Yet another unmemorable adaptation of the great Mark Twain novel, this one with a presumptuous title change, an understandable deletion of Tom Sawyer (probably the single most problematic element in the novel), an unforgivable indifference to the book’s lyricism, and way too much music on the sound track. As played by Elijah Wood, Huck is no longer a working-class boy but a middle-class pretty boy pretending to be working-class, which undermines the meaning of everything; Jim (Courtney B. Vance), who’s become politically correct, sports an earring; and not even Robbie Coltrane and Jason Robards as the king and duke (to replace the book’s Dauphin and Duke) can make up the difference. Even if your kids won’t read the book, it’s worth paying them to keep them away from this substitute. Written and directed by Stephen Sommers. (JR)