Emboldened by the success of Valentine’s Day, Garry Marshall took another crack at the holiday-based all-star anthology in 2011, with similarly repulsive results. This time, though, movie-goers commendably ignored him (and hopefully quashed plans for Columbus Day or whatever the hell was coming next). Of course, it’s never a good idea to interpret the commercial failure of a terrible movie as anything more than an aberration. But in this case, there was an encouraging sense that the world had finally revolted against a sub-genre populated by cynical, bald-faced cash-grabs.

And indeed, New Year’s Eve is the romantic comedy distilled to its basest form; a film that trots out a dizzying array of A-listers and expects applause, while abandoning time-consuming chores like character, story and dialogue. Hit the jump for the full review.

Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for Hall Pass, the latest comedy from the Farrelly brothers (There’s Something About Mary).  Owen Wilson (Marley and Me) and Jason Sudeikis (Saturday Night Live) star as two best friends whose wives “take a bold approach to revitalizing their individual marriages: granting them a ‘hall pass,’ one week of freedom to do whatever they want…no questions asked.”  Christina Applegate (Going the Distance) and Jenna Fischer (The Office) star as the wives.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer and synopsis.

The cast of The Farrelly Brothers’ next comedy, Hall Pass, continues to grow as Christina Applegate, Alyssa Milano, Larry Campbell, and Vanessa Angel have all signed on to co-star.  They will join Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Jenna Fischer, Amanda Bynes, Stephen Merchant, J.B. Smoove, Nickey Whelan, and Derek Waters.  All this casting is surprising when you stop to consider that the Farrelly Brothers’ previous film, a remake of The Heartbreak Kid, was one of the worst things ever to happen to mankind.

Their new comedy, which they co-wrote with Pete Jones and Kevin Barnett, revolves around two husbands who are given permission to go outside their marriages for guilt-free romantic liaisons for one week.  If J.B. Smoove doesn’t tell one of the lead characters to “Get in dat ass,” this whole project will be a waste.

It’s a little hard to believe that the “Ghostbusters” franchise has been dormant for so long (it’s not like the second film was a catastrophe of “Batman & Robin” proportions) but now “Ghostbusters” has risen from the dead with a videogame debuting this summer and now Dan Aykroyd telling the LA Times that the third film in the series could start filming as soon this winter.

While some elements are still in flux (such as the plot details), Aykroyd cements some elements:

- Ivan Reitman will NOT return to direct the third film as he’s far too busy with his producing commitments.  However, Dr. Egon Spengler, Harold Ramis, could possibly direct the new installment.

- Aykroyd, Ramis, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, and Sigourney Weaver will all return but in a reduced capacity.  Aykroyd wisely notes, “I’d like it to be a passing-of-the-torch movie. Let’s revisit the old characters briefly and happily and have them there as family but let’s pass it on to a new generation.”  I couldn’t agree more.  While we all love how these actors portrayed their characters, no one wants to guys in their sixties strapping on proton packs.

Hit the jump to read who Aykroyd would like to see fill out the beige jumpsuits.