NBC Universal has released a high-res photo of the Hogwarts Express from The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park at the Universal Studios Island of Adventure in Orlando, Florida. Read the full story

Let’s be reasonable. It took 12 years for a film to top Titanic and Avatar has beat it in the first seven weeks at the box office, while showing no signs of slowing down. When Avatar finishes it’s run it could very well be an entire billion dollars ahead of Titanic’s second place $1.8 billion worldwide gross. It is a massive mountain for any film to attempt to climb, but with nearly every big blockbuster recently getting the 3D addition (aka box office steroids), there is a chance. Here are ten films that could rival Avatar’s impressive gross…or at least reach the coveted $1 billion mark, something only five films have ever accomplished. Read the full story

With the huge success of Avatar (now the highest grossing movie of all time, by the way), Warner Brothers has made the huge announcement that not only will the previously rumored 3D conversion for Clash of the Titans be happening, but now the final installments of the Harry Potter series, Deathly Hallows Part I and II, will also be in 3D. This comes via THR’s Heat Vision blog, and is expected to officially be announced by the end of the week. They also report Clash of the Titans has been pushed back a week to April 2nd. Read the full story

Writing this list was nothing short of headache inducing. Why? Because this has been nothing short of a fantastic year for movies. If you told me earlier this year that Adventureland, Watchmen, World’s Greatest Dad, 500 Days of Summer and even Drag Me to Hell wouldn’t be making my favorite films list I would have called you crazy. That goes for another handful of excellent to even great films that aren’t on this list. This was a fantastic year to be a cinephile or even the average joe movie goer. More importantly, this year was another reminder of why we love movies. There’s been a countless number of films that have transported us to other worlds and introduced us to new characters that we loved and felt for. That is a part of the magic of cinema and this year is proof of that. With all that smaltzy intro fluff out of the way, here are my favorite films of the year and even more mentioning of very good to great films that aren’t in the final fifteen:

Another batch of honorable mentions: An Education, The Informant, Coraline, Antichrist, Public Enemies and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

15. Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

It’s crazy, dark and insanely hilarious. After a long streak of duds, Nicholas Cage finally made a triumphant return to greatness with his creation of Terence McDonagh. Bad Lieutenant has very little to do with the 1992 film and is a fantastic parody of the “dirty” cop genre. This won’t go down as one of Herzog’s best films, but will definitely stand out as a highlight in his already great filmography.

14. The Brothers Bloom

Rian Johnson’s follow-up to the great Brick lived up to the promise he showed in his feature film debut. The Brothers Bloom was disappointingly overlooked in theaters and divided critics, but will most likely soon find an audience. This is a film that is sure to gain a following that will cherish it — as they should. It’s not overly quirky, it’s not emotionally hollow and yes, the script is wonderfully smart. Who couldn’t like Bloom, Penelope, Stephen and even Bang Bang?

13. Funny People

Funny People is Judd Apatow’s best film yet. Unlike his previous films, it has a genuine sense of style and extremely well executed drama. Adam Sandler gave another reminder of his range as a dramatic actor. Apatow also still shows his true knack for hilarity and crafting characters we can care for and invest in. It’s an excellent film.

12. Avatar

It’s no Aliens, it’s not Terminator 2: Judgement Day and it isn’t even on the level with the first Terminator film… With that said, Avatar is still a fantasy epic that defines a movie going event. The same old story worked. Jake Sully was a compelling hero, and of course the visuals were awe inspiring. The dialog isn’t nearly as sharp as it should be and it holds the film back, but Avatar still remains a highly entertaining and emotionally involving journey.

11. District 9

District 9 may not have been so good when it came to subtlety nor making the relationship between Wikus and his wife contain emotional weight, but even with that baggage Neil Blomkamp’s directorial debut is still nothing short of exhilarating. From the racist and unlikable protagonist, the photo real prawns and the terrific action sequences Blomkamp managed to create a wonderful new world.

10. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

The past few films in the Potter series have been getting more mature and, more importantly, better. The Half Blood Prince is the latest and best entry into an already excellent franchise. This is undoubtedly on level with or possibly even tops The Prison of Azkaban. Harry Potter is still the lead we can easily cheer for, Ron is still a sidekick that doesn’t annoy us and Hermione is still that pretentious student we love.

9. The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wes Anderson past two films didn’t quite rank up with the greatness of The Royal Tenenbaums or Rushmore, but The Fantastic Mr. Fox did. If there was ever film that was consistently hilarious and yet completely beautiful to look at it, it would be The Fantastic Mr. Fox. That’s the type of film like that doesn’t come around too often and they deserved to be embraced. As a quick side-note, I happen to love The Life Aquatic but it’s no Rushmore or Royal Tenenbaums.

8. The Hurt Locker

Besides the excellent Strange Days and the ultra cool Near Dark, Kathryn Bigelow’s filmography has mostly consisted of fun B-movies. The Hurt Locker changed that. It defines intensity. The Hurt Locker is a look into the psyche of soldiers. Does one have to be crazy to do what William James does in the film? That’s a question the film poses along with plenty of more left for interpretation. There’s also plenty of great action set pieces that make one feel quite disoriented.

7. Moon

Duncan Jones’s directorial debut is ambitious and original. Jones made a five million dollar film that is a few leagues ahead of the other science fiction films we’ve seen this year. Another reason why it’s so great: Sam Rockwell’s performance. His Sam Bell ranks amongst his best with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Snow Angels and who could forget his iconic Guy Fleegman from Galaxy Quest? It didn’t quite get its due in theaters, but will soon inevitably gain the attention a gem like this deserves.

6. A Single Man

A Single Man was another addition to this year’s long line of great directorial debuts. Tom Ford made a heartbreaking tale on grief, loss and ultimately death. Ford filled the screen with striking imagery and made sure it was supplied with a wonderful score to support these themes along with Colin Firth’s incredible performance. Everyone is spot on when they hail it as Firth’s best performance.

5. Up in the Air

Can George Clooney do no wrong? From the looks of it, not anymore. Ryan Bingham easily could have been hateable, but like most of his films Clooney brought along a sense of charm and sadness. This was a great year for Clooney and this is one of his best performances yet — up there with Three Kings and Out of Sight. Jason Reitman seems to be improving with each feature and this is his best yet.

4. UP

Who’s not a sucker for Pixar? Obviously people with no souls and a cold black heart. Anyone who’s inept of falling in love with Carl Fredricksen and Russell should have their mental state questioned. They’re a duo for the ages. They’re nothing short of lovable and even the dog Doug earns that status of pure lovability. Lovable is the best way to describe Up. It’s a beautiful film and that fact is established from the glorious opening.

3. Inglorious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino’s best? Maybe not. But another Tarantino classic? Most likely: yes. This ensemble was somewhat miss-marketed as the “action event of the summer” and in retrospect, in many ways it was. Tarantino’s dialog and build ups are exciting and blow away any other action sequence seen during that season of Transformers and G.I. Joe. Three other reasons why this is a great film ensemble: Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Laurent, and Michael Fassbender. Their show stealing performances deserve the overused term: tour-de-force.

2. A Serious Man

Another great Coen brother’s film? Really? Who would’ve thought. A Serious Man ended up being the cliché most people predicted — aka another terrific film from the Coen brothers. Their latest is a darkly comedic and profound tale of a man’s life that’s on autopilot and he’s finally having to deal with the repercussions. It’s hilarious, sad and the ending is utter brilliance.

1. Where the Wild Things Are

Simply moving, heartfelt and full of pure beauty. Spike Jonze once again delivered a magnificent film that may also be his best. It’s not too often a realistic look on childhood is shown in films. We generally get the annoying smart kids (the sister in 500 Days of Summer) or just the average goody-too-shoes. Max Records is neither of those things. He needs someone to emotionally rely on, can’t express himself, and even talks like an actual kid kid. Where the Wild Things Are is truly magnificent.

What did you think of this list? Did you agree with it? What would you omit, change or add in?

Warner Bros. is kicking off the media campaign for the upcoming Harry Potter film early — a whole year early. The media build up seems to get more intense year after year and I think we can only expect it to continue. The hearts and minds of ticket buying film-goers the world over will only be won by an endless barrage of advertisement.

The 50 second teaser trailer is introduced by David Yates and David Heyman and includes some behind the scenes footage as well. At about 2 minutes long this short clip should definitely start wetting your appetite for more Harry, Ron and Hermoine.

Youtube HQ:

Metacafe:

Are you ready for Harry’s last adventure to begin?

Via: /Film

The first image from the next installment in the ultra successful Harry Potter franchise has been released courtesy of USA Today. The film entitled Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows will be split into two parts, each released in 2010 and 2011 respectively, with direction by David Yates and will cover the seventh and final book in the series.

The final chapter of the Harry Potter saga brings the young wizard trio out of Hogwarts and into the big bad world. While the previous films have been rooted firmly in the fantastical realm of the wizard with castles and streets like Diagon Alley that cannot be found by us mere Muggles (normal humans for those not savvy to the Potter world),  the final piece of the story is set mostly in the harsh and very real Muggle world. Yates said in his interview with USA Today that they are “kind of pulling away from the magic a bit and bringing more reality to it.”

November 19th, 2010, We can look forward to to following Harry, Ron and Hermoine as they drop out of school to scour London for Voldemort’s remaining Horcruxes. I will be a little sad to see the franchise go away. The intensity of the fanbase is just as fervent as other recent rabid fan phenomenons, but it always just felt healthier to me than the recent alternative. The Harry Potter franchise made reading cool again and I believe it raised the intelligence of its fans instead of lobotomizing them. On top of being very successful and well written books, they have made for some damn enjoyable films as well. When its all said and done I’m positive that the Harry Potter film series, much like its printed counterpart, will be one of the more loved and missed series ever produced.

Will you be sad when there are no more trips to Hogwarts?

Via: Cinematical

Variety reports that Twilight: New Moon has set the all-time midnight opening record, raking in $26.3 million at the 12:01 am showings across 3,514 theaters.. To put this in perspective The Dark Knight made $18.4 million on July 18, 2008 and Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince made $22.2 million on July 15, 2009. Fandango is also reporting the film is selling 10 tickets per second on their site. When it comes to weekend grossed the first Twilight had a 49% drop from Friday to Saturday compared to The Dark Knight which only had a 29% drop over the same time frame.  I don’t see New Moon breaking the opening weekend gross record of $158.4 million, but it may come close. In other news The Blind Side is set to open at a fairly nice $18-22 million weekend, while the original Twilight shows last night grossed $1.3 million. Read the full story

After an impatient eighteen months, the latest installment of the wildly popular Harry Potter films has finally made it onto the silver screen. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will inevitably conquer the box office, as its predecessors have done, to become one of the biggest movies of the summer. But popularity aside – was it worth the wait?

Absolutely.

Returning from another dark year at Hogwarts, the undertones of this sixth film seem just as bleak. With the evil Lord Voldemort in hiding but at large, not even the ignorant muggle world is spared the havoc that his followers are making throughout England.

London’s Millennium Bridge is the first to go in a visually-spectacular opening scene that sets an early benchmark for the dark events yet to occur.

Read the rest of the review after the jump. >>

Here is the monthly rundown of what I’m looking forward to in July. Leave a comment and let me know what you are looking forward to!

10. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Saldanha, July 1st)

Synopsis: When Sid gets into some trouble, it’s up to Manny, Ellie, Diego, and Scrat to save their friend. Their mission leads them to an underground world where encounter dinosaurs, flora, and fauna — as well as a one-eyed, dino-hunting weasel named Buck.

Trailer

Why You Should See It: Looks to be more of the same, but the 3-D component should be worth a view. The first two films were fun, and this one doesn’t look wildly different.

9. The Cove (Psihoyos, July 31st)

Synopsis: Using state-of-the-art equipment, a group of activists, led by renown dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry, infiltrate a cove near Taijii, Japan to expose both a shocking instance of animal abuse and a serious threat to human health.

Trailer

Why You Should See It: Won the audience award at Sundance this year. Looks like a intense drama about the slaughter of dolphins in Japan.

Check out the rest of the list below >>

By Jack Giroux

2008 was a great summer for the movies. Good entertainment was had, and not just dumb popcorn movies for once. We got The Dark Knight, Wall-E, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, and Pineapple Express. This summer is even going to be better. Although the start was a bit shaky with Wolverine, Star Trek kicks it off right this weekend. Here are the top 15 stand out films this summer:

15- Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen

Release Date- June 24th

Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen will inevitably offer no more then a lot of explosions and CGI, but with robots. While the first film wasn’t a landmark of any kind, and mostly dumb, it was fun none-the-less. The 147 minute running time for the new one is a bit bothersome, but long running times are fine when the story calls for it. My only question is do we really need to see robots fighting for that long? Its a Michael Bay movie, there will only be good action, nothing more. Even the length of the first movie was a problem, the last thirty minutes turned into nothing but repetitive action. Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen will without a doubt be a fun action movie, even if it extends its welcome.

Read the rest of the list >>