[This is a re-post of my review from the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.  The Company You Keep opens tomorrow in limited release.]

Chase films probably shouldn’t feature septuagenarians. Robert Redford‘s The Company You Keep is two movies: one is a surprisingly entertaining investigative thriller, and the other is the most casual, least threatening chase flick I’ve ever seen. Redford has lined-up a tremendous cast, yet spreads them around in weak bit parts, leaving the majority of the picture to himself and Shia LaBeouf. Mixed between their characters’ two stories are confused messages about the value of the truth and rallying for your beliefs (provided it’s not too much of an inconvenience).

Lionsgate has released a new trailer for director Justin Zackham’s ensemble romantic comedy The Big Wedding.  The film centers on a divorced couple (Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton) who are forced to pretend like they’re still married when their adopted son’s (Ben Barnes) deeply religious biological mother comes to town for his wedding.  Though the cast boasts some actual talent, the way the movie is framed in this recent trailer almost plays like a parody, complete with cheesy voiceover, zany physical comedy, and The Romantics’ “What I Like About You.”  The pic was previously scheduled for release last October before Lionsgate decided to push it to this spring.

Hit the jump to take a look at the new trailer.  The film also stars Katherine Heigl, Amanda Seyfried, Susan Sarandon, Topher Grace, and Robin Williams.  The Big Wedding opens on October 26th.

Here’s the latest casting news:

• Rufus Sewell (Dark City) will join Dwayne Johnson (Snitch) in Brett Ratner’s fantasy epic, Hercules.
• Susan Sarandon (Thelma & Louise) is in talks to star alongside Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) in the raunchy road trip movie, Tammy, along with Kathy Bates (Misery).
• Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids) will reteam with Anchorman 2 filmmakers Will Ferrell and Adam McKay for the indie comedy, Welcome to Me.

Hit the jump for more on each casting announcement. 

At first blush, writer/director Ric Roman Waugh’s action drama Snitch looks to be much heavier on the action part of that descriptor.  If you go into the theater having glimpsed at the movie’s trailer, poster and clips, or if you just know that it stars Dwayne Johnson (Faster), you might be expecting just another fun but shallow B movie.  Hopefully you’d be pleasantly surprised, like I was, to find a much more complex plot that raises the stakes for each of its fully-realized characters in a way that tests the viewer’s limits of believability without crashing through them, all while delivering on the promised action sequences.  Hit the jump for my review of Snitch.  

A new trailer for director Robert Redford’s thriller The Company You Keep has been released online.  In addition to directing, Redford also stars in the film as a civil rights lawyer who must go on the run when he’s outed by a young reporter (Shia LaBeouf) as being a former 1970s Weather Underground militant.  The trailer teases an engrossing thriller with a stellar ensemble cast that includes Susan Sarandon, Anna Kendrick, Chris Cooper, Terrence Howard, and Brit Marling.  LaBeouf looks to be in fine form as well as the film’s lead, and I’m eager to see how Redford expands on the plot’s themes in the full feature.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer, and click here to read Matt’s review of the film from last year’s Toronto Film Festival.  The pic also stars Julie Christie, Sam Elliott, Brendan Gleeson, Richard Jenkins, Stanley Tucci, and Nick Nolte.  The Company You Keep opens on April 5th.

With director Ric Roman Waugh’s (Felon) Snitch opening February 22, we’ve been provided with five clips.  The film stars Dwayne Johnson as a father whose son is wrongly accused of a crime and sentenced to 10 years in jail.  In order to clear the boy’s name, he must go undercover and risk his own life.   Snitch also stars Susan Sarandon, Michael Kenneth Williams, Jon Bernthal, Benjamin Bratt and Barry Pepper.   Hit the jump to check out the clips and look for our exclusive video interviews with the cast soon.

Dwayne Johnson is really getting ahead of the curve when it comes to Super Bowl spots.  Earlier today his Super Bowl commercial for the “Got Milk?” campaign was released online, and now Summit has unveiled its Super Bowl spot for the upcoming thriller Snitch.  Johnson stars in the film as a father who volunteers to go undercover for the DEA in order to clear his son’s name and get him out of a ten-year prison sentence.  There’s a nice vigilante vibe from this trailer, and it looks as if director Ric Roman Waugh gives Johnson an opportunity to stretch his dramatic chops as well.

Hit the jump to watch the TV spot, and check back here on Collider Sunday night for a round-up of commercials and movie ads from the big game.  Snitch also stars Susan Sarandon, Michael K. Williams, Jon Bernthal, and Benjamin Bratt and opens on February 22nd.

Dwayne Johnson is one of a handful of action stars who are trying to re-energize the genre and it looks as if his new film Snitch could be a much-needed shot in the arm.  From director Ric Roman Waugh (Felon), Johnson stars as a father who volunteers to go undercover for the DEA in order to clear his son’s name and get him out of a ten-year prison sentence.  This cut is much tighter than the first trailer and delivers the plot conceit quickly before getting to the bread-and-butter action scenes.  Also starring Susan Sarandon, Michael Kenneth Williams, Jon Bernthal, Benjamin Bratt and Barry Pepper, Snitch opens February 22nd.  Hit the jump to watch the new trailer.

Judging by the trailer for Snitch, mandatory minimums are a great law-enforcement strategy as long as you force Dwayne Johnson to be an untrained undercover informant.  Johnson plays a father who, in order to keep his son from going to jail, is forced to work with the feds to take down a drug kingpin (Benjamin Bratt).  Snitch could end up being a bunch of goofy, B-movie fun especially with a strong supporting cast that includes Michael Kenneth Williams, Barry Pepper, Harold Perrineau, and Susan Sarandon.  Or, it could be Faster.  I’m hoping it’s the former.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Snitch opens February 22, 2013.

The wildly ambitious adaptation of Cloud Atlas is a brilliant piece of filmmaking from writers/directors Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer, but it’s also a very hard sell for general audiences.  The film takes place across multiple settings and time periods, with the fantastic ensemble cast taking on a number of different characters.  In order to entice those who may be a bit apprehensive about the film, an extensive 13-minute featurette has been released that features interviews with the directors and the entire cast explaining how the film works.  It’s a fascinating watch not only to see how The Wachowskis and Tykwer pulled this thing off, but also to get a look at the whole cast in their various make-up and costumes.

Hit the jump to watch the featurette, and click here to catch up on all of our previous coverage.  The film stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, Doona Bae, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Keith David, Ben Whishaw and James D’Arcy.  Cloud Atlas opens on October 26th.

I have been looking forward to this weekend for a long time, because this is Cloud Atlas weekend.  Since I was convinced by the word Wachowski from day one, I have stubbornly avoided watching too much beyond the first trailer to go in as fresh as possible for what looks to be one of the few truly ambitious wide releases this year.  Thankfully Dave is still around to help provide context for a “ridiculously cool” featurette.  Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, Keith David, Ben Whishaw, Hugh Grant, and Jim Broadbent discuss the multiple characters they get to play in the five-minute clip—titled “An Actor’s Dream”—which features plenty of behind-the-scenes footage.

Co-directed by Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski, and Tom Tykwer, Cloud Atlas opens on October 26.  Watch the featurette after the jump.

Warner Bros. has released a new behind-the-scenes featurette for The Wachowski Siblings and Tom Tywker‘s Cloud Atlas.  The studio has a difficult task of selling the movie because it’s so different than what audiences are used to, and yet the film is surprisingly accessible if you’re willing to go along with its central conceit: six storylines with overlapping themes and shared actors.  The trailers and TV spots are pushing glowing pull quotes and the overarching plot devices, and this new featurette is in line with that marketing approach.  The only hurdle is in trying to get audiences to go in even though they don’t know the individual plotlines.  It’s a challenge viewers need to meet or else they’ll be missing out on one of the year’s best films.

Hit the jump to check out the featurette, and click here for my review of the film.  The movie stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, James D’Arcy, Xun Zhou, Keith David, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon, and Hugh Grant.  Cloud Atlas opens October 26th.

An insane amount of images from the upcoming adaptation of Cloud Atlas has been released.  The film comes from writers/directors Lana and Andy Wachowski (The Matrix trilogy) and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run), and early word has been enormously positive.  Our own Matt Goldberg considers it one of the best films of the year and notes that it’s “an important film in terms of how it breaks the boundaries of cinema and challenges the audience to cast aside preconceived notions of how genres and narratives have to work.”  You can read his full review right here while you patiently await the impeding release date.  Here’s hoping audiences spark to what sounds like a very special piece of filmmaking.

Hit the jump to check out over 80 images.  The film stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, James D’Arcy, Xun Zhou, Keith David, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon, and Hugh Grant.  Cloud Atlas opens October 26th. 

A few big names in today’s casting round-up:

• Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting) is set to re-team with The Brothers Grimm director, Terry Gilliam, for a small role in his upcoming film, The Zero Theorem.
• Kevin Kline (The Ice Storm) is set as the lead of Errol Flynn in Quinceañera directors Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland’s indie, The Last of Robin Hood.  Susan Sarandon (Thelma & Louise) will co-star.

Hit the jump for much more on both films. 

Chase films probably shouldn’t feature septuagenarians.  Robert Redford‘s The Company You Keep is two movies: one is a surprisingly entertaining investigative thriller, and the other is the most casual, least threatening chase flick I’ve ever seen.  Redford has lined-up a tremendous cast, yet spreads them around in weak bit parts, leaving the majority of the picture to himself and Shia LaBeouf.  Mixed between their characters’ two stories are confused messages about the value of the truth and rallying for your beliefs provided it’s not too much of an inconvenience.