1. Underworld Awakening (Sony/Screen Gems, 3,078 Theaters, 88 Minutes, Rated R): I don’t know if it’s a good sign or a bad sign that Kate Beckinsale is back in this franchise. Well, it’s good in the sense that I always like her in the role, bad in the sense that it’s a bit of a step back for her, isn’t it?

Anyhoo, Beckinsale returns as Selene, the vampire warrior, who is awaken to find that both the Vampires and the Lycans (werewolves) are threat with annihilation by humans. As Selene fights for both races’ survival, she comes across a half-vampire/half-lycan child who just might be her daughter.

The film looks like just what you’d expect from the franchise: Beckinsale in skin-tight leather, kicking ass. It won’t be Shakepeare, but if your taste run toward the goth action film, it should be entertaining.

2. Red Tails (Fox, 2,512 Theaters, 120 Minutes, Rated PG-13): The ads might say this film is “from George Lucas,” but he didn’t write or direct it. His only credit is as executive producer. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t contribute.

Lucas started developing the project, based on the real-life Tuskegee Airmen, back in the late 1980s. It was intended to open in the early 1990s, but fears amongst the Hollywood studios about financing a big budget film with a predominantly black cast made the road the the screen an arduous one, even for a producer of Lucas’ stature.

But the film is finally hitting screens. Lucas hired an African-American director (Anthony Hemmingway) and African-American writers (John Ridley, who wrote one of my most favorite comics of the last decade in The American Way, and Aaron McGruder of The Boondocks fame). I don’t see why all audiences wouldn’t be interested in heroes fight evil, no matter what color the heroes are. I hope audiences prove that to be true this weekend.

3. Haywire (Relativity, 2,439 Theaters, 93 Minutes, Rated R): It’s not easy for any athlete to make the jump to film stardom. For every Dwayne Johnson or Jim Brown, there are twice as many Kurt Thomases and Brian Bosworths.  Gina Carrano faces an even more difficlt challenge, being a female MMA fighter trying to break into the world of action films, a world not all that receptive to women with loads of acting experience.

But few athletes could ask for a better introduction to the world of movies than Carrano got. She is paired with an A-list, Oscar winning director in Steven Soderbergh, who surrounded her with a great cast that features Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas, and Bill Paxton. Add to that a revenge plot that almost always works (a black ops agent is framed and betrayed and seeks revenge) and you have a pretty solid film.

The trailer was awesome, the kind that made me wish the film started right then. I don’t know if it will open well, especially considering there is another action film with a female protagonist opening the same day, but it’s not for lack of trying.

1. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (Warner Brothers, 2,575 Theaters, 90 Minutes, Rated PG): When I first saw this trailer, I got a big Happy Feet vibe off of it. And while it is advertise as being from the studio that brought us that movie, and the owls do remind one of those penguins, what shocked me more was the director.

The director is Zack Snyder. The same Zack Snyder that directed 300, Dawn of the Dead, and Watchmen. I wonder if there will be any uncomfortably drawn out sex scenes in this film.

Probably not, because this film was adapted from a line of children’s books. Young owls are, well, owlnapped and forced into military service. One young owl escapes and find friendly owls to help him free his friends.

2. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (Fox, 3, 565 Theaters, 133 Minutes, Rated PG-13): If there was ever a movie in need of a sequel 23 years later, it’s probably not this one. Can’t see people clamoring for a follow-up over the last 20 years.

But with the economy the way it is, the scandals at Enron, Goldman Sachs and others, and the us-and-them mentality between the haves and the have-nots, it is the perfect time for a sequel. Greed is good has become a religious text for a lot of people, and others have suffered.

Gordon Gekko appears to be a white hat in this film, trying to warn the financial community of its bleak future. I don’t know if I am ready for that.

This film got an unfortunate boost from Micahel Douglas’ announcement that he has cancer. I am pulling for him, and I hope this isn’t one of his last films.

3. You Again (Touchstone, 2,548 Theaters, 105 Minutes, Rated PG): Not to put on my feminist hat or anything, but really? Is this film really saying that women are so catty that it passes from generation to generation? That women never grow out of the petty feuds and animosities? Man, that’s kind of backwards thinking.

Anyway, the film, which was written by a woman–way to keep those negative stereotypes going, ladies–is about a woman whose world it turned upside down when she realizes that her brother is going to marry a woman who made her high school life miserable. She then begins to do all she can to break up the impending nuptials.

Complicating matters is the fact that the woman’s mom had a similar hate/hate relationship with the bride’s mom. Somehow, I get the feeling there will be a food fight involving a wedding cake. I can just feel it.

The cast is filled with pretty good actors, including that unstoppable juggernaut of octogenarian humor, Betty White, so maybe the film won’t be as bad as it seems.

Producer Ed Pressman is continuing to push forward with his plans to make a sequel to the 1987 cautionary tale Wall Street.

Variety is reporting that Pressman has hired 21 scribe Alan Loeb to pen the screenplay. In addition to writing, Loeb just happens to be a licensed stockbroker who formerly worked at the Chicago Board of Trade.

This is a change from the report we ran over a year ago indicating that Pressman was developing the sequel with writer Stephen Schiff. The basic premise of both reports sounds the same- Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas, from the original film) emerges from a stretch in prison to discover that the financial world is much different in nature from when he ruled it two decades ago. There’s no word if Loeb’s script is a rewrite of Schiff’s work or if it goes off on its own direction.

Although Douglas is not formally attached to the project, Variety is reporting that 20th Century Fox has fast-tracked the project’s development, no doubt in part spurred on by recent headlines. It’s nice to see that someone looks like they have a plain to make some money from this economic downturn.

Gordon Gecko, the slick inside trader/anti-hero of Oliver Stone’s Wall Street (1987) may be gracing cinema screens once again, according to an interview with the film’s producer Ed Pressman in the West Australian.

Pressman has been working with screenwriter Stephen Schiff in developing a story that not only returns the character to the big screen, but reflects the changes in world business that have occurred over the last quarter century. He said-

Wall Street was New York-centric. Today the markets are much more global, hence the title of the new film, Money Never Sleeps… The new film will be based in New York, in London, in the United Arab Emirates and in an Asian country. We’ve pretty well worked out the inter-personal relationships between the characters. We’re now talking about the business events.

Portrayed by Michael Douglas, Gecko embodied all that director Oliver Stone saw as wrong in corporate America. Of course, Gecko’s over-the-top ambition and drive didn’t stop him from becoming a hero to many. As Pressman explains-

That’s his appeal. Gekko is larger than life. His appetites are large. The audience enjoys a vicarious pleasure of seeing a world they would never be part of. In a funny way Wall Street was like The Godfather in that the real mob began dressing and behaving like characters in the movie. After Wall Street people started wearing suspenders (braces) like Michael.

And what has happened to Gecko since audiences last saw him being betrayed by his protégé Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) to rival Sir Larry Wildman (Terence Stamp)? Pressman reveals that much like real life trader Michael Milkin, whom the character of Gecko is partly based on, Gecko has done a stretch in prison for his illegal activities, but upon release has donated much time and money to charity work. Pressman hints, though, “a leopard doesn’t change its spots, despite appearances.”

Via Film Ick.