Movie Picks 

Alice in Wonderland (PG)

In Tim Burton's disappointing Disney take on Lewis Carroll's fantasy classics, it's nice to meet young actress Mia Wasikowska as a clever, independent-minded teen-aged Alice; less nice that the adventure involves donning Joan of Arc armor, beheading a dragon, and drinking its blood. — Jonathan Kiefer

Carmike 10, Chapel Hills 15, Cinemark 16, Cinemark 16 IMAX, Hollywood Interquest, Tinseltown

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (PG)

Alvin and the Chipettes are back in this animated follow-up to 2007's singing chipmunk holiday film. — Not reviewed

Picture Show

Avatar (PG-13)

Avatar is set in a computer-generated world called Pandora, a planet inhabited by the Na'vi, who are rich in a coveted resource ridiculously named Unobtainium. — Tricia Olszewski

Carmike 10, Chapel Hills 15, Cinemark 16, Hollywood Interquest, Tinseltown

The Blind Side (PG-13)

The Blind Side takes on the real-life underdog-makes-good story of Michael Oher, currently a first-year left tackle for the Baltimore Ravens. — Scott Renshaw

Chapel Hills 15, Picture Show

The Book of Eli (R)

Walker (Denzel Washington) wanders through a post-apocalyptic world holding the last known copy of the King James Bible. All he knows is that he's headed west, and that he must keep the book safe. — Jonathan Kiefer

Carmike 10

*Brooklyn's Finest (R)

In a film that doesn't deal in absolutes and doesn't pretend to have all the answers, three very different cops in the same tough Brooklyn precinct struggle to balance their individual senses of honor with the realities of what it takes to survive on the job. — MaryAnn Johanson

Chapel Hills 15, Cinemark 16, Hollywood Interquest, Tinseltown

Cop Out (R)

Cop Out, which teams Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis as New York police officers, doesn't offer an ounce of imagination as a buddy-cop action-comedy hybrid. — Tricia Olszewski

Carmike 10, Chapel Hills 15, Cinemark 16, Hollywood Interquest, Tinseltown

The Crazies (R)

Loosely based on the George Romero horror classic, this remake takes place in a small Iowa town where a toxin is turning people into psychopaths. — Not reviewed

Chapel Hills 15, Cinemark 16, Tinseltown

*Crazy Heart (R)

Expand the story in your average old-fashioned country song to feature-film length, and it would look a lot like Crazy Heart, writer-director Scott Cooper's debut about drinkin', lovin' and livin' too hard. And now it's raking in the honors. — Tricia Olszewski

Carmike 10, Kimball's Peak Three, Tinseltown

*Creation (PG-13)

This gentle movie — it's downright unassuming, considering his impact — is about Charles Darwin the man, and by extrapolation, about science as a human endeavor. — MaryAnn Johanson

Kimball's Peak Three

Daybreakers (R)

In a near-future world, a strange disease sweeps across the planet, turning much of humankind into vampires. — Not reviewed

Picture Show

Dear John (PG)

John Tyree, a young soldier home on leave, falls in love with an idealistic college student. — Not reviewed

Cinemark 16, Tinseltown

Extraordinary Measures (PG)

Brendan Fraser plays a man who abandons his high-paying job when his two children contract a terminal illness, and works with a doctor (Harrison Ford) to search for an unlikely cure. — Not reviewed

Picture Show

*Invictus (PG-13)

Directed by Clint Eastwood, this film set in post-Apartheid South Africa stars Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, in a true story of human-rights hero Nelson Mandela and rugby player Francois Pienaar. — Jonathan Kiefer

Picture Show

*It's Complicated (R)

Jane Adler (Meryl Streep) thought she had life figured out, until an empty nest drives her into an affair with a married man — her ex-husband (Alec Baldwin). — Scott Renshaw

Picture Show

*The Last Station (R)

A charming and energetic film about the last months of War and Peace author Leo Tolstoy's life in 1910 Russia, starring Oscar-nominated actors Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy and Helen Mirren as his wife Sofya. — Scott Renshaw

Kimball's Twin Peak

The Lovely Bones (PG-13)

Directed by Peter Jackson and adapted from Alice Sebold's 2002 novel, this tense but ultimately disappointing drama follows murdered 14-year-old Susie Salmon as she tells her tale from the grave and watches over her family from a limbo-like afterlife. — Scott Renshaw

Picture Show

Old Dogs (PG)

Robin Williams and John Travolta star as middle-aged bachelors who unexpectedly find themselves in charge of 6-year-old twins. — Not reviewed

Picture Show

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (PG)

Based on the book by Rick Riordan, a teen learns that he's descended from the mythological figure Poseidon. — Not reviewed

Carmike 10, Chapel Hills 15, Cinemark 16, Hollywood Interquest, Tinseltown

Planet 51 (PG)

In this animated adventure, the residents of a far-off planet live in dread of aliens invading their homeland, when an astronaut shows up confirming their fears. — Not reviewed

Picture Show

The Princess and the Frog (G)

Disney finally gives us a black princess ... and she spends most of the movie as an amphibian? — MaryAnn Johanson

Picture Show

*Shutter Island (R)

Director Martin Scorsese seems to enjoy this rather commercial exercise, a suspense thriller as Gothic horror noir throwback. And, it lets him prove the reasons for his faith in Leonardo DiCaprio, who delivers as a U.S. Marshal pursuing a prison escapee. — Jonathan Kiefer

Carmike 10, Chapel Hills 15, Cinemark 16, Hollywood Interquest, Tinseltown

Tooth Fairy (PG)

When a hockey player (Dwayne Johnson) crushes a little girl's belief in the tooth fairy, he must spend a week performing the fairy's duties. — Not reviewed

Carmike 10, Chapel Hills 15

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (PG-13)

This second installment, based on the Stephenie Meyer books, features a love triangle between the vampire Edward, his human girlfriend Bella, and Bella's werewolf friend Jacob. — MaryAnn Johanson

Picture Show

Valentine's Day (PG-13)

Valentine's Day covers approximately 20 main characters and 10 significant romantic angles in a span of 120 minutes. Do the math, and what can each subplot possibly deliver besides a cutesy intro, perfunctory conflict and shallow happily-ever-after? — Scott Renshaw

Chapel Hills 15, Cinemark 16, Tinseltown

When in Rome (PG-13)

When a young, hopelessly single New Yorker travels to Rome, her love life is turned upside down. — Not reviewed

Chapel Hills 15

The Wolfman (R)

A man discovers that he is also a wolf. Hey, it happens. Just look at the last 75 years of movie history. Unfortunately, this film never rises above the sad spectacle of an archetype reduced to the wrong kind of howler. — Jonathan Kiefer

Cinemark 16

Remember Me: We're betting the vampire's no longer abstinent.