Despite the lukewarm reviews of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and the mixed feelings over Peter Jackson’s decision to extend it into a trilogy, I’m sure we’re all trying to remain optimistic about the next two installments and hoping they all add up to one solid adventure. There are definitely still plenty of exciting things to look forward to this time around, including the return of Orlando Bloom as Legolas and the introduction of Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel. Of course, perhaps the most anticipated reveal is that of the titular dragon himself, Smaug.

The first teaser trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has arrived online and it definitely continues to push a more epic feel similar to The Lord of the Rings. They do not play coy with Smaug either, giving us a pretty good look at him towards the end (although we don’t get to hear Benedict Cumberbatch’s voice just yet). Are you excited to head back to Middle Earth once again this holiday season? The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hits theatres on Dec. 13th; check out the trailer after the jump and let us know what you think.

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Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful makes its debut on DVD and Blu-ray this week, attempting to inject some magic and wonder into what is otherwise a pretty dull week. Other major releases hitting stores include Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton, Snitch starring The Rock, and Quentin Dupieux’s surreal comedy Wrong. Fortunately, a couple of big TV releases make up for the lack of new movies with the first season of both The Newsroom and House of Cards out this week (yes, it appears that Netflix original shows are not exclusive to Netflix forever). Also out on Blu-ray this week we have the 40th Anniversary Edition of Enter the Dragon, the Criterion release of Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries, and several Disney animated combo packs including Lilo & Stitch, The Emperor’s New Groove, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire packaged with their respective sequels. Will you be picking up anything this week? Check out the full list of releases after the jump.

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As you may have noticed, quite a few bloggers and film critics saw Man of Steel last night and early reviews are starting to flood the internet. For the most part, the reaction seems to be pretty positive and Warner Brothers is clearly anticipating a massive opening weekend for the film. As a result, they are already moving forward with a sequel and it looks like the same writer / director team will return. While it does feel like they are going a little overboard in showing us just how confident they are in the movie, at this point it seems highly unlikely that Man of Steel won’t successfully launch a new franchise. But does this mean the proposed Justice League movie won’t be happening right away? Based on a recent update, it sounds like Justice League may actually end up being the third installment in a Man of Steel trilogy with the very same creative team behind it.

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With Jim Carrey’s career currently flagging and in desperate need of a hit, he has been talking for the past few years about returning to one of his most popular comedies of all time, Dumb & Dumber. The Farrelly Brothers have been actively pursuing a sequel to the 1994 film and Jeff Daniels is also apparently on board with the idea. Unfortunately, last year we heard that they weren’t getting much support from New Line and Warner Brothers and Jim Carrey was about ready to walk away from the project. Now this week it seems that the scenario has come to its logical conclusion: Warners have decided not to move forward with the project. The good news is that The Farrellys are free to shop it around to other studios… but will anyone actually bite?

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Well there isn’t all that much to see as of yet, but it’s nice to know that the fourth season of Eastbound & Down is definitely happening and is now just a few months away. Danny McBride had hinted a while back that this would likely be the final season and the first teaser trailer confirms that fact. We don’t know exactly what it will be about, but a recent press release states that season 4 “picks up the action several years later and finds Kenny living the American Dream with his family in North Carolina.”

At any rate, I’m just glad that Kenny Powers will get another chance at a decent send-off since season 3 felt a bit underwhelming. Danny McBride also has a new animated series coming to FX early next year called Chozen, about a gay white rapper who was just released from prison. Eastbound & Down Season 4 premieres on HBO on Sept. 29th at 10 PM; check out the first teaser after the jump.

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With the first trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug set to drop online sometime tomorrow, Peter Jackson has also unveiled a new poster for the movie via his Facebook account. It’s not the most attention-grabbing design, but I suppose it gets the job done. It’s also been a few months since we’ve done a full poster round-up, so there is plenty of other stuff to catch up on including a series of posters for Man of Steel, the first one-sheet for Thor: The Dark World and the first poster for Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity.

Some of the more creative pieces this time around include a clever minimal poster for Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac, a neon-lit one-sheet for Nicolas Winding Refn’s Only God Forgives and a nice collection of shades for Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring. Mondo also put together a recent limited edition series of prints dedicated to the films of P.T. Anderson and the very painterly first poster for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire debuted over on Instagram last month. Do any of these new posters catch your eye? Check out the full gallery after the jump and see what you think.

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The last couple of years have not been kind to Nicolas Cage, who appeared pretty much exclusively in movies that went direct-to-video or looked like they should have been direct-to-video. He has developed a reputation for being willing to star in just about anything, and at this point, his involvement in a movie is rarely seen as a good thing. Although there is a chance that David Gordon Green’s Joe could turn things around for him later this year, right now it looks like we’re getting more of the same with The Frozen Ground which is being dumped into theatres in late August.

Directed by first-time filmmaker Scott Walker, the movie is based on the true story of Robert Hansen, a serial killer who preyed on women near Anchorage, Alaska for over a decade. Cage plays a state trooper who teams up with a woman (Vanessa Hudgens) who escaped from Hansen’s clutches. John Cusack plays a suspect who may or may not be the killer while 50 Cent plays a pimp. Yep, at least we have that to look forward to. The Frozen Ground hits theatres on Aug. 23rd; check out the trailer after the jump and see what you think.

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If there’s one thing we’ve learned so far this year, it’s that you should never underestimate a well-marketed horror movie. James DeMonaco’s The Purge pulled off a surprise win at the box office this past weekend, not by simply edging out the competition but by completely slaughtering it. The movie earned $36.4 million, which is the best opening ever for a horror movie that isn’t a sequel or a remake. Fast & Furious 6 and Now You See Me were neck in neck for second place, while The Internship opened in a disappointing fourth place. The Vince Vaughn / Owen Wilson comedy made $18.1 million, a little more than half of what Wedding Crashers made back in 2005. It may not sound like a complete disaster, but given its $58 million budget and the fact that This is the End is opening this week, things are not likely to pick up. Epic rounded out the top 5, helped by the fact that it is still the only family-friendly option out there currently. How many of these movies will survive against Man of Steel?

1. The Purge — $36.4M
2. Fast & Furious 6 — $19.8M
3. Now You See Me — $19.5M
4. The Internship — $18.1M
5. Epic — $12.1M
6. Star Trek Into Darkness — $11.7M
7. After Earth — $11.2M
8. The Hangover Part III — $7.38M
9. Iron Man 3 — $5.79M
10. The Great Gatsby — $4.23M

Directed by: Delmer Daves
Written by: Halsted Welles (screenplay), Elmore Leonard (story)
Starring: Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr, Richard Jaeckel

This week I filled one of the many unfortunate gaps in my to-watch list of classic Westerns thanks to the blu ray release of Delmer Daves’ original 1957 adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s ’3:10 to Yuma’. A film that certainly benefits from a high definition upgrade thanks to some stunning black and white photography.

’3:10 to Yuma’ is the first in a long line of Elmore Leonard stories adapted for the big screen. Taken from a short story of the same name, Leonard’s sense of suspense is certainly present, along with his affection for morally ambiguous anti-heroes. Glenn Ford plays Ben Wade, an outlaw who crosses paths with rancher Dan Evans (Van Heflin) during a stagecoach robbery. Evans and his two kids stand by as Wade and his posse commit the crime, establishing Evans as a passive player in the aggressive architecture of the old west.

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Prepare yourselves for another earth-shattering Expendables 3 casting rumour! As the third installment gears up for a production start in August, we’re finally getting some concrete details on who will be added to the all-star action extravaganza this time around. Last week we learned that Jackie Chan, Wesley Snipes, Nicolas Cage and Milla Jovovich were all in advanced negotiations to star in the film. However, there are plenty of other promises that Stallone made on Twitter that have not come to fruition as of yet, one of which was the possibility of Mel Gibson directing the film. When it was announced that Patrick Hughes would be helming the movie instead, it seemed that Gibson had better things to do. But could the Gibber still be involved in another way? Word on the street is that he may actually end up in front of the camera instead of behind it.

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At age 77, Woody Allen continues to be the most prolific director working today, having put out a new movie every year for the past thirty years. In fact, the last year that didn’t see the release of a new Woody Allen movie in theatres was way back in 1981 which is pretty crazy. Of course, with these movies being released so frequently, it’s always hard to predict the ones that will actually stick. Midnight in Paris was a huge hit both critically and commercially, for example, but on the other hand, To Rome with Love was pretty much ignored.

This year we get Blue Jasmine, a slightly darker but still comedic film about a New York housewife (Cate Blanchett) who finds herself lost and broke and when her husband (Alec Baldwin) turns out to be cheating on her. Her sister (Sally Hawkins) lets her crash at her place in San Francisco, where she tries to get her life back together again. Louis C.K. co-stars along with Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Dice Clay, Peter Sarsgaard, and Michael Stuhlbarg. Blue Jasmine hits select theatres on July 26th; check out the trailer after the jump.

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With the release of the Mad Max Trilogy on Blu-ray this week, I thought it was the perfect time to do a poll on post-apocalyptic movies. Of course, as soon as I started compiling a list, I realized why we hadn’t covered this previously: it’s a huge genre that encompasses far too many other subgenres. In the interest of keeping the poll to a reasonable number of options, I decided to stick primarily with the classic post-nuke scenario while also avoiding anything that resembles a zombie movie (ie. 28 Days Later, I Am Legend, etc.). Even so, there are tons of noteworthy flicks that didn’t make the cut, so you’ll just have to list off your other favourites in the comments. What is the best post-apocalyptic movie? Cast your vote in this week’s poll and then continue to battle it out after the jump.