“New Moon” is the forbidden love story of a tormented vampire and a shy, pouty schoolgirl with a thing for the undead. It has nothing much to offer for non-Twilighters - it's made for the legions of females who find the books and movies irresistible.

“The Messenger” is evenhanded to a fault, stressing realism over propaganda while staring at the consequences of combat through the eyes of two soldiers (Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson) assigned to the Army Casualty Notification Service, who have the unenviable task of informing the next of kin when a loved one has paid the ultimate price.

Can mainstream audiences swallow a sports film tackling issues of race, poverty and social injustice? Writer-director John Lee Hancock doesn’t think so, as evidenced by his warm, fuzzy retelling of the life of Michael Oher, the black Baltimore Ravens rookie who was raised by a white Southern family.

Ten years ago this week, “Fight Club” was released to theaters. I was there on that opening weekend, sure I’d see something special, and I wasn’t wrong. Like few movies in my life, “Fight Club” seemed to reach right down into my brain and scratch a nagging itch I didn’t know was there.

“Planet 51” began as a promising idea in which an earthling is the invader, and the paranoid but peace-loving creatures from another world are the frightened masses. Unfortunately, writer Joe Stillman takes that seed and buries it under a mountain of clichés.

This is a rough, tough, sometimes sadistically brutal film. Yet co-writers Brock Norman Brock and Nicolas Winding Refn (who also directed) instill it with a dark and outrageous sense of humor.

In "New Moon," the second film in "The Twilight" series based on Stephenie Meyer's novels, love means never having to say you're happy. The movie comes off as a two-hour brood fest where everybody looks miserable as they bob up and down in an ocean of angst. Muhammad Ali would call this film a mope-a-dope.

A tale of dread and mayhem is told from the point of view of a suitcase.

The echoing shouts of "Edward ... Jacob ... Edward ... Jacob" resounded through the considerable crowd gathered Tuesday at a West Knoxville movie complex to catch a glimpse of or perhaps even share a moment with "Twilight" actors Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner -- two of the stars of "New Moon," the second film from the popular Twilight vampire series.