Take a fairy tale, place it in the modern world, add a touch of Gothic glamour, and the result is “Beastly,” the newest re-imagining of the classic tale “Beauty and the Beast.”

Released March 4, the movie is a sweeping critique of the modern view of beauty and popularity, wrapped in the trappings of fantasy and romance.

Kyle (Alex Pettyfer) is a popular, handsome young man who believes looks and looks alone are the most important quality to possess.

This point of view brings him into conflict with Kendra (Mary-Kate Olsen), a Goth student rumored to be witch.

Claiming he wants to make it up to her, he invites her to a reception at the club.

“Darkest Mercy” is the fifth and final book of the faery series written by Melissa Marr. It brings to a conclusion all the plots Marr wove throughout her books of faery intrigue.

Marr’s writing is eloquent and detailed. She offers many different viewpoints throughout the book to allow readers to experience all the action from all sides.

The characters are well developed, especially if the audience has read the previous books of the series.

If anything, there are too many characters for the brief series to do most of them justice. Readers are left yearning for more details of the history brought up between some of the characters.

Kidnapped as a child and told he was abandoned by his family, Raizo — played by Korean pop music star Rain — is being raised by the Ozunu clan, a powerful and deadly Ninja family in “Ninja Assassin.”

“Ninja Assassin” is a martial arts film which debuted in theaters November 2009, and was released on DVD March 2010.

Raised in a cult-like environment to be a blood-thirsty killer, Raizo is considered a prodigy by Lord Ozunu, (Sho Kosugi,) Ninja clan leader.

When his childhood love Kiriko escapes the family and is labeled a traitor, she is then captured and killed in front of him by their brother Tikeshi.

Combining elements of humor and romance with powerful action sequences, “I Am Number Four,” is easily the best science fiction movie of this year so far.

Released Feb. 18, the movie centers around the eponymous Number Four, John Smith, (Alex Pettyfer) who has spent his entire life running from an implacable enemy determined to kill him. He and the six others like him possess immense power as a result of their heritage.

Accompanied by his protector, Henri, (Timothy Olyphant) John moves to a small town in Ohio. There, his life rapidly becomes complicated as he begins to come into his powers, and falls in love with a local girl, Sarah (Dianna Agron.)

Despite a chilly night in the middle of winter, the heat was turned up in a packed house for a show to remember at the Diamond Ballroom in Oklahoma City on Feb. 25.

With close to 20 years under their collective belts, the Nebraska-bred boys known as 311 rocked the house as if it were the ’90s all over again.

Following an admirable performance from the opening band, The Pretty Black Chains, the crowd’s anticipation built as chants of “Three-eleven, three-eleven” blared over the aptly-named opener, “Welcome.”

Thursday evening, Feb 24, OCCC’s theatrical department proved the old adage “the show must go on.”

Despite interruption of rehearsals caused by recent snowstorms, and the last-minute replacement of one of the leading players, the production of “Trojan Women” took the stage at the Bruce Owen Theater.

The stage set with its strewn and broken porticos; classic music and ambient lighting were an effective way to set the atmosphere while the audience settled in.

It was a cold and windy Saturday on the night of Feb. 12 when Tracy Lawrence took the stage at Cowboys in Oklahoma City. The popular nightspot was a packed house for most of the night.

When Lawrence finally walked on stage around 10 p.m. the crowd lit up with excitement.

Girls in attendance were screaming, “Paint Me a Birmingham!”

Lawrence did a wonderful job keeping the crowd energized throughout the show with witty comments, showing his fun side.

“Here is a song for all the hot grandmas out there,” Lawrence said.

After all the pop culture hubris on music blogs over the last two weeks over the Grammys, it seems almost as if Radiohead released their eighth studio album, “The King

When it comes to thrillers, villains are a dime a dozen. You’ve got monsters, madmen and the occasional alien or two.

In “Unstoppable,” however, the bad guy is no mutated dinosaur or crazy ex.

Instead, it’s a runaway train barreling through a series of Pennsylvania towns at speeds of more than 70 miles per hour — a disturbingly real possibility that makes Freddy Krueger look as intimidating as Fred Flinstone.

“Unstoppable” was released on DVD Feb. 15.

Konami’s “Castlevania: Lords of Shadow” is the latest game in the long and illustrious line of “Castlevania” games that had me frustrated at times with how challenging the game can be.

However, I found the experience to be extremely rewarding.

“Castlevania: Lords of Shadow” was released Oct. 5, 2010, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The game itself is an unholy union of “God of War,” “Prince of Persia,” “Onimusha,” and the “Castlevania” games that many of us have grown up with.