes his obligatory weirdo cameo as Don's former partner, who died in a skydiving accident while dressed for a President's Day sale as Abraham Lincoln. His character isn't the only element of this movie that lands with a thud. The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, a Paramount Vantage release, is rated R for sexual content, nudity, pervasive language and some drug material. Running time: 90 minutes Rating: One star out of four