The Men In Black franchise is much like the Transformers franchise. The first films were sci-fi, popcorn cinema classics that struck a perfect blend of action, heart and humor, then the sequels came out and were cinematic abominations. While the giant robot movies kept chugging forward, the Men in Black series seemed like it couldn’t survive the blight that was Men In Black 2.

Thankfully, the franchise received a pardon and the third Men In Black film is fast approaching. The first teaser for next summer’s blockbuster-to-be has just hit the web and it actually looks pretty great. In case you are unaware of what the next Men in Black film is about here is a synopsis:

In Men in Black 3, Agents J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) are back… in time. J has seen some inexplicable things in his 15 years with the Men in Black, but nothing, not even aliens, perplexes him as much as his wry, reticent partner. But when K’s life and the fate of the planet are put at stake, Agent J will have to travel back in time to put things right. J discovers that there are secrets to the universe that K never told him — secrets that will reveal themselves as he teams up with the young Agent K (Josh Brolin) to save his partner, the agency, and the future of humankind.

Check out the teaser after the jump.

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This week’s Monday pick is the action thriller Blue Thunder (1983) directed by John Badham (Dracula, War Games). The film stars Roy Scheider (Frank Murphy), Malcolm McDowell (Colonel Cochrane), Daniel Stern (Richard Lymangood), Candy Clark (Kate), and in his final film performance, Warren Oates (Captain Jack Braddock).

“Blue Thunder” is the codename given to an advanced new helicopter that is chosen to be deployed over Los Angeles in an attempt to quell public disorder in preparation of the upcoming Olympic games and general crowd control from the air.

Scheider stars as officer Frank Murphy, a former U.S. Army helicopter pilot who suffers from PTSD due to his combat experiences in Vietnam. Scheider is chosen to fly the five million dollar prototype that he observes at an army proving ground in the California desert. Murphy is impressed with the chopper’s capabilities such as the ability to record a whisper from two thousand feet, search targets by infrared heat signatures, travel by silent “whisper mode”, and level a city block with a six barrel 20 mm electric cannon.

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This week’s pick is director John Sturges’s classic World War II thriller The Eagle Has Landed. The film stars some of Hollywood’s best talent: Michael Caine (Col. Kurt Steiner), Donald Sutherland (Liam Devlin), Donald Pleasence (Heinrich Himmler), Robert Duvall (Col. Max Radl) Jenny Agutter (Molly), Anthony Quayle (Adm. Canaris), Jean Marsh (Mrs. Grey), Treat Williams (Capt. Clark), and Larry Hagman (Col. Pitts).

The Eagle Has Landed supposes the theory that a team of German commandos clandestinely enters England and kidnaps Prime Minister Winston Churchill (the least heavily guarded world leader) and hold him for ransom in order to make the British sue for peace, thus allowing the Germans to continue on as the masters of Europe.

Amazed by the rescue mission to free Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from his mountain prison, Hitler proposes the idea to kidnap Churchill. The high command brings in architect colonel Radl (Duvall) to devise the plan in how to kidnap Churchill. Radl settles on Col. Kurt Steiner (Caine) a decorated paratrooper whose anti-Nazi reputation and crack unit are just the ones to pull off a mission considered too risky.

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This week’s pick comes to us from the Italian front, a rigorous and often overlooked campaign of ETO during World War II. Robert Mitchum stars as a war correspondent (Dick Ennis) (loosely based on famed correspondent Ernie Pyle) in the 1968 production of Anzio, produced by the legendary Dino De Laurentiis and directed by both Edward Dmytryk and Duilio Coletti. The film also stars Peter Falk (Cpl. Jack Rabinoff), Earl Holliman (Sgt. Abe Stimmler), Arthur Kennedy (Maj Gen. Jack Lesley), and Wolfgang Preiss (Field Marshal Albert Kesselring)..

Anzio tells the story about Operation Shingle, a bold plan devised by Winston Churchill to drop an Allied force behind the famed Monte Cassino Line in central Italy and to liberate Rome in January 1944. The Italian campaign proved to be a stalemate for the Allies who were making very little headway due to the geographical advantages the Germans and their Italian allies had over the invading forces. The film is a dramatization of the operation and the effects its aftermath had with the Allies who underestimated the enemy’s strength and exact location.

Dick Ennis (Mitchum) is a war correspondent who has seen too much war and is tired of its effects on humanity. Ennis joins the American expeditionary force assigned for the invasion. During a press conference with Generals Lesley (Kennedy) and General Carson, (based on Gen. Mark Clark) (Robert Ryan), Ennis shouts out the destination of where they’re heading. An angered Gen. Carson asks Ennis where he comes by his information. Ennis simply replies “from the streets of Napoli general.”

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This week’s pick is Wolfgang Petersen’s 1981 masterpiece Das Boot (The Boat) which tells the story of a German U-boat crew and their amazing two month ordeal while on patrol in the North Atlantic in the fall of 1941. The film was based on the real life account of author Lothar-Gunther Buchheim who served with the U-boat service in World War II. The film stars Jurgen Prochnow (Capt. “Der Alte”), Herbert Gronemeyer (Lt. Werner), Klaus Wennemann (The Chief of the boat), Hubertus Bengsch (1st Watch Officer), and Erwin Leder (Johann, Chief Mechanic of the U-96).

Das Boot is one of the greatest and most successful war films ever produced. Petersen wastes no time and gives the audience a fantastic first hand look at what life was like aboard a U-boat during the early days of World War II. The film begins with its narrator Lt. Werner (Gronemeyer) being driven along the French coast by the U-96′s Captain (Prochnow). Werner is assigned to the U-96 as a war correspondent in order to show the German people the heroes of the U-boat fleet.

Werner and the Captain are on their way to a French nightclub in celebration of another officer’s new promotion. Petersen also shows key members of the crew who are vital to the execution of the story. The officer who is the guest of honor, Thomsen (Otto Sander) gives a drunken speech and openly mocks both Winston Churchill and the U-boat tactics of Adolf Hitler. The rest of the evening allows the men to blow of some steam before their long patrol in a sector of the North Atlantic.

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This week’s pick is the 1978 release of Force 10 from Navarone, directed by Guy Hamilton (Battle of Britain). This was the sequel to the 1961 film The Guns of Navarone, which I wrote about last week. The film is loosely based off the novel of the same name also written by Alistair MacLean in 1968.

Robert Shaw this time portrays Keith Mallory as he and his accomplice Miller (Edward Fox) tag along with an American Colonel (Harrison Ford) who is sent into Yugoslavia to blow up a German held bridge which threatens Partisan forces in the region. The supporting cast include Carl Weathers (Sgt. Weaver), Richard Kiel (Captain Drazak), Barbara Bach (Maritza Petrovich), Michael Byrne (Maj. Schroeder), Alan Badel (Maj. Petrovich), and Franco Nero (Capt. Nikolai Lescovar).

The film opens up with a recap of the previous film (for those of us who like to watch sequels in reverse order), and tells of the successful mission led by Mallory, originally played by Gregory Peck, and Cpl. Miller (David Niven) as they destroyed the German gun emplacements on the tiny Greek island of Navarone. The film then flashes forward to a training camp in England where Mallory and Miller are once again called upon to take on another dangerous assignment.

Mallory and Miller are both promoted to Major and Sergeant, and are to attach themselves onto a unit known as “Force 10″, an American commando unit which is to conduct a sabotage mission against the German forces occupying Yugoslavia. Lt. Col. Mike Barnsby (Harrison Ford) is the commanding officer of Force 10 and is not thrilled with the idea of Mallory and Miller tagging along on their mission. Both Mallory and Barnsby put their differences aside and try to work with one another.

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This week’s pick is the classic World War II commando caper The Guns of Navarone (1961) directed by J. Lee Thompson, and written by acclaimed author Alistair MacLean, (Where Eagles Dare). The film stars Gregory Peck (Capt. Keith Mallory), David Niven (Cpl. John Anthony Miller), Anthony Quinn (Col. Andrea Stavrou), Stanley Baker (Pvt. “Butcher” Brown), Anthony Quayle (Maj. Roy Franklin), James Darren (Pvt. Spiro Pappadimos), and Irene Pappas (Maria Pappadimos).

The film is set during the rather forgotten Dodecanese Campaign from September 8th to November 22nd 1943. As the Germans had smashed southerly through the Balkans into Greece beginning in late 1940, their Italian allies held several of the Greek islands in the south-eastern Aegean Sea and used them for staging areas to help the Germans conquer Greece next. Fascist leader Benito Mussolini referred to the island of Leros as “the Corregidor of the Mediterranean.”

It was also hoped that Germany could cajole neutral Turkey to enter the war as a member of the Axis. The Allies tried several attempts to capture the islands in order to counter the German push through the Balkans into Greece.

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Many fans may be holding their collective breaths to catch a first glimpse of Jason Segel’s upcoming Muppets film. But before that, he’s getting down and dirty with Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake in Bad Teacher from Columbia Pictures.

From Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story director Jake Kasdan, the film mixes a little bit of Bad Santa and a little bit of Porky’s and throws in even more laughs. Here’s the official synopsis:

The films follows foul-mouthed, money hungry teacher Elizabeth (Cameron Diaz) who sets her sights on her colleague Amy (Lucy Punch) who is dating substitute teacher Scott (Justin Timberlake). Elizabeth, having just been dumped, decides to pursue her new colleague, who also happens to be the scion of a watch fortune.

In case you need more convincing than a cast like that, we also have the official “Red Band” trailer for you to set your eyes on after the jump. Bad Teacher is set to hit theaters on June 17th.

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Though 2010 was full of action in the box office, there was one thing missing: aliens. That’s where Battle: Los Angeles looks to be picking up the slack. Consider this film another alien invasion D-Day type scenario with the significant difference here being that the story is told from the side of the military.

With a cast consisting of Michelle Rodriguez, Aaron Eckhart, Bridget Moynahan, and True Blood’s Jim Parrack, the film looks to be this year’s Independence Day. Here’s the full synopsis:

For years, there have been documented cases of UFO sightings around the world – Buenos Aires, Seoul, France, Germany, China. But in 2011, what were once just sightings will become a terrifying reality when Earth is attacked by unknown forces.

As people everywhere watch the world’s great cities fall, Los Angeles becomes the last stand for mankind in a battle no one expected. It’s up to a Marine staff sergeant (Aaron Eckhart) and his new platoon to draw a line in the sand as they take on an enemy unlike any they’ve ever encountered before.

We’ve got a brand new trailer for you, this time showing off more of the Marine Vs. Alien point of view, and much more Eckhart and Parrack. Check out the trailer after the jump, and catch Battle: Los Angeles in theaters on March 11th.

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This week’s pick is a unique look at behind the lines action during the North African campaign in the early days of World War II. Zoltan Korda directs the 1943 Columbia Pictures release of Sahara, a morale booster of a film which was based on a 1936 Soviet film called The Thirteen.

The film stars Humphrey Bogart as the tough and grizzled Sergeant Joe Gunn who is in command of an American tank, which was apart of a small American task force which was sent to get combat experience, and to help the British Eighth Army turn back the famed German Africa Corp during the Western Desert Campaign in June 1942. This occurred just five months before American ground troops landed in North Africa to help turn the tide of the war. The film is dedicated to the American IV Armored Corp which assisted in the technical aspects of the film.

Rounding out the cast of Allied soldiers and the Axis are Dan Duryea (Jimmy Doyle, An American radio operator for the tank), Bruce Bennett (‘Waco’ Hoyt, Tank Driver), Richard Nugent (Captain Jason Halliday, Royal Army Medical Corp), Lloyd Bridges (Fred Clarkson), Patrick O’ Moore (Osmond ‘Ozzie’ Bates), Guy Kingsford (Peter Stegman), Carl Harbord (Marty Williams), Louis Mercier (Jean ‘Frenchie’ Leroux, a Free French soldier fighting with the British forces), Rex Ingram (Sgt. Major Tambul, a Sudanese soldier and desert guide).

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Happy New Year to all you faithful War Movie Monday fans, and thank you for a fantastic year of classic war films. This week’s pick to ring in the start of a new year is the John Milius 1975 classic The Wind and the Lion, which was loosely based on an international incident which led to possible war between the U.S. and European powers in 1904 Morocco. The film stars Sean Connery (Raisuli), Candice Bergen (Eden Perdicaris), Brian Keith (President Theodore Roosevelt), John Huston (Sec. of State John Hay), Geoffrey Lewis (American Ambassador to Morocco Samuel R. Gummere), Steve Kanaly (Captain Eugene Jerome, USMC), and Vladek Sheybal (The Bashaw of Tangier).

The film open up with a sweeping score from famed composer Jerry Goldsmith, who sets the stage for a fantastic adventure film with a tone of modern era warfare between desert tribesmen and the imperial powers of Germany, France, and Great Britain who are trying to establish their own spheres of influence throughout the Arab world.

Mulai Amhed er Raisuli (Connery) is the leader of a band of Berber tribesmen who are opposed to the Sultan and his Uncle (Sheybal) the Bashaw of Tangier who are corrupt and easily influenced by the European powers. The Raisuli plans to embarrass the rulers of Morocco by having his men kidnap an American woman, Eden Perdicaris (Bergen) and her two children from their home in Tangier, and hold them for ransom for gold, rifles, and sovereignty from the Europeans.

Milius wrote and directed the film which was loosely based on an actual account which was known as the “Perdicaris incident” in 1904. An American man and his stepson were kidnapped by Barbary pirates and were ransomed. Both were unharmed and the incident gave President Theodore Roosevelt a platform to wield the “big stick” of foreign policy for his re-election to office that year in November.

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This week’s Christmas war pick is the 1992 release of Keith Gordon’s A Midnight Clear which was adapted from the novel by William Wharton. The film stars Ethan Hawke (Sgt. Will Knott), Peter Berg (Pvt. Bud Miller), Kevin Dillon (Cpl. Mel Avakian), Arye Gross (Pvt. Stan Shutzer), Gary Sinise (Pvt. Vance ‘Mother’ Wilkins), Frank Whaley (Pvt. Paul ‘Father’ Mundy), Larry Joshua (Lt. Ware), and John C. McGinley (Maj. Griffin).

The film tells the story of  a six man U.S. Army intelligence squad which is hand picked by their regimental commander (Griffin) to scout out an old French chateau in the Ardennes forest in December of 1944 which may house forward German patrols who are trying to push through a gap on their way towards Bastogne, Belgium. Sgt. Knott (Hawke) and his men are at the breaking point fighting the war and try very hard to disassociate themselves from the normal chain of command.

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