This week’s pick is the post Cold War thriller Crimson Tide which stars Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman as U.S. Submariners who clash over their orders to launch nuclear weapons in this Tony Scott action classic. Crimson Tide begins during a period of political unrest in post Soviet Russia when military forces crush a rebellion in neighboring Chechnya.

Violence begins to spread throughout other republics and ultra nationalists headed by a man named Radchenko criticizes American, British, and French involvement which cuts off aid to Russia as a protest of its hostilities towards its neighboring country. Radchenko’s forces seize a Russian ICBM missile complex and threaten to launch nuclear weapons if either the U.S. or its allies move in to stop him.

After several years of peace, the Cold War begins to heat up once again.

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We all know how tame and watered down vampires have become these days. Sure, we’ll get some cool moments in True Blood when fangs are popped and blood is drawn, but that’s only in between the other 50 minutes of romance, sex and melodrama. And let’s not even begin to think Twilight has any kind of vampire bad ass moments.

The one constant is that the Underworld series has always looked good, and had enough guns and leather to come across as a Matrix spinoff. So why wouldn’t we get another sequel amidst the vampire/werewolf hype happening today? Good news, we do.

The premise is a bit tame, but we don’t expect much of a story when the first thing we see in the trailer is a nude Kate Beckinsale.

Kate Beckinsale, star of the first two films, returns in her lead role as the vampire warrioress Selene, who escapes imprisonment to find herself in a world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans, and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species.

Of course, you’ll get the expected lines like “something else escaped” and “it’s more powerful than anything we’ve ever fought”. Why? Because why not. Leather + machine guns + Vampires = a good time.

Check it all out in the trailer after the jump. See Underworld 4: Awakening 3D in theaters January 20th.

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If you’ve been the star of one of the most successful film franchises of all time and now that’s over, you might want to consider trying to go in a different direction with your career. If you’re Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, that’s kinda what you’ve done with your upcoming film The Woman In Black.

In the film Radcliffe plays a lawyer who travels to a remote English village and discovers that the ghost of a scorned woman is terrorizing the locals. The horror thriller is a remake of a 1989 TV movie which was adapted from a play which, itself, was adapted from a novel by Susan Hill. You follow all that? Good.

We’v got a new trailer for the film to share with you today. In it, Radcliffe does his best to overcome the notion that he should just pull out his wand and blast the ghost with his magical powers. Does he succeed? You be the judge.

Check out the trailer after the jump. The Woman In Black is set to hit theaters on February 3rd of 2012.

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Let’s get this out of the way in advance: I’m a fan of actor, personality and bongo player Matthew McConaughey. Even though he’s been dipping in the romantic comedy well too much for the last several years, I’ve always thought he had an edge that needed to be explored.

Looks like I’m getting my wish with his upcoming film Killer Joe. In fact, not only does McConaughey look like he’s continuing to return to better, more challenging, roles the film also marks another directing effort for one of my favorites, William Friedkin. So, win win.

The film, written by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award writer Tracy Letts, tells the story of a Dallas detective who is also a hired killer. Talk about conflicted. Check out the synopsis below and a cool clip for the film after the jump:

When 22 year-old drug dealer Chris (Emile Hirsch) has his stash of drugs stolen from him by his mother, he has to come up with six-thousand dollars quick, or he’s dead. Desperate, he goes to the trailer-park to see his father, Ansel (Thomas Hayden Church), and he lays out the plan. Chris’s mother, who everyone hates, has a life insurance policy that would clear up his debt and make them all rich. The problem is that Chris’ mother is very much alive.

Enter Detective “Killer” Joe Cooper, a hired hit man with the manners of a Southern gentleman, who will do the job – for an upfront fee, that Chris and Ansel can’t pay. Just as Joe is about to leave, he spots Dottie (Juno Temple), Chris’ innocent younger sister. Joe makes Chris an offer, he’ll keep Dottie as sexual collateral until the money is collected and his fee can be paid. Chris reluctantly puts his debt ahead of his sister and agrees to Joe’s demand.

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It’s rare that a show puts together an awesome idea long before they even release a trailer for the new season. That’s pretty much what’s happening with AMC’s second season of the critically acclaimed adaptation of The Walking Dead.

Down in Atlanta, where the show currently shoots and takes place, the roads are slowed due to a certain zombie outbreak. You tell us if this isn’t one of the scariest road signs you’ve ever seen on the highway. Here’s the official report.

Police in Cobb County are warning drivers to be on guard for a zombie outbreak as filming of the hit drama series “The Walking Dead” begins there. They plan to post two message boards on a busy thoroughfare.

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This week’s pick is the 1980 release of William Peter Blatty’s The Ninth Configuration which is a Gothic, thriller, comedic, war picture.  The film stars Stacy Keach (Col. Hudson Kane), Scott Wilson (Capt. Billy Cutshaw), Jason Miller (Lt. Frankie Reno), Ed Flanders (Col. Richard Fell), Neville Brand (Maj. Marvin Groper), George DiCenzo (Capt. Fairbanks), Moses Gunn (Maj. Nammack), Robert Loggia (Capt. Bennish), Joe Spinell (Lt. Spinell), Tom Atkins (Sgt. Krebs), Steve Sandor (Stanley), and veteran actor Richard Lynch (Richard).

The Ninth Configuration is a film unlike any other.  It’s a film which blends many different genres together and delivers a truly comedic and frightening film at times.  The film’s protagonist is that of Capt. Cutshaw (Wilson), an astronaut who aborted his space launch out of fear of dying.  Cutshaw is remanded to a secret government facility housed in an old castle in the Pacific northwest region of the United States during the tail end of the Vietnam War.  The purpose of the facility was to see if certain individuals were faking psychosis in order to avoid combat duty in Vietnam.

The arrival of a new commanding officer is played by Stacy Keach (Col. Hudson Kane).  Maj. Groper (Brand) assembles the group of patient misfits to greet the new shrink and welcome him to the facility.  The inmates amuse themselves by reciting famous lines from famous movies like Victor McLaglen in The Informer or one of the bandits from Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Col. Kane is greeted by one man who refers to himself as Dr. Frome  (Blatty) and is grateful for any help a psychologist can bring.  Groper sounds off a role call and asks where Frome is.

Two Marine guards escort Frome back inside and the real doctor, Col. Fell (Flanders) introduces himself.  Kane looks at Fell with curiosity and believes that the two have met someplace before.  Fell says that he has no recollection of ever meeting Col. Kane before.

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Not many people know the name, but Walter Hill helped shape Hollywood in the early 80′s with films like The Warriors, 48 Hrs. and Streets of Fire.

He’s recently directed more TV than film and produced quite a lot, but now he’s getting back into the game with the upcoming action thriller, Headshot, which will star both Thomas Jane and Sylvester Stallone. Arrow in the Head explains the details of the film’s plot.

According to Jane, the deal is in place and the “script is fantastic” – although Hill is currently rewriting the piece, which was originally penned by Alessandro Camon (The Messenger).

In the film, Stallone will star as a New Orleans hitman who teams with an NYPD detective (Jane), as they are brought together by two vicious murders. The two proceed to take on all who stand in their way.

Jane said the following: “He’s a hitman, I’m a cop, and we’re just opposite in every f*cking way, and we need each other to get this job done. And of course I’m like, ‘As soon as this job’s over, I’m going to take you to jail, you know, you’re a killer.’”

So between this film and his plans to work on the upcoming Expendables 2, Stallone will be quite busy shooting and dodging bullets in 2012.

3D is obviously taking over Hollywood right now. So rather than kick and scream because a film like Joss Whedon’s Cabin in the Woods is sitting in production hell due to the 3D conversion, we might as well sit and enjoy some of the more lowbrow 3D films that are hitting the screen this year.

One of those very films is Relativity Media’s upcoming Shark Night 3D, directed by Snakes on a Plane helmer David R. Ellis, and starring some of Hollywood’s younger all-stars like Sarah Paxton, Dustin Milligan, Chris Carmack, and Joel David Moore.

The film is a tongue-in-cheek thriller in the vain of Snakes or more recently Piranha 3D which, if you remember correctly, had a piranha chomping on a man’s severed genitals.

We’ve got a brand new look at the film in the form of a horrifying picture for you to feast your eyes on after the jump. Check it out, and join us on the media journey as we welcome Shark Night 3D to theaters on September 2.

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The concept of the insane upper-class citizens is one that has gone to the wayside over the past few years. There are some great films that incorporate the plot twist, such as Swimming with Sharks, but most insane antagonists in film tend to be members of the unwashed and broke.

That’s where Nick Tomnay’s The Perfect Host comes in. Based on his original 2001 short, The Host, the film takes the classic hostage tale and spins it around. Here’s the official synopsis.

Warwick Wilson is the consummate host. He carefully prepares for a dinner party, the table impeccably set and the duck perfectly timed for 8:30 p.m. John Taylor is a career criminal. He’s just robbed a bank and needs to get off the streets.

He finds himself on Warwick’s doorstep posing as a friend of a friend, new to Los Angeles, who’s been mugged and lost his luggage. As the wine flows and the evening progresses, we become deeply intertwined in the lives of these two men and discover just how deceiving appearances can be.

David Hyde Pierce takes on the role of Warwick, which is great seeing as how Pierce has been stuck with the fumbling, British comic relief for so many years. It will be nice to see him try out “nut case” for size.

Check out the trailer after the jump, and catch The Perfect Host on demand on May 27th and in theaters on July 1.

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Hanna is no ordinary assassin. With piercing blue eyes and an angelic countenance, the teenager looks more suited to be homecoming queen than cold blooded killer. Only that was not her lot in life. Hanna has been isolated from the populace in the frigid confines of Northern Finland, learning survival skills from her well versed father Erik (Eric Bana), who is an ex-CIA operative.

It’s obvious that Erik is trying to prepare Hanna for something; in addition to survival skills, he quizzes her in multiple languages, and educates her on topics of science, current events, and literature. Hanna spends her evenings poring over Grimm’s Fairy Tales by candlelight.  You could say she is a true Renaissance woman.

The opening scene on the frozen tundra shows Hanna shooting a Reindeer with a bow and arrow. When the creature still writhes about, she calmly shoots it, then dresses it right in the field. She goes about these gruesome tasks with robotic precision and complete detachment.

Later, Erik and Hanna decide it is time to move on from their self-imposed exile; Hanna is ready to go out into the real world. Erik has been honing Hanna’s skills in anticipation of being pursued by Marissa (Cate Blanchett), another CIA agent dead set on getting rid of Hanna. Erik and Hanna go their separate ways, but make plans to meet at a safe-house in Germany.

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For a good amount of time, there was some worry that Robert De Niro was going the way of Dustin Hoffman where he stopped going after meaty or serious roles, only to focus on easy paychecks and “fun” projects.

With his recent return to the Fockers franchise, and his laughably bad performance in Machete, we were starting to worry if the once-amazing actor was lost forever. Now we see he may be coming towards the light once again, as he’s got second billing in Relativity Media’s upcoming sci-fi thriller Limitless.

In it, De Niro plays Carl Van Loon, a mysterious businessman who knows more than Bradley Cooper’s Eddie Morra about his own new abilities, all thanks to a pill that grants him limitless power.

In the clip we have for you, De Niro and Cooper face off in an intense battle of wits, and give each other their own trademarked dramatic stare. Check it out after the jump, and catch Limitless in theaters on March 18th.

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When the trailer for the upcoming sci-fi thriller Limitless starring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro first hit, one of the first questions that came to mind when we learned of the plot was “sure, this pill allows him to get a haircut and learn Italian, but does it give him superpowers?” Sure enough, this clip has got the answer for us.

For those who haven’t read about the full synopsis for the film, here it is.

Eddie Morra (Cooper) is an unemployed writer whose girlfriend Lindy (Abbey Cornish) breaks up with him. Eddie believes he has no future, but when a friend introduces him to the experimental drug NZT, Eddie becomes highly focused and highly confident. He is able to recall everything he has read, heard, or seen, and he uses the knowledge to become successful in the financial world. Business mogul Carl Van Loon (De Niro) sees Eddie as a potential tool to make money, but Eddie’s success also attracts hitmen who pursue him for the NZT. Eddie’s stash dwindles, causing him side effects, as he tries to escape being assassinated.

So when an experimental drug gives you heightened intelligence, creativity, and learning powers, doesn’t it make sense that you’d be great in a fist fight? Check out a new clip from the film after the jump and learn for yourself.

Limitless hits theaters on March 18th.

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