The line between opinion and truth on news outlets has been getting awfully blurry lately.  As corporations dictate the commentaries and presumptions delivered by major media outlets, journalistic integrity seems like a thing of the past.  It’s amidst this cloudy backdrop of subjective news sources that Touchstone releases the Blu-ray of Michael Mann’s critically-acclaimed 1999 drama The Insider – a film that examines the perils of allowing corporations to control the news.  The film, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, resonates today more than ever as it pulls back the curtain on contemporary journalism and the sleaziness of the tobacco industry.  More on Touchstone’s Blu-ray of The Insider after the jump.

Yesterday, Superman (Henry Cavill) took to the cover of Entertainment Weekly, and now the publication has released seven lo-res images from the superhero’s reboot, Man of Steel.  The article contains new plot details, but I’m trying to stay in the dark on this movie.  Everything I’ve seen so far has pushed me towards doubt (it just looks too dour for Superman), and I want to give the movie a fair shake, so I’ll let the die-hards check out the story.  However, I am willing to look at new images from the movie, and these look alright.  Director Zack Snyder has apparently left his more stylized approach behind to make this Superman movie look relatively normal.  Of course, we’ll have to see it in motion to really get a sense of what he’s going for.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  Hopefully, Warner Bros. will release better-quality versions in the near future.  The film also stars Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, and Russell Crowe.  Man of Steel opens in 3D on June 14th. [Update: EW has asked us to take the images down. Hopefully Warner Bros. released high-resolution versions soon.]

I’m still surprised by how deeply Les Miserables touched me.  I’m not a huge fan of musical theater and while I’d been mildly impressed by the 10^th anniversary concert, I never grasped what all the fuss was about.  I went into Tom Hooper’s 2012 movie adaptation with high hopes, but no expectations.  I left a blubbering wreck, reduced to tears a good half-dozen times in the course of its 150-minute running time.  Plenty of folks feel the same way… and plenty of other folks still see nothing but bombastic sentiment.  The new Blu-ray isn’t likely to change anyone’s minds.  Or is it?  Hit the jump for my full review.

We’re only a short week away from the 85th Academy Awards, and with the close of Oscar season approaching, we’d thought this would be a nice opportunity to take a look back at how some of the races have played out, chronicling the ebbs and flows of the past 12 months or so that got us to where we are today.  We’re kicking things off with one of the more open categories: Best Supporting Actor.

One important thing to keep in mind when looking at the Oscars is that the race is incredibly fluid.  A film could be the clear frontrunner in a category one week, then might stumble to second or even third place in the ensuing weeks.  With this series of articles, we’ll be looking at exactly how much each race has changed, starting with Best Supporting Actor.  Hit the jump to read on.

We’ve got 18 new images today from the set of Akiva Goldsman’s Winter’s Tale.  The adaptation of the Mark Helprin novel centers on a a thief (Colin Farrell) who breaks into the home of a bed-ridden young woman (Jessica Brown Findlay) and ends up falling in love with her.  Russell Crowe stars as Pearly Soames, a violent crime lord and leader of the Short Tail gang who is after the thieving protagonist. In charge of tracking him down is Romeo Tan (Kevin Corrigan), Soames’ ruthless right-hand man who acts as his boss’s enforcer in 1916 New York.  The picture also co-stars William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly, Matt Bomer, Eva Marie Saint and Will Smith, who will cameo as a judge.  Hit the jump to check out the images from Winter’s Tale. 

Set to play Superman’s father Jor-El in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, Russell Crowe revealed some of his insight into the superhero picture in a recent interview.  Crowe confirmed that the latest Superman adaptation will indeed be taking us to the planet Krypton and also commented on the just how impressive Superman’s flying is going to be.  He also touted Snyder’s direction, calling the picture “complicated and complex.”

Also starring Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Michael Shannon and Laurence Fishburne, Man of Steel opens June 14, 2013.  Hit the jump to see what Crowe had to say.

20th Century Fox has released four clips from director Allen Hughes’ (The Book of Eli) upcoming political thriller Broken City.  The film stars Mark Wahlberg as a private detective who is hired to identify the lover of a powerful politician’s wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), with Russell Crowe playing the shady politician.  Wahlberg and Crowe look to be having a lot of fun with the roles, so hopefully the full film delivers.

Hit the jump to watch the clips.  The film also stars Jeffrey Wright.  Broken City opens on January 18th.

Les Misérables is a musical of big emotions.  Characters are brought to their lowest, experience love at first sight, sacrifice their lives for revolution, spend decades in pursuit of justice, and believe their quests are ordained by God.  The songs and their context can come off as cheesy, but the non-stop music and story wrap the production in grandeur that sweep the audience into a captivating world.  Paired with terrific performances, the film adaptation of Les Misérables is almost unstoppable.  But director Tom Hooper throws up a barrier as he constantly blocks out the tremendous production values with far too many close-ups and editing that chases the music rather than guides it.  We still hear the people sing, but their voices should ring louder.

20th Century Fox has released a new trailer for director Allen Hughes’ (The Book of Eli) political thriller Broken City.  The film stars Mark Wahlberg as a private detective who is hired to identify the lover of a powerful politician’s wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), with Russell Crowe playing the shady politician.  This trailer focuses quite a bit more on the film’s plot, teasing an enticing power play between Wahlberg and Crowe’s characters.  We also see a bit more of Zeta-Jones’ character, though her intentions aren’t entirely made clear.  The real draw, though, seems to the face-off between Wahlberg and Crowe, and I’m eager to see the two go toe-to-toe when the full film hits theaters.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer and here’s our recent interview with Wahlberg for the film.  The film also stars Jeffrey Wright.  Broken City opens on January 18th.

Warner Bros. has released a new trailer for Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel starring Henry Cavill as Superman.  Rather than focusing on the action, the trailer tries to sell us on what would happen if Superman really existed on our planet and would people really accept someone with God like powers.  Of course towards the end of the trailer, we get a good look at some of the big action set pieces and Amy Adams as Lois Lane and Michael Shannon as the villain Zod.  But the fact is, every big budget Hollywood movie has action.  Without a strong story and characters you care about, the action means nothing.  Thankfully, everything I’ve seen thus far on the Man of Steel tells me Snyder has crafted a great Superman film that will deliver everything the fans want and more.  It’s easily one of my most anticipated films of 2013.  Hit the jump to watch the new trailer and then be prepared to start counting down the days to June 14.

Man of Steel also stars Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Antje Traue, Ayelet Zurer, Christopher Meloni, and Russell Crowe star.  Man of Steel opens on June 14, 2013.

The first clip from director Allen Hughes’ (The Book of Eli) political thriller Broken City has been released.  The film stars Mark Wahlberg as a private detective who is hired to identify the lover of a powerful politician’s wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones).  Russell Crowe plays the morally ambiguous politician, and this first clip highlights a short scene in which Crowe asserts his power over Wahlberg’s character.  Word of warning: The politician who hires you to spy on his wife’s lover is probably not a nice guy.

Hit the jump to watch the clip.  The film also stars Jeffrey Wright.  Broken City opens on January 18th.

And the barrage of marketing material for the Oscar hopefuls continues. Two highly anticipated December films—Les Miserables and Zero Dark Thirty—recently made their screening debuts, and on the heels of much awards buzz we’ve seen a number of materials from said pics hit the web over the past two weeks.  Earlier today we got a look at five extended clips from director Tom Hooper’s musical adaptation Les Miserables, and now Universal has released 18 high-resolution images from the film.  The production value on this thing continues to look fantastic, and I’m eager to experience the 2+ hours of song when the pic hits theaters.

Hit the jump to check out the images.  The film stars Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Anne Hathaway.  Les Miserables opens on Christmas Day.

Having just finished his cut of the film at 2 a.m., Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper (A King’s Speech) presented the first screening of Les Miserables to a New York audience this afternoon. Not since 2002′s Chicago has a musical feature been a serious Oscar contender for Best Picture, but early reactions indicate that the trend could change this year. Each musical number was followed by raucous applause with the principal cast taking the stage to a standing ovation at the end of the film. It looks like Christmas has come early for the cast and crew of Les Miserables. 

The film stars Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Helena Bonham Carter, and Sacha Baron Cohen.  Les Miserables opens on December 25th. Hit the jump to read some audience reactions.

Oscar season is in full swing, folks.  2012 has been a fantastic year in film so far, and with merely weeks to go before 2013 begins there are still a couple of highly anticipated films that have yet to be seen.  Just like last year, I’ll be running down a preview of the upcoming Oscar race during this fine Thanksgiving week, giving readers a look at what the state of the race looks like right now.  To be clear, this isn’t a personal list but rather an objective look at how things look to be shaping up.  I’ve divided each category into frontrunners, likely to be nominated, and other contenders in order to parse out where things stand at the moment.  There are multiple strong contenders in nearly every category, so this is looking to be a rather heated run to the finish line.

We’ll be looking at a couple of different major categories each day over the next four days, and we’re kicking things off with the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories.  Hit the jump to read on.

Director Tom Hooper’s adaptation of Les Miserables is sure to have audiences leaving the theater humming tunes from the musical, but the film also looks to be a visual feast as well.  The production design and costumes look fantastic in the few pieces of footage we’ve seen in the trailers, and now famed photographer Annie Leibovitz has worked her magic with the main cast.  The result is a batch of gorgeous and moving images of Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Isabelle Allen, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Helena Bonham Carter in character.

Hit the jump to take a look at the images.  Les Miserables opens in theaters Christmas Day.