The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)

The first of several threatened sequels to 2008's dim Twilight, the dark New Moon's title may refer to the potential fresh blood entering Bella's (Kristen Stewart) heart in the form of her Native American buddy, Jacob (Taylor Lautner), who turns out to be a werewolf. Just as the vampires in this fantasy world don't follow traditional supernatural rules (instead of hibernating in coffins during the day, they attend high school), the werewolves can transform anytime at will rather than waiting for a full moon, which is very handy for rumbles with wayward vamps. As if plot details even matter... Bella's undead love-of-her-life, Edward (Robert Pattinson), dumps her and leaves town claiming she'll be hurt if he stays. Suffering the mother of all heartaches, Bella eventually warms up to Jacob, in part to help her do some risky things which each time cause Edward to appear by astral projection for a scolding session (seemingly clueless that he thus enables her recklessness). The rickety dilemmas and rusty ironies don't stop there, but they and other narrative tools are craftily wielded to make Lautner and Pattinson get shirtless for the target audience. Despite the film being good-looking and gamely acted, the three main characters basically end up where they started in the love triangle, literally leaving the viewer hanging in the middle of a conversation that portends some actual conflict resolution - a story element that will just have to wait for the next installment of this slow-moving saga. Trivial Tidbit: When Bella needs to hurry to Italy, she inexplicably flies Virgin America, which actually only goes to San Francisco or L.A. from Seattle. The quickest way to Italy is in the other direction, over the Arctic Circle.

Everybody's Fine (2009)

In an average tear-jerker with an above-average cast, Robert DeNiro plays a retired blue-collar father suffering from fibrosis of the lungs incurred after decades of coating telephone wire with PVC. The four children (Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell, Austin Lysy) that he supported with his hard-earned income have all left their hometown of Elmira, New York for vital careers and idyllic lives - at least that’s what DeNiro's recently deceased wife had led him to believe. When everybody cancels an eagerly-awaited family reunion, DeNiro ignores his doctor's warnings and pays surprise visits to the painter in Manhattan, the happily-married ad exec in Chicago, the symphony conductor in Denver and the rising star dancer in Las Vegas - leaving each city with new information but without ever getting the whole truth. However, he is able to subconsciously read between their lies during what turns out to be a difficult trip home. Even as he's coming to terms with what he's discovered, the father is dealt a new shock that gives DeNiro a chance to emote more deeply than he usually can in his more typical tough-guy roles. Paul McCartney sings the time-to-dry-your-eyes end title song. Trivial Tidbit: in a pitch at his daughter’s ad agency, DeNiro is asked to imagine he’s fishing and that a talking fish asks him “are you lookin’ for me?” (punning DeNiro’s most famous catch phrase).

2012 (2009)

If you like disaster movies, you’ll probably love this eye-bursting ultimate expression of the genre from the friendly folks who menaced the world with Independence Day, Godzilla, and The Day After Tomorrow. Like all such flicks, the stories of myriad tragic deaths are virtually ignored in favor of showing how a few lucky people survive. The luckiest character in film history is Jackson Curtis (John Cusack), a failed novelist working as a chauffeur for a Russian billionaire in Los Angeles. While camping with his son in Yellowstone, Cusack sees things and meets people (including a crazed Woody Harrelson) that give him the exact information he needs to stay an inch ahead of the certain death that seems to stalk him as the Earth's mantle suddenly starts to melt. If you hate contrivances and coincidences (unfortunately, staples of most blockbusters), you will groan about 2,012 times during this film, but you can still marvel at the spectacle of the Pacific engulfing the Hollywood sign, gawk at the profundity of the U.S.S. John F. Kennedy surfing squarely into the White House, and applaud the majesty of The Queen stoically boarding a survival ship to preserve her reign over an extinct Realm. And just in case you aren’t engaged enough by all this mayhem, a cute doggie is placed in peril, too. To the filmmakers' credit, they debunk the false prophecy that the world will end on December 21, 2012 by making the end happen weeks before that dreaded date. Trivial Tidbit: When the Earth's poles flip, the new South Pole is over Central Wisconsin.