Four flicks open on area screens this week. First up is “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World,” Russell Crowe’s latest venture into the past. This time he plays a British naval captain ordered to pursue a superior French privateer. Director and fellow Australian Peter Weir mounts combat scenes so realistic that the viewer will feel like part of this seafaring crew.

On the lighter side is “Love Actually,” an intricate romantic comedy about a dozen or so couples in love. A major league cast — which includes Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson — help sell this feel-good, Christmas-time charmer.

On the extra-light side is “Looney Tunes: Back in Action,” which gives the Warner Brothers gang a “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” treatment with a collection of gags blending live action and animation.

At the art house there’s “Thirteen,” which finds a teenager of the same age falling in with the wrong popular crowd. The result is an unsettling, eye-opening film cowritten by its teen star, Nikki Reed, who portrays the bad seed.

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