Like our own Scott Weinberg, I'm a fan of the Scott B. Smith novel that is the basis for the upcoming horror flick The Ruins, though I'm hoping the filmmakers cut out certain risible elements -- not the scenes that made me wince, but ones that were so stupid they made me want to throw the book across the room. As a whole, though, the book is very good in setting up a scenario that slowly morphs from perfectly ordinary to horrifying beyond belief.

Scott pointed to posters and a "red-band" trailer last month and now two new clips have been released. They're both available on the restricted portion of the official site, where you'll need to provide your name and date of birth to gain entry. If the trailer left horror fans wondering how far they would push things in the gore department, the clips -- especially the one titled "Get It Out" -- make it clear. They're blood-soaked, but more in the vein of excruciating rather than exploitative.

For a story like The Ruins, featuring a small group of characters dealing with a terrifying situation, it needs to be grounded in reality, and I'm hoping for the best. Carter Smith makes his directorial debut; the film stars Jonathan Tucker, Laura Ramsey, Shawn Ashmore and Jena Malone, all of whom look up to the task of screaming and grimacing, at least in the trailer and clips. The Ruins creeps into theaters on April 4.

[ Via Dread Central ]

Above, you'll find the first three minutes of Richard Shepard's (The Matador) new film The Hunting Party, starring Richard Gere, Terrence Howard and young Jesse Eisenberg. In the flick, Gere plays a journalist who teams up with his old cameraman (Howard) and a TV exec's son (Eisenberg) to hunt down an infamous war criminal named The Fox -- who also happens to have a $5 million bounty on his head. In his review of the film, our own Jeffrey M. Anderson said The Hunting Party "wants to know why the U.S. has been unable to find certain outlaws, when just about any civilian with a passport, the price of a drink and a line of B.S. can do it. But instead of grousing or hand wringing, it becomes a spry, surprising and intelligent comedy." Personally, I loved Shepard's last flick, The Matador, and based on these first three minutes, it looks like the guy has finally found his groove, his style, and, along with the right scripts, some fantastic actors. Additionally, you can also listen to James' interview with Shepard here. The Hunting Party is now in theaters.

The man known in most circles as Sly Stallone surprised the heck out of people last winter with Rocky Balboa -- the sixth and final installment in Stallone's 31 year-old boxing franchise. It was a slow film, sure, but it reflected Sly's age, as well as the physical and mental spot Rocky was in. Now, however, Stallone is going in a completely different direction with John Rambo -- the fourth and final installment in Stallone's 25 year-old action franchise. Co-written and directed by Stallone (first time he's helming a Rambo flick), the couple of teasers we've been shown so far clearly reveal that Sly is still a lean, mean fighting machine -- and for those who thought he might be holding back due to age or whatever, you'll need to check out this latest trailer (if you can call it that -- it's more like a montage of clips) in which John Rambo is violent as all hell.

And I love the way the film looks too -- there seems to be none of this Hollywood-style hiding of the blood; John Rambo makes no doubt about the fact that it will be a high-octane, balls-to-the-wall, R-rated action flick ... and I don't know about you, but we need one of those. In the film, Rambo is placed in charge of rescuing a group of Christian human rights missionaries after a group of brutal Burmese army men take them hostage. Aiding Rambo on his mission are five young mercenaries -- although I have a feeling our man won't need their help much. Also starring in the film are Julie Benz, Matthew Marsden and newcomer Maung Maung Khim, as the villainous Major Pa Tee Tint. John Rambo is due out this December.

In case you didn't notice, the MTV Movie Awards were all over Transformers last night. Since then, three new pretty cool clips have arrived online, one of which features an extended version of that Optimus Prime vs. Bonecrusher freeway fight scene that, honestly, left me slightly chucking (only because Bonecrusher looked as if he was roller-blading), but even so I still can't wait to see this flick. (In order to prove to you that us movie bloggers are indeed human, I've opted not to review Transformers in order to catch a midnight showing with my good friends. Man, it's films like this that have me feeling like a teenager again!)

The second clip is also from a scene we've seen before (the helicopter attack scene), except it's extended to include Josh Duhamel talking with this hottie wife about how cute their baby is. But then a robot shows up to wreak havoc. Poor Josh. And, if you caught the MTV Movie Awards last night, then you probably already saw the third clip. At one point, Sarah Silverman does one of those movie spoof short film-type things, and finds herself face-to-face with Optimus Prime. This gave us our first heavy taste of how Peter Cullen sounds as Prime, as well as what it will look like with his mouth moving. I think he sounds pretty good, although I'm far from one of them crazy, die hard Transformers fans. Yeah, I had the toys and watched the cartoon -- but that was pretty much it. Thus, I'm heading into this film with more of a "wow, big robots fighting" attitude than a "let's see how Michael Bay ruined our beloved Transformers." I've included all three clips after the jump; let us know what you think. Transformers hits theaters on July 3.

[via Cinema Blend]

Although it won't officially land in American theaters until November 21, No Country for Old Men has already taken the Cannes Film Festival by storm, eliciting a strong amount of praise from most critics, including our own James Rocchi, who called the film "a brilliant example of how plot devices as simple as murder and money can be used to explore larger sweeping themes of mortality, morality and more -- while still delivering rousing, intelligent pure entertainment." But what's the fun of reading all these reviews when you can see for yourself what those devilish Coen Bros. have in store for us? Comme au Cinema currently has five clips from the film up on their site; all of which are subtitled in French, but still give you a pretty good taste of the tone and characters.

One thing I took away from watching all five clips was that Javier Bardem's character is definitely one of the creepiest I've ever seen in a Coen Bros. flick -- just check out that coin toss scene and tell me you wouldn't want to run into that dude at the local 7-Eleven. Based on a Cormac McCarthy novel, pic follows a hunter (Josh Brolin) who stumbles upon two dead dudes, a stash of heroin and a whole lot of money. Based on the clips, it appears the film then tracks Brolin's character (who takes the money), Bardem's character (who wants the money back) and Tommy Lee Jones' character (a sheriff-type trying to piece together all the gruesome events). Okay, I admit -- during the scene in which Tommy Lee Jones is inspecting the crime scene, part of me wanted him to yell out: "You find this man!" But I'm weird like that. Definitely check out the clips (especially the two featuring Bardem) and let us know what you think.

While I wasn't aware they were doing this, Fox aired a bunch of clips from Spider-Man 3 last night during their showing of Spider-Man 2. Of course, those clips have since popped up on YouTube -- and, conveniently, they've all been smashed together into one long preview of sorts. What do you get? Well, there's certainly a lot of Venom black Spider-Man suit thingy, a bunch of shots from both the real and the leaked Spider-Man 3 trailers, as well as some more from James Franco (aka Harry Osborn) as the Green Goblin, part deux.

If that's not enough to satisfy your thirst for more Spidey, two new teaser posters have also been released. Both show that familiar image of Spidey up against a glass building, his reflection being that of Venom. The other poster (as seen to the right of your screen) reverses that. The good thing about Spidey 3 is that it's arriving in theaters on May 4, which is way better than, say, having to wait until the middle of July for this sucker. Imagine you fanboys faced with a decision to either see Transformers (which debuts on July 4) or Spider-Man 3? Thankfully, you won't even have to go there ... though something tells me Spidey would win that one by a mile.

Growing up, your dreams and goals constantly change and evolve as you experience this little thing called life. I can't even count how many times I've been asked the question, "So, what do you want to be when you grow up?" From parents, to teachers ,to friends, to that weird guy who hung around the 24-hour convenient store (no, not Matthew McConaughey), we're forever on a quest to discover ourselves.

The following films all feature characters thrown into different situations in which they are forced to come to terms with who they really are. How should a Queen go about leading her country at a time of severe crisis? How can singers turn their love of performing into a lucrative career? How far can a life of crime really take a man? Oh, and why do three-day holiday weekends always seem so short? Welcome to this week's Trailer Park ...

It's probably only a matter of time before someone with "Esq" after his name gets them taken down, but at the moment, both of the (very, very rough) clips from The Simpsons movie that were shown at ComicCon are up at YouTube, so get your asses over there to check them out. (And how great is YouTube? Way back in 2004, we would be reading about these clips, never even hoping to get a peek at them. And now? They're all over the place! Hoorah, technology.)

Because I'm a technical moron when it comes to animation (and, actually, most other things), I can't tell you the proper term for the state of production in these clips, but they're in very rough black and while, and consist only of outlines that are somewhat animated. The voices, however, are in place and, as is usually the case with The Simpsons, it's the dialogue that makes them work. In the first, Homer is being tracked down by a Frankenstein-style mob (even Grandpa is in it), while in the second he's ... driving a dogsled team, for some reason. If you're a Simpsons fan, my guess is that you'll find them pretty wonderful -- but short, funny clips obviously don't address the question of whether the show can be sustained for 90 solid minutes. I suppose we'll have to wait until next summer to answer that one.

Update: They're gone. Feel free to post links in the comments if you find them elsewhere.

[via JoBlo]

For years and years my response to the "Who's your favorite director?" question would have been "Terry Gilliam." But after suffering through The Brothers Grimm and being compelled to pluck my eyeballs out during Tideland, I believe I may have relegated the (still awesome) Mr. Gilliam to second or third on my list -- which allows the brilliant British bastard known as Danny Boyle to leap into the #1 spot. I mean, seriously: How could such brilliantly eclectic titles like Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, and Millions all come from the same guy? (Well, credit where it's due: It's Boyle and his go-to screenwriter Alex Garland.)

And for the past few months I've had my geek phaser set to stun regarding Mr. Boyle's next project: A deep-space sci-fi thriller called Sunshine that stars the likes of Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, and Chris Evans. Plot synopsis: 50 years in the future, scientists realize that our sun is dying out, so up go a team of astronauts to see if they can't fix the problem. They promptly vanish. Seven years later a new crew is dispatched, partially to figure out what went wrong, but mainly to save Earth from a massive melting.

Pretty nifty concept, even if does remind one of Event Horizon just a little bit. Anyway, the flick's not scheduled to hit the planet until next March, but if you visit the official site, you can sift through four pretty cool video segments, the most recent of which comes off like a rather enticing teaser trailer.

Considering how effortlessly Mr. Boyle does the genre-hop, one can only hope that his next flick is a post-apocalyptic action flick or a really bubbly musical comedy.

Since those of us in the US who weren't lucky enough to be at Cannes will have to wait until the end of September to witness the glory that is sure to be Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, we have to made do with the drip and drabs that show up on-line (most of them in foreign languages but still -- we'll take what we can get). The latest bits were dug up by the folks at Bloody Disgusting, who point us towards four short clips at a French film site (so they're in Spanish, subtitled in French -- two language options for those of you skilled in such things). Though the clips offer nothing in the way of plot or (apart from a very gross bug) effects, they nevertheless give us further sense of the atmosphere of the film, both visually and aurally (I may be alone in this, but ever since I read an article in The New York Times about the incredibly layered sound construction in Mimic, I've been obsessed with listening to del Toro's films, as much as looking at them.), and do nothing to discourage the belief that the movie is going to be something pretty special.

[via Arrow in the Head]