Here are a couple of interesting current film releases that you probably haven't heard of thanks to undeserved spotlight-hogging by Mission Impossible 3, Poseidon and The Da Vinci Code.

DOWN IN THE VALLEY (Grade: B-)

Set in that arid wasteland known as the San Fernando Valley, David Jacobson’s strange, ambitious and ultimately unsatisfying film is equal parts Romeo and Juliet, Taxi Driver and Unforgiven. A menacing Edward Norton plays a smooth talking cowboy who wins the heart of a wild teenage girl (Thirteen’s Evan Rachel Wood) and then goes on a gun shooting spree that Billy the Kid would find excessive. The supporting cast is terrific, particularly David Morse and Rory Culkin as the girl’s father and brother. But the romance, western and psychological thriller elements never come together convincingly.

MOUNTAIN PATROL (Grade: A-)

This visually stunning and unsettling film dramatizes real events that transpired in the 1990s. In a remote region of China, Tibetan patrolmen risk their lives to chase down the poachers responsible for driving the Tibetan antelope toward extinction. Apart from the greedy and trigger-happy poachers, they face dehydration, quicksand and snow storms. Given the recent success of nature films like Winged Migration and March of the Penguins, this National Geographic release stands a good chance of being an art house hit this summer.