Also in theatres
(Ratings based on four-star system.)
‘Alice in Wonderland’
Rated PG
???
Director Tim Burton’s new extravaganza, the second Disney-backed “Alice” and a bookend to the cheerily benign 1951 animated version, won’t be for everyone. It’s a little rough for preteens, and it doesn’t throw many laughs the audience’s way, but along with “Sweeney Todd,” this is Burton’s most interesting project in a decade. Wonderfully well-chosen Australian actress Mia Wasikowska plays Alice, and Johnny Depp continues his fruitfully nervy collaboration with Burton by playing the Mad Hatter.

‘The Bounty Hunter’
Rated PG-13
?1?2
Jennifer Aniston stars as a reporter on the trail of a police corruption scandal. She skips a court hearing to meet up with a snitch, and her ex-husband, a bounty hunter played by Gerard Butler, is thrilled to be the one bringing her in. But he owes some loan sharks, so everyone’s trying to kill them, and they bicker and bicker and chase and chase and are chased and chased again. Butler grates in this cringe-worthy romantic comedy, and Aniston’s script karma continues its vengeful post-”Friends” rampage.

‘Brooklyn’s Finest’
Rated R
??
This film lays out a big spread of law enforcement corruption, intertwining the tales of three cops in crisis. One (Ethan Hawke) has a plan to buy a better future. Another (Richard Gere) is a suicidally inclined alcoholic just days from retirement. The third and most interesting (Don Cheadle, one of the best actors alive) is an undercover detective in trouble every which way. With so much complication and woe jammed into 125 minutes, credibility is in short supply.

‘The Crazies’
Rated R
???1?2
One of the year’s nicest bloody surprises, the remake of the 1973 George A. Romero virus thriller “The Crazies” must be approached with the proper expectations. It should not be judged for what it is not. But nearly everything about it works. The good people of Ogden Marsh, Iowa, turn into murderous lunatics, owing to a nearby downed plane carrying germ-warfare viral nastiness leaking straight into the town’s water supply As in Romero’s Vietnam-era original, the real adversary is the U.S. government, which, after the craziness starts, launches “containment protocol.”

‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’
Rated PG
?1?2
Kids may enjoy this live-action film version of the Jeff Kinney books, but an astonishing percentage of the books’ appeal has vanished. The petty jealousies, vindictive pranks and raging insecurities as endured by put-upon protagonist Greg Heffley were great fun on the page, thanks to the doodly, episodic energy of Kinney’s journal entries. Redone for the real world, with real actors and a serious lack of wit, “Wimpy Kid” is no longer special. The movie lacks the cleverly hyperbolic touch that takes the audience a step or two away from comic realism.

‘The Ghost Writer’
Rated PG-13
???1?2
Director Roman Polanski turns a conventional conspiracy thriller into a triumph of atmospheric menace. A hated politician (Pierce Brosnan, playing a variant on ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair) owes his publisher an autobiography. Enter the ghost writer (Ewan McGregor), who arrives on Martha’s Vineyard to research his subject. Some may perceive this as an anti-Bush polemic, but Polanski is less intrigued by specific topical reference points than by the cramped corridors of power and what misdeeds lie in the shadows.

‘Green Zone’
Rated R
??1?2
Director Paul Greengrass delivers a skillfully made package, but this feels like a too-soon proposition. “Green Zone” is partly real and partly outlandish in its wishful thinking. An Army officer hunting for WMDs in 2003, the fictional Miller (Matt Damon) knocks heads with everyone in Baghdad, from a neocon Pentagon huckster (Greg Kinnear) to a scary Special Forces op (Jason Isaacs). Everyone’s after one of Saddam’s top military figureheads (Khalid Abdalla), who has gone underground and who knows what Miller wants to learn.

‘Our Family Wedding’
Rated PG-13
?
Instead of invitations, they should be sending out apologies for “Our Family Wedding.” Race as much as romance is at the heart of the matter, with director Rick Famuyiwa playing that card in nearly every scene. The film stars America Ferrera and Lance Gross as a couple traveling to L.A. to meet the parents and wed on the fly. This is a wasted opportunity to take a smart cut at a subject rarely explored by Hollywood. Instead, the warring families, the interracial romance and the inherent cultural clashes are squandered.

‘Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief’
Rated PG
??
The first installment in Rick Riordan’s five-book series suggests that this could be the start of something adequate. Its limitations are less a matter of scale than of imagination. It may be director Chris Columbus’ fate to initiate a fantasy franchise destined to be improved by his successors, as with the “Harry Potter” juggernaut. Now, Columbus has taken on this fantasy construct in which Greek gods threaten war in modern-day America over Zeus’ missing lightning bolt.

‘Remember Me’
Rated PG-13
??
Teen audiences, particularly female, are likely to fall headlong into this dour romantic drama because Robert Pattinson and his fwoopy hair are both in it. Pattinson plays an NYU student who dares to ask out a girl (Emilie de Ravin) despite the fact that she’s the daughter of the cop (Chris Cooper) who recently arrested him. The story takes place largely in New York City in early 2001, so 9?11 looms. Pattinson is a good actor, but he struggles to find a through-line to the film’s generalized notion of F. Scott Fitzgerald/J.D. Salinger raw youth.

‘Repo Men’
Rated R
?1?2
Plenty of body parts are forcibly removed in this violent futuristic action film: kidneys, hearts, livers, all high-tech and artificial, rented to the medically needy by a nasty corporation called The Union. But there’s a key organ missing from the movie itself: a brain. This had the potential to be a funky, prescient piece of dystopian satire, but it falls flat despite its three game male leads: Jude Law as one of the titular enforcers, Forest Whitaker as his prankish colleague, and Liev Schreiber as their oily boss.

‘The Runaways’
Rated R
???1?2
This rich, surprisingly old-fashioned musical biopic has neither the bloat nor blather of your average Hollywood treatment of stars on the rise. It’s pungent and quick on its feet, capturing mid-1970s L.A. in look and spirit. Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) and Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning), two-fifths of The Runaways, take center stage here. One suspects Stewart and Fanning, who’ve never been stronger or freer on screen, were able to bring all sorts of private, teen-idol Sturm und Drang to bear on these real-life teen idols.

‘She’s Out of My League’
Rated R
??
Jay Baruchel is the 21st-century Don Knotts, and even in a forgettable film like this one, his adenoidal, sidewinding line readings can make the stupidest material sound temporarily funny. Half of this film takes place in a Judd Apatow comedy, or tries to. The other half takes place in a drably photographed Pittsburgh, where Kirk (Baruchel) works as a Transportation Security Administration employee. An attractive babe (Alice Eve) coming off a bad relationship decides to give Kirk a try, much to the bewilderment of his goofball friends.

‘Shutter Island’
Rated R
2 stars
A U.S. marshal (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his amiable new partner (Mark Ruffalo) hunt for an escaped patient at an insane asylum run by a shifty doctor (Ben Kingsley), whose island clinic may harbor sinister doings in the name of progressive health care. The esteemed Martin Scorsese directs this adaptation of a Dennis Lehane novel, but Scorsese overcooks the stew. Not even supporting players as deft as Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley and Emily Mortimer can make this more than classy, well-acted junk.

‘The Yellow Hankerchief’
Rated PG-13
3 stars
This is a gentle, low-key road movie centering on the eternal need to love and to trust. A sweet-natured kid with wanderlust (Eddie Redmayne) passes through a tiny town in his vintage convertible and gives a lift to a pretty teen (Kristen Stewart) and to a middle-age man (William Hurt) of much kindness and concern for these two young people, but not eager to talk about himself. This film is adept at making viewers care what happens to these very likable people.
— Tribune Media Services