In the lead up to Super Bowl weekend, I was thinking about the few big 2012 summer blockbusters that we have yet to see a trailer for, and The Bourne Legacy stood out as the biggest of the bunch. This week Universal has finally debuted the trailer, but just like Sony did with The Amazing Spider-Man, they decided to unveil it online instead of dropping a few million dollars on a 30 second TV spot that could easily be missed. The question is, will anyone care about a new Bourne movie without Jason Bourne?

As previously announced, The Bourne Legacy does not star Matt Damon but rather Jeremy Renner in the lead role, playing a new member of Operation Treadstone named Aaron Cross. Renner is a capable actor, but something tells me this could easily blur together with his recent role in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. It’s unclear what Aaron Cross’ story will be (aside from the fact that he can also kick all kinds of ass), but Edward Norton apparently plays the film’s villain. Director Tony Gilroy wrote the screenplays for the previous three films and also directed Michael Clayton, so the movie seems to be in good hands, and yet it’s hard not to see this as an extraneous spin-off from an already solid standalone trilogy. The Bourne Legacy hits theatres on August 3rd; check out the trailer after the jump and see what you think.

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There was a time when the so-called “Frat Pack” was on top of the comedy world, back when actors like Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Luke and Owen Wilson were all collaborating in some of the funniest and most successful films of the past decade. However, recently their output has slowed and dropped off in terms of both quantity and quality as they’ve been surpassed by Judd Apatow’s “Jew Crew”, among others. Most of the Frat Packers have gone on to experiment with more artistic fare like Stranger Than Fiction, Greenberg and Midnight in Paris to varying degrees of success, but most of their actual comedies have become pretty uninspired (Little Fockers and The Big Year being the latest group efforts). But could they be hatching a plot to reclaim the comedy crown from all these young upstarts who starred in movies like The Hangover and Horrible Bosses? This year Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn will star in a promising sci-fi comedy called Neighborhood Watch, and now it looks like Wedding Crashers buddies Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson will also be teaming up for a new movie called Interns. Is this something that could actually be worth getting excited about?

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0:00 – Intro
11:40 – Review: Chronicle
57:35 – Review: Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie
1:22:10 – Trailer Trash: The Avengers, Act of Valor, Get the Gringo
1:46:30 – Other Stuff We Watched: Natural Born Killers, Tremors, Any Given Sunday, Invincible, The Program, Little Giants, The Spanish Prisoner, Spartan, Inglourious Basterds, Drive, Rolling Thunder, To Live and Die in L.A., Take Shelter, The Help, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, The Take, Justified, Thief, Luck, Misfits
3:07:20 – Junk Mail: Post-Oscar Roles for African-American Actors, How to Avoid Falling Asleep in Movies, Why People Enjoy Bad Movies, Favourite Movie Cars
3:34:55 – This Week’s DVD Releases
3:37:35 – Outro

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The end credits of Machete hinted at the possibility of not one but two sequels, although at the time it was unclear if this was merely a joke or if it was for real. However, when you consider that the movie itself was a self-fulfilling prophecy that grew out of a fake trailer created for Grindhouse, it only makes sense that both Machete Kills and Machete Kills Again would eventually become a reality as well. That being said, it is a little bit surprising that they are happening so soon. For a guy who has been attached to so many different projects over the past few years, you’d think that Robert Rodriguez would be far too busy to bother with another Machete movie right now. That doesn’t appear to be the case, as it is now being reported that the first sequel will begin shooting as early as this April.

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This week’s DVD releases are pretty exciting if you happen to be into glittery vampires, but for the rest of us there aren’t many other options out there. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is obviously the biggest title hitting stores today and is probably going to sell a few zillion copies, but beyond that you’ll have to choose between A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas (minus the 3D, unless you have a 3D TV), Roland Emmerich’s strange Shakespeare thriller Anonymous, and the Kellan Lutz lacrosse drama A Warrior’s Heart. Yikes. Fortunately there are a pair of great docs in Project Nim (which was already out in Canada with less awful artwork) and Knuckle, plus we also have season 2 of the acclaimed PBS series Downton Abbey and the Diamond Edition of the animated Disney classic The Lady and the Tramp. What will you be buying or renting this week? Check out the full list of new releases after the jump.

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Last week Kevin Smith held a live podcast and interactive Q&A in Toronto that was simulcast to movie theatres across North America called Kevin Smith: Live from Behind. As you might expect, the Q&A featured some new information about upcoming projects from Smith, one of which was his hockey movie Hit Somebody (which he plans to debut in hockey arenas across Canada), and the other was a brand new movie called Jay & Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie. Unbeknownst to me, there had been a brief mention of this film in the SModcast Pictures press release from last month, but it stated only that it would be “a blend of live action footage and R-rated animation.” Smith confirmed this fact during Live From Behind, although he did not reveal a heck of a lot more.

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It would seem that Sony had a new trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man prepped and ready to go in time for Super Bowl Sunday but decided to just save the money and release it online the next day instead. In retrospect, it was probably a smart move, although they would have easily been the talk of the Super Bowl since most of the other trailers underwhelmed. The release of this trailer also coincides with a fan sneak preview event called The Amazing Spider-Man: The Untold Story, where the trailer was screened in 3D for fans in select cities along with 7 minutes of additional footage.

As for the trailer itself, it’s two and a half minutes long and features all kinds of new footage including our first good look at The Lizard. It looks fine, but the big problem, as many thought it might be, is that it feels like we’ve already seen this story once before. I don’t know that Marc Webb’s take on the character is doing enough to distinguish itself from Sam Raimi’s films, even though they are pushing this angle that Peter Parker’s father was as an Oscorp employee who worked with Curt Connors. I guess the other thing it has over the previous films is the 3D element, but that’s something we can’t judge by simply watching this online. What do you think, are you sold on The Amazing Spider-Man? The movie hits theatres on July 3rd; check out the trailer after the jump and sound off in the comments below.

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Since everyone here in North America still has football on the mind, it seems like as good a time as any to post the official trailer for the upcoming high school football documentary Undefeated (not to be confused with the similarly-titled Sarah Palin film The Undefeated). The movie generated a lot of strong buzz at TIFF last year and has since managed to drum up an Academy Award nomination. Although sports docs usually tend to get overlooked at the Oscars (Hoop Dreams, anyone?), this one is distributed by The Weinstein Company, which means it might actually have a shot at winning.

The movie follows The Manassas Tigers, an inner-city high school football team in Memphis, Tennessee that has been consistently destroyed by its opponents, partially because most of its star players either end up dead or in jail. However, coach Bill Courtney took over the team in 2004 and slowly started to turn things around, with the goal of winning the first playoff game in the school’s 110-year history. Underdog sports stories may be a dime a dozen, but they are slightly less common in non-fiction form and I’ve heard that this one packs an emotional wallop. I have to admit, the trailer alone gave me chills. Undefeated hits select theatres on Feb. 17th; check out the trailer after the jump and see what you think.

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As we all know, a year without a strong Pixar movie is a year where other studios have a rare opportunity to get some recognition for their own animated features. Since Cars 2 was not even nominated for an Academy Award this year, we’ve now got DreamWorks and Paramount battling it out against a couple of smaller foreign productions. However, while the Academy Awards are what most of the world uses to judge the best animated film of the year, industry insiders typically look to the Annie Awards instead. In the past, DreamWorks has had their fair share of success at the Annies (How to Train Your Dragon won out over Toy Story 3 last year, while Kung Fu Panda upset Wall-E in 2008), but this year, newcomers Paramount and ILM have taken the title for Rango. Go figure!

It’s probably not a huge surprise that Rango won Best Animated Feature, especially you when you consider that these awards are generally a little more technical and Rango’s tech was pretty damn impressive. However, the question remains: is Rango is now more likely to win the Oscar as well? Not necessarily. Many of the other Annie Awards were spread out to other films, and Jennifer Yuh Nelson took home the directing award for Kung Fu Panda 2. Heck, even The Adventures of Tintin picked up a couple of awards. Check out the full list of winners after the jump.

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Update: Alcon Entertainment has since denied the rumour: “The casting of the movie could not be further from our minds at this moment.”

When it was first announced last year that some sort of Blade Runner sequel or prequel was in development at Alcon Entertainment, it seemed like a pretty questionable idea. Without anyone from the original creative team involved, the project lacked legitimacy… that is, until Ridley Scott signed on to direct. Many of the naysayers started to change their tune once they heard that he would be involved, but it was still unclear what kind of story he wanted to tell. The only thing we knew was that Harrison Ford would not be involved, and that it would be a “total reinvention” of the original film. Well, actually you can scratch that, because we have recently received word that Harrison Ford may be involved in this new Blade Runner project after all. Of course, just how extensive that involvement will be remains to be seen.

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The Super Bowl didn’t seem to have much of an effect on the box office this past weekend as both Chronicle and The Woman in Black exceeded expectations with over $20 million a piece. Chronicle came out on top but only just barely; the final numbers could still go either way. This seems like a good sign for Daniel Radcliffe, found footage movies and the horror genre in general, all of which continue to bring out teen audiences in droves. The weekend’s other major new release, Big Miracle, did not do quite as well, opening at #4 although the Drew Barrymore rom-com will be hoping for a slight boost around Valentine’s Day. The Grey dropped 52% to take third place, while Underworld: Awakening managed to hang out to a spot in the top 5. Elsewhere, The Descendants and Extremly Loud & Incredibly Close are benefiting from their Oscar exposure a little more than The Artist, although the latter is still playing on 1,000 screens less. Next week another 3D re-release enters theatres to challenge these films… how much will George Lucas add to his coffers?

1. Chronicle — $22M
2. The Woman in Black — $21M
3. The Grey — $9.5M
4. Big Miracle — $8.48M
5. Underworld: Awakening — $5.6M
6. One for the Money — $5.25M
7. Red Tails — $5M
8. The Descendants — $4.6M
9. Man on a Ledge — $4.46M
10. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close — $3.92M

Update: Added the extended version of The Avengers trailer with 30 seconds of additional footage.

In addition to the trailers that were released online early for G.I. Joe: Retaliation, The Dictator, and The Hunger Games, we now have access to the rest of the new trailers that aired during Super Bowl XLVI, and they have all been collected right here for your convenience. The most anticipated one of the bunch is obviously The Avengers, and although it’s fairly short, it does seem to have the highest ratio of previously unseen footage. In particular, a couple of quick action shots including one of the Hulk punching a plane are sure to make fanboys giggle with delight.

Other new trailers include John Carter, Battleship and Act of Valor, all of which did their best to impress their target audience with an overload of explosions and special effects. There is also a new ad for Transformers: The Ride, opening soon at Universal Studios Hollywood, plus a couple of other movie-related commercials including the Ferris Bueller Honda ad that everyone has been talking about. Did we miss any other good ones? Which Super Bowl ad was your favourite? Check out the trailers after the jump.

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