The release date for Django Unchained is right around the corner! As proof, they've just released the final trailer. Watch below:

 

Django Unchained Final Trailer

Quentin Tarantino continues his "revenge film" trend after Kill Bill and Inglorious Basterds. This one focuses on a slave freed by a bounty hunter to help him catch a gang of criminals that only he has seen.

Jamie Foxx stars as Django, with Christoph Waltz as the bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz. Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson (The Avengers), Walton Goggins, Don Johnson, Anthony LaPaglia, Jonah Hill (21 Jump Street), and RZA also star.

Django Unchained opens Christmas Day. Until then, you can make the Django Unchained poster the background on your phone, and just count down the days.

The first TV spot for Texas Chainsaw 3D seems to promise a terrifying, gory movie-going experience. Take a look:

 

Texas Chainsaw 3D TV Spot

The seventh film in the horror franchise picks up from the plot of the original 1974 film. When Heather, played by Alexandra Daddario (Hall Pass), learns of an inheritance left to her by a grandmother she never knew she had, she finds out that the murderous Leatherface comes as part of the deal.

Trey Songz, Keram Malicki-Sanchez, Shaun Sipos, and Scott Eastwood also star.

Horror fans can catch the film in theaters January 4, 2013. Watch this Texas Chainsaw 3D clip for more.

Lee Child talks about adapting his novel for the screen in this new Jack Reacher featurette, or "Reacherette." Take a look:

 

Jack Reacher Featurette

Tom Cruise stars as Reacher, an ex-Military Police Officer who is requested by an accused gunmen to help prove his innocence. What seems like an open-and-closed case becomes much more complicated.

Rosamund Pike (Wrath of the Titans), Robert Duvall, Werner Herzog, Richard Jenkins, Jai Courtney, and David Oyelowo (Lincoln) also star. The film is based on Child's book One Shot, which is the ninth book in the Jack Reacher series.

The film hits theaters December 21. Watch the Jack Reacher trailer for a preview.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science has released the list of ten films that remain in the running for nomination in the Visual Effects category of the Oscars. From here, the list will be voted down to five nominees, which will be announced on January 10, 2013.

A winner will be announced at the 85th Annual Academy Awards ceremony on February 24, 2013. Take a look at the list of nominees below, and let us know which films you think should make the cut in the comments section:

The Amazing Spider-Man
Cloud Atlas
The Dark Knight Rises
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
John Carter
Life of Pi
Marvel’s The Avengers
Prometheus
Skyfall
Snow White and the Huntsman

A new adventure-packed TV spot for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey has debuted. It features some appearances from Gollum, the trolls, and other unidentifiable creatures. Take a look:

 

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey TV Trailer

Martin Freeman stars as Bilbo Baggins in this prequel to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The film finds Bilbo recruited by Gandalf the Grey, played by Ian McKellen, to help reclaim the Lonely Mountain from the evil dragon Smaug.

Richard Armitage, Ian Holm, Andy Serkis, Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek: Into Darkness), Graham McTavish, Hugo Weaving (Cloud Atlas), Stephen Fry, Luke Evans, Billy Connolly, Cate Blanchett, and Elijah Wood also star

Peter Jackson directs the film, which will kick off a three-part series culminating in 2014. Download The Hobbit Dwarves poster before the film opens December 14.

Steven Spielberg has triumphed once again, as we stated in our Lincoln review. Two of his most loyal and creative confidants, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski and make-up designer Lois Burwell, visited recently with Movie Fanatic for an exclusive look inside an artistic whirlwind that has created genius once again after decades of collaboration with a film master. Few know that this particular project actually began long ago. 

"We started 12 years ago with tests with another actor and I’ll tell you this much, the movie was going to look totally different because my aesthetics were different, and Steven and I saw it in different ways than now,” Kaminski said.

With Lincoln, they had a script by Tony Kushner, based on the definitive biography of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. “For this movie, it was much more organic and much less manipulative on film. In the end we decided to go with a really honest approach. The story was so great. The actors were so great. You didn’t have to manipulate that image too much to improve the story."

With Lincoln there were particular challenges for Burwell. Even though there are few photographs of our most popular president, the man’s look is still permeated in our consciousness. “I can’t describe it. I can’t tell you what the process is, I can only tell you that you look at enough images of Abraham Lincoln and then you have that,” Burwell said.

Then, you toss it aside. “What you can’t do is have that in front of the mirror and then apply that to this person. There’s something in between which is something of an amalgam. You don’t want it to be monumental -- like he’s stepping off of a monument. You want it to be a person.”

That bare bones approach also applied to Kaminski. “All the photos of Lincoln from that period were official photos. With this movie, we wanted to show Lincoln in a more humanized way where his hair is not perfect. His jacket’s got some dirt on it or his nails are dirty. That reality -- Steven was interested in that. He didn’t want to idolize the guy,” he added.

As told to us in our Steven Spielberg interview, the filmmaker wanted every inch of film to reflect one of the lowest moments of our nation. “Steven was interested in making sure we know it's operating in dark territory. The lighting reflected that as well. It’s a dark period of our history, so the light had to reflect it. He was sure of what he was doing. Lincoln knew it was hard. He dealt with so much darkness and he knew that he had to enlighten the nation.”

Kaminski, after shoots as battle-torn as War Horse, Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List, welcomed the opportunity to not only shoot a film rooted in war, but also the political battle that loomed large over the final months of Lincoln’s life as he got the 13th Amendment ratified.

“We do things that are technically very demanding in other movies, but not in this movie,” Kaminski said and smiled. “But in other movies we’ve done, like in War Horse, we’re standing in the mud, in the rain and there’s stuff falling on you!”

Burwell wears those War Horse battle scars as well, but is quick to use it as an example of how Team Spielberg manages to work so cohesively as a unit, regardless of the locale or elements. “It was horrible,” she said and laughed, remembering the rough shoot from the comfy confines of the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills.

"I remember standing on War Horse and it was bitter cold and my team was out there often for ten hours. It was brutal. I’ll never forget how someone always brought us something to eat. It’s not that you’re conscious of it, that’s just how we are. The thing is we all care for each other because that’s what happens. You’re all creative and therefore, you start to merge somehow."

Kaminski first worked with Spielberg on Schindler’s List, and he won his first Oscar. The second Academy Award would arrive courtesy of Saving Private Ryan. Meanwhile Burwell joined the traveling collective of cinematic talent with Saving Private Ryan. Both report that the process has remained the same, and gloriously so. “The routine is always the same,” Kaminski said. “The first week, you think, ‘Oh my God, we got ten more weeks to go.' Then it goes really fast.”

“It’s true,” Burwell concurred and laughed.

They both admit growing more and more artistically as they continue their respective careers working with Spielberg. “We’re learning because each movie is different. You’re doing constantly new things,” Kaminski said. “It’s very rewarding, inspiring, respectful and gracious.”

Burwell has found that sometimes makeup departments can be relegated to the rear of the importance charts, but there is no such hierarchy on a Spielberg set, and that was as abundantly clear on Lincoln as it was with her first film with him.

“Sometimes the makeup department isn’t perceived as a vital part of filmmaking. On Saving Private Ryan, people were going to have their chests ripped open and gun shots and all that,” Burwell said. “He makes everyone, and I felt it right away, feel a part of the team.”

As the man who shoots what Spielberg sees in his head, Kaminski has taken away one thing above all else in the decades he’s collaborated with the master. “It’s so refreshing to see a director who takes the script and without changing words makes the meaning totally different by having his actors do specific things,” Kaminski said. “It’s always great to watch him work.”

Paul Rudd and Robert Smigel get caught ogling Megan Fox in the latest clip from This is 40. Check it out:

 

This is 40 Megan Fox Clip

Rudd and Leslie Mann reprise their Knocked Up roles as Pete and Debbie, a married couple with two children coping with growing older. Writer/Director/Producer Judd Apatow, who has produced some of the best comedies of the last decade, including last year's Bridesmaids, has called this his most personal film yet.

Jason Segel, Charlyne Yi, Tim Bagely, Melissa McCarthy, Albert Brooks (Drive), Jon Lithgow, Lena Dunham, and Chris O'Dowd also star. This is 40 hits theaters December 21.

Dolph Lundgren is back in the Universal Soldier world he first joined in 1992. The November 30 release of Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning also re-teams him with Jean-Claude Van Damme. But, here in 2012, Lundgren is also battling a familiar onscreen foe -- Scott Adkins.

The action superstar has one of 2012’s most memorable screen fights in Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning with Adkins, who also appeared with Lundgren in this past summer’s The Expendables 2. “He was the bad guy but I don’t get to beat him up but somebody else did -- Jason Statham,” Lundgren said of the Sylvester Stallone action fest.

Another star of that film also appears in the latest Universal Soldier, the man that Lundgren began the franchise with, Van Damme. “It’s like I’m being haunted by Jean-Claude and Scott Adkins in every movie I’m in. It’s like, 'No, he’s in it too?'"

Lundgren revealed that it wasn’t an easy sell for him to return to the Universal Soldier world. “They had to drag me out for the third one. And this one I wasn’t too happy doing it because I felt like I was repeating the same thing again,” he said.

His director persuaded him with his pure originality, showing that there would be no cinematic déjà vu for Lundgren. “Then John came up with a very clever idea that I thought it was more interesting. He made it a horror movie and it was more mysterious and smarter. It was a different type of movie. It was more evolved. And my character was just more interesting because he’s not robotic. He has more compassion for his fellow soldiers and he’s more human than he was before. For me, it was taking a step forward.”

The veteran actor admitted that action sequences are all unique, and each requires their own set of skills, but in the end, it comes down to the director and how he or she cuts it together. “They’re all difficult. You just have to have a good choreographer and you work on it for a couple of weeks. Then you have to work on it and suffer through the grueling process of rehearsing and shooting it under tough conditions,” Lundgren said.

“Then there’s the editing, and then John (Hyams, director of Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning) takes over. My job is just to get all the aches and pains shooting it… and the injuries!”

Although both his characters from his films this year are soldiers, Lundgren found fundamental differences between the two in wildly opposite films. “They’re different characters. It was fun to play Gunner Jansen in The Expendables. He’s kind of a Swedish drunk, carrying a big knife. The second Expendables, it was more of a comedic performance. Universal Soldier required a bit more dramatic performance,” Lundgren said.

He admitted though that he also tried to bring some comedy to Universal Soldier as well. “I thought it was kind of a dark story so I thought I should find those little beats where the audience can get relief from all the mayhem and murder and brains everywhere. So I thought I’d bring a little light touch.”

Lundgren often plays a military man, and his biggest reward is the response from those in the service. “For The Expendables 2, we went to the Marine Corps in San Diego. It’s great watching films like this with them because that’s their business -- killing people and blowing (expletive) up -- and they love it,” Lundgren said.

It was just announced that Nicolas Cage is joining The Expendables 3 and Lundgren is eager to get to work with such a professional. “Cage is, of course, a great actor and he will balance the cast, I’m sure. He was supposed to be in Expendables 2, but I guess it didn’t work out. He could play some more verbally driven character to balance all the guys that run around grunting and killing people, like me.”

So, what’s next for the action icon… if he had his way? “A Bollywood musical,” he said with deadpan humor.

“No, really… I’m interested in smaller movies or something different than what I’ve done as an actor. I’m looking at doing something in Europe that’s more of a period piece and there’s a small movie taking place in L.A., that’s about something else. It’s not about guys driving tanks and killing each other.”

Every generation has its Gangster movie. The 90s had Goodfellas, the 80s had Scarface, the 70s had The Godfather. Now, the creators of Gangster Squad are hoping they've created the next one. Check out the new featurette:

 

Gangster Squad Featurette

Sean Penn plays Mickey Cohen, a real-life gangster who moved from New York to Los Angeles in the 1940s to take over. In order to fight Cohen and his gang out of the city, a group of cops go rogue, throwing the law to the wind.

Ryan Gosling (Drive), Josh Brolin, Nick Nolte, Emma Stone (The Amazing Spider-Man), Giovanni Ribisi, and Michael Pena also star.

Ruben Fleischer directs the film, which is written by Will Beall and based on the book Tales from the Gangster Squad by Paul Lieberman. Gangster Squad will hit theaters January 11, 2013.

Although Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme are back in the world they first headlined back in 1992, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning is really a Scott Adkins movie from beginning to end.

The film commences with Adkins' character John awakening to a home invasion led by Van Damme's Luc Deveraux that puts him in a coma and kills his wife and child. The audience immediately gets the deal with this Universal Soldier, this is a vengeance tale... heck, the title would tip that off! As executed by director David Hyams, it is in fact a very scary scene and gets the audience on board with John as he seeks to extol justice.

Van Damme is a larger part of the film than Lundgren, yet he appears to be channeling the same evildoer he gave us in The Expendables 2, albeit with a trippier and more menacing feel. The star is solidifying his action movie comeback with both roles, but the stronger performance is turned in with Sylvester Stallone's sequel.

In Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, Van Damme comes at the audience (and John for that matter), with an almost hallucinogenic way. As the story plays out, the audience can see why. In this world of DNA-altered soldiers under the watchful eye of UniSol, the line between real and surreal is razor thin. We wish that it worked, though.

There is no question that the film does two things very well. It further introduces us to Adkins as a kick-ass martial arts/action star. He too was in The Expendables 2 and viewers merely saw the tip of the iceberg of what he can do. With Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, he gets to command a role and a film that should catapult him into the upper echelons of action stardom. Secondly, the film firmly establishes Hyams as an action director to watch. It is truly exciting to think what he could do with a property that wasn't 20 years old and in dire need of retirement.

Fans of the series will enjoy the update -- that we can admit in our Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning review. It is rooted in the mythology of the series of super-soldiers and Lundgren makes the most of his short role in what essentially is a cameo. The film also sets a slightly different tone than the previous installments, and that too is to be commended as it works. It's just that this plot is too convoluted and its effort to have "gotcha" moments with its audience feels a little too predictable and frankly confusing.

Disney has released two new posters for the upcoming Pixar sequel Monsters University, one domestic, and one international. Take a look at them both, and see if you can tell which is which:

John Goodman and Billy Crystal return to voice James P. "Sulley" Sullivan and Mike Wazowski in this prequel to Monsters, Inc. The film follows their antics in college as they study to become scarers at Monsters, Inc.

Steve Buscemi (Hotel Transylvania), Jennifer Tilly, Kelsey Grammer, Ken Jeong (The Hangover), Frank Oz, Dave Foley, Joel Murray, Rob Riggle (21 Jump Street), and J.B. Smoove also star.

Monsters University will hit theaters June 21, 2013.

You know how seeing something in a movie makes you instantly do that thing in real life? See violence in a movie, now you're violent. See Breaking Dawn Part 2, now you're pale and boring. See Secretariat, now you're a horse.

Well, for those of us who love Monty Python and the Holy Grail, there was never a way to act out some of the sillier bits in our modern times. Until now!

A new invention called Trotify brings the Holy Grail coconut bit to life! If you don't have a horse, but want it to sound like you do, Trotify is for you. The mechanism attaches to your bike, banging two coconut halves together as you peddle.

Watch this promotional video to see how it works, then scroll down to relive the scene that inspired the invention:

 

Holy Grail Coconuts Machine - Trotify

1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Who goes there?
King Arthur: It is I, Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon, from the castle of Camelot. King of the Britons, defeater of the Saxons, Sovereign of all England!
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Pull the other one!
King Arthur: I am, and this is my trusty servant Patsy. We have ridden the length and breadth of the land in search of knights who will join me in my court at Camelot. I must speak with your lord and master.
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: What? Ridden on a horse?
King Arthur: Yes!
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: You're using coconuts!
King Arthur: What?
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: You've got two empty halves of coconut and you're bangin' 'em together.
King Arthur: So? We have ridden since the snows of winter covered this land, through the kingdom of Mercia, through...
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Where'd you get the coconuts?
King Arthur: We found them.
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Found them? In Mercia? The coconut's tropical!
King Arthur: What do you mean?
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Well, this is a temperate zone
King Arthur: The swallow may fly south with the sun or the house martin or the plover may seek warmer climes in winter, yet these are not strangers to our land?
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?
King Arthur: Not at all. They could be carried.
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: What? A swallow carrying a coconut?
King Arthur: It could grip it by the husk!
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: It's not a question of where he grips it! It's a simple question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut.
King Arthur: Well, it doesn't matter. Will you go and tell your master that Arthur from the Court of Camelot is here?
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Listen. In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right?
King Arthur: Please!
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Am I right? | permalink

Could we be more excited for Peter Jackson and his return to Middle Earth that arrives in theaters and IMAX theaters everywhere December 14? It would be impossible. So, you can imagine the thrill we have offering our exclusive The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journeyprize pack for one lucky grand prize winner and one lucky runner-up.

Movie Fanatic is giving away to one grand prize winner a set of 18 character buttons wrapped in burlap, a fur hat, a burlap bag with map and Backgammon game in tube, travel throw pillow, set of four "door" coasters in pewter twinket box, waxed canvas rucksack/backpack with roll-up top and waxed leather shoulder strap, a four-pack of IMAX® tickets to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and we're also giving away something truly special with the grand prize... Oakley 3D glasses (photo below!).

Oakley 3D GASCAN® The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Special Edition with art inspired by the movie and Oakley HDO-3D technology that will immerse you in the motion picture experience with jaw-dropping 3D performance. Visit www.oakley.com for more on the glasses.

The grand prize winner also receives everything in the runner-up prize package. The second place prize pack features a thermal long-sleeve The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey T-shirt, acorn lapel pin, a screen wipe card and the movie's soundtrack!

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey features music by Howard Shore. Available December 11.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens everywhere Friday, December 14. For the film experience that is as Jackson intended, be sure to check out The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on IMAX screens.

All you have to do to win is…

1. FOLLOW@MovieFanatic on Twitter.

2. RETWEET this tweet along with the name of your favorite character from the world of J.R.R. Tolkien. Make sure you include @moviefanatic and a link to this post in your tweet, so we can see it. Be sure to follow us so we can contact you if you're the lucky winner.

Our grand prize winner and runner-up will be selected at random on Monday, December 17. Good luck!                 

Don’t forget to visit the The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey official site for more on the new film that returns fans to Middle Earth. And to further stay in the loop with the film, check out The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Facebook page and follow @wbpictures on Twitter.

Be sure to enter now as the sweepstake runs through December 14.

You can also sign up for Warner Bros. special offers, updates and more at:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Synopsis:

From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson comes The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first of a trilogy of films adapting the enduringly popular masterpiece The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The three films tell a continuous story set in Middle-earth 60 years before The Lord of the Rings, which Jackson and his filmmaking team brought to the big screen in the blockbuster trilogy that culminated with the Oscar-winning The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. The adventure follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Sorcerers.

Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain, first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever… Gollum. Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of ingenuity and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s “precious” ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities… A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know. Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf the Grey, the character he played in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, with Martin Freeman in the central role of Bilbo Baggins, and Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield. Also reprising their roles from The Lord of the Rings in The Hobbit Trilogy are: Cate Blanchett as Galadriel; Ian Holm as the elder Bilbo; Christopher Lee as Saruman; Hugo Weaving as Elrond; Elijah Wood as Frodo; and Andy Serkis as Gollum. The international ensemble cast of the trilogy also includes (in alphabetical order) Manu Bennett, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Barry Humphries, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Sylvester McCoy, Bret McKenzie, Graham McTavish, James Nesbitt, Dean O’Gorman, Conan Stevens, Ken Stott and Aidan Turner.

The screenplay for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is by Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson & Guillermo del Toro. Jackson is also producing the film, together with Carolynne Cunningham, Zane Weiner and Fran Walsh. The executive producers are Alan Horn, Toby Emmerich, Ken Kamins and Carolyn Blackwood, with Boyens and Eileen Moran serving as co-producers.

Under Jackson’s direction, The Hobbit Trilogy has been shot in 3D 48 frames-per-second and will be released in High Frame Rate (HFR) 3D, other 3D formats, IMAX and 2D. Under Jackson’s direction, The Hobbit Trilogy has been shot consecutively in digital 3D using the latest camera and stereo technology. Production has taken place at Jackson's own facilities in Miramar, Wellington, and on location around New Zealand. Among the creative behind-the-scenes team returning to Jackson’s crew are director of photography Andrew Lesnie, production designer Dan Hennah, conceptual designers Alan Lee and John Howe, composer Howard Shore and make-up and hair designer Peter King. The film is edited by Jabez Olssen. The costumes are designed by Ann Maskrey, Richard Taylor and Bob Buck.Taylor is also overseeing the design and production of weaponry, armour and prosthetics which are once again being made by the award-winning Weta Workshop. Weta Digital take on the visual effects for the films, led by the film’s visual effects supervisor, Joe Letteri. Post production will take place at Park Road Post Production in Wellington.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and the second and third films of the trilogy are productions of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM), with New Line managing production. Warner Bros. Pictures is handling worldwide theatrical distribution, with select international territories as well as all international television distribution being handled by MGM.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be released on December 14, 2012, with the second film, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, releasing December 13, 2013, and the third film, The Hobbit: There and Back Again slated for July 18, 2014. 

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Prize Pack Release and Indemnification:

By entering the sweepstakes, entrants release and hold harmless Warner bros. Entertainment Inc. and each of its respective parents, divisions, affiliates, subsidiaries, agents and advertising agencies (collectively,  “WBEI” ) from and against any and all losses, damages, rights, claims, and actions of any kind arising in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, from the sweepstakes or participation in any sweepstakes-related activity (including without limitation the removal from the site of, or discontinuation of access to, any materials), or resulting directly or indirectly, from acceptance, possession, use, or misuse of any prize awarded in connection with the sweepstakes, including without limitation personal injury, death, and/or property damage, as well as claims based on publicity rights, defamation, and/or invasion of privacy.

Limitation of liability:

In no event will the WBEI be responsible or liable for any damages or losses of any kind, including without limitation direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages, arising out of any access to and/or use of the sweepstakes site, the downloading from and/or printing material downloaded from the sweepstakes site, the removal from the sweepstakes site of, or discontinuation of access to, any materials, or the acceptance, possession, use, or misuse of, or any harm resulting from the acceptance, possession, use or misuse of, or participation in, any prize awarded in connection with the sweepstakes. Without limiting the foregoing, the sweepstakes, all prizes, and all materials provided on or through the site “are provided as is” without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including without limitation the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

The Collection may be a sequel that leads one to ask, "To what?" But, what's good about the follow-up to 2009's The Collector is witnessing the first is not needed to experience the thrills and chills of the second.

The film stars Josh Stewart (The Dark Knight Rises), reprising his role as Arkin from the original. In the opening moments of The Collection, we learn that his character is the only person to escape from a serial killer that is wreaking havoc across this nameless city. There are cinematic crazed killers that have become iconic, but few have the utter disregard for human life as our "Collector." He commits mass murder, then "collects" a single survivor and retreats back to the rock which he crawled out from.

Emma Fitzpatrick is Elena, a woman with a troubled past who has managed to come out of her family tragedy with her wits completely about her. She sneaks out from her father's protective grasp one night and joins friends who have an invite to an exclusive warehouse party downtown. Things appear to be perfect. The music is pulsating, drinks are flowing and then... horror hits. There will be no description of the scene in this The Collection review -- that would weaken the terror factor. Let's just say to call it horrifying is a gross understatement.

Elena becomes our villain's souvenir from his latest rampage. Her father finds no evidence that she is among the dead at the club, so he hires a Special Forces type unit to recruit Arkin to use his survival and escape expertise to find this psycho and bring Elena back alive.

Movie Fanatic has to give it to the filmmakers behind this new scare flick. As teased in The Collection trailer, they execute the scares quite efficiently. Yet, this concept is hardly new as it rings slightly familiar to the Saw series with its house trapped with horror mazes and deadly games. That is not a surprise as co-writer and director Marcus Dunstan has previously worked on that series, lastly with Saw 3D. One wonders if Dunstan's latest film was supposed to be something that took the Saw franchise in a new direction and fell on deaf ears with producers.

The cast is comprised of many actors who audiences know their faces, but might not be able to place it. Stewart rises to the occasion, as does The Wire veteran Andre Royo and Oz alum Lee Tergesen as part of the force sent to bring back Elena. And Fitzpatrick does much more with her role as Elena beyond making her a scream queen. The actress knows her character has been through too much to simply scream and run in fear. She fights back and it fits perfectly with the tone of the film.

Since The Collection is a sequel and its ending is ambiguous, count on another chapter as Dunstan has clearly "collected" a new horror franchise for himself.

A new trailer has hit the net for the romantic zom-com Warm Bodies. Check it out:

 

Warm Bodies Movie Trailer

The movie takes place after the zombie apocalypse, with Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: Days of Future Past) as R, a zombie who eats the brain of a suicidal teen and finds himself infatuated with the teen's girlfriend, played by Teresa Palmer.

John Malkovich, Rob Corddry (Hot Tub Time Machine), and Dave Franco (21 Jump Street) also star.

Warm Bodies is based on Isaac Marion's novel of the same name. Jonathan Levine wrote the screenplay and directed. Warm Bodies will hit theaters February 1, 2013.

The weekend movie preview this time out has a rather dark feel to it. With the mob-centered Brad Pitt crime drama Killing Them Softly, the fright-fest that is The Collection and the return of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren warring in Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning all arriving -- it's dreary out there, folks.

Killing Them Softly: Pitt kills it as a mob enforcer sent to a town when a poker game that gangsters control is robbed. The cast is top notch, including Ray Liotta and Richard Jenkins, and the movie is a pure thriller. The social commentary about the 2008 fiscal collapse is also a nice touch, as we state in our Killing Them Softly review.

 

Killing Them Softly Trailer

Universal Soldier Day of Reckoning: Van Damme and Lundgren may be returning to the Universal Soldier franchise they began 20 years ago, but this latest film is truly the Scott Adkins show. The budding action hero puts the hurt on both men and although the story is muddled, the action sequences are crisp and at least compelling. For more, check out our Universal Soldier: A Day of Reckoning review.

 

Universal Soldier Day of Reckoning Trailer

The Collection: The horror world needs a shot in the arm, and unfortunately The Collection is not quite it. It is a scary ride, don't get us wrong, but there is not much to it other than some Saw-like horrors. As we say in our The Collection review, the cast rises to the occasion, but the movie overall misses its mark.

 

The Collection Trailer

Speaking at an event to announce a contest for film students to help hand out Oscars at the 85thAcademy Awards, Seth MacFarlane spoke quite confidently about the long-rumored Family Guy movie.

When asked during the Q&A about a big-screen adaptation of his popular TV show, MacFarlane said that it is most likely happening, "it's just a matter of when." He also revealed that he has a story in mind for the movie, claiming that while he loved The Simpsons Movie, it didn't feel to him like something that couldn't have been done on TV.

The story that MacFarlane has is apparently "something that would be impossible to do on TV." What does that mean? Could it be a grandiose profane musical, a la South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut? Or perhaps some sort of 3-hour long 48 fps 3D epic fantasy?

Whatever it is, with the success of Family Guy, and MacFarlane's cinematic debut earlier this year with Ted, he is bound to have a fair amount of creative liberty to make his vision a reality.

Check out the first trailer for the very eccentric-looking A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III:

 

A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III Trailer

Charlie Sheen (Scary Movie 5) stars as Charles Swan III, a womanizing graphic designer in 1970s Los Angeles, whose life spirals out of control after his girlfriend dumps him. At rock bottom, Swan begins to fantasize about all of his past relationships.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), Patricia Arquette, Aubrey Plaza, Bill Murray, and Jason Schwartzman also star.

Roman Coppola wrote and directed the film, which will hit theaters February 8, 2013. Check out the recently-released group of A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III posters for more.

For the third straight weekend, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2 has won the weekend box office. Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner earned $17.4 million in tickets, just barely beating out their competitors.

In fact, the two wide releases this weekend did little to shift last weekend's rankings around. The top five has stayed exactly the same, with Brad Pitt's Killing Them Softly opening all the way down in seventh place.

Daniel Craig and Skyfall remained in second with $17 million in gross. Lincoln remained in third, earning $13.5 million. Rise of the Guardians and Life of Pi round out the top five, with $13.5 and $12 million in sales, respectively.

Box office top 10:

1. Breaking Dawn Part 2, $17.4 million
2. Skyfall, $17 million
3. Lincoln, $13.5 million
4. Rise of the Guardians, $13.5 million
5. Life of Pi, $12 million
6. Wreck-It Ralph $7 million
7. Killing Them Softly, $7 million
8. Red Dawn, $6.6 million
9. Flight, $4.5 million
10. The Collection, $3.4 million

The first poster for Star Trek Into Darkness has arrived! Check it out:

It's a poster fairly reminiscent of this The Dark Knight Rises poster, with an iconic symbol manifesting from the negative space left by a bunch of building debris. While we're on the subject, there's a lot of dark going on in action franchise films lately. There's the aforementioned TDKR, then there's Thor: The Dark World, and now Star Trek: Into Darkness. Someone hire Dan Brown to get to the bottom of this vast and terrifying conspiracy.

Star Trek Into Darkness once again stars Chris Pine (Rise of the Guardians) as Captain James T. Kirk, with Zachary Quinto as Spock. Benedict Cumberbatch (The Hobbit) joins on as the film's villain, with Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Anton Yelchin, Jon Cho, and Simon Pegg also starring.

J.J. Abrams directs the sequel to 2009's Star Trek, which will open May 17, 2013.