Info: Opens today at the Broadway Centre Cinemas; rated PG-13 for brief violence and some suggestive material; 123 minutes.

At this point, John Sayles (the man whose first name should be legally changed to "Maverick Director") can be counted on for rich, novelistic settings and an array of interesting characters. He delivers those with "Honeydripper," depicting the lives of striving 1950s African-Americans in one Alabama town and its surrounding cotton fields, and he draws a collection of strong actors (including Lisa Gay Hamilton, Charles S. Dutton, Stacy Keach and Mary Steenburgen) to flesh out the landscape. But the movie's central story - of Tyrone (Danny Glover), who pins the survival of his struggling nightclub on a performance by a New Orleans guitar hero - is too slight and predictable to justify all the embroidery Sayles adds around the edges.

- Sean P. Means

George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead

Info: Opens today at the Jordan Commons Megaplex 17 and the District Megaplex 20; rated R for strong or violence and gore, and pervasive language; 95 minutes.

There may be no bigger travesty than a bland and bloodless "Dead" film. And the surprising lack of trademark gore in this newest entry in the George Romero classic series is not its only cinematic crime. The story, about a group of college students who try to make it to a safehouse as a zombie infestation erupts, is more hackneyed Hollywood fodder than Romero's earlier, more intriguing, films. Especially puzzling is that this new story is in no way part of the series' overall arc of a zombie revolution overtaking humans. And his decision to film it home-movie style, À la "The Blair Witch Project" and "Cloverfield," is nothing but gimmick. Sigh, a Romero zombie film with no bite. Fans will be disappointed.

- Vince Horiuchi

Never Back Down

Info: Opens today in theaters everywhere; rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving intense sequences of fighting/violence, some sexuality, partying and language - all involving teens; 106 minutes.

If you thought the problem with "Step Up 2: The Streets" was that there weren't enough kicks to the head, this virtual remake is for you. When rebel teen Jake Tyler (Sean Faris) moves to Orlando, he discovers an underground network of mixed-martial-arts fighters in his new high school. After raising the ire of the school's best and nastiest fighter, Ryan (Cam Gigandet), Jake enters a gym and finds a mentor in Jean Roqua (Djimon Hounsou), with whom he bonds through an endless series of training montages. Those montages make up the bulk of the movie, a blessing since director Jeff Wadlow ("Cry Wolf") has little other than bare-knuckled clichés to work with in Chris Hauty's script. The fight scenes are well-staged, though, even if the inevitable final fight between Jake and Ryan takes place - just as in "Step Up 2" - in the parking lot outside the secret competition. At least this time, it's not in a fake rainstorm.

- Sean P. Means