I think George Lucas deserves some credit where it’s due, and say what you will about the prequels, the opening to Revenge of the Sith, with the dogfight over the planet was pretty awe-inspiring. So when the trailer for Red Tails came out, I was excited to see a Lucasfilm production that focused mainly on one of the strengths he still had.

And I’m pleased to say that he’s still got it. The dogfights in Red Tails look good, give a good sense of whose plane is whose (with the exception of the opening battle), further the plot, and build on each other. You can see the Lucas touch of following one plane during its flight then latching on to another.

In one sequence, a group (squadron?) take down a train, with one pilot taking it head on. Another shows how the under-equipped planes of the heroes are able to fight with lightning-fast German jets.

Continue Reading →

With Glee going strong on Fox, The Muppets sweeping across the country, and everyone up to their ears with Christmas song, the last thing anyone wants is yet another dose of musical. And that’s just what they’re getting!

The first trailer for the star-studded film adaptation of the Broadway hit Rock of Ages is finally here, and has plenty of Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Tom Cruise for you to shake a stick at.

For those who haven’t heard of this phenomenon that swept the east coast, here’s the premise:

“Rock of Ages” tells the story of small town girl Sherrie and city boy Drew, who meet on the Sunset Strip while pursuing their Hollywood dreams. Their rock ‘n’ roll romance is told through the heart-pounding hits of Def Leppard, Joan Jett, Journey, Foreigner, Bon Jovi, Night Ranger, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Poison, Whitesnake, and more.

Plenty of rock covers, and even more recognizable faces. Take a look at the trailer after the jump, and catch Rock of Ages in theaters on June 1st.

Continue Reading →

We love how Batman and Bruce Wayne have been portrayed over the years. Whether it’s whimsical and lighthearted as played by Adam West and Diedrich Bader, or dark and mysterious as played by Kevin Conroy and Christian Bale.

Now we’re getting an interesting look for the first time, as Ben McKenzie portrays Bruce Wayne as a pompous, young playboy. At least that’s what we’re getting in this brand new clip from Warner Home Video’s Batman: Year One.

Taken straight from Frank Miller’s Year One story arc from 1987 in which we follow the years from when Bruce Wayne donned the cape and cowl and decided to fight crime. Here, we get a far less confident and mysterious Bruce Wayne, and much more of the billionaire playboy philanthropist that we never got to see.

Continue Reading →

Warner Home Video seems to be an unstoppable juggernaut of quality animated content over the past few years. From getting their start with Justice League Unlimited to continuing in the trend with several major DVD and Blu-Ray releases a year featuring some of our favorite DC characters, there doesn’t seem to be a stop to how good these animated adaptations can get.

And the hits keep coming this month, as they release an adaptation of Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One comic in a feature-length film. You can expect this one to get pretty gritty, considering the source material, as well as some of the huge names they have for the cast.

Batman: Year One is based on the landmark 1987 DC Comics titles from 12-time Eisner Award winner Frank Miller and illustrator David Mazzucchelli. The film depicts young Bruce Wayne’s return to Gotham City in his first attempts to fight injustice as a costumed vigilante. The playboy billionaire chooses the guise of a giant bat to combat crime, creates an early bond with a young Lieutenant James Gordon (who is already battling corruption from inside the police department), inadvertently plays a role in the birth of Catwoman, and helps to bring down a crooked political system that infests Gotham.

Primetime television stars Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Ben McKenzie (Southland, The O.C.), Eliza Dushku (Dollhouse, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Katee Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) provide the core voices for Batman: Year One.

Check out the exclusive clip, as well as how to get your hand on the film early after the jump.

Continue Reading →

We’ve already brought you the first stills and first trailer from Warner Premiere’s upcoming animated film Batman: Year One. Now, we’re pleased to be able to bring you the first full clip from the movie for your animated Batman enjoyment.

In the clip, we get further evidence that even though this doesn’t have the big budget of the next Chris Nolan Batman, Warner is still taking this very seriously. In short, it looks pretty awesome.

Here’s the scoop on the film:

Batman: Year One is based on the 1987 comic from Frank Miller and illustrator David Mazzucchelli. The film depicts young Bruce Wayne’s return to Gotham City in his first attempts to fight injustice as a costumed vigilante. The playboy billionaire chooses the guise of a giant bat to combat crime, creates an early bond with a young Lieutenant James Gordon (who is already battling corruption from inside the police department), inadvertently plays a role in the birth of Catwoman, and helps to bring down a crooked political system that infests Gotham.

Like I said, awesome. Adding to that awesome even more is the great cast assembled to do the voices for the film, which includes Bryan Cranston (Gordon), Ben McKenzie (Bruce Wayne/Batman), Eliza Dushku (Catwoman) and Katee Sackhoff (Detective Essen). The film arrives October 18 on Blu-ray, On Demand and for Download.

Check out the scene after the break.

Continue Reading →

Let me just say, for the record, I enjoyed director Nicolas Winding Refn’s film Drive immensely. I’m going to do a full review of the film down the road, but for now, let’s just say the movie had an influence on me that few movies have of late.

Because I enjoyed it so much I want to do whatever I can to help get the word out. So, to that end, we’ve got some new stuff from the movie to share with you today.

In case you’re not familiar with Drive, it stars Ryan Gosling as “Driver,” a Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a wheelman that will take any job and not ask questions. However, as is often the case (especially in the movies), he discovers that a contract has been put on him after a heist goes wrong.

And seriously, it goes really wrong. They are not kidding.

Drive features a great cast who, to a man or woman, do a superb job. It includes Ryan Gossling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Oscar Isaac, and Albert Brooks.

Check out the video and some stills after the break. Drive hits theaters September 16, 2011.

Continue Reading →

Presented without much in the way of comment is the first trailer for Red Tails, which tells the story of the first African American aerial combat unit in WWII. These men, also known as the Tuskegee Airmen, were the first men of color to fly in a combat squadron and fought bravely and overcame adversity to defend our country during the war.

The film features an impressive cast including Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr, Bryan Cranston and David Oyelowo. It’s directed by Anthony Hemingway with Charles Floyd Johnson and Lucas regular Rick McCallum producing. George Lucas is executive producing. Let’s not confuse this with the film The Tuskegee Airmen with Lawrence Fishburne. This one looks like it has better effects.

The film will be released on January 20, 2012 from Fox. Check out the trailer after the break.

Continue Reading →

In spite of its surface similarities to another recent series of movies about a guy who drives for a living and doesn’t ask questions, the upcoming Drive from director Nicolas Winding Refn looks pretty damn good. So good, in fact, we feel compelled to bring you a trailer for it right now

In case you’re not familiar with Drive, it stars Ryan Gosling as “Driver,” a Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a wheelman that will take any job and not ask questions. However, as is sometimes the case, he discovers that a contract has been put on him after a heist goes wrong.

The film also features a great supporting cast including Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Oscar isaac, and Albert Brooks. Oh, forgot to mention that Winding Refn also won the Best Director award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. That, the cast and the trailer should be enough to sell you on Drive. If not, I’ve got nothing more for you.

Check out the video below. Drive hits theaters September 16, 2011.

Continue Reading →

For those of you anxiously awaiting the return of Batman to the big screen with Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, this may just help you get through the months, weeks, days and hours until that happens. Over at MTV’s Splashpage, they’ve got a trailer for the upcoming animated feature Batman: Year One, the next installment in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series.

In case you’re not familiar with the story, Batman: Year One the movie is based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller and focuses mostly on Bruce Wayne’s emergence as Batman. However, it also included many other great characters as well such as eventual commissioner Jim Gordon, his partner Sarah Essen, and the mysterious Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman).

Batman: Year One features Benjamin McKenzie as Bruce Wayne, Bryan Cranston as Jim Gordon, Eliza Dushku as Catwoman and Katee Sackhoff as Sarah Essen. It will be available October 18 on Blu-ray, DVD, OnDemand and via download. Also, if you happen to be going to Comic-Con in two weeks, the film will have its world premiere on Friday, July 22 at 8PM in Ballroom 20, followed by a panel discussion with cast and crew.

Click though to check out the trailer after the break.

Continue Reading →

You may have heard of a film called Sullivan’s Travels, and if you’ve heard of it, you may know the gist: Popular but unfulfilled director Sullivan is tired of making commercially successful but emotionally and intellectually vapid films. He decides that his next film (named O Brother, Where Art Thou?) will be a socially conscious depiction of the lower classes.

Through a series of comic mix-ups, he gets tossed in prison. One night a cartoon is screened for the inmates and Sullivan has an epiphany: The best way he can help the downtrodden is not by making high drama, but low-brow crowd-pleasers.

Larry Crowne is the kind of movie Sullivan would make if he were alive today. It’s full of plot-holes, cheap laughs, lazy pop-culture references, and utterly devoid of conflict. But for the women-age-45-and-up demographic wanting to see a cute romantic comedy with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts (have they ever been paired together? I can’t recall), this should suffice.

Tom Hanks, who wrote, directed, and produced it, plays Crowne, a middle-aged supermarket drone/former Naval cook who loses his beloved job because he never went to college. Low on cash but doggone tenacious, he enrolls in community college, taking a speech class taught by the jaded Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts, who’s getting more attractive with age) and an Econ 101 class taught by the zany Dr. Matsutani (George Takei).

Continue Reading →

Some of the best scripted TV isn’t found on free cable anymore, it’s found in shows like The Killing, Game of Thrones and dozens of other shows found in the high cable channels like AMC, HBO, FX, and Showtime. One of those epic dramas is AMC’s Breaking Bad.

Hitting their fourth season on July 17th, Breaking Bad is getting as hard-hitting and inexplicable as ever as we follow the downward spiral (or eye-opening rebirth) of Walter White. For those who still haven’t gotten the chance to catch the show, here’s a brief rundown to bring you up to speed.

Breaking Bad follows protagonist Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a chemistry teacher who lives in New Mexico with his wife (Anna Gunn) and teenage son (RJ Mitte) who has cerebral palsy. White is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of two years to live. With a new sense of fearlessness, and a desire to secure his family’s financial security, White chooses to enter a dangerous world of drugs and crime, where he ascends to power. The series explores how a fatal diagnosis, such as White’s, releases a typical man from the daily concerns and constraints of normal society and follows his transformation from mild family man to kingpin of the drug trade.

The first trailer for the fourth season has finally hit the web, and we’ve got it for you. Check it out after the jump and be sure to stick to AMC as the next season premieres on July 17th.

Continue Reading →

Warner Premiere has been on a roll lately in both the animated world and the live action one. Their newest live action webseries, Mortal Kombat: Legacy has blown up online, and their continuing success with animated films for the DC Universe have put them on top of the map for both genres.

Continuing in that trend, their newest film, Batman: Year One has got some brand new images, and they give us a hint at what we can expect from the film. Here’s the breakdown of the all-star cast from THR.

Bryan Cranston, Ben McKenzie, Eliza Dushku and Katee Sackhoff have been tapped to star as the voices in Batman: Year One, the adaptation of the Frank Miller comic book classic from Warner Premiere, DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation.

Cranston is playing Gordon, while McKenzie is Wayne/Batman. Dushku voices Catwoman, while Sackhoff is Detective Sarah Essen, a Gordon love interest.

The animated feature is based on the 1987 miniseries written by Frank Miller and drawn by David Mazzucchelli, about the time between Bruce Wayne seeing his parents murdered and becoming the caped avenger that we all know and love today.

The flick is expected to hit DVD and Blu-Ray players everywhere later this year. In the meantime, check out two brand new images from the film.

Continue Reading →