You've seen them in the video store and lurking around the corner of your Netflix queue. Familarly-named movies that seem to be design to cash in on a better known entity. But at this point, the direct-to-video cash-in is a time-honored tradition: for every Transformers, there's a Transmorphers, for every Paranormal Activity, there's a Paranormal Entity. And now we've got a two-fer: a gay themed Twilight-esque thriller called Vampire Boys. The acting is a bit...ripe but honestly, is it that much worse than the real Twilight?
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Tron: Legacy came into theaters with some massive expectations resting on its pixeled shoulders. It was the long-awaited sequel to a cult hit that practically defined the computer thriller genre. Gussied up with the latest effects and shot in 3D, it was given the cushy Avatar release position in the hopes it could make the same kind of money. And while it wasn't an outright bomb, it barely made back its reported $170 million budget domestically (foreign grosses brought in an additional $225 million). A lot of money to be sure, but certainly not as much as Disney would have liked. So would there be a sequel?
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So much pure, rippling testosterone was floating around the Conan the Barbarian set that it seems like it's permanently altered the body chemistry of all those involved. Don't believe me? Check out this new teaser trailer below. You only see a few wispy, smoky glimpses of ancient warriors, boobular princesses and the titular savage but the basso profundo rumblings of the voice over guy and Conan himself is enough to make me long for a Paul Lynde cameo. "I live, I love, I slay," Conan gravely and gravelly intones. I get it! You're all very masculine. You're still wearing Raquel Welch's panties from One Million Years B.C., though.
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Chaz Bono, the transgendered son of Sonny and Cher, earned the kudos of critics, festivalgoers, and Rosie O'Donnell at Sundance, for the documentary Becoming Chaz, a chronicle of his gender reassignment. Fortunately we get to see this one much earlier than most Sundance favorites since it premieres on Oprah's OWN Network in May. Take a look.
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If you've been waiting patiently since 2001 for Sully and Mike of Monsters, Inc. to return to the big screen, some bad news: you're going to have to wait another 20 months. Pixar has scheduled a follow-up for November 2012 -- how could they not, considering the original grossed over $500 million worldwide? -- but little is known about the project, other than that it won't be including scenes from the following trailer, assembled by the sequel's original screenwriters.
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I was one of the few who wasn't totally enamored with the Super 8 Superbowl spot, which felt rushed and uneven to me. Knowing full-well that my minority opinion probably caused J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg no grief whatsoever, I'd still like to go ahead and formally apologize, because this new full length trailer is phenomenal.
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Based on the full trailer for The Smurfs, I'm guessing that Shrek 2 and Daddy Daycare writers J. David Stern and David N. Weiss scored the most coveted writing gig in Hollywood. At points in the script where most writers may have paced back and forth for hours, struggling for the right words, this team could simply just fill in any blank with the word "smurf." In just under two minutes, the word is used in four different contexts, only two of which I understood. But will this movie go all the way?
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Sundance lit up at Win Win, an indie comedy about a failing wrestling coach (Paul Giamatti) who works out shady dealings to collect on an old man's health-care wages. In this new clip from Moviefone, we pick up on the slight cynicism of Giamatti's character Mike Flaherty -- and the fact that he may exhibit less valor than, say, John Adams.
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During his short life, Bill Hicks managed to establish himself as one of the most groundbreaking, angry and flat-out hilarious comedians of his generation. His unique, confrontational stand-up has been well-documented in films like Sane Man and Relentless, but it's great to finally see a documentary like American: The Bill Hicks Story that delves deeper into his life, his philosophy and his battles with the establishment. That said, what's with all of the goofy animation here?
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The genius thing about the Lifetime Network is that it takes sensational news stories and speedily fashions them into successful made-for-TV-movies by somehow making the most unsympathetic real-life female protagonists into sympathetic characters. For instance, the chick who was engaged to the Craigslist Killer? Lifetime made her an eager bride-to-be who was too obsessed with floral arrangements to notice her fiance's knife collection under the bed. Been there! And with the network's upcoming William & Kate -- the film about the next royal couple -- Lifetime throws a teary Kate Middleton character into a bathtub with a glass of Merlot and watches her heart break in real time. The future Queen of England is just like us.
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You don't need to speak German to get the gist of Vincent Wants to Sea [sic], an odd-trio-psych-disorder-romcom-road movie that finally brings together some of the most nefarious scourges of neurology, psychology and pop music in one jaw-dropping trailer.
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And you thought those X-Men: First Class posters were bad. The first "unofficial trailer" for Things Fall Apart -- the new film co-written and starring Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson as a high school football player stricken with cancer -- has arrived online, and it packs enough terrible within its two minute-and-twenty-seven second running time to basically redefine terrible. This is like an SNL Digital Short, minus the production values. Oh, co-stars Mario Van Peebles and Ray Liotta, what hath time on the C-list wrought?
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Murder mysteries have both harrowing and hokey connotations, but AMC's new trailer for its series The Killing looks to raise the bar on the genre for good. Let's check out the gritty four-minute trailer and recall our favorite murder mysteries (of all types) after the jump.
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When we last checked in with Fast Five -- Universal's summer kick-off extravaganza of exploding cars and biceps -- things looked a little underwhelming. After all, how many cars could one watch explode before falling asleep from boredom? Judging from the new theatrical trailer for the film, that figure might place somewhere near infinity.
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A French trailer for Thor has hit, and I would estimate that it contains about seven seconds of new footage, if that. Of this seven seconds, there are really only two shots worth noting. In order to save you the two minutes you'd have to spend just to see that extra few seconds, I took a screen-captures of each noteworthy shot. For purists, or people who get a laugh out of American super-hero movies dubbed in French, the entire trailer is here too.
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