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In this second installment of of the wildly popular Twilight book series, Bella (Kristen Stewart), the romantically tortured lover of vampires, must wrestle with the pain of a broken heart, as her vampire boyfriend Edward (Robert Pattinson) leaves the sleepy town of Forks. In an effort to fill the void in her heart, Bella rekindles a childhood friendship with Jacob (Taylor Lautner), a native of the enigmatic Quileute tribe. Before long Bella discovers that Jacob and his friends are actually werewolves with a knack for killing vampires. Now with an impossible love triangle set, tension builds to the point of suicide for both Bella and Edward, but not before Jacob saves Bella and Bella saves Edward. Meanwhile, how will vampire royalty, the Volturi, take to all of this teenage brooding and how will the Quileute tribe take to a growing threat of vampires near their land? Noticeably better than the first installment, New Moon makes significant steps forward to help the franchise in production quality; however, the script still suffers from anemia and for a majority of the film lacks substance to keep things truly interesting. Furthermore the acting of the ensemble seems hit and miss; in particular, sorry team Jacob, but Lautner’s uninspired performance is almost laughable at times, but then again, his muscles were quite soft core porn impressive– I can still hear the echoes of the ladies in the audience shrieking in my ears. Clearly this will be the winner at the box office this weekend regardless of good press or bad, but in reality this is more of a rental, or maybe a matinee if you’re really pining for shirtless young men with amazing pecks…I’ll pass thank you. The Twilight Saga: New Moon is rated PG-13.

Based on the true ugly duckling story of a giant underprivledged teen from the wrong side of town The Blind Side details the life of Baltimore Ravens’s offensive tackle Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron). At 17 Oher was poised for failure until a chance meeting with Leigh Anne Touhy (Sandra Bullock). With a lot of love a little attitude Leigh Anne, husband Sean (Tim McGraw), son S.J. (Jae Head), and daughter Collins (Lily Collins) Oher is given the chance to rise above the obstacles in his life and elevate to amazing heights. A decent enough script serves nicely for Bullock to exercise her acting abilities, something we’ve been missing from her for some time. However, the film does come across a bit heavy handed in it’s message and seriously cliche in several disgustingly sappy moments. The film could also stand to loose some length, with a run time currently just over two hours, more editing might help pick up the lumbering pace and keep things moving. Maybe a matinee but more likely best as a rental later. The Blind Side is rated PG-13.

The year is 2009 and a group of astute scientists have just made the discovery that solar flares on the surface of the sun are impacting earth’s core, cooking our planet in the fashion of a microwave. Now, three years later the planet is in peril, earth’s crust is beginning to crack under the pressure and heat. When Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), an absent father of two and author of apocalypse books, meets a Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson), a crazy radio broadcasting nomad who understands how the earth will be destroyed based on an ancient Mayan calendar prediction, the future of mankind in Curtis’ eyes becomes evident. Now Curtis must race against catastrophic earthquakes, tsunami waves of epic proportion, and crustal displacement to try and save his family. Meanwhile,  Dr. Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a government environmental scientist, provides a moral conscious for society as a “chosen” group of people struggle for survival, but will his actions cause the death of thousands of would be survivors and possibly mankind altogether? Explosions, crashes, and impossible chases, this film is made with more Hollywood special effects than you could possibly imagine. Sadly this sort of flick usually comes with a weak script, and while this film isn’t any exception, the acting caliber of most of the principal actors certainly helps raise the bar a bit. And be forewarned, clocking in at two hours and 38 minutes of run time you’ll want to watch your soda intake, this is a beast of a film, it’s also a wonder what a DVD release of this film will include for deleted scenes, pondering if there are any? Overall, the film is ridiculous, knows it, and goes for broke. Maybe a matinee for the spectacle nature of the film but in reality that may be a bit of a push. 2012 is rated PG-13.