Patriot Ledger film critic Al Alexander makes his annual picks for the top winners at the Academy Awards, which are being handed out Sunday.

Corrupt cops may be “in” right now in Hollywood (see this weekend’s new release, “Brooklyn’s Finest,” from “Training Day” director Antoine Fuqua), but my favorite kind of movie cop is a buddy cop.

Roughly 15 years ago, two freshmen at Ithaca College were eager to do anything except study, so they began melding one’s poetry with the other’s guitar work. All these years later, would-be poet/songwriter Andy Campolieto and guitarist Ben Lee are the main figures in the Americana band Jo Henley, whose second full-length album “Inside Out” was released Feb. 16.

Michael Corleone, meet Malik El Djebena. I think you’ll find you have a lot in common, especially seeing how you both were so adamant about avoiding the thug life before fate and circumstance dictated otherwise.

If it weren’t for the cars and the telephones and the contemporary small-town setting, “Terribly Happy” could easily be mistaken for an old-fashioned Western. It’s a sort of classic story about a new sheriff coming to town, but not being exactly welcomed with open arms.

Alexis Bledel was a breath of fresh air when she boomeranged from TV’s “Gilmore Girls” to the big screen in “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.” But like a lot of young actresses, things quickly went south.

Spooks, from both the metaphysical and espionage worlds, cast an ominous presence over Roman Polanski's “The Ghost Writer,” but it’s the underlying parallels to its author’s real life that prove most haunting.

For the duration of its grim two-hour ride, “Brooklyn’s Finest” is on to something in the vein of “Training Day,” “The Departed” and dash of “Crash.” It is a frenetic and tough police drama that puts the lives of three nearly burnt-out cops on a bloody collision course.

Tim Burton’s bold reinterpretation of “Alice in Wonderland” is the closest approximation to an acid trip you’ll encounter without indulging. Brimming with hallucinogenic imagery and characters you’d swear were sipping LSD-laced tea, Burton’s 3-D opus is sure to take “Fantasia’s” place as a favorite among hard-core stoners.

“Black Dynamite” was released in theaters last year, but if you didn’t know better, you’d swear it hit theaters back in 1972 — and not the most glamorous theaters, either.

Based on the books "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass" by Lewis Carroll, this film comes packed with '60s psychedelic images including a hookah-smoking caterpillar and a floating cat. Imagine "The Wizard of Oz" on hallucinogens and you have an idea of how trippy the film looks.

Southern sun and dousing rains, a diet of alcohol, drugs, cigarettes and a lot of life ahead, often with no clue as to where they’re headed, bear down on Justin Taylor’s characters, giving them time to brood, act out, connect some of the dots.

In Roman Polanski’s new politically charged thriller “The Ghost Writer,” Scotland’s Ewan McGregor has the unenviable task of playing a character with whom he has nothing in common: a ghost writer who’s asked to replace another ghost in writing the autobiography of a controversial former British prime minister. Even though the story is fictional, the shadows of Tony Blair and Halliburton loom over the film.

James Cameron’s “Avatar” may have dominated the box office, but will it rule Sunday at the Oscars? My first reaction was “yes,” but after taking some time (10 minutes maximum) to look at all the nominees, I’m not so convinced.

"Alice in Wonderland," Tim Burton’s re-imagining of the Lewis Carroll classic, combines live action and animation in a 3D format Burton promises will blow your mind.