In 2001, Antoine Fuqua directed Ethan Hawke to an Oscar nomination in the down-and-dirty cop drama Training Day. Now, the two are reuniting for Brooklyn’s Finest, another gritty cop drama, but this time with far poorer results. There is not a single original character or idea in Brooklyn’s Finest and the result had the preview audience complaining of those two-plus hours they will never get back.

Director Tim Burton teams up with star Johnny Depp and wife Helena Bonham Carter for the seventh and sixth time, respectively, for this most recent adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic novel and its sequel. The film is being released by Disney, the studio who previously adapted Carroll’s stories in 1951. But Burton and screenwriter Linda Wolverton are bringing a slightly different take with their new adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, as they have Alice is returning to Wonderland years after her first visit. It’s like what Spielberg did in Hook, only with much better results.

Director Roman Polanski has been in the news a lot recently, but not for his filmmaking. Still wanted in the United States for a 1977 sexual assault case, Polanski was recently arrested in Europe and will likely have to travel back to the U.S. for sentencing. Sounds like the guy could use a distraction and a hit movie may be just what he needs. But The Ghost Writer moves slowly and the end reveal is not nearly mind-blowing enough to make it worth the monotony. It’s a nice effort that certainly harkens back to the paranoid thrillers of the seventies, but it is not nearly as successful as, say, Michael Clayton. Sorry, Jake, this is not Chinatown.

George A Romero’s name has become synonymous with zombies, so it comes as no surprise that, in this era of fondness for both the undead and remakes, his canon of work is being mined. Zack Snyder’s 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead is one of the better of the recent zombie movies and helped usher in the era of the modern, fast-moving zombie. Now, director Breck Eisner is remaking Romero’s 1973 flick The Crazies and while it is no Dawn of the Dead, it is sure to delight fans of the genre.

At every step along the way Blood Done Sign My Name avoids the triumphalist tone of so many civil rights films. Not once do you get the impression that this is one of those “one act changed everything forever” stories. Instead it recognizes that the progression toward racial equality was—and remains—a two-step-forward, one-step-back proposition. It’s a good thing that we don’t get to the end of the film thinking that everything’s gonna be rosy. The strength of Stuart’s film lies not in legal ramifications but in human ramifications. These will keep you hooked through the two-plus hour running time, and will leave you feeling inspired and satisfied even if the last twenty minutes come off as rather perfunctory.

Long considered to be overlooked, legendary director Martin Scorsese finally won an Oscar for directing his exciting 2006 cops-and-robbers flick The Departed. For his next narrative feature, Scorsese reunites with star Leonardo DiCaprio for the fourth time to make Shutter Island, a puzzling thriller based on the novel by Dennis Lehane. Previously set to be released last October, the movie now hopes to take advantage of the notoriously lightweight month of February. On a first viewing, however, I must say that the film is rather underwhelming. There is little about this movie that suggests “A Martin Scorsese Picture” and I’ll bet in time only his biggest fans will be giving it that second look.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about the new movie Valentine’s Day is the lengthy opening credits. As the movie alphabetically lists one-by-one the names of its stars, one cannot help but be impressed at the sheer volume of popular talent. It appears director Garry Marshall collected just about every attractive person in Hollywood and threw them together in a romantic comedy blender. Some, it turns out, have rather small roles in the film, whereas others may take up a little too much of the movie’s runtime.

The filmmakers behind Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief can talk all they want about keeping Percy unique from its predecessor Harry Potter, but the similarities are too prominent to be ignored. Adding to the comparison is the fact that Lightning Thief is directed by Chris Columbus, the same man who directed the first two Potter films. Still, with the Harry Potter series about to wrap and the vast world of Greek Mythology to explore, Percy Jackson might just be poised to take over the reins from Hollywood’s most beloved series.

Throughout the 1930s and into the 1940s, genre movies dominated Hollywood and each studio had its specialty. MGM made its living on splashy movie musicals, while Warner Bros. practically invented the gangster film. Meanwhile, with films like Frankenstein and Dracula, Universal became a major player thanks to its monster movies. One of its later entries into the genre was 1941’s The Wolf Man . Now, the studio reinvents the classic with Benicio Del Toro in the role made famous by Lon Chaney, Jr. all those years ago.

In real life, John Travolta loves Paris. He was married there. It’s a fact that might escape you when you see him drop into town with his guns-a-blazin’ in From Paris with Love, the new action flick from producer Luc Besson and director Pierre Morel. Morel is hot off of last year’s surprise hit Taken, but whereas audiences were game to follow Liam Neeson’s vengeful dad on his action-packed mission, I don’t foresee the same result for Travolta’s abrasive secret agent.