Underworld: Awakening - Watch it for Kate Beckinsale, that's about it.

After escaping from a long confinement Selene returns to lead her fellow vampires against a new deadly threat, humans.

As a fan of the first two Underworld films (fyi, the third one was just awful), I was pumped to see Kate Beckinsale was returning for the fourth in the series to reprise her role as Selene. Aside from pulling off the bad ass action heroine part of the role, she has also always brought a depth and believability to Selene which added to those first two Underworld films and made them something more than low-rent action popcorn flicks. Beckinsale certainly delivered again in Underworld: Awakening, kicking lycan butt, looking absolutely beautiful while doing so and still giving the role the believability it needed. What was missing from Awakening was any semblance of a serious story or an inkling of character development amongst the rest of the cast. It is true that the first two Underworld films' stories were not exactly Shakespearian in nature, but they at least contributed to the films. With Awakening, there was no substantive plot/story. It felt as though what was there plot/story-wise was filler until the next action sequence came roaring along. Ultimately, the lack of story or characters hurt the film and made it completely forgettable as soon as one pressed "stop" on their remote.

Action junkies can rejoice, Underworld: Awakening delivered all of the vampire vs. lycan battles and slo-mo shootouts that they would expect from a film in this series. But it lacked the story, characters and other elements to make it anything more than a loud, unremarkable sequel.

Grade: C-

Whiteout: One bland thriller

Maybe it's the Midwesterner in me but I've always enjoyed films that take place in isolated frozen places like the Artic (or maybe it's my undying love for the scenes on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back that would account for this!). Something about that icy environment lends itself to creating the perfect backdrop for an intergalatic throwdown or a thriller (see John Carpenter's The Thing) which is why I was excited to watch Whiteout.

U.S. Marshall Carrie Stetko is trying to put her life back together after she was betrayed by her old partner. But when the body of a geologists is found near the Antarctic research facility she is stationed at she must face her demons in order to catch the killer.

On paper the film seemed like a slam dunk to be at least somewhat entertaining. There was a beautiful lead, an exotic loaction and a mystery as to why there was a dead geologists in the middle of an ice field. Unfortunately, Whiteout failed to utilize any of these things in order to be remotely intriguing and was nothing more than a bland, by-the-numbers thriller. If the filmmakers would have taken the time to develop Carrie's character arc, perhaps the audience would have been able to take more of an interest as she attempted to put the clues together and figure out just what was happening. Instead, she was saddled with the usual trappings facing a female protagonists in a thriller, and even those standard plot trappings were stale and insipid. Burdened by the lack of character development, a dynamic story or even lively dialogue Whiteout seemed like more of a chore to watch than anything.

Grade: D