In 2011 a crack burglary ring was sentenced to prison by a Los Angeles court for a series of crimes they most certainly committed. This group of mostly girls had burglarized the homes of nearly a dozen high-profile celebrities, making off with nearly $3 million in clothes and jewelry. Today, a film based on their exploits is being shown in theatres. If you can find it, if there’s little else playing or you’re tired of hearing about Man of Steel, maybe you can see The Bling Ring.

I write that because I’m still not sure what Sofia Coppola’s new movie is about — it opens with Nicki (Emma Watson) giving one of those humanitarian speeches that clearly wasn’t proof-read by an attorney and has about as much basis in thought as — Ooo! A penny! And then follows Marc (Israel Broussard), the awkward new kid at the remidial school. He’s mocked and picked on, partly because he’s the new kid, partly because he harbors some cross-dressing tendencies.

Fortunately one of his classmates, Rebecca (Katie Chang) befriends him and, during a casual drive, asks which if any of friends are out of town. He mentions one. She suggests they break into the house. And they do. And they steal some cash, clothes, and jewelry. They meet up with some other friends afterwards and brag about robbing the poor saps.

I’ve had, for some time, the suspicion that the current comedy troop of Rogen, Hill, Cera, and Franco would eventually get to the point where, instead of a script, they would just sit around and talk. Now we have This Is the End, and if this isn’t the logical conclusion of the gang’s comedy, it’s damn close.

The premise is that Jay Baruchel is in LA to visit his friend Seth Rogen. Their friendship has been on the skids, and Rogen’s insistence that they attend a party at James Franco’s house instead of, I don’t know, hang out and smoke weed. doesn’t help. At Franco’s they meet up with Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill, and several others within or slightly out of their group’s ever-expanding radius, such as Aziz Ansari, Mindy Kaling, Martin Starr, Chritopher Mintz-Plasse, and now, I guess, Emma Watson.

Freak disruptions start to occur all over the place — sinkholes swallow up many of the party-goers, others are lifted to heaven in columns of blue light, fires explode across Hollywood, and the five find themselves barricaded in Franco’s house — until Danny McBride shows up and makes their sixth.

April Fools Day is usually a day that brings tons of fake news, including trailer releases (like that Legend of Zelda trailer that will never be made into a movie *sadface*). But this year, April 1st was the release date of the red band trailer for the unbelievably star-packed action comedy This Is The End starring James Franco (who has had an already packed 2013 with the release of Spring Breakers and Oz The Great and Powerful), Seth Rogen, Emma Watson, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson, and that’s just the supposed “main cast.” From just watching the trailer, expect appearances by Michael Cera, Rihanna, Kevin Hart, Aziz Ansari, Jason Segel, Paul Rudd, Mindy Kaling, and more. Holy freaking casting!

The main plot of the movie is simple: James Franco is throwing a kick-ass party and invites all his friends (because celebrities always party with tons of other celebrities) to have a crazy good time. Until the apocalypse happens. Los Angeles is engulfed in fire and brimstone, monsters and aliens are running rampant, people are looting and killing, mass hysteria basically.

Eventually, the main cast barricade themselves in what’s left of Franco’s house and try to survive. At one point, Emma Watson breaks in with an ax (a freaking AX) to try her hand at some looting, which looks to be successful based on the apparent self-testimonial video that is shot by the guys who are documenting what’s going on during the end of days.

The story picks up where Part I left off. If you really need to know, you can always rewatch the last movie (Heaven help you), but I’m a casual fan and had no trouble jumping right in. Harry and co are holed up in the Weasley family safehouse with Mr. Ollivander (John Hurt) and one of the goblin bankers of the Wizard World’s enormous vault Gringott’s. The group needs him to break into the vault and destroy a chalice that holds part of the soul of Lord Voldemort (or “Horcruxes” for the Potter fans)—and break in (and escape) they do. I’m pretty sure the entire sequence is the most accurate movie representation of the US’s financial collapse we’re likely to see.

From there they travel back to the wizarding school Hogwarts to destroy another Horcrux and oust Snape as the acting Headmaster. At the same time, Voldemort’s army (why was the wizarding world so scared of him before? It appears the whole of them were his allies?) prepares to march on Hogwarts while Harry scrambles to finish up the tasks that will ensure Voldemort’s total destruction. I won’t dwell on recapping because 1) it’s not particularly necessary and 2) anyone reading this will likely already know, so we may as well just get right into the review.

For all the complaints that were and could be (justifiably) leveled against Part I, Part II is a rather wonderful return to form, evoking the grandeur of the previous Potter films but furthering it with higher stakes and a more serious tone. Many have lauded the later Potter films for their “darkness,” and while I didn’t quite agree with them then, the credit is now well deserved.

As sad as it may be the inevitable is about to happen. The final Harry Potter film adaptation of the phenomenally successful book series is set to arrive this week.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 will mark the end of the saga and bring to a close one of the most successful film franchises in history. To commemorate that milestone, some talented folks have put together a little restrospective of the series and its characters.

In this video you get to see the progression of Harry, Hermione, Ron and the rest of the characters as they go through all the films. It’s really pretty interesting to see how things have changed over the years.

Check out the video after the break. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 Opens on Friday.

Harry Potter has been a generation defining cinematic event. Never before has a film franchise gripped the collective imaginations of so many for nearly an entire decade. Since 2001 there have been 8 Harry Potter movies, all of them have been well received, some are bordering on classic of an age. Today Warner Bros. released the latest and likely last trailer for the final chapter.

Apple has the new trailer and it delivers on just about every note. Showcasing large battles, epic moments and even some love sprinkled in for the ladies, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is primed to be the most exciting Potter movie yet.

The trailer plays heavy on the idea that this is not just the last movie in a series, but it is the finale of one the biggest things ever on the big screen. There are elements of past films in the trailer that really sell the notion that something bigger than a standard blockbuster is at play here. Also seeing as many of the side characters as possible getting screen time in the trailer is such a fitting way sell the best cast fantasy franchise this side of middle earth.

Check out the trailer after the jump.

Harry Potter fans, listen up! Or, at the very least read carefully as we’re doing a giveaway to celebrate Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 coming to On Demand, download and on Blu-ray today. And believe us, you want to win.

Just be ready on our Twitter feed sometime this afternoon and able to correctly answer a Harry Potter trivia question. Two lucky winners who answer the trivia questions correctly will get all this amazing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 swag:

• iTunes download of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1
• T-shirt (adult size)
• Keychain
• iPhone sticker skin

Amazing, right? So be ready and glued to our Twitter feed for your chance to win. Also, be sure to check out Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 available today via On Demand, download at iTunes and other places and on Blu-ray.

Plus, don’t forget the official Harry Potter podcast, available via iTunes right here.

Also, in case you’ve forgotten (but how could you?) here’s the official synopsis of the film and a clip to get you even more excited. After the break, of course.

The final flick from the long-running Harry Potter series hits theaters this summer and the official Facebook page is abuzz following the release of the official movie poster. The 7th movie in the ‘Potter’ series wraps up the events contained in the final novel by J.K. Rowling entitled Deathly Hallows, having been split into two parts to better do justice to the dark and dangerous tale.

The end begins as Harry, Ron, and Hermione go back to Hogwarts to find and destroy Voldemort’s final horcruxes, but when Voldemort finds out about their mission, the biggest battle begins and life as they know it will never be the same again.

Directed by British filmmaker David Yates (Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince) and with a script written by Steve Kloves (Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, Half-Blood Prince), Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 arrives in theaters everywhere on July 15th.

Be sure to hit the jump for the full-sized official movie poster!

While the very first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is quickly climbing the ranks and close to making $1 Billion worldwide since it’s release in November, fans everywhere are looking forward to the final culmination in Part Two hitting theaters this July.

In it, we are expected to get (without spoiling anything) a pretty amazing wizard battle between Harry and his noseless nemesis, Voldemort.

In this new featurette, we get a little bit of that face-off, but plenty more footage and even some candid moments with Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson give some insights on what we can expect in this final (and only 3D) installment.

Check out the footage after the jump and see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in theaters on July 15th.

After some time off for the Thanksgiving holiday to consume copious amounts of food and drink, Chris and Matt are back with an all-new episode of The Flickcast. On this week’s show the boys discuss all sorts of new topics and touch on a few recurring ones as well.

Some of those topics include the new Harry Potter film, the tragic passing of both Leslie Nielsen and Irvin Kershner, James Franco and Anne Hathaway hosting the next Oscars, The Hobbit not in 3D, the future on the Internet and services like Netflix and a whole lot more. They also made some great picks this week including Matt’s pick of the animated series Young Justice and Chris’ pick of the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Blu-ray.

Want more Chris and Matt? Be sure to check out this week’s episode of This Week in Walking Dead, which stars Matt, guest stars Chris, and series star Andy Rothenberg even stops by.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

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There is an inherent twinge (and by ‘twinge’ I mean big-ass boatload) of sadness that I feel when I reach the end of a beloved book, television series or film. This is one of the reasons that I am perfectly fine with the decision to divide Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows into two parts – all the better to prolong (and put-off) the end to a long, rich story.

While I heard some grumbling about the two-part split appearing to be a greedy cash-grab (and the studio does stand to earn a sizable fortune by doing so), I genuinely think that drawing out the story into two separate films serves to better adapt the original source material – which has such an epic scope.

So far, I have been very impressed with the way in which director David Yates (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) has handled the Harry Potter film series and Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 1 is no exception.  As the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry have matured, so have the films – which have become increasingly darker in tone as they progress.

We’re only a few days away from the big premiere of the next Harry Potter film and leave it to the Internet, specifically to the various torrent sites, to spoil it for Warner Brothers. Thirty-six minutes of the new film have leaked onto the ‘net and studio execs, who I’m sure are concerned, must be high-fiving their decision to only provide a small portion of the film to the press to screen. The footage is watermarked and obviously from a DVD screener, generally sent to the press prior to a film’s official release, however Warner Bros is not confirming this at this time.

For those with even a cursory knowledge of how torrent sites work, they’re probably quite busy getting a solid look at the film before the world-wide release later this week. According to TorrentFreak.com, this is not the first time ‘Deathly Hallows’ has made a splash on the torrent scene. In 2007 a scan of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book was posted online before it hit the book stores, and was then quickly transcribed by fans. Someone had managed to get their hands on the American edition of the book and had photographed each page of the book and uploaded it to BitTorrent.

Flash forward a few years and dozens of torrent sites are  offering up the lengthy “preview” of the film. No surprise really, considering TorrentFreak reports that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince scored a spot on its “most pirated movies” list with nearly 8 million downloads last year. Industry watchers are speculating whether the leak will have any affect on ticket sales, which seems remote unless the initial half hour of the film is disastrously bad. Instead, it may have the opposite effect, whetting movie-goers appetite for the full movie.

Wired.com is already reporting an official statement by the studio, who is vowing to find and prosecute those responsible.

“Last night a portion of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 was stolen and illegally posted on the internet. This constitutes a serious breach of copyright violation and theft of Warner Bros. property. We are working actively to restrict and/or remove copies that may be available. Also, we are vigorously investigating this matter and will prosecute those involved to the full extent of the law.”

What do you think? Will a little more than a half hour of the film have any bearing on opening night box office sales? Let us know your opinion in the comments section.