Kristen Stewart is Bella and Robert Pattinson is Edward in the eagerly anticipated adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight (Summit)

By Lily Canones

Twilight (opening november 21 throughout San Diego), one of the top selling books across America, is wriiten by Stephenie Meyer. Now it has become a major motion picture. Twilight is a story about a pair of star-crossed lovebirds, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) who, at first, become friends and then happen to fall deeply in love with each other. It's that typical romance story between two teenagers. The only odd thing about it is that Edward is a vampire. Even though that is a factor that Bella discovers about him, she doesn't care one bit who or what Edward really is, the only thing that matters to her is that she is "unconditionally and irrevocably" in love with him.

I'm not much of a bookworm, so reading books is a rare thing for me to do. When I first heard of Twilight, I just said to myself, "Oh, it's just another book." But when a lot of people began buying and reading the book, it made me want to read it too. I have read only a portion of the first book because of a busy schedule but so far Twilight has completely drawn me in.

Because I haven't finished reading Twilight, there's very little I can compare to the movie. So far, the scenes from the book are the same in the movie, as is the storyline. I do know for a fact that there are some parts in the movie that are added while others are taken away from the book.

The movie Twilight was aboslutely amazing! I personally give it two thumbs up and highly recommend it for everyone. While watching the film, I felt so drawn into it just like the book. The audience too was also drawn in, and added some enthusiasm with their squeals and screams at various points in the movie. But since I was so into the movie, the noise didn't bother me at all. I felt a rush of excitement while watching the movie and that made me more excited about reading the rest of Twilight and the rest of the Twilight Saga. I do want
to say that the director, Catherine Hardwicke, has done an excellent job in chosing the actors for Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. She has also done an excellent job in making the book into a film. I really do consider Twilight as now my most favorite vampire romance movie of all time. Go watch it, it's totally worth some cash.

--Lily Canones is a senior at Mount Miguel High School. She became a Teen Critic because she wanted to share her perspective and opinions on new movies. She loves horror movies and Asian movies. Most of the horror movies she watches are originally from Asia and she counts the original Thai version of Shutter as one of her favorites of all time.

Ever since I met a group of Twilight Moms waiting in line at Comic-Con I have been intrigued by the new teen vampire film. Based on a successful series of books, Twilight has moms and their young daughters in a mad frenzy for the film. Here's the second trailer. the film opens on Friday with fans probably already starting to line up (or at least buying their tickets) for the Thursday midnight show. Trailer courtesy of Summit films.

The youngest filmmaker at FSC, Jonathan Jackson, with honoree Larry Zeiger (Tony Weidinger)

At last night's Film School Confidential showcase, former Point Loma High School teacher Larry Zeiger received the San Diego Film Critics Society's Kyle Counts Award. The award is given in recoginition of significant contribution to the film community in San Diego. Although Zeiger has retired from teaching he's still involved with students, and he helped me find one video this year from Jonathan Jackson, a senior at Point Loma High School. Jackson was the youngest filmmaker represented at this year's festival. In the audience were a number of Zeiger's former students. With looming budget cuts, arts are likely to be even more difficult to teach in public schools. But last night people saw that providing students with access to the arts can lead not only to fine works but also to careers.

Larry Zeiger receives his Kyle Counts Award. (Tony Weidinger)

Daniel Craig returns as agent 007 in Quantum of Solace (Sony)

Listen to my KPBS Film Chat about Quantum of Solace (opening November 14 throughout San Digeo) and listen to a montage of clips from the previous Bond films at the end. Bottom line on the new Bond: Casino Royale set the bar very high and this one doesn't reach those heights. Quantum offers more action, less character and plot. Craig is still hot, and the film's still worth seeing. More on the film Monday after I present my student film festival.

Ines Efron plays an intersex child and Ricardo Darin is her understanding father in XXY (Film Movement)

The Argentine film XXY (opening today at Ultrastar Mission Valley Theaters at Hazrd Center as part of the San Diego Latino Film Festival's Cinema En Tu Idioma Film Series) marks the feature directing debut of Lucia Puenzo. The film is based on a story by her husband and produced by her father, director Luis Puenzo. The close relationships behind the camera may have helped the film achieve its onscreen intimacy with a difficult subject. I spoke with the director about her coming of age film with a twist. (Be listening Monday for my radio feature.)

XXY refers to males born with a second X chromosome; a condition known as Klinefelter's Syndrome. Filmmaker Lucia Puenzo says she chose XXY as the title for her film in part, for its visual impact.

Rodrigo Gudino's Demonology of Desire screens Sunday at MoPA. (Rue Morgue Cinema)

Dissent. Revolt. Liberate. It's Film School Confidential 2008! That's right, it's time again to celebrate the passion, dedication and fresh young talent found right here in San Diego and Tijuana. The festival takes place at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park on Sunday November 16 at 6:00 pm. Film School Confidential is an event sponsored by the Media Arts Center San Diego, the Museum of Photographic Arts, and the San Diego Film Critics Society. Film School Confidential is now in it's seventh year. Unlike other student festivals, FSC is a curated event. There are no calls for entries and filmmakers do not have to pay a fee to submit their films. Instead, the films are chosen based on recommendations by teachers, professors, and other filmmakers. This year the festival offers something of a descent into darkness. There are a few bright, even fanciful films early on but by evening's end the tone grow exceeding dark with a trio of Latin horror shorts. We will also be honoring retired Point Loma teacher Larry Zeiger with the Kyle Counts Award for his years of encouraging and showcasing young talent.

Here's the line up:

Hellboy II: The Golden Army, inspired by Mike Mignola's comics and graphic novels, arrives today on DVD and Blu-ray. The film is one of my favorites from this year. The fabulous Ron Perlman returns as the big-hearted and big-fisted red demon working for a secret paranormal government agency. This time out he's trying to announce himself to the world while he fights Prince Nuada (a beautifully tragic Luke Goss) from the underground elf world. Once again filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro creates a vivid fantasy world where we feel the greatest connection to the monsters and creatures.

The Blu-ray edition captures the elegant production design and fantastical fairy world with gorgeous clarity. The bonus disc features some great behind the scenes footage. As a fan of action I loved seeing how the fights and stunts were choreographed. Since Del Toro wanted to avoid CGI whenever possible this meant that many of the actors and stuntmen had to engage in fights wearing more than a hundred pounds of costuming or standing a top stilts. The on-set footage of Brian Steele as Mr. Wink is truly impressive. Del Toro, like Terry Gilliam, is a delight to watch on the set. He takes such pleasure in the tiniest of production details and seems like a kid just given enough money to buy all the toys he wants.

The Blu-ray disc offers interactive features but I needed my fifteen-year-old son and his Playstation to try and figure out how to access them. The "U-Control" feature allows you to access additional information - concept art (like the image above), the director's notebook, set visits - as you watch the film. That's a nice idea but make sure you watch the film on its own first and enjoy it fully before delving into any of these extras. There is also a commentary track by the always enthusiastic and engaging Del Toro. All in all a fine disc to add to your collection. If you are a real Del Toro fan you might want to try and track down the three-disc collector's edition that comes with a director's notebook and Golden Army statue.

The new James Bond film opens on Friday and features Daniel Craig in his second outing as the British 00 agent. But in what seems to be an effort to not be solely associated with that iconic role, Craig can also be seen this fall in a World War II drama based on true events, Defiance. The story concerns three Jewish brothers who escape from Nazi-occupied Poland into the Belarussian forest. There they hook up with Russian resistance fighters and try to help local villagers. The role looks to be more conventionally heroic than Bond and Craig takes on an accent as well. So if you are a fan of Daniel Craig's, you'll have two opportunities to see him this holiday season. Trailer is courtesy of Paramount Vantage. The film is directed by Edward Zwick.

Edward Norton plays a cop in Pride and Glory (New Line)

By Janeane White

Pride and Glory (currently in San Diego theaters) is another one of those films about good and bad cops fighting drug lords but then joining them. This particular story is about a family of cops. The father was in the NYPD, and has two sons that grow up to drive the black and whites. His daughter also married a man in a blue uniform. The son-in-law (Jimmy and played by Colin Farrell) is under the command of the oldest son. But Jimmy's dealing drugs and killing people behind his brother-in-law's back.

There is a lot of blood from cops beating people up but at least in the end there is justice. The truth about the corrupt cops is discovered, and the people take the problems into their own hands. I felt that the movie was long and drawn out. There weren't many fight scenes. Sometimes hardly anything was happening and I lost interest. I felt like I had seen this movie before in others that have come out in the last few years. And movies like Body of Lies and Max Payne that just recently came out in theaters. There are several more that have the same underlying plot about bad cops. Overall, I was not impressed. There was extremely foul language and every other word seemed to be the f bomb flying out. It became annoying and irritating. I eventually lost interest with the whole movie. I'm not a fan of the overuse of foul language. I understand that this movie is rated R but still, the bad language is just overdone. Another thing I didn't particularly care for is that how could the brothers not see what was going on with each other? How could the commanding officer not know that practically his entire unit was acting as if they were above the law? These cops wanted to run all this covert activity to get money and drugs. But for what? To lose their badge and their honor? These cops sold their pride and their glory of being a cop to the highest bidders. These guys loved nothing more then being cops but what is the point if they really aren't being cops, but bullies? I didn't like this movie because I have seen this movie, or at least the storyline, way too many times.

In my Film as Lit class we are watching movies within the film noir unit and I see even more of the same type of films made 20 to 40 years ago -- bad cops doing bad things to make a profit. This film is not one I would recommend people wasting their money on seeing. If you want to see the horrible justice system then go to Blockbuster or Hollywood Video and rent almost any other cop action movie and see the same thing.

--Janeane White is a senior at Mount Miguel High School. She enjoys movies and spends all her time at the theater. She is also interested in special effects makeup done in the movies. She is an honors student and is currently working towards early graduation. Some of her favorite movies include Queen of the Damned, Hellboy, The Descent, the Underworld series, and the Saw series.

Lina Leandersson is a 12 year-old vampire in Let the Right One In (Magnolia Pictures)

By Jason Lacsamana

Let the Right One In (now screening at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas) is definitely my favorite vampire and foreign film so far this year. Let the Right One In is a Swedish film originally called Låt den rätte komma in. It was directed by Tomas Alfredson and written by John Ajvide Lindqvist . The film features a 12 year-old boy named Oskar who is often bullied at school until he meets an unusual girl named Eli. After meeting Eli many strange things occur as he discovers just how different she is from other girls. Their friendship soon turns into love as she helps him with his problems with the school bullies.

Let the Right One In is definitely a must see. The film definitely doesn't lack the gore that should be found in a vampire film while still being able to hold up a wonderful story line. The film is considered to be a drama/horror/romance which I can reasonably agree with. The film often had me asking myself "WTF?!".The horror parts really had me on the edge of my seat. I found that the storyline was a romance story and although I'm not a big fan of romance stories I enjoyed this one. What makes the romance story in Let the Right One In different from most romance story was the blood and gore that complimented it.I suppose it just gave it that film noir touch which I ever so enjoy.

I must congratulate the main actor and actress for their spectacular acting.I started feeling like the characters were actually real, that's how great their acting was. Oskar is played by Kåre Hedebrant and Eli is played by Lina Leandersson, it seems like this is their first film and I can't find too much information about them but they seem fairly young. Despite their age I found them to play their parts wonderfully.

If there is anything I could ask from this movie it would be for more. I'm dying to know what happens next. A sequel is definitely something I'm looking forward to but I guess I'll just have to wait and see. Regardless of whether or not there is a sequel I still highly suggest you watch this film while you have the chance, I find it is definitely worth its ticket price. Definitely a film you'll want to sink your fangs into.

--Jason Lacsamana is a senior at Mount Miguel High School. He says he wants to be a Teen Critic because he loves watching movies and loves to critique them but never really had a way of sharing his critiques.He cites zombie movies as his favorites of all time.