Every good super hero tale needs an even better origin story. Well, the same goes for super villain tales, and that’s quite clear as the release date for Dreamworks’ twist on the classic “Good vs. Evil” battle in Megamind starring Will Ferrell and Brad Pitt.

With Madagascar director Tom McGrath taking the helm and a very impressive voice cast including Ferrell, Pitt, Tina Fey, David Cross, and Jonah Hill, there is very little stopping this film from becoming the next Incredibles, which is exactly what Dreamworks is hoping for.

Nickelodeon also has faith in the film, as they’ve released the first five minutes of the film online, which gives us an inside look at the origin of both Metro Man and Megamind. Of course there are allusions to other great comic tales, just done with that Will Ferrell style of humor.

Check out the first five minutes after the jump and catch Megamind in theaters and 3D on November 5th.

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Cyrus is the kind of independent movie that makes me love independent movies, so it might seem paradoxical that I don’t want to write this review. I just want to tell you to go directly to your nearest theater and see it, without knowing anything about it beforehand. But I do have to write something, so as much as possible, I will eschew plot summary, and only endeavor to persuade you to go see it, right away.

Cyrus is made by the Brothers Duplass (Mark and Jay), who have climbed into Hollywood by way of the Mumblecore trapdoor. The Duplasses made their name with their first two features, Puffy Chair and Baghead, but they’ve matured with incredible speed, and Cyrus is a big step up.

A love triangle such as you’ve never seen before, Cyrus is the story of John, a shambling mess of a man (John C. Reilly) who describes himself as “like Shrek,” Molly, the lovely woman who accepts him as he is (Marissa Tomei), and Cyrus, the twenty-one-year-old son (Jonah Hill) who still lives with her.

Those are capsule character descriptions, and as such, they are wholly inaccurate. For this movie is all about character, and the ways character can manifest and change, all in an instant. You would think this movie was a thriller, the way it places you on alert. The tone is so wobbly (which is not to say inconsistent, or uncontrolled) that from moment to moment, scene to scene, I literally had no idea what was going to happen next. It made me realize how formulaic almost all scripts are. They follow the three-act or five-act rules and the audience obediently holds on for the predictable ride.

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By Shannon Hood

Reprinted from the SXSW Film Festival, 3/17/2010

Mark and Jay Duplass caused a bit of a commotion at Sundance and SXSW in 2005 when their feature film The Puffy Chair debuted to rave reviews and serious buzz. The brothers’ approach to filmmaking was so innovative that they had a new genre of film named after them: mumblecore.

Mumblecore is an indie genre characterized by low budget, improvisation, “non-actor” actors, and plots dealing primarily with personal relationships. The brothers followed up The Puffy Chair with Baghead (2008.)

Even though Cyrus cannot be categorized as pure mumblecore, it is certainly heavily influenced by the Duplass brothers’ earlier films. The movie stars well known comedic actors Jonah Hill (Superbad) and John C. Reilly (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story), as well as Oscar winner Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler.)

John C. Reilly is wonderful as John, a downtrodden divorced man who finds out that his ex-wife Jamie (played by Catherine Keener) is getting remarried, and wants him to attend an engagement party. Humiliating stuff for even the most confident of men, and John is far from confident.

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In 2008, Russell Brand appeared in Forgetting Sarah Marshall as his alter ego Aldous Snow, a cocky, obnoxious rock star who nabs hottie Kristen Bell from her long time boyfriend. Brand nearly stole the movie out from a cast of gifted comedy heavy-weights. Brand reprises that role in Get Him to the Greek, a comedy/road-trip/buddy movie in which he is paired with Jonah Hill.

Jonah Hill is quickly becoming my go-to guy when it comes to comedy. Although he is usually relegated to supporting character status, I find him to be a welcome addition to any ensemble cast. Now, he gets to flex his muscles (the acting sort, there are none to be found on his actual body) and take a jab at leading man status. With his doughy physique Hill makes an unconventional leading man, but he is strangely endearing and relatable.

As odd as this pairing might seems, it works exceptionally well. Also unexpected, but equally hilarious, is the casting of Sean Combs as an ego-maniacal record executive who provides some of the film’s biggest laughs, believe it or not.

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There aren’t very many comedies that we’re looking forward to this year at The Flickcast offices. We already got our hopes up with Will Forte’s MacGruber, so all bets are off on what will turn out to be genuinely funny or not. We’re hoping that this Friday’s Get Him To The Greek may be one of those that sneak under the radar.

The film is essentially a spin off of 2008′s Forgetting Sarah Marshall in which Russell Brand returns to his outlandish rock star character Aldous Snow. Jonah Hill returns, but this time as a new neurotic character, who has to get the doped up Snow to The Greek Theater in Los Angeles.

There are a few lame moments (most of which are unfortunately when Sean “Puffy” Combs are on the screen), but on the flip side of that, there are some genuinely funny moments between both Hill and Brand.

Check out the clips after the jump, and be sure to catch Get Him To The Greek when it hits theaters this Friday.

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Next Friday, fans of music and comedy everywhere will come together to enjoy the newest film from Forgetting Sarah Marshall writers Jason Segal and Nicholas Stoller, Get Him To The Greek.

The film stars Jonah Hill, Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs, and Rose Byrne, with Russell Brand reprising his Sarah Marshall role as Aldous Snow. Joining them is just about every popular music artist you can think of, from Lars Ulrich to Pink to Christina Aguilera. In promoting the film, we’ve got a pretty awesome giveaway for you, via our Twitter Account.

The prize pack consists of the brand new Infant Sorrow- Get Him To The Greek CD, which hits stores on June 1st, along with an awesome Infant Sorrow classic rock t-shirt.

Check out the t-shirts after the jump, along with the tracklisting for the CD, and be sure to keep an eye out on our Twitter later today for your chance to win this killer giveaway!

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With all the movies coming out these days its easy to get lost in all the promotions by the studios. In an effort to get audiences interested in their particular film, they often deluge potential movie goers with a whole bunch of promotional stuff that due to the sheer amount, is often overlooked or just plain ignored. Sometimes, however, something comes along that’s kinda fun and deserves a bit of attention.

One such promotional tie-in is Universal’s current Get Him to the Greek song contest. To enter is simple, especially for all you budding rockstars out there.

Just record your cover version of Infant Sorrow’s (Russel Brand’s fictional band in the film) hit song “Bangers, Beans & Mash” and enter for a chance to win a trip to the world premiere of Get Him to the Greek at L.A.’s famous Greek Theatre. 20 runners-up will win limited edition Infant Sorrow merchandise, so don’t feel bad.

Get Him to the Greek features Jonah Hill and Russell Brand and is directed by Forgetting Sarah Marshall‘s Nicholas Stoller. It tells the story of a record company executive (Hill) with three days to drag an uncooperative rock legend (Brand) to Hollywood for a comeback concert. It also stars Sean Combs, Elisabeth Moss, Rose Byrne and Colm Meaney. It hits theaters June 4.

Every year, it’s fun to see the new and original concepts cranked out by major studios. Some of them are sleeper ideas that turn out to be huge, such as District 9 or Hot Tub Time Machine, but then there is an idea that two separate studios end up tackling at the same time. Back in 2006, The Illusionist and The Prestige, two different films about classic magicians and prestidigitator, came out within months of one another and it looks like we’ll be seeing the same thing happen this year.

Hitting theaters in July, Universal is releasing their next major animated film about two super villains duking it out for world supremacy in Despicable Me, starring Jason Segel and Steve Carell. Now, animation giant Dreamworks is throwing their hat into the same ring with their super villain flick, Megamind.

The latter stars Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Tina Fey, and Jonah Hill, with Madagascar director Tom McGrath behind the wheel. The first trailer just got it’s release, and we’ve got it to show you. Who will be the victor between Universal’s Despicable Me and Dreamworks’ Megamind? We’ll have to wait to find out.

Check out the first trailer for Megamind, hitting theaters on November 5th, after the jump.

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In the past week, I got a chance to sit down and talk to Mark and Jay Duplass about their movie Cyrus with a handful of journalists at the SXSW Film Festival.  Cyrus stars Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, Catherine Keener,  and John C. Reilly.

How long had you guys been working on the script?

Mark Duplass: Good question. You know, we normally write our scripts pretty quickly when it’s just us producing them, because we know we’re going to improvise the dialogue a bit, so once their structure is rock solid, we are production ready. But you know, this was a script where you have to write it well and make it attractive to writers and to the studios so that they want to green light it. So we did spend a little time making it look pretty. I think we worked on it maybe a year or so.

Do you have any experience as children of single parents dating again or knowing people in that situation?

MD: None, really. We are good little Catholic boys and our Catholic parents have been married for 42 years and they are still together.

Jay Duplass: What we do have a lot of experience with is desperation.

MD: and interpersonal dysfunction, we’re good at that.

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I got a chance to sit down for a round table discussion with Jonah Hill and John C. Reilly, two of the stars of Cyrus, which premiered at the 2010 SXSW festival. Hill plays Cyrus, a 21 year old living with his mother (Catherine Keener) who develops an antagonistic and competitive relationship with his mom’s boyfriend played by Reilly.

So do you think the John C. Reilly era of a romantic lead in a comedy is finally here?

John C. Reilly: I hope so. I’m a very romantic type person. I like doing parts like this, and I think that there are a lot of people out there who are not represented in movies, whose stories don’t get told.

You know what I’m talking about (to a male journalist.) Neither of us look like Brad Pitt, let’s not fool ourselves.

Your characters had some similarities and some differences, you both have a co-dependence thing, did that come into play when you preparing as far as how your characters related to each other?

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Mark and Jay Duplass caused a bit of a commotion at Sundance and SXSW in 2005 when their feature film The Puffy Chair debuted to rave reviews and serious buzz. The brothers’ approach to filmmaking was so innovative that they had a new genre of film named after them: mumblecore.

Mumblecore is an indie genre characterized by low budget, improvisation, “non-actor” actors, and plots dealing primarily with personal relationships. The brothers followed up The Puffy Chair with Baghead (2008.)

Even though Cyrus cannot be categorized as pure mumblecore, it is certainly heavily influenced by the Duplass brothers’ earlier films. The movie stars well known comedic actors Jonah Hill (Superbad) and John C. Reilly (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story), as well as Oscar winner Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler.)

John C. Reilly is wonderful as John, a downtrodden divorced man who finds out that his ex-wife Jamie (played by Catherine Keener) is getting remarried, and wants him to attend an engagement party. Humiliating stuff for even the most confident of men, and John is far from confident.

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Even though Mark and Jay Duplas’ Cyrus was already a hit with audiences at Sundance this year, Fox Searchlight is taking the film to SXSW as well to help build awareness and excitement for the film. Seeing as we’re big fans of the entire creative team involved with Cyrus, we’re happy to bring you info about it right here.

Basically, the film follows the life of John (John C. Reilly) a depressed, recently divorced guy who is pretty much a complete loser, desperate for attention. At a party, he manages to hook up with the hot Molly (Marisa Tomei) who, it turns out, has an adult son: Cyrus (Jonah Hill).

Cyrus and his mom have a somewhat interesting and open relationship and he will go to pretty much any lengths to protect her from anyone, especially John. Before long, the two are locked in a battle of wits for the woman they both love and only one man can be left standing when it’s over.

Everyone involved with this film seems to be at the top of their game, even Hill who seems to finally be coming into his own opposite two fantastic pros like Reilly and Tomei. Plus, it just looks really funny — which, sadly, you can’t always say about some “comedies” these days.

Be sure and check out the trailer after the jump. Fox Searchlight releases Cyrus on July 9th.

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