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The Box (PG-13, 116 min.) Director Richard Kelly follows the modern cult classic "Donnie Darko" with another implausible yet compelling science-fiction mystery about the hidden dark forces that control "reality." The first half is a brilliantly realized exercise in sustained tension, as mysterious stranger Frank Langella tells married couple Cameron Diaz and James Marsden they will earn $1 million if they only push a button and cause the death of a stranger. Full story »

“The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” also known as “Twilight: The Squeakquel,” is actually pretty good — a tick better than the first “Twilight,” which wasn’t bad either. These are hardly superlatives on the order of “shattering” and “beautiful,” but compared to the film versions of “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons,” the only two movies ever made with less sex than the first two “Twilights,” they’re matchless. Full story »

No movie can be all bad when juiced up with a soundtrack of more than 50 classic rock tunes. The best thing to say about Richard Curtis’ “Pirate Radio” is that it’s all about the music, man. The Kinks, the Who, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, Jimi Hendrix — these are the stars of “Pirate Radio,” and the well-chosen songs are the main thing keeping the film afloat. The movie’s merry deejays are mere roadies, bearing great songs in service of a sloppy story. Full story »

The Fourth Kind” is a “found footage” horror movie with a few new tweaks, though not enough to escape a certain clunkiness. At the onset of Olatunde Osunsanmi’s film, actress Milla Jovovich addresses the camera to announce that she’ll be playing real-life Alaska psychologist Abigail Emily Tyler in re-enactments of actual events. These re-enactments, we are assured, are based on genuine video and sound recordings of Tyler and her patients in Nome. Full story »

A fun tone is undermined by disjointed storytelling in George Clooney’s “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” and it all starts with the disclaimer that opens the movie: “More of this is true than what you might imagine.” This wry comment serves as a nod and a wink from the filmmakers, a license to do what they will to Jon Ronson’s amusing nonfiction account of the U.S. military’s hush-hush research into psychic warfare and espionage. Full story »

Capsule descriptions and starred mini-reviews by The Commercial Appeal movie writer John Beifuss. Full story »

When the movie ends with a brief sequence showing the now-celebrated French designer, Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel (Audrey Tautou), observing a lineup of models draped in her latest fashions, the sudden glamor and style appear to our eyes like a desert oasis to a man dying of thirst. We're made aware of just how tedious the movie had become in its slow, inevitable plod to Coco's triumph. Full story »

Of the many to play Ebenezer Scrooge, Jim Carrey now adds his name, starring in Disney's new 3-D animation version of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." The appeal of the part is clear: You get villain and redemptive hero rolled into one, plus you spend most of the movie in your pajamas. But the allure of Scrooge alone wasn't enough for Carrey. Full story »

"No Jews were harmed in the making of this motion picture." Those words appear near the end of the final credits of "A Serious Man." They may be accurate, but they may not provide much reassurance to those grappling with this fascinating, disturbing film, which takes the concept of the self-loathing Jew to an arguably loathsome new level. Full story »

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (PG-13, 109 min.) The first of Darren Shan's Young Adult vampire novels comes to the screen in a fun, energetic adventure with plenty of inoffensive ghoulish touches that should please kid and adult horror buffs alike. Chris Massoglia and Josh Hutcherson are teenage best friends whose arachnophilia and adolescent rebelliousness, respectively, lure them into the ancient rivalry between a traveling carnival of Tod Browning/Ray Bradbury oddities. Full story »

Because the new computer-generated animated feature "Astro Boy" is faithful in some respects to its key sources, the 1950s comic book and 1960s TV series created by the so-called "God of Manga," Osamu Tezuka, it may creep some people out — parents more than children, no doubt. Full story »

Capsule descriptions and starred mini-reviews by The Commercial Appeal movie writer John Beifuss. Full story »

If good intentions could counteract gravity, "Amelia" would soar. Unfortunately, this handsome but somewhat leaden production burns a lot of fuel as it circles the same theme over and over: That Amelia Earhart, the pioneering "aviatrix" of the 1920s and '30s, was not just a hero of the air but one of the original feminists. Hilary Swank is a sure bet to earn a third Academy Award nomination here. Full story »

Finally, a horror thriller served up straight. No werewolves, Lycans or jerks named Jigsaw. No “killer who will not die.” OK, check that. Hollywood spells money “S-E-Q-U-E-L.” And best of all, no freaking vampires. But the best you can say about the remake of “The Stepfather,” that serial-killer-in-mommy’s-bed tingler of 1987, is that it efficiently goes about its business. The suspense is there, but because there’s no mystery to this thriller, it’s all about how soon the teen (Penn Badgley) will figure out who that creep Mom wants to marry really is Full story »