The Twilight Saga’s second installment finds Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) feeling pretty good –- or at least a little less broody — about the state of things after having ironed out some of the finer points of interspecies dating. Naturally, it doesn’t last long. Bella’s 18th birthday party turns into a bit of a fiasco when Edward’s brother nearly kills Bella in a fit of bloodlust. It’s an awkward situation, to be certain, but while Bella is willing to forgive and forget, Edward elects to leave town -– permanently. The decision sets off a chain of miscommunications that lead to, among other things, cliff diving, a visit with vampire royalty, a supernatural love triangle, and a close call with a scorned vampire (Rachelle Lefevre) whose mate met a gory end at the hands of the Cullens.

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While the original version of The Stepfather may not be remembered with quite the same familiarity as its fellows in 1980s horror, the movie still holds a spot within the genre. Its suit-and-tie-wearing sociopath killed with a cold efficiency that was just as terrifying, albeit quieter, than his machete-wielding brethren. The remake, at times, is able to tap into the sense of unease elicited by killers that mix well with society — but, for the most part, it’s a bland, if passable, psychological thriller.

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Since the release of Roger & Me in 1989, Michael Moore’s name is rarely heard in the media without the preface of “controversial filmmaker” — and that’s when they’re being kind. Less receptive outlets tend to use terms like “left-wing lightning rod,” and, occasionally, “lying bastard.” With a 20-year career that’s taken on some of the most polarizing issues in the United States, his reputation as an incendiary liberal isn’t surprising, nor is it undeserved. While that reputation has made it difficult for his films to garner an objective reception, they’ve rarely, if ever, been boring. Bearing that in mind, the premise of Capitalism: A Love Story — two hours dedicated to the evolution of economic theory between 1932 and 2008 — threatened to be at least a little tedious. Any trepidation one might have going into the film, however, is unwarranted. Capitalism passionately incorporates elements from virtually all of Moore’s past efforts, from poor health care and mass layoffs to the devastation of being evicted from one’s home, giving it a cohesiveness that makes for a movie as inspiring and forceful as anything the director has done in his past. While it’s unlikely that this will be Moore’s last documentary, it feels like an opus, or, less dramatically, the end of a cross-country road trip that began and ended in Flint, MI, peppered with unsuccessful attempts to get inside the headquarters of General Motors.

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Michael Moore is a man of many hats, both figuratively (director, activist, idealist), and literally (does he ever wear the same baseball cap twice?). When I sat down with a group of Michiganders for a hastily relocated interview — it was intended to take place at The Renaissance Center (General Motors headquarters) in Detroit, but Moore wasn’t allowed in the building — I wasn’t sure which version of Michael I was going to get. Would he be, as some television and radio outlets have implied, a crazed, rabid extremist spouting liberal rhetoric potent enough to turn the room into a bunch of hippies? Would he bring a bullhorn? Was this all a political stunt? I could be wrong, of course, but in reality I don’t think any of this was the case. Despite his hulking stature, he came across, if anything, as meek.

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’s opening scenes are marked by the chaos and confusion permeating both the Muggle and wizard communities as they experience acts of terrorism via Voldemort’s army of Death Eaters, free from the shackles of Azkaban and eager to wage war for their master. The fancy of years gone by has been replaced by a general feeling of unease as prominent members of the wizarding world go missing, their businesses left destroyed or abandoned. Rumors suggest Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) is getting too old and possibly too senile to offer protection strong enough to defend against The Dark Lord, and parents question whether Hogwarts is still the safest place for their children. Magic has irrevocably made the leap from pretty lights and the odd hex to a weapon of mass destruction in the wrong hands. War, hormones, and dark magic equal a better-than-average year for the students of Hogwarts, and the best Potter movie since Prisoner of Azkaban.

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Taking preventative measures against the contraction of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases is considered by society, regardless of one’s sexual orientation, to have varying degrees of importance; on the more dramatic end, many see condoms as a barrier between life and death, and on the other, some consider them to be nothing more than a convenient, yet inconsequential, hygienic measure. In any case, the majority opinion is that having safe sex, like wearing a seatbelt in a vehicle, or a crash helmet on a motorcycle, is preferable to the alternative. Yet, at the time that AIDS began to appear within the homosexual populations of urban communities — L.A., Miami, and particularly New York City — condoms were something heterosexuals used to prevent pregnancy. Why would they be used, then, in the gay hotspots of Times Square in the early ’80s? Why, in the dawn of the gay rights movement, in the midst of a sexual revolution of sorts, would the urban gay community listen to a man who claimed that promiscuity was a key factor in the spreading of HIV — especially if that man had made a substantial living as a sex worker?

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Battle for Terra, director and digital artist Aristomenis Tsirbas’ feature debut, was made on a shoestring budget after its festival success as a sci-fi film short. After Tsirbas added an hour to its original length, the film evolved into a child-friendly melting pot of War of the Worlds, Planet of the Apes, and Star Wars, with an unintentional but successful dose of The Little Mermaid. Despite several ham-fisted overtures, awkward animation, and a few leaps in logic, Battle for Terra is a solid adventure with a lot of heart. In other words, it has its flaws, but it’s no Space Chimps.

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With remake madness comfy in its position as the current thing to do in these times of economic strife and unoriginal film ideas, it doesn’t seem like there would be much shame in out-and-out remaking Fatal Attraction. Sure, it wouldn’t match up to the original, and yes, it would probably suck, but it would have a chance at integrity, albeit a convoluted sort that probably wouldn’t justify the ticket cost. Still, it would have not being Obsessed going for it, and hopefully self-awareness enough not to take itself so seriously that its multiple forays into laughable ridiculousness are prevented from actually being laughable.

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