Will 'Bounty Hunter' poach top spot from 'Alice'?

By Sarah Sluis

Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler don't look like they're going to become the next comedy duo in The Bounty Hunter (3,074 theatres), a comedy/action hybrid designed to attract the date-night crowd to the tune of $20-30 million. Aniston and Butler play a separated couple reunited when Butler, a

bounty hunter, must bring in Aniston for skipping a court date; the duo subsequently are pursued by a new set of enemies. The mix of "action thriller" and "marital comedy" didn't go down well with THR critic Kirk Honeycutt, who was frustrated by the movie's implausibility: "Would the

former couple really react to an attempt to murder them in broad

daylight by continuing a quarrel?" Though the star power of Aniston and Butler is spotty, this release has the best chance of unseating 3D Alice in Wonderland.

A retread of worn sci-fi tropes, Repo Men (2,522 theatres) stars Jude Law and Forest Whitaker as human-organ repossessers in a futuristic world. Unfortunate people who have defaulted on their contracts have their bodies opened and replacement organs removed, but the plot doesn't really expand from there. Thematically, the movie is vacant, "ultimately having nothing to say beyond, 'Pay your bills,'" according to critic Frank Lovece. Universal, which misfired last week with Green Zone, is on track to have a flop a second week in a row.

Thanks to its devoted readers, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (3,077 theatres) has had strong advance ticket sales, but its pre-teen boy following will limit its overall audience. The industry likes to cite one of its tried-and-true adages--"girls will go see movies starring boys, but boys won't see movies starring girls"--so the demographics may broaden. According to our critic Ethan Alter, the movie doesn't compare to the source material. "Diary takes Kinney's well-realized characters and transforms them into boring stick figures," and when the hero "makes mistakes and bruises peoples' feelings," he comes off as a "total prick" instead of a flawed protagonist. Don't think fans of the book won't notice. Alter adds that "kids are often smarter than we think�at least smart enough to recognize when something they enjoyed on the page has been dumbed down for the big screen."

On the specialty front, Greenberg (3 theatres) and The Runaways (244 theatres) both open today, with The Runaways launching an aggressive expansion campaign that will cap with a wide release mid-April. Director Noah Baumbach's Greenberg hasn't impressed critics too much, with star Ben Stiller's unlikable character. I personally was intrigued by the very un-Hollywood, realistic look of co-star Greta Gerwig, but the story as a whole isn't Baumbach's best.

The Runaways should inspire a generation of teenagers with its glamorous rock star girls, but the movie has a superficial feel, with its characters constantly in motion and having little time to reflect on what's going on. Both Kristen Stewart (Twilight) as Joan Jett and Dakota Fanning as Cherie Currie nail their performances. But really, this movie is about being a tough rocker, being on tour, wearing fantastic 70s clothes and being baaaad. I can't imagine this movie being anything but a hit among young women, yet its R rating might prevent the youngest of rock idolaters from aging up from Hannah Montana.

On Monday we'll see if The Bounty Hunter rounded up more audiences than Alice, and if Greenberg and The Runaways had promising opening weekends.