Someone needs to explain Seth MacFarlane to me, because whatever he’s got, I’m not buying it. (I say this out of the gate because I know he has legions of fans, who may now disregard this review as they will.) Every now and then, I heed the “comic genius” labels and tune in to Family Guy or American Dad. Every time, I come away disappointed. MacFarlane carries the air of a bullied child who decides it’s his turn, looking for easy targets and claiming the “outrageous” label to disguise plain, old-fashioned cruelty. In our post-truth pop culture stew, anything that garners attention is acceptable. The release of Ted on Blu-ray can’t even justify that. Hit the jump for the full review.

A few new images from director Sam Raimi’s fantasy epic Oz the Great and Powerful have landed online.  The pic is a prequel to the classic The Wizard of Oz, and centers on a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics (James Franco) who finds himself transported to Oz and drawn into a battle between the three witches Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams).  These images highlight Rami’s colorful world of Oz and give us a look at his iteration of the Munchkins.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film also stars Zach Braff and Abigail Spencer.  Oz the Great and Powerful opens in 3D on March 8th.

New TV spots have been released for Beautiful Creatures and Oz the Great and Powerful.  Beautiful Creatures is a supernatural love story centering on Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) a “caster” (a.k.a. a witch), her relationship with Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich), and her dread at being chosen for good or evil.  This TV spot sells the love-angle, but I can’t help but being slightly intrigued by the supernatural element of the story.  As for Oz the Great and Powerful, the TV spots are about ringing in the New Year with Sam Raimi‘s Wizard of Oz prequel.

Hit the jump to check out the TV spots.  Beautiful Creatures opens February 13th.  Oz the Great and Powerful opens in 3D on March 8th.

A new trailer for director Sam Raimi‘s Oz the Great and Powerful has been released.  Watching this trailer, I can’t help but be confused as to why three witches (Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz, Michelle Williams) need the help of the Wizard (James Franco) simply because we’re going to the lame plot device of “the prophecy”.  Theadora comments that she doesn’t have a broom, but–and correct me if I’m wrong–a witch is a woman who can do magic.  So why does the entire kingdom of Oz depend on one guy showing up when there are three ladies who already have magical powers?  As for the look of the movie, I’m seeing lots of special effects but almost none of Raimi’s personality.  Billed as “From the Director of the Spider-Man  Trilogy” and “The Producer of Alice in Wonderland“, Oz looks like it’s more from the latter.

Hit the jump to watch the new trailer.  The film also stars Zach Braff, and Abigail Spencer.  Oz the Great and Powerful opens on March 8, 2013.

The marketing campaign for director Sam Raimi’s fantasy adventure Oz the Great and Powerful has been curiously ramping up as of late, as we’ve recently seen two new posters and a batch of new images.  We knew that the one-sheets made up two-thirds of a triptych poster, and now that full banner has been revealed in addition to a couple more new images.  The pic is a prequel to the classic The Wizard of Oz, and centers on a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics (James Franco) who finds himself transported to Oz and drawn into a battle between the three witches Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams).  The full banner and images show off even more of Raimi’s colorful world (though the photoshop on the poster is still a tad spotty), and I’m eager to see more footage from the film.  Hopefully a new trailer drops soon.

Hit the jump to check out the poster and images.  The film also stars Zach Braff and Abigail Spencer.  Oz the Great and Powerful opens on March 8, 2013.

Disney has released six new images from Sam Raimi‘s upcoming fantasy-adventure film Oz the Great and Powerful.  The pic is a prequel to the classic The Wizard of Oz, and centers on Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, who finds himself transported to Oz and drawn into a battle between the three witches Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams).  One of these new images shows Diggs making his way through “Chinatown”, where everything is made of china and has been broken by the Wicked Witch and her army.  Diggs puts some of the pieces together and makes the China Girl (voiced by Joey King) who decides to come with him on his journey.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  Oz the Great and Powerful opens in 3D on March 8, 2013.

New photos have emerged from the sets of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and The Angriest Man in Brooklyn.  The set photos from Catching Fire show off Donald Sutherland as the nefarious President Snow.  I would like to think that Snow plays a larger role in the new film, but I doubt it since Sutherland is never in a movie for more than ten minutes total (go ahead and look back at his work from the last decade; it’s always a small but significant role).  As for Angriest Man, the film centers on a stand-in doctor who mistakenly tells an obnoxious patient that he has an hour-and-a-half left to live.  While the patient goes on a tirade in New York City, attempting to right all the wrongs in his life, the doctor tries in vain to track him down.  The film stars Mila Kunis, Robin Williams, and Peter Dinklage.

Hit the jump to check out the set photos.  The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is due out November 22, 2013.

Crash writer/director Paul Haggis is setting up his next project, Third Person, and as always is assembling a nice ensemble.  Liam Neeson and Olivia Wilde signed on to star, and The Wrap reports that Mila Kunis has come on board.  Moreover, James Franco and Casey Affleck are in negotiations to join the cast.  Haggis says the story is “about three story lines, three love stories, three relationships in three different cities that combine in a very odd way: New York, Paris, Rome.”  Neeson is a journalist and Wilde is a New York gossip columnist, but details have yet to surface for the other roles.  Haggis and Co. are gearing up to shoot Third Person starting in mid-October with a budget of $28 million financed by Corsan Films.

Kunis and Franco teamed up for Disney’s March 2013 tentpole Oz the Great And Powerful, which you can see a brief glimpse of in the trailer.  Or if you prefer, a longer look at their on-screen chemistry in this parody of The Hills.

At Comic-Con, Disney showed off the first trailer for Oz the Great and Powerful, and then released it online as a nice way of saying, “Thanks for standing in line, suckers!”  I thought the trailer looked very pretty, but I wanted to see more of the characters and plot.  Six new images from the film have gone online, and they once again confirm that the movie will look very pretty, which isn’t too much of a surprise considering that director Sam Raimi has a great eye for visuals and he has Robert Stromberg (Alice in Wonderland) as his production designer.  These images are basically stills from the trailer, but they’ll make for some nice desktop wallpaper.

Hit the jump to check out the images, and click here for our recap of the movie’s Comic-Con panel.  The film stars James Franco, Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams, and Rachel Weisz.  Oz the Great and Powerful opens March 8, 2013.

The cast and creative team of Fox’s Family Guy were on hand at Comic-Con today to raunch up the jokes and completely ignore the sign that panelists should respect that there are folks under the age of 18 in the audience.  As creator and star Seth MacFarlane quipped, “If you’re under 18 and you’re in this room, it’s already too late for you.”  Joining him were Alex Borstein, Seth Green, Mike Henry, Mila Kunis and executive producer Steve Callahan. The most entertaining portion of the panel came when the cast ripped into insane audience members, but a few sneak peeks were also present.  Hit the jump for the full panel recap and be sure to keep up with our continuing Comic-Con coverage here.

Following their Hall H panel at Comic-Con, director Sam Raimi, along with actresses Mila Kunis and Michelle Williams, held a press conference to discuss the new film Oz: The Great and Powerful, which already looks intriguing and compelling, just from its small glimpses.  The story is a prequel to the classic Wizard of Oz, telling how the selfish Wizard (played by James Franco) arrived in Oz from Kansas and went on to become a more selfless ruler and man.  Check out what they had to say after the jump.

The panel for Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful with a bit of a sizzle reel dedicated to his previous films (although I couldn’t spot any scenes from The Gift).  Raimi then comes on stage to talk about the eponymous character (played by James Franco).  This is “the story of a selfish man”, explains Raimi.  The Wizard is a lothario and cad who finds Oz to be, “a land of second chances.”  The film is how he learns to be a selfless man.  The story starts off with the Wizard as a carnival magician in Kansas.  But he’s chased out of Kansas via air balloon escape and then gets swept up into Oz.

Hit the jump for more on the Comic-Con panel for Oz the Great and Powerful.  The film opens in 3D on March 8, 2013.  Click here for all of our Comic-Con coverage.

The first trailer for director Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful has been released.  The pic serves as a prequel to the classic fantasy The Wizard of Oz and stars James Franco as the eponymous wizard.  The story centers on Franco’s small-time circus magician with dubious ethics who finds himself transported to Oz and drawn into a battle between the three witches Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams).  I love how the trailer begins in Academy ratio and black-and-white before expanding to widescreen and color once Fracno’s whisked away to Oz.  The visuals are gorgeous and it’s obvious that this is one big movie, I’m just hoping that Raimi’s quirkiness and signature style isn’t pushed to the side in order to make “the next Alice in Wonderland.”

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film also stars Zach Braff and Abigail Spencer.  Oz the Great and Powerful opens on March 8th, 2013.

The first bits of footage from Sam Raimi’s Oz: The Great and Powerful have gone online.  The behind-the-scenes video features a great look at costumes used in the film for a number of characters, including Theodora (Mila Kunis) and Oz himself (James Franco).  Franco and Kunis also talk at length about their characters and the world they live in, along with a comparison of the similarities and differences to the beloved film, The Wizard of Oz.  They also comment on being fans of the L. Frank Baum source novels and reflect on memories of the original film they viewed as kids.  Hit the jump to check out the footage and a few screencaps highlighting the costume design.

Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane has found great success in making adorable things like babies and dogs act like adults who crack offensive jokes.  MacFarlane sticks to his character formula in his directorial feature, Ted, but moves away from his tangential “This is ___ than the time ___” approach of his successful TV series.  Ted is better for the change as the story provides some nice (albeit plain) warmth to a barrage of delightfully juvenile humor.  MacFarlane’s sharp writing and direction, paired with a good comic turn from Mark Wahlberg, help make the film bigger than its simple premise of a talking, foul-mouthed teddy bear.