I generally don’t like to check out extended clips of footage from films ahead of their release. Call me old fashioned but, similar to how I try and avoid cherry picking music singles before listening to the entire album, I like to think of records and movies as complete bodies of work. Of course, I say all of this only to preface breaking my own general rule. I implore you to watch the first 12 minutes of writer/director/actress Brit Marling’s Sound of My Voice. I did, I don’t regret a single moment of it, and now I can’t wait to check out the entire film as soon as possible.

All self-contradiction aside, in this week’s “Top 5″ installment you’ll find Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance interviews with talent like Nicolas Cage, Idris Elba, Johnny Whitworth, and directors Neveldine/Taylor, a recap of our 21 Jump Street set visit, trailers and a featurette for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Transformers 4 news, and Avengers, Star Wars, and G.I. Joe: Retaliation toy images from the 2012 Toy Fair. Check out a brief recap and link to each after the jump.

With Neveldine/Taylor’s Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance opening today, I recently interviewed a lot of the cast in New York City.  In the sequel, Johnny Blaze (Cage) is hiding out in Eastern Europe when a motor-cycle riding warrior monk (Idris Elba) recruits him to save a young boy (Fergus Riordan) from the Devil (Ciaran Hinds). The film also stars Violante Placido, Anthony Head, Christopher Lambert and Johnny Whitworth. For more on Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeace, here’s my Romania set visit, on set interviews, new images, five movie clips, and 12 minutes of behind the scenes footage from when the production was filming in Europe.

During my exclusive video interview with Mark Neveldine and Brain Taylor, we talked about how they got involved in the project, working with Nic Cage, the stunts and action sequences, deleted scenes, test screenings, what will be on the eventual Blu-ray/DVD, filming in Eastern Europe, and so much more.  If you’re a fan of Neveldine/Taylor, you’re going to love the interview.  Hit the jump to watch.

With Neveldine/Taylor’s Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance opening tomorrow, last weekend I interviewed a lot of the cast in New York City.  In the sequel, Johnny Blaze (Cage) is hiding out in Eastern Europe when a motor-cycle riding warrior monk (Idris Elba) recruits him to save a young boy (Fergus Riordan) from the Devil (Ciaran Hinds). The film also stars Violante Placido, Anthony Head, Christopher Lambert and Johnny Whitworth. For more on Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeace, here’s my Romania set visit, on set interviews, new images, five movie clips, and 12 minutes of behind the scenes footage from when the production was filming in Europe.

During my interview with Whitworth we talked about working for Neveldine/Taylor and playing blackout, which part he enjoyed filming the most, karaoke, do more people want to talk to him about Party of Five, Empire Records or Can’t Hardly Wait, his favorite movie, actor and director, and more.  Hit the jump to watch.

With Neveldine/Taylor’s Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance opening next weekend, the other day I interviewed a lot of the cast in New York City.  In the sequel, Johnny Blaze (Cage) is hiding out in Eastern Europe when a motor-cycle riding warrior monk (Idris Elba) recruits him to save a young boy (Fergus Riordan) from the Devil (Ciaran Hinds). The film also stars Violante Placido, Anthony Head, Christopher Lambert and Johnny Whitworth. For more on Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeace, here’s my Romania set visit, on set interviews, new images, five movie clips, and 12 minutes of behind the scenes footage from when the production was filming in Europe.

During my interview with Elba we talked about working with Cage, the stunts, filming in Romania, working with Neveldine/Taylor and what they brought to the film, and whether people want to talk about The Wire, Thor or Luther.   In addition, with Elba currently filming Guillermo del Toro‘s Pacific Rim, he talked about how that shoot has been going and I also asked his favorite movie, actor and director.  Hit the jump to watch.

With Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance opening next weekend, Sony has just released the EPK (electronic press kit) and it’s loaded with cool stuff from the film.  Just a little while ago we posted five clips, and now we’ve got around twelve minutes of behind the scenes footage from when the production was filming in Romania and across Eastern Europe.

In addition, for fans of directors Neveldine/Taylor, the footage features the two doing some crazy stunts to get a shot, and it’s also got the entire cast (Nicolas Cage , Violante Placido, Fergus Riordan, Ciaran Hinds, Idris Elba, Christopher Lambert, Anthony Head, and Johnny Whitworth) filming stunts and acting crazy on the set.  Hit the jump to watch and look for my exclusive video interviews with the cast next week.

We’ve been provided with five movie clips from the upcoming sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance to share with our readers.  Nicolas Cage returns at the titular Ghost Rider, and Crank directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor bring their signature visual style to the comic book franchise.  Cage finds himself tasked with rescuing a young boy from the grip of the Devil.  The film also stars Violante Placido, Fergus Riordan, Ciaran Hinds, Idris Elba, Christopher Lambert, Anthony Head, and Johnny Whitworth.

Hit the jump to watch the clips and click here for our previous coverage on the film which includes Steve’s set visit and tons of on set interviews with the cast. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance opens in 3D February 17th.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, the sequel that no one wanted but which we will all nonetheless watch at least once in our lives to see Nicholas Cage pissing fire, hits theatres next month. In anticipation, the interwebs were flooded with a torrent of images from the film, featuring a heavily tattooed (and apparently still-alive) Christopher Lambert, helmers Mark Neveldine and Bryan Taylor (Crank) making a scene ten times more awesome by directing it on rollerblades, and Cage’s CGI alter-ego not only pissing fire, but vomiting it. Hit the jump for a bevy of images (some of which we’ve seen before) from Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

With less than a month to go before directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance hits screens, a new behind-the-scenes featurette has been released. While Nicolas Cage remains the star of the film (upstaged only slightly by the flaming skull of Ghost Rider himself), directors Neveldine and Taylor are the focus in this short piece. Known for their insane camera work on films like Crank and Gamer, Neveldine/Taylor have only gotten crazier. The featurette spends as much time spotlighting the movie’s stuntwork professionals  as it does the directors themselves.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance also stars Idris Elba and Ciaran Hinds and opens February 17^th. You can check out Steve’s set visit here. Hit the jump to check out the explosive featurette.

We’ve got quite a few new posters to share with you today. First up are five new posters for the 3D re-release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. They’re pretty fantastic, as a few of them run off the theme of a lightsaber. The Darth Maul lightsaber one is sufficiently badass, though there’s a quote-laden one highlighting Maul’s face that kicks considerably less ass. We’ve also got a new international poster for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance that puts star Nicolas Cage on full display.

Finally, we’ve got the poster premiere for Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh’s West Memphis Three documentary West of Memphis. Though the three wrongly convicted men are now free, Jackson and Walsh are working hard to bring justice to the case and solve the 18-year-old triple murder. The poster is excellent and brings their message across loud and clear. West of Memphis will screen at the Sundance Film Festival. Hit the jump to check out the posters.

With awards-season upon us, I’ve been doing my best to catch up with any potential contenders that I may have missed up to this point. Without a doubt, the standout of late has been writer/director Tate Taylor‘s The Help. I had heard from several friends that the pic was solid but nothing special. After finally getting a chance to sit down with it myself, I have to say that I disagree. I think it’s better than that. Not only is it filled with great performances, but it also finds a way to be more than a story of how a caring white person can help those otherwise hopeless black people. If only 2009′s The Blind Side could go back in time and take note.

But enough of my own cinematic experiences, in this week’s “Top 5″ you’ll find a recap of our visit to the Romanian set of Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance, Benedict Cumberbatch talking about his villainous role in J.J. Abrams‘ Star Trek sequel, our interview with Mondo creative director Justin Ishmael, the possibility of a Bridesmaids world without Kristen Wiig, and video interviews with War Horse‘s Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, Tom Hiddleston and more. Hit the jump for a brief recap and link to each.

Nicholas Cage, Idris Elba and Violante Placido are walking into a very large cave.  As they get further inside, I notice the walls and huge metal shelving units are filled with hundreds of semi-automatic machine guns, sniper rifles, and boxes of ammo.  The cave even has old-school weapons like swords and armor decorating the walls.  It’s easily the biggest arms cache I’ve ever seen, and I can only imagine what they’ll be used for.  As I take in the extremely cool surroundings, I hear director Brian Taylor say cut.  I guess now would be a good time to mention I’m standing on a soundstage about forty minutes outside Bucharest, Romania.

Let me back up a second.

It’s Sunday, February 20, 2011 and I’m sitting on a plane flying back from Europe.  A few days ago I got to visit the set of the Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance with a few other online reporters and we were treated to a really great day filled with awesome interviews and I learned a tremendous amount about the movie.  While I have serious issues with the first Ghost Rider, everything I learned on set tells me they have a much better story and a much better team of filmmakers and actors trying to bring Spirit of Vengeance to life.  For a full recap, hit the jump.

The first thing people want to know about the Ghost Rider sequel is how will it be different from the first film.  So who better to answer the question than Nicolas Cage:

“I don’t want to compare too much between the two movies, but I will say that this movie is going to have some genuinely scary and wild moments that are going to make you wonder what you just saw. Moments that are for lack of a better word: freaky. You are going to be like, ‘Did I just see that happen?’ Hopefully it will mess with your mind, which is what I’m excited about.”

What you just read comes from an extended interview with Cage on the set of Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance.  Last year, when the production was filming in Romania, I got to visit the set with a few other online reporters.  We conducted group interviews with the cast and watched some filming.  It was an awesome experience.  Besides talking about the differences between the two films, Cage discussed working for Neveldine/Taylor, his passion for the character and the comic, the great cast, the stunts and the action scenes, the new bike, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to either read or listen to the interview.

Just like Ciaran Hinds, Idris Elba is one of those great actors that while you might not know his name, you’ve definitely enjoyed his work.  But after starring as Stringer Bell on HBO’s brilliant series The Wire, Heimdall in Thor, Mumbles in RocknRolla, Roque in The Losers, or John Luther on the great BBC series Luther, I think that’s going to change.

Anyway, last year I got to visit the set of Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance while the production was filming in Romania.  While on set, I participated in a group interview with Elba who plays Moreau, a religious but alcoholic monk.  During the interview, Elba talked about his character, what it’s like to work with Neveldine/Taylor and Nicolas Cage, how he prepares for his roles, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to read or listen to the interview.

As the directors of Crank, Crank: High Voltage, and Gamer, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Neveldine/Taylor) have definitely shown a crazy sensibility and an offbeat sense of humor.  So when they were announced as the directors of the Ghost Rider sequel, Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance, some fans might have wondered about the choice, but I was extremely enthusiastic.  After all, no matter what the story was about or who was going to get cast, I knew the movie would look and feel like an original creation, and not some cookie cutter Hollywood product.  And if you’ve seen the trailer for GR2, you know what I’m talking about, as one scene features Ghost Rider pissing fire.  Need I say more?

Anyway, last year I got to visit the set of the Ghost Rider sequel when the production was filming outside Bucharest, Romania.  While on set I got to participate in a group interview with director Brian Taylor and he talked about why they were filming in Eastern Europe, the interesting and unique locations they scouted, how they weren’t going to change their style for 3D, working with Nicolas Cage to create an all new Ghost Rider, how Cage’s character is a dual role, and a lot more.  Hit the jump for more.

While you may not know the name Ciaran Hinds, you’ve definitely seen his work.  That’s because over the last few years, Hinds has been great in many high profile projects like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (he played Aberforth Dumbledore), Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, There Will be Blood, Road to Perdition, Munich, HBO’s awesome series Rome, and many others.  In fact, when I first heard Hinds had been cast as the devil in Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance, he became one of the reasons why I had such high hopes for the sequel.

Anyway, last year I got to visit the set of the Ghost Rider sequel while the production was filming in Romania.  Shortly before going to set I participated in a group interview with Hinds.  He talked about how he got cast, what it’s like to play the devil, working for Neveldine/Taylor, what it’s like to work alongside Idris Elba and Nicolas Cage, and so much more.  Hit the jump to read or listen to the interview.