On the one-year anniversary of The Collision, we take a look at how terrorism-related action movies have changed in the years since 9/11, balancing thoughtfulness and violent entertainment, escapism, America’s short-term memory, and more.  This surprisingly weighty discussion is sparked by exploring the shortcomings of Antoine Fuqua‘s new film, Olympus Has Fallen.  As always, we finish up with our recommendations.

Click here to listen to the new episode of The Collision, click here for the previous episode (“The Veronica Mars Movie Kickstarter”), click here to add the podcast to your RSS, and click here to find us on iTunes. To keep up to date with The Collision, you can follow us on Twitter at @MattGoldberg, @AdamChitwood, and @DrClawMD (Dave Trumbore). Hit the jump to check out the trailers for this week’s recommendations.

For those who overlooked the record-breaking success of The Hunger Games one year ago, it was a great weekend at the US box office. Two of the three new releases exceeded expectations, with Olympus Has Fallen nearly doubling studio projections. Only the Tina Fey comedy Admission stumbled – barely topping what Spring Breakers brought in from half as many locations.

The nationwide expansion of Harmony Korine‘s Spring Breakers meant that I had the opportunity to catch the film last night at my local theater. We’ll talk a more specifically about our coverage of the film after the jump. For now, I’d like to make a futile attempt at encapsulating my feelings on the pic in the next few sentences. There’s a lot to like about Breakers whether it be the performances (James Franco‘s especially), the music, the slick editing and use of foreshadowing, etc. Nevertheless, for me this isn’t a movie that I “liked” as much as it’s one I respect. It’s beautiful, surreal, challenging, abhorrent, and vapid all at the same time. In other words, it’s art.

I could go on for days about the pic but that’s not why we’re here. In this week’s Top 5 we’ll take a look at our Breakers coverage, some Transformers 4 plot details, Olympus Has Fallen interviews with Gerard Butler and Antoine Fuqua just to name a few, a new trailer and poster for Star Trek Into Darkness, and The Croods interviews with Nicolas Cage and more. As is standard, a brief recap and link to each awaits after the jump.

Although the top ten films combined won’t match the debut of last year’s The Hunger Games, overall it looks like a good weekend at the domestic box office. Things look especially promising for DreamWorks Animation’s The Croods, which is on track for the second-highest debut of 2013 with over $40 million. In its first day in 4,046 locations, The Croods earned an estimated $11.6 million: just under the opening of DWA’s How to Train Your Dragon in March of 2010. In second place, FilmDistrict’s Olympus Has Fallen also looks strong. The R-rated thriller exceeded expectations on Friday with an estimated take of $10 million from 3,098 locations, and is now on track to top $25 million through Sunday. After setting records in just three theatres last weekend, Spring Breakers expanded into 1,104 venues yesterday and earned an estimated $2.1 million for fifth place. The only new release headed for trouble, in fact, is Admission. The comedy opened in sixth place and will fall short of $7 million from its 2,160 dates this weekend. We’ll have full details tomorrow.

Opening this weekend is director Antoine Fuqua’s White House actioner Olympus Has Fallen.  The film stars Gerard Butler as a disgraced Secret Service agent called back to duty when terrorists take over the White House and capture the President (Aaron Eckhart).  The film also stars Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, and Rick Yune.  If you’ve been waiting for Butler to return to action, you’re going to be very happy watching Olympus Has Fallen.  Not only is the film a hard R for graphic violence, it features Butler kicking ass in some great action set pieces.  Watch some clips here.

A few days ago I landed an exclusive interview with Fuqua here in Los Angeles.   During our wide-ranging conversation we talked about what it’s been like promoting the film all over the country,  how Seven Samurai was the movie that inspired him to become a filmmaker, the interesting way he got into directing (an art class in college led to him abandoning electrical engineering and pursuing a career in film), making Olympus Has Fallen, deleted scenes, the length of his first cut, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

Opening this weekend is director Antoine Fuqua’s White House actioner Olympus Has Fallen.  The film stars Gerard Butler as a disgraced Secret Service agent called back to duty when terrorists take over the White House and capture the President (Aaron Eckhart).  The film also stars Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, and Rick Yune.  If you’ve been waiting for Butler to return to action, you’re going to be very happy watching Olympus Has Fallen.  Not only is the film a hard R for graphic violence, it features Butler kicking ass in some great action set pieces.  Watch some clips here.

A few days ago I landed an exclusive interview with Eckhart here in Los Angeles.   During our wide-ranging conversation, we talked about making Olympus Has Fallen, the great supporting cast, the violence, how he got into acting, Twitter, how he prepares for a role, the way great directors craft a performance, I, Frankenstein and whether he will join the cast of Divergent.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to the interview.

“It’s Die Hard in the White House” is the high-concept pitch for Olympus Has Fallen.  It’s a good pitch, but it’s only a pitch.  The movie doesn’t understand what makes Die Hard compelling beyond “a hero trapped and alone has to take out bad guys and save hostages”.  It’s about well-written characters and a confident tone, and Olympus Has Fallen has neither.  Director Antoine Fuqua may have his movie paced like a tight action flick, but it’s a confused picture in terms of mood and plot.  Furthermore, it misses the obvious aspect of giving us a hero worth rooting for and a villain worth rooting against.  Olympus Has Fallen sticks us in the crossfire and no one knows how to shoot.

Opening this weekend is director Antoine Fuqua’s White House actioner Olympus Has Fallen.  The film stars Gerard Butler as a disgraced Secret Service agent called back to duty when terrorists take over the White House and capture the President (Aaron Eckhart).  The film also stars Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, and Rick Yune.  If you’ve been waiting for Butler to return to action, you’re going to be very happy watching Olympus Has Fallen.  Not only is the film a hard R for graphic violence, it features Butler kicking ass in some great action set pieces.  Watch some clips here.

A few days ago I landed an exclusive interview with Butler here in Los Angeles.   During our wide-ranging conversation, we talked about making Olympus Has Fallen, what it means to him, the great supporting cast, why he took a break from action films, the byproduct of being a celebrity, future projects, and more.  In addition, he also talked about How to Train Your Dragon 2, what it’s about, having a script this time, recording his dialogue, redoing about 70% of the first film after seeing the finished film, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to the interview.

Opening this weekend is director Antoine Fuqua’s (Training Day) White House actioner Olympus Has Fallen.  The film stars Gerard Butler as a disgraced Secret Service agent called back to duty when terrorists take over the White House and capture the President (Aaron Eckhart).  The film also stars Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, and Rick Yune.  If you’ve been waiting for Butler to return to action, you’re going to be very happy watching Olympus Has Fallen.  Not only is the film a hard R for graphic violence, it features Butler kicking ass in some great action set pieces.  Watch some clips here.

During the recent New York City press junket, I got to speak with McDermott and Yune.  We talked about how the film is a hard R realistic take on what could actually happen to the White House, the way they prepared for their roles, the action scenes, how Olympus Has Fallen is a hard R with blood and guts, script changes, and future projects.  Hit the jump to watch.

Opening this weekend is director Antoine Fuqua’s (Training Day) White House actioner Olympus Has Fallen.  The film stars Gerard Butler as a disgraced Secret Service agent called back to duty when terrorists take over the White House and capture the President (Aaron Eckhart).  The film also stars Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, and Rick Yune.  If you’ve been waiting for Butler to return to action, you’re going to be very happy watching Olympus Has Fallen.  Not only is the film a hard R for graphic violence, it features Butler kicking ass in some great action set pieces.  Watch some clips here.

During the recent New York City press junket, I got to speak with Eckhart and Bassett.  We talked about how the film is a hard R realistic take on what could actually happen to the White House, the way they prepared for their roles, the great cast, and more.  In addition, I also got updates on I, Frankenstein and Black Nativity.  Hit the jump to watch.

If you didn’t get enough of Antoine Fuqua’s Olympus Has Fallen with the ten clips released last week, maybe this new red-band clip will satisfy you.  The actioner centers on a hostile takeover of the White House that puts the President (Aaron Eckhart) at risk. Only disgraced Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) can save the day.  This explosive clip shows how it all goes wrong.

Hit the jump to check out the clip, click here for over 25 high-resolution images from the pic and check out Steve’s recent interview with Butler and Fuqua.  The film also stars Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, and Rick Yune.  Olympus Has Fallen opens on March 22nd.

Opening next weekend is director Antoine Fuqua’s (Training Day) White House actioner Olympus Has Fallen.  The film stars Gerard Butler as a disgraced Secret Service agent called back to duty when terrorists take over the White House and capture the President (Aaron Eckhart).  The film also stars Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, and Rick Yune.  If you’ve been waiting for Butler to return to action, you’re going to be very happy watching Olympus Has Fallen.  Not only is the film a hard R for graphic violence, it features Butler kicking ass in some great action set pieces.  Watch some clips here.

During the recent New York City press junket for the film, I got to speak with Butler and Fuqua.  We talked about how the project came together, how I think Butler needs to kick more ass on movie screens, the violence in the film, was it ever going to be PG-13, did they have to pull back on any of the scenes, and more.  Hit the jump to watch.

A couple of new featurettes for two upcoming films have been released online.  Briefly:

• Oblivion – A new featurette for director Joseph Kosinski’s (Tron: Legacy) sci-fi film boasts a great deal of new footage along with Kosinski and Tom Cruise elaborating on the film’s intriguing plot, which finds Cruise’s character discovering a crashed spaceship on the dystopian Earth’s surface where he works as a drone repairman.  The film opens on April 19th.
• Olympus Has Fallen – A new featurette for director Antoine Fuqua’s (Training Day) White House actioner also features a good amount of new footage from the film with Fuqua and the cast (Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman, and Rick Yune) talking about the pic’s heavy action factor.  The film opens on March 22nd.

Hit the jump to watch both featurettes.

FilmDistrict has released ten new clips from director Antoine Fuqua’s (Shooter) upcoming White House actioner Olympus Has Fallen.  The film stars Gerard Butler as a disgraced Secret Service agent called back to duty when terrorists take over the White House and capture the President (Aaron Eckhart).

Hit the jump to check out the clips, and click here for over 25 high-resolution images from the pic.  The film also stars Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, and Rick Yune.  Olympus Has Fallen opens on March 22nd.

FilmDistrict has released a batch of new high-resolution images from director Antoine Fuqua’s (Training Day) White House actioner Olympus Has Fallen.  The film stars Gerard Butler as a disgraced Secret Service agent called back to duty when terrorists take over the White House and capture the President (Aaron Eckhart).  The pic is one of two similarly-plotted action films that take place in and around the White House that will hit theaters this year, with the other being Roland Emmerich’s White House Down.  Thus far, this film looks like it has a slightly larger scope than Down, but we’ve yet to see a full trailer for the latter.

Hit the jump to take a look at the images.  The film also stars Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Ashley Judd, Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, Dylan McDermott, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser, and Rick Yune.  Olympus Has Fallen opens on March 22nd.