Jaws (1975) is the first summer blockbuster and is considered by critics and fans alike as one of the greatest films ever made. After success with the TV thriller Duel (1972) and his first theatrical release of The Sugarland Express (1974), director Steven Spielberg set out to adapt Peter Benchley’s novel about a Great White shark which terrorizes a small New England beach community. The screenplay was co-written by Benchley, actor-writer Carl Gottlieb (M*A*S*H*), and an un-credited John Milius who helped with some of the film’s most memorable dialogue like “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” and the legendary U.S.S. Indianapolis speech.

The film opens with one of the greatest sequences ever shot. A young woman leaves a bonfire beach gathering to go skinny-dipping in the ocean while being chased by an inebriated young man. The young man ends up passing out in the surf while the woman swims out to the middle of the channel. An underwater low angle shot represents the point of view of the shark as it begins to stalk its prey. John William’s haunting score builds as the young woman is thrashed around and is pulled under by the shark. This scene did to ocean night swimming, what Psycho (1960) did for women’s showering.

The name of this year’s movie game seems to be massive casting. If Expendables was for the slightly older action star, then Summit Entertainment’s RED is definitely skewing much older in terms of casting.

The film stars Bruce Willis as the leader of the greatest CIA agents ever to go through the agency. The only problem? They’re all over the hill and retired. Willis leads a team of Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren, with folks like Ernest Borgnine and Richard Dreyfuss joining along as well. In order no to alienate the viewers under the age of 50, Mary Louise Parker, Julian McMahon, and Karl Urban fill out the cast.

If the action and casting isn’t enough to warrant your $10, then how about the fact that the film is based on a comic of the same name? Originally written by Warren Ellis, the script comes from the Hoeber brothers, who also brought Whiteout to the silver screen.

We’ve got 5 brand new clips for you to check out after the jump, so be sure to enjoy the action, and catch RED in theaters on October 15th.

On some occasions, writing a review of a film is somewhat difficult. How do you effectively communicate the intricacies of the plot or characters and how to you genuinely summarize the effect the film has on you so potential viewers reading your review can fully understand and know what they are getting into if they do attend? Fortunately, in the case of Piranha 3D, I had none of those problems.

After all, it is a film about an underwater quake which sets free hundreds of prehistoric man-eating fish who then proceed to attack and eat pretty much anything and everything they can sink their teeth into. Once the fish are loose and on their way to spoil Spring Break for the thousands of kids frolicking at Lake Victoria, AZ it’s up to an unlikely group led by the town’s Sheriff (Elisabeth Shue) and a visiting marine paleontologist (Adam Scott) to stop the deadly horde before it’s too late.

Having recently seen Joe Dante’s original Piranha and another classic Roger Corman gory campfest Humanoids from the Deep, I can say that Piranha 3D borrows heavily from both of those previous films and does deliver a campy, over the top and in your face good time. It’s not art, whatever you may consider that to be, but it does have one big thing going for it: It’s fun.

Piranha 3D doesn’t try to be anything more than what it is: a movie where a pack of fish attack a whole bunch of people and eat them which also features ample sexual situations and nudity. It definitely earns the R rating.

It starts out letting you know these fish are not to be messed with by presenting Richard Dreyfuss doing what can only be described as a parody of his character from Jaws (complete with his rendition of Irving King’s Show Me the Way to Go Home) innocently fishing on the lake.

Sometimes, a video demands explanation or context in order to be understood. Other times, it’s best to just shut up and let it play. This is one of those times. That second one I mean.

Presented without (much) comment is a video from Funny or Die wherein the cast of the upcoming Piranha 3D make their pitches for Oscar consideration. Yes, that’s right, Oscar consideration.

Crap, I said I wasn’t going to comment. Okay, here’s the video after the jump. Enjoy. Look for these Oscar-worthy performances in theaters this Friday.

There have been some pretty exciting films out this year, but there is one in particular that we’re all pretty excited about, and that’s the upcoming Piranha 3D. We recently had a chance to sit down and chat with star Elisabeth Shue (Back to the Future Part II, Leaving Las Vegas) about Piranha, gore, humor, and sex.

The Flickcast: Since seeing the trailer, this has been one of our most anticipated movies of the summer. In your own words can you give us a brief recap of Piranha 3D?

Elisabeth Shue: It’s not like anything you’ve seen before. It’s basically a roller-coaster ride of gore, and humor, and sex. It’s genuinely terrorizing, but also a lot of fun, and I’m very impressed they were able to find that medium where they could be both. Spring Break in America is so crazy and over the top, and you take that and add thousands of prehistoric fish eating them—it can’t but be incredibly fun.

FC: And your character is the sheriff who tries to maintain control while all this is going on…

ES: Yes, I’m trying to save people, and I don’t do a very good job, because so many die and in ridiculous and crazy ways.

FC: What attracted you to the project? This seems like such a radical departure from your previous work…

ES: Yes. In some ways. What Alex(ander Aja) wanted was to get lots of actors who did iconic movies in the ‘80s and ‘70s. You have Richard Dreyfuss who was in one the greatest movies of the 1970s—Jaws—who is playing (his character) Matt Hooper.

Yes, that’s right folks. The Piranha 3D footage considered too hot, too graphic, too gross for Comic-Con has shown up online — as these things often do. In case you didn’t know, Director Alexandre Aja was forced to rent a theater away from the Con in San Diego in order to share the footage with fans. I got a chance to see this footage and I can say from experience that it is, indeed, pretty graphic.

Not sure about the exact reasons for it not being able to be shown within the halls of Comic-Con, but I guess it makes a certain sense, especially if their was a chance children could be in the room. You don’t want your children watching any of this, believe me.

Or, my cynical self says it could just be a marketing stunt by the filmmakers. If it is, it’s a pretty good one. After all, we are talking about the film right now, aren’t we?

Anyway, enough talk, take a look at the footage after the jump. The complete Piranha 3D experience hits theaters on August 20th.

Every once and a while, a film comes along that looks like just plain, unadulterated fun. Kick-Ass had potential to be that, but had to give us a happy ending…and Nic Cage, which ruined it. It looks like fans of camp will get a second chance at happiness this summer with Piranha 3D.

Of course, the plot itself isn’t nearly as important as how the film is going to look, but for those who need closure, it’s about a race of evil prehistoric piranhas who surface and go to town on unsuspecting Spring Break teens vacationing at Lake Victoria. It’s a film like this that deserves it’s 3D conversion far more than something like Clash of the Titans.

The film reads like a who’s who of people who love to take light of their work, such as Party Down’s Adam Scott, Hamlet 2‘s Elisabeth Shue, Eli Roth, Christopher Lloyd, Starship Trooper’s Dina Meyer, Jerry O’Connell, Ving Rhames, Richard Dreyfuss, and Steve McQueen’s grandson. Alexander Aja is the man in the director’s seat, who is best known for getting Kiefer Sutherland to emote like a mofo in the supernatural thriller Mirrors.

Check out the first full trailer for the flick after the jump, and be sure to pay attention to when the frame “expands” to give it that extra 3D look. Catch Piranha 3D in theaters on August 27th.

Continuing our recent previews of upcoming SXSW films brings us to our latest, Leaves of Grass. The film, written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson and starring Edward Norton, Kerri Russell, Susan Sarandon, Richard Dreyfuss and Edward Norton, is being released by First Look Studios and we’ve got a trailer and info about the film for you today.

The film concerns Ivy League professor Bill Kincaid who receives news of the murder of his estranged identical twin brother, Brady (both played by Norton), in a pot deal gone bad. He leaves the world of academia to travel back to his home state of Oklahoma. But once he arrives he finds things are not what they seem and reports of his brother’s death are greatly exaggerated.

Soon Bill is caught up in the dangerous and unpredictable world of drug commerce in the Southwest. In the process, he reconnects with his eccentric mother (Sarandon), meets a wise and educated woman who’s chosen the simple life (Russell), and unwittingly helps his brother settle a score with a drug lord (Dreyfuss) who uses Tulsa, Oklahoma’s small Jewish community for cover.

With a cast such as this and under the direction of Nelson, who’s previous films The Grey Zone and Kansas proved his directing talents, Leaves of Grass manages to be at times dangerous, compelling and poignant. It follows a somewhat simple narrative but still provides some potential answers to a complex question: What does it mean to live a happy and constructive life?

Leaves of Grass will be released in New York and LA on April 2nd. Check out the trailer after the jump.

While most people will be rushing out to see Jim Cameron’s newest masterpiece, Avatar, for the spectacle, others may have a new reason to spend the extra money on seeing the film in 3-D. The Weinstein Company and Dimension Films have just announced that the very first trailer for next Spring’s Piranha 3D will debut exclusively before selected 3-D and 2-D showings of Avatar.

The film is the second trailer to the 1978 film Piranha, directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins 2: The New Batch), while the first two films were pretty cheap and a bit hokey, Dimension promises that the newest incarnation will be made to scare.

From acclaimed director Alexandre Aja (“The Hills Have Eyes”) comes the new action thriller PIRANHA 3D, in the latest eye-popping 3D technology. After a sudden underwater tremor sets free scores of the prehistoric man-eating fish, an unlikely group of strangers must band together to stop themselves from becoming fish food for the area’s new razor-toothed residents.