I tend to think of Scorsese as a master of genre films—he’s done gangster films (Goodfellas, Casino), comedy (After Hours, The King of Comedy), police drama (The Departed), psychological thriller (Shutter Island), boxing (Raging Bull), biopic (Kundun, The Aviator, No Direction Home), concert (Shine a Light), historical (Gangs of New York), literary classic (The Age of Innocence), even a remake Cape Fear) and a sequel (The Color of Money)—but he tends to bring such a distinct touch to the films, they don’t quite feel like genre films.

So when I heard he was taking a stab at a kiddie flick, Hugo immediately shot to my most anticipated Scorsese film to date (outside, of course, of the fictional film he was making with Larry David as the money-hurling mob boss in Curb Your Enthusiasm)—added to that who wouldn’t be interested in Scorsese’s take on 3D?

And Hugo doesn’t disappoint. It’s not the most compelling story, but for all its two-hour-seven-minute running time, I wasn’t bored once. There’s a lot more going on, and I’ll get to that in a moment, but first the rundown.

Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) is an urchin who haunts a Paris railway station in the early 1930s, repairing its clocks and stealing various cogs and sprockets to rebuild the homunculus he and his father (Jude Law) were working on right up to his death. While Hugo tends to remain out of the sight and mind of the station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen), he’s less successful evading the eye of the toymaker he robs (Ben Kingsley). Caught trying to thieve a wind-up mouse, he’s forced to give up his father’s notebook, which includes all the instructions on repairing the mechanical man and provokes a strange reaction from the toymaker.

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That’s right. You heard it here last. It seems that the newest film featuring our favorite Henson classics The Muppets is yet another “plan for the left to bad mouth affluent businessmen” as the film’s main antagonist is an evil oil baron.

According to a report (yes, they felt the need to do an entire segment on this) from Fox Business, Jason Segal’s Muppet film is guilty of negatively portraying a simple business owner in the form of Chris Cooper’s “Tex Richman”, an evil baron who’s set on destroying the Muppet studios to drill for oil.

The fact that Fox, or anyone for that matter, would think that it’s news that The Muppets, a creation of Jim Henson, is just now taking aim at the aptly labeled 1%, is just preposterous.

Note that the news report barely mentions the existence of Statler and Woldof, who were doing the “old, rich, white antagonist” act before this reporter was able to walk. Take a look at the downfall of modern journalism in true form after the jump, and catch The Muppets in theaters now, or the oil barons of the world win.

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Billions of grown up kids will get to relive on of their childhood favorites this week as Jason Segel brings The Muppets back to the silver screen for the first time in over a decade. We can’t tell you how excited we are around the office for this flick to arrive, so we’re getting you all more prepared with clips all this week.

Today’s clip has a special treat: a retro-style cleaning montage in the tune of Jefferson Starship’s “We Built This City”. As you can see, this one will be full of meta, classic movie spoofs, and tons of celebrity cameos.

The film stars Jason Segel and Amy Adams, along with Chris Cooper, Rashida Jones, and just about every Muppet that you can name (and then some!). Take a look at our exclusive clip after the jump, and make it back here every day this week as we lead up to the film’s release with a new clip daily!

The Muppets is set to hit theaters on Thursday, November 23rd.

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Last year didn’t have many major hits, but one film that managed to sneak past critics and turned out to be one of the highest grossing films of the year was the animated film Despicable Me. Bringing in both kids and adults alike, the film was able to prove that Pixar isn’t the only studio to produce quality CG-animated films.

Now, from the same studio, and the man who brought us The Cat in the Hat, comes The Lorax. For those who aren’t aware of this lesser known Seussian tale, here’s a breakdown.

From the creators of Despicable Me and the imagination of Dr. Seuss comes the 3D-CG feature Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, an adaptation of the classic tale of a forest creature who shares the enduring power of hope. The animated adventure follows the journey of a 12-year-old as he searches for the one thing that will enable him to win the affection of the girl of his dreams. To find it he must discover the story of the Lorax, the grumpy yet charming creature who fights to protect his world.

The film has a pretty awesome cast, featuring Danny DeVito, Zac Eforn, Betty White, Taylor Swift, and Ed Helms. We’ve got a bit before the film hits theaters on March 2nd, but you can check out the trailer after the jump.

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Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse when 75% of the films hitting theaters this year are in 3D or RealD, Robert Rodriguez introduces 4D with his new feature, the Aroma-Scope.

Sure, it’s not the newest idea. From the major plot points in Joe Dante’s Matinee from 1993 to John Waters’ “Odorama” in the film Polyester, the idea has been played with in the past, but never to the level of a summer blockbuster. Deadline explains.

[Rodriguez] used the marketing strategy of billing his fourth installment in the Spy Kids franchise as a “4D” flick by adding scratch-and-sniff scent cards for audiences. It’ll be interesting to see if this add-on “Aroma-Scope” value increases moviegoing beyond just the 3D higher ticket prices when the pic opens Friday. ”When it came time to do Spy Kids 4, I couldn’t just go back and do 3D like everybody else is now. I had to bring something extra,” Rodriguez told the the AP.

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Things have been to fast with Disney’s non-animated studio, Buena Vista. With films like Tron: Legacy, Pirates of the Carribbean: On Stranger Tides, and a few other gigantic pictures getting released in the past year, why not release a small feel good tale about two parents having a magical kid?

With a story by Ahmet Zappa (yes, THAT Ahmet Zappa), the film is definitely a bit saccharin and sappy for an audience who has been fed Nazis, Apes, and Aliens all summer. Here’s the premise:

An inspiring, magical story about a happily married couple, Cindy and Jim Green (Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton), who can’t wait to start a family but can only dream about what their child would be like. When young Timothy (CJ Adams) shows up on their doorstep one stormy night, Cindy and Jim—and their small town of Stanleyville—learn that sometimes the unexpected can bring some of life’s greatest gifts.

The film definitely has the feel of a Phenonenon or Powder from the mid-90s. Let’s just hope this film doesn’t end on the same sad note. Check out the trailer after the jump and catch the film in theaters next Fall.

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Last weekend, the world was taken by surprise as Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger blew past the final Harry Potter film and made it to the #1 spot in its very first weekend. Since then, the film has grossed over $115 million here in the US and upwards of $170 million worldwide. Not bad for the best superhero film of the year (according to Rotten Tomatoes).

This weekend, Cap may have gotten knocked off the top spot and only made roughly $24 million, but the more interesting part is the battle between Universal’s Cowboys & Aliens and Sony’s The Smurfs. Both films opened with an estimated $36.2 million in the domestic, and while Smurfs may be the winner overseas, with a total of $40 million worldwide, that’s simply because it’s the only film to have a foreign opening.

Not a very strong opening for either film (unless you consider Smurfs to be a small film), but the true champion will be determined tomorrow afternoon when the official numbers arrive for the domestic box office.

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For a little over a month now, we’ve been getting teased with posters and fake teasers for Jason Segel’s upcoming fanboy dream come true, a brand new Muppets movie. For the longest time, we didn’t even know what the film would be called, as names like The Most Expensive Muppet Movie Ever Made and others to that effect were thrown around.

It looks like Disney has settled with the idea of simply The Muppets. Here’s the premise.

When Walter, the world’s biggest Muppet fan, and friends Gary (Jason Segel) and Mary (Amy Adams) discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to raze the Muppet Theater, they help Kermit reunite the Muppets to stage The Greatest Muppet Telethon Ever and raise the $10 million needed to save the theater.

The film has got just about everything a true Muppet fan would want, and now we’ve got it all in one awesome trailer. Check it out after the jump, and catch The Muppets in theaters November 23rd.

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Okay, okay, there aren’t many summer movies that you’re willing to take the younger kids to, and something has to fill that void, so Mr. Popper’s Penguins is pretty much your only non-animated choice.

It’s odd, because I don’t think of Jim Carrey as being much of an attraction for kids, but it’s likely intended as a draw for the 30-something parents looking for a non-panda-centric film to placate their brood. Or for those who loved the 1938 book as kids themselves, though I never read it, and, from what I gather, it’s vastly different.

Carrey plays Popper, a semi-weasel (would that make him a ferret?) of a real estate agent with a golden tongue and flair for convincing hard cases to sell their property to his high-risin’ New York firm. In this, he’s ably aided by his alliterative assistant Pippi (Ophelia Lovibond), an adorably saucy little Brit with an impediment that causes her to pepper her speech with a proliferation of p’s. One day Popper receives a crate from his recently deceased father, a world-renowned explorer who never had time for his son, and in it is a penguin, which proceeds to destroy Popper’s apartment and provide the first in a series of unnervingly graphic defecations.

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Most films tend to peter off after the first trilogy. That rule, of course has been tried and broken a few times, most recently with the upcoming prequel X-Men: First Class. For Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids franchise, we fear it won’t meet those standards with the upcoming fourth film.

The film’s got a pretty impressive cast, and will, of course, be in 3D, but from what we can tell the script looks like it was shoehorned into the current Spy Kids universe, and even drudges up the much older stars of the original films. Here’s the massive synopsis.

The film revolves around twins Rebecca and Cecil who cannot get along with their stepmother, Marissa Cortez Wilson (Jessica Alba), who married their father, Wilbur, a spy-hunting reporter. Unknown to the twins, Marissa is a retired spy for the OSS (Organization of Super Spies) which has since become the world’s top spy agency and former headquarters of the now-defunct Spy Kids division.

So when Earth is threatened by a villain who goes only by the name of “The Timekeeper” (Jeremy Piven), she is called back into action by the leader of the OSS. With the end of the world approaching, Rebecca and Cecil have no choice but to join the fight, help Marissa, and put their anger against her aside in order to save innocent people. They will also receive some help from former Spy Kids Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara) (who have since grown to teenagers) who will provide them with new gadgets.

And yes, the film will be in “4D”, which doesn’t actually mean anything. Take a look at the first trailer for the flick after the jump and catch Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World in theaters on August 19th.

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Summer is here, which means viral marketing is at its peak. And who doesn’t love viral marketing for a movie starring the Muppets? The answer is nobody. That’s why Disney has been on top of things with their viral strategy this week with the Green with Envy trailer earlier this week, and now a new trailer for The Fuzzy Pack.

This trailer isn’t nearly as ingenious as Envy, and it looks like it’ll be capitalizing on the obvious success of this weekend’s Hangover Part 2. (“The Fuzzy Pack” is an obvious riff on “The Wolf Pack”.)

The things this trailer does give us? Proof that both Wanda Sykes and Danny Trejo can still be awesome and hilarious in a movie starring felt puppets.

Take a look at the new trailer after the jump and join in the Muppety chaos on November 23rd.

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For those who have been waiting for their first glimpse of the brand new Muppet Movie trailer, it’s here!….sort of. Disney is getting a bit tricky with their first trailer for the film by disguising it as a campy romantic comedy starring Jason Segel and Amy Adams called Green With Envy.

It’s actually quite brilliant of Disney, if they can pull something like this off (which they will). We can only imagine why they’d want to uncover the film this way, except for the possibility that the film’s name is still in debate. The original title was proposed as The Greatest Muppet Movie Ever Made, which has later been rejected by the studio. We just hope Green with Envy isn’t the film’s final title. Here’s the “synopsis.”

Love struck meets star struck when a small town couple (Amy Adams, Jason Segel) head to Hollywood and discover their dreams of hitting the big time may cost them the one thing that matters most – each other.

Those who feel like Segel won’t be able to capture the original spirit of The Muppets, know that this trailer has it all from self-referential humor, to full choreographed musicals, to Sweetums!

We don’t want to ruin any more for you, so be sure to check out the trailer after the jump, and catch “Green with Envy” in theaters on November 23rd.

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