I have ordered the films Tim Burton has directed from worst to best.

Corpse Bride

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Batman

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Batman Returns

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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

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Sweeney Todd

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Big Fish

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Pee-wee's Big Adventure

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Beetle Juice

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Sleepy Hollow

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Edward Scissorhands

The Regal Cinemas at the Salmon Run Mall will be debuting Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland in Real 3D and regular 2D at midnight Thursday.

The price structure has also changed for all films at the Regal. The new pricing is listed below:

Regular Prices: Adults-$9.25, Matinee Adult- $7.25, Children under 12 and Senior Citizens 62 and older- $6.75

REAL 3-D: Adults-$12.75, Matinee Adult-$10.75,Children Under 12 and Sr. Citizens 62+- $10.25

With the Olympics in full steam, I figured a list of the best films including the Olympics is appropriate. I have not seen 10 Olympic films, so here is the order of the ones I've seen:

5. Blades of Glory

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4. Cool Runnings

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3.Miracle

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2. Munich

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1. Chariots of Fire

Dear John

Rated: PG-13

Runtime: 102 minutes

Starring: Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried

My Rating: 2 stars.

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When will Nicholas Sparks adaptations actually explore anything with depth? They’ve all touched on deeper issues – Alzheimer’s, autism, cancer – but none has really looked at disease.

I don’t think that time will ever come. We wouldn’t want to alienate the teenage girl, now would we?

Dear John is a love story, yes, but again there’s more. John Tyree (Channing Tatum) is a soldier on leave, living with his autistic father (Richard Jenkins), when he meets Savannah (Amanda Seyfried). Their whirlwind romance is on a clock. He’s only home for two weeks.

As in all Sparks’ adaptations, that’s enough time to fall in love. There are two problems with this. The first, Tatum doesn’t embrace his character. He goes through the motions, trying to be cute and charming, but coming off annoying and arrogant. The second, he doesn’t seem to care that much when he has to inevitably leave. He has to go to war and has close to zero problems leaving Savannah behind.

Seyfried plays Savannah perfectly and is beginning to emerge as a talented young actress. It’s unfortunate that her efforts are wasted in another shallow film that rivals The Notebook as the most over-marketed, over-hyped Sparks films.

Dear John would be better if we saw more of Jenkins and less of Tatum. Jenkins handles the father with care. Mr. Tyree has lived a difficult life, yet he’s managed to survive alone, raising John after his mother abandoned the family. He’s seen his son off to war numerous times and clings to the routines that got him this far. Now that is interesting. Do we see any more of it? No.

We’re taken to war with John, while he corresponds with Savannah via hand-written letters. He makes no attempts to contact his father or tell Savannah anything about him. She mentions that she visits Mr. Tyree on occasion to make sure he’s ok. We don’t see it, of course, because that would be too uncomfortable.

The film goes on like this, avoiding what’s really important and focusing on John and Savannah’s relationship. I suppose that’s expected from Sparks, who has yet to have an adapted novel profoundly comment or explore a real, human issue. They’re all just love-drunk nonsense.

I’m sure many of you will go – or have gone – and you will say that it’s wonderful and touching. You aren’t wrong, you are just missing out on what could have been so much more. Think about Mr. Tyree and how only he seems to understand the strength of a father-son bond is. He yearns to be close with his son. He’s wanted it since John was 8 years old.

John doesn’t reciprocate. He blocks him out, but we never really know why.

The emotional impact of Dear John is minimal compared to what it should be. There’s war, drama, love, heartache, family bonds and a seemingly endless series of factors that, if portrayed correctly, could tear the audience’s heart out. We feel almost none of it.

I don’t want to blame director Lasse Hallstrom. He’s made unforgettable films like Chocolat, The Cider House Rules, and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. This one, though, is a major downgrade. He’s too safe, but the script doesn’t call for more. He’s forced to work without Mr. Tyree, by far the most interesting character, because that’s how Sparks and screenwriter Jamie Linden made it.

Dear John is a disappointment. Two stars.

The Wolfman

Rated: R

Runtime: 102 minutes

Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt, Anthony Hopkins

My Rating: 3 stars

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The Wolfman is as good as one could expect from a new take on an old tale. It's not as good as An American Werewolf in London. Like the 1981 film, this one will be most remembered for its transformation scene, which shines in an otherwise dim film.

Lawrence Talbot (Benicio Del Toro) returns home to search for his missing brother. His brother's fiancee, Gwen (Emily Blunt), pleads for help despite Tablot's hatred for his father, Sir John (Anthony Hopkins).

The last time he was home, he witnessed his father holding his dead mother. Talbot spent the time between then and when the movie begins in and out of psychiatric hospitals and under close watch by doctors. Upon his arrival, he learns of a much worse family fate.

While searching for his brother, a beast – some think is a bear, others a monster – is on the loose, killing animals and humans. Talbot hunts it down, but is bitten before he kills the animal.

You can guess where it goes from here, and its nowhere new.

If it weren't for the mass of previous werewolf movies, this film would be remarkable on its own. It's entertaining, engrossing and, at times, terrifying. But anyone who has seen An American Werewolf in London or any of the countless other films in the genre will likely be disappointed.

The Wolfman just isn't original and its plot tired and lazy. The holes within it – like why silver bullets need to be used to kill a werewolf – are never explained. Instead, the script assumes the audience's knowledge of werewolf culture, including that using silver bullets is the only way to kill a werewolf. It's never explained in the movie.

The highlights of the film include each transformation scene and many of the fights, aside from the film's climax, which felt too fake, even for a werewolf movie.

There just isn't enough emotion to The Wolfman. There is plenty to root against, but not enough to root for. We immediately hate the local police official, who wants to put the whole Talbot family in prison. But that's only because we like him slightly less than the Talbots.

Overall, it leaves the audience in a difficult spot with no clear good guy. The only remotely likable character is Gwen, but even she is somewhat despicable with her wooden actions. Blunt is not at fault, she didn't have much to work with. Gwen is supposed to be the key to this film. She brought Lawrence home. She made sure he and his father tried to reconcile. She appears at first to just want to find her husband. The problem is she doesn't try very hard.

So when you have a good vs. evil film like this with a bunch of evil people and one slightly less evil person, who do you root for? Personally, I rooted for the gore. Even that was weak.

The scares however, now they were good. Each kill made the audience squirm and the dark nature of films like this added to the tension.

In the end though it just isn't as good as it could have been. With all the material before it, The Wolfman feels a little rehashed. That said, it's highly entertaining, just not very deep or memorable. Three stars.

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