Topic: So What's Worth Seeing in February 2010?

Last month I did a little piece lamenting the general lack of quality films in January. And now I'm back, only this time we're looking at February ... and not much has changed. Today we get a weepy romance called Dear John and an outlandish action flick called From Paris With Love. (Warning: Travolta alert!) If you happen to get the chilly new thriller Frozen in your market this weekend, I'd recommend that one.

So that's two broad demographics covered in week one, but what does the rest of the month have in store for us? Meh. Seems we're still meant to be catching up on the Oscar-nominated fare, because February is mostly quickie flicks and genre films. Next weekend's wide releases are another rom-com (this one called, cleverly enough, Valentine's Day), the long-awaited (and R-rated) remake of The Wolfman (bring it on!), and the wackily-titled franchise hopeful known as Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Those who adore the Jackson source material seem pretty psyched, so maybe the movie version won't suck eggs.

The week after that, Martin Scorsese's very fine Shutter Island gets the weekend all to itself (which is weird but cool), and then the month of wide releases closes out with Kevin Smith's Cop Out (Bruce Willis + Tracy Morgan = me laughing) and the months-delayed but hopefully cool remake of George Romero's The Crazies.

If you wander the arthouses or enjoy picking through your On Demand options, you might want to look at the District B13 sequel, which is fun, or the Red Riding crime trilogy from IFC, or (at the end of the month), Sony's release of the festival-adored A Prophet. Or go watch District 9 again.