Run It: Film Review

Evangelos Giovanis

The Bottom Line

Ambition trumps filmmaking expertise in this ragged low-budget effort.

Directors

Evangelos Giovanis, George Giovanis

Screenwriter

Evangelos Giovanis

Cast

Louis Zorich, Sam Coppola, Evangelos Giovanis, George Giovanis

Numerous unsavory characters intersect in this gritty crime drama by the sibling directors Evangelos and George Giovanis.

A raw, visceral intensity is the most compelling element of Run It, an otherwise uneven urban drama directed by the sibling filmmaking team of Evangelos and George Giovanis, each of whom also play major roles. Featuring a plethora of unsavory characters, undeveloped subplots and a confusingly jagged narrative, this extremely low-budget effort is mainly notable for its willingness to get down and dirty.

The complex storyline interweaves the gritty stories of multiple characters whose fates intersect. They include Andrew (Evangelos Giovanis), a substitute high school teacher whose fraying nerves as a result of his unruly students result in his being fired after he resorts to excessive discipline. Bad turns to worse when he subsequently accidentally kills his senile father’s caregiver, and when his criminal brother Manny (George Giovanis) and his cohort (Doug Elridge) attempt to hit him up for money after they fall victim to some equally ruthless thugs.
Another running plotline involves one of Andrew’s students, Jermain (Joshua Scarlett), struggling to cope with a father who’s a heroin addict and a mother who’s involved with an abusive drug dealer.
The filmmakers--who besides their other duties were also responsible for the screenplay, cinematography, editing and even the musical score--don’t quite possess the technical chops necessary to realize their high ambitions. The frequently off-kilter camerawork and editing displays an amateurish quality, and despite the presence of such familiar faces as the late Sam Coppola (Saturday Night Fever) and veteran character actor Louis Zorich the acting is uneven at best.
Featuring copious doses of violence, profanity and nudity—the female characters on display are frequently depicted in exploitive fashion—Run It belies its title with a sluggish pacing that makes the film seem far longer than it actually is.
Opens May 31 (Vago Productions)
Cast: Louis Zorich, Sam Coppola, Armen Garo, Evangelos Giovanis, George Giovanis, Doug Eldridge
Directors/producers: Evangelos Giovanis, George Giovanis
Executive producers: Themistoklis Giovanis, Vasiliki Giovanis
Screenwriter: Evangelos Giovanis
Director of photography/composer: George Giovanis
Editor: Evangelos Giovanis
Not rated, 110 min.

Sorrentino, Tornatore Dominate Nominees at Europe's Oldest Film Awards

Giuseppe Tornatore

Italy's 67-year-old Nastri d'Argento Awards, to be held in July at Sicily's 2,400-year-old Teatro Antico venue, will take place with the Cannes regular and the Oscar winner in pole position.

ROME – The latest films from five-time Cannes Palme d’Or nominee Paolo Sorrentino and Oscar winner Gabrielle Tornatore were the top nominees for the 67th edition of the Nastri d'Argento (Silver Ribbons), Europe’s oldest film honors.

Sorrentino’s La grande bellezza (The Great Beauty), an elegant commentary on contemporary Rome, and La migiore offerta (The Best Offer), Tornatore’s drama centered on an art auctioneer’s obsession with a wealthy art collector, earned nine nominations each.
La grande bellezza was Sorrentino’s fifth Palme d’Or-nominated feature film this month, while La Migliore Offerta earned four David di Donatello nominations for Tornatore, who directed the Best Foreign Film Oscar winner Nuovo Cinema Paradiso in 1989.
Both films were nominated in the Best Director category, along with Bella addormentata (Sleeping Beauty), a powerful euthanasia drama from Marco Bellocchio; Roberto Ando’s tense political drama Viva la liberta (Live Freedom); and Claudio Giovannesi’s Ali ha gli occhi azzurri (Ali Has Blue Eyes), a coming of age crime drama.
Sorrentino won top honors at the Nastri d'Argento a year ago for This Must be the Right Place, which starred Sean Penn as an ageing rocker.
Italian acting maestro Toni Servillo, who played a starring role in three of the five films nominated in the top category -- La grande bellezza, Bella addormentata, and Viva la liberta -- but he will not have the opportunity to add to his previous tally of six Nastri d’Argento Best Actor nominations and three victories: he was not nominated in any of the acting categories this year.
La grande bellezza, La migiore offerta, Bella addormentata, and Viva la liberta were all nominated in the Best Screenplay category, along with Il rosso e il blu (The Red and the Blue), a high school drama directed by Giusepe Piccioni and co-written by Piccioni and Umberto Contarello.
Organizers previously announced they would honor Io e te (Me and You), a coming-of-age drama from Oscar winner Bernardo Bertolucci as film of the year and that stage star Roberto Herlitzka, who plays a supporting role in La grande bellezza, would receive a lifetime achievement honor.
Founded in 1946, the Nastri d’Argento -- voted on each year by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists -- are the second oldest film awards in the world, behind only the Oscars. They will be presented in July in the famous Teatro Antico venue in Taormina, the site of the upcoming Taormina Film Festival.
The full list of nominees is available starting from the syndicate's web site.

F--k Up (Et Slags liv): Film Review

The Bottom Line

This crime flick doesn't find enough chemistry between its characters to generate much concern over their perils.

Venue:
Seattle International Film Festival
Cast:
Jon Oigarden, Tuva Novotny, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Atle Antonsen, Lennart Jahkel, Rebecka Hemse, Iben Hjejle
Director:
Oystein Karlsen

Four Norwegian friends try to clean up a botched smuggling scheme in Oystein Karlsen's crime comedy.

A quartet of lifelong friends stick by each other through a very trying night in F--k Up, a Norwegian comedy whose title hints at the number of bad decisions each buddy tolerates on the others' behalf. Oystein Karlsen's crime film sports the tense-sweat-in-the-snow vibe festivalgoers have embraced in recent Scandinavian imports, but a sense of place only carries it so far; arthouse distributors may find little to tempt them here.

"Halden is a small town," we hear numerous times, as the friends try to pretend they're barely acquainted with each other when questioned by police and employers looking at a string of accidents and crimes that spring from one scheme gone wrong: Glenn (Atle Antonsen), having borrowed large sums from each of his friends separately, bought a cache of drugs he hoped to resell a profit. Instead he got into a wreck, leaving the drugs in his now-impounded car's trunk; while his buddies try to clean up that and other evidence of Glenn's crimes, a local gangster stalks them in the belief they're trying to steal his dope.

Jack (Jon Oigarden), the point man in this clean-up campaign, is a dubious choice for the job -- a philanderer on the verge of getting kicked out of his home, he's a speed-freak who can't even take his ambulance-driver qualifying test without being high. That day-long test brings him to the scene of a couple of incidents he and his friends helped cause: One of the film's most successful riffs subjects one big, bald thug to repeated abuse that continues even after EMTs begin treating him.
Jack takes a good deal of abuse himself, and the film, which begins with a flash-forward to a grave site, presents itself as the account of how the choices he made led to his downfall. Karlsen's script has a few twists in store but, despite solid performances, his characters never grab viewers' sympathies enough to make us worry much about which one (or more) of them will end up in that casket.
Cast: Jon Oigarden, Tuva Novotny, Anders Baasmo Christiansen, Atle Antonsen, Lennart Jahkel, Rebecka Hemse, Iben Hjejle
Director-Screenwriter: Oystein Karlsen
Producers: Hillevi Raberg, Anders Tangen
Executive producers: Tomas Eskilsson, Guttorm Petterson
Director of photography: Pal Bugge Haagenrud
Production designer: Lotta Bergman
Music: Knut Avenstroup
Costume designer: Karen Fabritius Gram
Editor: Andreas Nilsson
No rating, 99 minutes

'Closed Circuit' Trailer: Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall Are Being Watched (Video)

The thriller, directed by John Crowley, revolves around a terrorism investigation in the U.K.

Nothing appears to be as it seems in the first trailer for the terrorism-themed thriller, Closed Circuit.

The plot revolves around a pair of once-romantically involved attorneys (Eric Bana, Rebecca Hall) who are tasked with defending a man who is alleged to be involved in an apparent truck bomb explosion in the U.K. But there seem to be larger forces at work.

"There are over half a million closed circuit cameras in London," says Bana grimly in the trailer. "And I'm sure there are at least half a dozen watching you right now."
The Focus Features and Working Title film also features Julia Stiles and Jim Broadbent.
Eric Fellner, Liza Chasin and Tim Bevan, who produced the film adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, are producing Closed Circuit.
Its release date is set for Aug. 28.

'Pacific Rim' Featurette Goes Inside Guillermo del Toro's 'Torture Machine' (Video)

In a new clip, the director explains why he built the heads of the robots rather than depending on CG.

Warner Bros. Pictures

How do you bring giant, 25-story-tall robots to life?

A new featurette for Guillermo del Toro's robot vs. monsters epic Pacific Rim has debuted, giving us a behind-the-scenes look at how the larger-than-life robots were created for the film.

The upcoming sci-fi action film, from Legendary and Warner Bros., follows a group of humans who have been enlisted to pilot giant robots in hopes of defeating the monster-aliens that have risen from the sea. It stars Charlie Hunnam, Ron Perlman and Idris Alba.
While CG was definitely used to create the "kaiju" (aka sea monsters), del Toro reveals that a lot of the robot work depended on real-life structures and machinery.
Del Toro says that the heads of the robots -- which contain the two human pilots -- were built 4-stories tall, and connected to a contraption that could move it around and drop 15-feet to simulate when a robot fell.

When piloting the robots, the actors were actually suited up inside the "head" of the robot, rather than relying on green screen.
"The easiest thing would have been to put green levers on their arms and their back and their feet and have the actors have complete free movement, but I felt you needed something with resistance," the director says in the clip.
And on top of all that machinery, water was shot at the actors as they attempted to navigate in their suits.
"I invented a torture machine," says del Toro.
Pacific Rim opens in theaters on July 11.
Watch the new featurette below.

'Mad Men' Conspiracy Theory! Is Megan Draper's Star T-Shirt Symbolic of Sharon Tate?

AMC; Corbis

This is the kind of conspiracy theory Reddit was made for. On Sunday's episode of Mad Men, "The Better Half," Jessica Paré's Megan Draper wore a white T-shirt with a big red star. I know, you all thought at first that she's a big fan of Macy's! But, actually, it was a reference to the T-shirt tragically-murdered actress Sharon Tate wore for a 1967 Esquire magazine photo shoot. Mad Men costume designer Janie Bryant confirmed on Twitter that this was "no coincidence," after the daughter of the Esquire photographer who snapped that photo pointed out the similarity.
Two years after that photo was taken, Tate, then eight-and-a-half months pregnant, was brutally murdered by the Manson family. A whole thread on Reddit has sprung up wondering whether this is some grim foreshadowing on Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner's part for what may ultimately be Megan's fate on the show — especially given all the references in recent episodes to rising crime rates in 1968 New York.
But if Megan's meant to be an avatar for Sharon Tate, does this mean her husband Don Draper (Jon Hamm) is symbolic of Tate's husband Roman Polanski? It would certainly fit, since both Polanski and Draper are tireless skirt-chasers with a flair for kinkiness — and even criminality. Something dire may be on the horizon for Megan, but Don may be in trouble as well. Maybe he'll finally suffer the consequences of his sexual improprieties as Polanski did after pleading guilty to rape in 1977 and being an exile from America ever since. It'd be a fitting comeuppance for horndog Don.
Unless we're reading this all wrong and that woman who invaded the Draper's apartment in "The Crash" was supposed to be Charles Manson?

Jaden Smith Spills on Being a Survivor at the 'After Earth' Premiere

Evan Agostini/Invision/AP Photo

The After Earth premiere Wednesday night turned out to be a real family affair, with Smiths and Pinketts dominating the appropriately-colored green carpet.

With such a strong family dynamic present in this film (real life father-son duo Will and Jaden Smith star), it's no surprise that, despite being an action-packed sci-fi flick, the real focus of the story is on the father-son relationship. "The father-son relationship was always the most important thing," writer Gary Whitta told Hollywood.com at the After Earth premiere. "Even though we're telling the movie on a huge science fiction canvas ... I call it Smith Family Robinson." 

In fact, After Earth wasn't originally conceived as a sci-fi film at all. When Will Smith first came up with the idea for the movie it was set in the present-day Alaskan wilderness and told the story of a military father and son who drive off the rode during a fishing trip. The father gets injured in the crash and the son has to go for help. But then, one night, Smith had a revelation.

"He had a dream one day, woke up, and said, 'It's a thousand years in the future,'" Whitta said.

So, thanks to Will's subconscious, he and Jaden were forced to fight back against vicious, highly evolved creatures instead of bears or a pack of wolves. Then again, there's still that other wolf pack they have to deal with. But something tells me this father-son duo can handle just about anything.

There is still, of course, the question of what exactly Jaden's character will have to survive in the film. Director M. Night Shyamalan is notorious for throwing huge twists in at the end of his movies, so you can bet there will be one in After Earth. Even Jaden couldn't say much without giving something away.

"Is my character tough at surviving?" Jaden said. "At the beginning, sort of, you've got to watch the movie. There's multiple different answers for that."

So grab your family members, head to the theater, and settle in for a Swiss family — I mean, Smith family — adventure.

After Earth opens nationwide May 31.

'Fast & Furious' Faces Two New Box Office Challengers This Weekend

After a record-breaking Memorial Day weekend for the industry, Universal's Fast & Furious 6 looks to make it two in a row at the top of the box office chart with a second weekend gross in the $40 million range (Fast Five dropped 62% in its second weekend, but we expect a slightly lower drop). With $130 million already in the bank after just six days of release in North America (and well north of $300 million globally), the film is already an out and out blockbuster success.
No stranger to summer success is Will Smith, who debuts this weekend in the existential sc-fi movie After Earth from Sony Pictures. The film co-stars Smith's son Jaden Smith who starred in the 2010 hit The Karate Kid. Director M. Night Shyamalan, who has as many detractors as fans, is nonetheless an exciting filmmaker with a distinctive vision. An expected debut of about $30 million should land it easily in second place.
Third place will likely go to Paramount's Star Trek: Into Darkness in its third weekend of release with a weekend gross in the $20 million range and total revenues nearing $200 million in North America. Great word-of-mouth has continued for the second installment of the J.J. Abrams re-boot of the classic franchise.
A real traffic jam may develop in the battle for fourth and fifth place with the second weekend of Fox's animated Epic likely to draw a gross in the high teens and thus find itself in a close race with Lionsgate's magic crime caper film Now You See Me, which is expected to debut in the same range. Featuring a terrific ensemble cast including Jesse Eisenberg, Morgan Freeman, and Mark Ruffalo, this unique and original drama could find an audience with those looking for something different than the usual summer fare.
The wildcard is the Wolf Pack. Back for its second weekend, Warner Bros. The Hangover Part III could wind up wedging between Epic and Now You See Me depending on the second weekend drop. Of course, Iron Man 3 remains a factor even as it enters its fifth weekend.

Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, and Woody Harrelson Work Their (Illegal) Magic in 6 'Now You See Me' Clips

Louis Leterrier's magician movie Now You See Me creates a ragtag Robin Hood team out of a collection of dissimilar illusionists: Jesse Eisenberg's card trickster, Woody Harrelson's mentalist, Isla Fisher's daredevil, and Dave Franco's sleight-of-hand street performer. After an enigmatic meeting, the foursome bands together to pull off the biggest magic show imaginable: using their assorted skills to rob a French bank and subsequently evade the wrath of the FBI (with Mark Ruffalo leading the investigation).
Here, we have six clips from the fun thriller, in which the quad works its way through an international heist, some heated police interrogation, and a few personal squabbles. Check out the videos, and catch Now You See Me in theaters on Friday, May 31.

Summit Entertainment

'Scenic Route' Trailer: Is Josh Duhamel's Mohawk More Terrifying Than His Murderous Rage?

Well, here's an early contender for the title of "Feel Bad Movie of 2013." Scenic Route stars Josh Duhamel and Dan Fogler as two life-long friends whose relationship is, um, tested after they're stranded together in a desert. Unexpected fault lines in their friendship rise to the surface and eventually erupt into homicidal violence.
But even with the bond between Duhamel and Fogler's characters being strained to the point of psychosis, the scariest thing about the movie, directed by brothers Michael & Kevin Goetz from a script by Awake's Kyle Killen, has gotta be Duhamel's freaky, grease-stained mohawk.

Vertical Entertainment

Theater Owners Want to Cut the Audience a Break, Shorten Movie Trailers

iStockphoto; No Credit

Trailers have long been a part of the moviegoing experience, but they may soon be getting shorter. According to The Hollywood Reporter, The National Association of Theater Owners wants to pass new regulations that cut the maximum length of movie trailers from 2 minutes and 30 seconds to just 2 minutes. Now, 30 seconds doesn’t seem like that much time, but when it comes to marketing a movie, this extra bit can be crucial. This is good news for those of us who doesn’t like sitting through 20 minutes of trailers, but bad news for the movie studios.
Some theater owners feel that trailers are too long and can give away too much of the plot of the movie, which upsets audiences. The studios disagree, believing that these new rules could seriously hurt their marketing strategy. A well-made movie trailer can pique the interest of the audience and get them excited for future releases — and putting such strict time constraints on them might make this harder. How would marketing for huge summer blockbusters change if the trailers could no longer send the message that the studios wanted them to?
Although NATO thinks that shortening trailers could increase ticket sales, that seems doubtful. Who’s to say theaters wouldn’t just play more of the shorter trailers? How about we get rid of the dumb car and insurance commercials before the movie instead? Those are what are really annoying.
Speaking of trailers... Here's one for Now You See Me, which hits theaters May 30. Unfortunately, this one is over two minutes.

The Backstreet Boys Cuddle Baby Pandas — And There Are Photos

ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images

You know what's larger than life? The Backstreet Boys holding and feeding pandas, that's what.

Why are the Backstreet Boys feeding pandas, you ask? They're doing it because I want it that way — and also because they're touring overseas for the band's 20th anniversary. While performing in China on their In A World Like This tour, Nick, Brian, Kevin, Howie, and A.J. visited the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Quit playing games with our hearts, Backstreet Boys. You know we can't handle it when you do adorable things like this.

In addition to touring, the boys are coming out with a brand new album, also called In A World Like This, which will be released on July 30, 2013. 

A new album, a new tour, and pandas? Backstreet's back, alright?

'Under The Dome' Sneak Peek: Get Trapped In Stephen King's World In This Brand New Poster

CBS

Are you ready for the most captivating new series of the summer? One of Hollywood’s biggest directors, Steven Spielberg, is pairing with literary giant Stephen King for an out of this world CBS event. Under The Dome is a whirlwind of drama, intrigue, and jaw-dropping mysteries that is unlike anything else on TV.
Hollywood.com just finished screening the premiere episode of Under The Dome and we’re now counting down the seconds until you get to experience the sci-fi phenomenon for yourself. To help get you as excited as we are, we’ve got your first look at the brand new poster for King’s best-selling novel turned TV series.

Under The Dome centers on the small town of Chester’s Mill, which is suddenly sealed off by an invisible barrier and traps the citizens within the limited confines of the city’s border. Executive Producer Neal Baer promises that audiences will be blown away by the creative vision that Spielberg and King have created in this one-of-a-kind series.
"It seems like Steven Spielberg sees the best in humanity and Stephen King is always seeing the worst. But they do have a lot of similarities — they’re both really aggressive humanists. They both just love people so much and throwing them into extraordinary situations and seeing what happens," Baer says.
Don’t the series premiere of Under The Dome Monday, June 24th at 10 PM on CBS.

Snoop Lion and Miley Cyrus Collaborate On "Ashtrays and Heartbreaks"

RCA Records

Talk about unexpected combinations. The music video for Snoop Dogg Lion’s latest single “Ashtrays and Heartbreaks” came out today, and it features one of the last people you think the rapper would collaborate with: former pop princess Miley Cyrus.
The video takes place in a rundown neighborhood in Los Angeles, where people don’t seem to be alarmed that Snoop and Miley are appearing in every reflective surface. Also a guy feeds a bird in slow motion, which I'm guessing is supposed to be symbolic. The video is actually kinda depressing, but then again, the song is about death. And smoking. Check it out below.

'America’s Got Talent': Howard Stern Reveals The Brutal Truth on Working with Heidi Klum and Mel B

NBC

With any reality competition, the chemistry between the celebrity judges has to be fiery enough to grab our attention, but not too heated to draw attention away from the contestants. This season on America’s Got Talent, fans will be introduced to a brand new set of judges with big personalities and even bigger opinions.
Former Victoria’s Secret supermodel Heidi Klum and Spice Girl vet Mel B are the newest celebs to join the NBC hit and fellow judge Howard Stern has plenty to say about it. Take a look at the sneak peek clip below to see how Stern really feels about working with the newcomers and find out which woman has the gusto to stand up to the King of All Media when he’s out of line.

Drama Ensues at 'Real Housewives of Miami' Star Lea Black's Evening Bag Launch Event

Kim Everman/

Real Housewives of Miami star Lea Black unveiled her new line of bejeweled evening bags and bracelets at boutique Rene Ruiz in Coral Gables, Miami, on Wednesday night. Above, Lea holds one of her favorite designs. The event was filmed for the Real Housewives of Miami and, as is wont to happen when that clique gets together, the cameras brought along some drama.
Lea's bags, which she describes as "timeless," are representative of Lea's personal style — sparkly yet classic. Lea has been seen wearing her bags to events featured on the hit Bravo reality show and decided to now market her one-of-a-kind designs to the public.
As much as the evening tried to focus on fashion, the ladies couldn't help but be sidetracked by drama, fueled by the Bravo producers. In the middle of the lovely event decorated with orchids, one of the producers went up to Real Housewife Lisa Hochstein and told her something one of the other girls said about her. Lisa then pulled fellow Housewife Alexia Echevarria aside and had a heated conversation. Before the end of the evening, Lisa made a dramatic early exit, storming out of the event. Lisa plays the Real Housewife role so well!

Kim Everman

By the end of the night, not many of Lea's pieces were sold — but the crowd seemed to be there more for the spectacle than to shop. But Lea's latest endeavor does seem promising, the purses are really beautiful (think a more practical, sturdier Judith Leiber) and the price point is great, running around $300 for a clutch. The prices go all the way up to about $1500 for the more unique made-to-order Swarovski encrusted purses.
Below, I strike a pose with former RHOM Karent Sierra and my friend Kristin Ducote, wife of racecar driver Chapman Ducote and the author of the book Naked Paddock. I'm modeling some of Lea's gorgeous designs on my wrist — love the sparkle!
For more photos and an in-depth behind-the-scenes look at the event, head to .

'Machete Kills' Trailer Goes Totally Insane with President Charlie Sheen and Sofia Vergara's Machine Gun Bra

Sofia Vergara has a machine gun bra, Lady Gaga is draped in the fur of a wolf, and Charlie Sheen is president of the United States. No, it's not the end of the world — it's the first trailer for Machete Kills.

Danny Trejo is back in the follow-up to Machete, and this time he's got a random assortment of co-stars with him. Michelle Rodriguez, Demián Bichir, Amber Heard, Sofia Vergara, Zoe Saldana, Jessica Alba, Alexa Vega, Mel Gibson, Lady Gaga, and Carlos Estevez (maybe Charlie Sheen thinks we won't recognize him) will all be throwing knives, cracking whips, and shooting at one another. Presumably it will all make sense later — or not.

But no one really cares about the plot that much. We all just want to see Danny Trejo and his flowing locks take down baddie Mel Gibson. Machete Kills opens on September 13. Will you be there, or will you leave Machete for dead again?

Watch the Spanish-language trailer below:

Open Road Films

Tracy Morgan Cast in 'Death Pact,' His First Post-'30 Rock' Comedy Pilot, for FX

JLN Photography/WENN

Tracy Morgan has landed his first comedy pilot since 30 Rock. And no, it has nothing to do with developing videogame porn. He's been cast as the lead in Death Pact, a series for FX about a once lazy, pot-dealing high school coach who becomes a war hero and unleashes a punishing new self-help regiment for three of his hard-luck friends and a down-and-out former student.
Death Pact was created by Rob Long (Cheers) and Tad Safran (The Long Weekend) and will be shot in New York and New Jersey this summer. If picked up, it could air on FX as soon as this fall.

Name the Classic Movie Scene from Its LEGO Likeness

Alex Eylar/flickr

LEGOs are in. While the eight-year-old inside of you has known this to be obvious for quite some time, it seems to have taken the world a while to come around to the fact. But the cherished childhood pastime is making its way back into the mainstream, earning placement in the form of a record-breaking X-Wing sculpture and a new exhibit set to open in Times Square on June 14.
Meanwhile, architectural genius Alex Eylar, who has been recreating famous movie scenes with LEGOs for years, tops the lot with a new homage to Scarface, pictured above. In honor of Eylar's ceaseless devotion to the craft,  and our own passion for LEGOs (and, of course, movies), we've put together a gallery of some of Eylar's greatest cinematic homages. Can you guess each movie the sculptures are depicting? Click below to test your knowledge.
Guess the Movie Scene from Its LEGO Likeness!

Alex Eylar/flickr

'Epic' Stars Aziz Ansari and Chris O’Dowd Talk Camping with Pitbull and Words Worse Than 'Moist'

What do you get when you combine the mystical adventure of FernGully and the awe-inspiring tale of Avatar? Something truly Epic. Filled with countless A-list celebrities, Epic is an action-packed comedy that reveals a fantastical world unlike any other.
When a teenage girl finds herself magically transported into this secret universe, she teams up with an elite band of warriors and a crew of comical, larger-than-life figures, to save their world and ours. Two of those hilarious creatures are a slug and snail voiced by Aziz Ansari and Chris O’Dowd, respectively.
Hollywood.com caught up with the actors to find out how they prepped for their mucus-filled roles and to discuss the universal aversion to the word that makes everyone cringe: moist. To our surprise, Ansari and O’Dowd came up with two additional words that they absolutely detest. Take a look at the video below to find out their secret taboo words and witness a sweet delivery from co-star Amanda Seyfried.

 Director Chris Wedge knows that animated movies are primarily enjoyed by the younger generation, but he aimed to do something truly exciting with Epic. Wedge reveals that in addition to adult-level comedy, Epic
 features adrenaline pumping action scenes that rival most big-budget films. Watch below to learn more Wedge’s creative vision for the film and what he hopes audiences will take away from Epic.
. Make sure to catch Epic in theaters everywhere.

Are You Ready For Seconds? NBC Renews 'Hannibal' For Season 2

Have you been enjoying the deliciously disturbing freshman series Hannibal? Well we hope you’re hungry for more because NBC has just announced that Hannibal has been renewed for Season 2. The gruesome show has been awarded 13 all-new episodes and is expected to return next mid-season or later.
Brian Fuller’s killer drama has become a fan favorite on the peacock network so it’ll be interesting to discover how much darker the Hannibal Lector-based series will go in it’s sophomore season. It's likely that stars Hugh Dancy, as expert criminal profiler Will Dancy, and Mads Mikkelsen, as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, will also return for Hannibal's second season.
“We’re so proud of Bryan’s vision for a show that is richly textured, psychologically complex, and very compelling,” NBC Entertainment president Jennifer Salke said. “There are many great stories still to be told.”
Don't miss an all-new episode of Hannibal tonight at 10 PM on NBC.

'Despicable Me 2': Watch Steve Carell’s Hilarious Gru Makeover On 'Ellen'

Ellen

We seriously can’t stop smiling. Why you ask? Well we just watched, Despicable Me star Gru in his very first TV appearance. The former villain-turned-amazing father of three stopped by The Ellen DeGeneres Show Thursday afternoon to promote his summer blockbuster Despicable Me 2 and to dazzle audiences with his sweet moves.
Dressed exactly like his cartoon alterego (freakishly large nose and all) Steve Carell takes a seat beside host Ellen DeGeneres and stays in character for the entire interview. It’s pretty damn impressive considering Gru’s over-the-top accent and oddly shaped physique — but of course Carell was comedic perfection while DeGeneres struggled to contain her giggles.
Take a look at the video below to watch Gru move and groove through the Ellen audience and don’t forget to catch Despicable Me 2 when it hits theaters Friday July 3.

Zombies Don't Phase Emma Watson In 'This Is The End' Clip

There is now a theory for what caused the end of the world in This Is The End — it's a zombie invasion.

Emma Watson shows up in the comedian bunker looking dirty, disheveled, and exhausted. She bided her time in a drain pipe while zombies apparently roamed around. Jay Baruchel is unconvinced zombies were the cause of the end though, so we're still not quite sure how this apocalypse came about. But we'll find out on June 12, when This Is the End comes out. Until then, maybe we should all follow Watson's example and grab the nearest ax — just to be safe.

Columbia Pictures

It's Wolverine Vs. Loki (Kind of) In Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal's 'Prisoners' Trailer

What happens when you put Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Terrence Howard in a film together? Well, aside from the obvious visual benefits, you get Prisoners, a film about parents searching for their kidnapped daughters, and the detective who's trying to help.

Jackman and Howard play the fathers of two girls who go missing one evening. They, along with their wives (played respectively by Maria Bello and Viola Davis), turn to Detective Loki, played by Gyllenhaal. 

Paul Dano plays the driver of the RV in which the missing girls were last seen playing... and yes, he does wear those creepy '70s glasses you'd expect from an RV-driving kidnapper. But when the police can't get anything out of Dano, they let him go. Jackman's not too happy about that, so he then kidnaps Dano at gunpoint in an attempt to find his daughter. It's like the Inception of kidnapping, if Inception had a declawed Wolverine. 

It's also interesting to note that Loki is the Norse god of mischief. Will that have something to do with Gyllenhaal's character? I don't know, maybe not. Maybe I'm just excited for Avengers 2.

Warner Bros.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Confirms 'Terminator 5' and 'Conan' and 'Twins' Sequels

Warner Bros

He's gone from Terminator to Governator — I mean, Governor — back to Terminator again. That's right, Arnold Schwarzenegger is working on the fifth Terminator installment. And that's not all: the actor confirms that the long-rumored Conan the Barbarian and Twins sequels are indeed in the works.

Schwarzenegger has slowly been getting back into the acting world since he left office in 2011. He had an expanded cameo in Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables 2 and starred as a small-town sheriff who takes down a drug lord in The Last Stand. They weren't Oscar contenders, but they were the exciting action flicks fans have come to love Schwarzenegger for, and now they'll will get to see him take on some old fan-favorite roles.

"There are three projects being written that involve me," Schwarzenegger told The Guardian. "One is Terminator 5, the other is a Conan movie that Universal is doing and there's the sequel to Twins, which is called Triplets. We'll all look quite different in that. The third triplet is Eddie Murphy, so figure that one out."

We're not quite sure how Eddie Murphy is gong to end up as a triplet of Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, who played Schwarzenegger's twin in the 1988 comedy, but we're curious to find out. In the meantime, you can see Schwarzenegger in Escape Plan, which opens in September.

Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj Are Leaving 'American Idol'

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After a pretty stable near-decade with the original trifecta of Simon, Paula, and Randy, the American Idol judges bench has seen an alarming rate of turnover these past couple of years. The twelfth season of the Fox reality series brought in big names like Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj...a pair that quickly earned infamy for their mutual hostility. After a slew of rumors inviting the possibility of Carey and Minaj's departure from Idol after just one season, announcements on Thursday night confirmed that both music artists would indeed be stepping down from the program.
ABC reports that Carey will not be returning for the 2013-'14 season, nor will Minaj (whose departure has been all but official for quite some time now). Following the dismissal of the only remaining original judge Randy Jackson, this leaves us with Keith Urban, who has expressed interest in continuing his Idol tour. But with rumors surrounding Jennifer Hudson as an incoming judge, he might not be alone for long.

'Now You See Me' Doesn't Realize That It's Supposed to Be Fun

Summit Entertainment

A good magic show isn't all about the payoff — in fact, it can't be. In order to dazzle, mystify, and distract an audience all the way up to the big reveal, a performing illusionist must put on one hell of a spectacle. The nature of this material can vary: For the likes of David Blaine and Criss Angel, it's all about the thrill. For Penn & Teller, it's about comedy. For Siegfried and Roy, it's about being as ostentatious as humanly possible. But all three of these ideas, dissimilar though they may be, are rooted in fun — a fact that the magician-stocked heist film Now You See Me seems to forget halfway through its run.
In fact, the Louis Leterrier movie does have a good deal of fun stocked away: its would-be central team of Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, and Dave Franco play a motley crew of dissimilar magicians who band together after a mysterious meeting to form a Robin Hood troupe of high level criminals. The group, dubbing themselves the Four Horsemen, use magic shows to rob banks and insurance companies, distributing the money to the working class men and women who have been wronged by big business (yet who can still afford a trip to Vegas and tickets to a magic show... let it slide). The team's elaborate performances make for some of the film's best material, second only to the behind-the-scenes squabbling that stems from personal rivalries and ideological differences. Eisenberg's narcissistic card trickster frequently butts heads with Harrelson's no-nonsense "mentalist" and Fisher's daredevil... all of whom look down upon Franco's sleight-of-hand street hustler.
All attention devoted to the Four Horsemen, whose origins are embedded in mystery, is charming and entertaining, thanks largely to the charisma of the players in question — Eisenberg and Harrelson haven't lost their Zombieland chemistry. Unfortunately, we get barely any time to witness this glory, as Now You See Me seems bent on lending its focus to the other side of the story: FBI Agent Mark Ruffalo's pursuit of the criminal team, and his interractions with Interpol Officer Mélanie Laurent and magic-debunker Morgan Freeman all the while. Far less engrossing than any of the Horsemen's antics, Ruffalo's journey plays out like any hot-on-the-chase summer crime thriller, with the hard nosed agent obsessing over the case, entertaining paranoid conspiracies, and alienating his colleagues and cohorts. For a movie that sells itself on its magic and its all-star cast, it doesn't really seem that interested in either, devoting far more time than necessary to the chase. Why, you might ask?
For the big twist. Of course a summer movie, and one delivered on the pretense of magic, has a big twist ending. Whether it needs, deserves, or benefits from one is another question (the answer: No). But Now You See Me seems to put all its eggs in the big reveal basket, investing a crescendoing burn to the identity of the enigmatic stranger who brought the Horsemen together. Meanwhile, it misses out on what every magician knows to be a key component of the act: the act itself. The lead-up is just as important as the ta-da. And while Now You See Me has plenty of magic up its sleeve in the form of its central tricksters, it's too focused on what's behind the curtain to enjoy the show all the while.

'Fast and Furious' Director Justin Lin Hints that Han Is Still Alive!

Universal Pictures

People die in the Fast and Furious franchise. That is something we have come to terms with over the course of it's six (soon to be seven) installments. But one of the most painful deaths to watch was that of Han Seoul-Oh, played by Sung Kang. And what's worse is that we had to watch it twice.

Han was a much-loved character. He didn't say much, but when he did speak it was always to impart some deep wisdom to his fellow drivers. We were sad to see him go in Tokyo Drift, but pleased when he showed up in films four through six, which were actually set before Tokyo Drift. Then came that fateful scene in Fast & Furious 6 that showed Han's death scene in Tokyo. We had to watch one of our favorites die again — or did we?

Justin Lin, who directed each Fast film from Tokyo Drift to Fast 6, is leaving the Fast and Furious franchise, so he did one last Twitter Q&A. When one fan asked if Han was dead after the car accident in Tokyo, Lin responded only by saying, "Hmmmm."

Does this mean Han survived? The franchise brought Michelle Rodriguez's character back, so it's possible. It's also possible that Lin is just stringing us along. But for now, we'll hold out hope that Han will return to speak more words of wisdom and, of course, shift gears fast and furiously in various high-stress situations.

8 Crazy Things That Really Happened In Vegas

Warner Bros.

Las Vegas is a place where practically anything can happen. Which makes it a perfect match for the guys of The Hangover movies, who are known for getting into all sorts of shenanigans. While the plots of their movies seem a little far-fetched, they’re easier to believe once you hear about the crazy (even explosive) things that have occurred in Vegas over the years.
Since the Wolf Pack is back in Vegas for their latest antics in The Hangover Part III, here are 8 outrageous things that really happened in Sin City. Check out our gallery for stunts gone wrong, casino heists and celebrity scandals.

Splash News

'Epic' Stars Colin Farrell and Amanda Seyfried Spill Behind-the-Scenes Secrets

Twentieth Century Fox

Epic takes an ordinary teenage girl and magically transports her into a secret universe, teaming her up with an elite band of warriors and a crew of comical, larger-than-life figures, to save their world and ours. Amanda Seyfried lends her legendary Les Miserables voice to the film as Mary Katherine while Colin Farrell brought the stoic general Ronin to life. Hollywood.com caught up with both actors to find out how they prepped for their Epic roles and we were surprised to learn that there is a lot more grunting and screaming behind the scenes. Take a look at the video below to find out Ferrell’s reaction to seeing his character for the first time and the woman that he really wished he had worked with (hint: Jay-Z might be jealous when he hears this).

 Seyfried dazzled audiences everywhere in her role of Cosette, but nearly ruined her singing voice because of Epic. Watch the video below to learn more about the proper way to scream and take a trip down memory lane as the actress reflects on her favorite childhood activities.

You can catch Epic now in theaters everywhere.