opening this week

     Dick
     
      "Clueless" meets "All the President's Men" as two hapless Nixon-era teens ("Drop Dead Gorgeous' " Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams of "Dawson's Creek") take a wrong turn on a White House tour and stumble into Watergate intrigue, prompting the chief executive himself (Dan Hedaya) to hire them as presidential dog walkers so he can find out what they know. "NewsRadio's" Dave Foley (as White House Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman), "Saturday Night Live" veteran Harry Shearer (as the mysterious G. Gordon Liddy), Saul Rubinek (alias Henry Kissinger) and "SNL's" Jim Breuer (as presidential counsel John Dean) co-star. (93 min.) PG-13; sex-related humor, drug content, profanity.
     
     The Iron Giant
     
      British poet Ted Hughes' tale of a 50-foot robot inspires this animated feature from TV veteran Brad Bird ("Family Dog") about a gentle metallic giant who transforms a '50s Maine town -- and the life of a lonely 9-year-old boy. Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Vin Diesel, Christopher McDonald, John Mahoney, Cloris Leachman and Eli Marienthal (as Hogarth) lead the vocal cast. (86 min.) PG; fantasy action, mild profanity. (Reviewed in this edition.)
     
     Mystery Men
     
      When Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear), Champion City's real protector, is kidnapped, wannabe crime fighters -- led by Mr. Furious (Ben Stiller), The Shoveler (William H. Macy), The Blue Raja (Hank Azaria), The Bowler (Janeane Garofalo) and The Spleen (Paul "Pee-wee Herman" Reubens) -- step up to save their bustling metropolis from supervillain Casanova Frankenstein ("Shine" Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush) in an adaptation of the spoofy Dark Horse comic. (120 min.) PG-13; comic action violence, crude humor.
     
     The Sixth Sense
     
      A child psychologist (Bruce Willis) tries to help an 8-year-old (Haley Joel Osment, alias "Forrest Gump's" Forrest Jr.) haunted by an eerie secret: he's a reluctant receptor for ghosts who speak to him from beyond the grave, revealing dangerous secrets in this psychological thriller written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan ("Wide Awake," "Praying With Anger"). Toni Collette ("Muriel's Wedding") and Olivia Williams ("Rushmore," "The Postman") round out the starring cast. (110 min.) PG-13; intense thematic material, violent images.
     
     The Thomas Crown Affair
     
      Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo follow in the charismatic footsteps of Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, who headlined the 1968 caper about a bored, self-made billionaire who plans a diverting art museum heist -- and the investigator who's on to him, in more ways than one. Denis Leary, model Esther Cañadas, Ben Gazzara and Dunaway herself (this time in the role of Crown's psychiatrist) co-star for John McTiernan, who previously directed Brosnan in the 1986 thriller "Nomads." (109 min.) R; sexual situations, profanity.
     
     -- Carol Cling