by Kevin P. Sullivan 20 mins ago

We reached the halfway point of 2014 this week, but there haven’t been any early awards contenders outside of a few standouts. Bennett Miller’s “Foxcatcher,” however, is one of the few.

And in the new teaser trailer for the true-life drama, which stars Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo and Steve Carell, it’s easy to see why.

Tatum, who takes center stage in the new preview, plays Mark Schultz, an Olympic wrestler who becomes the obsession of deranged heir John du Pont (Carell). If you haven’t heard the true story behind “Foxcatcher,” you can read about it here.

Miller, who previously directed “Moneyball” and earned an Oscar nomination for “Capote,” won best director at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and many early reviews raved about the performances throughout.

Carell has clearly undergone a serious physical transformation here, but it’s the intensity of Tatum’s performance that really shines here.

I mean, just look at this.

“Foxcatcher” hits theaters on November 14, 2014.

by Kevin P. Sullivan 18 mins ago

Every box office success inevitably leads to new projects in the same vein following in its wake and hoping to cash in, so naturally, it was only a matter of time before we saw more kind-of-tragic YA romances chasing “The Fault in Our Stars.”

That’s what seems to be going on with “The Anatomy of a Misfit,” a soon-to-be-published YA novel by Andrea Portes that has been gaining some serious buzz. (How could it not with a summary that describes it as “Mean Girls” meets “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”?) But now that Paramount has bought up the rights to the book, I think we’re officially seeing the start of the “TFiOS” effect.

“The Anatomy of a Misfit” is the story of Anika Dragomir, the third most popular girl in school. Anika has a carefully constructed façade of coolness, when inside she’s actually a weird person like everyone else. When she meets the also weird and definitely not cool Logan McDonugh, she’s forced to choose between her two selves.

The book doesn’t hit shelves until September 2, but this definitely sounds like a title to keep an eye out for.

by Kevin P. Sullivan 39 mins ago

My excitement for “Guardians of the Galaxy” is reaching dangerous levels, and now there’s a track list for the perfectly retro soundtrack.

Also, this is the cover art.

Come on. That’s too cool.

Anyway, when the track list hit, director James Gunn was careful to mention that the song titles could be considered spoilers. I imagine, given how unusual the soundtrack is for a superhero movie, that some of the musical cues will be funny and might lose their effect if you know they’re coming.

If you are okay ruining a few surprises, I’ve thrown together a Spotify playlist for the complete soundtrack. Physical copies of the soundtrack, complete with badass cover art, hit shelves on July 29, so if you like what you hear, you can pre-order the disc here.

“Guardians of the Galaxy” hits theaters on August 1.

by Kevin P. Sullivan 14 mins ago

Thirty years ago today, the Motion Picture Association of America introduced the world to the PG-13 rating. In the grand scheme of movies, three decades isn’t exactly a long time ago, but up until 1984, the middle ground between PG and R caused some serious headaches for filmmakers and audiences.

That summer, Steven Spielberg famously suggested a new rating to then MPAA president Jack Valenti. The director had come under fire from shocked audience members when “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” which Spielberg directed, and “Gremlins,” which he produced, contained violence many considered too graphic for a PG rating. In a 2008 interview with Vanity Fair, Spielberg explained his frustration of pre-PG-13 moviemaking at the time.

“So many films were falling into a netherworld, you know, of unfairness,” he said. “Unfair that certain kids were exposed to ‘Jaws,’ but also unfair that certain films were restricted, that kids who were 13, 14, 15 should be allowed to see.”

Looking back on the two films that drove Spielberg to suggest the creation of a new rating, it’s clear that something had to be done. All these years later, “Temple of Doom” and “Gremlins” maintains statuses as films that had profound effects on many childhoods, for better or worse.

For children of the ’80s, the human sacrifice scene from “Temple of Doom” stands out as a particularly traumatizing moment in the light-hearted (poor word choice?) adventures of Indiana Jones. Watching the scene back, the dated special effects lessen the ...

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by Kevin P. Sullivan 20 mins ago

Ridley Scott essentially revitalized the trend of sword and sandals movies with “Gladiator,” and for his next movie, he’s taking on one of the best-known stories of the genre.

We won’t be able to see “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” Scott’s take on the story of Moses in Egypt until it hits theaters on December 12, but Entertainment Weekly has a first look with some interviews with Scott and his leads Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton.

In his chat with the magazine, the “Dark Knight” star addressed inevitable comparisons to Charlton Heston and “The Ten Commandments.”

“Charlton Heston does Charlton Heston better than anyone,” says Bale. “But the biblical account of Moses is extraordinary, and there was lots of room for us to go to places that [Heston’s movie] The Ten Commandments never dreamed of going.”

For his part, an almost unrecognizable Edgerton is playing Ramses, the adopted brother of Moses and pharaoh of Egypt.

Head over to EW to check out the rest of the photos.

by Kevin P. Sullivan 35 mins ago

It might be hard to believe, but the first half of 2014 is over. That means it’s time to take a look back at some of the cinematic high points of the last 26 weeks.

The summer isn’t even over yet, but some of the year’s biggest tent poles have delivered in huge ways. Combine that with some of our favorite art house picks, and you’ve got a quick look at the movies that made the first six months of 2014 so awesome.

“The LEGO Movie”

With such a direct tie-in, “The LEGO Movie” could have been an empty 90-minute toy commercial, and while the animated feature starring Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks and Morgan Freeman no doubt sold a few boxes of plastic bricks, writers and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller turned in something much funnier and filled with more heart than was ever required.

“The Grand Budapest Hotel”

“Moonrise Kingdom” saw writer-director Wes Anderson fully embracing his often parodied aesthetic, and the look and humor in “The Grand Budapest Hotel” was possibly even more self-assured. Throw in a hilarious, awards-worthy performance from Ralph Fiennes, and you easily have a film worthy of the auteur’s impressive résumé.

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”

Marvel Studios previously toyed with the concept of dropping their heroes into genres not typically populated by super soldiers and radiated scientists. “The Winter Soldier,” however, was the first to go completely genre — in this case, a political thriller — and ...

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by Kevin P. Sullivan 3 mins ago

Either something has gone wrong on the “Jurassic World” set, or everyone is pretty much going according to plan.

Those are the two possibilities you have to consider when director Colin Trevorrow posts a picture to Twitter of a bloody handprint on the side of a veterinary trailer.

This being the fourth movie in the “Jurassic Park” series, I have to assume that the handprint is meant to be there because of some dino-related accident, as opposed to a real-life onset one, because that would be very uncool and probably not appropriate for a TwitPic.

But bad news in the world of “Jurassic World” is good news for us because we’ll be the ones who get to enjoy the dinosaur chaos when the new movie starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard hits theaters on June 12, 2015.

by Kevin P. Sullivan 43 mins ago

Since it’s inception, the Sundance Film Festival has created a specific type of low-budget movie that is likely to be found in Park City in the month of January. The “Sundance movie” usually is small in scale and follows quirky characters dealing with inner turmoil and relationship problems, but very rarely do they start two of the decade’s best “Saturday Night Live” cast members.

The unlikely casting of Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader was certainly one of the things that separated “The Skeleton Twins” from the pack at this year’s Sundance, but the film directed by Craig Johnson is also supposed to be very good on its own merits.

Hader’s and Wiig’s performances as a troubled brother-sister duo won raves from critics at the fest, and now — ahead of a September 19 release — the first trailer is giving everyone a chance to see what the lucky Park City visitors did.

Back in January, MTV News spoke with Hader about the challenges of the role and its lack of similarities to his most famous “SNL” creation.

by Kevin P. Sullivan 17 mins ago

In its first scene, “The Leftovers” demonstrates the power of its premise in the simplest of terms. We drop in on a mother in the middle of a day that anyone can relate to. She’s doing laundry and making phone calls as her infant son looks on from his carrier. Everything is completely normal until the baby disappears without explanation. One moment, he’s crying. The next, he’s not there. It’s undeniably potent stuff.

The October 14th departure of two percent of the world’s population is what “The Leftovers” is about, but not in the way that most other shows would tackle it, or how “Lost” fans expect co-creator Damon Lindelof to engage it.

The show is not about the disappearance, but a reaction to it. The mystery is not where these people went, but what’s happening to the people still walking around, doing laundry and making phone calls.

Something that “The Leftovers” does particularly well in its first hour is offer glimpses, woven into the fabric of a smaller story, of how the world at large has changed since the disappearance. Moments like a high school class not participating in the Pledge of Allegiance and then fervently kneeling on the ground for class prayer are thoughtfully done and hint at some of the event’s lingering effects three years on, which is essentially the show’s primary objective and biggest challenge.

“The Leftovers” examines how the world has changed by zooming in on five characters in the same New Jersey town, but Justin ...

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by Kevin P. Sullivan 3 mins ago

Like the movie itself, the press tour for “Transformers: Age of Extinction” has taken the cast around the world, from Hong Kong back to the United States, and it’s been a long journey of red carpets, questions and photo ops.

It’s also been really hot for most of the tour. The premiere in Hong Kong suffered from high temperatures and rain, so by the time Mark Wahlberg and the rest of the cast got to NYC, they were ready for some AC.

Luckily, I was placed right in front of the air conditioner at the New York premiere, and as you can see in the video below, everyone was really excited to talk to me.

“Transformers: Age of Extinction” is in theaters now.